rokumi’s note : this novel has been partly translated before, but the previous translators’ chapter numbering made me confused so I retranslated it from the start.
As a fresh graduate, Luo Bei has been running around in the scorching sun every day during this period of time to look for a job. Luckily, she was born with fair skin. Otherwise, with so much exposure to the sun, she would have turned black in less than a week.
She sat at the bus stop, but the seat had been roasted by the scorching sun, making it as hot as a Japanese teppanyaki grill. It burned her buttocks, so she had to go to the nearby newsstand and buy a bottle of iced tea to wait for the bus.
For someone like her, the two yuan bus fare is the most cost-effective enjoyable transportation of this summer. The air conditioning on the bus was on full blast, instantly making her skin dry and comfortable even though it had been sweating. Unfortunately, now it’s all automatic fare collection, or she would have liked to apply for the job of a bus ticket seller.
Looking at this prosperous city, Luo Bei felt for the first time that her future was bleak.
It’s not that fresh graduates can’t find a job, but with her ordinary undergraduate degree, it’s difficult to find a good job. The jobs that she can choose from are not really what she wants, and her grandmother often says that she has high expectations but low abilities, and that’s true.
Luo Bei’s grandfather was a nouveau riche, and she had a few years of comfortable life when she was young. She had a small car to take her to school every day, and her wardrobe was filled with dresses she didn’t even have the chance to wear. But the good times didn’t last long. When she was ten years old, her grandfather was swindled into gambling and lost everything. In the end, they only had a small six-story building in a village in the city. These kinds of houses were built by the rich people in the village at that time, without any property rights certificates. They are still living in this building, and renting it out to people who come to the city to make a living. The rent is not high, but the total income for the month is not small.
Nevertheless, in Luo Bei’s opinion, only she and her grandmother were considered normal in the whole family. Her father tried to do business but ended up owing a lot of debts. Every month, the rent was paid to repay the debts. Her mother wanted to divorce and get half of the building. They were actually in the process of divorcing when, a few days later, they took all the money from the house and disappeared. From the age of fifteen until now, Luo Bei has not seen her parents again.
Some people say they are dead, while others say they left and don’t want to come back. Although it may seem cruel to think this way, Luo Bei and her grandmother were relieved when their parents left.
Her grandmother said that in two years at most, the debts her grandfather and father owed would be paid off, and they could live a good life. After all, the rent from the building was enough for the two of them to live comfortably. Holding onto this hope, Luo Bei and her grandmother faced the future positively every day.
As she listened to a couple arguing about the increasing rent, Luo Bei suddenly felt that her future looked brighter. At least she and her grandmother still had one building. However, although she was a person with high expectations, she did not want to idle away her time just collecting rent like a landlady. What was the point of studying for so many years? She wanted to find a good job, become a white-collar worker, and let her grandmother live a better life.
After much contemplation, Luo Bei finally replied to an email from a foreign trade company that was not far from the urban village she lived in.
Although she was just an office clerk and her salary was not high, having little work and being close to home was still considered good.
Take it slow.
Luo Bei is a standard beauty, but before her grandfather became successful, her family was very poor. Why did her mother still want to marry her father?
To put it bluntly, her mother was a veritable appearance association.
Her father was very handsome, even more so than many popular male actors of the time. It was said that she looked like her father, and she had been recognized as a flower of her generation in the village since she was a child.
She had been the class flower and school flower.
When she was young, a famous blind fortune teller in the area predicted that she had a rare fortune and would be rich and prosperous. Her grandfather was very happy to hear this, but it was useless. Fortune telling was all a scam. How could someone like her have a rich and prosperous life?
Did she think that being beautiful would attract the rich second generation? Don’t be ridiculous. Her friends and classmates were people with similar backgrounds, and she had no chance to meet the rich second generation, let alone a nouveau riche.
When Luo Bei got off the bus, she let out a sigh.
The urban village had no responsible property management, so it was not as clean as regular residential areas. Buildings were crammed together, making it incredibly narrow.
“Beibei, you’re back?” It was Grandma Wang, her grandmother’s mahjong partner, who had been working hard to set her up with her grandson.
Luo Bei stopped and smiled at Grandma Wang, taking out her keys from her bag. “Yeah, I went for an interview.”
“Did you get the job?” Grandma Wang had been eyeing Luo Bei for a while, as had other middle-aged women and old ladies in the area, all of whom wanted to bring her home as a daughter-in-law.
The reason was very practical. Luo Bei was her grandparents’ only granddaughter, and the entire building would belong to her in the future. Not to mention, she was beautiful and had a university degree. Everyone knew her well, so she became a hot commodity.
“Yeah.” Luo Bei opened the anti-theft door on the ground floor. “It’s a foreign trade company near Yangxin Building.”
Grandma Wang thought Luo Bei was now a white-collar worker, someone who sat in an office, and she was suddenly even more satisfied with her.
She leaned over and stopped Luo Bei from going upstairs. “Luo Bei, you really have a bright future, but have you considered what I told you last time? You and my family’s Zhan Qi have been childhood sweethearts, growing up together since you were young. You two were perfect match. Although my family’s Zhan Qi didn’t go to college, he’s now doing business and can earn ten to twenty thousand yuan a month.”
