The anchor I was supposed to meet turned out to be my student.

"She was thinking about your safety. Money can be earned slowly, but if you lose your life, you lose everything."

Liao Zhengyang shook his head and said, "Earning money over a thousand or ten thousand years is called slowly earning it, but there's not that much time... Xin'er's parents want me to buy an apartment in Shanghai..."

I've experienced this kind of frustration too...

"What are Xin'er's thoughts?"

"She doesn't care, she just wants me to live a peaceful life with her..."

"That's settled then. When you two take your household registration books to the Civil Affairs Bureau to register, who can stop you?"

Liao Zhengyang smiled bitterly, "But I do care... Xin'er spent the best seven years of her youth on me, I have to work hard to repay her, but she doesn't understand me..."

The reason why Li Xin'er broke up with Liao Zhengyang is quite obvious; she simply threatened Liao Zhengyang not to go to the no-man's-land.

Liao Zhengyang snatched the wine back when I wasn't looking and started drinking. This time I didn't want to stop him, because he really needed the alcohol to numb himself temporarily.

……

Liao Zhengyang was drunk, and it was impossible for the petite Li Xin'er to take this 1.9-meter-tall man back. So she asked Li Xin'er for her address and sent Liao Zhengyang back.

On the way, I pondered how to persuade them, but I couldn't come up with any ideas. Everyone had their reasons, and as their brother, I felt really guilty for not being able to help them solve their problems.

Thankfully, Liao Zhengyang didn't vomit, so I was able to move him safely to the bed. Li Xin'er then busied herself looking for hangover medicine in the drawer.

"How did he get so drunk?" Li Xin'er asked me.

"He said you wanted to break up with him, so he went to a bar to drown his sorrows... Do you really not agree to him going to the deserted area?"

Li Xin'er nodded firmly and said, "No matter what, I will not agree to him going. It's too risky. I just want him to be safe and sound..."

I think her experience is somewhat different from mine. At least Li Xin'er is genuinely thinking about Liao Zhengyang.

"He told me about your parents' demands for a house... If you don't fight for it, you really won't have a chance..."

Li Xin'er glanced at the sleeping Liao Zhengyang, then said to me, "Of course I know the saying 'fortune favors the bold,' but I really, really can't bear to see him take the risk... and besides, I'm scared..."

Seeing that Li Xin'er seemed to have something on her mind, I asked urgently, "Besides Mao the Adventurer, what else are you afraid of?"

Li Xin'er lowered her head and said, "I'm afraid he'll leave me after he becomes famous..."

At first, I didn't understand what she meant at all, but I quickly realized that Li Xin'er was afraid that Liao Zhengyang would abandon her, his wife who had shared his hardships, after he succeeded. This was Liao Zhengyang's fault; he was always flirtatious when he saw beautiful women, and he was also unrestrained in his speech in front of Li Xin'er, which made Li Xin'er feel very insecure...

At this point, I dared not make any promises on Liao Zhengyang's behalf, because a man's mindset is bound to change drastically after he becomes successful. Whether he will become fickle and tired of the old is hard to say; that's just how reality is.

I walked out of their apartment and gazed at the afterglow of the setting sun, my mind wandering not only to Liao Zhengyang's affairs but also to my own.

I will always remember the feeling of having lunch with Lu Xiaojun's family this afternoon. Sitting on the top floor of the building, leisurely drinking lunch and playing billiards, and being able to overlook the city at any time, this is what it means to be successful.

I don't want to continue living a carefree life. Although having a proper job is good, it's also unproductive. Besides, I've been through so much, and I want to create my own business...

If I can successfully start a business with Liao Zhengyang, then many problems will be easily solved.

But what kind of business can we start by combining our current strengths and resources?

He has a certain fan base and platforms for promotion, Li Xin'er also has considerable back-end management capabilities, while my academic performance and competition ability are rather lackluster...

What should we do so that we can all make the most of our talents, and we can't rely too much on start-up capital? Just as I was racking my brains, someone called me again. It was that little devil, Jiang Yanyi.

"Hey, what's up?"

“I’ll send you my location, come over and sing karaoke with us.”

I could hear very little background noise around her, so she must have been making a phone call outside the private room.

"I don't want to sing, you guys have fun." I had no interest in going to karaoke with her classmates.

"No, you have to come. They all brought their boyfriends, so you have to come and support me too," Jiang Yan said domineeringly.

Seeing that I kept making excuses, Jiang Yanyi resorted to her ultimate weapon, and I had no choice but to give in and go. It's just a pity that I haven't had dinner yet...

But looking at the weather, it's gloomy and looks like it's going to rain.

When I entered the private room, my ears were immediately uncomfortable, and it took a while to adjust. There were more than ten people in the room, almost half men and half women, just as Jiang Yanyi had said, she was the only one alone.

They were taken aback when they saw me, then Jiang Yanyi came up and took my arm, introducing me as her boyfriend. Xinya and Jiang Yi, who were present, had met me before and, completely disregarding their boyfriends' feelings, took the initiative to praise Jiang Yanyi to everyone.

How mature and manly is my boyfriend...?

Please don't go around labeling me with all those unnecessary tags...

"You guys continue, don't worry about me..."

I suppressed my immense embarrassment and sat down with Jiang Yan. I noticed there were quite a few bottles of alcohol on the table, including some with a fairly high alcohol content. I asked Jiang Yan in a low voice, "Have you been drinking?"

"You drank it, so what?"

I don't think she was drunk, so she probably didn't drink a lot, but I think as a girl, she should be more careful when she's out.

"It's nothing... If you guys come to KTV with men and women together like this again, you'd better not drink alcohol. Even if you do, don't drink too much. Stay sober and protect yourself, understand?"

