Chapter 156: Can’t Fall Back In

In the blink of an eye, it was already 7pm.

Just as Jiang Qin had anticipated, after the successful completion of the first round of deliveries, the orders during the evening began to skyrocket at an astonishing rate that even surprised Su Nai.

The reason was actually quite simple.

The snowy winter nights were colder than the days, making it extremely inconvenient and unnecessary to go out.

Moreover, most people had seen the little yellow hats around campus and witnessed their roommates and classmates successfully shopping on the group-buy site, dispelling any concerns about being scammed or wasting time.

Most importantly, college students were sensitive to trends and quick to accept new things.

Door-to-door delivery with discounts – nothing was more attractive than these two points.

So from noon to 7pm, the orders kept increasing, were summarized, categorized, and generated by the system before being sent to the merchants and delivery staff.

Cold-weather products from the pedestrian street were very popular on this snowy day.

Items like quilts for sleeping, blankets for studying or gaming, fluffy cotton slippers, thick socks, and fleece-lined leggings were almost all must-buys.

In addition, food and beverages from the supermarket also sold especially fast, second only to the heating packs.

However, Jiang Qin was a bit disappointed that no orders came from the Wanzhong Mall.

On one hand, the mall’s prices were high; on the other, deliveries were only made at 8pm each day. These two factors likely deterred consumers.

“…”

“Look, the group-buy delivery staff are here again.”

“Oh, is it already 7pm?”

“Yeah, it’s the last delivery of the day. I ordered some fruit since it’s winter and the weather is so dry.”

“I also stocked up on some cheap heating packs.”

On the cold, snowy night, the delivery staff in little yellow hats huffed and puffed as they rode their fully-loaded tricycles back into the school. As they passed under the orange street lamps, their jaunty yellow hats attracted the attention of many students.

Although the compressed snow slowed down the delivery speed and delayed some arrival times, most people were understanding.

With the cold and slippery conditions, quite a few students had fallen on campus, and even the official website had posted a safety notice. So people didn’t mind the deliveries being a few minutes late.

When deliveryman Tian Xiaojia finished the last building, a student even handed him some water. In this cold night, he felt an inexplicable warmth.

He left the dormitory area, found an out-of-the-way spot to park his tricycle, then took out his phone and opened the calculator to figure out his commission for the day.

He was shocked by the result.

Even excluding the red packets he initially received, his commission was equivalent to two full days of his previous part-time jobs.

He heard the boss was a freshman in the School of Finance. Damn impressive!

[Sis, I got a new long-term job. You don’t have to work so hard out there. Maybe I can even earn enough for little bro’s tuition!]

Tian Xiaojia sent a text to his sister who was working in a big city, then rode his tricycle south, humming a tune.

Everyone born into this world is struggling against fate in their own way, hoping for a better future.

“…”

“Boss, the last delivery of the day is done.”

“Great, you all worked hard. I booked a table at Food Paradise. Go eat first. There might be one final wave tonight, so you may need to keep at it a bit longer.”

In the brightly lit Room 208, Jiang Qin waved for everyone to go eat.

The first day of launch could be considered a complete success and was worth celebrating. The cafeteria wasn’t good enough – it had to be a proper restaurant like Food Paradise.

Losing money had never felt so satisfying. Truly amazing.

Jiang Qin let go of the mouse and stretched, his gaze falling on the wall clock.

Although the last delivery of the first day had ended, new orders would continue to come in throughout the night to be aggregated for the next morning’s delivery period.

So for Jiang Qin, maintaining the momentum until the second day was also crucial.

While he pondered, the people in 208 all put on their coats and headed out of the entrepreneurship base, stretching as they walked.

Seeing this, Tang Lin, who was in charge of the project presentation PPT, couldn’t help but feel a bit envious.

She wasn’t just envious of going to eat at Food Paradise but also of that united strength, that excitement and drive, and that sense of achievement from creating a new mode of consumption.

And the source of all this was that enigmatic man.

“Senior Sister Cao, Hong Yan, Tang Lin, you should go too.”

“Huh? We can go too?” Tang Lin’s eyes lit up.

Jiang Qin nodded naturally, “We’re all working hard for the same project. How could they get to eat while you don’t? Hurry and go, eat plenty.”

After hearing this, Cao Xinyue gave a thumbs up, “Not bad, junior. Finally heard something decent after all this time. I won’t stand on ceremony then. Just don’t complain later that I eat too much.”

“No need for courtesy, just dig in. It’d be best if you ate so much you got fat and dumped by your boyfriend. Then you could focus on working part-time for me.”

“Pshaw, don’t jinx me. Our relationship is going great!”

