"Since we've agreed in principle to work together..."
Though it was she and the others who would be working with A Jiu, not this young man.
But he was Little Fox's owner. If they worked with Little Fox, they were working with its owner, too.
"Let me formally introduce myself."
The girl with her hair half-up in a bun smiled brightly.
It wasn't convenient to keep calling each other "classmate."
"My surname is Yu."
The young man probably already knew that.
She'd mentioned her surname before, when she explained why her friends called her a beauty.
"My given name is Wan'er."
"Wan'er, as in 'smile gently.'"
"Yu Wan'er."
Xiao Xiao repeated the girl's name.
"That's right."
Yu Wan'er's face lit up with a smile.
"Nice to meet you."
"That's a very distinctive name."
Xiao Xiao smiled.
"And it sounds lovely."
"Hello."
"My surname is Xiao."
"Xiao, as in 'brave.'"
"Nice to meet you."
"Thank you."
Yu Wan'er was happy to hear the young man compliment her name.
She liked her name, too. She thought it sounded lovely and was quite distinctive.
Feeling a little excited, she couldn't help saying a few more things.
She rarely said so much to a young man she'd just met.
Perhaps the fact that he was Little Fox's owner gave him a thick halo in her eyes.
And the joy of finally getting what she'd hoped for hadn't faded yet.
She was feeling especially talkative.
"My mother said I was wearing a stern expression at first."
"But the moment I saw her, I smiled."
"The contrast was really striking."
"When she saw me smile, the word 'Wan'er' immediately came to mind."
"Mom tossed out the name she and Dad had picked before I was born and settled on this one instead."