Nine sweet Xishi

"Wait, I'll pay you back."

"I'll pay you back..."

Xia Ye shouted, chasing after Lin Yuan's electric scooter.

Lin Yuan was furiously twisting the throttle, trying to quickly escape this troublesome place.

The crowd of onlookers queuing at the milk tea shop entrance watched, dumbfounded. "Nine Minutes Sweet's beauty is chasing a delivery guy? And she insists on giving him money?"

"Damn it, what am I lacking compared to him?"

"Could this be another publicity stunt?"

...

Lin Yuan rode his electric scooter, zooming away until he stopped at the intersection of this food street.

Lin Yuan, parked on the roadside, was still in a daze. He had clearly come to solve an algorithm problem, but the world was too small; how did he happen to encounter her again at that milk tea shop?

And as soon as she opened her mouth, she demanded a thousand yuan back.

Lin Yuan's mind conjured up various tactics of extreme feminist internet trolls. 'She wouldn't be one of those people, would she?' Lin Yuan suddenly felt a wave of trepidation.

He shouldn't have been afraid of her making trouble or falsely accusing him, but why did he, on that day, impulsively transfer a thousand yuan to her?

I, Lin Yuan, a dignified prospective postgraduate student of Zijin Aviation School, transferred a thousand yuan to a maid cafe waitress.

'If I tell people I didn't spend money there, and that thousand yuan was purely for my personal sentiment, would anyone believe it?'

'What if she further slanders me?'

Lin Yuan inadvertently realized the benefits of cash.

As he was pondering, a sudden, heavy gasp came from behind him.

Lin Yuan turned his head, and damn it, that girl had actually caught up. Lin Yuan quickly got back on his electric scooter and fled again.

In the rearview mirror, Lin Yuan saw the girl plop down onto the ground, seemingly crying.

"I, really, am not there anymore... I came, to return your money..." Lin Yuan vaguely heard these few fragmented sentences.

Lin Yuan subconsciously slowed down, turning his head. The girl was crying, snot and tears streaming down her face, a truly messy sight. Her knee was even scraped and bleeding.

Combining what she seemed to have just said about returning money with her current appearance, Lin Yuan found it difficult to associate her with the maid image from that day.

Lin Yuan ultimately couldn't resist; he stopped and returned.

Lin Yuan approached, just about to ask if she was alright, but the girl immediately said, "I really don't work there anymore. I didn't let you down, I didn't disappoint your expectations."

"My expectations?" Lin Yuan didn't even know when he had expectations of her.

"Believe me, I really don't work there anymore. I'm working three jobs every day now, I'm as hardworking as you are now. I've woken up..."

Lin Yuan looked at her, and she didn't seem to have any malicious intent, so he reached out and helped her up. "You're not here to ask me for money, are you?"

"What kind of person do you take me for? I came to return your money."

As it was quite undignified for them to be crying and talking on the street, Lin Yuan suggested they find a place to sit down and talk slowly.

But as soon as Xia Ye stood up, a streak of blood flowed down her calf from her scraped knee, making her wince in pain. Coupled with Xia Ye limping and being supported by Lin Yuan, it wouldn't be out of place to say they had just come from the obstetrics and gynecology department.

Lin Yuan helped her sit on the back seat of his electric scooter, then pulled out tissues and handed them to her. "Are you alright?"

"I should be alright."

"You need to stop the bleeding quickly!" Lin Yuan said, concerned.

"Me, how do I stop the bleeding?"

Well, Xia Ye was wearing a knee-length dress, so it was indeed inconvenient to lift her skirt in the street to check the wound.

"Sit tight, I'll take you to the school infirmary." Although Lin Yuan had many questions, he couldn't just let her bleed while they talked.

Xia Ye sat on the back seat. "Huh~, where's your delivery box?"

"Uh..." Lin Yuan was at a loss for how to answer. He was afraid she would find out about his postgraduate identity, because at this moment, Lin Yuan had not completely dispelled his suspicions about her.

