197: They dated for eight years, and he cheated on her for five.

The waiter soon brought the food to the table.

Chen Qiu took two bites; the taste was actually quite good.

While eating, Chen Qiu picked up where Peng Hui had left off.

“So, you want over a million a year. How long is this supposed to last?”

“At least for a full twenty years!”

Peng Hui tapped her bowl and spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Think about it. An outstanding woman like me is giving up her most precious 20 years to be a housewife. If I spent that time developing my own career, what would a few tens of millions in compensation even matter!”

Tens of millions in compensation?

Hearing her confident words, Chen Qiu chuckled and commented,

“Ms. Peng, you are very confident.”

Earning thirty or forty thousand a month now, yet she dared to assume she could earn tens of millions in the future.

What Chen Qiu found most bizarre was that this assumption could actually be used as a bargaining chip.

It was like someone who just got into middle school already deciding whether to attend Tsinghua or Peking University... “A former colleague of mine got married, and her husband gave her ten million in cash!”

“I'm not inferior to her, so these requests are quite reasonable!”

Peng Hui said calmly.

The classic comparison with a colleague: if someone else has it, why can't I?

Chen Qiu asked again,

“Then do you have requirements for the bride price, house, and car?”

“Of course. But with Mr. Chen's financial strength, I don't think it should be difficult.”

Peng Hui spoke without hesitation.

“A fully paid-off apartment in downtown Shenzhen, a car for commuting worth five hundred thousand... Oh, and I have high standards for the wedding. I attended a friend's wedding before, and it was exceptionally beautiful and grand!”

“So I hope my future wedding can achieve that kind of feeling!”

“Additionally, for the honeymoon, I want to go to Paris and Florence!”

“We can't have children too soon after marriage. After having a child, we'll need to hire a full-time nanny because I'll definitely have no time to look after the baby while doing postpartum recovery...”

As Chen Qiu listened to Peng Hui list her requirements, the system's voice rang in his mind.

[Ding! Blind date's requirements matched. You have received 48 million in cash (total for 20 years), a property in Bay City, a million-dollar wedding plan, and a special fund for honeymoon travel!]

One doesn't realize until calculating, but the result was shocking.

One million a year, growing at a rate of 10%—over 20 years, it actually reached as high as fifty million?!

“Ms. Peng, do you know how much the requirements you just mentioned amount to in cash?”

Chen Qiu couldn't help but speak up.

“About forty or fifty million...”

After saying that, Peng Hui asked in return,

“Don't you think getting a high-quality woman like me for just a few tens of millions is a great deal?”

“Uh... where is the high quality?”

“I have a bachelor's degree, I speak eloquently, and my looks and figure are at the level of a class beauty. Does that not count as a high-quality woman?”

Sensing the slight contempt in Chen Qiu's tone, Peng Hui's voice became a bit sharper.

Chen Qiu spread his hands upon hearing this.

“Ms. Peng, do you know what fifty million represents?”

“To keep a female college student from an art academy only costs two or three hundred thousand a year.”

“With fifty million, I could keep three generations of her family!”

“Ms. Peng, your level of beauty would only be considered average at an art academy, right?”

Peng Hui immediately retorted!

“I am also a Livestream Host earning tens of thousands a month. How many girls can manage that?”

Chen Qiu shook his head.

“Earning tens of thousands a month is indeed impressive for a girl, but it has no value to me!”

“After talking with Ms. Peng for so long, you seem very good at measuring the value of things with money.”

“Then you should know that the person spending the money is buying corresponding value and service.”

“I'm not a boss; I don't want a Livestream Host. I want a virtuous wife who can take good care of a future home.”

“Ms. Peng, are you sure your ability as a wife and full-time housewife is worth tens of millions?”

Peng Hui's expression had already soured, and her tone turned hostile.

“What do you mean by that?”

Chen Qiu smiled.

“Bargaining.”

“If the goods don't meet expectations, isn't it reasonable to lower the price?”

Seeing that Peng Hui was on the verge of exploding, Chen Qiu changed his approach.

“How many relationships has Ms. Peng had before?”

“Three.”

“Three, okay...”

Before Chen Qiu could finish, his eyes suddenly froze.

Three?

Didn't Yu Chuan say that he and Peng Hui were each other's first loves?

