Chapter 46: This Isn’t Four-Yuan Lemonade

"How long have they known each other, and already they're going to see a teacher together?"

Zhao Lin was not a rigid person, and she took a rather open-minded view of adolescent romance.

Going out together to do something or go on a date was entirely normal. However, her niece was extremely socially anxious. Back in high school, Zhao Lin had to go speak with the teacher herself to get her seated next to a different male classmate, and the niece skipped class for the entire afternoon afterward.

How on earth had she turned into a completely different person after entering university?

"What does that male classmate's family do?"

"I'm not quite sure. Probably an ordinary family."

Uncle Zhang glanced into the rearview mirror, observing Zhao Lin's expression.

"Should we interfere?"

Zhao Lin tilted her head and thought for a moment.

"Now that she's in adolescence, interfering is useless. Besides, they live in the dorms, so even if we wanted to control it, we couldn't. But there is one thing we must pay attention to: she must sleep in her dorm at night. If she doesn't sleep there, she has to come back to your place. She is absolutely not allowed to stay out overnight," Zhao Lin said.

"Send her a video call every night when you have time. The moment she isn't in her dorm for a single night, you call me immediately."

Uncle Zhang gave a bitter smile.

"Second Madam, I'm just a driver. Once or twice might be fine, but I can't be video-calling her every single day."

"What driver or no driver? You're the general manager of the hotel now; you need to learn to adapt to your new identity. Besides, you watched her grow up, making you practically half a father to her. No one can find fault with you for doing this, and besides, that's why you were sent here to accompany her to school."

Uncle Zhang wanted to say something, but the moment he thought of Zhao Lin's temper, he swallowed his words back down.

"Let's head to the campus first. There's still plenty of time, I'll take her out for a stroll."

Uncle Zhang checked his watch. "Let me ask the young miss first and see if she's back yet."

"Mhm."

Zhao Lin nodded and said nothing more.

As for romantic relationships and the like, she didn't oppose them. They weren't getting married yet, so there was no need to worry about whether their families were socially matched.

Besides, she was also afraid of pushing Song Jianian into a stubborn huff.

Once that little stubborn temper of hers flared up, ten horses couldn't drag her back.

Driving to the school gates, Uncle Zhang found an empty spot and parked the car.

"The young miss says she's almost at the school, three stops away."

"Three stops? Don't tell me they took the bus back."

"They actually did take the bus back."

"She's never ridden a public bus in her entire life, has she?"

"She's always been driven around by me; she hasn't even ridden the subway many times, let alone a bus," Uncle Zhang said with a smile.

"Still, that boy Chen Yuan is actually quite nice. He has helped the young miss many times, and perhaps because of those things, the young miss is willing to hang out with him."

Over the next few minutes, Uncle Zhang briefly recounted the things he knew.

After listening to the trivial little episodes that had occurred between the two of them, the corners of Zhao Lin's lips curved upward.

After all these years of seeing all sorts of people with ulterior motives, hearing these little stories between the two of them inexplicably made her feel a touch of sweetness.

"University students are so pure, without all those crooked intentions. They just hang out for a bit of happiness," Zhao Lin sighed and said.

"It's just a pity she didn't score high enough on her exams. If she had gotten just a dozen points higher, she could have studied electronic information and had someone around to take care of her."

"Second Madam, are you talking about Professor Jiang?"

"That's her. The next time I get the chance to see her, I'm going to strangle her for sure."

"What's wrong with Professor Jiang?" Uncle Zhang asked with a smile.

"I told her to let her daughter get betrothed to my son as a childhood match, and she said my son was an old cow eating tender grass! It made me so furious!"

"Then should we go visit Professor Jiang tomorrow?" Uncle Zhang asked with a smile.

"We'll see how it goes. My schedule is completely packed, and I barely have time to accompany Jianian," Zhao Lin said.

"I'll be coming back over in a little while, we can go see them then."

