Xu Juan was the sort of person who already felt uncomfortable with spending his parents’ money, thinking himself worthless. If he had to live off his lover, he would much rather choose death.
But since Pei Yu had said “I’ll indulge you”, Xu Juan didn’t want to be a spoilsport, merely saying in a quiet voice: “This house was a gift from my mother, we’ll have to move out, Pei laoshi.”
Pei Yu said sure: “Shall we move to my place, then?”
“Isn’t it quite inconvenient?” Xu Juan thought about the environment at the university, “I’m afraid of causing you trouble.”
“It’s fine, I don’t mind.”
Pei Yu hugged him very securely, barely able to conceal the delight in his heart: “But if you’re worried that living at the university will be inconvenient, I actually have another house elsewhere. It’s not too far from Hong Uni, but it may not be very close to your company. I bought it last year. I originally intended for my mom to live there in retirement, but she went back to our hometown to live with my aunt and the rest. She refuses to come over and wants me to keep it for my own marriage.”
“……”
For his marriage? Xu Juan was at a loss.
When he had run out of the hotel with Pei Yu, his rationality had all but been destroyed by impulse. At that moment, his mind was blank, apart from all the bubbles of romance.
Of course, he had no regrets. But when Pei Yu brought up marriage, he finally remembered the most important question: What kind of situation were they in right now? Were they going to get married without receiving their parents’ approval? Would they be together, forever? Never to part their entire lives?
“Xu Juan?” Pei Yu suddenly squeezed at his fingers, “I’m having a discussion with you, what are you daydreaming about?”
“……”
Xu Juan returned to his senses, burying his face against Pei Yu’s neck and mumbling close to him: “I was thinking, if your mother knew your partner was a man, would she chase me out with a broom.”
Pei Yu laughed: “My mom won’t do that. She has a good temper, and she’s reasonable.”
“Just like you?”
“No, I don’t have a good temper.” Pei Yu said, “You just haven’t seen me lose my temper. All my students are afraid of me, look at Tang Sisi.”
“……”
Fair enough, Tang Sisi did seem to be deathly afraid of Pei Yu.
Giving his hand another squeeze, Pei Yu said: “So, have you thought about it enough? Will we move over? If we’re moving, we have to pack our luggage. You have too much stuff, just your clothes and shoes will fill several large boxes. And those books, calligraphy, and paintings, what should we do about them?”
Xu Juan let out a sigh: “This is so troublesome. I hate packing up the most.”
But ultimately, they would no doubt have to move.
Xu Juan didn’t own any other property. Before, he had never thought about buying a house; He was single and isolated from others, so wouldn’t one villa be enough for him? Why should he buy a house? Neither did he need to buy property for investment, he didn’t lack that bit of money.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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But although “Don’t worry, I still own a company” may sound nice when said, the truth was that it was equivalent to being in debt. Only Xu Juan himself knew how much money he had to throw into it every year to keep the struggling company afloat.
Xu Juan was originally a little hesitant. Despite having no other better option right now, directly moving into the house that Pei Yu had bought for marriage was still too… you know.
However, reality was cruel and didn’t give him much time to hesitate. Barely a few minutes after Xu Qingguang hung up, his mother personally called him. She demanded that he move out that very night, to get out this instant and not even think about secretly transferring any money——
He Xiangzi’s exact words were: “I won’t touch your bank account, but I would sure like to see, Xu Juan, if you’re shameless enough right now to take a single cent from this family!”
His mother was currently furious, so while she was speaking ruthlessly, she didn’t hold back at all.
Though Xu Juan knew that it was well-deserved, he couldn’t help but feel a little hurt. That was his own mother, but now she was telling him to get lost.
If he had to get lost, then so be it. What else could he do, anyway? Go back with a face full of embarrassment?
Xu Juan didn’t take Xu Qingguang’s advice, he didn’t transfer any money to a secret stash. He only kept a card from his own company. All the other bank cards belonging to the family, he left them behind in the villa. He even unbound those cards from his virtual wallets.
