Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Yan Huai had lived for over twenty years, and this was still the first time he had received breakup money.

His gaze fell on the apology that looked fairly sincere, and he had no intention of opening it.

About a minute passed, and he still hadn’t said anything. The He Wei on the other end grew anxious and urged: 【Take it, if you don’t accept it, I won’t be able to live with it.】 She truly couldn’t live with it.

After all, during the time she had a partner, she had developed feelings for another man.

He Wei tried everything she could to persuade him to open it: 【It’s not a lot of money, it’s just to express my apology.】 These words, expressed through text, were completely flat, yet Yan Huai could vividly imagine the tone in which He Wei would say them.

It must be gentle and alluring.

Whenever she did something wrong and felt guilty or nervous, her voice was like this—pretending to be calm, yet carrying an indistinct, barely concealed hint of a sob.

Yan Huai suddenly thought of the dream he had.

In the dream, He Wei had really cried. Her voice was soft and delicate, and when she cried, it became broken and sharp because of his forceful movements.

Yan Huai raised his hand and touched his Adam’s apple, suddenly wanting to hear He Wei cry.

But not anywhere other than in bed.

Yan Huai guessed that He Wei was probably frowning at that moment, typing on her phone and then deleting it.

He had actually been a little angry at first, because whether He Wei liked him or not was a question that simply couldn’t be verified.

He Wei didn’t know the person on the other end was him, but Yan Huai himself did.

And when He Wei mentioned breaking up, he even once thought she was going to reconcile with Yan Chen.

Another half minute passed, and he still didn’t open it.

He Wei was truly anxious.

Because she felt text couldn’t express her emotions, she directly sent a voice message this time: “I’m really sorry… I didn’t mean to like someone else.”

Yan Huai opened it and listened; as expected, it carried a soft, tearful tone.

She wasn’t actually trying to cry. It was just that her throat seemed to have a switch—whenever situations like this happened or during arguments, her voice would automatically turn soft and shaky.

Yan Huai closed his eyes. Just a few words from He Wei, and he was already somewhat unable to handle it.

The woman on the other end knew nothing. She quickly sent another message: “You will definitely meet many girls better than me in the future, and someone will truly love you.”

Yan Huai didn’t want to open it, but he still uncontrollably wanted to hear her speak.

Half a minute later, he threw his phone aside and went to take a shower in the bathroom.

He Wei paused for a few minutes between each message, giving the other party plenty of time to listen to her voice messages. After more than half an hour, the other side still hadn’t replied a single word.

For a moment, He Wei even thought she had been blocked.

So half an hour later, she sent a fourth voice message: “Are you still there?”

The words “little brother” didn’t feel embarrassing when typed, but actually saying them out loud was more than just awkward. So He Wei didn’t include any form of address in her messages.

This time, the person finally replied.

An extremely cold sentence—【Don’t send voice messages.】 He Wei: “…”

Damn it… this man who flips his face faster than flipping a book.

He Wei knew she had no right to complain about others. After all, she was the one who had done something wrong. She didn’t even have the right to be angry, but her temper still flared up a little.

Her temper was still fairly good. She took a few deep breaths and barely calmed herself down, then typed a message over: 【Have you figured it out?】 She thought her online dating partner, who had mysteriously disappeared for over half an hour, had gone to think about this matter.

After a moment, the person replied: 【Okay.】

He Wei finally let out a breath of relief.

He Kou: 【Then can you accept the red packet?】

She was very obedient. If she wasn’t allowed to send voice messages, then she honestly just typed everything in text.

After a cold shower, Yan Huai had calmed down quite a bit. His heart softened slightly, and then he opened the red packet.

A red interface popped up quickly, showing 188 yuan in total.

“……”

So in He Wei’s eyes, he was only worth this little money.

He Kou: 【Is it not enough?】

In novels, breakup payments start at a minimum of one million. Even though He Wei was technically a character in a novel, she wasn’t a domineering CEO.

Let alone one million—one hundred thousand would already kill her.

Although people who didn’t understand the situation always said that people in the entertainment industry made the most money, and could earn millions just by saying a few lines in front of the camera, that only applied to first- and second-tier stars.

He Wei’s current financial situation was truly not good.

The little money she earned might be needed at any time to handle scandals, and recently there had been more things going on, so she would also need to hire a small assistant.

When calculated, her expenses were going to increase again.

Moreover, although the breakup money she gave wasn’t much, it might not necessarily be little for this online dating partner.

After all, not many rich people go online to do online dating.

He Wei sent the message again and waited a few minutes, but still got no reply.

