Chapter 80: Hibernation (Part 1)

Although the plan to "force" Yang Tianxing to leave the Student Union failed, Wen Xiubo and Long Fuxin remained vice-chairmen of the department student union, and Yang Tianxing also continued to serve as his deputy minister of the Liaison Department.

It was just that after this relationship was exposed, everyone felt rather awkward when they met; previously, Wen Xiubo and Yang Tianxing would occasionally greet each other if they ran into one another in the cafeteria, but now Wen Xiubo would simply lower his head to pick up money.

The internal debate selection for the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences was going quite well under the organization of Jiang Minling, but unfortunately, the only male student in Public Administration Class 2, Pan Daile, was eliminated, and three female students—Chen Sisi, Liu Qirui, and Li Jiali—were representing the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in the competition.

Among them, Chen Sisi was the official first debater, while the other two were on the reserve team.

It seemed that this selection also had something to do with looks; Chen Sisi's characteristic was being cute, which could increase the impression score.

Pan Daile was very depressed and would run to the Entrepreneurship Base to sigh whenever he had nothing to do. When Yang Tianxing saw that this wouldn't do, he simply put him in charge of logistics for the three beautiful debaters, and only then did the kid's mood improve.

Starting in mid-December, Chang'an officially entered winter; the maple leaves in the school had long since fallen, and the stubborn, thin tree trunks stood in the cold wind. Now, one had to be fully armed to go out.

Influenced by the upcoming Christmas, New Year's Day, and winter break, business at the Entrepreneurship Base had actually improved quite a bit. The Rocket 101 tricycles shuttled through various campuses; it wasn't just the Finance Institute, as the surrounding schools also had courier business.

"Little Yang, Chang'an has been so cold these past few days, and the weather is gloomy too. I don't like it at all."

A girl like Tan Zhizhi, who was as bright as sunshine, certainly wouldn't like this kind of weather.

"Yeah, I heard it might snow, though I don't know if it's true or not. In any case, every once in a while today, students would suddenly run out and shout, 'It's snowing! It's snowing!'"

Yang Tianxing held the phone in one hand and a pen in the other, calculating the growth rate of courier collection volume over the past few days.

"Ah, our school is like that too."

Tan Zhizhi said with pleasant surprise, and she was overjoyed by this small similarity: "When I was eating dinner tonight, I don't know who shouted, 'It's snowing!' Those people just put down their chopsticks and ran out. Senior Sister Gu also pulled me and ran outside. I spilled my soup on my clothes, but it turned out to be just a little rain."

"You're just bored. If it snows, it snows. Doesn't it snow often in Jinzhou too?"

Yang Tianxing said indifferently.

"Hmph!"

Tan Zhizhi hummed on the phone, then added with sweet memories: "You weren't like this before. Do you remember when it snowed heavily in the second year of high school? I said I wanted to see a snowman, and you even skipped half a class to sneak out and build a snowman for me. When you came back, your hands were frozen stiff."

"Is that so? Did that happen?"

Yang Tianxing didn't remember so much; it snowed often in the winter in Jinzhou. He said with a mix of emotion and perfunctoriness: "We were so silly back then."

"Who said we were silly!"

Tan Zhizhi suddenly said with some anger: "Not silly at all! I can remember this for the rest of my life. I will always remember how you looked when you were covered in snowflakes and pulling me to go see the snowman."

As she spoke, Tan Zhizhi's voice gradually sank: "Little Yang, you aren't as good to me as you used to be."

Yang Tianxing stopped talking, letting the sound of their breathing pass between them through the mobile phone.

After a long time, Tan Zhizhi slowly said: "I'm going to sleep. You get some rest early too. Come see me when you have time."

After Yang Tianxing hung up the phone, he had just lit a cigarette when his phone received a text message; it was from Tan Zhizhi.

"I'm sorry."

Yang Tianxing glanced at it and replied with two words: "Sleep now."

He buried his head and calculated for a while longer, finally finishing the statistics for the courier volume of the five schools. Just as Yang Tianxing was about to take his phone and get into bed, he suddenly remembered Tan Zhizhi's emotional shift just now.

"It seems I'll have to find some excuses in the future to intentionally not answer a few calls. I can't let these bedtime calls become a habit, otherwise, they'll slowly turn into checking up on me, and that would be too terrifying."

