Chapter 25

After dark, Song Haowen invited Zhu Hongyu to dinner. After some polite refusal, she eventually agreed. He also brought two employees along, and the four of them went to a restaurant for a hot pot dinner, as it was Zhu Hongyu’s favorite, being a Sichuan girl.

After dinner, on the way back to the school, Zhu Hongyu expressed concern, “Making money is important, studying is also important, but your health is more important. Don’t overwork yourself and get sick. Otherwise, it’s not worth it.” She also didn’t forget to mention his dozing off during class that day.

Song Haowen nodded in agreement.

“I stayed up all night out of excitement yesterday, and that’s how I got so exhausted. I won’t do it again. It’s too torturous.”

“Serves you right! … I told you not to accompany me all the way, but you insisted. Alright, we’re at the school gate. Go back and get some rest.” Zhu Hongyu lectured like an elder sister, “One night without sleep can’t be compensated by ten nights of rest.”

The next day at noon, Song Haowen was walking towards the school cafeteria. The lawn outside the cafeteria was filled with lunch boxes and soup bowls. Most students, for the sake of convenience, didn’t bother taking their utensils back to the classroom after breakfast. Some even casually left their hot water flasks for post-school water collection by the roadside.

However, this practice had its downsides. Since most students’ utensils were similar, without any markings, when hundreds or thousands were left scattered, finding them again became almost impossible if misplaced.

Some students would borrow others’ utensils for a meal, and after eating, they would forget where they took them from and leave them lying around. Consequently, the original owners couldn’t find their utensils again.

Those who couldn’t find theirs would then borrow from others, resulting in a cycle where, soon enough, most students were using utensils that originally belonged to someone else.

When Song Haowen lived on campus, he followed the same routine as other students, bringing utensils to the cafeteria for breakfast and leaving them on the grass after washing. At lunchtime, he would retrieve the utensils, eat lunch, and then place them back on the grass. After dinner, he would finally take them back to the dormitory.

Now that Song Haowen often didn’t stay on campus, sometimes even skipping dinner at school, the hassle of bringing utensils back and forth became inconvenient. Later on, he decided not to retrieve his utensils at night, just leaving them by the roadside. This way, he frequently lost his utensils, and he could only resign himself to this situation.

This day at noon, Song Haowen walked back and forth by the roadside twice but couldn’t find his utensils. He was contemplating whether to borrow someone else’s when he heard someone calling his name from a distance. He turned around and saw Tian Yuxi standing under a nearby tree, waving to him.

Ignoring his lunch predicament, Song Haowen immediately ran over to Tian Yuxi.

“Why do you have time to find me now? Is there something wrong?” he asked.

“My dad helped you find people from the Beijing Industrial and Commercial Bureau yesterday. Although there’s no precedent for this situation in the country, they eventually agreed to make an exception. However, because you’re a university student and not yet 18, you can’t register in your name. You’ll have to find someone else to represent you. In the next two days, go to the district industrial and commercial bureau to fill out the forms again and try to get approval as soon as possible. This matter is not small, and I was afraid of delays, so I came to find you in a hurry,” Tian Yuxi explained.

“That’s great! Thank you!” Hearing this news, although Song Haowen regretted not being able to register in his own name, as long as it could be accomplished, it was still a significant achievement.

“Miss Tian, you’re too kind to me. How can I express my gratitude?”

“Pfft, just a small problem. Nothing worth being happy about,” Tian Yuxi said with some confusion. As the beloved son of the heavens from Beijing University, she couldn’t understand why he valued a small private business with such a low status.

“You don’t understand now, and that’s normal. In a few years, you’ll understand why I’m so happy today.”

“You’re also busy, and yet you came personally to deliver the message. I feel guilty about it. Have you had your meal?”

Song Haowen was not only happy but also deeply moved. He felt that Tian Yuxi was really good to him. He thought about how inconvenient communication was in this era without modern devices. Relying on letters and telegrams was truly troublesome.

“Don’t feel guilty, just treat me to a meal, and it’ll be settled,” Tian Yuxi said with a playful smile.

“I’ll take you to a restaurant.”

“No need for such extravagance. Just invite me to the cafeteria.”

“But it seems like I’ve lost my utensils.”

“Oh, what should we do?”

“No choice, I’ll borrow two sets and use them for now.”

Saying that, Song Haowen bent down and picked up two damp sets of utensils from the lawn, clearly just used. Ignoring Tian Yuxi’s protests, he dragged her into the cafeteria.

After lunch, Song Haowen found a classmate and asked him to help with an excuse, deciding not to attend the two political classes in the afternoon.

After seeing off Tian Yuxi, he returned home and discussed the difficulties in obtaining the business license with Qian Youlai and Wang Li. Both of them found the situation tricky. The identity and age were aspects that couldn’t be fabricated.

Qian Youlai asked, “Is the license so important? Do we really have to get it?”

Song Haowen explained, “Whether we get it or not, it may not affect us at the moment, but we are still not officially recognized. When dealing with rigid-minded officials, we might run into some trouble.”