A Collision

Feng Jun pondered for a moment before quickly replying: This is complicated. I can't explain it all at once. Are you free at noon? I'll treat you to lunch.

Ye Qingyi replied just as quickly: I'm free. I can go to work a little later in the afternoon. Where are we eating?

When Flowers Fall: You don't have to work in the afternoon? [Shy]

Ye Qingyi: ? [Question]

When Flowers Fall: Well... we could find somewhere to drink, or... watch a movie?

Ye Qingyi: That won't do. If the jade is in your hands, I could play with it all afternoon.

When Flowers Fall: Actually... we could play with something else. [Snicker]

Ye Qingyi: Forget about anything else. Where are we eating?

When Flowers Fall: Somewhere near your company. You choose the place, but it has to have a private room. Oh, and don't bring anyone else.

Ye Qingyi: If we're not bringing anyone... then let's go to the coffee shop across the street from my company.

When Feng Jun saw it was a coffee shop, he couldn't help frowning. He had no interest in Western food; he always felt it never filled him up.

More importantly, if he went to a coffee shop, he wouldn't be able to drink to his heart's content, nor would it be convenient to urge Ye Qingyi to drink.

Still, he ultimately sent an "OK" gesture. "Then the coffee shop. Twelve noon!"

After putting away his phone, he wandered around nearby. When he spotted one of those adult product stores, he naturally went in for a look. Further ahead, he saw a mobile phone store and walked in without hesitation.

When he came out again, he had an extra shopping bag in his hand containing a Maolin mobile phone. He planned to give it to Ye Qingyi.

The gift was a little expensive, making it seem as though he had improper intentions.

But in truth, Feng Jun felt that he really needed to thank Ye Qingyi. If she hadn't kindly tipped him off, he never would have thought to wander into the antique shop next door to Li Dafu's.

If he hadn't gone to that antique shop and invoked Ye Qingyi's name, he never would have reluctantly spent a hundred yuan to buy that Jade Gourd pendant.

Without that pendant, he definitely wouldn't have thought to pick up jade in the wilderness!

If he had come across a Gold Nugget, he certainly would have picked it up. But stones... that river valley had been full of them.

So buying a phone worth over two thousand yuan as a token of thanks was perfectly natural.

At twelve twenty, the two met outside the coffee shop. Ye Qingyi was wearing a lotus-colored silk blouse and a knee-length blue A-line skirt. With her makeup-free face and slender figure, she radiated youthful vitality amid her simple elegance.

The coffee shop had no private rooms, only booths. However, most of its customers were couples, all speaking quietly, and no one was making a racket.

They picked a booth and sat down. Feng Jun ordered a burger, a plate of pasta, and a bottle of beer. Ye Qingyi ordered an egg tart and a salad, along with a glass of juice and a cup of coffee.

Feng Jun looked at her in surprise. "So many drinks... you're just drinking and not eating?"

"I don't eat much," Ye Qingyi replied with a smile. "I only ordered an extra coffee because I knew you'd made a fortune."

Feng Jun raised an eyebrow and looked at her thoughtfully. "You asked around?"

Ye Qingyi nodded, answering naturally. "Yes. There are no secrets in this business, especially not something this big. But... I really didn't expect you to be the Mysterious Backpacker everyone's been talking about."

"What's so mysterious about it?" Feng Jun shook his head with a smile. "I just don't like trouble."

Ye Qingyi nodded in agreement. "Still, I'm quite curious. Where did you get that jade?"

Feng Jun gave her a bland look. "You want to know?"

Ye Qingyi immediately waved a hand and answered decisively, "I'm only curious. Don't worry, I haven't told anyone anything about you."

Feng Jun nodded and replied seriously, "I trust you. My intuition tells me you're not that kind of person."

Hearing that, Ye Qingyi smiled faintly. It was the kind of smile a girl next door would have—natural, warm, innocent, and carefree.

But then her face tightened. "Then why didn't you ask me to help appraise it before you sold it?"

Feng Jun blinked. "Didn't you just say you didn't know much about the jade market either?"

Ye Qingyi wrinkled her nose and gave a dissatisfied snort. "Even if I don't know much, I still know more than you do."

Feng Jun looked at her thoughtfully. "So according to you, I sold it too cheaply for six million?"

Ye Qingyi shook her head. "I didn't see the goods, so I can't say that. I can only say that in a setting like that, even if Liang Haiqing wanted to rip you off, he'd have to consider the consequences... But I heard you didn't bargain at all?"

Feng Jun nodded. "I didn't want much contact with them. The price was close enough, so I sold it. I couldn't be bothered with the hassle."

"Close enough? Couldn't be bothered?" Ye Qingyi's eyes widened. "Do you know that if you'd held firm even a little, the difference could have been over a million yuan?"

"I can imagine that." Feng Jun nodded, then casually asked, "But so what?"

