Chapter 1: Cheap Men

In July 1993, students were everywhere in NTU (South University), holding their books and studying diligently as the final exams approached. Regardless of their usual lack of seriousness in studying, during these last few days before finals, everyone seemed eager to cram an entire semester’s worth of material into their heads in a matter of days, as if they could suspend their heads by a beam and stab their thighs with an awl.

Chen Jin woke up early to reserve a seat in the library. For lunch and dinner, she went to the nearest cafeteria, the Third Cafeteria, and didn’t even return to her dorm to rest, staying in the library until the staff kicked her out.

As she walked back to her dorm under the dim streetlights with her backpack, she heard laughter and chatter coming from Dorm 403, where they mentioned Li Xingyi.

Her steps paused briefly, but she continued forward, stopping at the door of Dorm 405.

“Back already? Studying so late again?” Qin Xuemei came over to open the door, habitually tilting her chin to size Chen Jin up.

Chen Jin replied with a brief acknowledgment, but as expected, she heard Qin Xuemei’s sarcastic tone: “You’re out every day from early to late. Chen Jin, you’re not worried I’ll borrow your notes, so you went out to study, right?”

The dormitory building was new, and they were among the first group of students to move in. It had been built with a six-person layout, making it more spacious compared to the older dorms, which often housed eight or ten people.

All six in 405 were students from the Chinese Department and were in the same class. Living with classmates helped strengthen their connections and foster relationships. But if incompatible personalities ended up together, it could be quite uncomfortable.

Among the roommates, Qin Xuemei was the most troublesome. She only had nice conversations with Yang Qian, who came from a wealthy family, while she treated everyone else with a sarcastic attitude, which was quite annoying.

Yang Qian rarely stayed in the dormitory since her family bought her a house near the school, so she didn’t care to squeeze into the dorm with everyone else. Among the remaining four, Chen Lu and Chen Jin were in a competitive relationship, both vying for the special scholarship. Liang Xiaoyu was a quiet and inconspicuous person, both in class and in the dormitory. Then there was Meng Shengnan, who was scatterbrained and carefree.

After three years of university, Chen Jin hadn’t managed to become friends with anyone in the dorm, but she had a good relationship with Lin Xinran, who lived in Dorm 404.

The other roommates knew Qin Xuemei’s personality too well. It was better not to say anything; as soon as someone spoke up, she would have ten retorts ready. It was impossible to curse her out or hit her; ignoring her was the best solution.

But Chen Jin never indulged her.

Immediately, she shot back, “It’d be a waste to let you borrow them anyway, since you’re either going to retake the exam or do a makeup course.” This was a cruel blow, as Qin Xuemei was failing several courses. If she didn’t earn enough credits before graduation, it would mean an automatic extension of her studies.

“Ah! Are you cursing me?”

“Your level is such that you need someone to curse you? If you burn incense and pray to Buddha, even Buddha would say I’m wasting my time.”

Ignoring her furious expression, Chen Jin placed her backpack down, tidied up her things, and headed to the shower room at the end of the dormitory corridor.

After showering, she returned to find a guest in the dorm—Song Jiajia, a fellow villager of Qin Xuemei. However, Song Jiajia was from the Physics Department, which had so few female students that they couldn’t fill a dormitory, so she was assigned to share with students from other majors with available beds. Song Jiajia ended up in Dorm 403 with the girls from the Chinese Department.

Because she was a classmate of Li Xingyi and a fellow villager of Qin Xuemei, Chen Jin was somewhat familiar with her.

The two of them rarely had anything nice to say when they got together. Chen Jin guessed they were going to discuss her messy situation with Li Xingyi.

Sure enough, when Song Jiajia saw her, she feigned ignorance and asked, “Chen Jin, is it true that Li Xingyi’s good friend is getting engaged? You two dated for three years, and even though you broke up, you’re still friends, so you should know, right?”

The noise in the dorm suddenly fell silent, and the roommates lying on their beds tacitly remained quiet.

Chen Jin shoved a basin under her bed and turned to stare at Song Jiajia until she looked away in guilt. Chen Jin scoffed, “Are you Li Xingyi’s lapdog? Even after breaking up, you still want to bark at me.”

