Su Ran was still fired, with no room for negotiation. This was reality – reality doesn’t have many idealistic knight-in-shining-armor moments. When Manager Lin took her to settle her wages, he saw her clenching her teeth with an unconvinced expression. Anyone would feel wronged in this situation, but this grievance was self-inflicted – she really couldn’t blame others. Even though the current outcome magnified her sense of injustice several times over, she had to swallow her pride. A bar isn’t a charity – if you can’t do the job well and can’t bring benefits, they have the right to fire you, especially when you’ve actually harmed their interests.
Manager Lin sighed deeply, then lowered his eyes and offered a few words of comfort. “Being straightforward has its advantages, but in society, you need to know when to hold back. It’s a rule of survival.”
But he quickly discovered that whatever he said now fell on deaf ears, and might even encourage her to climb up on his sympathy. Clearly, Su Ran wanted to find an ally who would share her grudge, so she kept shifting the responsibility she should bear and blaming others. “It wasn’t my fault” and “Why should I” had almost become her catchphrases.
Manager Lin narrowed his eyes, his last bit of patience wearing thin: “I remember saying on the first day of part-time employee training that if you can’t tolerate being groped, don’t become a beer girl. Why didn’t you speak up then?”
“…”
Because she had been hoping to get lucky.
Human nature is truly a complex thing. Even though she had realized she shared responsibility for this incident, that both parties had contributed to this outcome, when facing people who didn’t know the truth, she would still position herself as the complete victim.
Because of being fired, Su Ran left Er Hall early. Shortly after leaving the east entrance, she ran into the bar owner who had both saved her and cost her the part-time job. The owner was holding hands with a slender woman, whom Manager Lin called the owner’s wife. From beginning to end, this owner’s wife had been the true spectator.
Su Ran observed them for several seconds, then looked away and took a shortcut to the bus stop.
The night deepened, a cool breeze blew, and streetlights stretched out pedestrians’ shadows. The city was still the same city, with every corner and every person playing out different aspects of life.
Back at school in her dorm room, Su Ran recounted her experience with added dramatics. After thinking it through, she didn’t criticize Er Hall, only mentioning the harasser. Her roommates, upon hearing this, completely stood behind her, their anger immediately flaring up to the point where it seemed they might burn down the whole dorm room.
“It’s good that you were fired. You didn’t lose out this time, but who knows about next time.”
“Mm.” Su Ran nodded.
Her roommate paused, then continued: “I told you not to listen to the senior and work at that kind of place, but you wouldn’t listen. If you want to earn pocket money, you could be a tutor. Tutoring pays well now, several hundred per lesson.”
The tutoring market in the capital had quite good rates. But similarly, parents’ requirements were also high. One lesson was easy, but preparing the teaching materials beforehand was quite troublesome.
Knowing her roommate was trying to give her advice, Su Ran pondered for a moment, then softly replied, “I understand.”
She personally didn’t like developing in the teaching direction, even if it was just one-on-one tutoring.
She took out a notebook and carefully calculated her current savings. After deducting daily living expenses, she was still five thousand short of getting her teeth straightened.
After a moment of silence, her roommate turned around: “By the way, Ran Ran, how’s that dental clinic that Ji Xiao recommended? My boyfriend seems to have a cavity, he’s been holding his left cheek and complaining about pain every day.”
“I don’t know, I haven’t been there yet.” Su Ran shook her head.
Her roommate choked, then after a while: “Never mind, I’ll ask Ji Xiao.”
Su Ran’s appearance was like a time bomb delivered to Chen Jinyao. She wasn’t sure when this bomb would suddenly explode, then blow her to pieces with nothing left.
She didn’t even know if the bomb she was holding, constantly flashing red light, was real or fake, as if she had fallen into some kind of self-speculation.
For instance, maybe she was just overthinking it.
It was also very possible that this wasn’t a plot from some novel, and what had happened and what she had witnessed so far were just coincidences.
This was exactly like self-consolation during self-deception.
But regardless, Chen Jinyao quickly withdrew the foot she had slowly extended out.
She was the one who said they should cultivate their feelings, and she was also the one who suddenly became a turtle hiding in its shell. In the face of an uncertain future, she would be willing to go all-in as a risk investor, but if this really was a world from some novel, where the plot was already set by the author, how it would develop was already determined, and the ending was blatantly laid out in front of her, if she was just a dispensable character destined to become a divorced woman, how could she charge forward recklessly knowing it was futile?
Chen Jinyao felt like a pessimist.
For a moment, she thought that since she couldn’t win against fate, she should just avoid investing emotions, and find a time to end her destiny early.