I should look pretty cool acting this indifferent, right?

"So what?" Ye Qingyi was clearly angry. "If you'd asked me for a price estimate, I could have given you a reasonable range. Then when you negotiated with others, how could you have ended up in such a passive position?"

"That's not how it works," Feng Jun said seriously, waving a hand. "Say you gave me an estimate, but the buyer couldn't offer that price. What should I do then? Have you sell it for me?"

"I could sell it for you too," Ye Qingyi replied with a trace of annoyance. But then she froze slightly, clearly realizing where the problem lay—taking on everything so readily made it seem as though she had ulterior motives.

But she truly felt wronged, so she shot him a fierce glare. "You just don't trust me."

Feng Jun shook his head. "You're wrong. It's not that I don't trust you. I don't trust myself... I had already planned to cash out as quickly as possible. The sooner, the better. I didn't mind taking a small loss, as long as it wasn't too severe."

"If I'd come to you for an appraisal first, I would've had expectations for the selling price. Once I had expectations, my mindset could easily become unsettled. When it came time to let go, I might not be willing to do so. That would go against my original intention of selling quickly and could lead to one wrong step after another."

Ye Qingyi's lips parted slightly. She clearly hadn't expected him to have considered that.

But almost immediately, she visibly accepted the explanation.

She looked at him in surprise, then nodded. "I truly didn't expect your willpower to be this strong."

Feng Jun felt a little embarrassed by the praise and gave a dry laugh. "My willpower isn't necessarily that..."

He was about to say that his willpower was especially weak when facing a beauty like her, but at that moment, his phone rang.

It was Wang Haifeng. "Xiao Feng, where are you?"

"At the coffee shop across from Li Dafu's on Fuxing Road," Feng Jun replied with a smile. "Old Wang, you're alive again?"

"Wait for me." Wang Haifeng hung up without another word.

Feng Jun put down his phone. Interrupted like that, he no longer had the mood to flirt, so he said seriously, "My willpower is average. At least I know my own weaknesses clearly, so I choose to stay away from temptation and nip Sprout in the bud."

Admiration appeared in Ye Qingyi's beautiful eyes. "Seeing yourself clearly and knowing what to give up and what to keep is even harder."

So she thinks I'm not stingy after all. Feng Jun agreed with her inwardly, but he deliberately coughed. "Actually, I was worried that what I found wasn't jade and that you'd laugh at me... Would saying that make you feel better?"

"I'm not anything to you. What right would I have to laugh at you?" Ye Qingyi's face reddened slightly, and she held out her slender hand. "Where's the video? Let me see the Mutton-Fat Jade Seed Material."

Just as she opened the video, the server brought over their food.

They chatted while eating and commented on the video. By the time they were nearly done, the server cleared away the dishes and cleaned the table. Feng Jun then took out the bag containing the phone. "Here, this is for you."

"For me?" Ye Qingyi gave him a strange look. "Why are you giving this to me? Do you... have some kind of ulterior motive?"

Of course, she said that last part jokingly.

"Consider it thanks for guiding me on buying jade. Without your advice, I probably would have missed the opportunity," Feng Jun answered with a smile.

But the next moment, he returned the joke. "Of course, if you feel guilty accepting it, you can consider compensating me."

"Compensating you?" Ye Qingyi looked at him with a half-smile. "And how would I compensate you?"

As the two exchanged flirtatious looks, two people approached from the side. The man in front called out, "Hey, Xiao Feng... You sure know how to pick a place. Damn it, we were stuck in traffic the whole way..."

"Feng Jun..." Another crisp voice rang out, and Xia Xiaoyu's smiling face peeked out from behind Wang Haifeng.

The next instant, the smile froze on her face. She looked at Ye Qingyi in surprise, then at the phone bag on the table, blinking as she stood there in a daze.

"So your name is Feng Jun." Ye Qingyi gave him a half-smile, then stood and nodded slightly. "Talk to your friends. I need to go back to work."

"This really is..." Feng Jun felt utterly wronged. He gave Xia Xiaoyu an expressionless glance, then stood up as well and forced a smile. "Little Ye, it's only one thirty. Isn't it still early?"

What troubled him was that he couldn't explain to her that he had nothing to do with Xia Xiaoyu, because he and Ye Qingyi had nothing to do with each other either. He had no standing to explain himself.

Although he had already planned to try developing some kind of relationship with her, that hadn't happened yet, had it?

"Little Ye?" Ye Qingyi stopped and looked at him in surprise. After a brief daze, she nodded with a half-smile. "When Flowers Fall, we meet again... Hmm, not bad. A good name."

After saying that, she waved and said, "Bye-bye," then walked away without looking back, not even glancing at the phone bag on the table.

Feng Jun did not chase after her. He merely looked at Wang Haifeng resentfully. "Old Wang... what am I supposed to say about you?"