Chapter 1, forget it, I won't buy it.
Su Mu was the first college student from the village to go to university. The day his admission notice was delivered to Fenghuang Village, firecrackers were set off louder than during the New Year, and red paper scraps covered the ground in a thick layer.
He carried the notice and traveled by train for a full day and night, changing trains along the way. The journey was bumpy and shaky, but he finally arrived in Jiangzhou.
Upon entering Jiangzhou University, stepping onto the gleaming marble floor, and looking at the towering, unfamiliar buildings all around him, as well as the classmates whose attire and mannerisms exuded an indescribable aura, he finally truly understood the meaning of that sentence.
It turns out there really are people beyond people, and heavens beyond heavens.
He, the golden phoenix, flew out of Phoenix Village. Outside, there was an even larger and more dazzling grove of phoenix trees, where phoenixes with more abundant wings and clearer voices resided.
The university dormitory is a four-person room, not very big, with four bunk beds and desks crammed in.
Su Mu's roommates are all wonderful in their own way.
One of them was tall and strong, named Dao Yun. His name sounded quite imposing, but everyone called him Fatty Dao because he had a round face, his eyes narrowed into slits when he smiled, and his muscles were very muscular.
There was a short, thin guy named Hou Yuncong, nicknamed Skinny Monkey. He lived up to his name, with bright eyes, lots of ideas, and a quick tongue. He always managed to get some inside information before the exam.
There's another one, whose style is completely different from Su Mu and the other two, named Jiang Ran.
He was the epitome of a "tall, rich, and handsome" man from head to toe. His clothes and shoes were all from brands that Su Mu had only ever seen in magazine ads, and the watch on his wrist was said to be worth several years' worth of Su Mu's family's harvest.
Jiang Ran doesn't talk much and rarely goes back to the dormitory at night, supposedly because her family owns a house in Jiangzhou.
Su Mu didn't sit idle during his four years of university; getting more certifications is always a good thing. Having more certifications is never a bad thing; it opens up more options for you wherever you go.
So, after graduation, in addition to the certificates required for finance majors, such as securities practitioner qualification, fund practitioner qualification, and CET-4 and CET-6, some even somehow managed to get electrician's licenses, forklift licenses, not to mention driver's licenses that almost everyone has.
Fatty Knife and Skinny Fox in the dormitory marveled at this, laughing at him for being a certification fanatic.
There are 360 professions, and every profession can produce an expert. If the narrow path of finance doesn't work out, there's always another way for him to make a living: electrician, forklift operator...
They studied finance in college.
When I was filling out my college application, my distant cousin, the only person in the village with a high school diploma, patted his chest and told me, "Study this, and you'll be able to make big money! You'll work in a bank, work for a big company, and make a fortune!"
Su Mu himself was also confused and believed it. With a vague dream of making a fortune, he stepped into Jiangzhou University.
And what was the result?
Where in the family would he get money to manage?
Not to mention managing his finances, even his annual tuition and living expenses come from his parents' hard-earned money. In order not to add pressure to his family, he also works very hard doing odd jobs.
I've finally graduated.
With his thick stack of certificates and decent grades, plus a referral opportunity that Shouhu somehow managed to get, Su Mu managed to squeeze into a seemingly prestigious investment bank, albeit in the lowest-level and busiest analyst position.
But once Su Mu entered the investment banking industry, he realized that the difficulties he had faced when taking the certification exams were nothing compared to the challenges of his current job.
Every day, I face mountains of industry reports, endless financial models, an office that's as bright as day late at night, and the cold, critical gaze of my boss and the silent yet fierce competition among my colleagues.
Staying up late is a regular occurrence for me, and I drink coffee like water.
Su Mu still managed to save up a sum of money.
Two years after graduation, in this frighteningly expensive metropolis, he was like the most diligent and frugal worker ant, carefully and with almost pious perseverance saving every penny of his meager monthly salary after deducting rent, utilities, transportation, necessary living expenses, and the portion he would send back to his hometown without fail, into a bank card that he never touched easily.
The numbers are growing slowly, like a snail crawling, but they are increasing nonetheless.
After graduating from university, my college roommates were like dandelions scattered by the wind, each drifting in different directions, and we never really got together again.
The group gradually fell silent, leaving only occasional forwarded industry news or cold, impersonal mass-sent holiday greetings.
Sometimes, late at night, when Su Mu is exhausted, he drags his body back to his rented room, takes a shower, and collapses on the bed. He will subconsciously pick up his phone and open the dormitory group chat that has sunk to the bottom of the chat list.
I wanted to say something like, "How are you guys doing lately?" "Fat Knife, how's business at your Taekwondo gym?" "Skinny Monkey, did you switch jobs again?"
I typed and deleted, deleted and typed again, and in the end, I always silently quit and tossed my phone aside.
Jiang Ran is even more special.
His profile picture is a blurry image of a part of the sky or the sea, with a cool tone. It always lies quietly in the list.
Sometimes, Su Mu would click on the profile picture as if possessed, looking at it and imagining what the person on the other side of the screen was doing.
