Chapter 547: First Love

The blockbuster movie brought huge traffic and also boosted local businesses.

Like tonight all the food areas in Wanzhong were packed with people.

In the Internet era, business logic is like this: all businesses rely on boosted traffic; the quality of business used to depend on service and quality, now it’s the era of traffic is king.

The success of the group-buying website is actually based on the integration power of internet resources, holding the flow of customers, thus gaining the discourse power of the market.

And hit movies also have the ability to integrate traffic which can lead to periodic traffic surges and bustling conditions.

Jiang Qin stood at the entrance of the hotpot restaurant seeing people waiting for seats and imagined coins floating above their heads.

When the waitress called the next number, customers from the waiting area entered the restaurant, and coins seemed to chime into the pocket.

“I need to use the restroom.”

Jiang Qin had had too much soda at the movie theatre earlier. Seeing so many people ahead, he thought it might be hard to get out to pee later, so he let the others go ahead while he headed to the restroom.

“In love, I ultimately lost miserably.”

“The sky will darken, hearts can change.”

“It rained all night yet I couldn’t wash you out of my heart.”

“The wind passed over the dust. I looked up at the sky at a 45-degree angle and then tears fell. I used those tears to write poetry for you.”

While Jiang Qin was in the restroom, he opened his QQ Space, which was like flipping through a collection of non-mainstream love quotes.

What’s more, it was written in Martian script which really baffled him. He thought the excessively spiced phone paid by his monthly bill was causing a scrambled display.

As he urinated, he scrolled down translating the characters which revealed young master Cao’s “Since it’s love, love deeply.”

There was also Zhuang Chen’s literary signature “Leaving, is to return better and see you again” and little rich girl’s post “Watching a movie with brother, Jiang Qin, Jiang Qin, Jiang Qin!”

Seeing these non-mainstream quotes, including one from Feng Nanshu, Jiang Qin imagined a gleeful little rich girl, making the camphor balls in the restroom almost spin out of control.

Youth is power!

Meanwhile, a man next to him coughed and shifted slightly away from Jiang Qin.

At the same time, a little boy to the right gave an amazed look.

Jiang Qin flashed a proud smile, walked out of the restroom, and returned to the River Hotpot on the third floor, spotting the cool little rich girl in the crowd and sat down by her.

The base of the pot was already on the table, but the dishes were yet to come.

At that moment, the atmosphere at the table felt odd, especially with Ren Ziqiang and Cao Guangyu wearing sneaky expressions as if they had just stolen chickens from next door.

“Did you order the dishes?”

“All done.”

While answering, young master Cao blinked furiously to the right making Jiang Qin confused.

Following young master Cao’s gaze, Jiang Qin turned his head and saw three girls sitting at the next table.

Old classmate Wang Huiru, barely known Si Huiying, and Chu Siqi, whose eyes seemed slightly red and swollen from crying.

They, too, specifically came to watch “Those Years,” arriving one screening before Jiang Qin’s group.

Wang Huiru and Si Huiying were somewhat nostalgic during the movie, while Chu Siqi remained silent from start to finish without uttering a word.

It was pitch black in the cinema, hard to see much but Wang Huiru and Si Huiying noticed Chu Siqi’s makeup was smeared after they walked out.

As Chu Siqi’s best friends, logically, Wang Huiru and Si Huiying should have comforted her while also cursing the unworthy bad guys.

However, facing Chu Siqi’s situation, they found it hard to comment.

Back then, it was she who toyed with Jiang Qin, playing hot and cold without denying possibilities with other boys.

Now nostalgic and emotional, whether it’s because of Jiang Qin’s status or his allure is hard to say.

As best friends, Wang Huiru and Si Huiying found Chu Siqi rather affected.

But they couldn’t say that and just silently accompanied her suggesting they go out for a meal together.

Surprisingly, they ended up sitting together with Jiang Qin and his group.

At the moment, Chu Siqi stared at Jiang Qin through the steam rising from the hotpot, tears gathering in her eyes, her expression stubborn.

She wanted to ask Jiang Qin if he too was nostalgic about her about the profound youth they shared.

“Ho ho, brother’s wishes are coming true.”

Feng Nanshu muttered under her breath, trying to make her face look fiercer, even copying Ding Xue’s expression—it worked somewhat.

Jiang Qin scowled, “Dream on, you boastful ghost. Want to eat fishballs?”

“Sure.”

Little rich girl, ever the dutiful wife, instantly softened at Jiang Qin’s gesture, not a trace of fierceness.

