In fact, Yang Yanzhou's point did reflect a real situation, though it was not nearly as exaggerated as he made it sound. A shrewd boss still plays a considerable role in determining the company's direction. But how could Lin Yanhe know that Yang Ce had been a master bullshitter back in school, conning Zhao Ying and Chen Shutang day in and day out? Now, when he spouted these somewhat reasonable-sounding words, they rolled off his tongue even more smoothly.

"All right, let's eat first. Studying is a good thing, just don't let it get in the way of eating and resting. And it's winter now, it gets dark early—I wouldn't feel easy letting you go home alone." Yang Yanzhou said.

"Then I'll just head back earlier next time." Lin Yanhe nodded. With Yang Juehuan's understanding and support, she felt as though she were brimming with motivation, no longer as dispirited as before.

"If it gets late, call me. Even if I'm tied up and can't come, I'll send someone to pick you up." Yang Yanzhou said. "Bi Hai and Ge Xinyao will do too. They're free at night, and they know you."

"Okay, I've got it." Lin Yanhe nodded, and she and Yan began eating the beef noodles together.

"These beef noodles aren't bad—better than the place near our school." Yang Ce took a couple of bites and praised them.

"Yeah, there are several of these California Beef Noodle shops now, and who knows which one's the authentic one, but this one really does taste good." Lin Yanhe nodded in agreement. "The company orders from them at noon all the time."

After dinner, at Yang Juehuan's urging, Lin Yanhe finally tidied up the books on her desk and agreed to go home from work—though she still carried her notebook with her, planning to read it when she got back.

Only after the two of them had left the company together did the security guard lock the main gate.

"Vice President Lin leaves this late every day—surely it's not just to wait for Brother Yang?" one guard speculated with a rather unseemly smirk.

"Keep your mouth shut. Say less if you don't want to die." The head of security came up from behind and shot the talking guard a glare. "Some things you don't run your mouth about. Don't you remember how Brother Bao told us to handle things?"

The guard was frightened out of his wits and hastily fell silent.

Lin Yanhe got into the car with Yan. Yang Ce was just about to start the engine when Lin Yanhe suddenly called out, "Wait for me a moment!"

"Hm?" Yang Puqi was startled. He was about to ask what was wrong when he saw Lin Yanhe already running out of the car toward the California Beef Noodle shop next door.

Yang Ce was puzzling over it when, before long, Lin Yanhe came running back out, a five-yuan bill in her hand, and climbed happily into the car. "The receipt from when you bought the beef noodles won a prize! I went to claim it."

Yang Xutang couldn't help but smile. That was Lin Yanhe all over—rich or poor, she lived her life carefully and conscientiously, though it was a virtue too.

"Then consider it a reward for you to buy candy with tomorrow." Yang Yanzhou said.

"Okay." Lin Yanhe didn't decline, and happily pocketed the money.

On a cold winter night, few cars passed on the road. Yang Ce drove Lin Yanhe toward the last stretch of shantytown in Songjiang City.

As they passed a bar, Yang Ce suddenly slowed the car and pointed out the window with a look of wistful remembrance. "Zhiyun, do you remember this place?"

Lin Yanhe looked up, and her face flushed at once. How could she not remember this place that had left such a fresh impression on her? Here, Lin Yanhe had foolishly sold her first time to Yang Ce—only to find that after paying the money, the bastard had walked away.

At the thought, Lin Yanhe suddenly felt a kind of happiness. The two of them really did seem fated to meet. And although afterward, under an accident of circumstance, Yang Ce had forced himself on her, no matter how you looked at it, that was still better than the first time they met, when he had paid and taken her.

If it had really been like that, perhaps so many things would never have happened between them afterward.

"Tell me, if I hadn't run into you that day, what would I be like now?" Just thinking about it made Lin Yanhe a little afraid.

"There's no 'if,'" Yang Ce shook his head. "We met, and that's that."

"But that kind of thing really does exist, you know." Lin Yanhe still felt a lingering chill of dread.

"Tell me—is it possible for someone walking down the street to be killed by a car? Or to fall into a drainage ditch?" Yang Ce sensed that Lin Yanhe was not in the steadiest of moods today, so he smiled and offered an analogy: "Would he go around saying, 'If I walk a little slower on the street, I'll be hit by a car and killed; if the sanitation workers don't put the ditch covers back on properly, I'll fall in and break my neck'?"

"Heh." Hearing Yang Juehuan's analogy, Lin Yanhe could not help but laugh. "You do love to twist logic to suit yourself—though there is something to it."

In the blink of an eye the car stopped near the shantytown. It could go no farther; they would have to get out here. Yang Ce got out with Lin Yanhe, and the two of them walked shoulder to shoulder in the direction of her home.

"Zhiyun, go home and talk it over with your parents—buy an apartment near the company. This place is far from school and far from the office besides. And when all's said and done, a single-story house is never as convenient as an apartment." Yang Ce looked at the dilapidated houses of the neighborhood as he spoke.

"I hear they're going to tear this whole area down come spring. My mom and dad have been worrying themselves sick over it these past few days." Lin Yanhe sighed faintly at this point. "Yang Ce, I know you have money, but I don't want to keep troubling you, so you—"

Yang Ce had meant to say that there was nothing to worry about—if the money fell short, he would cover it. But Lin Yanhe's next words stopped his mouth.

Yang Xutang gave a bitter smile. "Zhiyun, what do you take me for? Am I supposed to just stand by and watch you all end up with nowhere to live?"

"It won't be that bad. We'll just rent a place when the time comes. Once the new buildings are up, they should give us compensation, and we can move back then." Lin Yanhe shook her head and smiled. "How could we possibly end up with nowhere to live?"

"Then what's the point of that? You're my girlfriend, my wife—my money is yours. Besides, I'm hardly short of it." Yang Ce grew a little agitated. "Isn't making money exactly so I can support a wife and children? If I don't spend it on you, what use is money to me?"

"Wife? Children? We're still students!" Lin Yanhe was greatly embarrassed. The reason she had spoken as she had was that she did not want to owe Yang Ce too much. She knew him well—knew that he did not care in the least about the cost of an apartment, and that even if she said nothing, he would surely buy one anyway. But she felt that her position, after all, was not that of Yang Ce's official girlfriend; even taking things from him, she could not do so with the same justified confidence as Chen Shutang. That was why she had preemptively closed off Yang Ce's mouth.

Now, hearing Yang Ce bring up the subject of a wife and children, she felt both pleasantly surprised and shyly flustered. If Yang Ce could say such a thing, it meant that at least in Yang Juehuan's heart, he cared for her a great deal; at least there was a future for the two of them together.

"Students now, wife later." Yang Yongjin said it as if it were only natural. "Come on. Since you won't say it, I'll go talk to Uncle Lin and Auntie Shen myself."

With that, he took Lin Yanhe's hand without further ado and walked with her toward her home. Lin Yanhe had no choice but to follow Yang Ce toward the house.