He wanted to be like Skinny Monkey or Fatty Knife, shamelessly sending a message like, "Young Master Jiang, what are you doing? Where are you having fun again?" or "President Jiang, please carry me!"
It carried a touch of familiarity and playfulness from our student days. But my finger hovered over the screen, unable to press the button.
Jiang Ran was actually quite nice to him when he was in college.
It's not the kind of kindness that's deliberately bestowed, but rather the kind of natural, innate good manners and thoughtfulness that comes naturally.
When group assignments are assigned to the same group, Jiang Ran always takes on the most complicated and difficult parts, or when he's scratching his head trying to figure out how to use a certain software, she casually walks over, helps him solve it in a few quick steps, and then says, "It's very simple, I'll teach you next time."
For example, knowing that he was short of living expenses, when they occasionally went out to eat together, Jiang Ran would always pay most of the bill by saying that she had ordered too much and couldn't finish it or that she had a card at home. Her expression was so natural that it would seem pretentious to refuse.
Jiang Ran rarely posts on his WeChat Moments, leaving his profile completely blank, making it impossible for anyone to know anything about his life after graduation.
Su Mu occasionally couldn't resist looking through their few chat records.
Most of them were during holidays. Spring Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day; sometimes he sent them, and sometimes Jiang Ran sent them.
Last year, Su Mu was so busy that he was constantly on the go, working overtime until he was exhausted, let alone taking the initiative to maintain any connections.
Skinny Monkey and he both work in the financial industry. Although they work for different companies, their circles overlap, and they usually chat quite a bit. They mainly complain about their work, exchange rumors that are hard to verify, or recommend potential job opportunities to each other.
Fei Dao, on the other hand, completely "returned to his roots." After graduation, he went straight back to his hometown and took over the family's taekwondo gym, which was neither too big nor too small. He would occasionally post photos of his students or his workouts on social media, looking like he was enjoying himself. He seemed to be from a completely different world from those of them who were struggling in the financial industry.
That day, Skinny Monkey was again venting to him on WeChat about a bizarre project in the industry. Su Mu replied perfunctorily with "uh-huh" and "it's really a rip-off," while numbly staring at the dense numbers on the computer screen.
Suddenly, his tone became mysterious: "Hey, Wood, have you heard? Young Master Jiang... seems to be going back to inherit the family business!"
Su Mu stared at the screen, his heart skipping a beat for no apparent reason.
Skinny Monkey's message then popped up: "Tsk tsk, he really has a mine to inherit. Do you think it's too late for us to curry favor with him now and become a high-level executive?"
As Su Mu looked at the line of words, a strange feeling welled up inside him: He was truly envious.
His company headquarters is in another city, several hundred kilometers away from Jiangzhou. When he first received the offer, he was initially disappointed, but he was quickly overwhelmed by the relief of finding a job and the pressure of making a living that followed.
Skinny Monkey himself stayed in Jiangzhou, and seemed to have better access to information.
Skinny Monkey continued his revelations: "I also heard that his family arranged a marriage for him, and his bride is also a rich heiress. Wow, these wealthy people really don't give us ordinary folks any chance to climb the social ladder! It's all been internally dealt with!"
A marriage alliance?
Su Mu's mind went blank for a moment: ...Getting married so early?
I only realized how silly my question was after I sent it out.
Sure enough, Skinny Monkey quickly replied, with a tone that implied he was being naive: "You think rich people are like us? They have to struggle to save money, buy a house, pay off the loan, and then consider marriage? For them, it's a powerful alliance, a resource integration. For them, marriage is probably just a matter of signing a contract."
Su Mu was already feeling down because of the continuous overtime and the project's setbacks, and this feeling became even more oppressive and suffocating.
He stared at the computer screen, the jumping numbers and charts before him turning into a blurry, irritating mass of color.
Jiang Ran... she's really awful.
He said it silently to himself.
Su Mu deliberately didn't contact Jiang Ran much after graduation.
He never told anyone the reason, including himself, and often tried to ignore it.
Jiang Ran, that tall, rich, and handsome guy, was a campus celebrity in college, always the center of attention wherever he went. The line of boys and girls pursuing him could stretch from the dormitories to the school gate.
But Jiang Ran herself, at least in front of her roommates like Su Mu, has never been in a relationship.
He was indeed very good to Su Mu.
That kind of goodness, naturalness, and comfort, without putting pressure on anyone, left an indelible mark on Su Mu's heart, which was exceptionally sensitive because of his background and had been subtly changed by seeing a larger world.
These seemingly insignificant details, which at the time might have seemed like just roommate affection or the kindness of Young Master Jiang, gradually seeped into the barren land in Su Mu's heart—a land that no one had ever set foot in before, a land that even he himself had never noticed.
When he realized it, a seedling named "Like" had quietly sprouted on that wasteland, something that shouldn't have been there.
It wasn't liking a friend, nor admiration for an outstanding companion, but something more secretive, more turbulent, and more terrifying to him.
—The feeling of being moved.
He was... turned gay by Jiang Ran.
This is the real reason why he didn't dare to, and didn't know how, to take the initiative to contact Jiang Ran after graduation.
