113 Falling in Love Is Easy, Staying Together Is Hard

A-Yun came in carrying a lunch box and saw Sister Yang already seated beside my hospital bed, feeding me. Her expression changed at once.

Sister Yang had been around long enough to understand the awkwardness of the situation. She quickly stood up and said, “A-Feng, now that your girlfriend is here, I’ll be going. Xiao-Ya is still waiting for me.”

As she hurriedly gathered up the stainless-steel lunch box, she said to A-Yun with a self-mocking smile, “A-Feng, if I’d known your girlfriend would bring you food, I wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble.”

“Sister, thank you for everything. Take care,” I said.

Sister Yang smiled warmly at A-Yun, then left.

Hearing the way I addressed her, A-Yun also said, “Thank you for everything, Sister. Take care.”

After Sister Yang left, A-Yun sat down in the chair she had occupied and asked curiously, “Is she your sister?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Where did you meet her?”

“She used to be my boss’s wife. Everyone calls her Sister Yang. We aren’t particularly close.”

A-Yun sneered. “Not particularly close? She was already feeding you. If you were close, wouldn’t she be warming your bed as well?”

My face flushed. “A-Yun, you aren’t jealous of her, are you?”

Her face reddened too. “As if I care! If you want to fool around with her, that’s your business. I certainly won’t be jealous of a woman like that.”

“A-Yun, with both Ling Xue and you treating me so well, how could I possibly—”

“Who knows what you’re thinking? Maybe you have some special preferences. Besides, you may not even be able to win Ling Xue.”

I felt a surge of anger. “You’re right. I do have those special preferences. If you don’t like me, you can leave.”

“You—you think I wouldn’t dare?”

Perhaps she had not expected that, after suffering Ling Xue’s displeasure the night before, she would come to bring me lunch that afternoon only to find Sister Yang feeding me.

A-Yun was no fool. From the intimate expression on Sister Yang’s face as she fed me, and from the suspiciously evasive remarks she made before leaving, A-Yun had already begun to suspect that there was more between Sister Yang and me.

She gave a cold laugh. “You’re nothing more than a released convict. What’s so impressive about that? Do you really think I’m destined to marry you?”

With that, she slammed down the lunch box, rose angrily, and stormed out. At the doorway, she unexpectedly collided head-on with someone coming in.

“A-Yun, what’s wrong?” said a familiar voice.

It was Sister Li, who had happened to see A-Yun leaving with a furious look on her face.

A-Yun snapped, “That man goes around provoking women everywhere. After Ling Xue came by, he’s feeling very pleased with himself.”

“Don’t be angry, A-Yun. I’ll go teach that ungrateful bastard a lesson,” Sister Li said.

“There are other women to take care of him now. He doesn’t need me anymore. Besides, I can’t be bothered to serve him either.”

With that, A-Yun stalked away in a rage.

Sister Li stared after her in bewilderment. “A-Feng, what misunderstanding has arisen between you and A-Yun? Why did she leave so furiously?”

I suddenly thought of that old saying about love between men and women and blurted out, “Love is easy; living together is difficult. I don’t even know why A-Yun suddenly became angry.”

“Is that really all there is to it?” Sister Li asked, unconvinced.

I gave a bitter smile. “Sister, perhaps you’re right. Neither Ling Xue nor A-Yun belongs to me. They’re both noble young heiresses, and I’m simply not worthy of them.”

“Little brother, don’t be too discouraged. Marriage depends on fate. It can’t be forced.”

“You’re right, Sister. Hope always comes after despair, but the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. The world is unpredictable. Until the very end, no one knows what the true outcome will be.”

At first, I had thought that once the debt crisis at Jin Yulian’s company was resolved, there might still be hope for the two of us. Who could have expected A-Yun to change her mind so suddenly, while Wan Zijin used money to force Jin Yulian to leave me?

After Jin Yulian left, I thought A-Yun and I might have a chance. Then Ling Xue suddenly appeared.

That Ling Xue could fall in love with me was something I would never even have dared to dream of. But perhaps my relationship with her would end just as Sister Li had predicted—ultimately, it would all come to nothing.

“Little brother, don’t be sad,” Sister Li said. “What isn’t meant for you cannot be forced. All we can do is live well in the present.”

“You’re right, Sister. By the way, how did the house you looked at turn out?”

“The house is quite good. I signed the contract and paid the deposit this morning. The former owner was in a hurry and urged the agent to complete the transfer this afternoon.”

“Could there be some kind of trap? Why was he in such a hurry?”

“Probably not. I told him I would handle the transfer tomorrow because I didn’t have enough time this afternoon.”

“Sister Li, be careful. Buying a house is complicated. If you try to take advantage of a bargain, you could end up suffering a huge loss.”

“I know. Besides, there are laws to protect us, and Mingzhou has a relatively sound legal system. It’s unlikely that anyone would dare to commit fraud so openly. Anyway, little brother, I still have something to do this afternoon, so I’ll be heading back.”

“Go take care of your business, Sister. I’m fine.”

After Sister Li left, I had nothing else to do, so I picked up my phone.

I came across Mingzhou’s rich list. Ling Xue’s father, the Han family’s Han Qianli, ranked third among Mingzhou’s wealthiest people, with assets exceeding two billion.

After seeing that, I immediately thought, Forget it. Stop dreaming. There’s no way Ling Xue could ever marry me. The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. It was better to abandon this foolish fantasy now than to suffer even more later.

I had never imagined that Ling Xue would fall for me, so I treated what happened between us the previous night as nothing more than a dream. The sooner I woke, the sooner I would be free.

I also saw the name of Luo Dingguo, chairman of Dongzhou Group. He possessed assets worth eight billion and ranked sixteenth on Mingzhou’s rich list.

I continued looking through the names of other wealthy people and finally found Qian Duobao’s father, Qian Zhiwei.

The Qian family possessed assets worth 3.8 billion and ranked forty-seventh among Mingzhou’s richest families. Even that was an astronomical figure far beyond my reach.

Mingzhou had produced talented people since ancient times. Whether in the military, politics, or business, it had always been home to one outstanding figure after another. It had produced great warlords and even the richest man in the country.

In the past, the Mingzhou business community had dominated the commercial world. The bustling foreign settlement of old Shanghai had once been the stage on which Mingzhou merchants displayed their brilliance.

Mingzhou was a place filled with hidden dragons and crouching tigers. For a lowly street thug like me to dream of dating the daughter of a billionaire was something even a sensationalist storyteller would not dare invent.

Of course, nothing in this world was absolute. The beautiful princess of Samsung, one of the world’s wealthiest families, had once married her own bodyguard. Yet even that fairy-tale romance had ultimately ended in divorce.

113. Love Is Easy, Living Together Is Difficult.