CHAPTER 343: CHAPTER 342: WILD BEES AND BUTTERFLIES

At the end of August, the headquarters wanted to advance the winter new product launch. Zhao Wendada went to the city to help Qian Jinqiu organize matters of the branch stores, leaving Shi Yang to personally take the manager of the main store for inventory orders.

The day after Shi Yang left the provincial city, Zhao Meimei’s school started.

On campus, there were fresh new faces coming and going. The freshmen this year were crazy; during military training on the playground, if a handsome senior or a pretty senior sister happened to pass by, these greenhorn freshmen would dare to shout at them in front of the instructors.

Zhao Meimei and Peng Hui were shouted at twice, so they’d rather take a longer walk than get close to the playground again.

Zhao Meimei was getting better at dressing up; all her clothes and accessories were meticulously chosen by herself. She’d match her makeup and hair to her outfit daily, and even among the hordes of beauties at the Teachers’ Academy, she was still an eye-catching beauty.

From freshman year, boys who started having secret crushes or pursuing her continued to flock towards her in sophomore year. The new freshmen also gradually started joining the ranks of her admirers.

Zhao Meimei walked arm in arm with Peng Hui and Qian Simeng on the campus, often surrounded by guys pretending to be cool, strutting around like peacocks, trying to catch her attention.

Occasionally, there were even young rich guys who specially came near the university to chase girls, driving fancy sports cars, honking wildly beside them, and when catching up, they’d jump out from the car, blocking Zhao Meimei in public, "Hey, beautiful, what’s your name?"

Zhao Meimei glanced at him, ignored him, and turned to leave.

The guy hurriedly stopped her, "Hey! Don’t go! I mean no harm, I just want to get to know you."

Zhao Meimei coldly let out a snort, "I don’t want to get to know you."

The guy wasn’t mad either and smiled, "Why not, you’re quite pretty, I like you, could you give me a chance to pursue you?"

Zhao Meimei flipped her thin eyelids, "I have a boyfriend, and besides, I’m not interested in someone like you!"

The love on university campuses is always fervent, wild. Suddenly transitioning from boring high school to a fresh, free university life, everyone’s behavior explodes with passion in the same way.

Guys blocking their favorite female classmates in the corridor, girls chasing their admired male classmates on the playground, confessing, dating, even directly going to hotels, without taboos, as if there’s nothing they wouldn’t dare to do, nothing they wouldn’t dare try.

Eventually, Zhao Meimei was simply pestered beyond endurance, declaring to everyone who came to confess, "I have a boyfriend." "You’re not my type."

Later, when encountering someone, she’d simply keep her head down and eyes closed, turning and leaving. Can’t provoke them, but can certainly avoid them, right?

Among the crowd of admirers, only Dong Wenjie survived.

Because he was smart; after being rejected, he never brought it up again but always found various excuses to stay around Zhao Meimei.

Once during class break, Dong Wenjie intended to give Zhao Meimei some foreign language reading materials. From afar, he saw Zhao Meimei at the class door, rejecting a guy who was confessing to her with a blank face.

After witnessing the guy leave with a dejected expression, Dong Wenjie walked up to her.

Zhao Meimei received the book, thanked him, "Thank you."

Dong Wenjie waved it off casually, "No need to be polite with me, besides, it was on my way."

Dong Wenjie glanced in the direction the rejected guy left, understanding what was going on, he deliberately probed, "Was that guy just now confessing too? You’re so attractive, can your boyfriend feel at ease?"

Zhao Meimei was indifferent, "Between the two of us, I’m more uneasy about him."

Dong Wenjie, "I always hear you mention your boyfriend but have never seen him in person. Is he quite busy with work?"

When Shi Yang was mentioned, Zhao Meimei’s face showed a hint of disappointment, "Yes, very busy. He just went on a business trip a couple of days ago, it’ll probably take him more than a week to come back this time."

A flicker of obscurity flashed in Dong Wenjie’s eyes, which he quickly concealed, saying, "I heard from Peng Hui that she went to a Japanese restaurant once, which she said was particularly good. When you have time someday, I’ll treat you guys?"

Zhao Meimei laughed, "No need. We always go Dutch."

Dong Wenjie didn’t argue further, just slightly curved his lips, smiling warmly, "Then I’ll confirm the time with you later and we’ll go together to try it?"

Zhao Meimei nodded and returned to the classroom with her book.

The next day, the four of them went to the Japanese restaurant Peng Hui always talked about, where the food floated in the water for diners to grab as they pleased.

The restaurant’s environment was indeed nice, built with style: greenery, flowing water, bamboo low tables, and waitstaff clad in kimonos and wooden clogs. It was more about the experience than eating.

Peng Hui called a server for drinks, and when they came, Peng Hui suddenly remembered something, her eyes lit up, but she held back without saying. It wasn’t until Dong Wenjie went to the bathroom that she hurriedly said, "Meimei, when I called you that day to talk about the drinks here, what naughty thing were you up to? I found your tone strange."

Zhao Meimei paused, then remembered the incident that day, her heart warmed, and she pretended to be angry, "With your complicated thoughts, is there anything that doesn’t sound strange?"

"Hehehe!!" Peng Hui pointed at her, laughing, "Getting angry out of shame, huh! So there was really something going on!"

Zhao Meimei couldn’t keep up the act, burst out laughing, and threw her chopsticks at her, "I’m warning you, zip it!"

Dong Wenjie returned just in time, seeing them messing around, he laughed and asked, "What are you talking about that’s making you so happy?"

Peng Hui waved it off, "Nothing, just discussing some little secrets, right, Meimei?"

Zhao Meimei held up two fingers, mimicking a poke-the-eyes gesture, baring her teeth threateningly.

Halfway through the meal, there was suddenly a noisy commotion from the adjacent private room, which started softly and quickly escalated to angry shouting and sounds of a table being overturned and things being smashed when fighting.

Before Zhao Meimei and her friends could react, someone suddenly burst out from the opposite room, panicked and unintentionally dashed into Zhao Meimei’s room, followed quickly by another person emerging.

Everyone was startled; Dong Wenjie was the first to stand up, hastily instructing, "Grab your stuff."

Zhao Meimei and her friends quickly picked up their bags and huddled in the corner of the room under Dong Wenjie’s protection. The two intruders soon started brawling, and amidst the chaos, the smaller one was directly swung up by the other, smashing onto the low table. Instantly, everything scattered, causing Peng Hui and Qian Simeng to scream sharply.

Zhao Meimei was a bit scared too, but Dong Wenjie remained steadfastly protecting her in front, his tall figure shielding away all dangers, inexplicably providing a sense of unspeakable safety.

At least at that moment, Zhao Meimei felt incredibly lucky to have Dong Wenjie with her this meal.