For a person, one of the hallmarks of maturity was learning to bow down to life.
In that life, Liu Qing was too immature and unwilling to bow his head to life. In the end, he bowed to a woman who did not care about him and became a simp. In the end, after all the simping, he still lost everything and ruined his own life.
In this life, he did not want to be that childish anymore.
After he made up his mind, he felt all his thoughts settling down.
He imagined the type of extravagant and boring life he would have after becoming a rich second generation and even allowed himself a little smile.
In the living room, Huo Zhenzhen packed up all her clothes, cosmetics and other possessions. She could not fit everything in a large suitcase, so she found a woven bag made from colored cloth to hold her things.
After Liu Qing returned home, she had started a countdown in her heart. She wanted to see how long it would take this man to bow down and give in to her. She had even started to think about how to make him give her an even more expensive gift.
However, after repeating the countdown again and again, she did not get the result she wanted.
She felt a little insulted and a little furious. How dare this man treat me like this? Was I no longer attractive to him?
Yet she mostly felt relieved. They were finally breaking up, and it was with his consent!
After she finished packing, Liu Qing still had not come out to apologize to her. There was no reason for her to stay any longer.
She thought to herself, "Liu Qing, I didn't want this day to come so soon. You forced my hand."
She took out her phone, opened a short video app, clicked on a profile picture of a mutual follower and sent a message.
"My cousin has a new boyfriend and it's not very convenient for me to live with her now. Can I move out and live with you?"
Ever since she started work at the new company, she had never posted anything about Liu Qing on her WeChat Moments. She had also deleted everything she posted in the past.
At the company, she had always claimed to be single and living with her cousin.
Back then, she already felt that she could find someone better.
She was no longer the homeless young girl roaming around on the streets, but an office lady with regular working hours. She felt entitled to a better life than one that was tied to a security guard.
She began to subconsciously conceal Liu Qing's existence in her social circle.
At that time, she did not have any intention of breaking up with Liu Qing. However, she could not allow herself to marry a man who was a security guard.
If Liu Qing could not upgrade himself, then the only conclusion for the two of them would be to break up.
Unfortunately, Liu Qing was only a person who did not even finish middle school. It would be too difficult for him to elevate his status.
Besides, with his two-shift job, there was no time for him to enrich himself.
If he should resign from his job to learn a skill, there was no certainty that he could manage to learn it. At the same time, during the time he was studying and not working, he would not have any income to cover his living expenses.
Huo Zhenzhen had no intention to sacrifice her quality of life to help Liu Qing enrich himself.
Later on, she became more and more disappointed in Liu Qing. Slowly, she thought of him as being hopeless.
She felt that the two of them were no longer on the same level.
You're a security guard who drinks cola. I'm an office lady who drinks green tea. We're not even on the same level, alright?
She knew that Liu Qing was nice to her, but this kind of niceness did not make her happy. It would not make her the subject of envy, but would only make her the subject of ridicule.
She had found another target.
It was the manager at the company where she worked.
The manager was a married man with children, but at work, he liked to flirt with his female colleagues in the company.
If no one took it seriously, then it would only be a joke among colleagues.
If someone took it seriously, then it would become a case of adultery.
When Huo Zhenzhen decided to change course in her love life, she reciprocated when the manager flirted with her.
It started with ambiguous shady jokes on WeChat. Then, the manager started to pour his heart out about how the hag at home was not considerate and how unhappy his married life was.
One party was happy to lay out his complaints while the other party was happy to give comfort. At one point, they arranged to have dinner together, and the dinner eventually ended up with the two of them in a hotel room.
That day, Huo Zhenzhen told Liu Qing that she was working overtime.
After they started having the affair, the two of them did not communicate on WeChat anymore. Instead, they followed each other on a short video platform and chatted privately there.
Moreover, that app was organized together with many different apps. Others could not find that app even if they looked at their phones.
The manager wanted to hide the affair from his wife, while Huo Zhenzhen wanted to hide it from Liu Qing.
The manager did not know about Liu Qing's existence. He had always thought that Huo Zhenzhen was single and he even thought that she was an innocent girl.
Huo Zhenzhen did not particularly feel reassured by the manager either. Before he got a divorce, she did not want to have a falling out with Liu Qing.
After all, Liu Qing was still paying for all her living expenses.
Her salary was just over 3,000 dollars a month. The thought of having to rent her own place and pay for her own living expenses was terrifying.
During this period of time, the manager had already filed for divorce from his wife. This gave her hope and she started becoming more and more reckless in the way she behaved towards Liu Qing. She always found fault with him and kept asking him to spend money on her.
She also knew that other than being poor, Liu Qing had not let her down in any other way. Instead, he had given the relationship everything he had.
She was worried that if she broke up with him one day, he would tear her apart.
Therefore, having a bad attitude towards Liu Qing was her way of emotionally abusing him so that he would break up with her.
Liu Qing had agreed to the breakup this time. Although it surprised her, she also felt relieved.
I have finally gotten through this. From now on, no one will be a hindrance to me on the sunny path to happiness.
Not long after she sent the message, she received a reply.
"Dear, can you wait a few more months? I'm still in the middle of the divorce proceeding with that hag. If she finds out about you, it will be disadvantageous for me when we split our assets."
Huo Zhenzhen replied, "But my cousin already has a boyfriend. It's very inconvenient for me to stay at her place."
After some thought, she sent another message, "I want to go out and rent a place myself, but I don't have any money on hand. Why don't you transfer 10,000 dollars to me so that I can go and rent a single room."
The manager replied, "The transfer will leave a record. It won't look good on me. Zhenzhen, this is a critical period for me. Just wait a few more months. As long as your cousin doesn't kick you out, just stay there."
"Fine."
Huo Zhenzhen put down her phone dejectedly.
In her eyes, that manager was a very successful person, someone on a higher level whom she needed to look up to. She had never thrown a tantrum in front of that manager and had always behaved like an obedient lapdog.
If he did not want to live with her now, she would not dare to force him.
She did have some money on hand and could afford to rent a place herself.
It was just that she did not know when that manager would be able to successfully get a divorce. As time passed, she would get stressed out.
She had developed a terrible fear of poverty since the night she had ended up on the streets. She never wanted to fall back into it.
She sat down for a while and thought to herself, "Then it's better not break up for the time being. Better to stay here and wait until he gets a divorce before finding a reason to break up with this man."
She took a deep breath, stood up and headed for the bedroom.
In those few steps, she changed the expression on her face to look annoyed and furious.
She even managed to look as if she was wronged.
She walked into the bedroom and saw Liu Qing lying on the bed with a smile on his face. This made her really angry and she spoke loudly to him.
"Liu Qing, tell me the truth. Are you seeing another woman?"
Liu Qing was stunned and raised his head to look at her. "What a joke. I can't even afford one woman. How can I afford to have another woman?"
"Then why did you treat me like this today?"
"How did I treat you?"
"You're breaking up with me over a piece of clothing!" Huo Zhenzhen said angrily.
Liu Qing became extremely annoyed. "Weren't you the one who suggested breaking up?"
"I just said it in a fit of anger!" Huo Zhenzhen said loudly.