Looking at the familiar yet strange names in the group, Chen Wei felt a bit melancholic. Perhaps these classmates would eventually just be passersby in his life.
When he got home, Chen Wei had trouble sleeping again. He kept reminiscing about his university days, trying to recall the faces of each classmate. But even though it had only been a year since graduation, many faces had already become a bit blurry in his memory.
He also thought about the matters at the company and his plans to go solo. Tossing and turning, he lay there for a long time before finally drifting off.
He didn't know how long he had slept when a phone call woke him up. After a brief moment of clarity, he reached for his phone. It was an unfamiliar number from Kyoto, which puzzled him because he didn't know anyone there. After some thought, he decided to answer.
"Hello?"
On the other end was a soft, alluring female voice. It sounded familiar, but Chen Wei couldn't immediately place it.
"Hello, who is this?" he asked.
"What, you can't recognize my voice? I'm heartbroken!" the woman on the phone complained playfully.
The voice was indeed familiar, but Chen Wei still couldn't figure out who it was. "Uh... sorry, I was just asleep, my brain's a bit foggy. Your voice sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it..."
Before he could finish, the woman interrupted, "Oh! Did I wake you? I'm really sorry!"
"No, no, it's fine. I slept all day anyway. Even if you didn't call, I should be getting up."
"By the way, I heard you're working in the US stock market?"
"Yes," Chen Wei replied.
"How's it going? Earning hundreds of thousands a year?" she asked with a giggle.
"No such luck, just making a bit of hard-earned money," Chen Wei laughed.
He still couldn't remember who the woman was. But the voice was familiar, and she knew he was in the US stock market, so she was probably a classmate. Chen Wei slowly went through memories of his primary school, middle school, high school, and university classmates, but he couldn't figure it out right away.
Just then, he heard another voice in the background, "Wang Li, who are you calling? Sneaking around?"
"Nobody! Alright, Chen Wei, I'll talk to you later. Liu Jia is calling me. See you this weekend." With that, she hung up.
Wang Li! It was Wang Li who called him!
Even after the call ended, Chen Wei was still a bit stunned. Why did Wang Li suddenly call him? In four years of university, they had barely spoken a few words. Wang Li's parents were university professors, she was one of the beauties of the economics department, good at singing, dancing, and playing the piano. She was the class art committee member and the head of the student union's publicity department. Her personality and character were excellent. She was like a shining star in school.
And Chen Wei? He was nobody, almost invisible in the class. He couldn't imagine Wang Li calling him.
Could it be because he didn't attend the reunion, so Wang Li called to ask about it? That seemed likely.
Thinking of this, Chen Wei checked his phone again. There were several messages. Besides the usual concerned messages from Lian Yingying and her amazement at his earnings, there were many messages in the class group chat, and some from Wang Li.
Curious, Chen Wei opened Wang Li's messages. There were four:
"Chen Wei, why didn't you come to the reunion?" "It's too much that they didn't notify you!" "But you should have seen the messages in the group, right? You should have just come." "What are you doing? Why aren't you replying?"
Chen Wei felt a wave of emotion. It turned out some classmates still remembered him! He thought for a moment and replied, "Thank you for remembering me. Sorry I didn't recognize you earlier. I have to work tonight, so I can't make it. Let's talk when we meet over the weekend."
After replying, Chen Wei opened the class group messages. Besides many messages from classmates, there were also many photos from the reunion dinner. He opened a group photo of Wang Li, Liu Jia, and Xue Fan. Seeing Wang Li's happy smile in the photo, he couldn't help but smile too. Wang Li looked very beautiful in the photo.
To be honest, it was the first time Chen Wei had looked at Wang Li's face so closely. During school, he had never really looked at her carefully. Besides admiring her beauty and feeling touched that she remembered him, Chen Wei didn't have any other thoughts.
Just then, Wang Li sent another message, "I'm mad at you for forgetting me! I remembered you!"
Chen Wei was about to apologize when she sent another message, "Haha, just kidding. I'm not mad. Do you really have to work tonight?"
Chen Wei replied, "Yes, I need to make money, buy a house, a car, and get married. Everything costs money."
"Hehe, when do you start work?"
"Heading out soon, market opens at 9:30."
"Have you eaten?"
"I'll buy some buns downstairs."
"So pitiful! Doesn't your girlfriend cook for you?"
"We don't live together."
"Oh, I thought you and Xu Lili lived together. But you're so silly, graduated for a year and still not living together. Be careful someone else doesn't steal her away!"
Chen Wei felt a bit melancholic reading this. Wang Li quickly sent another message, "I'll stop here before they start gossiping about us. Good luck with work, earn lots of money, and get married soon!"
Chen Wei sent a simple goodbye emoji, put away his phone, got up, washed, and bought some buns downstairs.
When he arrived at the office, he ran into Zhao Yang coming up from the parking garage in the elevator. They both paused, nodded at each other, but didn't say much.
As the elevator ascended slowly, Chen Wei thought it was a good time to ask, "Supervisor Zhao, who is this Young Master Chu Mr. Wang mentioned yesterday?"
Zhao Yang was silent for a moment, then said, "He's a major shareholder of our company."
"Huh?"
Chen Wei was surprised. He had always thought the company was Wang Wentao's alone, not realizing there were other shareholders.