Chapter 156.2: Giving Away Movie Tickets
At that moment, Wang Qin walked into the hospital room using a crutch and saw his father pacing excitedly while holding his phone, drawing frowns from the family of another patient. Embarrassed, he quickly reminded him, “Dad, you’re disturbing the others…”
“I’m sorry, my dad didn’t mean to. We’re really sorry…” Wang Qin also apologized to the other patient’s family.
He was staying in a shared room with four patients. At the moment, two had gone out for breakfast, so it was just his dad, him, and another patient with their family.
Reminded by his son, Mr. Wang quickly stopped in his tracks and apologized, “Sorry, sorry, I was just… too excited…”
After being forgiven, he rushed over to Wang Qin, who was leaning on his crutch.
Wang Qin whispered, “Dad, I asked the doctor earlier—they said I can be discharged. Let’s go home. Once we’ve paid off the money, I can…”
But before he could finish, Mr. Wang, thinking of the phone call just now, burst out, “There’s no need to be discharged just yet! That Mr. Shen—the one whose car I hit yesterday—he said we don’t have to pay the repair costs!”
Wang Qin: “?”
“Dad, you must’ve been scammed, right? That’s a lot of money! Not just a yuan or two!” Wang Qin’s first reaction was that his father had been tricked.
“No, no! Manager Wu said it was Mr. Shen who personally said it! We really have to thank him properly! Aren’t you two at the same university? Once you’re better, could you thank him on behalf of your dad?” Mr. Wang was worried that if he went to Qinghe University himself, he’d embarrass Wang Qin.
When Wang Qin thought of Shen Xiu—whether it was the Shen Xiu at school or the one from Youth Unstoppable—he always carried an aloofness that made people afraid to approach him.
But seeing the hopeful look in his father’s eyes, Wang Qin finally nodded. “…Okay.”
—
At 7:40 a.m., just before heading out the door, Shen Xiu suddenly remembered something. He turned back into the living room, bent down, and opened the envelope he had left on the table the night before. After mentally counting the number of students in his class, he separated two tickets and tucked them into his book.
The two tickets he held back—one was for himself, and the other for Ling Yuanzhen.
In the elevator.
Thinking about his own stingy behavior, Shen Xiu felt too embarrassed to even look at his reflection in the elevator mirror.
But even though he knew he was being petty, he had absolutely no intention of going back to grab another ticket.
As the elevator doors opened and he stepped out, Shen Xiu mumbled to himself, trying to justify it, “Just this once… it’s fine. Ling Yuanzhen might not even be in class today…”
—
7:52 a.m.
In the classroom, the first class of the day was a core course for the film and television major. Other than Shen Xiu’s own class, no students from other classes or departments were present.
There were only a few students in the class, and as long as no one had an extremely odd personality, everyone got along fairly well.
Since they were among those considered relatively “close” to Shen Xiu, the group gathered and couldn’t help but start chatting about the promotional tour for Storm.
“Even though it’s just a poster, Boss Xiu’s character Han Fei looks so handsome!”
“What day does June 1st fall on? Please don’t let it be a weekday. We’re big kids now, so we don’t get Children’s Day off. Boohoo, I want to watch the premiere—I don’t want to come to class the next day and get spoiled!”
“Hehe, the moment I found out the release date, I already checked—this year, June 1st falls on a Sunday. We’ll only have class the day after we watch. Perfect!”
“Wait a sec… are you guys wondering if Boss Xiu has tickets?”
“You mean, whether Boss Xiu will give us tickets, right?”
“Hahaha, don’t expose the truth so brutally. It’s not that we can’t afford a ticket—it’s just that getting one directly from Boss Xiu would feel completely different!”
“He’s probably giving them to close friends or something…” Jiang Wan hadn’t even finished her sentence when she noticed Ling Yuanzhen, sitting by the window, leaning slightly in their direction. Her voice cut off, then turned sarcastic: “Oh? Not gossiping anymore?”
At the exact moment she said that, no one even needed to mention Ling Yuanzhen’s name—everyone instinctively turned to look at him.
Ling Yuanzhen: “…”
“What are you looking at? Bunch of lunatics…”
He didn’t finish his sentence, because just then, someone entered through the classroom door.
Meeting Shen Xiu’s eyes, the rest of Ling Yuanzhen’s words got stuck in his throat. His gaze darted away awkwardly.
After avoiding Shen Xiu’s line of sight, Ling Yuanzhen cursed inwardly—why was Shen Xiu suddenly not being punctual these days? He used to always arrive at the exact second class began. But lately, he’d shown up five minutes early twice in a row. What was his deal?
Shen Xiu: “…”
Why was it that both times he arrived five minutes early, he happened to run into Ling Yuanzhen entering the classroom at the exact same moment?
Shen Xiu’s mood soured the moment he laid eyes on Ling Yuanzhen and quickly looked away.
But the second he averted his gaze, he noticed all his classmates in the room were now looking directly at him.
His throat bobbed slightly as he awkwardly greeted, “Good morning, everyone.”
Wish denied—Ling Yuanzhen was in the classroom.
“Good morning, Shen Xiu~”
“Morning!”
…
Shen Xiu walked over to his usual seat. Just as he placed his book down on the desk, he remembered what was tucked inside it and paused without sitting down.
He had come early specifically to hand out movie tickets to his classmates.
But—
If he handed out the tickets now, with Ling Yuanzhen present, it would be painfully obvious that he had deliberately left one person out.
That one person being… Ling Yuanzhen.
Shen Xiu: “…”
Maybe… forget it? Do it another day?
But… Shen Xiu hated when his plans got derailed.
As the clock ticked closer to class time, Shen Xiu flipped open his book and forced himself to pull out the movie tickets sandwiched between the pages.
