My online dating circle has millions of followers, why would she put a collar on me?

Jiang Yi replied with a "bye-bye," placed his phone face down on the table, and let out a long sigh.

Every time he finished chatting with Su Xiaoyue, he felt completely exhausted.

It felt like running a marathon, or like fighting a war.

It wasn't because she was difficult; quite the opposite, it was because she was too easily satisfied.

He could make her happy for half a day with just a casual "get some rest".

He could casually send a "good girl" and she could screenshot and save it.

Every word, every punctuation mark, in his chat history was a treasure to her.

This feeling of being cherished and pampered was a warmth that Su Xiaoyue had longed for.

But for Jiang Yi, it was an increasingly heavy mountain.

It was so heavy it made him feel suffocated.

Jiang Yi shook his head, clearing his mind of those chaotic thoughts, and faced the computer screen again.

He opened a job search website and started looking for part-time jobs.

His current situation is: he is still short 1.1 million.

I've already received 200,000, but I still need more than 1,096,000.

A tutor earns 2,000 yuan a day. If you can go every day, you can earn 60,000 yuan a month and 720,000 yuan a year. You are still 380,000 yuan short of 1.1 million yuan.

However, he can't have tutoring every day. Gu Qingying might not need tutoring on weekends, and it might be suspended during winter and summer vacations.

Therefore, the actual income will only be less.

He needs more sources of income.

Programming, yes.

He majored in computer science at Tsinghua and Peking Universities. Although his grades were only slightly above average in the department, he was still a computer science major at Tsinghua and Peking Universities.

Writing code, building a website, and taking on some freelance work shouldn't be a problem.

Jiang Yi opened several part-time job platforms and began browsing.

"Python web scraping engineer, requirements: 3+ years of experience, familiar with anti-scraping mechanisms, experience with large-scale projects..."

He silently closed the page.

"Front-end developer, requirements: proficient in at least two of Vue, React, and Angular, with experience in component library development..."

He turned off another one.

"Java backend developer, requirements: 5+ years of experience, familiar with high concurrency, distributed systems, microservice architecture..."

Turn off.

"Algorithm Engineer, Requirements: Master's degree or above, familiar with deep learning frameworks, top conference papers preferred..."

Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off.

After flipping through the pages for more than half an hour, Jiang Yi sadly discovered a fact.

As a third-year college student who hasn't even graduated yet, what he learned in class is simply not enough in the real market.

It's not that Tsinghua and Peking University's computer science programs are bad, it's just that he's too incompetent.

He ranked in the upper-middle range in the department, could complete his assignments independently, and scored over 80 points on the final exam, but those were all from the textbook.

Do you really want him to write a usable web crawler?

It can write, but it gets helpless when it encounters anti-scraping measures.

Do you really want him to write a complete front-end project?

He can write code, but even he himself isn't satisfied with the quality of his code.

Do you really want him to work on an outsourcing project that can take orders?

He can't do it because he lacks practical experience.

This is the gap between university education and market demand.

In the classroom, what is taught is "what is a binary tree", but what the market needs is "can you use a binary tree to solve this problem?"

He can explain the definition, traversal methods, and time complexity of a binary tree, but he can't actually use a binary tree to optimize a real-world project.

It's not that he's the only one who can't do it; eighty percent of the people in his department can't do it.

The remaining 20% ​​have already been booked by major companies, so there's no need for them to look for part-time jobs.

Jiang Yi leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, feeling that his future was bleak.

He closed the programming-related pages and started looking at other types of part-time jobs.

Copywriting? He can't write it.

Design? He doesn't even know how to use Photoshop.

Translation? He barely passed the CET-6 (College English Test Band 6), and he only passed the CET-4 (College English Test Band 4) on his second attempt. What kind of translation is that?

Operations? He hardly ever posts on his own social media, what kind of operations are you talking about?

A food delivery rider? He could run that, but he doesn't have an electric bike, and winter is coming soon in Kyoto. He's afraid he'll freeze to death on the road when delivering food in temperatures below -10 degrees Celsius.

Bricklaying? Construction site laborers earn two or three hundred yuan a day, but he can't do that kind of work. He has an old back injury, and lifting heavy objects would easily cause it to flare up.

After looking at it over and over for two hours, Jiang Yi realized that he could only do two kinds of part-time jobs:

One type is manual labor, such as moving things, handing out flyers, or doing promotions, which pays little and is tiring.

Another type is a technical job, but he doesn't have enough skills, and all the qualified positions have been taken by others.

