Chapter 5 (4)
Next comes negotiation.
Yu Rui felt that this was the most difficult public relations experience she had ever encountered.
Shi wasn't "extremely wealthy." They had already torn off the veil of tender affection. Shi Tongguang understood her needs; he simply didn't want to give. She felt like she'd been ripped off.
The materials are ready and we are ready.
Shi Tongguang came back from outside. Yu Rui was sitting on the sofa with the TV turned off.
Pure meditation. The atmosphere is dark and depressing.
"Why don't you watch TV?" he asked.
"Let me tell you something." Yu Rui was very serious.
Shi Tongguang went to the refrigerator to find water.
"Come here." Yu Rui said again.
Shi Tongguang took the water, turned it on, took a sip, and walked over reluctantly.
"sit."
He sat down, legs crossed. "I know, I understand. Wait a little longer."
Want to use a delaying tactic.
"I'm pregnant," Yu Rui said clearly, "Yours."
She can't wait.
Shi Tongguang was a little dazed, his eyes wide open as if propped up by matchsticks, "No..." He paused, "This..."
Yu Rui placed the checklist on the coffee table and pushed it in front of him.
Shi Tongguang took a breath and said, "Isn't this nonsense?"
Nonsense?! She hated the word. Who was actually being nonsense?
"What should I do?" she asked him.
"What do you think?" he asked her back.
"You are the child's father, I respect your opinion."
Shi Tongguang thought for a long time and said, "It's better not to ask for it. It's not suitable."
As expected.
"Hitting children is very harmful to their health."
"I'll pay for it, don't worry."
"Including what."
"The cost of surgery." Shi Tongguang's tone was a bit shameless.
"Why not give birth to the baby?" Yu Rui probably wanted to provoke him.
"No!" he said firmly.
"Give birth to the baby and then we'll get married." Yu Rui deliberately said something sarcastic.
"Baby, please stop making trouble. Isn't it good for the two of you to be happy? Why do you have to do that? Haven't you had enough of your two-person world?" Shi Tongguang said softly.
"Beating children is a crime. You will go to hell. It is mentally unbearable. I am a Buddhist. It also causes great harm to the body. What if it affects future fertility?" Yu Rui presented facts and reasoned.
"Then tell me, what should we do?" Shi Tongguang lost his patience.
"One million." Yu Rui said without hesitation.
Shi Tongguang laughed heartily. "After going around for so long, we're finally back here. Xiaorui, are you with me just for the money?"
Yu Rui sneered, "You're not rich enough to warrant my scheming."
"Do you have feelings for me?"
"certainly."
"But your current behavior is disheartening."
"You're not the only one who's heartbroken." Yu Rui tried her best to remain calm, but her hands were shaking slightly.
"I can't have this child."
"We can't fight in vain."
"One million is too much."
“It’s not enough to open a store.”
"Your shop is not just any shop."
"You're ready to be a father."
"My dear, it's not good for anyone to fight to the death." Shi Tongguang changed his tone, "We loved each other very much at the beginning, didn't we? Think about the past. The good days." He was pretending to be nice, trying to win Yu Rui's affection.
"You're not planning on marrying me."
"I never said that we have to get married just because we are in love. Who can guarantee such a thing?" He is being shameless.
"There's no point in not talking about this," said Yu Rui.
"I knew you would look down on a poor, plain-looking person like me," Shi Tongguang said. "I'm not a gold mine, so I can't dig out any gold."
"You are the child's father! You are not responsible for me, but for yourself! You are responsible for the rest of your life!"
"You know what you look like."
"It's not your turn to judge me."
Shi Tongguang smiled and said, "Everyone has to sell something in this world. It's no big deal, I understand. But it's not that easy to get something for nothing."
"What I paid is more than worth it." Yu Rui said.
"Pay what? What happened in bed?"
"You bastard!"
"Okay, miss, enough is enough. No one is stupid."
"Tell your mother this."
"My mother? Why, you plan to talk to her about it," Shi Tongguang said with a wicked smile, "Do you think she will help you? Yes, she will let you give birth to the child and then hand it over to her. You will be doing voluntary labor. Don't forget, she gave birth to me. How could she possibly stand on your side? Love is really a luxury. I have given so much, and you turn a blind eye to it?"
"Love? Who's that Liu?" she asked, referring to the one he was dating.
"Who is Huang?" Shi Tongguang said with a wicked smile, pointing to Huangqi. He believed that Rui and Huangqi were still connected.
"Okay! I'm determined to have the baby!" Yu Rui said, "Let's see if Mr. Liu still wants you."
"Come on, five hundred thousand, let's just go our separate ways. No more. Surrogacy costs just that much, and it was just an accident." Shi Tongguang looked willing to negotiate. "Just because we sleep together every night, you have to pay so much money. What do you call that? Honey, tell me, what is that? What is that? I don't like talking about money when it comes to relationships. Don't make yourself sound like a..." Shi Tongguang trailed off. He had originally wanted to say "chicken."
"I don't have any feelings for you now!" Yu Rui was rude.
"Not now, but yes in the past. You enjoyed it very much and even screamed loudly. I put in the work, why doesn't anyone pay me?" Shi Tongguang argued shamelessly.
"Are you tired?" Yu Rui said, "Now we're not talking about labor, we're talking about the fruits of labor."
“So many surprises.”
"Ninety." Yu Rui made a new offer.
"eighty."
"Eighty-five."