“You!” Song Jiajia blushed with anger, extending a finger that Chen Jin promptly slapped down. “My breakup with Li Xingyi is none of your business, so you don’t get to bark. I still have the love letter you wrote to Li Xingyi in my possession from the first semester of sophomore year. Are you coming to bother me out of embarrassment because you couldn’t win him over? If Li Xingyi invites me to his engagement, I’ll conveniently hand over the love letter you wrote to his fiancée. Oh, what’s this? Crying already? Tsk, tsk~”

“What nonsense are you spouting?! I didn’t write any love letter!” Song Jiajia screamed.

“Ugh, your voice is so annoying,” Chen Jin shrugged. “You know what you wrote. Should I bring it to your class and have your classmates compare the handwriting?”

Qin Xuemei pulled an angry Song Jiajia back and said to Chen Jin in dissatisfaction, “Chen Jin, you’re being too aggressive. It’s just a love letter; what’s the big deal? It’s not like she was really trying to steal him from you.”

“Knowing someone is in a relationship and still writing a love letter? Only someone like you would think that’s no big deal.” Chen Jin sneered and threw out another bombshell, “No wonder you’ve approached Yang Qian’s boyfriend multiple times to curry favor. He doesn’t want to talk to you and uses Yang Qian as an excuse to avoid you.”

“Ah! Chen Jin, you’re spreading rumors!” Qin Xuemei instinctively glanced at Yang Qian’s bed.

Chen Jin shook her head with a cheeky smile, her expression as infuriating as possible. “You can say it’s a rumor all you want. After all, last Wednesday wasn’t I borrowing materials from Yang Qian under the pretext of helping her study? Hehe, you all take your time chatting, I’m going to bed now.”

Qin Xuemei and Song Jiajia were so angry they were breathing heavily, watching as Chen Jin climbed up to her upper bunk and drew the curtains, effectively cutting off their view. They were furious but couldn’t argue back against Chen Jin, whose annoying demeanor only added to their frustration.

Once the two of them left, the dormitory door was slammed shut, and the sounds of rustling returned to the room.

The other three quiet roommates thought to themselves: Wow! Wow!

After a while, Meng Shengnan poked her head out to look at the upper bunk. “Hey, Chen Jin, did Song Jiajia really write a love letter to your boyfriend, uh, ex-boyfriend? And what about Qin Xuemei? Trying to steal Yang Qian’s boyfriend?”

The other two turned to look at Chen Jin’s bed.

“It was originally just a guess, but now I find out it’s true.”

Everyone fell silent: “……”

Chen Jin might be annoying, but she definitely had some skills.

However, Chen Jin was still holding back her anger.

She and Li Xingyi were both from the provincial capital, Rong City, and became classmates at City No. 3 High School. The difference was that Li Xingyi’s family lived in the urban area while hers was in the suburban countryside. After graduating from high school, they started dating, and they had been together for a total of three years until this May. Although they attended the same school, they weren’t in the same college and didn’t often hang out together. Plus, his engineering major was mostly male-dominated, so he didn’t get close to his classmates.

She didn’t know when it started, but the time they spent together became less and less. Since they were both focused on their studies, she didn’t think much about it. Little did she know, in May, when she went to the city with Lin Xinran to watch a movie, she happened to run into Li Xingyi hugging and cuddling with the physics department’s belle; they looked very close.

At that moment, she acted impulsively and confronted Li Xingyi directly, only to be told by him that she wasn’t ambitious enough.

To wrongfully shift the blame onto someone else after making a mistake made Chen Jin feel there was no point in continuing her studies, so she decided to give up on pursuing a graduate degree. Li Xingyi wanted to continue his studies and tried to persuade her, but to no avail. She didn’t expect him to use that as an excuse for cheating.

Thinking that at least she had seen Li Xingyi’s true colors through this incident, Chen Jin slapped him a few times and broke up with him. As a result, the girl Li Xingyi was dating now came looking for her, claiming that she wouldn’t let go of him because she wanted to climb the social ladder given that Li Xingyi’s family owned a company.

