1990s: Spring Water Family

Chapter 159 How romantic! His fiancée is so lucky!
"Want to compete?"

Gu Bin spun the basketball with his right index finger, a graceful and effortless move that drew another wave of eager attention.

His opponent was not so comfortable; he was put on the hot seat!
Even if they don't miss a single point in the next round of attack and make all their shots, they can only manage a tie.

Judging from the current situation, Gu Bin is clearly superior in skill, and the possibility of him not conceding a single goal is almost zero.

We'll lose whether we fight or not.

At this moment, in this situation, Wei Ming was truly caught in a dilemma.

"I surrender."

There was no chance of winning if we continued fighting, and after much deliberation, we had no choice but to give up.

He was giving up not only a game, but also the woman he admired. He knew this perfectly well, his eyes lowered, his expression very forlorn.

"Senior Wei Ming."

His suitors' eyes reddened, and some covered their mouths, sobbing softly.

-

"Haha, buddy, I knew you'd win."

Wang Fan's unrestrained laughter drew the girls' dissatisfaction.

If looks could kill, he would have been dead a hundred times over by now.

"It was just a fluke."

Gu Bin smiled modestly, casually tossed the basketball behind him, and it went in accurately into the hoop.

"Wow."

The basketball court erupted in cheers once again. Even those who weren't basketball enthusiasts, just casual spectators, were captivated by his superb skills, their gazes fixed on him with even greater fervor.

"tsk"

Wang Fan clicked his tongue and chuckled, teasing, "Don't be modest. You call this luck? What about the professional players?"

"The sports field at East China Normal University is quite good. Let's have a friendly match sometime."

Gu Bin ignored Wang Fan and patted Wei Ming on the shoulder as he passed by.

Are you really a student at Fudan University?

Wei Ming suddenly raised his head and asked again, unwilling to give up.

"Replacement guaranteed."

Gu Bin walked straight towards Lin Xiyu without stopping: "The name of this year's top scorer in Shandong Province is still hanging at the gate of Jinan No. 1 High School. You can go and see for yourself if you don't believe me."

"Provincial No. 1 Scholar?"

Wei Ming's eyes twitched violently a few times, incredulous: "Why didn't you go to Tsinghua or Peking University, but came to Shanghai to study?"

"Because my fiancée is in Shanghai, wherever she is, that's where I am."

Gu Bin spared no effort in attacking his love rival. He came up to Lin Xiyu, took her hand in front of everyone, and kissed it lightly.

Wow, how romantic!

"His fiancée is so lucky."

"I wish someone could love me like that."

The atmosphere on the basketball court shifted again; both men and women looked at Lin Xiyu with envy.

At this moment, Lin Xiyu became the calmest person present.

She blinked, pretending to gaze deeply into his eyes, a hint of mockery flashing in them: "If I hadn't asked you this question before, I would have really believed it."

Gu Bin: "."

You know how to ruin the mood.

"hehe."

Lin Xiyu rarely saw his embarrassed expression and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Let's go."

Gu Bin didn't want to linger any longer and helped her squeeze out of the crowd.

"Where are you going?"

Lin Xiyu was about to say, as was her habit, "I still have to study," when Gu Bin cut her off.

"Didn't you want to improve your English listening and speaking scores?"

"Yes."

"Then follow me."

Without saying a word, Gu Bin dragged the person out of the school gate.

-

Outside the campus of East China Normal University.

In a specialty store that sells Sony Walkmans, Lin Xiyu looked at the small and mini Walkman and her heart was pounding with excitement.

"Having a portable music player makes practicing listening skills much easier."

Gu Bin asked the salesperson to bring out his portable music player so he could try it out on the spot.

"Wow, that sounds really good."

Lin Xiyu put on the earplugs, overjoyed: "It's much better than the tape recorder. I can hear it very clearly, without any noise at all."

"The sound quality of a tape recorder can't compare to that of a Walkman."

Seeing that a customer had come in, the salesperson enthusiastically promoted the product: "Moreover, the Walkman is small and mini, only the size of the palm of your hand, and it is very convenient to carry. Many young people like Walkmans now, and it can be said to be very popular. Wearing earphones while shopping or riding a bike has become a fashion trend."

"It doesn't matter if it's fashionable or not, as long as I can improve my listening skills."

Lin Xiyu was captivated by it and liked it more and more the more she looked at it.

"If I like it, I'll buy it."

Gu Bin took out his wallet, intending to pay the bill.

"I'll buy it myself. It's too expensive. I feel bad always making you pay."

