Chapter 59: Roping Someone In
Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Roping Someone In
"What are you two mumbling about now?" Shen Ying asked, looking at them suspiciously.
"Nothing, nothing at all," Wang Ming said, shaking his head vigorously.
He didn’t have Jiang Xia’s kind of skill. Ever since he realized he had a crush on Shen Ying, he would sometimes blush just from seeing her, but he desperately wanted to get her attention.
Jiang Xia lightly teased his best bud for a moment. He had no intention of breaking the ice for him. His gaze then shifted to his girlfriend, and he took her hand as if they were the only two people there, earning a pang of envy from Wang Ming.
"Let’s go, time to eat."
The four of them headed to the cafeteria. As usual, the two girls found a table while the boys were in charge of getting in line for food.
"How long are you going to drag this out? Until after the college entrance exams? Shen Ying is gorgeous; she’s got plenty of admirers. By the time you get around to confessing, you’ll probably have to take a number," Jiang Xia continued, fanning the flames.
"I know that, but I just can’t bring myself to say it." Wang Ming hesitated for a long while before continuing, "There’s a saying that goes, ’If you love someone, you don’t have to be with them. As long as they’re happy, that’s enough.’"
Jiang Xia was dumbfounded. ’What kind of ultimate, unbeatable simp logic is that?’
"So, you’ll be happy seeing her in another man’s arms, getting kissed and touched all over by him?"
Hearing this, Wang Ming’s face instantly turned green.
He clutched his chest. "Stop, man, don’t say any more. Just thinking about that scene makes my heart ache."
Seeing his buddy’s reaction, Jiang Xia secretly breathed a sigh of relief. ’He’s not a lost cause after all.’
"Listen to me. If you love her, you have to win her over. Kiss her lips, hold her hand, embrace her. Liking someone secretly from a dark corner like a mouse—that’s just a crush. If you don’t say it out loud, the girl will never know how you feel."
"Forcibly kissing, holding hands, hugging... is that how you got my sister-in-law?" Wang Ming’s expression was strange. ’How did this shameless bastard not get beaten to death on the spot?’
"Of course not. Yanwan and I were a mutual thing, our feelings were already there," Jiang Xia said righteously.
"Then why the hell are you telling me this? This problem is way beyond my level. I can’t solve it." Wang Ming couldn’t help but roll his eyes. ’If I actually followed his method, Shen Ying would probably hate me for the rest of my life.’
"What’s your own feeling about it? Do you think Shen Ying likes you?"
Wang Ming sighed. "I don’t know. Logically, she should. She asks me to get her food all the time, and she doesn’t hold back when she hits me. But when I message her on QQ, she’s kind of non-responsive. I really can’t figure out what she’s thinking."
Jiang Xia’s eye twitched slightly. ’From that description, Shen Ying sounds like a high-level player, treating Wang Ming like a long-term meal ticket.’
But the Shen Ying in his memory wasn’t that kind of person. Besides, students from this era were still relatively simple and didn’t have all the ulterior motives people did later on. So it was more likely that there was really no chance, and she just saw Wang Ming as one of the girls.
"Old Jiang, you’re experienced. Do you think she likes me?"
Jiang Xia sighed and patted his buddy’s shoulder. "Don’t give up. Look on the bright side. Out of all the guys who like her, why does she only ask you to get her food?"
"Why?"
"Every time you get food for her, do you use her meal card or your own?"
"Mine, of course. She gave me her card, but I’ve never used it."
Seeing him looking so satisfied with his sacrifice for love, Jiang Xia’s breath caught. ’Could it be that Shen Ying really is a high-level player?’
Now he really had to have his girlfriend test the waters. He couldn’t let his best bud get played.
"Okay, just hold steady for now. Don’t rush it. The college entrance exams are right around the corner anyway. Whatever happens, you can deal with it after the exams. Maybe she’s thinking the same thing."
"Okay."
After the two of them got their food, they were scanning the dining hall with their bowls in hand when they saw Shen Ying waving at them.
"Thanks."
Shen Ying took the cute little porcelain bowl and her meal card from Wang Ming’s hands and asked casually, "Hey, dummy, how much money is left on my card? There shouldn’t be much left, right?"
Wang Ming scratched his head. "I forgot."
She frowned slightly. "You haven’t been using it at all, have you?"
"Uh, it’s fine. Getting food doesn’t cost much anyway."
Shen Ying suddenly went quiet and ate her food in silence. Jiang Xia saw this and secretly kicked the heel of Lin Yanwan’s shoe. She instantly understood what he meant.
"What classes do you guys have this afternoon?"
"Chinese, English, and History."
"We have Politics, History, and Chinese."
The couple chatted idly, while Wang Ming’s mind was entirely on Shen Ying. Not knowing why she had suddenly gone quiet, he had no choice but to jump in with some awkward small talk.
"Sister-in-law, Old Jiang told me you’re doing the voiceover for his animation? I’m curious, what parts are you voicing?"
"It’s just some of the background music," Lin Yanwan said offhandedly.
Jiang Xia immediately corrected her. "You’re voicing the very soul of the animation."
"Yanwan, you guys are still making the animation?" Shen Ying suddenly asked.
Lin Yanwan nodded. "Jiang Xia is the one making it. I’m just doing the voiceover in post-production."
"That’s still really impressive. Starting an animation in high school... I wouldn’t even dare to dream of it." Shen Ying stuck out her tongue. "By the way, can I see it?"
Lin Yanwan looked toward Jiang Xia. He smiled slightly. "It’s a secret for now. But, if you were to join our team, it wouldn’t be out of the question."
Shen Ying furrowed her brow. "Join the team? But I don’t know how to do anything. Does only knowing how to watch animation count?"
"It counts."
Wang Ming’s eyes widened. ’How come when he joined, he had to draw dozens of keyframes every day, but a pretty girl just has to watch animation? Can you really do whatever you want just by being good-looking?’
"Of course, watching animation is just one part of it. But I do have one hard requirement."
"What requirement?" Shen Ying replied instinctively.
"Do you have a computer at home?"
"I do."
"I’ll give you some pictures and videos. Your job will be to share information about the animation every day on sites like QQ Space, Qiandu Tieba, Tianya Club, Weibo, and so on," Jiang Xia said after some serious thought.
Although his plan was to sell the initial broadcasting rights for *Cat and Mouse* to a TV station, if he could generate some discussion and hype online before the broadcast, the price per episode could be much higher.
"So basically, promotion, right? I know the other sites, but what’s Weibo?"
Jiang Xia blanked for a second before it hit him. In this time period, Weibo hadn’t even started its closed beta yet. The online information space in the country was still a mess, not like in the future where you could just buy a trending topic and have your information spread across the entire web in no time.
"Uh, well, it’s just those kinds of sites. You don’t have to be online all the time. Just make 10 posts a day on each of the mainstream sites."
Shen Ying’s tone changed as she said with a grin, "In that case, does this count as me working for you two lovebirds?"
"It does. But I’ll have to owe you your salary for now. And it’s not high—10 yuan a day, so 300 a month. I’ll pay you monthly."