"Do you need me to send some things over?"

"That's fine, but don't let her know I'm here. Just drop the things off."

"Understood."

Having finished discussing business, Uncle Zhang looked out the window and said,

"Second Madam, look, they've gotten off."

Zhao Lin followed his gaze and saw the two of them stepping off the bus, walking side by side toward the school entrance.

"That male classmate is quite handsome, and pretty tall too—a head taller than Jianian."

Women look at faces, men look at chests; this principle applied universally.

"He looks to be around 185 centimeters. Second Madam, if you don't have any other concerns, I won't interfere in their affairs anymore."

"Hurry up and don't interfere. If she starts throwing a tantrum, neither of us will be able to coax her."

"I'm just worried about matching family backgrounds. Chen Yuan is indeed a fine boy, but his family situation does have a bit of a gap compared to the young miss."

"They haven't reached that stage yet. They probably just have a mutual crush, and even if they date, there's no need to worry—there's an eighty percent chance it won't work out. It'll be good for her to gain some experience. She's never interacted with boys before, and I'm genuinely afraid she'll turn out to be a brainless romantic later on," Zhao Lin said.

"But there's one condition: absolutely do not let her move out to live. I won't care about anything else."

A trace of bitterness appeared on Uncle Zhang's face. Previously, he didn't understand the demographic of university students, but now that he was working as a manager near the university town and interacting with them more, he understood a lot more.

These days, students who moved out to live together didn't care whether it was day or night. Give them an hour of free time, and they'd get everything done that needed doing—it was simply unwatchable.

"Is that milk tea place called Mixue Ice Cream & Tea pretty cheap?"

Uncle Zhang looked up, saw the two of them heading toward Mixue, and nodded.

"It's indeed not expensive. The young miss has been buying lemonade from their place quite often lately."

"How much is a cup?"

"Seems to be four yuan."

"Ah? What on earth is going on here?"

Zhao Lin felt a slight twinge in her mammary glands from anger. "I told her to be frugal and industrious, but I didn't mean for her to be *this* frugal."

Other wealthy young ladies went out terrified of being swindled out of their money and innocence by smooth-talking punks.

Now look at this—their own family's ancestor went out and not only didn't get swindled, but started drinking four-yuan lemonade.

Anyone who knew would think she came to school; anyone who didn't would think she had eloped.

It was truly the death of her.

Not long after, the two of them emerged, slurping their lemonade with great relish.

"Honk the horn and tell her to come over," Zhao Lin instructed.

Uncle Zhang pressed the horn twice, the blaring sound drawing the attention of pedestrians.

Chen Yuan and Song Jianian also looked toward the source of the sound. Seeing that it was Uncle Zhang's Maybach, neither paid it much mind and continued walking leisurely.

However, when they were just a few meters away, the rear window rolled down, and Song Jianian spotted Zhao Lin.

"Auntie, you're here."

Chen Yuan came to a halt. With outsiders present, it wouldn't be appropriate for him to go over.

"I'm heading off first."

Song Jianian nodded and waved at Chen Yuan.

"Bye-bye."

"Mhm."

Chen Yuan walked away, while Song Jianian got into the car and sat in the back row.

"Auntie, why did you come? You didn't even give me a heads-up."

It was clear that the two of them had a very close relationship, which was evident from the expression on Song Jianian's face.

"I was here on a business trip and decided to drop by to see you." Zhao Lin was left somewhat speechless with exasperation.

"What on earth are you drinking?"

"Lemonade. It's actually quite good. Do you want a sip?"

"I mean, four-yuan lemonade is made with industrial artificial sweetener. Can you even drink that?"

"This isn't four-yuan lemonade," Song Jianian said with a completely straight face.

Zhao Lin's expression softened slightly.

"Then how much was it?"

"One cent! The two of us grabbed it on a group-buying website. Aren't I amazing? I even know how to use group-buying apps now."