Chapter 19: Chapter 25 (part 1)

"Don't be so anxious," Bai Yue reassured herself. "When this period of time is over, Han Yanyan may have everything there is to have in the world, but at the same time, she's lost."

She had lived very frugally until Qiao Wenxing had taken her to his side after her graduation, and only very slightly exposed to luxury. Qiao Wenxing had not bought things for her to show off his wealth, but instead because he appreciated Bai Yue's carefree indifference to fame and fortune. In his eyes, her simplicity was a sort of beauty.

He had bought her those things purely because he had seen them, liked them and thought that they might be suitable for her. They were objects given with affection, and not worth a great deal.

Before their showdown with Han Yanyan, Qiao Wenxing and Bai Yue had also been very low-key. He had never taken her to any important occasion, so she had never had a chance to mix in with the upper-crust. Now that she wanted to do so, she found that those people like Han Yanyan had more money than an ordinary person like herself knew what to do with.

After she and Qiao Wenxing became a thing, her life had become much better than that of her colleagues and classmates. Most of her classmates had to have housemates, and they often complained about their excellent roommates and wonderful landlords in the class group chat. But as for her, not even speaking of D City, but in M City too, Qiao Wenxing had rented out a high-end apartment for her, the price of which she didn't even dare to think about. She had always felt that life was good.

Until she saw the engagement ceremony between Han Yanyan and Qiao Chengyu.

This was an engagement, not even a marriage, yet it was grand and gorgeous enough to suffocate her. It was almost impossible to keep her former indifference toward wealth. However, Bai Yue was not straightforward enough to express her feelings openly. Instead, she hoped that Qiao Wenxing would take the initiative to read into them and figure them out.

Unfortunately, Qiao Wenxing no longer had time to take care of her inexplicable little emotions. He was having a hard time getting his business off the ground, and was too busy to coax her.

Whenever he encountered difficulty with money, the only one he could call was his mother.

Although they had had a big fight, he was still her only child, and she was still his own mother. There were no grudges held between them. It had always been Mother Qiao who would secretly support him behind Father Qiao's back.

Qiao Wenxing only had his mother because he he had found that his former "friends" wouldn't lend him money. They had a myriad of excuses why not, and he couldn't refute any of them.

Some of them said, "Yanyan is my friend, too, and you dumped her. I can't lend you anything for her sake."

Some of them said, "I'm afraid not, your dad put the word out. Whoever dares to lend you money or work with you will be cut off from him. My dad told me not to give you anything at all. It's your dad's fault, not mine."

So Qiao Wenxing could only reluctantly contact Mother Qiao.

If he wanted money, he had to endure Mother Qiao's crying and nagging, and her rain of curses upon Bai Yue. When they had arrived in M City, Qiao Wenxing had had Bai Yue change her phone number, so as to protect her from being contacted by Mother Qiao. As a man, he couldn't have her be insulted because of him.

Now she was here, living with him in a shabby little apartment. He was taking advantage of her, yet she never complained, and she looked very happy so long as she was by his side. When Qiao Wenxing watched her busying herself in their kitchen, his heart softened.

So when Bai Yue said her parents were coming to visit, he didn't see anything wrong with that.

But he hadn't expected her parents to stay with them in their apartment. It was quite awkward, but he wasn't a stingy man. After all, he wasn't often home during the day and usually came back late at night. In addition, her parents were very affectionate to him and extremely grateful for his previous help. He just couldn't get used to them living there, but he couldn't say anything - he was an adult, and it would be stingy of him to care about something like that.

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But all the extra goings-on in the apartment still made him uncomfortable. He started coming home later. Fortunately, Bai Yue seemed to notice and persuaded her parents to go home, so they were only there for a week. When they left, Qiao Wenxing felt much relieved.

But Qiao Wenxing and Bai Yue hadn't anticipated how shocked the Bai family parents were at their apartment. They have never seen such a huge apartment, so richly decorated and elegantly furnished. And in such a big house lived only Qiao Wenxing and Bai Yue alone!

So that weekend, the sleepy Bai Yue was dumbfounded to receive a phone call from the apartment security guard, saying that someone who claimed to be her brother was visiting.

Brother Bai came in, dragging a suitcase behind him, and when he saw Qiao Wenxing he called him "brother-in-law" very affectionately. At a loss, Bai Yue asked him what he was doing here, and Younger Brother Bai replied, "Oh, mom and dad said that you guys' place is huge, and it's just the two of you! You must be so lonely, so they had me come over and keep you company."

Bai Yue felt dizzy.

"Brother-in-law," said Brother Bai, "My parents said that you started a company, and you're the boss. Won't you please give me a job? I don't need anything too big, just a managerial role will do."

Qiao Wenxing frowned. He knew that Bai Yue's younger brother was merely a highschool graduate. What could he contribute to the company? And to simply ask for a managerial role like that? But he glanced at Bai Yue's embarrassed, fearful expression and endured.

"You know what the company's situation is like," Qiao Wenxing told her, "At best, I can only give your brother a low-level position. If he does well, we can speak later about whether or not he can be promoted to manager. He can stay with us for a few days until he settles in."

Bai Yue knew the situation they were in and did not dare ask for more, but worried about what Qiao Wenxing meant by 'staying for a few days'. She let her brother know the news, but when he heard that he was only to be in a sales position, he turned up his nose at it rather rudely. "Isn't brother-in-law in charge of the company?  run by her brother-in-law? He could have easily made me a manager! "

"The reason anyone starts a company is to make money," Bai Yue patiently explained. "You've got no experience working there, so how could you be a manager? No one would be convinced, and they would accuse your brother-in-law of cronyism. Look at me, aren't I just a secretary too? If you start from the bottom and do well, you'll naturally be promoted."

Brother Bai was forced to unwillingly accept the fact. He had a terrible temper, so Bai Yue didn't dare bring up the topic of having him move out to live alone.

On his first day at work, Brother Bai announced to one and all his status as the brother-in-law of the boss. His colleagues all looked at each other, and his manager went to Qiao Wenxing to ask how to proceed. Qiao Wenxing frowned. "I'm paying him to work. Do  whatever needs to be done."

Back when he still had the enormous Qiao Company, Qiao Wenxing didn't really care much about raising a few idle souls. But now he had nothing. In this office, the only one he could tolerate not working was Bai Yue alone. No one else was worthy of freeloading off his efforts.

However, Brother Bai was used lazing around at home. He had worked before, but none of his jobs had ever lasted long. He had imagined living a comfortable life by sponging off his rich brother-in-law, but his manager had actually dared assign him work. Every word out of his mouth was a complaint.

Therefore, Bai Yue talked to his manager privately. Although she was soft and tactful, the meaning of what she said was completely contrary to what Qiao Wenxing had said. She hoped that the manager would turn a blind eye to her brother and be tolerant of his gaffes. The manager understood. From that day on, he only gave Brother Bai make-work.