I'm back in 1990

Chapter 1148: Territorial Conflict

"I have something to tell you."

"What's up?" Huang Ruiying took a sip of mango pomelo sago. It was sweet and sour, and tasted pretty good. No wonder there was such a long queue at this place.

"You know Zhao Jiaming from our class, right?"

Huang Ruiying thought about it seriously for a moment, and then remembered that there seemed to be such a person, so she nodded: "What's wrong?"

"He seems to be interested in you!" Lin Xiaotang said, then looked at Huang Ruiying to see how she would respond.

Unexpectedly, the gossip ended up happening to her own head. Caught off guard, Huang Ruiying choked on her milk tea and coughed for a while before recovering.

"What nonsense are you talking about! I haven't said a single word to him."

Lin Xiaotang, however, had her own evidence: "I'm not making this up. When we had our first class meeting, he was sitting behind you and kept peeking at you. I was sitting right next to him, and I saw it all. And yesterday I heard from someone that he was asking you if you have a boyfriend."

Well! She's already got someone's eye on her as soon as she starts college. But Huang Ruiying is secretly pleased, which means she's quite popular with boys. However, Zhao Jiaming isn't her type.

"Please, I've only just started college. I don't need to think about these things. If anyone asks you about it later, just tell them this for me."

"No problem." Seeing that Huang Ruiying didn't seem to be faking it, Lin Xiaotang readily agreed.

Then Lin Xiaotang brought up another matter: "Ruiying, you know Huang Xiaochuan, right?"

Huang Ruiying glanced at Lin Xiaotang speechlessly, thinking to herself, "If I didn't know this, I might as well not live anymore." But she couldn't say it out loud, so she could only nod.

"That's a celebrity, everyone in China knows him, let alone me."

"Did you know that Huang Xiaochuan, the richest man in Asia, is from Qingjiang? I've even been to the compound where he grew up."

Huang Ruiying frowned slightly: "As far as I know, Huang Xiaochuan's ancestral home is Suzhou, and he seems to have been born in Suzhou as well. He only studied and lived in Qingjiang for a period of time, so we can't say that he is a native of Qingjiang, can we?"

Seeing that Huang Ruiying disagreed with her statement, Lin Xiaotang argued back: "How can he not be from Qingjiang? A search of his profile online says that: Huang Xiaochuan, a native of Qingjiang."

Huang Ruiying thought to herself, "Please help me out! I'm his own daughter, how could I not know the inside story better than you outsiders?"

But she couldn't say that to Lin Xiaotang, which made her extremely frustrated.

However, she suddenly remembered a report published in Fortune magazine two years ago.

"Two years ago, there was a report in Fortune magazine, which was a short interview. It clearly stated that Huang Xiaochuan said that his ancestral home was Suzhou, and that he was born in Suzhou and spent his childhood there. Later, his parents took him to Qingjiang to study. After he was admitted to university, he rarely went back to Qingjiang."

Lin Xiaotang blinked: "Really? Then I'll go to the library and look for this magazine."

Huang Ruiying waved her hand and said, "Don't bother looking, I have one at home. I'll bring it to you tomorrow."

After the magazine published the report, the magazine sent several sample copies, which is why Huang Ruiying had such confidence.

However, she had made up her mind that the next time she met Zhang Xiangguang from Soso.com, Uncle Zhang, she would definitely ask him to revise her father's profile in person to avoid misunderstandings.

Huang Ruiying thought this way because she had no feelings for Qingjiang at all. After all, she had always lived in Shanghai and had hardly ever been to Qingjiang.

As the two were chatting, Huang Ruiying's phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID and saw it was her mother calling.

She pressed the answer button: "Mom, what's wrong?"

"Where are you?" Yu Xiang asked on the phone.

"Oh, I'm shopping with my classmates on Huaihai Road. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"It's nothing, I just wanted to ask if you're coming home for dinner tonight. Your brother isn't coming home, and if you're not coming home for dinner either, I'll ask the auntie to cook less."

Huang Ruiying thought for a moment and said, "Then I won't go back to eat. I'll just grab something to eat outside with my classmates later."

"Okay, I got it. Come home early tonight."

"Okay, bye!"

Seeing that Huang Ruiying had hung up the phone, Lin Xiaotang asked curiously, "Is your mother strict with you?"

"It's alright!" Huang Ruiying replied casually.

Although it was a perfunctory answer, it was also the truth. In general, Yu Xiang was quite strict with Huang Ruiying. For example, she had to be home before 11 p.m. and report when she went out, including who she was with.

Lin Xiaotang sighed, "That's much better than my mom. My parents brought me to school, and before they left, they talked to me all night, telling me not to talk to strangers, not to leave the school gate alone at night, not to spend money recklessly, and to call twice a day to let them know I'm safe..."

Huang Ruiying smiled but didn't say anything. Her good upbringing taught her not to judge or agree with other people's parents, as that was impolite.

After finishing their milk tea, the two continued shopping.

Girls usually look more and buy less when they go shopping. Since she was accompanying Lin Xiaotang, Huang Ruiying didn't have any intention of buying anything, otherwise she would have bought something.

As we strolled along, it got dark, and the neon lights on both sides of Huaihai Road gradually lit up, making it look even more beautiful than during the day.

Seeing that it was getting late and she was hungry after shopping all afternoon, Lin Xiaotang said, "Ruiying, it's getting late. Let's find a place to eat something. You're a local, you must know where to find good food."

Huang Ruiying looked around and remembered that there was a restaurant in the mall ahead that she and Sister Xuanxuan had been to once.

She pointed to the shopping mall ahead and said, "There's a local Shanghainese restaurant up there. The food is pretty good and the prices are reasonable. If you like sweet food, shall we go there?"

"Sure!"

Seven or eight minutes later, the two arrived at the fifth floor of the mall and found the restaurant. It was lunchtime, and the restaurant was quite crowded with customers. There were no seats available, so after taking a number, they sat in the rest area for a while to relax their calves, which were sore from walking all afternoon.

When ordering, Huang Ruiying consulted Lin Xiaotang's opinion and then ordered several of the restaurant's signature dishes: sweet and sour pork ribs, crab roe tofu, poached chicken, a vegetable dish, and a water shield soup.

While waiting for the food, Lin Xiaotang casually asked, "Ruiying, where did you go to high school?"

"It's an ordinary high school in Shanghai, not very famous." Huang Ruiying tried to keep a low profile.

"Oh!" Seeing that Huang Ruiying was unwilling to reveal the detailed school name, Lin Xiaotang did not press for details.

I simply asked her, "Do local Shanghai students have an advantage in terms of admission scores when applying to local universities compared to us?"

Huang Ruiying didn't know everything about this, but she still told Lin Xiaotang what she knew.

"It's not what you think. Nowadays, colleges and universities admit students according to a certain ratio. For example, our school admits 200 students from your province, which is based on your province's ranking from highest to lowest and the students' choices. As for the quota, it's not up to Shanghai to decide. It's a nationally unified plan. Your province has hundreds of thousands of test takers, while Shanghai only has about 100,000. So the pressure is slightly less than yours, that's all."

Since anyone who can get into a top-tier university is definitely not stupid, Lin Xiaotang naturally understood the reasoning after Huang Ruiying said that.

After having dinner, the two said goodbye downstairs. Huang Ruiying went home, while Lin Xiaotang took the subway back to school, agreeing to meet again the next day.