She sent a question mark over.

This time, the reaction was extremely fast—a system prompt:

User “Y” has enabled friend verification; you are no longer his (or her) friend.

……

So that means after taking her breakup money, he deleted her without any hesitation?

He Wei was stunned.

She froze for a while, then was about to check the favorability number behind his remark, but discovered that the two digits after the nickname were already gone.

The system very helpfully explained: “Host, since you and the other party are no longer in a romantic relationship, the favorability value will no longer be displayed.”

He Wei let out an “oh,” then asked, “Then if I get together with someone else in the future, will their favorability still be shown?”

The system: “Yes, host.”

He Wei, after receiving the red packet, instead let out a breath of relief. She, seeing no evil and hearing no evil, deleted the other party from her contacts as well, then got out of bed to cook.

She now felt completely relaxed, and decided to reward herself with a good meal.

At the same time, Cheng Yan, who was still on set, received a WeChat account that had been absent from him for more than ten days.

He didn’t use WeChat often, and his contacts were relatively private, so after it was taken away by Yan Huai, it hadn’t really caused much impact on his daily life.

However, getting back something that originally belonged to him still made Cheng Yan happy for a while; when he sent messages to Yan Huai, the corners of his mouth were even raised: 【Did you say goodbye to your online girlfriend?】 【Mm.】

【Who broke up first?】

【Her.】

【Our Mr. Yan, who settled for a lesser option and got himself a little girlfriend—she dumped you after just a few days?】 【Ungrateful!】

……

Yan Huai didn’t reply anymore.

He tugged at his newly tied tie, suddenly feeling a little irritated.

Just now, he had been completely captivated by He Wei’s voice. After receiving that 188 yuan, he was worried that she might still feel bad about it, so he simply deleted her WeChat account first.

And that account belonged to Cheng Yan anyway; it was time to return it to its rightful owner.

Everything had gone exactly as he expected, except for one thing—

He had forgotten to ask who He Wei had fallen for.

If she really wanted to reconcile with Yan Chen—

Yan Huai straightened his tie again. His expression cooled as he slowly and methodically fastened his shirt cuffs.

She was dreaming.

After Mu Sheng and Song Zhenzhen got into trouble, they hadn’t appeared in any public setting for an entire week.

The two of them seemed to have vanished from Tong City out of thin air, disappearing without a trace.

He Wei, whose fate was to be bullied, still couldn’t help worrying.

A week later, she cautiously asked the system—which wasn’t very useful but was her only option: “Will I still be bullied by those two in the future?”

The system “beeped” for a few minutes before finally speaking: “Reporting to host, according to detection of original novel Chapter 47, there are no bullying points from those two individuals.”

He Wei: “How many chapters does the original novel have in total?”

The system: “297 chapters!”

“……”

Asking was the same as not asking.

He Wei felt completely discouraged.

During this time, the filming of Empress Princess was also affected. Mu Sheng could no longer be used, so the female lead had to be re-cast with other actors.

Although filming resumed the previous week, progress was not very fast.

After all, it was a big female-lead drama—almost every shot required the presence of the female protagonist.

The back view was still fine, but the front view had to be set aside for the time being.

It wasn’t until last night that the new female lead was hastily decided.

The actress He Wei had heard of before—she had only been taking films in recent years, but because it was Cheng Yan, she made an exception to take on a TV drama.

She would join the set tomorrow, so today Cheng Yan gave everyone a day off, partly for adjustment and partly for rest.

He Wei went out for a run in the morning.

When she came back, a dull, pulling pain started in her lower abdomen.

He Wei rushed into the bathroom, but after worrying for a long time, her period didn’t come at all.

Instead of feeling relieved, she frowned.

The original owner had the fragile body typical of a Cinderella-style female protagonist—minor illness every month, major illness every three months.

The longest she had lived as He Wei, her period had never been on time.

Once it was two months late, and there had even been a time when it came twice in one month.

So this time, it not arriving on schedule was also within her expectations.

He Wei rubbed her lower abdomen, then redid her hair, picked up her phone and wallet, and went out.

Half an hour later, she registered for a gynecology appointment at the hospital.

There were quite a few women at the hospital for this kind of examination—some for general checkups, and others for abortions.

He Wei sat in the waiting room for twenty minutes, watching with her own eyes as several girls walked in with tear-streaked faces.

She sighed, lowered the brim of her hat, pulled her mask up higher, and looked down at her phone.

Recently, the incident between her and Mu Sheng had caused quite a stir, and she was afraid of being recognized.