If it were said in private, Chen Jin wouldn’t be so angry. But that girl had to go to her class and confront her in front of their classmates during the break. At that moment, Chen Jin proudly proclaimed the story of “the stupid man who straddles two boats and the stupid girl who plays the third wheel” to her classmates.

These two lunatics made a good couple, but now she was feeling a bit off because of their stupidity.

After three days of exams, she finally finished, and the four years of university courses could finally be punctuated with a comma.

After finishing her exam, Lin Xinran walked back to the dormitory with her. “I’m going to my aunt’s for a wedding banquet this afternoon, so I can’t walk back with you.”

“It’s fine, I’ll go back myself.” Lin Xinran’s family used to live in the suburbs, and they would have a long way to travel together. But starting from their sophomore year, Lin Xinran’s family business improved, and they moved to the city, leaving only a small segment of their journey the same.

“Are you really going to give up on the graduate school recommendation?”

There were four recommendation spots for their major, and based on grades, Chen Jin would definitely be on the list. But she had already discussed her decision to give up on pursuing a master’s degree with her family, Lin Xinran, and Li Xingyi. If she gave up the recommendation, Lin Xinran would just take her spot.

Chen Jin nodded firmly and said seriously, “I’m not planning to continue studying. But I want to stay at the school to be a counselor.”

Lin Xinran felt a bit shy; she wanted to continue her studies. If Chen Jin confirmed she wouldn’t pursue a master’s, then Lin Xinran could take one of the recommendation spots, which was much easier than taking the entrance exam.

“You have good grades, so applying to stay and be a counselor should be easy. Didn’t Professor Song say that interested students can consider staying to be counselors?”

Chen Jin sighed. “Li Xingyi’s girlfriend’s uncle is the associate dean of the department.” This was something Li Xingyi had mentioned when they accidentally ran into each other after their breakup.

That scoundrel! Cheating was one thing, but now he might ruin her chances of staying at the school. She really should have slapped him harder at that time.

“Are you going to find an internship over the summer? You can go to my dad’s company, but it’s just a small one.”

“I probably won’t have time to intern during the summer.” Chen Jin explained, “Last year, my uncle convinced my mom to add three more floors to our house, and there are still unrenovated spaces. I also need to go back and take care of the fruit trees in the field.”

Thinking about these matters made her head ache.

Her family lived in Qiaodong Village, which is in the suburbs of the southern district of Rong City, separated from the central suburbs by Qiaoxi Village. There were factories near Qiaoxi Village, so every household built high-rises to rent out. Of course, building high-rises in Qiaoxi Village wasn’t solely for rental purposes; there had been rumors about the village being demolished. Since they were going to be relocated, wouldn’t they want to build as much as possible?!

Qiaodong Village also had rental properties, but because it was further away, the rent was a third lower than in Qiaoxi Village, even half lower.

Her father was originally from Qiaoxi Village, but after he divorced her mother twenty years ago, he moved to the city. Her mother took her back to her hometown in Qiaodong Village after the divorce.

Starting in 1987, they gradually built houses, and by early 1992, they had already built two three-story buildings. In March of last year, her uncle, who ran a construction company, kept persuading her mother to add more floors. At that time, her mother thought it would be fine to rent them out if they were built, so she added three more floors to both buildings.

Originally, their family was doing quite well. Her mother collected rent, opened a small shop in the front yard, and had ten acres of fruit trees that were managed by hired help. With various sources of income combined, they earned about fifty to sixty thousand a year. Although building the extra floors used up most of their savings over the past few years, they could still continue to earn.

Unfortunately, her mother suddenly fell ill and passed away at the end of last year. Now, she was left all alone at home.

Before the start of this semester, she wanted to lease out the family orchard, but her uncle stopped her and even insisted that she find someone to plant peach trees in the empty land. He wouldn’t let her rent out the small shop, either; instead, he told her to hire someone to help run the store.

So, that’s why she had been so busy this semester—her uncle was the one creating all these troublesome tasks for her.

Lin Xinran couldn’t help but feel sorry for her: How could anyone have an uncle like that?!