Chapter 241: Renting a Room

Chapter 241: Renting a Room

Bian Suwen shared the story between her and Wang Haoran—but she didn’t tell it as her own. In this version, the girl who had once been deeply entangled with Wang Haoran wasn’t her, but “a friend.” She painted the man as utterly vile, the textbook definition of a heartless bastard, a scumbag with no conscience.

When she finished, Bian Suwen looked directly at Qiu Qianwei and added, without the slightest doubt in her voice, “Now you understand why I said he’s a heartless man, don’t you?”

Qiu Qianwei instinctively nodded, but her expression shifted almost immediately. She shook her head, disagreeing softly, “Third Sister… your friend definitely told you this with her own bias. I don’t think Wang Haoran is that kind of guy.”

Naturally, Bian Suwen wouldn’t accept that. “I’m very close with that friend. She doesn’t lie. What she told me was the truth, every detail.”

Qiu Qianwei scoffed with a trace of contempt. “Maybe she didn’t lie, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t being selfish. Honestly, I think your friend’s kind of self-centered.”

That comment hit a nerve. Bian Suwen’s eyes narrowed. “You’re calling my friend selfish? How exactly is she selfish?”

Qiu Qianwei, emotionally inclined to defend Wang Haoran, didn’t just speak from the heart—she also tried to be fair. She took a moment to organize her thoughts before answering.

“Third Sister, just think about it. Wang Haoran was only sixteen back then. And your friend? She was already twenty-one. How can you expect a sixteen-year-old boy to take responsibility for a relationship like that? What could he possibly offer at that age? He was still in school. If your friend had just a little more understanding, she never would’ve blamed him.”

She paused, then added, more sharply, “And let’s not pretend your friend didn’t cross a line. She was five years older than him and still went after someone that young? That’s basically preying on a teenager. Any normal woman would’ve kept her distance instead of dragging him into something like that.”

That was enough to spike Bian Suwen’s blood pressure. Her tone turned cold as she snapped back, “Love doesn’t work that way. You can’t just choose not to feel something. If Wang Haoran and my friend were together, then he should’ve treated her right. He shouldn’t have abandoned her.”

“Love really is something beyond our control,” Qiu Qianwei agreed, her voice softer this time, even empathetic. But she still stood firmly on Wang Haoran’s side. Turning the thought around in her mind, she offered, “But maybe… maybe he didn’t want to be heartless. Maybe he didn’t have a choice.”

“What do you mean?” Bian Suwen asked, her voice laced with doubt but no longer hostile.

Qiu Qianwei leaned in slightly and explained, “He was only sixteen. At that age, your parents still control everything—how you think, what you believe. Maybe his parents found out and pressured him. Maybe they sat him down and told him to break it off. Maybe they even forced him.”

“In that kind of situation, what could he do? If he did leave your friend, it wasn’t necessarily because he wanted to. At that age, people don’t have much say in their own lives.”

Bian Suwen’s tightly wound anger slowly began to ease. Her mind drifted back to what had happened earlier that day—how Wang Haoran still kept her photo in his wallet, how he’d ordered every dish she liked at dinner, even remembering the little first aid tip she’d casually mentioned once years ago.

How could a heartless man remember things like that? How could someone who didn’t care do such thoughtful things?

Could it be… that he had been forced to abandon her?

That possibility crept into her heart like a quiet whisper, and with it, the long-held resentment she’d clung to began to melt away.

【Ding! Female Lead Bian Suwen’s Favorability toward Host +15. Current Total: -20 (Resentment)】

【Ding! Favorability +10. Current Total: -10 (Dislike)】

【Ding! Favorability +10. Current Total: 0 (Stranger)】

【Ding! Favorability +10. Current Total: 10 (Casual Acquaintance)】

After that heart-to-heart with Qiu Qianwei, Bian Suwen’s mindset had shifted. She no longer hated Wang Haoran. The bitterness that had eaten at her for so long faded into something quieter, something less angry.

But even so, the past couldn’t be undone. Going back to what they had before? That was out of the question.

At most, she could see Wang Haoran as a regular acquaintance. Nothing more.

—

At that moment, Wang Haoran stepped into the classroom and was immediately greeted by a cascade of system messages ringing in his ears. He froze.

He hadn’t done anything recently. So why did Bian Suwen’s Favorability toward him suddenly skyrocket? It had jumped all the way to 10 in a blink.

Weird. Really weird.

Still, confusion aside, he was undeniably pleased. Just a few hours ago, her Favorability was -70. Now it was positive. That was a crazy turnaround in such a short time.

Whistling under his breath, he returned to his seat, feeling extremely satisfied.

A moment later, Mu Zhaozhao and Wen Jing entered the classroom, taking the seats beside him. Wen Jing leaned in close and spoke in a low voice.

“I think I just saw Teacher Song on campus.”

Wang Haoran instantly knew who she meant—Song Zhenyu. He turned to her and asked, “Isn’t she teaching freshmen at Shuize High? Are you sure it was her?”

“I was far away, so I’m not certain,” Wen Jing replied. “Could’ve been someone else. Maybe I was mistaken.”

Wang Haoran nodded slightly and made a mental note to reach out to Song Zhenyu later. But class was about to start, so it wasn’t the right time.

After all, she was one of the female leads. Her Favorability sat at a steady 40, and her Female Lead Halo hadn’t been diminished in the slightest by anything he’d done so far.

With that kind of halo in place, the Meat Bun Principle was bound to apply to her sooner or later. It was just a matter of time.

—

Elsewhere, Song Zhenyu was walking through a series of narrow old alleyways, a rental flyer clutched in her hand.

She had already resigned from her job at Shuize High. Her sights were now set on something bigger—grad school at Qingling University.

To focus on her studies, she wanted to rent a place near campus.

But her family’s financial situation weighed heavily on her. Most of her salary went home, and she barely had any savings left. That meant she could only afford something cheap.

The ad in her hand had caught her eye for exactly that reason. A fully furnished one-bedroom apartment, newly renovated, for just 100 yuan a month—utilities and Wi-Fi included.

It was practically a gift. Too good to be true, even.

But there was a catch. Not just anyone could rent it. The flyer had a bizarre requirement: you had to pass an interview to qualify.

Still, the price was too tempting to ignore.

After navigating the maze of alleyways, she finally arrived at the address on the flyer. The building was an old residential complex, easily more than a decade old.

But the surroundings were quiet and serene—exactly what she needed for exam prep.

Song Zhenyu pulled out her phone, about to dial the number on the ad.

Not far away, a man in a tank top and flip-flops was strolling down the street with a lazy ease. As he passed by, a few curious neighbors stopped him.

“Xiao Ye, when did you get back?”

“Been back a few days now,” he answered casually.

“Word was you went abroad. Must’ve made a fortune, right?”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “Business overseas wasn’t easy. Couldn’t make it work. Figured I’d come back and scrape by off the property my parents left me.”

As he chatted, this so-called Xiao Ye wandered right up to where Song Zhenyu was standing.

Just as she pressed the call button, his pocket began to ring. The ringtone was bizarrely cheerful—“I love taking showers, my skin feels so good…”

Startled, Song Zhenyu looked up at the man instinctively.