Lin Xiyu glanced at the price of the Walkman, and her eye twitched involuntarily.

One thousand yuan is equivalent to two months of her living expenses.

That's fucking extravagant!

-

"Why are you being so polite with me?"

Gu Bin pinched her cheek, his eyes full of affection: "Your little bit of money is going to help your cousin buy goods, isn't it? Keep it for yourself."

"Ugh."

Upon hearing about the need to purchase goods, Lin Xiyu rubbed her temples in exasperation.

"what happened again?"

Gu Bin raised an eyebrow and teased with a smile, "You're not happy even though I bought it for you? You look like a wilted flower, your eyes and nose are all scrunched up together."

"I'm so worried."

Lin Xiyu sighed, "It's all Wang Fan's fault, that jinx. I had just gotten on good terms with Li Qing and was trying to get a batch of export-oriented clothing for domestic sale through her when he came to ruin it. I'm afraid that Li Qing will really be dumped by him and will resent me too. All my hard work over the past month will have been for nothing."

"Her family is in the export business?"

Gu Bin raised an eyebrow in surprise: "You had this idea all along, keeping it so well hidden from me?"

"I wanted to tell you when I had definite news."

Lin Xiyu explained with an awkward smile, "You have a lot of coursework and are usually very busy, so I don't want to bother you with these trivial matters."

Nothing is more important than you.

Gu Bin doted on him to the extreme: "Your affairs are what I should care about the most."

"The young lady is lucky to have found such a good boyfriend."

The salesperson took the money, handed over the packaged Walkman, and smiled in a way that couldn't be more ambiguous.

Many people say that.

Lin Xiyu smiled and agreed, considering the Walkman.

"You have such a sweet tongue."

Gu Bin's eyes flickered with unexpected surprise.

"It's the truth, I didn't lie."

Lin Xiyu blushed and gave him a sweet smile.

"It's rare for my girlfriend to praise me like this, so I guess I have to do something more." Gu Bin smiled jokingly and extended his hand to her: "Let's go, let's go to the nearby shops and buy some English songs and some tapes for practicing our listening skills."

"Uh-huh."

Lin Xiyu's eyes lit up, and she happily placed her hand in his palm.

Gu Bin gripped her hand tightly, and the two left the store together.

-

"Your buddy seems a bit cold and unapproachable at first glance, but I didn't expect him to be so gentle when he smiles. He seems more caring than you are, and much more charming."

In the coffee shop diagonally opposite, Li Qing saw Gu Bin and Lin Xiyu walk out of the shop across the street through the glass.

Gu Bin led her by the hand on the outside, deliberately slowing his pace so that she could keep up with him at her own pace.

Lin Xiyu didn't know what he was saying, but she was laughing very happily. Her bright smile could be seen even across the street.

"I'm not drinking it anymore. What's so good about coffee? It's so bitter."

Wang Fan impatiently threw the spoon onto the tray and stood up from the chair.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Seeing that he was leaving so suddenly, Li Qing hesitated for a moment, but still gave up her coffee and chased after him.

"To the bar."

Wang Fan arrived at the roadside and hailed a taxi.

"I'll go as well"

Li Qing was unwilling to be left behind, so she opened the door herself and sat inside.

"What are you doing at a bar, a woman like you?"

Wang Fan braced himself against the car door, his eyes showing displeasure.

"If you're going, why can't I?"

Li Qing's eyes flashed with provocation: "Could it be that you have a lover in the bar and don't want me to come along and interfere with your good time?"

"Tsk."

Wang Fan clicked his tongue, speechless. "You really are something else."

"What is it really?"

Li Qing jumped around on the minefield, challenging his bottom line: "We had an agreement, you're not allowed to have other women during our relationship."

"Even so, aren't you being a bit too nosy?"

Wang Fan slammed the car door shut, turned around and left in a huff: "Go if you want, I'm not going."

"Hey, wait for me."

Li Qing tossed ten yuan to the driver and then got out of the car.

"These young people nowadays, tsk tsk."

The driver looked at the ten yuan he had earned for free, smacked his lips a few times, and was rather speechless.

-

"Those are Wang Fan and Li Qing."

The commotion across the street also alerted Gu Bin and Lin Xiyu.

Lin Xiyu watched as Li Qing ran out of the car and chased after Wang Fan in a somewhat disheveled manner, and couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"She's destined to lose this bet."

Gu Bin spoke for her, expressing her true feelings.

What's so good about Wang Fan?

Lin Xiyu couldn't understand: "Why would Li Qing like him?"

