044 Have to Admit Defeat
As he went down in the elevator, Wang Heng secretly reflected for a moment.
Just now, when he received Pei Ningle’s call, especially when he heard that she was already downstairs, he had habitually become nervous. Thinking about it carefully, the reason he felt nervous was probably a habit from the first timeline.
While he was with Lu Qi, suddenly, Pei Ningle arrived—this pattern, with other names like Han Yixuan or Ye Xun substituted, seemed just as dangerous. Anyway, it felt like she had come with a yandere knife to catch him cheating.
But after thinking it through, he wouldn’t have this strange nervousness anymore. After all, he was now innocent with everyone, with no ambiguous relationships at all. Catching him cheating was naturally out of the question.
So when he appeared in front of Pei Ningle, Wang Heng had a smile on his face, his demeanor very calm and natural.
He glanced at the suitcase beside the girl and said, “Did you bring everything?”
Pei Ningle nodded. “I even took a whole set of combs, soap, and toothbrush and toothpaste from the hotel!”
Wang Heng: “Including the hotel’s disposable slippers?”
The girl patted her suitcase. “I took a pair of those too!”
“You really don’t let anything go to waste…”
With that, Wang Heng picked up the suitcase and walked towards the subway station not far away.
Pei Ningle followed beside him, embarrassed to be empty-handed, and also grabbed the handle of the suitcase.
Suddenly, she asked, “Is there anything to eat? I… aren’t you hungry?”
“Right, it’s almost lunchtime. Let’s eat something nearby first, and then I’ll take you over.”
Wang Heng changed direction and walked towards the Pizza Surplus next to the subway station. The key reason he chose this place was because he saw the sign at the entrance: ‘Today’s Special Lunch Discount’.
They casually found a table and sat down opposite each other. The waiter arrived in a flash, and they took less than a minute to order.
While waiting for the food, Pei Ningle suddenly asked, “Have you already found a place for me?”
Wang Heng: “That’s right.”
Pei Ningle couldn’t help but be a little curious. “How did you find it?”
“It’s simple. There are posts for rental and sale properties on the local Rongdu forums. I checked on the computer before I came downstairs just now and have already called the landlord over there.”
As he said this, Wang Heng couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgic for the much more convenient house-hunting services of a few years later. Of course, there were always pros and cons. A few years later, it would be more convenient to find a house, but the rent would be incomparable to the current conscientious prices. After all, although housing prices had already surged for several years, they were still far from their peak.
Pei Ningle couldn’t possibly think that far ahead and simply praised him, “You’re so amazing, so fast!”
Wang Heng retorted, “Shouldn’t you be asking me what kind of house I found?”
The girl tilted her head. “A house, isn’t it enough as long as you can live in it? I slept in a basement in the Imperial Capital. The place you found for me can’t possibly be worse than a basement, right?”
Wang Heng: “Of course not. I’ve looked at two places, both not far from our school and the subway station. One is a single room in a shared apartment, with a private bathroom but no kitchen, about a dozen square meters. The other is an old, small one-bedroom apartment, less than forty square meters, with both a kitchen and a bathroom.”
“They both sound pretty good,” the girl hesitated. “The rent isn’t low, is it?”
Wang Heng: “The shared single room is eight hundred a month, and the independent small apartment is one thousand five hundred a month.”
Pei Ningle’s eyes widened. “So cheap? It’s the same price as the basement I rented in the Imperial Capital!”
Wang Heng: “Of course. Otherwise, why would it be called the Imperial Capital? Oh, your coffee is here. We’ll talk after we eat. I’ll take a leave of absence this afternoon and take you there directly.”
The girl took a small sip of her coffee and immediately started coughing.
“Why… is it so bitter!”
“Can coffee not be bitter? The Americano that came with your combo, didn’t you notice?”
With that, Wang Heng’s lemon tea also arrived. He was about to drink it when he noticed the girl in front of him staring intently at his straw.
Out of some habit, Wang Heng subconsciously asked, “Do you want to switch with me?”
Pei Ningle quickly nodded. “Yes, yes!”
Wang Heng was suddenly startled. He was just this girl’s friend and manager now, not the ambiguous couple from the first timeline. Why was he being so considerate? But since he had already said it, with his pride, he really couldn’t go back on his word.
He could only remind her, “The cup you just drank from, you don’t mind giving it to me?”
The girl’s big eyes blinked. “You don’t mind, so why should I?”
“Alright…”
Wang Heng silently exchanged drinks with her, drinking the bitter black coffee, speechless.
He didn’t notice that outside the transparent window, a slightly balding man was staring at him, dumbfounded.
**
Feng Zhuo returned to his workstation in the office, slumped onto the desk listlessly, wanting to take a nap, but couldn’t fall asleep.
His colleague at the opposite workstation suddenly asked, “It’s still early today. Want to play a round?”
If it were any other time, Feng Zhuo would have likely agreed with pleasure, but today, the game suddenly wasn’t interesting anymore…
“Not playing,” he answered sullenly.
His colleague heard the strangeness in his tone and couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong? Are you sick?”
“No.”
“Then what’s wrong with you?” His colleague was suddenly a little mischievous. “Were you hit hard by the new guy?”
Feng Zhuo was speechless.
His colleague laughed mockingly. “It really is because of that kid, isn’t it? It’s true, you didn’t manage to teach him a lesson, and instead, he taught you a good one. It’s not pleasant, anyone can understand that. But you have to know that there’s always someone better out there. Since Sister Lu could invite someone over, and I heard the salary isn’t low, he must have something special. You’re just too naive to not understand this.”
“How could I not understand?”
“Then why are you still so dejected?”
Feng Zhuo suddenly raised his head. “I went down to eat just now and saw that guy at Pizza Surplus with a girl! That girl was super cute, pure and beautiful!”
His colleague had no idea this had happened and was a little surprised. But after a few seconds, he still tried to comfort him, “It’s possible they’re just ordinary friends…”
Feng Zhuo shook his head vigorously. “Absolutely impossible! They swapped drinks, and they had already drunk from them. I saw it with my own eyes!”
His colleague was suddenly at a loss for words. He understood that for Feng Zhuo, who had been single since birth, how to interact with girls was the biggest headache, let alone a beautiful girl who was his ideal type…
Feng Zhuo slumped onto the desk again, his whole body filled with a sense of powerlessness. “Forget it. I’m not going to compare myself to that kid. Programming is one thing, but he’s even so good at picking up girls.”
His colleague sighed, walked around to Feng Zhuo’s workstation, reached out, and gently patted his back, saying softly, “It’s okay. We don’t have girls, but we can play games and watch dramas. It’s not like you’re the only single one, right?”
For some reason, Feng Zhuo suddenly felt a chill run down his back.
***
Translator’s Notes
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Pizza Surplus (必剩客, Bìshèngkè): This is a pun on Pizza Hut (必胜客, Bìshèngkè). The character for “win” (胜, shèng) has been replaced with the character for “leftover” (剩, shèng), which has the same pronunciation.
