The landlord has multiple personalities and wants everyone to pay him.

"Ye Shu?"

A girl's voice came from the side. Ye Shu and Chen Xing were chatting, and Ye Shu was startled when she heard the voice.

The sudden calling of his full name felt strangely familiar, like a familiar face returning home.

For no apparent reason, the scene of his chance encounter with Song Yunyun at the shopping mall near his home suddenly flashed through his mind; he had been called out to like that before.

No way? Another acquaintance?

He muttered to himself and turned his head away.

The female customer from table number twelve was now standing outside the bar, holding her coffee.

This young lady is indeed quite pretty. She has a well-defined nose and eyes, wears light makeup, and exudes a scholarly air. She is very delicate and refined.

But she's still a bit inferior to the one at home... Ye Shu suddenly added this thought to his mind.

look familiar.

I'm sure I've seen this face somewhere before; it looks like a classmate from university, but I just can't remember their name...

His mind was racing, his eyebrows furrowed, and his mouth agape as if he were in a daze.

The name was on the tip of my tongue, but it was like a fishbone stuck in my throat—I just couldn't bring myself to say it.

"You're that... um..."

Ye Shu raised her hand and tapped it a few times in the air, trying to use her fingers as a fishing rod to fish the name out of her mind, but to no avail.

Seeing Ye Shu's conflicted expression—as if she knew him but couldn't recall his name—the girl's face showed a hint of displeasure, but she managed to hide it.

She didn't say her full name, but instead gave a hint:

"River……"

"River!"

Ye Shu's eyes lit up, and her fingers started shaking even faster, as if she had an epileptic seizure.

"Yes, yes, Jiang... Jiang..."

However, the surname alone is clearly not enough bait; the given name still doesn't work.

He choked again, took a breath but then swallowed it back down, looking a little embarrassed.

Seeing his constipated and strained expression, the girl finally gave up. She sighed softly and said:

Jiang Yining.

"Ah, right! Jiang Yining! Yes, yes, yes!"

Ye Shu clapped his hands and nodded repeatedly, looking completely satisfied.

"I remember now, Jiang Yining! Right!"

Chen Xing, watching the two playing charades, smiled and said when Ye Shu finally recognized him:

"Xiao Ye, you two know each other?"

"We were classmates in college."

Ye Shu was about to explain when Jiang Yining interrupted, giving Chen Xing a slight, social smile and introducing him:

"I'm a year behind him, so I'm considered his junior."

Hearing the term "junior sister," Ye Shu's memories finally started flowing, and there were so many that she could cast a wide net and catch them all.

Oh, right! Jiang Yining!

Ye Shu's thoughts were instantly pulled back to her university days.

That year he was a sophomore, and he shared a dorm room with Han Yang, Zhang Xiaoqiang, and Wang Yu.

All four of them are typical "broke" types who are broke at the end of the month, yet they still enjoy having a couple of drinks now and then. They are comrades-in-arms at the dinner table and also brothers in financial straits.

Their spending pattern is a classic wave-like pattern. In the first few days after receiving their living expenses at the beginning of the month, they all act like nouveau riche, shouting and yelling as they pool their money to buy meat.

What is barbecue, and what is cooked food? I only buy the best ones.

They even have the luxury of feeding stray cats downstairs in the dormitory with the meat they can't finish, which really gives off a "rich man's gate smells of wine and meat" vibe.

But this extravagant spirit didn't last long; the lavish meals soon turned into a deficit.

Towards the end of the month, food became scarce, and the dormitory was in a state of famine.

But we still have to drink, and as for how to enjoy it, that's up to each person's skill.

Every month-end, the four guys in the dorm come up with all sorts of tricks for drinking, each displaying their unique talents.

Ye Shu's drinking style belongs to the "spiritual drinking" method, commonly known as "dry drinking." There are no snacks to accompany the drinks; it all comes down to chatting and bragging while drinking.

Han Yang, on the other hand, is the practical type. He can shamelessly go next door to grab a handful of sunflower seeds and a bag of pickled vegetables, and come back to have a meal. He even calls it "appreciating the ways of the world".

