You're dumping me, huh? Fine, then I'll just pick up the school beauty and make her my wif

"Go to the dormitories to collect them," Jiang Che said. "Use this title, knock on each dormitory door, and ask if anyone is willing to take out their old textbooks to sell or give away."

"After we retrieve them, we'll input them into the platform ourselves. When the first batch of users arrive, at least they'll be able to see something, instead of the app being completely blank."

"That's a good idea." Song Mingxuan closed his notebook. "We need to have content first, then push it to users. Otherwise, people will come and see nothing, and then they'll just leave."

"Then I'll lead the way tomorrow." Xu Wenbin patted his chest. "I know the boys' dorms like the back of my hand. I know which building, which floor, and which dorm has the most textbooks."

Su Qinghe put Xiaoman back on her lap, stroked its fur, and said, "I'll take charge of the girls' dormitory area. I'll ask Lin tide, Zhao Weilan, and Shen Shiyu to help me find some senior students. They should have a lot of old textbooks."

"Okay, let's split into two groups then," Jiang Che said. "Meet at the library entrance at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. After we finish collecting the books, we'll have lunch together and see how many we've collected."

He stood up, stretched, and his shoulder bones cracked twice.

The sky outside the window had already darkened. The light from the living room shone through the French windows, revealing the shadow of the ginkgo tree in the yard, swaying gently in the autumn breeze.

"By the way, Lao Jiang."

Lu Ziang zipped up his backpack, looked up and asked Jiang Che, "We're collecting books tomorrow, should we print some flyers or something? If we just talk, people might think we're scammers."

Jiang Che thought for a moment: "No need to print flyers. Being too formal will only make people wary."

"Just take your student ID, knock on the door and say, 'Hello, we are from the Challenge Cup entrepreneurship project. We would like to ask if you have any old textbooks that you don't need.' Just be sincere."

"What if you get rejected?"

"If you get rejected, just move on to the next one. It's not a big deal."

Jiang Che picked up his coat from the sofa. "Be a little thick-skinned. The worst thing you can do when you're too shy to ask for help."

"Alright, if there's nothing else, you can all go home. Don't be late tomorrow."

The three of them got up to say goodbye, and Su Qinghe carried Xiaoman to the entrance.

Xiaoman peeked out from her arms and called out to the three people's backs, whether she was saying goodbye or urging them to leave quickly, it was unclear.

Once the door closed, the living room became quiet, leaving only Su Qinghe and Jiang Che.

Su Qinghe put Xiaoman on the cat tree and turned around to tidy up the cups and snack bags on the coffee table.

Jiang Che leaned over and took the things from her hands: "I'll do it, you go take a shower first."

"No." Su Qinghe looked down and counted the cups on the coffee table. "Seven cups, plus the teapot and fruit plate. How long will it take you to clean all that by yourself?"

"Ten minutes at most."

"Those two people were gone for five minutes."

After she finished speaking, she picked up three cups and walked towards the kitchen, afraid that Jiang Che would take the work back.

Jiang Che looked at the three rickety cups with a trembling heart. "Grandpa, slow down. Don't let the project fail before we even start eliminating the cups at home."

"I held it very firmly, okay?"

Although Su Qinghe said that, she slowed down her pace.

Jiang Che couldn't persuade her otherwise, so he had no choice but to take the rest of the food into the kitchen.

He turned on the tap and took charge of washing the cups. She stood beside him with a clean towel, took the washed cups, dried them, and then put them back in the wall cabinet one by one.

Jiang Che washed the last glass and handed it over, only to find that Su Qinghe didn't take it for a long time.

Turning my head, I noticed she was clutching the corner of a towel, and it took her a while to speak: "Ah Che, what if no one is willing to open the door to the girls' dormitory tomorrow?"

"If they don't open the door, we'll go to the next one."

"But what if the next one doesn't open either?"

"Keep changing."

"The entire floor is closed?"

Jiang Che turned off the tap and shook the water off his hands: "That means you went to a different building because everyone was having class at the same time."

Su Qinghe was speechless, pursed her lips, but still couldn't suppress her worries.

She had no problem talking to Lin tide and the others, but just thinking about standing at the door of an unfamiliar dormitory, raising her hand to knock, and introducing the project to several female students she had never met before made her incredibly nervous.

Jiang Che noticed her hesitation, but didn't say anything like "I'll go in your place."

He couldn't even get into the girls' dormitory in the first place, let alone this time he was just knocking on the door to collect books.

Once the platform is truly established, there will be even more situations where she will need to speak up.

We can't always let someone else fill in.

"There's nothing shameful about being rejected." Jiang Che held out his hand to her. "Look, you refused when I asked you to take a shower, didn't you?"

"This is different."

"What's the difference? It's all about saying 'no'."

Jiang Che took the towel from her hand and slowly dried his fingers. "If someone doesn't want to sell their books, they can just say they don't need them."

Nod and say "Sorry to bother you," then go to the next room.

"What's truly shameful is standing at the door for ages thinking about it, only to end up not even daring to knock."

Su Qinghe's lips moved slightly: "Are you saying I'm a coward?"

"I'm saying that even a coward can knock on the door. Even if your hands are scared, you still have to raise them."

These words may not sound very nice, but they are more effective than empty words of comfort.

Su Qinghe put the cleaned glass into the cabinet, and after closing the door, she muttered to herself, "What if I said something wrong?"

"I'll practice your opening remarks with you a few times tomorrow morning."

"Can't we practice now?"

Jiang Che glanced at the two cups she was still holding: "Yes, but put the cups down first, otherwise I'm afraid they'll break if you get nervous. They cost twenty yuan."

"Pfft, you still care about twenty yuan?"

Su Qinghe couldn't help but laugh, then carefully placed the cup back into the cabinet.

It was almost 11 o'clock when I finished showering.

When Jiang Che came out of the bathroom, Su Qinghe was sitting on the edge of the bed holding Xiaoman.

Her hair was half-dry, with the ends hanging over her shoulders, and her phone's memo app was filled with several lines of text.

"Hello, students... Please stop here. We are a student team participating in the Challenge Cup... Do we need to stop here again?"

As she read, she added slashes in the middle of the sentences and even marked where to raise her tone.

Jiang Che walked over and glanced at it, his lips just curving into a smile, when Su Qinghe turned her face away: "Are you trying to laugh?"

"no."

"Your lips moved just now."

"The bath water was too hot, and my face cramped up."

Jiang Che.

"Okay, I was wrong." Jiang Che sat down next to her. "Come on, I'm a senior student in room 506 of building 3 now. Knock on the door."

Su Qinghe placed Xiaoman next to the pillow, sat up straight, and gently tapped the bedside table three times.

"Please come in," Jiang Che replied in a high-pitched voice.

Su Qinghe was momentarily speechless: "How can I let them in if the dormitory door isn't open?"

"That makes sense, let's try again."