We Barely Know Each Other, but I'm Living with a Stone-Faced Mechanic! - Chapter 12

Perhaps Tao Ying was imagining it, but she kept feeling Qin Zheng’s eyes on her.

Whenever she looked up, however, nothing seemed amiss.

Qu Le invited them to order. “Any dietary restrictions?”

“No spicy food,” Tao Ying and Qin Zheng answered in unison.

Qu Le laughed. “You two are in sync.”

Tao Ying silently took a sip of water. She could tolerate mildly spicy food, but because she recorded narration often, she kept it to a minimum.

Qin Zheng ate spicy food too. He had simply noticed Tao Ying’s preference during their dinner together.

“You don’t know what you’re missing,” Qu Le teased with easy familiarity. “A life without chili is incomplete.”

Still, she accommodated them and ordered enough food to fill the table.

The dishes arrived quickly. Since Qu Le didn’t know Qin Zheng well, she opened the conversation by talking about cars. Her budget was around two hundred thousand yuan—about twenty-eight thousand U.S. dollars—and she wanted something suitable for a woman’s daily commute.

Qin Zheng clearly knew his field. “Your requirements are simple. Easy to drive and park, dependable, and good-looking. Right?”

“Exactly.” Qu Le felt inviting him had been the best decision she’d made all evening. “But looks matter to me too. I don’t like any of the cars my father chose.”

Women often valued appearance over performance when buying cars. Qin Zheng understood.

He narrowed the categories for her, then summarized the strengths and weaknesses of the remaining choices in a few direct, lucid sentences, telling her to take her time deciding.

Qu Le still couldn’t choose. She turned to Tao Ying. “How did you pick your car, Ms. Tao?”

“I liked the way it looked, so I bought it.”

Qu Le stared. “That’s it? How much did it cost?”

“Two hundred and thirty thousand yuan, all in.”

It was close to her own budget. Qu Le fell into thought again.

The three ate and talked, and the atmosphere was surprisingly easy. Qu Le and Qin Zheng were both outgoing, which made Tao Ying seem even cooler and quieter by contrast. She only spoke when someone addressed her.

Qu Le had invited Tao Ying because she wanted advice on the weekly evening shifts in the art studio, supervising the first-year students who stayed late.

As a newcomer who had only just found her rhythm in the classroom, she didn’t want to volunteer for the rotation. But she was also afraid colleagues would say she didn’t understand the rules.

The shifts were flexible and internal to their teaching group. By convention, newcomers took a larger share.

Tao Ying analyzed the issue from both perspectives. The final decision, she said, still belonged to Qu Le.

As Tao Ying calmly and methodically laid out the advantages and drawbacks, Qin Zheng drifted into a silent daze.

From the bottom of his heart, he found her beautiful—dazzlingly so.

How could she be so exactly to his taste? It was absurd. He had certainly seen women more beautiful than her.

Qin Zheng abruptly lowered his gaze, the corner of his mouth lifting with surrender.

Everything he had ever wanted had come to him without effort. Only Tao Ying had sent him on one detour after another, leaving him too afraid to state his intentions outright and creeping forward like a turtle.

When they had nearly finished eating, Qu Le went to the restroom.

Tao Ying noticed Qin Zheng looking at her and smiling for no apparent reason. It felt strange.

She meant to ignore him, but he kept smiling.

Finally unable to bear it, she raised her eyes. “Why are you staring at me and smiling?”

“Sorry.” Qin Zheng turned his phone around for her to see. “It’s Dr. Zhao. He wants to buy a prepaid service package.”

Tao Ying went still.

The dead memory rose from its grave to attack her again.

“Ha. Ha.” She gave a dry laugh. “So that afternoon tea wasn’t wasted after all.”

Qin Zheng put away his phone and teased, “Then I should thank you for bringing me a new customer.”

Tao Ying had nothing to say. There was absolutely no need.

When Qu Le returned, Qin Zheng was grinning openly. She asked casually, “What were you talking about? You look so happy.”

“Ms. Tao introduced a new customer to me,” Qin Zheng said. “I was just considering how to thank her.”

At the end of her patience, Tao Ying glared at him.

Her long, fan-shaped eyes dipped at the inner corners and tilted gently upward at the outer edges. They were at their most captivating in motion.

Qin Zheng had been tracing a fingertip around the rim of his glass. Her glare stopped his finger cold.

He cleared his throat, lifted the glass, and took a sip of water, his gaze settling quietly on her. When Tao Ying looked back, he turned away without betraying himself.

“Ms. Tao is always kindhearted,” Qu Le said, oblivious.

Qin Zheng smiled soundlessly.

Tao Ying glared at him again in secret.

Qu Le noticed none of the odd current between them. Instead, she asked Qin Zheng, “Boss Qin, there’s something I’ve always wondered. Why does a shop as big as yours have no employees?”

Tao Ying was curious too and finally gave Qin Zheng her full attention.

“This is what happened.” Qin Zheng sobered. “Smoking isn’t allowed in most parts of the shop, so I built a smoking room outside. The first mechanics I hired were all seasoned slackers who kept hiding from the cameras to smoke indoors. The fumes bothered customers, so I fired the lot of them.”

So that was the reason. Tao Ying pressed her lips together. She had misjudged him.

“Have you hired anyone now?” Qu Le asked.

“Only one so far.”

Qin Zheng was conducting the interviews himself. He wanted someone whose behavior matched his promises, and after several days of observation, the new hire seemed decent.

Qu Le’s phone rang. One look at the screen made her pause, then speak in a rush.

“Ms. Tao, I may have to leave. I forgot to tell my father I was having dinner out, and he’s already at the university.”

Tao Ying stood immediately, but Qu Le stopped her. “Stay and talk with Boss Qin. I’ll pay and go.”

“You should leave now. I’ve already settled the bill.” Qin Zheng put down his chopsticks.

“What?” Qu Le stared. “When?”

“When I went to wash my hands after we ordered.”

“How could I let you—”

“It’s fine,” Qin Zheng cut in. “I’m a grown man. How could I let you two pay? Consider it thanks for sparing me the wait.”

“Boss Qin…” Qu Le looked embarrassed.

He smiled. “Really, it’s fine.”

“Then I’ll treat you next time.” With her phone ringing insistently, Qu Le hurried out.

“Wait…” Tao Ying wanted to follow.

“Sit down, Ms. Tao.” Qin Zheng laughed. “I don’t bite. I always feel as if you’re avoiding me.”

“I’m not.” Tao Ying smiled stiffly. Even if she was, she would never admit it.

“Have you been busy lately?”

“A little.”

May would be busy too. After the holiday, her first-year foundation courses would be joined by graduation-season schedules, meetings, duty shifts, and other miscellaneous tasks. The small obligations would consume every fragment of free time.

Things would ease in June.

They slowly finished the remaining food. It would have been inconsiderate to keep occupying the table while a crowd waited outside, so they left.

People streamed past the entrance. Qin Zheng shielded Tao Ying from being jostled as they descended the steps together.

Her phone rang with relentless urgency. It was Li Meili.

Tao Ying answered. “Third Aunt… No, I’m not traveling over the May Day holiday. There are too many people… All right, arrange a time then… Not near my apartment. Somewhere a little farther away. A park or a café would be fine…”

One fact mattered to Qin Zheng more than anything else in the conversation.

Tao Ying had a blind date during the May Day holiday.