I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Among the crowd thronging in front of the cold drink shop, three women were clearly in cahoots, standing on the right side of the entrance.

Looking over at Shen Kang and his group, it was the one who was dressed the most fashionable and beautiful among the three.

The other two beauties are quite different; one is more innocent-looking, and the other is somewhat cute.

The one with the more innocent look is named Chen Yongting.

She noticed her friend's gaze, followed it, and saw three people squatting by the roadside eating popsicles. She then realized which one her friend was looking at.

"Zhenzhen, do you know him?"

Chen Yongting casually asked, and also looked at the boy eating a popsicle by the roadside, giving his assessment: "He's quite handsome."

The girl who was dressed the most stylishly and beautifully among the three was Qin Zhen, whom Ouyang Yu regarded as a goddess.

Hearing Chen Yongting's words, Qin Zhen also looked away, "I guess you could say we know each other."

Chen Yongting then asked, "Aren't you going to say hello?"

Qin Zhen hesitated for a moment, then shook his head, his tone very calm: "Never mind, we're really not familiar with each other."

She still remembered what happened last time: she had invited Shen Kang to dinner, but Shen Kang completely ignored her, leading a little girl past her without saying a word, as if she were invisible.

This incident made Qin Zhen furious, and she removed Shen Kang from her list of potential boyfriends—yes, "the list of potential boyfriends among her suitors."

The so-called "list of suitors" is quite broad, including people like Ouyang Yu. The "list of potential boyfriends," on the other hand, is narrower, carefully selected from the list of suitors.

When Qin Zhen first met Shen Kang in Study Room 302 and learned that Shen Kang was the owner of Study Room 302 and Yanyu Tea Princess, she immediately added Shen Kang to her list of potential boyfriends, skipping the step of listing suitors.

After learning from Ouyang Yu that Shen Kang not only owned these two shops but also managed the adjacent laundry room and had created a website, Qin Zhen added Shen Kang to her second-ranked list of potential boyfriends.

In Qin Zhen's plan, he would release "possibility" to Shen Kang, and if Shen Kang made an effort and did the following:

I often treat her to meals.

Send her flowers,

Give her all sorts of gifts,

Give her all sorts of surprises on her birthday, Valentine's Day, Qixi Festival, Labor Day, National Day, and other holidays.

I would accompany her to class whenever I had free time.

Daily concern and care,

Even on ordinary days, I would create various romantic moments for her.

Etc., etc

So, once she senses his sincerity, she can be with him.

Unexpectedly, Shen Kang ignored her that day, embarrassing her. This made Qin Zhen immediately remove him from her list of potential boyfriends. She thought to herself, "So what if you own two shops and run a website? That's all. What's so great about that? There are people more outstanding than you. Those people from truly prestigious families, whom you can't catch up to no matter how hard you try, are all pursuing me."

This incident angered Qin Zhen for several days, but her anger has long since subsided. However, she never expected to run into this situation again here.

……

"What are you talking about?"

While Qin Zhen and Chen Yongting were talking, a boy carrying several paper cups squeezed out of the crowd, came to their side, and casually asked a question.

Then, the boy handed over several paper cups one by one, and finally handed a paper cup containing a light green scoop of ice cream to Qin Zhen, along with a warm smile, "Vanilla flavor, this is for you."

The boy's name is Fan Kaixin. He's quite handsome and has a warm smile.

"Thank you." Qin Zhen smiled and accepted the paper cup.

At this moment, Chen Yongting answered Fan Kaixin's question: "They're talking about that handsome guy."

As she spoke, she pointed towards Shen Kang's direction by the roadside, seemingly casually hinting, "Zhenzhen was looking at him just now."

Upon hearing this, Fan Kaixin also looked in that direction. After seeing the handsome guy, she exclaimed, "Oh?" and then casually glanced at Qin Zhen, "Your friend?"

Qin Zhen: "A friend of a friend, I've met him twice, but we're not close."

At this moment, Zhu Yutian, the cutest of the three beauties, said, "They really aren't familiar with each other. We just asked her if she wanted to go say hello, but Zhenzhen was too lazy to even do it."

Fan Kaixin felt relieved upon hearing this, and the wariness that had arisen after seeing Shen Kang's handsome face also subsided.

Zhu Yutian then said, "Thank you for treating, Fan Kaixin. It must have been quite expensive, right?"

Fan Kaixin puffed out his chest slightly, but his tone was calm: "It's alright, 22 per ball, cheaper than Häagen-Dazs."

Zhu Yutian was somewhat surprised, "22 for one ball?"

Fan Kaixin said, "After all, it's Aishue, touted as the domestic Häagen-Dazs, hence the price."...

Chen Yongting silently ate her ice cream, finding their conversation utterly pointless. She wondered what favors Fan Kaixin had given Zhu Yutian that made Zhu Yutian give him so much face and always praise Fan Kaixin in front of Qin Zhen.

While idly eating her ice cream, Chen Yongting's gaze wandered aimlessly, eventually landing on the three guys squatting by the roadside eating popsicles. She also noticed Shen Kang enjoying his popsicle.