However, looking back, the performance of the original female lead that she had witnessed was quite surprising to her. She hadn’t expected the original female lead to be this type, which made her gaze towards Yan Cheng become complicated.
Then, when Yan Cheng was confused and at a loss from her scrutiny, her heart felt like a spilled spice bottle, filled with mixed emotions.
After all, besides her wild guesses above, Yan Cheng was mostly a good person, and he was trying hard to be a good husband.
April quietly arrived. Winter had finally completely left, leaving only the spring breeze to bring the full spring atmosphere.
The capital’s spring was destined to be full of vitality.
Among its representatives of vigorous vitality was the continuous drizzling rain, washing the city, flushing all the filth on the city’s surface into the sewers. After the rain, when you opened the window, the world was new.
On the weekend, Chen Jinyao held Du Ni on the balcony, breathing in the fresh air while overlooking the green scenery below the apartment building. Away from computer and phone screens, gazing into the distance at nature seemed to instantly relieve eye fatigue.
Through the glass door, Yan Cheng leaned against the dining table, holding a teacup. He frowned, his eyelashes slightly drooping. After a moment, having taken a sip of tea, he raised his eyes to rest his gaze on Chen Jinyao.
During this time, Yan Cheng had noticed that something was off with Chen Jinyao.
…Very off.
Whether it was worth praising his observation skills or not, from Chen Jinyao’s smallest emotions to the details of their daily interactions, he had clearly sensed the differences from before. As for what exactly was different, for the moment, Yan Cheng found it hard to pinpoint specifics. The most obvious thing was that he felt Chen Jinyao had become hot and cold towards him.
Inexplicably, a sense of distance had emerged.
After the rain stopped, sunlight broke through the clouds. Light refracted through the glass, casting golden afterglow.
Yan Cheng discreetly puffed his right cheek. He really couldn’t remember when, where, or how he had offended Chen Jinyao… He had an inexplicable feeling of suddenly being banished to the cold palace, and without any reason at that. ‘When you want to condemn someone, you can always find a pretext’?
A few seconds later, the man put down his teacup, took a deep breath, and walked out wearing slippers. They had agreed earlier to be open and honest about everything. After careful consideration, he still needed to ask clearly. Otherwise, he couldn’t bear this grievance.
Du Ni meowed once, struggling to jump down. Chen Jinyao stroked its fur a few times, but it was still restless. She felt a bit helpless and finally let it down. As soon as its feet touched the ground, it shook its tail, then eagerly returned to the living room and jumped onto the sofa.
Chen Jinyao hadn’t paid attention to it. When she wanted to check on it, just as she was about to turn her head, Yan Cheng hugged her from behind. Then, while she was still stunned, he complained to her in a helpless tone, “You’ve been acting strange lately.”
He paused, then reached out to hold her right cheek, gently forcing her to turn her face and look up at him, “Did I offend you somehow?”
“…”
Meeting the man’s dark, sincere eyes, Chen Jinyao suddenly felt stuck for an answer.
How should she answer this? At least for now, all the crimes she had assigned to him were unfounded.
… They didn’t exist at all.
Yet because of these non-existent things, she had been anxious like she had entered early menopause. Saying it out loud seemed a bit laughable.
But since Yan Cheng had asked, she should give some explanation.
“No.” Chen Jinyao shook her head in denial, “You haven’t offended me.”
She paused, then added: “It’s my own issue.”
She was overthinking things normally, which had led her thoughts to spiral out of control.
Yan Cheng frowned, not understanding: “????”
After a moment of silence.
Chen Jinyao pushed away Yan Cheng’s hand and turned back to look into the distance, “Ah, I have a hypothesis. If tomorrow you went out and suddenly fell in love at first sight with a girl outside, what would you do?”
She admitted this question was a bit dramatic.
Then, she heard Yan Cheng say: “Your question is meaningless.”
Chen Jinyao pursed her lips, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
After all, what he said made sense – hypothetical questions were mostly meaningless.
“Besides, this question makes me sound like a canine species.” He narrowed his eyes and said expressionlessly.
Chen Jinyao curved her eyes, pretending not to know: “What?”
Yan Cheng lazily clicked his tongue: “…A poodle.”
“…”
Hahaha.
Amazingly, these few short exchanges cleared away all the gloom that had been building in her chest during this time.
Then, she received a WeChat message from a contact named “Classmate Ji Xiao.”
Classmate Ji Xiao: [Sister Chen, I wanted to ask, can you pay in installments for teeth straightening?]
Classmate Ji Xiao: [I forgot to ask last time, a classmate reminded me.]
A few seconds later, Chen Jinyao replied: [Yes, you can.]
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