Xu Juan was feeling very down, but he didn’t show it, not wanting to rope Pei Yu into feeling frustrated with him.
They began to pack their things.
There was too much clothing, so Xu Juan only chose a portion of it to take with them, else Pei Yu would have to empty an entire room specifically for his clothes and shoes. Everything in the study room needed to be taken with them; If this house stayed empty for a long period of time, the books, calligraphy, and paintings would get damp. As for the rest, although they were merely some household products of low importance, they couldn’t not bring them either, lest they had to repurchase them in the future. This Director Xu had been pampered since he was young, he wouldn’t be able to get used to cheap products.
Around seven in the evening, they had packed away everything that they wanted to bring with them.
Pei Yu hired a moving company. While he was on the phone, Xu Juan was watching him quietly from a corner, thinking to himself: How much did it cost to hire a moving company?
Xu Juan had no concept of these things.
His money was usually spent like the flow of water; He knew how to sell luxury goods, but had no inkling how much a pound of pork cost.
If he had to be honest, although he had been living with Pei Yu for so long, he hadn’t really spent much money on Pei Yu.
Ever since Pei Yu moved in with him, Pei Yu had asked him to dismiss the cleaning auntie and the cook. Apart from the occasional part-time worker who came around, everything else they did themselves, including buying groceries or purchasing other items.
Most of these expenses seemed to have come out of Pei Yu’s own pocket. Before, Xu Juan had never realized this. He had no notion of daily expenses in his head, was a thousand and eight hundred yuan even considered money? Pei Yu never mentioned it, so he himself didn’t notice at all.
Back when his lovers lived with him, they were indeed financially supported by him. When he indulged them, it was often a few million, or other resources. In short, he had never treated the people around him unfairly.
Yet, he had never given Pei Yu any money, perhaps because he kept having the mindset of “not wanting to taint Pei Yu using money”. But even if he did give, Pei Yu would definitely not accept, so… So, it hadn’t been him who was raising Pei Yu, it was Pei Yu who had been raising him?
Had Pei Yu received any benefits by being with him?
Even in the case of ordinary couples living together, there would definitely be a clear distribution of finances. There were too many examples on the internet of couples getting into arguments over living expenses. Yet, Pei Yu didn’t mention a thing to him and quietly bought whatever needed to be bought, spent wherever needed spending. He even cooked for him often——
Xu Juan was a little dazed. He thought, in every single aspect, Pei Yu was the perfect boyfriend.
His taste was way too good; One glance was all it took for him to set his sights on Pei Yu. But, back then, his interest was due to him liking how the other looked. How could he have known that Pei Yu would be worth the relentless unearthing; The more someone understood him, the better they would get to know his strengths.
“Why are you daydreaming again?” Pei Yu hung up the call and gave him a prod, “The movers will be here soon, let’s rest up first.”
“Okay.” Xu Juan thoughtfully went and poured a glass of water, bringing it over, “Pei laoshi has worked hard. I have a question for you.”
“What question?”
“Do university professors get paid very well? Do you have a lot of income sources apart from your salary? Publication royalties? Journal submissions? Research projects?”
“……” Pei Yu sat on the sofa, looking up at him, “What’s the matter? Are you worried that I’ll let you starve?”
“No, I’m just curious.” Xu Juan said, half-jokingly, “You’ve only been working for a few years, and yet you could buy a house in Hong city. It seems our Pei laoshi is more well-off than I had imagined.”
This was the truth, Xu Juan was really very surprised.
The price of property in Hong city had always been ranked one of the highest in the country. To use “terrifying” to describe it wasn’t an exaggeration. Some people couldn’t even afford to buy a bathroom even after ten years of struggling, but Pei Yu had actually already bought a house in preparation for marriage.
After Xu Juan was done speaking, Pei Yu’s expression was a little hard to discern: “‘More well-off than you had imagined’? What did you imagine I was like?”