"Okay!" Shi Tongguang gritted his teeth.
make a deal.
Leaving Shi Tongguang's rented house, Yu Rui burst into tears on the side of the road. She had to stay there for a while, otherwise she'd end up on the streets. After the abortion, she had to recuperate there. Once she'd recovered enough that no one could see, she could move in with Yu Shuang. They huddled together for warmth.
But besides Huang Qi, she couldn't let anyone else know about this. Especially her female friends. She couldn't afford to lose face. In the entertainment industry, she'd heard countless stories of actresses selling themselves for money and fame. It wasn't new, but when it came to her, she realized the humiliation.
She entered into a relationship with the intention of getting married, but in the end, it turned into a case of thieves robbing each other - she became the seller and Shi was the buyer.
She was filled with guilt. For 850,000 yuan, she had sold a child, depriving him of his chance to enter this world. She was a bad woman, a bad mother. But she had no choice. She felt worthless. She suddenly realized that lowering her own worth was pointless. She was now suspended in mid-air. On the one hand, she couldn't be like Sister Yu Jia, peacefully looking for a promising stock, waiting for eight, ten, or twenty years, until the clouds cleared and the moon appeared. On the other hand, she couldn't be like Yu Meng, who would rather take a single peach than a basket of rotten apricots.
She believed she had made a fundamental strategic mistake. As the old saying goes, "Take the best and you'll get the middle; take the middle and you'll get the worst; take the worst and you might get nothing." Her compromise strategy ultimately yielded only a pitiful compensation, a stillbirth, and significant damage to her health. She had to act quickly.
That night, she called Huang Qi and told him she was going to the hospital. Huang Qi asked, "Have you paid?" His tone hurt Yu Rui. She felt even more deeply that she was making a shady deal. Shi Tongguang moved out quickly. He paid 400,000 yuan upfront, saying he would pay the rest in one lump sum after the operation. Yu Rui had no choice but to find a private obstetrics and gynecology hospital, filled with humiliation. Huang Qi accompanied her. When the doctor asked, he said he was her boyfriend and that neither of them wanted the child.
The doctor was a middle-aged woman with freckles and a weathered look. Her accent suggested she was from out of town, perhaps from Northeast China. Perhaps she'd worked in obstetrics and gynecology before, but now, in the big city, could only work in private hospitals. Yu Rui gritted her teeth and went through the curettage. It was painful, but she didn't cry out. Afterward, she sent a treatment order to Shi Tongguang, who was quite forthcoming and paid the bill immediately. Then, she blocked him. Never contact him again.
Yu Rui knew that she was not famous at the moment. If she became famous as an actress in the future, Shi Tongguang might come out again and say that he had slept with someone in the past and that she had had an abortion for him.
Huang Qi stood by the bed. Yu Rui held out her hand. He sat down and held her hand, as if to give her strength. "Don't tell anyone..." She still cared about her reputation. It was important. "Don't worry," he said.
Huang Qi had taken on another role and was about to leave the big city for the Northeast. He sat for a long time and bought her some porridge. Yu Rui wanted to eat preserved egg and lean meat porridge.
After eating, she said, "Go ahead."
"Can it be done?"
"No problem, it's nothing." She looked like she could hold on even if the sky fell.
Yu Rui cried several more times, alone. Lying on the living room sofa—back home, she didn't want to sleep in the same bed Shi Tongguang had slept in. She gently held her belly. It was flat, even when the child left, but it was different. It felt different with him and without him. She felt different.
Life, she had destroyed a life. This was the first time. As he was torn from her body, she felt the piercing pain that life had given her. The pain in her heart would slowly dissipate, left to time. But she believed that this pain would be like plastic buried in the soil, probably taking a lifetime to degrade.
Yu Rui also reflected on her journey with Shi Tongguang. Was she insincere? Not necessarily. Was he insincere? Not necessarily. At the beginning, both of them were sincere, but things changed as time went by. He refused to take her to meet his family and friends, kept a beautiful woman in his house, and didn't have her in his future. He always thought she was after his money. Ridiculous. So what? She was nothing, nothing, so why would she be with you? Yu Rui truly realized that these people who have become wealthy are just hard to see through. The truly wealthy are not afraid of a fixed price. They are afraid of asking for money, but they are most afraid of you not wanting anything.
Every failure is a lesson learned. But she had to swallow this loss, keeping it to herself, not letting anyone else know. However, once she finally received the "final payment"—Shi Tongguang had even deducted the rent, and he'd demanded a split, what a man!—Yu Rui was reluctant to open the shop again. This was truly hard-earned money, the very foundation that would sustain her future.
After a month's break, Yu Rui went on a trip to Japan with several actresses. She knew one of them was working as an escort, frequently taking photos at various locations. Halfway through the trip, she found work, so she transferred directly from Osaka to Indonesia to accompany her on the trip.
Yu Rui felt sad. Who was greater than who? Who had it easier than who? Was there any fundamental difference between a prostitute, a decent woman, and a woman like her who had been in so many relationships?
The peripherals frequently sell themselves to different people, while she, on the other hand, sells herself to different people periodically. A good wife like Jia Jie sells herself to one person in a package. She hates Old Shi, but she agrees with what he said: everyone has to sell something in this world. Some sell their looks, some sell their talents, and some sell their souls...
It didn't matter. Yu Rui now understood one thing: selling was fine, but it had to be sold at a good price. Life was so difficult, so don't mistreat yourself.
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