Chen Yongting could tell that he was eating a small pudding, which cost 50 cents a piece.

But he sucked very seriously, enjoyed it very much, and cherished it very much.

Chen Yongting stared blankly at the screen for a while.

The brilliant sunlight, broken by the branches, fell in rays onto the boy.

The air was thick with the scent of earth, and she seemed to hear cicadas chirping in her ears. Before her eyes appeared summer, cicadas, a palm-leaf fan, a rocking chair, and the red bean popsicle she'd bought with the two cents she clutched tightly, which she was carefully and slowly licking, afraid of eating it too quickly and running out of time. But as she walked along, licking it, she tripped and fell, the popsicle dropping to the ground. Her eyes reddened, and finally, she burst into tears, heartbroken…

That was her childhood.

The way the boy was eating the popsicle seemed to create a special atmosphere, taking her back to her childhood summers when she cherished a red bean popsicle as the most precious treasure, a memory she fondly recalled.

Chen Yongting suddenly understood why she always felt that the red bean popsicles nowadays didn't taste as good as they did when she was a child—the taste was actually still the same, it hadn't changed, it was just that she had changed…

"What should we do?" Ye Jintong asked, squatting on the side of the street, biting into a popsicle.

Shen Kang, sucking on his popsicle, responded vaguely, "Wu Wu Wu Wu?"

Ye Jintong was quite the genius; she actually recognized that Shen Kang was asking "What do we do?": "Zhongtanghui. You came here yourself and still couldn't close the deal, what are we going to do?"

Then, turning to look at Shen Kang, her eyes filled with suspicion, she asked, "You haven't forgotten about this, have you?"

Just then, Shen Kang slapped his forehead, as if he had just remembered this.

"..." Ye Jintong was speechless. "You really forgot!"

"Nonsense."

Shen Kang took the popsicle out of his mouth and said seriously, "I was swatting mosquitoes."

"...I really shouldn't have had any expectations of you." Ye Jintong shook her head repeatedly. "I really thought you could handle it with just one step of your hand, but it turns out you're no different from me."

Shen Kang then corrected another mistake in her statement: "Bullshit, you can't even get to see the manager when you come here, but when I come here, at least the manager shows up, right?"

After saying that, without giving Ye Jintong a chance to speak, he said, "If we didn't reach an agreement, we didn't reach an agreement. Does the absence of Butcher Zhang mean we won't have pork to eat? I have a contingency plan, don't worry."

Shen Kang wasn't making things up this time; he did have a contingency plan. It would be best if Zhongtanghui were willing to sponsor him, which is why he made the trip.

Then, she added reassuringly, "Besides, the world is constantly changing; maybe things will turn around in the next moment?"

Ye Jintong said weakly, "We've already made so many trips, what hope is there for a turnaround..."

As they were talking, a thought suddenly struck her, and she said calmly, "Boss, since you say there's a chance, how about we take a gamble? We won't bet too much, just three scoops of Häagen-Dazs. If there's a chance, I'll buy each of you a three-scoop Häagen-Dazs; if there's no chance, you two will each buy me a three-scoop Häagen-Dazs."

Shen Kang was heartbroken. "The thing I hate most in my life is gambling! I won't gamble!"

Ji Chunfu interjected, "No, Jin Tong, why are you dragging me into this bet between the two of you?"

Ignoring Ji Chunfu, Ye Jintong simply turned to stare at Shen Kang: "Boss, are you afraid to gamble?"

"Xiao Ye, I've noticed you can be really serious sometimes. I was just saying 'turning the tide' offhand, why are you taking it so seriously?"...

Shen Kang was arguing with Ye Jintong, criticizing the gambling mentality, saying that once you get involved in gambling, you're doomed.

My phone suddenly rang.

He took the opportunity to get away from Ye Jintong, took out his phone, glanced at the caller ID "Zong Shijie", answered, and said, "Feed."

"Old Shen, when does your show start? My Fit is already washed."

"No rush, there are still some preparations to be completed. Don't worry, I'll get things done as soon as possible, and I'll let you know as soon as the date is set."

Zong Shijie's voice came through the receiver, "What preparations? Dude, just tell me, I'll help if I can! The most important thing is to get the show online as soon as possible."

Shen Kang could tell that Zong Shijie was really eager to go on stage and show off... Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he said, "Actually, everything else is fine, it's just that the GG sponsorship is a bit of a problem..."

He briefly explained the GG sponsorship to Zong Shijie on the other end of the phone.

Shen Kang had originally thought that Zong Shijie was a rich second-generation and had a circle of rich second-generation people. Perhaps one of these people would need GG's sponsorship and they could hit it off immediately?

As a result, after listening to what he said, Zong Shijie simply said, "I understand, Lao Shen. You can continue with your work and let me know when you have any news," and then hung up the phone.

"?"

Shen Kang took the phone away from his ear, stared at it, and remained silent for a long time—why was this different from what he had expected? Was anti-fraud awareness really this strong in 08?