He was afraid that once they made contact, the secret feelings he had forcibly suppressed in his heart and tried to dilute with busyness and distance would break out uncontrollably, exposed to Jiang Ran and to the light of day.
Therefore, he could only act like a coward and stay far away.
Now, Jiang Ran is actually getting engaged.
The words that came from the well-informed Skinny Monkey were both sour and bitter to Su Mu.
But misfortunes never come singly.
At the time, a project he was working on had encountered a significant problem. Although it wasn't directly caused by him, as a member of the project team, he couldn't escape responsibility.
His boss's scolding, customer complaints, and colleagues' overt or covert excuses were like invisible nets, suffocating him.
Su Mu could only suppress the bitterness and frustration in his heart, pull himself together, and stay up for several nights to deal with the mess little by little, writing self-criticisms, revising plans, and communicating in a humble manner.
During those hectic and exhausting days, the company arranged a business trip to Jiangzhou.
When Su Mu received the business trip notice, he stared at the two words "Jiangzhou" for a long time. The stagnant water in his heart, which had been temporarily calmed by his busy schedule, began to ripple with chaotic waves again.
A disheartened and frustrated man can be as daring in his ideas as he can be productive.
Those thoughts that are usually suppressed by reason and reality begin to grow wildly and uncontrollably under the catalysis of fatigue, frustration and a certain near despair.
He lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling of the rented room, the words of the skinny monkey echoing in his mind. He recalled Jiang Ran's gentleness during college, his struggle of saving money desperately for the past two years but still seeing no way out, and that deep-seated, unrequited love that could never be reciprocated.
He thought that he would probably never be able to touch Jiang Ran in his lifetime.
The distance between them is not just a few hundred kilometers; it is the disparity of the entire world.
Jiang Ran is getting married to a wealthy heiress who is her equal, in a perfect union of equals.
As for Su Mu, he was just an insignificant college roommate in Jiang Ran's long life, someone she would soon completely forget.
So, the night before his business trip to Jiangzhou, Su Mu sent Jiang Ran a screenshot of his flight ticket to Jiangzhou for the next day.
Jiang Ran's reply came relatively quickly; a line of text popped up on the screen, her tone tinged with doubt.
—? Do you want me to pick you up?
A few simple words, a question mark, were like a sudden ray of light shining into Su Mu's gloomy heart.
He stared at the line of text for a long time before slowly typing a reply: Young Master Jiang, let's get together.
So, on the night of their business trip, they actually got together.
Jiang Ran picked him up from the hotel and took him to a quiet, expensive private restaurant. Jiang Ran had chosen the location.
Two years have passed, and Jiang Ran is even more handsome now. It's not the youthful, aloof handsomeness he had in college; it's a more mature and composed look. The contours of his eyes and brows are more defined, and his every move exudes a serene air cultivated by a life of privilege and good upbringing.
He was wearing a well-tailored shirt and trousers, without a tie, and the top two buttons of his collar were undone, making him look both casual and dignified. He came over and hugged him.
The moment Su Mu saw him, her heart skipped a beat, followed by a strong, almost dazzling surge of excitement. She even wanted to grab anyone nearby, point at Jiang Ran, and say: "Look how handsome he is."
Throughout the meal, Su Mu ate without tasting a thing. Looking at Jiang Ran across from him, whose speech and manners were impeccable, listening to him chat about some trivial recent events, and feeling the subtle distance between them that seemed familiar yet actually separated them, a dark and audacious thought grew wildly and became entangled in his mind.
He decided, tonight.
He wanted to sleep with Jiang Ran.
Before Jiang Ran went to meet any wealthy heiresses and before she signed the engagement agreement, they took advantage of the situation.
At least for now, in the name of law and morality, Jiang Ran is still single.
Jiang Ran was clearly unaware of the turmoil in Su Mu's mind at that moment.
He kept looking at Su Mu the whole time: "Xiao Mu, why have you lost so much weight? You don't look well either. No matter how busy you are with work, you need to take good care of yourself."
Fat Knife and Skinny Monkey both called him Wood, but Jiang Ran called him Little Wood.
Su Mu said, "Oh, it's nothing. Everyone does it this way. It's normal in the industry."
As the meal drew to a close, Su Mu's heart pounded like a drum. He made an excuse to go out and buy a pack of chewing gum, then turned into a convenience store on the side of the road.
He lingered in front of the shelves, his gaze finally settling on a row of colorful little square boxes.
Depend on!
He stared at the price tag and cursed inwardly.
Are you taking advantage of his lack of sex life? Why are condoms so expensive now? They've gone up a lot in price compared to what he remembers.
Su Mu is a person who is quite frugal in his life and doesn't have to stretch every penny. However, there's no need to spend money on things he doesn't need.
Forget it, I won't buy it.
He's a man, and he and Jiang Ran are both healthy; they don't need to.
He bought a box of chewing gum and returned to the private room.
He never imagined that his decision to give up and not buy it would later lead to such a huge disaster.
A note from the author:
Our young master Jiang is the gentle oppa type.
Little Wood: [Heart eyes] So handsome!
The man was hard-hearted; he wrote a little yesterday and continued writing the first chapter today.
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