Cao Xinyue laughed as she put on her coat and left the office with Hong Yan and Tang Lin.

In this moment, Tang Lin once again sensed Jiang Qin’s boundless charisma, shining bright on this cold, snowy night.

Go eat, everyone. I booked a table.

Wow, that sounded just like what a domineering CEO in a novel would say. No wonder so many beautiful girls on campus secretly liked him.

A youthful appearance with a mature aura, calm and unflustered. Simply irresistible.

Tang Lin felt that even she couldn’t help but be moved by this type of guy.

No, not just some guy – he was practically a male god!

But she knew her own looks weren’t good enough. She likely didn’t have a chance with a man who exuded such brilliance. But maybe her best friend did!

With this thought, a cold yet beautiful face suddenly flashed through Tang Lin’s mind.

Okay, so maybe the chance wasn’t big, but it wasn’t totally nonexistent either.

“Hong Yan, do you still want to pursue Jiang Qin? I support you!” Tang Lin suddenly blurted out.

Hearing this, Hong Yan stumbled and almost tripped on the doorstep, “What nonsense are you spouting? Didn’t we agree not to mention this?”

Cao Xinyue turned her head in surprise. She hadn’t been present for the previous confrontation in the hallway, so she was completely unaware of this, “Yan Yan, you pursued Jiang Qin before? How come I didn’t know?”

“Mm, I guess you could say I pursued him…”

“Huh, I never heard about this.”

“It’s not a recent thing. It was a while ago, around the start of the semester.” Hong Yan admitted frankly.

Cao Xinyue couldn’t help widening her eyes, “What about now?”

“There’s a mountain I can’t climb over. And I heard that even that mountain couldn’t weigh Jiang Qin down.”

Hong Yan pulled her down jacket a bit tighter, gazing at the dim street lamps in the cold night, her mood turning a bit wistful.

She had always thought the saying “love isn’t even fit for a dog” was a joke. We’re in college now, who wouldn’t want a sweet romance?

It wasn’t until she learned about what happened between Jiang Qin and Chu Siqi that she realized he truly didn’t believe in love.

Talk is cheap, right?

But she had personally experienced Chu Siqi’s suffocating manipulation, so she understood where Jiang Qin’s pain point was.

To him, romance was a waste of time.

Otherwise, with Senior Sister Feng’s face and figure, she would’ve made Jiang Qin head over heels long ago.

So for something with such a low chance of success, it was better to not even try. No need to get in too deep only to face a bad ending.

“What’s with this ‘mountain’? I’ve heard the story of the Foolish Old Man Who Moved the Mountains since I was little!”

Tang Lin suddenly felt a bit indignant.

“What do you mean?”

A hint of confusion flashed through Hong Yan’s eyes.

“Don’t novels have those male leads who spurn the stunning rich girl and fall for the Cinderella instead? Hong Yan, you’re way better than Cinderella!”

Tang Lin emphasized the words “way better”.

“Like you said, that’s in novels, not reality.”

Hong Yan gave a faint smile without any further response.

She had high emotional intelligence, so when facing things, she wouldn’t get too carried away by emotion. In other words, she was very rational.

A rational analysis told her: you definitely don’t have a chance, don’t go any further, it’ll surely be a bad ending, you’ll fall.

So she started learning to suppress those feelings.

This was the difference between her and Tang Lin.

Tang Lin did things too hastily, daring to attempt many things without certainty, only to make a fuss for nothing and end up hurting herself.

She had advised Tang Lin many times to think before acting and only proceed if she was sure. But now it seemed Tang Lin had treated her words as nothing more than passing breeze.

“Wait, who’s this ‘mountain’?” Cao Xinyue suddenly asked.

Tang Lin waved her hand, “It’s Feng Nanshu! That face is practically like she bribed God. Senior Sister, you haven’t seen her?”

“Oh, it’s Junior Sister Feng. I’ve seen her many times. She and Jiang Qin aren’t together?”

“No, even though everyone in the office calls her the boss’s wife, Xuemei said Jiang Qin always insists they’re just good friends.”

Aside from general office matters, Cao Xinyue spent the rest of her time dating her boyfriend from another school, so she didn’t have time to dig into gossip.

It was only in this moment that she learned Feng Nanshu and Jiang Qin hadn’t made their relationship official.

Wow, he could resist ordinary girls, but he could also resist Feng Nanshu?

Jiang Qin really had been following through on what he wrote in his entrepreneurship application form.

“Jiang Qin really is a strange person.”

“Mm, it feels like he thinks about a lot of things, and his perspective is both sharp and cold.”

“But… it’s not possible for someone to never date in their whole life, right?”

“Who knows? But I always get the sense that he’s chasing something while also being afraid of something.”