Chapter 214 - 212: Master Jiang, Please Teach Me the Ultimate Pickup Techniques

Chapter 214: Chapter 212: Master Jiang, Please Teach Me the Ultimate Pickup Techniques

That night, Wang Ming tossed and turned, unable to sleep because of Jiang Xia’s words from earlier. In the quiet room, he could almost hear his own heart, THUMP THUMP THUMP, beating nonstop.

’Shen Ying likes me?’

’No, no, at most she might just be a little interested. It hasn’t reached the level of "like" yet.’

’Or maybe, she has a good impression of me?’

’But, we’re on opposite sides of the country now, so far apart. That little bit of a favorable impression will probably fade away quickly, right?’

The moment he thought of this, his whole mood soured.

’Finally getting a glimmer of hope was so hard, so why does this feel even more painful than despair?’

He instinctively reached for his phone, wanting to send Shen Ying a text or two, but then he worried it would be too sudden and scare her off. He wavered, hesitating on whether to send it or not, and before he knew it, it was past midnight.

In the next bed, Jiang Xia lay completely still, his breathing steady. He seemed to be sound asleep.

Wang Ming stared at the ceiling and muttered to himself in a low voice, "Old Jiang, if you were me, what would you do?"

Suddenly, Jiang Xia’s voice cut through the darkness.

"Go for her. If you swing your pickaxe well enough, you can break down any wall." He quietly turned over.

Wang Ming was stunned. "Holy shit, weren’t you asleep?"

"You toss over every ten seconds, then sigh ten seconds after that. I’ve counted almost 6,000 sheep and I’m still not even a little bit sleepy," Jiang Xia said, completely exasperated.

"Uh, sorry."

Jiang Xia sat up and turned to look at his love-tormented friend. He couldn’t help but comfort him, "Old Wang, everyone is selfish in love. So don’t buy into that crap about ’if you love someone, let them go.’ Watching the person you like in someone else’s arms isn’t ’letting go,’ it’s getting cucked. Since Shen Ying has some feelings for you now, you have to go for it."

"But she just rejected me a little while ago."

Wang Ming sighed again, completely dejected. Shen Ying rejected him one moment and supposedly had feelings for him the next. It left him totally confused about what to do.

"This is where you need some advanced techniques for wooing women."

"How so?"

"Many things can create a favorable impression: being old acquaintances, classmates, having a good personality, shared hobbies. But the most direct factors are looks and money. Let’s set aside those two most important factors for now and talk about the others."

’What does he mean, "set them aside for now"?’ Wang Ming’s eye twitched. He considered himself pretty good-looking. Maybe not as handsome as Jiang Xia, but he was definitely the type that grows on you.

’As for financial stability, compared to many of his classmates, his family was quite well-off. Of course, that was all thanks to his exceptional mom.’

Jiang Xia continued his analysis, "In your current situation, if you want to upgrade that ’favorable impression’ to ’like,’ being clingy and pestering her is the worst thing you can do. It’ll probably just make Shen Ying start to resent you."

"What do you mean?" he asked with a slight frown.

"It’s the literal meaning. Let me give you an example..." Jiang Xia pursed his lips. "A lot of guys pursuing a girl want to be by her side 24/7. They take every opportunity to talk to her, text her, and give her little gifts, regardless of whether she actually wants any of it. At first, she might send a short reply, but after a while, it just gets annoying. The most common result is she’ll start giving half-hearted responses, and eventually, she’ll just ignore him completely."

"The most common scenarios are things like: she only replies with an emoji morning and night, her ’shower’ takes all day, and after she says ’goodnight,’ you see she’s still online playing ranked matches with other people at one or two in the morning."

Wang Ming nodded. "Got it. Continue."

"So, this is when you need to take a more indirect approach. You can’t show that you’re overly invested. Since you can’t be boyfriend and girlfriend, then just be friends first. So, here’s the question: are you and Shen Ying friends?" Jiang Xia asked.

"I guess... you could say so?" Wang Ming stammered, suddenly losing his confidence.

"’You could say so?’ Let me put it another way. After she rejected you, have you initiated any conversations with her? Or has she initiated any with you? If so, what’s the frequency?"

"Uh..."

The question really stumped Wang Ming. To avoid the awkwardness, they had both subconsciously avoided speaking to one another. If they weren’t colleagues now, they probably would have never seen each other again.

Jiang Xia saw right through their current relationship status; it was in a very delicate state.

This was why so many guys and girls who got along well couldn’t even remain friends after a failed confession.

"Master Jiang, please bestow upon me your ultimate girl-chasing techniques!"

Wang Ming scrambled out of his bed and knelt directly before Jiang Xia.

"It’s actually pretty simple. Forget everything you thought you knew about Shen Ying and just try to be her friend first. Don’t talk about anything romantic. Chat about shared interests, common hobbies. If you don’t have any, that’s okay too. But whatever you do, don’t try to get into her hobbies just to impress her. That’ll be super awkward."

"You can share bits of your daily life, but don’t interact too often. The right amount of distance creates a more comfortable feeling. Anyway, until she starts showing clear interest in you, don’t worry about it. Just focus on your studies, focus on your work. Treat her like any other platonic friend of the opposite sex you’d meet online," Jiang Xia said seriously.

Wang Ming secretly committed this all to memory. It was easy enough to understand in theory, but he had no idea how it would work in practice.

"Then how come you and your wife get to be all lovey-dovey all day?"

Thinking of his own wife, Jiang Xia couldn’t help but smile. "That... is called love."

Given their relationship, he’d probably still be unwrapping milk candies to feed her when they were old, asking, "Is it sweet?"

"...Fuck!"

Wang Ming felt like he’d just had another PDA bomb dropped on him out of nowhere and fiercely flipped Jiang Xia the bird.

"Old Wang, I’m moving the company to the Imperial Capital soon." Jiang Xia pursed his lips and looked at him, speaking slowly. "So, I’d like for Aunt Li to move there to continue her career. What do you think?"

"My mom already mentioned this to me," Wang Ming replied. "To be honest, as her son, I have no right to interfere with her decisions. As long as she agrees, I have no objection."

"But she’s your mother. She’ll take your opinion into consideration, and it carries a lot of weight."

"So you want me to help put in a good word?"

Jiang Xia nodded. "You’ve seen it for yourself. Qitian Animation is just a bare-bones operation right now. We’re missing pretty much everything. Back when we were creating *Cat and Mouse*, we could get by on pure passion, but if we want to grow bigger and stronger, that’s not enough. I need someone to help me manage the company and lead our projects. And that person has to be Aunt Li."

Wang Ming was silent for a good while before letting out a soft sigh. "Old Jiang, as a member of Qitian Animation, I naturally want to see the company succeed. But I can’t help you with this request. She’s my mother. I’ll support her in whatever she does, on the condition that it’s her own choice. I can’t be the one to pressure her."

"I understand," Jiang Xia said, nodding.

’In other words, whether or not he could coax Li Weiya into coming to the Imperial Capital was all up to his own skills. It probably wouldn’t be too hard.’