Yang Tianxing pondered silently for a while. Although Tan Zhizhi's deep affection just now had moved him, there was no helping it—a scumbag had to have a "heart of stone."

The next day, the temperature plummeted by four degrees, and the cold was unsettling. The campus broadcasting station had already forecast that it might snow tonight.

The first snow of 2002, and perhaps the last.

Just as Yang Tianxing arrived at the Entrepreneurship Base, Liu Jiaoyue was already guarding the place. She was wearing a royal blue down jacket inside, wrapped in a colorful, flowery cotton-padded coat outside, looking like a fat penguin.

"Are you cold?"

White mist puffed out when Yang Tianxing spoke.

Liu Jiaoyue shook her head and pointed to the electric heater nearby.

Yang Tianxing nodded: "Give me your hand."

Liu Jiaoyue didn't know which hand Yang Tianxing wanted, so she just blankly stretched out both little hands, staring at Yang Tianxing in a daze.

Yang Tianxing held them for a moment and found they were still quite warm, so he felt relieved.

After Yang Tianxing finished speaking, he went to the 102 warehouse next door. Liu Jiaoyue still wanted to say something, but Yang Tianxing was already talking to others.

These past few days, the courier collection volume for the five schools had been hovering around 720 pieces. Although it hadn't reached 1,200 pieces, Yang Tianxing still called Zhong Wenhai over; currently, it was truly difficult for just Fu Yiming and a few part-time college students to handle the sorting and packing of the couriers.

"Aren't you guys cold? Why isn't the electric heater on?"

Yang Tianxing walked into 102 and discovered that this room actually didn't have the electric heater on.

"We aren't cold. If we turn on the electric heater, the air doesn't circulate well."

Fu Yiming took the cigarette, held it in his mouth, and moved the packages while sweating profusely.

Yang Tianxing took out a new pack of Furongwang, handed a cigarette to those who smoked, and then gave the rest to Zhong Wenhai.

The others didn't find it strange; after all, Yang Tianxing often did this. Zhong Wenhai also felt that the treatment here was genuinely good—the wages were the same as at the store, they ate at the university cafeteria, and the people he spoke to were educated college students.

Yang Tianxing was also a relatively easy-going boss and wasn't stingy in his daily life, but there was one thing: as long as a task was assigned by him, it had to be implemented immediately and unconditionally. If there was even a slight delay or an excuse, he would flip his face immediately.

However, such a boss was relatively easy to serve; one just had to do the job well. Sometimes at night, Zhong Wenhai would even take the initiative to sleep in the 102 warehouse, acting as a night watchman on the side.

The reason he did this was because he hoped to bring his daughter, who was in middle school, over in the future to experience the atmosphere of a university, but these things could only happen after Yang Tianxing nodded.

Before leaving, Yang Tianxing specifically went to 101 to find Fu Yiming and stuffed 500 yuan into his hand: "Business has been good these past two days, so you must be very busy. Take this 500 and cover everyone's meal expenses. Don't be too stingy; there's no need to save this little bit of money."

Fu Yiming declined: "No need to give more. The 500 you gave last time hasn't been used up yet; there's still over 100 left."

"Just keep that money."

Yang Tianxing waved his hand and stuffed the money into his pocket: "If you don't finish using it, just keep it. You're a northerner anyway; it's livelier when you go home for the New Year, and you have quite a few relatives. You can use it to give red envelopes to their children."

Fu Yiming was still a bit embarrassed: "You pay me a salary every month."

"Alright, you're a northern man, stop being so sentimental. I'm leaving this place to you."

Yang Tianxing had always been very reassured by Fu Yiming; he had both the ability and the sense of responsibility, so it didn't matter how the money was spent, and Yang Tianxing wouldn't ask.

After Fu Yiming left, Yang Tianxing prepared to go out to catch a bus; today was the day the vice general manager of Shentong Company and the Chang'an manager were coming down for an inspection.

Just as Yang Tianxing walked out of the Entrepreneurship Base, he heard a soft, weak cry from behind him.

"Eh~"

Yang Tianxing turned his body around and saw Liu Jiaoyue lowering her head somewhat shyly as she said, "It is very cold today, do not drink alcohol."