This was the first time He Wei had such a concern, and while troubled, she also felt a little excited.

After waiting not long, the front desk called her number.

He Wei kept her head down and quickly pushed the door open to go in.

The consultation didn’t take long. After answering a few detailed questions, the doctor prescribed her a type of short-acting contraceptive pill, instructed her to take it on time, and then called the next patient.

Although He Wei had never taken this kind of medication before, she had heard of short-acting contraceptives; they were said to regulate menstruation and not cause significant harm to the body.

She went to the pharmacy, got the medicine, and paid. Not long after she turned around and came out, she ran into a familiar person head-on.

He Wei paused her steps, and when she looked up, she saw behind that person a door with large characters clearly written: Andrology Department.

She hadn’t expected that after so long, the next time she saw Yan Chen would be in such a ridiculous place.

He Wei couldn’t help but curl her lips into a smile.

Yan Chen also noticed her.

Although He Wei was fully covered up, for an ex-boyfriend like Yan Chen, recognizing her wasn’t difficult.

He subconsciously walked toward her, his face showing obvious surprise and delight: “He-He.”

He Wei’s eyes stayed fixed on the words behind him, and she asked in a deliberately puzzled tone: “What illness are you here to see?”

As soon as she said that, He Wei shifted her gaze to Yan Chen’s face, catching the flash of irritation and embarrassment that crossed it.

What else could he be doing in a place like this?

It was all because of Song Zhenzhen.

Yan Chen had only slept with her once, and then recently the news broke that she was using drugs.

They said drug addicts were more likely to contract that kind of disease, and Yan Chen didn’t like wearing protection… so just in case, he came to get himself checked.

Most importantly, he didn’t know if it was just psychological, but lately he seemed to have little interest in that kind of thing.

Yan Huai frowned, his expression unpleasant. “A physical checkup.”

He Wei nodded and let out an “oh” with a meaningful tone.

“He-He,” Yan Chen knew what she was thinking and hurriedly explained, “It’s not what you think.”

“You don’t need to explain to me.”

He Wei smiled at him. “Take care of your health.”

She turned around, completely without hesitation. Just as she took her first step, the system notification sounded immediately:

“Congratulations, Host. Yan Chen’s favorability has increased by 2 points, current value: 82.”

He Wei raised her eyebrows slightly.

When she had been together with Yan Chen before, his favorability had been hard to increase. Now that they had broken up, after she treated him coldly and indifferently, his favorability instead rose unexpectedly.

As expected—men are cheap.

When they have something, they never know how to cherish it. Only after they truly lose it does it become their “moonlight by the bed.”

In other words, what you can’t get is always the best.

He Wei curled her lips slightly, letting out a somewhat mocking smile.

Just as she was about to continue walking forward, she was stopped again by Yan Chen: “He-He… are you feeling unwell?”

He Wei lowered her head and noticed the medicine bag in her hand. A wicked thought suddenly rose, and she lifted it slightly: “Here to buy this.”

Through the transparent plastic bag, the packaging inside could be vaguely seen.

Yan Chen was very familiar with it. His previous girlfriends had taken this kind of thing for contraception.

His face instantly darkened.

At the same time, the system’s voice rang out again:

“Yan Chen’s jealousy value has increased by 10 points, current value: 10. Favorability has increased by 1 point, current value: 83.”

He Wei, satisfied, pulled her hand back, said “goodbye,” then tightened her grip on the plastic bag and walked toward the exit with her head lowered.

She walked quickly, and when she reached the door, for some reason, she accidentally bumped into a man standing there.

The reason she called him a man was because his body was too hard; the impact was heavy, and her nose hurt sharply from the collision.

She even suspected that if the original owner had gotten plastic surgery, her nose might have been knocked crooked by now.

He Wei’s vision blurred for a moment. She closed her eyes briefly, holding her nose as she apologized: “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

After all, it was her fault for not watching the road, so she should apologize first.

The bag in her hand also slipped to the ground by accident. Only when her vision cleared did she open her eyes again. Just as she bent down to pick up the medicine, a male voice sounded above her head:

“Does it hurt?”

He Wei paused for a second. In that one second, she quickly stuffed the medicine back into the bag.

That man moved even faster—he half-squatted, half-knelt in front of her, reaching out to pick up the box of medicine she hadn’t managed to put back into the bag yet.

On it, words like “short-acting contraceptive” and “safe intimacy” stood out strikingly.

He Wei saw the man’s pale, clean fingers tighten forcefully, the medicine box being crushed and deformed. The next second, his deep voice rang out:

“What are you trying to do, baby?”