Chapter Thirty: All Are But Donkey Droppings—Where Is the Glamour?

In Chen Yunjin’s mind, Gu Yin was, for the most part, simply unappreciative.

That morning, she had lowered her guard to chat with him and even kindly offered him the yogurt she had intended for her own breakfast. Not only did he refuse it, claiming he didn’t like yogurt, but he essentially treated her goodwill as if it were worthless.

Heaven knows how much her composure shattered when she saw Gu Yin that evening with that bag of Green Jiabao yogurt hanging from his lips.

Perhaps acting on a sudden impulse, she gave that man driving the Magotan a chance to experience her gentleness—a light hug, an act meant to inflate the ego of her new spare tire while simultaneously twisting the knife into the old, discarded one.

Regret, you ask?

Chen Yunjin felt no regret. On the contrary, she felt a sense of triumph because Gu Yin had witnessed her embracing the man in the Magotan.

She, Chen Yunjin, was hardly a woman without suitors.

She was pretty, had a great figure, a very gentle personality, and a secure position in the public sector. Even in a place like Shandong, she could easily set her sights on a wealthy and influential family.

As for Gu Yin, a mere driving instructor, he was taking himself far too seriously.

"La la..."

Perhaps fueled by the thrill of petty revenge, Chen Yunjin felt quite wonderful. Clutching the scarf the man in the Magotan had given her, she walked up the stairs and arrived at her door.

She unlocked the door and stepped inside.

The scarf in her hand was tossed aside quite casually.

This 120-square-meter apartment was shared with her roommate, Zhao Jinxia. It was a three-bedroom flat, and since they were roommates, they essentially kept to their own rooms, with their belongings kept inside their respective spaces. Anything left in the common area was usually of little importance.

"Phew, I'm exhausted."

She wanted to take off her coat, but after loosening her collar slightly, she abandoned the thought.

"It's so cold..."

She rubbed her fair, delicate hands together and sat on the sofa, silently cursing the cliff-like drop in temperature in the Shandong region.

The temperature drop in Shandong usually happened after National Day; one day it would be over twenty degrees, and the next it would plummet to the teens, only to later dive straight into sub-zero territory.

Sub-zero wasn't actually that hard to endure, since northern homes had central heating and were quite warm. But this initial cold snap after the holiday was something most people struggled to handle. Many people Chen Yunjin knew had caught colds recently, and she was already considering wearing a mask to work tomorrow.

"I won't come back next time the temperature drops," she thought to herself.

As someone working in a public institution, she received a heating subsidy from her school. However, because she was often on duty, she didn't spend much time at home, and since the apartment they rented was quite large, paying the heating bill felt like a bad investment.

Thinking of this...

"Sigh..."

Chen Yunjin couldn't help but sigh again.

"When will I stop having to scramble for a living?" she wondered.

In truth, while the life of a civil servant or a public institutional worker looked glamorous on the surface and was touted as "stable," to Chen Yunjin, it was actually "stable poverty."

These entry-level positions provided just enough to survive, but they would never make you wealthy.

She was like this, and the man in the Magotan who had dropped her off today was, in reality, much the same.

Don't let the fact that he drove a car worth over 200,000 yuan fool you—how could it not have been bought on a loan?

He also had an apartment, which he had indeed bought this year, but the down payment had come from his parents' years of housing provident fund savings. His own salary at his current job couldn't even cover the high monthly mortgage payments, forcing him to scrape from his meager wages to pay it off.

In short, he didn't actually earn much money.

It looked shiny on the outside, like a polished piece of dung, but wasn't it still stinking on the inside?

This was the reason why, despite knowing him for some time, Chen Yunjin had made no real progress with him. She kept wondering: why hadn't a man who was both wealthy and steady-natured come to pursue her?

"Click."

As Chen Yunjin was lost in thought, the sound of the front door opening echoed through the apartment.

"Ha... so cold, so cold..."

Her roommate, Zhao Jinxia, dressed in a long white down jacket and carrying a pink canvas bag, walked in. She was shivering, rubbing her cute little cheeks.

"Yunjin, you're back early today?" Zhao Jinxia asked.

"Yeah, a colleague gave me a lift on his way," Chen Yunjin said casually.

"I'm so jealous that you have someone to drive you," Zhao Jinxia said while taking off her coat.

She seemed to have a bit of an exhibitionist streak, preferring to walk around the house half-naked. In the autumn and winter, it was fine since she kept her base layers or pajamas on, but in the summer, she would be completely bare, leaving Chen Yunjin at a loss for how to address it.

"I'm going to take a shower."

Since her mood was decent today, Chen Yunjin decided to wash up and perhaps record a video later.

Her livestream channel, "Reconciling with Life," had seen a slight uptick in traffic today, which she suspected was due to the slightly provocative video she had posted last night.

Compared to being the "most beautiful teacher," people seemed to prefer the "contrasting teacher" persona.

"Hey, hey, don't rush off yet."

Having shed her clothes, Zhao Jinxia quickly grabbed Chen Yunjin’s arm.

"What is it now?" Chen Yunjin asked.

"It's about last night!" A look of excitement flickered across Zhao Jinxia’s cute face.

"Last night?" Chen Yunjin frowned. "What happened last night?"

In her memory, Zhao Jinxia had only talked to her about Gu Yin last night. Could it be... was it about him again?

A bad feeling rose in Chen Yunjin's heart.

"Gu Yin from the next building! The one you mentioned last night, your blind date! That driving instructor!" Zhao Jinxia shouted excitedly. "Do you know how many people were watching his stream today?"

"...It really is him..." Chen Yunjin silently pressed her hand to her forehead, not wanting to bring up Gu Yin at all.

"Xiaxia, if it's him, let's not talk about it," Chen Yunjin said. "We only went on one date, and we didn't feel anything for each other. At most, we just nod to each other when we pass by. There won't be any future there. Even if you tell me these things, I wouldn't take the initiative to pursue a relationship with him. I, Chen Yunjin, am not that desperate."

They say a good horse doesn't turn back to graze on old grass, and Chen Yunjin had learned that lesson today. She swore she would never have anything to do with Gu Yin again; the man was completely unappreciative.

So what if he had many viewers in his stream?

He was just a driving instructor. Even with an incident, he’d only get a few thousand viewers. Even if he had more today, could he have possibly broken ten thousand?

What, was he going to siphon traffic to her?

"But..." Zhao Jinxia tried to continue.

"Enough." Chen Yunjin turned and walked away. "I'm going to shower."

"Oh... alright then." Zhao Jinxia had no choice but to suppress her gossiping urges.

However, watching Chen Yunjin's back, she felt an unbearable itch to spill the secret.

After a moment of hesitation, she muttered to herself:

"He had hundreds of thousands of people watching his stream today..."

Her voice wasn't loud, but since there was no one else in the apartment and no other noise, the words reached Chen Yunjin’s ears clearly.

Chen Yunjin, who had been quickening her pace toward the bathroom, suddenly froze, her body trembling.

She stopped in her tracks, turned around, and stared blankly at Zhao Jinxia.

"How... how many?"