Chen Qiu looked up and saw that Yu Chuan, sitting at another table, also seemed dumbfounded.

He and Peng Hui had started dating in their sophomore year, and at that time, Peng Hui had explicitly told him that he was her first love.

Had Peng Hui been lying since then?

No, she had no time to date in high school, and in her freshman year, she was still a plain village girl.

Most importantly, he had indeed taken Peng Hui's first time!

At this moment, Yu Chuan heard Chen Qiu speak again.

“Then when was your last relationship?”

A moment later, Peng Hui's answer reached his ears.

“A month ago. We just broke up recently!”

Yu Chuan was stunned.

Was I unilaterally broken up with?

While his emotions were in turmoil, the dialogue between Chen Qiu and Peng Hui reached his ears, leaving him completely dazed.

“May I ask, what was the reason for the breakup?”

“It was nothing, the feelings just faded... Besides, doesn't Mr. Chen think my requirements are high?”

“I can tell you that my ex-boyfriend was from an A9 family. During our relationship, he treated me very well, always buying me bags and luxury goods!”

“Not just the ex-boyfriend; my boyfriend before that was a mature CEO of a listed company. He would satisfy every request I made!”

Peng Hui folded her arms and lifted her chin, speaking to Chen Qiu indifferently.

“I didn't want to mention these, but Mr. Chen seems to have a misunderstanding of my personal value and charm!”

“My last two boyfriends in a row were high-quality men. That should be enough to prove something!”

After hearing this, Chen Qiu was completely confused.

“When did you date these two boyfriends?”

“After graduating from university.”

“What about the first one?”

“The first one was my first love when I was young and naive. There's nothing worth talking about!”

Hearing Peng Hui's heartless and even somewhat disgusted tone, Chen Qiu gradually figured it out.

Yu Chuan was right; he indeed was Peng Hui's first love.

But at the same time, Peng Hui was also very honest.

She had dated three men!

It was just that she started dating the second one before breaking up with the first.

In other words, during these years since graduation, while Yu Chuan was working over ten hours a day, Peng Hui had been constantly cuckolding him!

They had been in a relationship for eight years since their sophomore year, and she had been cheating on him for five of those years.

Chen Qiu looked at Yu Chuan's back with a sympathetic gaze.

He could see that Yu Chuan seemed to be trembling slightly.

The next moment, he suddenly stood up.

Yu Chuan could no longer hold it in.

His entire body was shaking with rage!

When he heard Peng Hui's descriptions of her last and second-to-last boyfriends, his mind went blank!

Yu Chuan never imagined that while he was working hard every day to make money, Peng Hui had already been unfaithful, dating other men behind his back!

He thought Peng Hui coming home for a blind date was just looking for a better option while keeping him as a backup, but he didn't realize he wasn't even a backup!

And hearing Peng Hui's slightly disgusted tone toward him, even her refusal to say more, was like a heartless thunderbolt striking Yu Chuan's chest!

He was both sorrowful and extremely furious!

He believed he had never mistreated Peng Hui, yet he never expected that in her heart, he was actually dispensable, or even something to be despised!

Yu Chuan couldn't restrain himself; he had to confront Peng Hui and get an answer!

Yu Chuan's sudden outburst startled the young couple nearby.

They had been listening to the gossip and sympathizing with Yu Chuan. After being startled by his angry movement, the girl quickly said to the boy,

“Quick, stop him, or something bad will happen!”

The boy started to reach out to grab Yu Chuan's waist but then pulled his hand back.

“Stopping him will only make things worse...”

The boy sighed to himself.

Chen Qiu didn't stop him either.

He watched as Yu Chuan shouted Peng Hui's name with a trembling, angry voice.

“Peng Hui!”

Hearing the familiar voice explode behind her, Peng Hui's body stiffened.

She turned around and met Yu Chuan's eyes, which were burning with intense fury.

“You just... heard everything?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Peng Hui knew she was stating the obvious!

From Yu Chuan's incensed expression, he had definitely heard it.

And... Peng Hui's gaze fell on Yu Chuan's seat.

Since she walked in, that position behind her didn't seem to have changed.

In other words, Yu Chuan had been waiting here before she even arrived at the restaurant.

“You tracked me?”

“You snooped through my phone?”

Before Yu Chuan could even speak, Peng Hui struck first with an accusation!