He turned off his computer, feeling he needed to calm down.

Don't rush, don't panic, take it slow.

There's always a way.

I bought a bucket of instant noodles, a sausage, and a bag of pickled vegetables at the convenience store downstairs. After thinking for a moment, I also grabbed a can of Coke.

Back upstairs, I soaked some noodles, waited three minutes, and then started eating.

The instant noodles still tasted the same, sour and spicy. The noodles had been soaking for too long and were a bit mushy, but when you're hungry, anything tastes good.

After finishing his noodles, he drank some soup, took a big gulp of cola, and let out a loud burp.

The hiccups echoed in the empty dormitory, sounding especially lonely.

Jiang Yi looked at the empty instant noodle container on the table and suddenly remembered what Su Xiaoyue had said: "You're not allowed to eat instant noodles anymore."

He guiltily stuffed the instant noodle cup into a garbage bag, tied a knot, and prepared to take it downstairs to throw it away tomorrow.

Then he picked up his phone.

There are several WeChat messages on the screen.

All from Xia Anmian.

Baby: Jiang Yi, what are you doing?

Baby: I've finished my work here, and I don't have anything planned for tomorrow. Do you want to meet up?

Baby: Why aren't you replying to my messages? Are you asleep again?

The last message was posted half an hour ago.

Jiang Yi checked the time: 11:40 PM.

It is indeed a bit late.

But not wanting Xia Anmian to think he was deliberately ignoring her messages, he quickly typed back: "I was busy just now and didn't see the message. Tomorrow is fine, what time?"

After sending it, he added, "Sorry, Mianmian, I've been so busy lately that I keep missing messages."

About two minutes later, Xia Anmian replied.

Baby: It's okay, I know you're busy.

Baby: You have a tutoring job this morning, so how about tomorrow afternoon, around 2 PM? Are you free?

Jiang Yi thought about his plans for tomorrow.

Gu Qingying's class started at 10 a.m. and ended around 11:30 a.m.

Two o'clock in the afternoon, the timing is just right.

Jiang Yi: "Where do you want to go when you're free?"

Baby: Let's go see a movie! There's a new movie called "The Flying Life 3" out recently, and I haven't had a date in ages.

Jiang Yi felt a pang of guilt as he looked at the words "It's been a long time since we've had a date."

Yeah, it's been a long time since I went on a date.

Ever since Jiang Miaomiao, that good-for-nothing, made such a huge mess, he's been preoccupied with how to fix it, and his conversations with Xia Anmian have become less and less frequent and more perfunctory.

It's not that I don't love her anymore, it's that I really don't have the energy.

"Okay, tomorrow at 2 PM, I'll arrange the location and send you the coordinates then," he replied.

Baby: Okay, see you tomorrow.

Baby: Go to bed early, don't stay up too late.

Jiang Yi: "Okay, you too. Good night."

Baby: Goodnight

Jiang Yi stared at the "Goodnight" message on the screen for a few seconds, then exited the chat interface.

He didn't put down his phone immediately, but instead flipped to a photo in his album.

That was taken last winter by the lake at the school with Xia Anmian.

Xia Anmian was wearing a white down jacket, and a scarf covered half of her face, leaving only her eyes visible.

Those eyes were beautiful, bright, and smiling.

How simple they were back then.

You don't have to worry about how to fill the 1.3 million hole, how to deal with an online dating partner you're about to meet, or how to lie to your girlfriend that you have nothing on your mind.

They were just two poor students having a simple, almost transparent, relationship.

Jiang Yi put down his phone, turned off the light, and lay back down on the bed.

The dormitory was pitch black, with only the streetlights outside casting a thin beam of light through the gaps in the curtains onto the ceiling.

He stared at the ray of light, his mind racing.

See you tomorrow afternoon, Xia Anmian.

I'll give Gu Qingying a tutoring session the day after tomorrow morning.

Su Xiaoyue is coming the day after tomorrow.

He closed his eyes, and the expression on Su Xiaoyue's face when she said those words in his dream came to mind.

"So even if you're a liar, even if you've been lying to me from beginning to end, I won't regret it."

The expression on Xia Anmian's face when she said those words resurfaced in my mind.

"Jiang Yi, are you hiding something from me?"

The faces of the two girls alternated in his mind: one gentle, one aloof; one smiling, one frowning.

He turned over and buried his face in the pillow.

forget about it.

go to bed.

There's a whole bunch of other things to do tomorrow.