Chapter 7 Match

‘This guy seems to have a nasty temper, and he clearly doesn’t care about other people’s opinion or he wouldn’t go on such a cursing tirade on the side of the road.

“Aside from his money and good looks, that idiot has nothing he can be arrogant about.”

Hua Jin just silently stood there at a corner, thinking to herself that it was actually quite good if someone had both money and a good looking face.

　The man in the leather jacket continued his ranting, while Hua Jin was leaning on the wall as she quietly listened. It would seem that after having such a busy day, just standing quietly in a corner and eavesdropping on someone else using swear words was soothing to her. It was to the point that this man was cursing a certain someone so much that if the other person were here, he’d beat the guy to death.

　“Yo, aren’t you the second child of the Chen Family?” A red sports car stopped right under the streetlamp, portraying a beautiful curves.

　After he saw who was inside the car, Chen Sen’s mouth gaped a bit. “Mr-Mr Pei?” He put on a dry smile, “I’m just here to admire the moon.”

“Oh?” Pei Yan glanced at the pitch-black sky, “It seems that your eyesight is good.”

Chen Sen also looked up only to find that there was no moon tonight. The atmosphere instantly became awkward.

“Isn’t it too hot to be out and about?” Pei Yan got out of his car and took off his suit, simply throwing it into the car. He walked over to Chen Sen before patting him on the shoulder, “Right?”

“No, not really.” Chen Sen smiled, “Why are you here, Mr Pei?”

　“The road on the right is congested with traffic, so of course I had to take a different route. Even though there aren’t a lot of pedestrians using this road, I’m not too fond of speeding anyway, so I purposefully drove slowly. If I didn’t, I would have never noticed you were here.” Pei Yan seemed to be oblivious of Chen Sen’s current discomfort. “How about I accompany you here to watch the moonlight as well?”

　“No need, No need. I know you’re a very busy man, so how could you waste your time doing such a boring thing?” When Chen Sen heard him mention “speeding”, his facial muscles couldn’t help but twitch as his brother was in the hospital right now because of an accident during a car race. This Pei Yan was deliberately mocking his brother by mentioning it. However, Pei Yan was still one of his investors in a big project, so even though he was extremely unhappy right now, he could only endure it. 

“A person such as I, who has nothing to do but spend my money, can never be too busy, right?” Pei Yan crossed his arms around his chests lazily said, “Appreciating the moon doesn’t sound so bad when you’ve got nothing to do anyways.”

Chen Sen laughed dryly as he was blanking on how to respond to the person in front of him. Also, all he could think of was whether or not Pei Yan had actually heard all the curses he was spewing just now. He couldn’t figure out anything from how Pei Yan was acting, which made him even more uneasy.

A few months ago, Pei Yan was still calling someone brother the day before, but on the morrow, he had abruptly broken all ties with him and his family. Puzzled, the person’s family begged many people to try to set up a reconciliation, but in the end, it was found out that the reason Pei Yan had broken their ties was that he couldn’t stand the other person’s littering. 

The reasoning was so casual that it made everyone speechless and suspect it was just an excuse. But since then, as long as Pei Yan was present, almost no one dared to litter anymore. 

The social circle of the rich wasn’t small at all, and to be sure, within this group were many with strange tempers. But there weren’t many who were as weird as Pei Yan.

Ordinary people behave in a regular way, but the things done by weirdos often make people puzzled, so it’s better not to offend them.

Hua Jin thought for a moment before concluding that the scene happening in front of her was just like one of those big caught-in-the-act scenes where the person being bad-mouthed suddenly appeared, with the bad-mouther’s anger disappearing just as quick, replaced by polite flattery.

She did not expect such a hot-tempered person to also be two-faced. 

　“Who’s there…?” Pei Yan suddenly turned and upon seeing Hua Jin, he walked up to her and asked, “Why are you just standing around there when it’s almost midnight?”