"Different strokes for different folks."

Gu Bin has his own perspective: "Perhaps they were originally the same kind of people."

Are you talking about Li Qing?

Lin Xiyu looked surprised: "You think she's like Wang Fan, a playboy who's not faithful in love?"

"if not?"

Gu Bin smiled and retorted, "If she were like you, a virtuous wife and loving mother, and could so easily make bets with people, even if Wang Fan is handsome and rich, shouldn't a normal girl be more cautious when encountering a guy like that? Nobody wants to become a plaything, to be used and then abandoned by a man. The so-called conquest is just an excuse for being a womanizer."

"Meeting Wang Fan was truly a calamity for her."

Lin Xiyu sighed softly, rubbing her forehead: "She's really unlucky. Of all the people she could have bet with, she had to bet with him."

"That kid Wang Fan"

Gu Bin analyzed rationally without any emotion: "It has to be said that, in terms of both appearance and courage, he is outstanding in the circle of rich second-generation. He is still young and in the initial stage of accumulating capital. When he becomes successful, more women will like him. For him, Li Qing is just a passerby and can't cause any trouble."

"Ah."

Lin Xiyu chuckled and teased, "You've really opened my eyes this time. I didn't expect you to have such a high opinion of him?"

"Childhood friends, you know."

Gu Bin nodded seriously: "I don't know him, how could I let him pester me for so many years?"

"You know he's been bothering you?"

Lin Xiyu almost burst out laughing: "When I first heard him say that he would pester you for the rest of his life, I thought he was a scoundrel. I didn't expect that you would tacitly agree to it."

“To each his own.”

Gu Bin also laughed: "My purpose is not simple either. If he doesn't have anything I value, I won't cooperate with him."

"Is this what male friendship is?"

Lin Xiyu smiled playfully, with a hint of teasing.

"That's it."

Gu Bin deliberately misinterpreted her meaning: "The bond of childhood friends who were like brothers."

"Hahaha."

A funny image flashed through Lin Xiyu's mind, and she almost laughed herself silly.

"Is it that funny?"

Gu Bin was puzzled and looked at her with considerable surprise.

"Hahaha."

Lin Xiyu did not answer, but continued to laugh.

Gu Bin smiled helplessly and gave up on his plan to investigate further.

-

With a portable music player, practicing speaking and listening skills becomes twice as effective.

Lin Xiyu fell madly in love with this tiny, adorable thing, wearing earphones all the time, either listening to English songs or on her way to listen to English songs.

She listened to all the classic English old songs in turn, and Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" was so familiar to her that she could recite it backwards.

To express her gratitude to someone for buying her a Walkman, she copied the lyrics of the song verbatim onto a piece of paper and sent it to Fudan University as a love letter.

When Gu Bin received the letter, he was taken aback at first. After understanding its deeper meaning, he smiled knowingly and used a song, "Sealed With A Kiss," to send her a reply.

So the two seemed to become obsessed with this game, expressing their feelings for each other with English songs, once a week, which made many people envious.

Li Qing felt nauseous and her teeth ached from looking at it.

Gu Bin's roommate at Fudan University also teased him, saying that having a girlfriend in the English department made their relationship taste sour and rotten.

University life passed by in a tense and busy manner, and another month has passed in the blink of an eye.

In mid-November, temperatures in the north plummeted, and households began using stoves for heating.

My cousin wired 5 yuan from the post office, urging Lin Xiyu to quickly wholesale some wool sweaters and send them back. She wanted to use the sweaters as thank-you gifts for clients who signed renovation contracts before New Year's Day, hoping to boost sales.

Lin Xiyu deeply admired her cousin's business acumen. As her cousin, she naturally had a duty to help out in order to support her cousin's money-making plan.

Li Qing's relationship with Wang Fan was not going well, and her mood was like a rollercoaster, constantly changing.

Lin Xiyu didn't want to get involved in their affairs and avoided them like the plague. Lately, she had been keeping to herself and rarely had any further in-depth communication with them.

Her original plan to source goods from her parents' foreign trade company fell through, but fortunately, her days spent wandering the streets and alleys of Shanghai and dealing with small vendors had not been in vain. She had already found out the sourcing channels for wool sweaters.

On Saturday morning, the first weekend after receiving payment, she got out of bed at 5:30 a.m., took the first bus of the morning, and went to the wool sweater wholesale market on the outskirts of Shanghai.

-

Shanghai wool sweaters are famous throughout the country, attracting not only local Shanghai vendors but also traders from other places who come here to purchase goods.