“…”

After dinner, Jiang Qin and his friends left the hotpot restaurant and strolled around the mall.

Lately, close friends started kissing openly and fiercely which led the little rich girl to a lingerie store to buy a small tiger.

Ding Xue and Wang Linlin also needed some, so they eagerly followed.

Meanwhile, Jiang Qin, Cao Guangyu, and Ren Ziqiang sat at the husband storage area, each with a lady’s purse on their back, indistinguishable from other married men around.

“Tsk tsk tsk, look at your subservient attitude, even carrying your girlfriends’ purses. What a disgrace to men.”

Jiang Qin, with a Chanel bag slung over, hands in pockets, voiced his disdain boldly.

Cao Guangyu and Ren Ziqiang exchanged glances, “Aren’t you doing the same?”

“I’m carrying my friend’s bag, but if I had a girlfriend, I definitely wouldn’t serve.”

“Old Jiang, you’re twenty-one, and it’s incredible your mouth is still intact,” Cao Guangyu cursed.

Ren Ziqiang nodded in agreement but suddenly recalled the dinner scene and gulped, “Bro Jiang, you were really awesome just now.”

“?”

Jiang Qin glanced at his crotch, “What nonsense are you spouting?”

“Dining with your current girlfriend, your old flame sitting next door and you remained so composed, truly audacious. You have no idea, I was sweating bullets.”

Jiang Qin spun the sign at the husband storage three times nonchalantly spoke, “You misunderstood; she’s not my first love.”

“Ah?”

“What kind of first love it could be if we never dated? You young folks, after talking to a girl twice or chatting a few times on QQ, dare to claim a relationship, shameless.”

Ren Ziqiang thought of Pan Xiu and stiffened, “I warn you to retract that statement don’t force me to beg.”

Jiang Qin patted his shoulder, “First love is beautiful because at an age of innocence, she let you feel the joy of love, taught you tenderness and longing. But believing a few interactions are love isn’t necessary.”

“So, unrequited love doesn’t count as first love?”

“Nope, that would be the first ‘lick.'”

Jiang Qin watched Feng Nanshu exit the lingerie store, a slight smile forming, “First love, in fact, is the first time you mutually liked someone.”

Cao Guangyu leaned in, “So Feng Nanshu is your first love?”

“Secret.”

“First time seeing such a public secret, haha.”

Feng Nanshu returned, handed Jiang Qin the shopping bag.

Owner Jiang decided to give styling advice to his friend sneaked a peek inside immediately startled.

There lay the lace style Wang Haini had asked her to buy which he had stopped her from getting before, along with a black lace style and a design consisting of just two strings and a piece of cloth.

He now knew his friend’s peach shape like the back of his hand seeing these items, wardrobes immediately came to mind.

So he quickly pulled the little rich girl aside, “Listen, let’s not buy this, it’s too risky.”

Feng Nanshu looked up at him with a small face, “It’s cooler this way.”

“No way.”

“Haini said friends shouldn’t dictate what friends wear under their clothes, and I’ve already paid.”

Seeing Jiang Qin didn’t protest, Feng Nanshu opened the bag hanging on him ran to call Ding Xue and Wang Linlin to the restroom.

Ding Xue was whispering with old Cao at the moment saw Feng Nanshu waving then hurried over entering the restroom.

The mall was crowded, and girls had several more steps to using the restroom than boys, so they waited quite a while for their turn.

“I heard old Cao say, during dinner, the girl sitting at the next table… was the girl Jiang Qin used to like? The top beauty of the first school, no wonder she looked familiar.”

Feng Nanshu pressed her lips together, “That was brother’s first love.”

Ding Xue paused then laughed, “Everyone has had a crush during their school days but to call it first love might not be accurate.”

“?”

“When we were shopping just now, Jiang Qin and old Cao were chatting, and this came up. Jiang Qin said only the first time mutual liking counts as first love.”

Ding Xue dispensed some soap, working it into a dense lather her hands, “He thinks you are his first love.”

Feng Nanshu paused, stared blankly at Ding Xue, even forgetting to rinse the foam off her hands.

After a while, the six of them left the mall and took the bus back to campus.

The bus was filled with college students with reddened eyes, some couples who had come the same way were now not hugging or kissing, even standing apart.

Suddenly, it began to rain outside, the fine drizzle falling on the window pane fitting the mood of “Those missed rains and loves of those years” perfectly.

Jiang Qin pulled Feng Nanshu into his arms took a fierce bite out of jealousy which left the little rich girl gasping, her eyes narrowed although her expression remained docile, but with a defiant air about her.