Chapter 9: The Meeting

The other party did not speak again, whether out of anger or embarrassment, it was hard to tell. However, the call remained connected.

"By the way, I still don't know your name," Lu Xing asked.

"Xiao Yu."

"Xiao as in 'Hero Xiao,' and Yu as in 'mermaid'?"

"Yu means beautiful jade."

"Oh, I'm Lu Xing, walking on land. My roommate is Qi Wenyu—you can just call him Wenyu, he'll call you Brother Six."

"Thank you. There's no need to introduce anyone else; I'm not very interested."

Xiao Yu seemed to have no desire to get involved in Lu Xing's social circle; she only wanted to get out of bed, get dressed, and rush to see him as quickly as possible.

Half an hour later, Xiao Yu finished getting ready, took the piece of paper and her phone, and headed out with a cold expression. It wasn't because of Lu Xing, but because the boy in her dorm snored, and she had been forced to listen to a man's snoring for a full thirty minutes! She was going mad.

After asking a fellow student for directions, Xiao Yu exited the west gate of Haicheng University. She looked left and right, but the car she usually took was nowhere to be seen. She had no choice but to call Lu Xing again: "Didn't you say the car had arrived?"

"It has. Let me ask... It's a BMW. Do you see it?"

"A BMW?"

Xiao Yu glanced at the emblems of the cars parked by the side of the road and shook her head. "I don't know what a BMW looks like. Ask her to state the license plate number... Oh, I see it. Thank you."

"That's fine. Come on over."

Lu Xing hung up. Xiao Yu walked toward her assistant, Zhang Biman, who had already spotted her.

"Hello!" Zhang Biman greeted the young man standing before her. "Are you the student Lu that our boss wants to see?"

As she spoke, her eyes sparkled as she stared at the young, handsome boy, the fires of gossip burning brightly within her.

"...It's me."

Xiao Yu suppressed the bizarre feeling of being greeted by her own assistant who didn't recognize her.

"Please!" Zhang Biman gestured. Xiao Yu walked to the rear door, but since the assistant didn't come to open it for her and went straight to the driver's seat, she paused for a moment before opening the door herself and sliding into the back seat. She then closed the door on her own.

Back in the day, when she walked toward the car, her assistant or secretary would have already opened the door, waited for her to board, and then closed it behind her. Things were different now.

The BMW soon started, left Haicheng University, and headed toward the financial district. Xiao Yu watched the scenery flying past the window, her mind in chaos. She looked down at the paper in her hand, read it over several times, and gripped it tightly. She wondered what the scene would be like when she finally saw him.

***

Half an hour later, the BMW pulled up in front of a luxury residential complex. After calling Lu Xing, the car was allowed into the garage.

Five minutes later, Xiao Yu reached the top floor. After she rang the doorbell, Secretary Sun opened the door. Xiao Yu barely glanced at her, leaving a single instruction for her secretary and assistant: "Wait downstairs!"

With that, she walked straight toward the interior elevator. Zhang Biman and Sun Yingxia exchanged bewildered looks.

"Since when has the CEO been so familiar with him? She knew exactly where the elevator was!"

"I don't know. I was just about to ask you what's going on. The CEO didn't go to work today and even told me to go pick up a young boy from Haida!"

"You have to admit, the boy is quite handsome."

"..."

While they whispered to each other, Xiao Yu went up to the second floor. When the elevator doors opened, she took a deep breath to calm herself before stepping out.

She didn't see "herself." Xiao Yu frowned, checked the bedroom, but still found no one. She checked the study next door, and seeing it empty, she headed straight for the upper floor.

Sure enough, she found "herself" on the rooftop garden. "She" was leaning against the wooden railing, hair blowing in the wind, admiring the view of the distant financial district. The thin nightgown completely revealed the graceful contours of Xiao Yu's figure; she hadn't realized her own body was so beautiful.

"What are you doing?!"

Xiao Yu's expression was sour; this guy had absolutely no feminine grace!

Lu Xing turned around and was startled to see "himself," unable to recover for a long while. Xiao Yu was surprised to find that she could understand why he was stunned! She had felt the same way when she first saw "herself."

"You're here?"

Lu Xing laughed. Seeing his own body from a third-person perspective was truly novel; it felt like playing a third-person game.

"Yes."

Xiao Yu was much calmer now. She took out the paper and asked him solemnly, "Judging by what you've written, you have experienced body swapping more than once, haven't you?"

"Yes. That's why I told you to stay calm—because we usually swap back by evening."

"At least that's how it happened the previous three times," Lu Xing added.

"Meaning, there might be more swaps in the future?" Xiao Yu caught the crux of the matter.

"I don't know, but likely yes."

Seeing the grave expression on "her own" face, Lu Xing joked, "Don't worry, the 'overnight poverty' is just an illusion. I haven't touched a single cent of your money!"

Xiao Yu arched an eyebrow. She wasn't overly worried about the money; she was more concerned that the person in front of her might harbor malicious intent, deceive her parents, friends, and relatives, or use her body to cause trouble.

She had spent the entire journey pondering Lu Xing's words, trying to discern what kind of person he was. Now, seeing him—even though it was her own body—Xiao Yu could tell he was not a malicious person, at least not for now.

Xiao Yu smiled faintly. "Based on what you said, you've experienced the feeling of becoming rich overnight?"

"Exactly!" Lu Xing sighed. "Poverty limited my imagination. I never dreamed that in a financial district where every inch of land is worth gold, there would be such a massive, hundreds-of-square-meter flat. Two floors are one thing, but to have a rooftop garden as well!"

It would be a lie to say he wasn't envious. When Lu Xing had been looking around earlier, he felt like a country bumpkin entering a grand manor.

Xiao Yu chuckled. "With the internet being so developed, many such luxury homes are used for photoshoots; you just haven't paid attention." She then added subtly, "I bought this place a few years ago. If you can find a way to resolve our current situation, I can give it to you."

Lu Xing shook his head. "Forget it. How could I accept your bridal suite?"

"Bridal suite? I don't have a boyfriend. Besides, I hardly stay here once a month; I bought it mainly for investment."

Xiao Yu explained, but Lu Xing didn't believe her. In the current real estate market, who would spend hundreds of millions on an investment? He looked at Xiao Yu and said, "Rest assured, I said I don't want your money, and I mean it. I'm a student at Haicheng University, a model youth of the motherland—I won't use your body to do anything illegal or criminal!"

Xiao Yu was silent for a moment. "This apartment really doesn't mean much to me."

"Alright, enough, I don't want to talk about it. Let's go downstairs!"

Lu Xing couldn't tell if she was being sincere or testing him. After waving off the offer, he headed downstairs.

"I'm sorry."

Xiao Yu apologized behind him. Lu Xing pretended not to hear. It was he who brought up the money, and he understood her concern; it was normal for a wealthy, beautiful woman to be wary. Lu Xing would feel the pinch even if he lost two thousand yuan.

The two went downstairs, where Secretary Sun's voice echoed: "CEO, the breakfast you ordered has arrived!"

"Are you hungry?"

Xiao Yu looked at "her own" stomach, inexplicably recalling the note he wrote: "Eat when hungry, drink when thirsty." Did he really treat eating and drinking as his top priority?

"How can I skip breakfast?" Lu Xing called down, asking the secretary to bring the food up.

Xiao Yu looked at the pajamas on her own body and was about to tell him to go change, but she remembered there were some private items in the walk-in closet. She hurriedly told Lu Xing to wait while she went inside to tidy up.

While organizing her clothes, Xiao Yu suddenly thought of something: When he mentioned "bridal suite," did he mean... she was already getting old, at the age where she should be getting married?!