Chapter 190 - 188: The So-called Playing Hard to Get

Chapter 190: Chapter 188: The So-called Playing Hard to Get

"What are you guys talking about?"

Shen Ying walked over from across the street, smiling at the three of them. "Don’t tell me you’re talking about grades? If so, I’ve got nothing to add."

"What do you think? When these two are together, the only thing they compare is who stayed up later last night," Lin Yanwan said with a smile.

Shen Ying nodded in deep agreement. "Definitely. I feel more exhausted these days than I did during the final review period before the exams."

Although her daily workload wasn’t huge, she didn’t want to be the weak link, so she conscientiously spent a lot of time learning how to be a professional in operations. That way, the gap between her and the others wouldn’t just keep growing.

"Boss, about that animation merchandise you mentioned yesterday, should I start preparing the corresponding promotions right away? How long until we can start selling it?" Shen Ying asked in a low voice.

Jiang Xia immediately cut in, "Hold on, hold on. Let’s change the subject. No shop talk right now."

There were too many people around, and he wanted to keep a low profile for both *Cat and Mouse* and Qitian Animation. He preferred to grow and profit quietly. Publicizing it wouldn’t bring any benefits, and it would likely attract a whole mess of trouble.

"Boss, I haven’t said a word to anyone," Shen Ying said quickly.

"Yingying, you should change how you address him, too," Lin Yanwan said, blinking. "Just call him by his name when we’re with friends."

"Okay, Boss Lady."

Lin Yanwan: "???"

Shen Ying giggled, linking her arm with her good friend’s and swaying it gently. "Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing you."

"Did you get your acceptance letter?" Lin Yanwan asked with a look of resignation.

"I thought we agreed not to talk about grades!" Shen Ying said through clenched teeth, her expression resentful.

’These three... two are going to Tsinghua, one to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and all in the Imperial Capital. And here I am, only getting into some trashy second-tier university, and I barely managed that even after trying my absolute best.’

Although she knew they didn’t care about things like diplomas, Shen Ying couldn’t help but feel a little insecure.

"Hey, we’re best friends."

"The acceptance letter from Yu Du Business University," Shen Ying said weakly, full of worry. "I’ll be so far away from you all... Boss, you’re not going to fire me later, are you?"

"Why are you overthinking things again? Didn’t we already talk about this? Distance doesn’t matter. This is the information age. As long as you have the skills, you can work from home."

"Yingying, your main task right now is to study hard. You have to understand, there’s a lot to learn about operations. A company’s entire public image depends on its operations team."

"I’ll work really hard!" Shen Ying nodded emphatically. Her friend’s words had completely dispelled her worries. ’I’m going to be a useful person to the company.’

"That’s more like it."

Wang Ming watched the entire exchange without a word. Seeing Shen Ying confirmed what Jiang Xia had said earlier.

’Even close friends can feel a gap between them. Thinking about it now, could this kind of psychological factor have been part of the reason Shen Ying rejected me back then?’

’Was her saying we weren’t a good match just a fear of dragging me down?’

The time slowly approached six o’clock. More and more students streamed into the hotel. With nearly 400 students from six classes, they had practically booked out the entire Fenghua Hotel.

"Shouldn’t we head in, too? If we wait any longer, we won’t get good seats," Wang Ming said, checking the time.

"True."

With the boss’s approval, the group followed their classmates into the hotel. Coincidentally, Class One and Class Six were in the same banquet hall, though the tables were split into two sides, with six tables for each class.

"You’re not allowed to drink later, you hear?" Lin Yanwan said, looking at Jiang Xia. She had no desire to drag a drunk Jiang Xia home again; the guy was always a handful when he was drunk.

"Yes, ma’am."

Jiang Xia squeezed his wife’s hand to reassure her. In truth, if he didn’t want to drink, no amount of peer pressure would work. In fact, he’d probably end up turning the tables on them with his decade-plus of real-world experience.

After all, how could these naive high school students possibly be a match for him?

The four of them split up, Class One to the left and Class Six to the right.

After surveying the seating situation, Jiang Xia decisively chose the table farthest from the head table. Once the food was served, he planned to just eat in peace, avoid any commotion, find a chance to toast a few of the subject teachers, and then slip out after he was done.

As for going to a KTV to sing after dinner, he’d pass. His soul, which was nearly fifty years old counting both his lives, wasn’t about to join in on that kind of fun.

Before long, their homeroom teacher, Teacher Wang, arrived, along with a few other subject teachers. They all went to the tables for their respective classes, though. They’d have to take turns toasting them later during the drinking.

The students all stood up one by one to greet Old Wang and talk about their college entrance exam scores and acceptance letters.

Jiang Xia glanced around and suddenly noticed someone was missing. ’Where’d my old deskmate go? She kept insisting she would definitely be here. Did she end up bailing on me?’

So, he took out his phone and sent Chen Yao a message on QQ: "Where are you? Don’t tell me you’re not here yet. Old Wang has already arrived."

Chen Yao replied quickly: "Just got off work. I’m in a taxi on my way over. I’ll be there soon. Save me a seat."

"OK."

His table wasn’t full yet. Jiang Xia looked at Wang Ming and said, "Old Wang, save the seat next to you."

Wang Ming nodded. "Who’s it for?"

"My deskmate." Jiang Xia calmly took a sip of the mineral water on the table.

"Why is your deskmate sitting next to me instead of you?"

"I have a wife, so I need to avoid any misunderstandings. Do you?" Jiang Xia said airily.

"Fuck!"

Old Wang’s face darkened. ’Damn it, I thought we were best buds! Is this how you treat your best bud, by stabbing him right in the heart?’

"Cheer up. I’m doing this for your own good," Jiang Xia said seriously.

"?"

"Old Wang, you know the ’playing hard to get’ tactic, right?" Jiang Xia shot him a glance and chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

"Don’t you like Shen Ying? There’s..."

Before he could finish, Wang Ming cut him off, "I don’t like her anymore."

"Are you trying to fool me, or yourself?"

Jiang Xia couldn’t help but purse his lips. How long had it been since Shen Ying rejected him? It wasn’t something you could just get over instantly. If it were anyone else, Jiang Xia might have believed them, but this guy was a hopeless romantic. It was obvious he was lying.

Seeing him fall silent, Jiang Xia continued, "If you don’t like her, then why did you drink so much yesterday?"

Wang Ming: "..."

"Listen to your big bro. I’m gonna give you some pointers. Today, Master Jiang will give you a proper lesson."

Jiang Xia said with a smile, "Playing hard to get is one of the Thirty-Six Stratagems of warfare. It means that to capture something, you must first learn to let it go. The classic military example is Zhuge Liang capturing and releasing Meng Huo seven times. And when it comes to love between men and women, playing hard to get is the absolute pinnacle of dating techniques. If you use it well, I can’t say you’ll have a one-hundred-percent success rate, but it will definitely increase your chances."

Wang Ming remained sullenly silent, but he was secretly all ears.