Who Was Just There to Drink?

Over the next few days, Wang Xiaoliang really did start looking around the school for a suitable room to rent.

If he wanted to keep his drink-selling business going, he couldn't move too far from campus.

But rent near the school certainly wasn't cheap.

With graduation season underway, large numbers of students were choosing to stay in the city, making rentals around campus unusually sought-after.

Even reasonably clean and tidy single rooms routinely went for over two thousand yuan.

Wang Xiaoliang narrowed his search to the university's staff residential compound.

The buildings were decades old, their corridors piled with clutter, their walls peeling, and a stale smell always lingering in the air.

Old, shabby, and cramped.

But since it was close to campus and most tenants were students, the rents remained stubbornly high.

He followed an agent around and viewed several rooms.

They were either too small or too damp.

Finally, he settled on a south-facing room on the fifth floor.

It wasn't large, only a dozen or so square meters. Once a bed, a desk, and a wardrobe were in place, there would hardly be any space left.

On the plus side, it had a private bathroom and a tiny balcony.

Sunlight could reach inside.

"What do you think? This is about the best room around here. The last tenant just moved out." The agent was a shrewd young man with a slick tongue.

"How much a month?"

"Fifteen hundred. One month's deposit, three months' rent upfront."

Fifteen hundred.

The price stung a little.

But he didn't have much time to hesitate. The graduation ceremony was just over ten days away. Once he completed the checkout procedures and received his diploma, he would have to move out of the dorm.

"All right. I'll take it." He gritted his teeth.

He had no time to keep looking.

While he was busy finding a place to rent, the school entered its final frenzy.

Apart from the sadness of parting, the most pressing concern during graduation season was finding a job.

The school organized several large campus job fairs.

"Come on, come on! Xiaoliang! Several big companies are coming today! Get dressed up. Let's give it a shot!"

Li Jun had been acting a little strange these past few days.

Dragged along by him, Wang Xiaoliang arrived at the packed gymnasium.

Everywhere he looked were young people in cheap suits, their faces full of nerves and anticipation.

The heat was practically visible.

Like a hardworking bee, Li Jun flitted between booths, enthusiastically handing over his résumé, only to receive one polite but distant smile after another.

Wang Xiaoliang followed behind, feeling completely out of place.

They were in an awkward position.

The companies they liked, such as well-known internet firms and state-owned enterprises, rejected them in the first round of résumé screening. Neither their grades nor their internship experience measured up.

Meanwhile, the companies that greeted them enthusiastically and seemed ready to sign them on the spot were mostly obscure small businesses or recruiters for sales positions, promising the world while offering meager base salaries.

After an entire afternoon, both returned disappointed.

Li Jun looked dejected. "Fuck, why is finding a job so hard these days?"

Wang Xiaoliang carried his backpack, having sold all the drinks that had filled it. He had deliberately saved two bottles of water.

He handed one to Li Jun, though his mind was on something else.

"Oh, right, Boss. Didn't you fail one of your major courses? Are you confident about the makeup exam?"

Li Jun waved dismissively. "Ah, that's nothing. I've got a trick up my sleeve."

He gave a mysterious smile and said no more.

Watching him, Wang Xiaoliang grew even more puzzled.

If there was one thing graduation season had in abundance, it was gatherings of every description.

Department farewell dinners, class goodbye banquets, hometown association get-togethers, and wild celebrations with close dormmates.

Even Wang Xiaoliang, who had spent his university years practically invisible, received quite a few invitations.

He turned them all down one by one, saying he had something to do.

He really wasn't good at, nor did he enjoy, those occasions full of drinking, empty pleasantries, and forced smiles.

One evening, just as he returned from cleaning his newly rented room, Liu Xinyu stopped him at the dorm entrance.

"Xiaoliang, I was just looking for you."

"Are you free tonight? My treat. Let's bring Li Jun and have dinner, just the three of us. An early farewell."

Faced with Liu Xinyu's sincere invitation, Wang Xiaoliang couldn't refuse.

Besides, he felt he owed Liu Xinyu a meal.

Whether through his earlier offers of help or the way he treated people, Liu Xinyu had shown him plenty of kindness.

He really had been too slow to pick up on these things.