Hua Jin simply pointed to the sky, “Just here to see if the moon will come out.”

“………”

　The conversation that had just started ended there and then. The two stared at each other silently for three seconds more, before Hua Jin motioned to walk away, “Then, I won’t be disturbing you guys any longer, so you two can chat away.”

When Pei Yan saw her eyes, they seemed to reflect the light of the street lamps, like a calm lake under the moonlight.

　“Wait.” Pei Yan stopped her, “You’re still too young to be wandering about outside as if you have nothing to do. Protect yourself well as even though you are free to do as you please, you only have one life.” 

Hua Jin was stunned for a moment, before smiling at Pei Yan, “Thank you for your kind concern, Handsome Guy.”

“Tsk.” Pei Yan proudly raised his chin. “Let’s go then.”

“Go where?” Hua Jin took a few steps back. She covered her chest and said, “I’m a decent person.”

“Crazy.” Pei Yan looked at her strangely, “I’ll drive you back.”

“Thank you for your kind offer, but there’s no need as I’ve already called a taxi.” Hua Jin raised her phone showing the taxi app. A driver had already taken her order.

Pei Yan nodded sullenly as he turned to leave. He’d only taken a few steps, before someone pulled his shirt from behind. Looking back, he saw the woman just now letting go of the two fingers she had used to pull his shirt.

“If you have anything to say, just say it. You don’t have to pull.” Pei Yan took two steps back before speaking.

“Sorry, my mistake.” Hua Jin rubbed her hand and whispered, “For the sake of your good looks, let me tell you something.”

“What?” Pei Yan lowered his gaze as he casually rolled up his sleeves, not paying Hua Jin any mind. His attitude had become a little cold. 

“Just now, that friend of yours was cursing a man named Pei Yan on the side of the road.” Hua Jin waved her hand before saying, “There, I’ve said what I wanted to say. My taxi is here too, so bye~”

The woman’s departing feature was elegant, and the way she walked wasn’t too fast or slow, akin to a peacock proud of its feather-patterns. Only peacocks with magnificent feathers were desirable.

“Mr Pei, is that lady your friend?” Chen Sen leaned over to Pei Yan, putting on a pleasing smile. “She’s so pretty.”

“Pretty?” Pei Yan remembered those sparkling eyes before lightly saying, “That isn’t an issue here if you actually wanted to stand out on the street.”

Chen Sen: ?

“After all, there aren’t many people like you who’d go on a tirade on the street.” Pei Yan left with this sentence as he turned around and walked towards his favorite car.

Hearing it, Chen Sen’s heart tightened. He quickly tried to follow him saying, “Mr Pei, please let me explain!”

Pei Yan ignored him, simply opening his car door and getting in. Chen Sen held onto the car door pleading, “Mr Pei, Mr Pei…”

“Don’t worry, your father is a good man. My personal matters with you are trivial.” Pei Yan glanced at Chen Sen’s hand still clasping the door, “Let go.”

Chen Sen quickly retracted his hand.

Pei Yan sneered as he raised the automatic window. He sprayed Chen Sen with exhaust fumes while driving away.

He liked the fact that even though others had obvious dislike of him, they couldn’t do anything about it.

Lying on her comfy bed, Hua Jin stretched her back as much as she could. It was already an hour past midnight but she still couldn’t sleep. She took out her phone to look at the weather forecast for the next two days and found out that it was going to rain–no wonder her knee was hurting so badly today.

When she opened Weibo, even before the front page loaded, countless message notifications popped out from her phone that her phone OS froze. She got so surprised that she jumped out of bed, trying to restart her phone, trying to figure out if she’s recently said something on Weibo that might have gotten her canceled.

As far as she knows, she’s only ever posted embroidery pictures on Weibo, right?

After successfully rebooting her phone, she nervously opened Weibo again while clutching her chest. There were thousands of comments on her last Weibo post. Hua Jin was confused. Who were these countless unknown users who had left her reviews?

