Chapter 570: You Know Who I Am, Right?

Chapter 570: You Know Who I Am, Right?

Xia Jinyu didn’t believe someone would happen to buy the seat right next to hers by chance.

Given the screening and seat she had selected, anyone sitting beside her was here specifically for her. She was well aware that some people deliberately chose moviegoers sitting alone, bought the adjacent seat online, and gambled on finding what they called fate.

Wu Chen, strolling over with a bucket of popcorn, fit that profile perfectly.

Xia Jinyu could not be entirely certain whether this young man actually held a ticket for the seat beside her. If he did not, he had simply sauntered over to hit on her.

Out of sheer habit, Xia Jinyu began sizing him up. Before he spoke, she had refrained from staring; that would have been impolite.

“I’m twenty-two,” Wu Chen smiled. He was studying her in turn. It had been “hundreds of years” since he had last seen her, and though his memory was absolute and indelible, seeing Xia Jinyu today still felt fresh.

During the thousand-year loop, it had been fundamentally impossible for him to spend a Friday with her. July 7 was a Tuesday—a Tuesday that repeated in perpetuity.

Xia Jinyu wore exceptionally understated makeup. Most men who knew little about makeup wouldn’t even realize she’d put any on, though she’d used a little foundation and made subtle touch-ups. Her intellectual attire gave her the aura of a high-school literature teacher who was the secret crush of the whole school—the kind of woman who strolled down campus pathways beneath blooming cherry blossoms, lesson plans cradled in her arms.

Yet her striking face, easily rating a nine out of ten, lacked even the faintest trace of fine lines.

That gave her a particularly unusual air.

Both youthful and mature.

“What about you, big sister? How old are you?” Wu Chen asked with an easy smile. Since she had addressed him as little brother, he simply followed her lead.

“It’s impolite to ask a woman her age.” Xia Jinyu raised a slender finger and wagged it gently. “I’m much older than you. The students I’ve taught are older than you are.”

“You’re a teacher, big sister? You’ve taken wonderful care of yourself,” Wu Chen remarked with a smile.

“This isn’t a good spot to watch a movie; it’s too far off to the side.” Xia Jinyu didn’t pick up on his comment or deny that she was a teacher. Smiling, she gestured toward the center seats closer to the front. “Those seats offer a much better view. The movie is about to start.”

Her conduct seemed entirely conventional.

Yet she possessed an artful method of rejecting suitors without bruising their pride. She conveyed that they weren’t a match in her own way: her age was the issue, and the seat she’d chosen wasn’t good either. She gave the would-be flirt a reasonable excuse to leave—to move to a better seat.

Furthermore, the way she looked at Wu Chen carried the faint patronizing air of watching a child, an amused expression one might wear when observing a little boy doing something silly. In truth, such a look could be somewhat offensive.

It could easily be mistaken for mockery.

Finding someone’s behavior ridiculous could wound their pride.

Yet she had already signaled her standing as an educator. If her students were older than twenty-two, she was a university teacher, or at least a master’s supervisor. Paired with her pronounced academic aura…

Her gaze became entirely reasonable. When a university instructor looked upon a young man in his early twenties, she was simply looking at a big boy! It even carried subtle psychological pressure—the gently reproachful, amused scrutiny of a teacher who might turn stern and scold him at any second.

And hitting on a university lecturer…

Modu was a big city, but there were only so many universities. For a young man who had either just graduated or was pursuing postgraduate studies, attempting to pick up a female university lecturer was an easy way to invite trouble.

That would make anyone instinctively uneasy.

What if she knew his own professors? What if she taught at his own university? What if his classmates or academic advisor discovered he had tried to hit on a university instructor?

If he really was there to hit on her, he could stand and leave right now without losing face. It was entirely dignified. After all, well-preserved though she was, she was older, an educator, and sitting in a poor seat.

“I have a ticket,” Wu Chen said.

Leaning slightly toward her, he reached into his trouser pocket and retrieved a movie ticket pinched between two fingers. Smiling, he added, “Surely you wouldn’t want me taking someone else’s seat, Teacher? Wouldn’t that set a terrible example for your students?”

Xia Jinyu laughed. This young man certainly knew how to talk.

She reached out, took the ticket from between his fingers, and inspected it.

Xia Jinyu was not socially anxious. She avoided crowds at the cinema because the presence of too many people compelled her to observe every minute detail about them, while stray noises constantly drew her focus.

She had a professional habit that was almost obsessive-compulsive.

And ordinary people seemed repetitive and boring to her. They were all so similar, making familiar gestures over and over in a cinema, and that would interfere with her enjoyment of the movie.

Besides, Xia Jinyu liked to eat a lot of snacks while watching films. They could make noise, and she didn’t want to disturb anyone else.

Wu Chen did not make an unpleasant first impression. He was a handsome, well-built young man wearing an expensive designer suit and a luxury watch worth more than a million yuan. He was probably an extremely rich second-generation heir.

The strand of hair on his shoulder suggested he’d spent the night with a woman. His casually tied tie suggested he was confident in everyday life and didn’t need a perfect, meticulously arranged appearance to establish his image.

From his tone and bearing since taking his seat, Xia Jinyu deduced he was a young master who was rarely short of female companionship and possessed absolute confidence in romantic pursuits.

By “young master,” she meant someone with a background far beyond that of ordinary people.

Not necessarily the child of a powerful official or family.

Xia Jinyu had crossed paths with such men before. They generally shared similar trajectories: born into staggering wealth or authority, their lives were smooth sailing from the cradle, their families arranging everything along the road ahead. They might even have an arranged marriage waiting for them, but before marriage they could play around and change girlfriends as often as they liked.

A young man who habitually wore a suit might do so for several reasons. Perhaps it was simply his personal taste, but more likely it came from his upbringing. There was a good chance he liked sports such as horseback riding or golf.

He should know how to play at least one musical instrument.

And someone like that would never choose to watch a badly reviewed movie!

Thus, to him, today might simply be a spur-of-the-moment attempt to pick up a woman at random. That was hardly abnormal. The more women a man had around him, the more he craved variety and novelty.

Naturally, a second possibility existed.

“You know who I am, right?” Xia Jinyu asked, looking up from the ticket to meet his gaze with a knowing half-smile.