Chapter 18

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Do you dare say that there aren’t moments when you wish you had a girlfriend?” Luo Xiyun stared at Chen Xu, searching for signs of him lying from his face.

Chen Xu put down the chopsticks in his hand, grabbed a tissue, wiped his mouth, and began talking about something irrelevant, “When I was in high school, I studied extremely hard because I was determined to enroll in an excellent university. In my third year, I exercised until midnight and woke up at around five to memorize some vocabulary. Guess how many points I got in the college entrance examination.”

“520 marks. Forget important universities, my marks didn’t even meet the bottom line for a bachelor’s at ordinary universities. The people around me gave me advice, saying that I was only a few marks away and that I shouldn’t give up. They also said that it would be a good idea for me to repeat a year.”

“But I didn’t take their advice. Many of my relatives and friends felt sorry for me. My parents understand that high school had been hard for me. In all honesty, I’m not afraid of hardship. If repeating would’ve guaranteed me a place in an excellent university, I would have done it without hesitation.”

“But I knew that I was already at my limit. Even if I had repeated the year, I wouldn’t have made any improvements.”

Luo Xiyun opened her mouth, wanting to say something. But Chen Xu didn’t give her a chance and continued, “Later on, I graduated from college and was lucky enough to join our company.”

“The year when I first joined the company, I worked very hard and tried my best to establish ties with my other colleagues. It has been almost three years since then. All the people who entered the company at the same time as me, aside from those who resigned, either were promoted or got a raise.”

“I, on the other hand, just got a small raise on my basic salary. Even those who joined the company a year later than I got promoted faster than me.”

Having said that, Chen Xu shook his hands, not giving Luo Xiyun the chance to interrupt. He added, “Humans must know their place. You must know the limits of your abilities.”

“In both studying and working, I use a hundred percent effort just to get a score of 520 and get a raise of a couple hundred dollars on my basic salary. So, even if I were to work harder in my life, at the very most, I would raise my score by a few points and get one or two hundred bucks extra towards my basic salary.”

“But the question is, what for? What I put in would be disproportional with what I’d get. After I accepted this fact, my life became much easier.”

At this point, Chen Xu let out a sigh and continued, “The same goes for finding a girlfriend. In our society, men are the disadvantaged party in a relationship between a man and a woman. If you are not handsome, not rich, have no assets, are not skilled at being in a relationship, and don’t know how to win a woman’s favor, it will be extremely difficult for you to woo the girl you like.”

“You would have to impress the girl with other things, forsake your dignity, spend every single cent you have on her, and give her all your time and energy. You would even gouge your heart out to present it to her if you could.”

“But even so, she will at most regard you as expendable.”

“You will finally come to your senses and think it through. Being realistic, you will plan to find a girl who is mediocre in all aspects.”

“Later on, you’ll discover that she always gets angry for no reason, and when she’s angry, you will have to comfort her because women are animals of emotion.”

“When the two of you get into a fight, no matter who’s wrong and who’s right, you will have to apologize first. Because she’s a woman, you should humor her.”

“During special occasions, you must not forget to get her a present, or else there will be grave consequences. If what you got for her doesn’t suit her taste, she will accuse you of having a straight man’s aesthetics.”

“When you are with her, it will either be eating out or ordering food delivery. She can’t cook because she is a modern woman. Isn’t it entirely normal for modern women to not know how to cook?”

“Finally, when it is time to talk about marriage, her parents will dish out demands, ask for betrothal gifts, and that the man should buy a house, a car, hand over his credit card after marriage…”

“In order to marry this woman, not only that you will have to submit your everything, but you will also have to expend a huge portion of your parents’ lifetime savings.”

At this point, Chen Xu spread his hands and said, “Finding a girlfriend will toss my already mediocre quality of life into a free-fall with a hard landing. I am better off being single. As for marriage, I really can’t afford it.”

After hearing him, Luo Xiyun’s eyes flashed, and she kept quiet for a very long time.

After a moment of silence, Chen Xu smiled and said, “Of course, you will not experience this kind of trouble. If you wish to be in a relationship, there will be a lot of men lining up for you to pick from.”

Luo Xiyun’s expression became a lot gentler as she said, “I think you just haven’t met the right person.”

Chen Xu couldn’t help but laugh.

“Why are you laughing?” Luo Xiyun frowned and spoke in an unpleased tone.

“Uhm, nothing?” Chen Xu also realized that it was a little rude. He put away his smile and got up to clean the dishes.

He had explained his honest thoughts. In real life, he had no one to vent to about this. He could only go off about these things without consequences now that he was in a dream world. He was not trying to seek comfort.

Especially from someone like Luo Xiyun who would never have to experience the same issues, he couldn’t help but laugh at her misguided comforting words.

…

Seeing that Chen Xu was walking into the kitchen with the dirty dishes, she tagged along and said, “In the end, you are just too comfortable in your current state. To put it in harsher terms, you lack ambition. From what I see, you are no worse than others. As long as you are willing to put in the effort, you can also raise your salary and get promoted in a few years…”

While she was talking, Chen Xu quickly finished washing the dishes. He took off the rubber gloves and turned to look at her, “Firstly, I’m not your subordinate anymore. Secondly, we can’t even be considered friends. We are merely two people forced together by circumstance. When we have time, we can sit down together, chat, have heart-to-heart talks, but please, do not point your fingers at my personal issues. This is the most basic respect we should have between us.”

Upon finishing, he exited the kitchen and returned to his room.

Luo Xiyun stood in the same position as her chest beat rapidly. She was pissed off.

…

Half an hour later, Chen Xu slipped on a thick winter jacket, grabbed his backpack, and went out.

The moment the entrance door was closed, the door of Luo Xiyun’s room creaked open. She poked her head out. Seeing that he had already left, she quickly slipped out of her room.

She went to Chen Xu’s room and opened the door with a mere twist of the handle. His room was never locked. She went straight to his computer and turned it on. Soon, the password login page appeared.

She had seen Chen Xu enter the password. As it was four digits and very simple, she just happened to memorize it. So, after entering the four-digit password on the keyboard, she successfully infiltrated his desktop.

She picked up the mouse and said while grinding her teeth, “You jerk, I’m going to teach you an unforgettable lesson.”

She clicked into every partition in his local disk, opening every folder that was over one gigabyte. A few minutes later, she found her target. She right-clicked the mouse over a folder a few hundred gigabytes in size, clicked delete, and finally, cleared the recycle bin.

Once she was done, she turned off the computer and left the crime scene.