Chapter 44: 044 Had To Admit It
While taking the elevator downstairs, Wang Heng secretly reflected a bit.
As soon as he received Pei Ningle’s phone call just now, especially when she said she was already downstairs, he habitually got nervous. Thinking carefully, the reason he felt nervous was probably a habit from the first playthrough, right?
Around Lu Qi, suddenly Pei Ningle came—this pattern applied to other names like Han Yixuan, Ye Xun, and they all seemed equally dangerous; anyway, it felt like bringing a cleaver to catch an adulterer.
But once he thought it through, he no longer had that inexplicable sense of tension. After all, nowadays he was squeaky clean with everyone, with no ambiguous relationship at all, so catching an adulterer naturally didn’t exist.
So when he appeared in front of Pei Ningle, Wang Heng had a smile on his face, looking extremely calm and natural.
He glanced at the suitcase beside the young girl and said, “Did you bring everything?”
Pei Ningle nodded: “I even took a whole set of comb, soap, and toothbrush toothpaste from the hotel!”
Wang Heng: “Including the hotel’s disposable slippers?”
The young girl patted the suitcase: “I took a pair too!”
“You’re really plucking feathers from a passing goose…”
Saying that, Wang Heng pulled the suitcase and walked toward the nearby subway station.
Pei Ningle followed beside him, feeling embarrassed to have empty hands, so she also grabbed the suitcase’s pull handle.
Suddenly, she asked, “Is there food? I… aren’t you hungry?”
“Yeah, lunchtime is about here. Let’s grab something nearby first, and after eating, I’ll take you over.”
Wang Heng changed direction and headed to the Must Remain Guest next to the subway station— the key reason for choosing this place was that Wang Heng saw the sign at the doorway for ‘Today’s Special Work Meal Discount.’
They casually found a dining table and sat facing each other. The waiter arrived in no time, and they ordered in less than a minute.
While waiting for the food, Pei Ningle suddenly asked, “Have you already found a house for me?”
Wang Heng: “Yep.”
Pei Ningle couldn’t help being a bit curious: “How did you find it?”
“Simple, there’s a post for renting or selling houses on the local Rongdu forum. I checked on the computer before going downstairs earlier and already called the landlord there.”
While saying this, Wang Heng couldn’t help feeling nostalgic for the housing services that would be countless times more convenient in a few years. Of course, everything has pros and cons; housing searches would be much more convenient in a few years, but the rent wouldn’t compare to the current conscientious prices. After all, although housing prices had risen sharply for several years now, they were still far from peaking.
Pei Ningle couldn’t think that much; she simply praised, “You’re amazing, so quick!”
Wang Heng asked in return: “Shouldn’t you ask me what kind of house I found?”
The young girl tilted her head: “A house— isn’t anywhere livable fine? I slept in a basement in the Imperial Capital; what you found for me can’t be worse than a basement, right?”
Wang Heng: “Of course not. I have two options in mind, both not far from our school and the subway station. One is a shared single room with an independent restroom but no kitchen, about ten square meters. The other is an old one bedroom, one living room small unit, less than forty square meters, with kitchen and restroom.”
“They both sound pretty good,” the young girl hesitated a bit, “Rent isn’t low, right?”
Wang Heng: “Shared single room is eight hundred a month, independent small unit is one thousand five hundred a month.”
Pei Ningle widened her eyes: “So cheap? Same price as the basement I rented in the Imperial Capital!”
Wang Heng: “Of course, otherwise why call it the Imperial Capital? Oh, your coffee’s here. We’ll talk after eating; I’ll take the afternoon off and take you there directly.”
The young girl held the coffee and took a small sip, immediately coughing.
“Why… is it so bitter!”
“Can coffee not be bitter? Your set meal comes with American black coffee; didn’t you notice?”
After saying that, Wang Heng’s lemon tea arrived too. He was about to drink when he noticed the young girl in front of him staring straight at his straw.
Out of some habit, Wang Heng subconsciously asked, “Want to swap with me?”
Pei Ningle nodded quickly: “Okay, okay!”
Wang Heng suddenly realized that he was now just this girl’s friend and agent, not an ambiguous couple from the first playthrough— why be so considerate? But since he had already said it, with his thick skin, he really couldn’t back out.
He could only remind her: “The cup you’ve drunk from— you don’t mind giving it to me?”
The young girl’s big eyes blinked: “You don’t mind, so why would I?”
“Okay…”
Wang Heng silently swapped beverages with her, drinking the bitter black coffee, speechless.
He didn’t notice that outside the transparent window glass, a slightly balding man was staring at him in stunned disbelief.
————
Feng Zhuo returned to his workstation in the office, flopped weakly onto the desk, wanting to take a nap but unable to fall asleep.
The colleague at the opposite workstation suddenly asked, “It’s still early today; want to play a round?”
If it were usual, Feng Zhuo would probably happily agree, but today, this game suddenly felt boring…
“Not playing.” He answered sullenly.
The colleague detected something off in his tone and couldn’t help asking, “What’s wrong? Are you sick?”
“No.”
“Then what’s up with you?” The colleague suddenly sounded a bit malicious, “Did that new girl strike you down?”
Feng Zhuo: “…”
The colleague mocked, “You really are bummed because of that kid? True, you didn’t teach her a lesson but got taught one instead; anyone would feel upset. But you know there are always people better out there. Since Sister Lu hired her and heard the salary isn’t low, she must have something special. You’re just too naive, can’t even figure that out.”
“How could I not figure it out?”
“Then why are you down?”
Feng Zhuo suddenly lifted his head: “I went downstairs to eat earlier and saw that guy in Must Remain Guest, with a girl! That girl was super cute, pure and beautiful!”
The colleague completely didn’t expect this and was a bit surprised. But after a few seconds, he still comforted, “Maybe they’re just ordinary friends…”
Feng Zhuo shook his head vigorously: “Absolutely impossible! They swapped beverages, ones they’d drunk from— I saw it with my own eyes!”
The colleague was instantly speechless. He understood that for the lifelong single Feng Zhuo, interacting with girls was the biggest headache, let alone his ideal pretty girl…
Feng Zhuo flopped back on the desk, his whole body filled with a sense of powerlessness: “Forget it, I won’t compare with that kid. Programming aside, even wooing girls he’s so strong.”
The colleague sighed, walked around to Feng Zhuo’s workstation, reached out, gently patted his back, and said softly, “It’s okay, no girl but we can play games or watch dramas, right? You’re not the only single one, right?”
For some reason, Feng Zhuo suddenly felt a chill on his back.
————
