Only an idiot turns down money.
“I promise I’ll work hard!”
After signing the renewed contract and leaving those words behind, Yu Wan fled in a panic.
As she ran, she did the math in her head. Fifty thousand times six was three hundred thousand. Even after taxes, she would still take home over two hundred thousand.
If she really stayed until September before resigning, she would have enough money to live comfortably in Shanghai for three years while pursuing her master’s degree.
The male lead really was a living Bodhisattva!
Yu Wan sighed inwardly.
Before she got very far, she could still hear the living Bodhisattva talking to the System.
【System, what’s the heroine’s favorability toward me now?】
【Host, it’s 0.】
【Zero?】 Li Yi was utterly shocked. 【I’m a top-tier rich, handsome, and successful guy, and her favorability toward me is zero?!】
The System hurried to defend the heroine.
【That’s perfectly normal! If she were that easy to win over, she wouldn’t be the heroine.】
【The reason she’s the heroine must be because she has many outstanding qualities. Refusing to be swayed by money or good looks is probably one of them.】
【You’re right. As expected of the woman destined to be with me!】 Li Yi agreed.
Yu Wan: “…”
【Host, you have to keep working hard!】 The System continued encouraging him. 【Once the heroine’s favorability reaches 100, you’ll unlock the complete novel plot!】
Yu Wan couldn’t listen anymore.
She quickened her pace, then broke into a run.
She ran an entire block before the voices of those two fools finally disappeared.
Leaning against a streetlamp, Yu Wan gasped for breath.
The early spring night breeze slipped into her collar, leaving her slightly chilled, though a thin layer of sweat had already formed on her back.
The streetlamp stretched her shadow long and thin across the ground.
Looking up at the dim yellow light overhead, Yu Wan felt like crying.
It wasn’t that she lacked self-control.
It was just that Li Yi was offering far too much money!
Maybe it was because, in that dream, her stepbrother, Gu Chiyuan, had looked at her coldly and declared that she and her mother were both freeloaders, parasitic leeches living off the Gu family.
Or maybe it was because, in the novel’s ending, Yu Wan was abandoned by everyone, left penniless, and ultimately died miserably on the streets.
In any case, over the past few years, Yu Wan hadn’t spent a single cent of the Gu family’s money.
At the dinner before she started university, both Mother Yu and Gu Chiyuan had each given her a supplementary credit card.
The result of receiving two cards was simple.
Mother Yu assumed Yu Wan was spending Gu Chiyuan’s money.
Gu Chiyuan assumed she was spending Mother Yu’s.
The two sides had unknowingly created the perfect information gap. Each believed Yu Wan was using the other’s money.
In reality, Yu Wan had never used either card.
She had only had that dream a few days earlier and had been as skittish as a frightened bird.
She was afraid that spending that money would lead her toward the tragic ending she had seen.
So she never told anyone and simply locked both cards away in a drawer.
Along with everything else the Gu family had given her, she left it all behind in her bedroom at the Gu family mansion.
She hadn’t even accepted money for her tuition.
Yu Wan had one tiny wish.
If Gu Chiyuan ever lost his mind again like he had in the original novel and accused her of being a parasitic bloodsucker, she would take everything out and throw it in his face!
With that wish in mind, Yu Wan began working part-time, earning her own money, and supporting herself.
She studied while working at the same time.
Now, after being recommended for graduate school during her senior year, Yu Wan finally felt as though the hardest days were behind her.
At the same time, she had been promoted to assistant store manager at the café where she had worked for three years, earning just over six thousand yuan a month.
Officially, she was the assistant manager.
In reality, the café only had her and the owner.
Whenever the owner wasn’t around, every single responsibility fell entirely on Yu Wan.
After working herself to exhaustion every month, paying rent and living expenses, she managed to save two thousand yuan.
Adding in various scholarships…
All in all, after three years of hard work, Yu Wan had saved just over twenty thousand yuan.
But Li Yi had offered her a monthly salary of fifty thousand.
Fifty thousand a month…
It is only March now. If she could stay until August…
After calculating her after-tax income, even Yu Wan was startled by the number.
At the end of the day, it was the male lead who had mistaken her identity.
It wasn’t her fault.
…Maybe she should stay for now?
Even one extra month would earn her tens of thousands of yuan.
If luck was on her side and she managed to stay several months, she probably wouldn’t need to work at all during graduate school.
It’s settled!
Yu Wan made up her mind.
Beneath the streetlamp, the night breeze blew her disheveled long hair across her face.
She tucked it behind her ear, revealing features that were almost unfairly exquisite.
A silver-gray Bentley drove past her.
Then it backed up.
The car came to a slow stop in front of her.
The window rolled down.
Yu Wan knew the man in the driver’s seat all too well.
It was Gu Chiyuan. Yu Wan froze.
“…Brother?”
Why was Gu Chiyuan here? This wasn’t even close to Hongtai Group.
Gu Chiyuan looked at Yu Wan.
Today, unlike in the news, he wasn’t wearing a suit. Instead, he had on a simple dark gray overcoat with the collar slightly open, revealing a black cashmere sweater underneath.
“Get in,” Gu Chiyuan said. “Perfect timing. I’m heading back to the old mansion anyway, so I’ll take you with me.”
Yu Wan was startled and quickly waved her hands.
“No, it’s alright. I already told my mom I wouldn’t be going back this weekend…”
“Get in.”
Gu Chiyuan’s tone left no room for argument.
Yu Wan stiffened, growing nervous as she looked at his face.
Unable to refuse him, she awkwardly reached for the rear passenger door.
“Sit in the front,” Gu Chiyuan said again.
Pressing her lips together, Yu Wan slowly walked to the passenger seat, opened the door, and got in.
The interior of the car was pleasantly warm, carrying the faint scent of cedarwood.
Only after watching her fasten her seatbelt did Gu Chiyuan start the car.
“Brother,” Yu Wan said, trying to make conversation, “you’re back in the country…”
“Mhm.”
“How long are you staying this time?” Yu Wan asked.
For the past several years, Gu Chiyuan had been based mostly in Europe and North America, rarely returning home.
The last time Yu Wan had seen him was at Uncle Gu’s birthday banquet.
He had come in a hurry and left just as quickly.
“I’ll be staying in the country permanently,” Gu Chiyuan replied. “Hongtai’s overseas operations are already stable. There’s no longer any need for me to remain stationed abroad.”
Just as she expected.
Yu Wan nodded inwardly.
The novel’s story would begin in another six months, and as the second male lead, Gu Chiyuan was returning to prepare for the upcoming plot.
According to the novel, during her internship, Su Nanzhi would catch Gu Chiyuan’s attention and later be promoted to become his assistant.
Over the next six months, he would gradually fall in love with her.
By the time the story officially began, he would become the perfect devoted second male lead.
As Yu Wan lost herself in thought, Gu Chiyuan glanced at her through the passenger-side mirror.
Under the colorful neon lights of the night, the seductive beauty in her features seemed even more striking.
“I had a meeting nearby tonight, so I happened to pass through here,” Gu Chiyuan said. “Why are you here? Didn’t you have classes today?”
“I… I found a part-time job nearby…” Yu Wan answered softly.
“What kind of part-time job?”
“I’m the manager of a coffee shop…”
Gu Chiyuan lightly tapped the steering wheel twice with his fingers.
“Do you like coffee?” he asked.
“Huh?” Yu Wan blinked. “I guess it’s alright…”
“Then for your birthday next month, I’ll give you a café.”
Yu Wan heard Gu Chiyuan say.