“……”
Xu Juan rubbed at his nose awkwardly. Obviously, he had thought that Pei Yu was a pure little white lotus, the poor but tenacious heroine of an idol drama! According to a normal script, the relationship between them should have gone like this——
The esteemed Director Xu begins to pursue the heroine. The heroine goes, I don’t care about your dirty money, and leaves without a second thought. After that, the heroine’s family would run into some trouble (due to the malicious interventions of Director Xu) and be in dire need of money, so she would have no choice but to be at Director Xu’s service, bitterly saying: You may have gotten my body, but you will never have my heart!
Director Xu wouldn’t care, as long as she agrees to sleep with him.
——This was Xu Juan’s favourite kind of script.
Unfortunately, although he declared himself the “king of schemes”, life refused to go accordingly to his plans.
He could no longer be an esteemed president. Now, his entire net worth was in a company that could drive him into debt at any time, and neither was Pei Yu the poor little white lotus he had imagined. On the other hand, it was he who was about to become a gigolo living off his partner.
“I thought you were just an ordinary university professor, the sort who earns a few thousand bucks every month.” Xu Juan went over to sit next to Pei Yu, reaching out to hug him.
Pei Yu especially liked being hugged by him and would always lean in to kiss him. Xu Juan was kissed on the corner of his lips, and he felt Pei Yu’s relaxed exhale, which lifted his mood. He said: “Where is your house located?”
“In the vicinity of Youshui Avenue.” Pei Yu gave him an address.
Xu Juan nodded: “It’s indeed a little far from my company, so it might not be very convenient. I’ll strive to find a house earlier. I don’t have a car anymore, so it’s best I find one near the company and rent it first.”
Pei Yu paused: “What did you say?”
Xu Juan kept his head lowered and didn’t look at him: “I can’t possibly let you raise me forever.”
“Why not?” Pei Yu tightened his arms around him, “We’re only moving out from your house and into mine. A mere change in location, so what’s wrong?”
“……”
Xu Juan didn’t say a word. He realized, for the first time, that after one became a broke bastard, even their confidence when speaking would decrease. He didn’t even know how he should explain his feelings to Pei Yu at this moment. Maybe Pei Yu wouldn’t understand, or perhaps he would, but he would understand it differently from him.
Of course, this wasn’t the main point.
The main point was, right now, Xu Juan was still uncertain; Could he promise to commit to Pei Yu for a lifetime? He didn’t have a lifetime’s worth of self-confidence, even if right here and right now, he felt that he truly did like Pei Yu very much.
As expected, it wasn’t a good thing for one to be too impulsive. When hot blood rushed up to one’s head, it was easy to cause even bigger problems for themselves.
——If he were likened to a deep pit, then now, Pei Yu had fallen even deeper into it.
Xu Juan gave his wording some thought, then said as mildly as he could: “You still have to pay off the mortgage, right? It should cost quite a lot every month. If you include me in the picture, it’ll be too much pressure on you. I don’t wish to become your burden, I think——”
“What on earth are you going on about?” Pei Yu interrupted him, a little upset, “The question is, are you able to support yourself? Where will you get the money to rent?”
“From the company’s funds.”
“And then, go into debt? Is your company making profit? I have never seen you properly go to work.”
“……”
Xu Juan sincerely didn’t feel like delving deeper into discussion with Pei Yu on this topic. He was used to looking down on others, but now that he had suddenly fallen from grace, he felt so terrible that he could hardly bear it: “I will go to work properly in the future.”
“We’ll take our time in the future to deal with future problems.” Pei Yu gathered him tightly into his arms, “Now, you can only live with me. Since you like being in debt so much, why don’t you be indebted to me? You can owe me as much as you want, I have a whole lifetime, I’ll wait for you to pay me back bit by bit.”
“……”
Xu Juan was rendered speechless.
Xu Juan indeed has excellent taste! Pei Yu is good husband material.
top-tier husband material indeed!! ♥
Thank you so much for this chapter, it’s such a great story!
i’m glad you’re enjoying it!! ♥
Thank You for the new chapter -ω(´•ω•｀)♡
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