To make up for the debt owed to Lin Qingping and Gu Juncheng

"It's okay, I'm fine!" Lin Qingping was pressed down by a large sack of raw materials, but she was unharmed, just unable to get up.

A pair of dark-skinned, well-defined hands landed on the snakeskin bag. Lin Qingping was taken aback; these were clearly not Liang Jiaqi's hands.

She looked up and saw Gu Juncheng's dark face.

"Gu Juncheng! What brings you here?" She felt a lightness on her body as Gu Juncheng moved the snakeskin bag away.

"Hmm." He simply replied with an "Hmm," then easily hoisted the large snakeskin bag onto his shoulder. "Let's go."

"Are you here to pick me up? How did you know I was coming back on this train?" Lin Qingping asked, carrying Liang Jiaqi's snakeskin bag just like she had done before.

“It’s on my way. No need to ask me to take you.” Gu Juncheng said.

"Oh." Seeing that he carried it quite easily, Lin Qingping let go.

Liang Jiaqi chuckled to himself, "Brother Gu is still the best. I'm too weak."

Lin Qingping was truly grateful to Liang Jiaqi. Without his supply of goods, she didn't know how her shop could have survived. Judging from the days she had been in business, the most popular product's most important ingredient was whipped cream, which covered multiple categories such as desserts, tea drinks, and coffee.

So she said to Liang Jiaqi very sincerely, "No, Liang Jiaqi, you've really helped me a lot this time. Thank you so much. Everyone has different strengths. You've never done heavy work before, so it's normal that you can't lift it. I actually feel bad for bothering you."

She didn't notice that Gu Juncheng's face darkened even more when she said that.

Gu Juncheng carried the raw materials and strode quickly, with Lin Qingping and Liang Jiaqi chasing after him.

Liang Jiaqi's family has been in business for generations and is quite skilled in transporting and shipping goods. They had already arranged for a driver to pick him up at the station.

So, Gu Juncheng walked ahead, unaware that the two behind him had already seen the car that was waiting for them, until he heard Lin Qingping call his name loudly.

He turned around and saw Lin Qingping and Liang Jiaqi standing next to a van, waving at him.

He carried the burlap sack over, and the minivan driver called out to him, "Over here, over here, put it here!"

After loading the goods, Liang Jiaqi sat down next to the driver. Lin Qingping got in first in the back, and as soon as she sat down, the minivan driver shouted, "Close the door, let's go!"

Gu Juncheng was about to get into the car.

"Hey, wait a minute, there are still people who haven't boarded the bus yet!" Lin Qingping said hurriedly.

"Oh," the driver said, "He's going too? I thought it was just you two."

They mistook Gu Juncheng for a cargo mover.

Lin Qingping was displeased upon hearing this, "Master, you've made a mistake, this is my husband."

She grabbed Gu Juncheng's arm as he got into the car.

"Huh?" The driver looked them up and down several times, a little embarrassed. "Sorry, I made a mistake..." He'd mistaken them for deliverymen. But clearly, the two younger ones were a better match...

The master's last glance swept between Lin Qingping and Liang Jiaqi; everyone knew what that glance meant...

Gu Juncheng looked at Lin Qingping's hand, which was linked with his arm. It was fair and soft, and her skin had a youthful glow. Liang Jiaqi in front of him also had a youthful face. Even from the back seat, you could see that his profile was just as fair and rosy as Lin Qingping's.

And what about himself?

Gu Juncheng stared at his dark hands, rough skin, and large joints, all signs of his rural upbringing and the hardships he had endured. Moreover, he was much older than her.

Others come to the capital to study at university around the prime age of twenty, but he came here through a military quota for further education. Being with these energetic young people was inherently quite incongruous.

Lin Qingping had no idea what he was thinking.

When they arrived at the store, it was already late at night. Lin Qingping thanked Liang Jiaqi again, unloaded the things, and prepared to go back and clean up the next day.

I'm so tired...

Lin Qingping was so exhausted that she was in a daze while taking a shower. After showering, she lay down on the bed and fell asleep again. When she woke up, she didn't see Gu Juncheng.

On Monday afternoon, she went to the dessert shop and saw that the counter was fully stocked with all kinds of desserts again, which made her feel much more at ease.

Seeing her tired face, Gu Youlian said to her with heartache, "You've had a hard time on this trip. Actually, if you had just gone two hours later, you wouldn't have needed to go at all."

"What?" Lin Qingping didn't understand what had happened.

Gu Youlian took her to the refrigerator. When the refrigerator door was opened, it was full of whipped cream.

"Where did this come from?" Lin Qingping noticed that it wasn't the imported packaging provided by the supplier she ordered from; it was all simply packaged in plastic bags with labels saying "sterile and sealed."

"It was delivered by a deliveryman who said he'd already paid. Isn't this the same company you ordered from?" Gu Youlian closed the refrigerator door. "This should last for about half a month. The deliveryman said the boss told him to tell us that he'll deliver again in half a month, and that they'll supply us regularly, so we shouldn't worry. Who else could it be but the company you contacted?"

Indeed, which other supplier has already paid for the service and can provide it long-term?

"This packaging doesn't seem right..." Lin Qingping was still suspicious.

"There was also a big cardboard box with lots of words I didn't recognize written on it, maybe it was a foreign language? I took it out and sold it to the scrap dealer on Saturday. Maybe they saw I needed it urgently and switched manufacturers."

That makes sense.

Well, as long as the raw materials are guaranteed, that's fine. Lin Qingping had already agreed with Liang Jiaqi to purchase goods from him on a long-term basis, but this would increase the shipping costs and cause too much trouble for him. It would be better to have a supplier directly supplying the goods.

The turmoil at the dessert shop finally subsided, but rumors about Lin Qingping began to spread throughout the school.

Lin Qingping herself was unaware of this, but she felt that her roommates seemed less close to her. Specifically, whether in the cafeteria or the dormitory, the girls would chat together, but as soon as she appeared, they would immediately stop talking and go about their own business.

Lin Qingping even joked, "Is there some secret that you can't let me know?"

Everyone except Xie Wei shook their heads vigorously, while Xie Wei looked at her with disdain and snorted coldly.

Lin Qingping wasn't surprised by Xie Wei's reaction; Xie Wei had never liked her, even though she didn't know what she had done to offend Xie Wei.

One evening, while she was eating dinner, she was walking back to her dorm alone when Zhong Xiaoxiao caught up with her.

"Lin Qingping, are you afraid of the cold? If you're not afraid of the cold, we can sit in the garden and eat," Zhong Xiaoxiao said to her while serving the food.

"Okay! I'm not afraid of the cold." Lin Qingping also wanted to know what had happened these past two days.