“…” Luo Bei paused for a moment and smiled, “Then, let me add Zhan Qi on WeChat first. We haven’t been in contact for several years since I started college. By the way, Grandma Wang, I heard that Carrefour is having a promotion…”
Before she finished speaking, Grandma Wang had already left in a hurry with her small bag.
Zhan Qi was indeed pursuing her.
Actually, Luo Bei thought Zhan Qi was quite good. Education level didn’t matter as much as personal qualities and chemistry. Unfortunately, even though Zhan Qi had many positive traits, she just didn’t have that kind of heart-pounding feeling for him.
It was probably because they were too familiar with each other before, which hindered the development of their feelings.
This building had six floors and a basement.
There were single rooms, as well as one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. Luo Bei and her grandmother lived in a two-bedroom apartment on the third floor.
Although it’s described as a two-bedroom apartment, since it’s in a building, it’s naturally not very large, probably less than fifty square meters.
Because it’s a self-built building and located in a densely populated urban village, the rent is relatively cheap compared to the city center. A regular single room costs less than 1,000 yuan per month, and the basement is even cheaper at 500 yuan per month. After a month, the rent adds up to tens of thousand yuan.
Over the years, there have been people who wanted to buy this building. Although some of the documents were missing, with the soaring house prices and the scarcity of land in the city center, there are wealthy people in every urban village. As long as they sold the building, the debts of the Luo family could be paid off, and even a substantial amount of money would be left for the grandmother to enjoy her retirement. However, when Luo Bei was only eighteen years old, she firmly refused to sell the building. Although she was young, she knew that real estate was far more valuable than money. Fortunately, her grandmother also listened to her and was not willing to move out of the house they had lived in for more than a decade. Therefore, the two of them rely on this building now, and their future life will not be poor.
As soon as Luo Bei entered the door, she heard her grandmother’s voice coming from the kitchen. “There’s sour plum soup in the fridge. Drink it if you’re thirsty.”
“I know!”
The furniture was still the same as a decade ago. She sat on the mahogany sofa and blew the electric fan hard. She felt much more comfortable.
The city was always especially hot in the summer.
Grandma came out of the kitchen with a plate of sliced watermelon and said to Luo Bei, “Beibei, I want to discuss something with you.”
Grandma Luo is a very traditional woman. When her husband was alive, she listened to him, and later she listened to her son. Now that her husband and son are no longer with her, she listens to her granddaughter.
She only finished elementary school, while her granddaughter is a college graduate, so she thinks her granddaughter must be smarter than her.
With this mindset, Grandma Luo has been listening to her granddaughter for everything since Luo Bei started high school.
“What’s the matter?” Luo Bei asked casually, her eyes glued to the TV.
“It’s about Miss Zhao in room 202. She’s not very convenient to move now, and when she gives birth and goes through her confinement period, there will be no one to help her at home. She asked me to take care of her three meals a day and pay me 2,000 yuan for living expenses per month, excluding rent. After her child is born, I will take care of her confinement period and she will pay me 4,000 yuan a month.”
Luo Bei had collected rent a few times and was familiar with Miss Zhao in room 202.
She was petite and pretty, with a gentle personality, but she was an unmarried mother.
When she first rented the apartment, Miss Zhao was about four months pregnant. A few months had passed since then, and with a quick calculation, she was due to give birth in a month or two.
Even though there were also old ladies around here who were idle and liked to gossip about this unmarried mother, Luo Bei and her grandmother never asked or talked about it to her, so Miss Zhao got along well with them.
Luo Bei knew that her grandmother was very kind, and she always did her best for these tenants.
“Okay,” Luo Bei didn’t refuse. “It’s also very hard for Miss Zhao. We are neighbors, so it’s only natural to help each other. Besides, I have to go to work now, so it’s good having more people to chat with you.”
Although Luo Bei had a basketful of flaws, she had the rare kindness that was most difficult to find in people today, thanks to her grandmother’s education.
At night, Luo Bei had a dream.
She dreamed of a novel she had never read before and watched the plot of the whole story as a bystander.
The story was like this: the male lead was the CEO of the Lei Corporation, and the female lead was his secretary. The female lead deeply loved the male lead unilaterally, but he had no feelings for her. They only had a sexual relationship. One day, the male lead’s mother found the female lead and gave her a five million yuan check to leave the male lead. At this time, the female lead was pregnant, and the male lead was about to engage and marry the female supporting character. Feeling disheartened, the female lead accepted the check from the male lead’s mother.
After the female lead completely left and disappeared, the male lead slowly realized that he had actually fallen in love with her during their time together, and he searched for her everywhere but couldn’t find her.
Two years later, one day, the female lead’s baby fell ill. All in all, the male lead was needed. The female lead had no choice but to contact the male lead to save the baby.
Finally, after a lot of sadomasochism and struggle, the family of three was reunited, and they had a very happy ending.
When Luo Bei woke up, she looked at the ceiling with a confused expression—
After watching for so long, can anyone tell her why the female lead who ran with the ball1 is that Miss Zhao from Room 202???
What kind of operation is this???
- run with the ball is term for the typical plot where the female lead ran away from the male lead while being pregnant. ↩︎