“You're invading my privacy!”

Yu Chuan didn't expect that at the moment he confronted her, Peng Hui's first reaction wouldn't be to explain, let alone apologize!

Instead, she launched a moral condemnation against him.

Yu Chuan gave a bitter laugh.

He finally saw clearly that in Peng Hui's heart, he was already no different from a stranger!

“Privacy?”

“I should just keep working like an idiot and protect your privacy while you're seeing other men?!”

“Peng Hui, I never realized before how clever you were at two-timing!”

“I want to know, where exactly did I mistreat you?”

“After we started dating, during university, out of my five thousand yuan monthly allowance, at least three thousand was spent on you!”

“Clothes, phones, food, entertainment—did I ever let you go without?”

“After starting work, I paid the rent, I provided the food!”

“Whatever you wanted, I did my best to buy for you!”

“Why? Why did you cheat?”

Yu Chuan became more distressed and confused as he spoke, his voice even choking up toward the end.

“Don't disgust me with that look of how much you've sacrificed!”

Peng Hui said with utter coldness.

“During university, didn't you eat and have fun too? You used that money as well, so don't put it all on me!”

“After graduation, you say you did your best to buy things for me. Do you mean that an eight-thousand-yuan bag requires four months of saving to afford?”

“If you had given half the money you sent to your mother to me, I would have believed you truly cared for me!”

“But you didn't have that attitude at all!”

Peng Hui's accusations made Yu Chuan's breathing quicken, his chest heaving violently.

He was shocked—shocked that Peng Hui could be so selfish and self-serving!

Was loving her only possible if he devoted himself entirely to her?

To think he thought Peng Hui had been sticking by him through thick and thin without complaint for the past two years.

Looking back now, Peng Hui was purely enjoying herself!

It wasn't that Peng Hui had changed later on; she just stopped pretending.

“I gave money to my mother to help pay off the family debt! Did you not know that?”

Yu Chuan said in disbelief.

“I knew!”

Peng Hui said calmly.

“That's why I found a new boyfriend who doesn't have debts to pay!”

“The restaurants I want to eat at, he takes me there that very day!”

“The bags I want, he has them in my hands the next day!”

“When I go out with him, I don't have to sit on the back of an electric scooter, exposed to the wind and rain!”

It was as if Yu Chuan was seeing his girlfriend for the first time; a hint of fear even emerged deep in his eyes.

“Then what about our feelings?”

“Are the years of feelings from university worth nothing?”

“Feelings? Back then, I was just young and didn't know my own value, blinded by the superior family background you projected.”

Hearing this, Chen Qiu finally understood!

This Peng Hui had probably never changed from the start.

In school, Yu Chuan could use that five thousand yuan allowance to take Peng Hui out, eat, drink, and expand her horizons. For a small-town girl entering university for the first time, that was definitely a powerful attraction!

After graduation, Yu Chuan's family suffered a setback, and the money he earned was simply not enough to satisfy Peng Hui's ever-growing desires!

Society is a testing ground far more strictly hierarchical than the ivory tower of university!

While Yu Chuan was struggling to climb up in this testing ground, Peng Hui discovered the upgraded versions of Yu Chuan in society!

Unlike in university, the temptations and desires in society were far more abundant than in the ivory tower!

Peng Hui had failed to resist these temptations entirely!

Or rather, she was thoroughly enjoying it!

Just like that, Yu Chuan, whose family debt meant he couldn't provide Peng Hui with greater excitement, was directly discarded.

And Chen Qiu suddenly realized something.

It's common knowledge that when most people talk about their past number of relationships, it basically doesn't exceed three!

Counting Yu Chuan, Peng Hui had exactly three.

But they had been graduated for many years now!

Yu Chuan worked over ten hours a day and was rarely home.

In such a situation, would Peng Hui have only dated three times?

To speculate maliciously, she might have had three abortions!

“Since you lost feelings for me long ago, why didn't you bring up a breakup?”

Yu Chuan raised his most perplexing point!

Did playing with his feelings give Peng Hui a sense of achievement?

Peng Hui just gave a contemptuous smile.

Where else could she find an obedient servant who was usually not home and even gave her money?

Of course, the main factor was that one of her "boyfriends" happened to have a thing for the Cao Wei style... PS: Four thousand words, two chapters in one.