Free Web NovelChapter 1085: Chapter 306: Meddling Matchmaker, Discovery
Chapter 306: Randomly Playing Matchmaker, Being Found Out
As Li Yan was walking out of the shop, a girl came in from outside. She looked a bit surprised to see him, seemed to think for a moment, then greeted him: "Li Yan? Buying flowers?"
He hadn’t really paid attention to this girl at first, because he felt it would be awkward to run into someone he knew and hard to explain, so he was planning to leave quickly. When he heard her greeting, he finally took a closer look.
She looked familiar! freewёbnoνel.com
But he couldn’t remember who she was for a moment. Still, since she could call him by name, she must be someone he knew.
"Hi, happy holiday..."
As he casually tossed out the line, he suddenly remembered that not only did he know this girl, she was actually an acquaintance: Xiao Xun, the girl who shared a dorm with Yu Xiaodi!
"What’s there for me to be happy about? Today’s your holiday, not mine."
Once he realized it was Xiao Xun, Li Yan couldn’t help but give a bitter little smile. Talk about coincidence—running into her here was way too much of a coincidence, right? No, more like way too unlucky!
Xiao Xun was Xiaodi’s roommate, but he hadn’t gotten to know her by visiting the school dorms. Instead, they’d run into each other a few times off campus, and each time it had been... inconvenient. One time, he’d gone to get a room with a drunk Hai Fu, and Xiao Xun happened to be working the night shift part-time there. The second time, he’d also been with Hai Fu, taking a walk that led them to the hotel, planning to get a room again—only to run into her and be recognized. After they got to know each other, she’d always seen him as a shady character.
Another time was when he went to buy underwear for Yue Yao, who was hospitalized with an injury, and ended up running into her again at the underwear counter where she was doing part-time work. He’d had no choice but to say he was buying it for Xiaodi, which later forced him to go somewhere else and buy another identical bellyband set for Xiaodi.
And now... this definitely counted as another inconvenient time for Li Yan. If she found out he had just ordered nine bouquets of flowers, that news would definitely reach Yu Xiaodi’s ears immediately.
"You’re definitely getting flowers today; you wouldn’t be buying them yourself. What are you doing here? Don’t tell me you’re working part-time here again!"
"You guessed right, I’m working part-time selling flowers!"
Xiao Xun had always had a bad impression of Li Yan. Working weekend night shifts at a hotel front desk, she’d run into him twice checking in with different women, and had firmly pegged him as a wolf—someone absolutely not to let any acquaintance get near. She hadn’t expected that, later, he’d actually end up connected to someone around her: he turned out to be the "uncle boyfriend" Yu Xiaodi talked about!
She’d wanted to help Xiaodi get rid of him and not let him fool her emotionally, but her experience doing part-time jobs meant that in dealing with people and the world, she understood more than the average girl her age. She was aware of how relationships between people worked. The few of them in the dorm got along pretty well and considered each other sisters, but they’d only been together half a semester at that point; how could that compare to a couple in the middle of a hot romance? A bit of kind, measured warning was fine, but if she spoke bluntly without hard evidence like video, she’d just come off as badmouthing him. Not only would it be useless, it might damage her own relationship with Xiaodi.
So all she could do was remind Xiaodi on the side while making it clear to Li Yan that he wasn’t welcome, with some subtle sarcasm thrown in. But later, seeing that the two of them seemed to get along pretty well and Xiaodi was so emotionally invested, she didn’t want to act the villain for nothing. When Xiaodi’s birthday came and he did all that for her, they all felt he’d put real thought into it, and her resistance toward him lessened.
This was the first time they’d seen each other since the New Year, so Xiao Xun didn’t give him a cold face. Being called out for working part-time again made her a little embarrassed, but she still admitted it calmly.
"Impressive, impressive, you really don’t let a single moment go to waste. But with so many part-time jobs... isn’t it too tiring?"
Even though every time he ran into her, he happened to be somewhere she was working part-time and it made things awkward for him, he couldn’t blame her for that—she wasn’t deliberately lying in wait to catch him slipping. For a girl her age, when she’s not in class, most are either dating or hanging out. A girl like her, who put in so much effort and squeezed in part-time work whenever she could, really did make Li Yan respect her.
Not just weekends, she even worked night shifts—that went way beyond the average college student doing part-time work "for the experience." He believed it must be because of her family situation. But even with poor circumstances, she wasn’t self-conscious about it; instead she stayed optimistic and worked hard, earning tuition with her own efforts and facing the people around her straightforwardly. That was really rare.
"It’s not that many. I still have classes and can’t match other people’s schedules, so most of my part-time gigs don’t last long. I’m usually just a temp they call in when they’re short on staff. Otherwise, how could you be running into me everywhere?" Xiao Xun gave a self-mocking smile. "Today’s a prime day for selling Roses, of course I wouldn’t miss it!"
With the topic shifting to flowers, Li Yan finally remembered the danger. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the lady boss seemed to be walking over as well, so he quickly reached a hand behind his back and waved at her, signaling her not to spill anything. As for whether the lady boss would cooperate with that unspoken request, that wasn’t something he could control.
"Mm, that makes sense. So... you’re here to buy in bulk to resell? I thought you were working here part-time."
"I’m all thumbs; I’d just get in the way here." Seeing the lady boss come over, Xiao Xun quickly smiled and greeted her: "Sister Yijun, I’m here to pick up the flowers. Thanks for helping me out."
The lady boss came over to them and smiled at Li Yan with squinting eyes. "You two know each other? Then why don’t you give Xiao Xun a bouquet?"
Li Yan was speechless. This was daylight robbery!
But it seemed she’d already picked up on what he’d meant earlier. Daylight robbery was still better than getting exposed. He chuckled. "You’ve got a point. I do want to give Xiao Xun a bouquet; I’m just not sure she’d accept it!"
The lady boss said, "You can buy them loose! Buy 99 Roses for Xiao Xun. That way she gets flowers, and she can put them to good use by selling them again. Isn’t that perfect?"
