Chapter 355 285: If Only We Could Make a Group Chat

Yang Xing watched from the side, the corner of his mouth twitching. That guy Xue Rui had suddenly slapped Qian Huabiao on the shoulder and, before Qian Huabiao could react, snatched the money away.

Xue Rui looked at the hundred-yuan bill, now missing a small corner, and felt a strange pang of distress. He frowned at Qian Huabiao and said, "Why were you holding it so tight? Great, now it's torn."

Xue Rui was just trying to distract Qian Huabiao. He had known Qian Huabiao for years and understood his personality; he had almost never seen him get truly angry, let alone like he was today.

Qian Huabiao was stunned by Xue Rui's shamelessness. 'If you hadn't snatched it, how would it have gotten torn?' he thought.

He yelled at the top of his lungs, "And snatching money from my hand isn't illegal, you bastard?"

"I'm stopping you from committing a crime, so of course it's not a crime," Xue Rui said with a mischievous grin.

Qian Huabiao's eye twitched. 'What Xue Rui said actually made fucking sense.' In his anger, he really had been about to rip the bill in half.

Xue Rui pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and squatted down next to Qian Huabiao on the curb. He gestured with a cigarette. "What's wrong? Talk to me."

Qian Huabiao awkwardly cupped his hands around the flame to light the cigarette. After taking a deep drag, he began to speak slowly. "I went to my ex-girlfriend to borrow money. I told her all my stuff had been stolen and I was penniless. And then..."

Qian Huabiao pinched the torn corner of the hundred-yuan bill in his hand and shook his head repeatedly.

Xue Rui felt the crumpled hundred-yuan bill and muttered, "She gave you a hundred? That's too much."

Qian Huabiao was so angry he started to get up. 'Am I not even worth a hundred yuan?'

But his head was spinning from smoking for the first time, and Xue Rui pushed him back down by the shoulder, so he had no choice but to give up.

He gave a bitter laugh. "It's not about the amount. She crumpled it into a ball and threw it at me, like she was tossing a scrap to a begging dog."

"I've never begged her for anything. This was the first time... and the last."

Xue Rui fell silent. That kind of behavior was tantamount to grinding someone's dignity into the dust. No one would be happy about that, especially not from an ex-partner with whom you once shared a history.

After listening, Yang Xing sighed and lit a cigarette for himself as well. 'This guy really has bad luck with women,' he thought.

Xue Rui felt Qian Huabiao was being too pathetic. He slapped Qian Huabiao hard on the back, knocking him right off the curb. "Don't worry about it," he said. "The next one will be better."

Men are creatures of pride. A lot of the time, saving face is more important than anything else. Qian Huabiao, in particular, was someone who valued his dignity as much as his life; there was no way he would try to get her back now.

"COUGH, COUGH..." Qian Huabiao staggered to his feet and stared at Xue Rui in disbelief.

'I thought Xue Rui was going to comfort me, not tell me to find someone new as soon as possible!'

Yang Xing was also a bit surprised, but he nodded and said, "Xue Rui's method is a good one. It's the fastest way to get your mind off things."

Xue Rui and Yang Xing's words were a revelation, and it all suddenly clicked for Qian Huabiao.

"The fastest way to get over one relationship is to get into a new one," Qian Huabiao muttered.

"The next one will be prettier, the next one will be better."

"No, no, no..."

Xue Rui frowned. 'Why is he getting so hung up on this? This isn't like the Qian Huabiao I know. There must be more to what he's saying.'

Qian Huabiao clutched his chest, his expression serious. "No, I'm too hurt. One won't be enough to distract me."

Xue Rui's mind raced. 'I thought that by bringing Qian Huabiao into the girls' dorm, I could help him connect with the girl he never met in his past life. I might have even saved the world from one more scumbag...'

'But looking at it now, that's not what happened at all. It seems I've prematurely created a scumbag instead...'

But he quickly shook his head. 'The root cause of Qian Huabiao turning into a scumbag isn't me,' he thought. 'It's his ex-girlfriend.'

Qian Huabiao threw his cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out. Looking at the female university students coming and going, he suddenly felt as if he'd been reborn.

He waved the torn corner of the bill at Xue Rui, but Xue Rui just took the corner from him too.

Qian Huabiao had a strange look on his face. 'I was trying to ask for my hundred yuan back. Why did Xue Rui just stuff it into his pocket?'

"Xue Rui, that's not what I meant," Qian Huabiao said.

Xue Rui said with a straight face, "This money is an insult. It's better if I take on this burden for you. Besides, I'm afraid you'll get impulsive and do something illegal again."

'This guy is so fucking shameless,' Qian Huabiao thought. 'He took my hundred yuan and still managed to sound so self-righteous about it. Who rips up money for fun?'

For a moment, he didn't know how to retort. He opened his mouth, then just gave up.

'Anyway, I don't really want that hundred yuan. Seeing it would just remind me of what happened today.'

He quite liked Xue Rui's personality. He felt like the other guy really understood him, and their personalities just clicked.

Of course, he was also glad that he and Xue Rui weren't from the same university. Otherwise, if his classmates found out about today—about him pretending to be a Jiao University upperclassman, or about being humiliated by his ex-girlfriend... it would be an incredible loss of face.

Xue Rui glanced at the time. 'If I dawdle any longer, that girl will probably be coming down for lunch. If I get dragged into another meal by a group of girls, I'll miss my high-speed train this afternoon.' He said aloud, "Gotta run, I have something to take care of."

Qian Huabiao himself didn't know where to go. His luggage was still in storage elsewhere. Now he felt it was time to go register at his own university.

He smiled and said, "Hope to see you around."

Without turning back, Xue Rui waved a hand in farewell. He didn't say anything, afraid he might laugh out loud. 'We're more than fated to meet again,' he thought. 'We'll be seeing each other in the dorm tomorrow.'