Chapter 199

"It's gone now."

Guan Weizhi slowly retracted his hand, his fingertips lingeringly and gently rubbing against each other, but his face was still expressionless.

The Maybach drove familiarly toward Qiao Suisui's home. She recognized the familiar street scene and suddenly turned her head to look at Guan Weizhi, saying: "When I got in the car just now, I don't seem to have said where my home address is."

The car fell into silence. Guan Weizhi sat in the back seat, motionless, not saying a word.

Old Tang, sitting in the driver's seat, was sweating profusely and laughed it off: "I'm really sorry, Miss Qiao. Mr. Guan didn't say, so I thought I was taking you back to school."

Qiao Suisui's home and school were indeed on this route.

She nodded and said politely to Old Tang: "You can just let me off at the hotel opposite the school."

Guan Weizhi turned his head to look at her upon hearing this and asked: "Why stay in a hotel?"

"Just for a transition period. I'll move when I find a suitable house."

Qiao Suisui hadn't planned to live on campus from the start. Her schedule was different from her roommates', and she was a light sleeper; she couldn't sleep well with even a little light or sound. Plus, she now had a plan to get rid of that home, and the first step was not letting Mother Qiao know where she actually was.

Guan Weizhi frowned slightly. "When did you decide? You didn't mention it before."

"Just now."

Guan Weizhi choked.

This kid was getting better and better at choking people. Was it the rebellious phase?

The man thought this in his heart, but his face remained calm. He knew he had managed her a bit too much today and was afraid she wouldn't tell him anything in the future, so he put on the appearance of a "good teacher."

"Living out is fine. No matter where you live, you must attend class well. I heard from Professor Xu that your attendance rate for several basic public courses is a bit low."

Qiao Suisui said indifferently: "It's a bit of a waste of time to go to those classes."

Guan Weizhi raised his eyebrows. Was this still the obedient little kid he knew before?

"Then what did you go do when you skipped class? Tell me."

Qiao Suisui said without changing her expression: "Make money."

"Night shift clerk at 7-Eleven is 30 yuan an hour, self-media writing is 200 an hour, tutoring is 300 an hour but I have to split it 50-50 with the agency, plus some scattered part-time jobs, the hourly wage is about 50 yuan. My compulsory course time per week adds up to 23 hours. Excluding normal rest time, I have 82 hours I can utilize. If there are no accidents, my weekly income is 4,100 yuan," she said skillfully and calmly, looking at Guan Weizhi. "4,100 yuan is my monthly living expenses plus rent. So, attending basic public courses has no meaning other than wasting my time."

If she wanted to be independent, she had to have the ability to support herself.

This was also why she opened a hotel in the game world even though she wasn't short of money.

Relying on anyone is not as good as relying on oneself.

Guan Weizhi looked at her blankly, feeling as if his heart had been gripped by a hand, a sharp pain.

That meal just now cost 30,000 yuan for just one bottle of wine. If it were any other ordinary girl who hadn't stepped into society like Qiao Suisui, those who wanted to take shortcuts would have already started fawning over him. Even those with some backbone would have become reserved and uncomfortable, showing tension and inferiority in every gesture.

But Qiao Suisui calculated the accounts with him without being humble or pushy, not hiding her situation at all, and without any embarrassment or awkwardness, as if she were just answering his question, without too many thoughts or emotions.

If Guan Weizhi had previously had a subconscious "disdain" for her original family, at this moment, Qiao Suisui's attitude made his inadvertent sense of superiority vanish, and made his elite attribute of calculating everything nowhere to hide, even making him feel ashamed. The man completely understood her attitude. To Qiao Suisui, no matter how rich Guan Weizhi was, it had nothing to do with her. She was interacting with him with a mature posture that transcended her age, and was even telling him in a sincere way—I respect you, not because of your status, but because you helped me, and I am very grateful.

Guan Weizhi suddenly understood that the only way to win Qiao Suisui's respect and love was to bring out his true heart.

He was silent for a long while, then gently pinched her back of the neck, then retracted his hand. There was no ambiguity in the action like the last time, as if he were expressing a reward.

"Can you handle being so busy? Aren't you going to start your internship soon?"

Qiao Suisui smiled and said: "I will arrange my time reasonably. I don't plan to do other part-time jobs later. The self-media side likes the manuscripts I write very much, so they raised my hourly wage to 400."

Guan Weizhi touched her head, his tone gentle in a way he hadn't even noticed himself: "The thinking is quite right. When I was your age, I wasn't as smart as you, thinking that making money meant constantly increasing income sources, so I made myself very tired. But actually, making money is a process of constantly raising prices. Originally, your hour was 50 yuan, but after the endorsement of backing, experience, qualifications, connections, and even packaging, turning an hour into 400 yuan is the way to get twice the result with half the effort."

Qiao Suisui tilted her head to look at him and said: "Teacher Guan, you are suitable for teaching finance."

Guan Weizhi's hand stiffened.

Old Tang looked in the rearview mirror nervously and shifted his butt nervously.

Guan Weizhi coughed and said: "My ambition doesn't lie there."

Qiao Suisui didn't pursue it further. Guan Weizhi patted her head, silently retracted his hand, and stayed honest for a while without speaking. Old Tang also breathed a sigh of relief.

The car stopped steadily at the destination. Guan Weizhi got out of the car to send her to the hotel entrance, watched her walk in, and stared at her back disappearing into the elevator, still standing at the entrance without moving.

Old Tang got out of the car and stood by the car door waiting. After standing for more than ten minutes like this, he saw Guan Weizhi return with a heart full of thoughts and immediately stepped forward to open the car door for him.

"Mr. Guan, where to?"

Guan Weizhi looked out the window, then turned to look at the seat where Qiao Suisui had sat, a rare trace of disappointment in his eyes.

"Huating Yufu."

Huating Yufu was where he often lived, near the company. When he didn't return to the Guan residence, he would go back there. It was clearly a familiar home, but Guan Weizhi always felt a lingering, indescribable loneliness in his heart at this moment.

Old Tang had just started the car when he heard a cold, low voice from the back seat: "Wait, go back and get my things, and send them up to me later."

"Ah?" Old Tang hadn't reacted yet when he saw Guan Weizhi had already gotten out of the car.

He had a "seeing a ghost" expression, watching Guan Weizhi walk into an old chain hotel with his long legs.

This hotel looked old on the outside, but the facilities and service inside were not bad. But even so, when had his boss ever lived in such an environment? Old Tang watched Guan Weizhi's pace, which seemed to be faintly buoyant.

He shook his head and sighed: "Love makes people blind."

It wasn't that Guan Weizhi was blinded by love, but that he realized tonight that besides appearing by her side as a teacher, he couldn't get close to her at all.

Their identities, status, economic foundation, social circles, and classes were completely different, and the worlds they saw were completely different. Guan Weizhi was not wrong; everything he showed tonight was the appearance of the world that was most normal to him. Qiao Suisui was not wrong either; she frankly and sincerely stated the world she usually saw. Guan Weizhi had never felt malice from the world since the beginning of his growth, while Qiao Suisui had experienced the warmth and coldness of human relationships at a young age. The different parts of each of them might be charming when love sprouted, but after love faded, they were differences that were difficult to eliminate.

Thinking of this, Guan Weizhi couldn't sit still and wait for death.

Before tonight, he thought Qiao Suisui was a flower he carefully nurtured, but now he was seriously considering their future.

(End of chapter)