Proofreader & Editor:Peter Pan
After hanging up the phone, silence once again enveloped the dining table.
Su Qianyi glanced at Xie Shu several times, but he never looked back at her, nor did he offer the explanation she had imagined.
In the past, whenever Xie Shu interacted with another woman, he would proactively explain things to her to prevent her from overthinking.
But now… that was no longer the case.
Su Qianyi bit her lower lip so hard that the once rosy flesh turned white.
Who was that girl?
Why did she call him?
Why didn't he tell her?
A suffocating feeling slowly spread throughout her body.
To avoid losing her composure, Su Qianyi took a moment to calm herself down before resuming her meal with feigned nonchalance.
Just as she mustered the courage to speak to Xie Shu again, she was interrupted.
"Senior Xie Shu."
A female voice suddenly rang out at the entrance of the restaurant.
Xie Shu, upon hearing the voice, didn't look up immediately. Instead, he picked up the takeout fried rice that the waiter had just placed in front of him before standing up and walking towards the girl at the door.
The girl took the fried rice from Xie Shu and turned to leave, but he called out to her just in time.
"Wait a second."
The girl stopped, waiting for what he had to say next.
Xie Shu, afraid of getting it wrong, checked his phone again before saying, "This time it's a different dorm building, the room number is… I'll send it to you on WeChat, make sure you don't get it wrong."
The girl seemed surprised, "Isn't it the same dorm as before?"
"No, it's not."
"Okay, I got it."
"Thanks for the trouble."
After the girl left, Xie Shu turned around to head back inside.
As he turned, he met Su Qianyi's incredulous gaze.
Even An Tian was looking at him with a somewhat strange expression.
Only his three sons didn't show much of a reaction, as they knew from the start that he had bought another portion of food for someone else, and they probably knew that person was Ruan Nianxi.
Xie Shu didn't seem to care much and continued walking back into the restaurant.
However, he didn't return to his seat but went to scan a QR code to pay for his meal.
"I've got something else to take care of, so I won't wait for you," he said, pocketing his phone and addressing his three sons.
"What's up?" one of them asked reflexively.
"The rational allocation and optimization of basic human survival resources, as well as a meeting with the global material exchange intelligent interaction processing comprehensive management personnel to reach a cooperation deal."
"???"
What was he talking about?
Xie Shu didn't explain and quickly left.
Su Qianyi sat frozen in her seat, staring blankly as Xie Shu disappeared through the door, unable to snap back to reality for a long time.
The girl who had come looking for Xie Shu… she recognized her.
She was a junior at the school who worked part-time for a food delivery platform.
Whenever Su Qianyi was too cold to leave the dorm for meals in winter, Xie Shu would have someone deliver food to her, and she had seen that girl deliver things to her dorm several times before.
Even when it wasn't winter, if she craved something in the middle of the night, he would buy it and have it delivered to the dorm, then contact a part-time student from the platform to bring it up to her.
Because he often bought things for her and contacted the part-time students frequently, he gradually got to know some of the part-time working juniors and added them on WeChat.
As he had explained before, the school's part-time platform took a commission, and the part-time students had classes to attend. The work was plentiful, the pay was low, and it was tiring. Although there were many students at the school, few were willing to do this kind of part-time job, and only those who really needed money would stick with it.
Therefore, there were few people who did food delivery at the school, but there were many who placed orders on the platform, especially when it was cold, and it could take a long time for an order to be delivered.
So, he added those part-time juniors on WeChat, and he would transfer the delivery fee directly to them, bypassing the platform's commission, which meant they earned more. Sometimes he would even transfer a little extra, and they would prioritize his deliveries, a practice commonly known as "cutting in line."
He said he did this so she wouldn't have to wait too long…
But just now, was Xie Shu buying something for another girl?
For another girl… right?
Was it the girl who had called him?
Was it the girl he had escorted back to the dorm yesterday?
What about her?
Would she still be a part of his life in the future?
As she recalled Xie Shu's indifference and neglect, Su Qianyi suddenly began to feel afraid.
It seemed like he truly didn't care about her feelings anymore.
It seemed like he wasn't as good to her as he used to be.
It was as if she had lost the person who once loved her.
***
Xie Shu went to the supermarket to buy some snacks and picked up a package before heading straight back to the dorm.
Once back at the dorm, Ruan Nianxi messaged him to say she had received the dinner he bought for her.
Considering it was getting late and worrying she might be hungry, Xie Shu urged her to eat first. She agreed and then went silent for a while.
His sons hadn't returned yet, and with no one to play video games with, he decided to browse short videos instead.
After watching videos for a while, a WeChat notification popped up on his screen.
Switching to WeChat, he saw a message from someone labeled "Teacher," without even a surname.
Xie Shu felt a moment of confusion. Which teacher from his major could this be?
He didn't remember.
Opening the chat, the latest message read: "The weekend is coming up, remember to come early."
The message left Xie Shu puzzled.
Fortunately, there was a previous chat history in WeChat.
After scrolling through, he roughly understood what this "Teacher" was all about.
It turned out to be a part-time job he had found online, working as an assistant teacher in a studio.
He had arranged this part-time job before his rebirth during the week, and he had already discussed it with the teacher on the other end. However, after his rebirth, he didn't fully remember his university days and had completely forgotten about it.
He didn't have any sort of cheat to accurately match every event from his university days to a timeline.
True, but in his memory, he didn't recall ever being an assistant teacher in a studio in his previous life, did he?
He couldn't remember the exact time, but he should have some recollection of the major events, right?
After pondering for a while, he suddenly realized what had happened.
During his university days, whenever he had free time, he would look for part-time jobs.
Although his parents knew he was chasing a girl at school and wouldn't skimp on his living expenses, he also understood the value of money and preferred to earn his own whenever possible, asking for as little from his parents as he could.
Part-time jobs were only on weekends, but… sometimes Su Qianyi would want to go out…
So, in the past, between part-time jobs and Su Qianyi, he would always choose Su Qianyi without hesitation, giving up the part-time job.
Part-time jobs were only for weekends, but he often had to accompany Su Qianyi, which meant he couldn't keep a part-time job for long because frequent absences didn't sit well with the bosses.
As a result, he frequently switched between part-time jobs during his university days.
He guessed that in his previous life at this point in time, Su Qianyi must have told him about a trip, and he had turned down the part-time job, which is why he had no memory of ever being an assistant teacher in a studio.
But now…
After some thought, he sent a message to Ruan Nianxi: "It's the weekend tomorrow, do you have any plans?"
A lost part-time job could be found again.
This second chance at life was so precious, he wanted to prioritize what he truly wanted to do.