Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

Soon, a series of exquisite dishes were laid out on the dining table, and the few girls who had already claimed to be tired were instantly revitalized, picking up their chopsticks to dig in.

Xu Qingfan tasted a few bites and continued to chat with Lin Juan intermittently.

"I heard that university is especially free. Juan, where did you go to university?" He certainly knew she was from Huagong; this question was simply a lead-in to the conversation that would follow.

"Me? I went to the Huagong in Wushan. It is quite free because you no longer have a homeroom teacher supervising your studies. It's been unwittingly ten years since I graduated." Lin Juan crossed her black-stockinged legs elegantly, her eyes misty as if drunk, though she was only drinking fruit tea.

"I've seen lots of university students in love online. Is it like once you go to university, everyone will be in a relationship?" Xu Qingfan asked with an ostensibly eager-to-learn expression.

The five girls quietly pricked up their ears upon hearing this, slowing down unconsciously in how often they reached for food with their chopsticks.

"It's okay, I guess, but all three of my college roommates were in relationships. Two pairs broke up before graduation, and one couple, after an on-and-off relationship, got married the year before last. I was a bridesmaid for them," she said, sipping her red lips and smiling.

"What about you, Juan?" That was obviously the question Xu Qingfan was curious about; it would be very unusual not to be married by thirty these days.

"Me?" Lin Juan clearly hadn't expected the conversation to turn to her own experiences, but she pointed to herself and candidly said, "Back then, I was busy studying and working part-time to pay for tuition. The four years of college flew by just like that, and I totally missed out on the suffering of love."

She even gave a light-hearted, self-deprecating laugh.

"What about after you started working? Have you been too busy dealing with the suffering that comes with a cold Americano?" Xu Qingfan humorously asked.

Lin Juan narrowed her eyes slightly. Having been trained in the secretary's position for so many years, she had become savvy enough to realize that the young boss was inquiring about her romantic history in a roundabout way.

But because Xu Qingfan was being so clever in his questioning, and he was quite handsome to boot, she was not at all displeased. On the contrary, she felt an urge to share: "When I was young, I did fantasize about a Prince Charming. But in my second year of work, my dad accepted a dowry of 300,000 from a man to marry me off to a cripple, and just like that, my fantasies were shattered."

"Ah~ So what happened after? You didn't marry him, did you, Juan?" Lin Wanning spilled her soup spoon in anxiety and quickly followed up with the question.

"Of course not. Later, Sister Zhang called over a few tall and strong employees from the company to help me deal with it." Even though it had been almost eight years, she still couldn't help but tear up and feel a surge of passion when remembering that episode.

Although Lin Juan had simply said, "they accompanied me to deal with it," Xu Qingfan could already imagine the scene of Zhang Chunxue, a queen in her own right, wearing sunglasses and throwing bundles of cash at the other party: "Your daughter, I've bought her."

"That's good, that's good!" The five girls all heaved a sigh of relief after hearing this.

"Right, that's why I later thought that the life of getting married and having children is so dull. I want to be a strong woman like Sister Zhang!" Lin Juan, already over thirty, raised a fist like a young girl and said.

"Aunt Zhang is indeed so tough!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!"

The five girls only agreed with the latter half of her statement; as for the former...

[How could marrying Qingfan and having our little baby not be exciting? Kissing already feels so... so...!]

[Every day I'd cook good meals, wait with the baby for Brother Fan to come home from work. That would be so nice.]

[I'm so smart and pretty, and he... is passable. The child we would have is definitely going to be the cutest in the world!]

[If we were married, on a rainy day I could cuddle up in bed with Brother...]

"Wow! This newly served lion's head meatball is so delicious!" Xiao Ruawen's sudden exclamation shattered the other four girls' daydreams, and they all gave her a sidelong glance.

"What's wrong? Go on, eat it; it really is delicious!" Xiao Ruawen's mouth was stuffed full, and she took another meatball for herself.

"Right, let's eat, let's eat." Xu Qingfan picked up a meatball for Lin Juan, effectively closing the topic.

"Wow~ it is delicious indeed!"

"Hehe, told you it's yummy!"

Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.

"..."

After asking about the topic he was interested in, Xu Qingfan didn't press on with "personal investigations" and instead had a light conversation with Lin Juan about the future development of the company.

In a few months, it would be the launch of the Apple 4s, and Xu Qingfan was aware of the power of this smartphone; the era of smartphones was about to fully take off around this time.

As for the stock market, they'd stocked up on Apple shares early on when the prices bottomed out in '08.

Good Taste Takeout's mobile version was also early in preparation for both platforms, just waiting for the smartphone market to explode.

Although Xu Qingfan didn't understand management or programming, he knew how to make demands and suggestions.

For instance, the takeout platform had started to experience customers maliciously leaving bad reviews. A whole bunch of engineers racked their brains without a solution, but Xu Qingfan effortlessly said, "Launch a jury feature for public review" and resolved the issue.

Having been a research scholar in his previous life, what he enjoyed most in his spare time was reading the hilarious essays by foolish netizens.

Things like "My dog cooked me three dishes and a soup overnight"—those were outdated. Xu Qingfan had seen a review that said, "worse than my wife's *," and even more outrageous was the merchant's reply: "Let me taste it."

With the company's continuous expansion, Xu Qingfan's involvement would become increasingly necessary. If it weren't for the fact that he wasn't yet eighteen, Zhang Chunxue would have long since bound him to the CEO's office.