Wang Yu takes a nostalgic approach. I don't know where he learned it, but he tried sucking on iron nails, supposedly because of the rusty smell on them.

After slurping a couple of bites, and being reminded by Han Yang that the nail looked like it had been pried off from a discarded toilet door, Wang Yu brushed his teeth in the washroom for half an hour.

Zhang Xiaoqiang is recognized as a ruthless person among them. He takes a hardcore approach and pioneered the practice of "drinking with alcohol".

We mixed beer and baijiu (Chinese liquor) to drink. The advantage of this was that it was very potent, and we could get drunk quickly even with small amounts. He was also the one who passed out the fastest among us.

To put it simply, at the end of each month, the dorm becomes like a wilderness survival zone, where anything caught will be eaten as a snack. You could say that those with legs won't eat tables and chairs, and those without legs won't eat the big-tailed maggots in the toilet.

The bottom line remains, but the dignity is gone.

Being poor all the time isn't a long-term solution, so Han Yang, that old rascal, somehow managed to get a small stack of campus cards from a few graduating seniors.

A few people in the dormitory discussed it and decided that since they were idle anyway, they might as well sell some cash and earn some pocket money.

So, the four people, who weren't usually that thick-skinned, gritted their teeth and started their on-the-ground promotion career at the school.

Ye Shu still remembers that the first transaction she completed, albeit with some difficulty, was with this junior classmate, Jiang Yining.

At the time, Ye Shu just thought the girl was easy to talk to and didn't ask any questions before readily buying the card from him. Ye Shu even thought the girl was a bit naive.

But looking back at that slightly naive junior, she has now transformed into an independent urban woman.

Ye Shu suddenly felt a pang of emotion. He glanced at the computer on the table behind him and asked:

"Do you work around here now?"

"Yes, it's nearby."

Jiang Yining nodded and asked in return:

"And you? Have you been working here all along?"

Seeing the two catching up, Chen Xing tactfully left to go to the back to check the materials.

"Yes, it's nice here, and Sister Chen Xing is good to me too."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the conversation, which seemed to have been maintained solely by their shared alumni status, seemed to have run its course.

Just as the two were about to feel awkward, Jiang Yining asked:

"Um, are you free tonight?"

"What's wrong?"

Ye Shu suddenly became wary. These open-ended questions were the hardest to answer: Was something wrong? That depended on the situation. Having dinner with an old classmate? Especially an old classmate of the opposite sex whom he hadn't seen for years? He instinctively leaned towards the possibility that something was wrong.

Jiang Yining's lips curved slightly:

"It's nothing, I just wanted to chat with you and have a meal together. After all, you're the first guy I've met since I started college."

This reason sounded a bit contrived, making Ye Shu's reluctance even more obvious.

Going out to eat with Han Yang is relaxing and enjoyable. But having dinner alone with a female student I suddenly bumped into?

"I'm so sorry, I get off work late here. Let's do it another day, when I'm free."

However, Jiang Yining was not fooled by this excuse; she smiled and said:

"It's okay, I'll wait for you to get off work."

"No, no, no, there's really no need to wait. It would take up too much of your time. Besides, I have to go home and cook dinner; there are people waiting for me at home."

Jiang Yining blinked after hearing this:

"Who is it? Your dad?"

"My girlfriend."

Ye Shu made it clear: "Now you should understand, right? I'm not available."

Unexpectedly, Jiang Yining's smile remained unchanged, and she went along with it, saying:

"It's okay, bring your girlfriend along. It's really just an old classmate catching up, don't overthink it. It's settled then, I have to go back to work, see you tonight."

As she spoke, she casually placed the coffee she had barely drunk on the bar counter, turned around, packed up her computer, and walked out.

As he walked to the store entrance, he waved to Ye Shu, pushed open the glass door, and turned to leave.

Ye Shu was speechless. This plot... this development... it seemed like she had seen it somewhere before.

An old classmate unexpectedly reunited, and the woman took the initiative to invite him to dinner. The man declined, but the woman insisted and asked him to bring his girlfriend along.

What's wrong with me today? Nothing has gone right since this morning.