Shen Xiu sat behind most of the others, so the students in front of him couldn’t see what he was doing—but the ones sitting to his left and right had a clear view.
Although there was some distance between them, movie tickets all tended to look similar, and the moment the students beside him saw the stack in his hand, they couldn’t help but excitedly tap their seatmates on the arm.
“Tickets, tickets, tickets…!”
Hearing the commotion, Shen Xiu glanced in the direction of the student who had just spoken.
The moment their eyes met, the previously overexcited student froze, stiff as a board. Under Shen Xiu’s gaze, they gave an awkward little cough. “Ahem, ahem…”
Shen Xiu was afraid that speaking too suddenly might startle his classmates, so he waited for the student to finish coughing before asking, “Do you want one?”
The student being called on: “!”
Stunned for a second, they suddenly shot to their feet, their voice ringing through the classroom: “Yes!”
It was Shen Xiu’s first time handing out tickets, and he had been worried that no one would want them—that he’d be embarrassed. But when Director Xuan had given him the tickets and said he could give them to the people around him to invite them to watch his first film, The Galaxy members were all part of Storm, so they didn’t need tickets from him.
Only his teachers, Director Shi, Kaiser, and his classmates might actually need them.
“Thank you!” the classmate said excitedly after receiving the ticket.
Seeing the sincere smile on their face, the nervous tension in Shen Xiu’s chest quietly loosened. “You’re welcome.”
“Um, can I have one too?”
“I’d like one as well…”
“Me too!”
…
Seeing that Shen Xiu had a good number of tickets in his hands, the rest of the class thickened their skin and couldn’t help speaking up.
Shen Xiu: “!”
Without needing to initiate anything himself, Shen Xiu’s previously stiff posture visibly relaxed. He responded, “Yes, there’s enough for everyone.”
Sitting off to the side, Ling Yuanzhen had been unable to stop himself from secretly watching Shen Xiu’s every move. The moment Shen Xiu flipped open his book and pulled out the tickets, an inexplicable tension filled his chest.
Especially when he heard Shen Xiu say the words “there’s enough for everyone,” his posture suddenly straightened without him even realizing it.
Well, it made sense—there were only about a dozen students in the whole class. If Shen Xiu was giving tickets to everyone and skipped him, that really would be awkward.
If Shen Xiu handed one to him directly, then… considering everyone else was accepting theirs, he’d take it too…
“Thank you! I didn’t think there’d actually be one for me!”
“Really, thank you so much!”
“Ahhh! This ticket was personally handed to me by Boss Xiu—I have to take a photo to remember it!”
“Should we frame it in glass? Hahaha…”
“Honestly? Not a bad idea.”
…
After handing out all the tickets, Shen Xiu heard his classmates chatting and assumed they were just joking around.
After all, it was just a movie ticket—surely no one would seriously go so far as to frame it.
Shen Xiu spoke up, “You’re welcome.”
Right as the words left his mouth, the class bell rang. Not used to dealing with such enthusiastic crowds, Shen Xiu quickly added, “The teacher’s about to come in.”
The teacher for this class was known to be strict, so upon hearing that, everyone promptly returned to their seats and settled down.
Within seconds, the teacher walked in—glasses perched on his nose, the top of his head nearly bald with only a few strands of hair remaining. Class began.
Ling Yuanzhen: “…”
He had clearly seen that there were still tickets tucked in Shen Xiu’s book. So it was on purpose—Shen Xiu had deliberately not given him one!
“Ling Yuanzhen!”
A few minutes into the lecture, Ling Yuanzhen suddenly heard the teacher’s voice calling his name.
Startled, he snapped out of his thoughts and quickly stood up. “M-Mr. Sun…”
Mr. Sun: “What did I just say?”
Ling Yuanzhen: “…”
He had been so focused on Shen Xiu that he hadn’t caught a single word. Gripping his pen nervously, he stayed silent.
Mr. Sun turned to Shen Xiu. “Shen Xiu, what did I just say?”
Hearing his name, Shen Xiu stood up and flawlessly repeated everything Mr. Sun had said, word for word.
Ling Yuanzhen: “…”
Damn it!
Mr. Sun stared coldly at him. “What were you looking at Shen Xiu for? What—does he have something written on his face?”
Shen Xiu: “…”
‘So Ling Yuanzhen was staring at me?’
‘It must be because I was petty and stingy, and didn’t give him a movie ticket… that’s why he kept staring at me.’
With that thought, Shen Xiu felt a pang of guilt and unconsciously tightened his grip on the black fountain pen in his hand.
Mr. Sun: “If you don’t want to listen, then get out.”
Not daring to provoke Vice Dean Sun, Ling Yuanzhen flushed red to the tips of his ears and lowered his head, silently walking out of the classroom.
As he exited, the rest of the class slowly began to realize—when Shen Xiu had been handing out tickets earlier, it seemed like he really hadn’t given one to Ling Yuanzhen.
—
First period ended.
The moment Mr. Sun left the classroom, Shen Xiu hurriedly slipped out through the back door, afraid his classmates would suddenly piece together that he had deliberately skipped giving a ticket to Ling Yuanzhen.
Sure enough, as soon as both Mr. Sun and Shen Xiu were gone, the class began packing up their things and walking out, all while whispering in disbelief—right in front of Ling Yuanzhen.
“Did Boss Xiu seriously give everyone a ticket except Ling Yuanzhen?”
“I don’t know if he’s embarrassed, but I sure am.”
“Boss Xiu never disappoints—absolutely savage!”
After standing outside for an entire class period, Ling Yuanzhen finally couldn’t take it anymore. “Have you said enough?! You think Shen Xiu’s some flawless saint or something? You didn’t know, did you—that he hit someone with a luxury car and drove off without taking responsibility!”