Jiang Yan rolled her eyes at me and said speechlessly, "Why do you say exactly the same thing as my dad? You're both so long-winded. Am I not a child anymore? Don't I know how to protect myself?"

Now that you've said that, I'm even more worried...

"Hey, do you have a fire?"

Suddenly, a boy who was about the same age as Jiang Yan approached me, holding a cigarette in his hand, his meaning couldn't be clearer.

Chapter 42, Section 97: He tried to force a kiss on me.

"I didn't bring any. I rarely smoke."

As an educator, I simply cannot bring myself to hand a lighter to a student to light their cigarette. If he were one of my students, I would have slapped him long ago.

But Jiang Yan said to me, "I've seen you smoke several cigarettes a day, you must be carrying a lighter, right?"

Just as I was feeling a little awkward, the boy said to Jiang Yan, "What's a few cigarettes a day? I sometimes smoke a whole pack a day, and that's not even a lot."

This display has a rather boastful feel to it, but shouldn't it be something to be ashamed of?

Jiang Yan nudged my arm, seemingly hinting that I should retort by saying I smoke three or four packs a day to save face, but I just smiled and gently advised, "You're pretty good, but you should take care of your lungs."

The boy was at a loss for words, so he just scoffed and went to find fire elsewhere.

Jiang Yan looked at me with dissatisfaction and complained, "Why are you so cowardly? Talk back and save face!"

I tapped her on the head and scolded her, "Only you think this is about saving face. If you really want to save face, study hard and get good grades. That's what will make everyone respect you."

Jiang Yanyi, like a startled little animal, scratched her head and glared at me fiercely, saying, "How dare you hit me!"

"I'll not only hit you, but if you start smoking like those girls, I'll beat you to a pulp and tell your dad to come and deal with you!"

Seeing the fist extended, Jiang Yan instinctively shrank her neck, but quickly retorted with a defiant look, "That's sexism! Why can't women slap a fist?"

"He smoked because he was under a lot of pressure. What kind of pressure could you possibly be under? Besides, are you even an adult?"

Jiang Yan opened her mouth several times, wanting to refute, but couldn't find a reason. Finally, she lowered her head and said, "I also feel pressure, it's just that you so-called adults don't take it seriously..."

"What kind of pressure could you possibly have at your carefree age?"

"See? I knew you'd say that..." Jiang Yan pouted unhappily.

"Hey? Yan Yi, why do you look unhappy? Did your boyfriend upset you?"

Seemingly noticing that something was wrong with us, Jiang Yi walked over to us.

Jiang Yan immediately put on a shy expression and said, "Yes, he insisted on kissing me, even with so many people here..."

Don't you dare use menstrual blood on people!

Jiang Yi looked at me and said with a smile, "So Brother Tusheng is in such a hurry! But it's also because our Yan Yi is too beautiful. The boys who want to pursue her at school could line up all the way to the school gate."

"I think one should stand in front of her, and another should stand at the school gate..."

Jiang Yi was amused, while Jiang Yan angrily picked up a cushion and started hitting me.

"Brother Tusheng, don't be angry anymore. Why don't you come and play a game with us? During the game's punishment, you can rightfully kiss Yan Yi~"

Jiang Yi clearly misunderstood that I was angry because I couldn't kiss Jiang Yanyi...

"You young people should play this; I'll just watch," I said, declining.

At this moment, the others also looked over. The boy who had borrowed the light earlier said, "What? Yan Yi's boyfriend is such a loser, he can't even handle this..."

“That’s right…” others chimed in.

"Who says we can't afford to play? We'll join in!"

Jiang Yan grabbed my hand and pulled me towards them, forming a circle with them.

I frowned and said to Jiang Yan, "Did you ask for my opinion?"

“You have to listen to everything I say, do I need to ask for your opinion?” Jiang Yanyi acted like a queen towards me.

"Haha, so Yan Yi is still a queen after all. Your boyfriend actually likes this type. Has he ever submitted to you and licked your feet?" a girl teased.

Jiang Yan's face immediately turned red, and she retorted, "Your boyfriend just licked it!"

"Hehe, he actually did lick it, right, Qiang?"

The girl looked at her boyfriend without any embarrassment, while her boyfriend was too embarrassed to meet her eyes.

I couldn't help but think how precocious these people were in a way...

I nudged Jiang Yanyi next to me with my elbow and whispered, "Go play by yourself if you want, I'm not playing along."

As I was about to get up and leave, Jiang Yan grabbed me and whispered a threat, "Are you being disobedient again?"

"You framed me for recording the whole thing. If the punishment game actually goes on later, then I'll be guilty, and I won't do it."

Jiang Yan panicked and said in a pleading tone, "Just play one or two rounds, and we can leave halfway through. It won't be such a coincidence that we get punished... If you agree, I'll agree to one thing in return. I'll do anything except delete the recording, okay?"

Imagine if I really left, leaving Jiang Yanyi all alone. She would definitely be extremely embarrassed. The reason she was so eager to compromise was simply because she didn't want to lose face in front of her classmates.

Considering that she rarely asks me for help, I don't want her to lose face in front of her classmates. If it's just one or two rounds, it shouldn't be a big problem.

"It's settled then, just one or two rounds, and then I'll stop playing."

Hearing that I had given in, Jiang Yanyi happily said, "Yes, yes, I promise to keep my promise."

Someone began to explain the rules of the game: "The game is very simple. Each person draws a card, and the couple with the lowest total score will be punished. If there are couples with the same score, the punishment will be randomly drawn from the punishment card."

I glanced at the punishment cards lying to the side. Heaven knows what strange punishments were written on them. Compared to my anxiety, the group of people in front of me showed no fear and were even impatient. It's probably because Jiang Yan and I are just a fake couple.