"Sure. I should be treating you, though," Wang Xiaoliang said, a little embarrassed.

Liu Xinyu laughed and patted his shoulder. "Don't talk like we're strangers. Seven tonight, at Diner's Place by the south gate. I've already booked a table."

Wang Xiaoliang had initially assumed that Liu Xinyu's "just the three of us" might only be a polite way of putting it. Once they arrived, perhaps some of Liu Xinyu's other close friends would be there too.

After all, Liu Xinyu was famously well-liked.

But when he and Li Jun entered the small private room, they found that Liu Xinyu really was the only person inside.

Several cold dishes were already on the table, with two cases of beer beside it.

Three people, one small private room.

Li Jun could never keep his thoughts to himself. The moment he sat down, he started talking.

"Xinyu, why didn't you invite more people? It's only a few extra pairs of chopsticks. It wouldn't cost much more, and a bigger crowd would be more fun!"

Liu Xinyu opened a bottle of beer for each of them and smiled. "With too many people, you can't enjoy a proper drink. It gets too noisy. Today it's just us three. Nice and quiet."

After a few rounds of drinks, the atmosphere in the room grew lively.

By the time half the beer was gone, Liu Xinyu's face was flushed, and he had become more talkative.

Holding his glass, he said with a hint of drunkenness, "Speaking of treating people, my dad told me when I was little that if you want to get something done, you should invite just that one person. At most, bring one or two others along to drink and liven things up. If you invite a whole table of people, none of them feels you invited them especially. They eat, drink, wipe their mouths, and leave. Doesn't do a damn thing. Just a waste of money."

Liu Xinyu's words stirred something in Wang Xiaoliang.

The idea was new to him and very calculating, but when he thought it over, it really did make sense.

He raised his glass and joked, "Then which of us is just here to drink tonight, me or Boss?"

Liu Xinyu seemed to realize he had let something slip. He hurriedly waved his hands, his speech already a little slurred.

"No, no, no! Nobody's just here to drink tonight! I wanted to treat both of you! You're both loyal, good friends, and we get along!"

He drained his glass in one gulp and set it down heavily on the table.

"Four years at university. Honestly, I didn't learn much. Most of my thesis was copied off the internet." He gave a self-mocking smile. "But I still think it was worth it. I met friends like you, and I got to see so many people grow."

"Think about it. How different are we now from when we first arrived as freshmen?"

Wang Xiaoliang looked at him.

At that moment, he felt that Liu Xinyu wasn't just good with people. He was also remarkably observant.

When the conversation turned to their plans after graduation, Li Jun sighed and complained about how hard it was to find a job. Although several companies had shown interest in him, they fell far short of his standards.

"Me? I'll go home first and help out with the family business."

There was no trace of worry about work in Liu Xinyu's voice.

He filled his glass again, his eyes holding a wistfulness that seemed beyond his years.

"Actually, I really want to start a business. Like my grandfather did. Build something from nothing and make a career of my own."

"Help out with the family business?" Li Jun asked curiously. "What business is your family in?"

Liu Xinyu took a sip and said casually, "Nothing much. Just a little business."

Wang Xiaoliang seemed to pick up on something in those words.

None of it fit with his previous impression of Liu Xinyu.

He had always thought Liu Xinyu came from an ordinary family, just like him.

Now, it seemed that wasn't the case at all.

Liu Xinyu was probably from a wealthy family.

That realization made Wang Xiaoliang reassess the classmate before him, his face flushed and his mouth full of drunken talk.

He wasn't flashy like Zhao Shengkai or fawning like Ouyang Hai. He treated people sincerely, handled things thoughtfully, and even felt a little ashamed of plagiarizing his thesis.

Wang Xiaoliang picked up his own beer bottle and filled Liu Xinyu's empty glass.

The amber liquid gleamed beneath the lights.

He looked at Liu Xinyu's face, reddened by alcohol and excitement, and clearly heard the yearning in his voice when he spoke of "building something from nothing."

Wang Xiaoliang raised his glass.

"To building something from nothing."

Liu Xinyu froze for a moment, then his eyes lit up as though he had found a kindred spirit. He raised his glass with equal conviction.

"Exactly! To building something from nothing!"

Clink.

The two glasses struck each other with a crisp ring, spilling a few drops of beer.