She clicked on the comments and they were all complimenting her on her good craftsmanship or on her kind-heartedness.

She was indeed elated to be praised by so many people, but… why were these people calling her a ‘Master’? Had there been a misunderstanding?

Just what had happened these past few days?

Hua Jin was frowning when she heard a knock on her door. It’s already late at night so who could be looking for her at this time?

“Hua Jin, are you there?” It was Sister Qin’s voice.

Hua Jin put down her phone, peeked through the crack of her door before opening slightly. “Sister Qin, it’s so late already so why aren’t you asleep yet?”

“I had something come up today, so that’s why I’m still awake.” Sister Qin was wearing a coat and looked like she was going out. She peeked inside the apartment before asking, “Can I come in?”

“Please.” Hua Jin allowed Sister Qin to enter her room and even poured her a glass of water.

Sister Qin chatted with her about work and weather for a bit, before finally getting to the point. “You just turned 24 today, right?”

Hua Jin paused her cutting some fruit as she turned to look at Sister Qin.

“It’s not easy for you to work hard outside, all alone right? Have you ever thought of finding someone to take care of you?” Sister Qin teased while fidgeting with the hair around her ears. “You’re beautiful and you know your craft. If you’re planning on finding a boyfriend, there’ll certainly be many people who’ll line up to apply.”

Placing the peeled apple slices on a plate, Hua Jin wiped the fruit knife cleanly before politely smiling, “Sister Qin, you must be joking. I neither have a car nor a house, so how can I fairly contribute to such a relationship?”

“You may not have those, but as long as the man has them, wouldn’t that be enough?” Sister Qin continued, “There’s a young man in my family who is a college graduate, and his hometown is near here. His parents are good-tempered and diligent, and he works for a big company. I heard his salary was at least ¥20,000 to ¥30,000* a month. When you visited me a few days ago, he caught a glimpse of you by accident. Since then, he has been pestering me about giving him your contact info. I’ve been thinking about asking you if you were willing before doing anything, but I didn’t expect you to come back so late today. I hope I haven’t disturbed your sleep.”

Note: Chinese Yuan (¥) : US Dollar ($) = ¥6.75 : $1.00 // So, ¥20,000 is about USD$2963 per month. Not bad, considering the cost of living in China is still way lower than compared to the US, unless you live in really big cities like Shanghai or Beijing. 

“Sister Qin, I don’t have any plans to fall in love as of now.” Hua Jin put the fruit plate in front of Sister Qin. “Though, could you tell him that I appreciate his kind regards?” ‘He’s just seen my face and doesn’t know anything about me or my character, but he’s already wanting to be matched up? How long can such a ‘love-at-first-sight relationship even last?’ 

“I’m sure you young people have a lot of things in common to talk about, so even if you don’t want to be lovers, maybe just add him to your contacts as friends?” Seeing that Hua Jin didn’t reply, Sister Qin continued her persuasion, “Please. He visits me every day, to the point that it is overwhelming and giving me a headache!”

“I hope you don’t start disliking your, Sister Qin’s words. There are many young people outside of the city that are looking for a partner with a local household registry*. You…”

Note: In China, “residency” is not automatic to the place you live in. “Resident status” allows one certain benefits like being able to own a vehicle or purchase a house and lot or an apartment in a certain area, etc., since almost everything is government regulated. This is especially important to schooling districts as only local residents are allowed to send their children to local schools. This is why gaining resident status in big cities or more affluent places gives you access to the better educational facilities in that area, and education is king in China. 

Sister Qin had wanted to mention that Hua Jin was only a girl from a small place, that neither had money nor a diploma. If her beauty was able to snag a local man, who had a car and a house, then that can already be seen as an astonishing achievement. But this sentence remained unsaid, as Sister Qin noticed Hua Jin’s expression, she didn’t bother saying anything further.