EAY Chapter 40
by VolareThank goodness, the first customer was someone familiar.
Li Tianyi really kept his word, bringing the girl he was still getting to know to be their first customer.
“No one’s here yet, right? I’m the first one, right?” Li Tianyi anxiously confirmed as soon as he sat down.
Qi Ye smiled and nodded, “You’re the first.”
The girl next to Li Tianyi was very pretty, with big eyes and fair skin, and long curly hair, but in contrast to Li Tianyi’s enthusiasm, she seemed much calmer.
Qi Ye started to draw them. At this time, some people were already curiously coming over to watch. Shi Ran was responsible for answering their questions, and some who were very interested said they would come over later.
Once he started drawing, Qi Ye didn’t feel nervous at all, but he was still a little uneasy about how the customers would react after he finished.
Fortunately, Li Tianyi and the girl were both very satisfied. Li Tianyi kept praising and even gave a thumbs up.
After they were drawn, two other girls immediately sat down, smiling and saying, “Handsome, draw us cutely.”
“Okay,” Qi Ye nodded.
That night, Qi Ye barely stopped drawing. Business was surprisingly good. Customers came one after another. Some customers gladly accepted the promotion and bought hair accessories from the next stall, while others waved their hands and refused. But no matter what, Qi Ye’s stall still played a role in attracting customers. In addition, the few simple braiding styles they had temporarily learned helped them sell a lot of hair accessories.
On Qi Ye’s first day of setting up a stall, all the spare drawing paper he brought was sold out.
Business in the following days was not as booming as the first day. Qi Ye was actually glad, because he could at least have time to rest, otherwise his hands would have been swollen from drawing.
It wasn’t until the end of this commercial street event that Qi Ye and Shi Ran packed up their stalls with the others.
The income from these days was quite substantial. Qi Ye finally felt a sense of reality when he looked at the balance in his WeChat account. It was the first time in his life that he had earned so much money from his drawings.
Although he had helped Qi Xue design T-shirts before, the feeling was completely different from that time.
Qi Ye insisted on giving half to Shi Ran, but Shi Ran firmly refused. Qi Ye thought about it and didn’t force it, because he had already decided what gift to buy for Shi Ran.
Qi Ye invited Lin Yicheng and Xu Yanran, Meng Nan, and Li Tianyi to dinner. It was the seafood restaurant that Li Tianyi had mentioned many times, but Li Tianyi’s interest wasn’t very high at the dinner table. The one who usually loved to liven up the atmosphere was the quietest one at the table.
Fortunately, Lin Yicheng loved to talk. She and Xu Yanran were in a very good mood because all the goods in their hands had been sold out. They were both radiant and kept sighing that making money really made people happy.
After dinner, Qi Ye and Shi Ran were ready to leave first. His gift was bought and still kept in the store.
As a result, after coming out of the restaurant, Lin Yicheng separately called Qi Ye aside, saying she had something to tell him.
Shi Ran instinctively felt that something was wrong. When Lin Yicheng spoke to Qi Ye, she looked at Xu Yanran beside him at the same time. He saw Qi Ye shake his head slightly.
Lin Yicheng sighed and patted Qi Ye on the shoulder before pulling Xu Yanran away.
“What did she say to you?” Shi Ran stared at him.
Qi Ye touched the back of his head: “She asked me if I had a boyfriend, and asked what I thought of Xu Yanran.”
I knew it! Shi Ran realized that his intuition was really accurate when it came to Qi Ye’s affairs!
In fact, Shi Ran had noticed something these days while setting up the stall to sell paintings. On the surface, Lin Yicheng and Qi Ye spoke more often and seemed to have a good relationship, but they were just pure friends, just like him and Qi Ye. But what about Xu Yanran? Although she hadn’t said a few words to Qi Ye, her eyes always silently followed him, with a kind of ambiguous meaning.
Xu Yanran was very timid and even needed her friend to help her confirm her feelings.
Shi Ran said, “What did you say?”
Qi Ye smiled: “What could I say? Of course, I refused.”
“Why?” Shi Ran didn’t understand his contradictory feelings for a moment. He was happy to hear Qi Ye’s refusal, but he didn’t understand why Qi Ye would refuse. Xu Yanran was gentle and beautiful, and most boys wouldn’t refuse such a girlfriend. How high were Qi Ye’s standards?
Oh, come to think of it, the last time he asked him what type of girl he liked, he said he didn’t have one and hadn’t thought about it.
But what about now? Now that he was so popular, he would definitely have one soon, right?
Shi Ran sighed silently.
“What’s wrong?” Qi Ye suddenly approached, scaring Shi Ran. He quickly shook his head, “Nothing, nothing.”
Shi Ran took a step back a little nervously and looked around, only to find that everyone was gone. “Where are they?”
“They’re gone. The two girls went back to school. Meng Nan said Li Tianyi was a little drunk and had to rush him back.” Qi Ye paused and added, “Well, do you want to go shopping in the mall?”
Shi Ran: “Do you have something to buy?”
Qi Ye: “Oh, I want to drink the milk tea there.”
Shi Ran laughed at him: “You didn’t like to drink these things before. Did I infect you?”
“Maybe, I guess,” Qi Ye scratched his head. “Let’s go.”
Qi Ye bought two cups of milk tea on the first floor and told Shi Ran to wait for him in the store. He went out to get the gift under the pretext of going to the bathroom.
Shi Ran never expected that Qi Ye would give him a gift, and a very valuable gift to him—a laptop!
Shi Ran was so surprised that he couldn’t speak, because he had seen this computer online before and added it to his shopping cart. The price was a bit expensive, but fortunately, he would use the computer more next semester. This semester, he could just borrow it from his roommates for occasional assignments.
“For me?” Shi Ran paused for a while and still couldn’t believe it.
“Yes, you must accept it. If it weren’t for your encouragement this time, I wouldn’t have taken this step. And you’ve been running around with me every day. It’s okay that you don’t accept a reward, but if you still don’t accept this gift, I’ll feel uneasy.” Qi Ye said sincerely.
“You’re too easily uneasy,” Shi Ran wanted to refuse, but he really liked it. He couldn’t help but reach out and stroke it. After stroking it for a while, he said, “I have to pay at least half. You’ve spent almost all the money you’ve earned these days buying this.”
“The more you say things like that, the more uneasy I feel,” Qi Ye said.
“I’m stating the facts. If I really just accept this gift like this—”
“Then I’ll be very happy,” Qi Ye said, “I hope you can also be purely happy.”
Shi Ran still wanted to argue, but he thought about it and quickly asked, “Then if I give you this kind of valuable gift, you’ll also accept it properly, right?”
Qi Ye nodded: “Of course.”
Qi Ye just wanted to persuade Shi Ran to accept the gift and not feel burdened. Naturally, he would agree to whatever he said, but he didn’t expect that a few days later, Qi Ye really received a precious gift from Shi Ran.
A drawing tablet for drawing.
“A birthday present, I’m giving it to you in advance, to prevent you from forgetting what you said yourself the day before yesterday.” Shi Ran patted him on the shoulder generously, “Don’t say anything else, just accept it properly.”
Qi Ye: “…”