Seeing Lin Yuan not answer, Xia Ye asked again, "How do you know where our school's infirmary is?"

"I've been delivering food here for years, so I know."

"Oh, but where's your delivery box?" So the question circled back to the beginning.

Lin Yuan was silent again.

"Why did you run just now?" Xia Ye clearly had no intention of letting him off. How could he run as soon as they met, causing her to scrape her knee, which still hurt now?

"Uh... because I thought I heard you say you wanted me to return your money."

"Huh?" Xia Ye, sitting in the back, got so excited that the electric scooter almost lost its balance. "How could I ask you to return money? I said I wanted to return your money!"

"But I clearly heard you say, 'You return the thousand yuan to me.'"

"I said, 'I'll return the thousand yuan to you.' You must have misheard."

"No, I heard it very clearly, that's what you said."

"I definitely didn't say that, you misheard."

"Alright, but why did you chase after me?"

"Then why did you give me a thousand yuan for no reason last time?"

"I..." Lin Yuan was momentarily at a loss for how to describe his complex emotions.

"You must have despised me a lot that time, right?" As she said this, Xia Ye's voice softened.

"No, not at all. It's just a personal choice, haha. What kind of society is it now? What's not forbidden by law is permissible."

"Hmph." Xia Ye said, feigning anger, "You clearly looked down on me that day, otherwise you wouldn't have added a note like 'You shouldn't be here' for me."

"Uh... you don't have to care about my opinion."

"No." Xia Ye responded firmly, "I agree with your opinion very much, extremely much. My behavior that day was wrong, not what a good girl should do." Xia Ye wanted to emphasize her values to Lin Yuan, but then she thought of Song Xiaoxiao. For a moment, she felt like she shouldn't say too much.

"Hmm~, working in that kind of place is indeed personal freedom, but I personally don't approve of it. My mind was messed up those few days, do you understand that state? It's like my brain just didn't turn around for a bit. I don't know why I went.

But thankfully, you woke me up early. I still feel a bit scared when I think about it now."

Lin Yuan finally understood the whole story from her confession. Xia Ye's cheerful conversation along the way made Lin Yuan feel quite comfortable; she didn't seem like the type to be self-degrading or deeply manipulative.

"Um, I don't think I need to go to the infirmary. Could you take me back? I'll just rinse the wound with a bottle of ice water later."

"That's not good, it's best to have a doctor disinfect it."

"It's fine, the bleeding has stopped. I still have to go back to work, otherwise I'll get docked pay. I'm a social animal working three jobs now." Xia Ye even proudly held up three fingers to Lin Yuan. "I just came back from teaching dance at a tutoring center, I haven't even had time to change my clothes."

Lin Yuan then noticed her attire; it was indeed not the typical uniform of a milk tea shop employee. "Three jobs, how can you, a girl, manage that?"

"Learning from you, you're also very hardworking delivering food every day."

Lin Yuan was a bit confused. 'When was I ever hardworking delivering food? I don't want to deliver food at all. After I get into graduate school, I don't want to deliver food for even one day. For that, I even made a fake admission letter and got caught because of it.'

Despite his confusion, Lin Yuan still took her back to Nine Minutes Sweet Milk Tea Shop.

At this moment, there were still many people gathered at the milk tea shop. Seeing Lin Yuan return with Xia Ye, someone immediately cursed, "Damn it, what am I lacking compared to him? I think I can do it too..."

Then, as Lin Yuan turned to leave, Xia Ye called out to him again, "We haven't added each other on WeChat yet."

The onlookers thought, 'Nine Minutes Sweet's beauty is actively asking to add WeChat?'

Xia Ye then gave Lin Yuan a sweet smile, "I've transferred the money to you. I'll treat you to a meal another day. I'm busy now, okay?"

The onlookers thought, 'Eating soft rice, but making it look hard? And it's Nine Minutes Sweet's soft rice?'

Lin Yuan didn't understand why everyone was looking at him like that. Ugh~, those gazes were creepy. He immediately turned his scooter around and hurried back to the dorm to code.