The father and son began to puff away on the balcony. Lao Shen looked at the traffic on the road and slowly exhaled smoke rings: "It's been tough on you recently. If the family business hadn't collapsed, we wouldn't be living here."
"Recently, I took on an Overseas Affairs order with a friend. It's for a batch of water cups ordered by a Japanese factory. The OEM factory can deliver next week. The profit is decent; after deducting costs, I should be able to earn 300,000."
Shen Heping said while smoking, "When the payment comes back, we'll move into a bigger three-bedroom apartment, so you'll have a room when you come back."
Ever since the setback of his travel agency's bankruptcy, Lao Shen's hair has turned much grayer, and his overall spirit has withered significantly, losing all the youthful vigor he once had.
Yet, he still hadn't given up on his career, continuing to work hard outside for his children.
Shen Yuan felt a pang in his heart. From childhood, Lao Shen rarely spoke about work matters with his family, so for him to bring it up today voluntarily indicated that the pressure must truly be immense.
Shen Yuan also knew a little about the family's situation; they were currently over a million in debt, so even earning three hundred thousand would first go towards filling that hole.
Moreover, since this order was for OEM, payment for the goods would definitely be required upfront, so it was highly likely that Lao Shen had taken out another loan.
Thinking that Lao Shen, nearly fifty, was still burdened with such immense pressure and had to continue striving in his career outside, Shen Yuan inexplicably felt a greater sense of responsibility fall upon his own shoulders.
"From now on, the heavy responsibility of supporting the family will be left to your son."
Shen Yuan patted Lao Shen's shoulder, his tone sincere. Now with the system as his big backer, he also needed to accelerate his pace of making money to help Lao Shen alleviate some pressure!
"You should still focus on your studies right now. Supporting the family and earning money isn't something you need to consider for the time being, and besides, you can't earn money right now," Lao Shen shook his head.
"Lao Shen, you're looking down on contemporary university students a bit," Shen Yuan said with some dissatisfaction.
Lao Shen was silent for a moment, then said, "Actually, I'm not looking down on university students."
"Then what are you—"
"Come in and eat!"
Li Hongjuan's urging came from inside the house, interrupting Shen Yuan's speech. Lao Shen extinguished his cigarette and turned to leave: "Let's eat first."
Shen Yuan stood there stunned for a long time, only realizing after a while that Lao Shen was looking down on him!
"You good-for-nothing Lao Shen, how can you treat your son like that!"
After dinner, Shen Yuan took a bus for another ten minutes to return to school.
There was no place for him at home, so he could only return to school to live.
It was quite pitiful, being only a ten-minute drive from home, yet having to live on campus.
Walking on the road, Shen Yuan kept thinking about the consumption task given by the system.
Repeatedly spending money on Counselor Li Xiao would definitely not be appropriate. On one hand, it's just a teacher-student relationship, and on the other hand, she isn't a materialistic girl like Zhou Wanting.
If it could develop from a teacher-student relationship to…
But for now, it seems quite difficult, not to mention Li Xiao also has a younger sister who is glaring at her.
Shen Yuan felt it was better to develop relationships with more people of the opposite sex, preferably those who are materialistic and vain, as they would have sustainable spending power.
Shen Yuan walked along the road, pondering where to develop connections with female NPCs, when suddenly, his phone popped up with a WeChat message from a contact named "Lao Huang."
"Brother Yuan, when are you coming back?"
This WeChat message was from his roommate Huang Haibao. Originally, Shen Yuan had nicknamed him 'A Huang,' but he disliked the name, saying it sounded like a dog's name, so he asked everyone to call him Lao Huang instead.
Shen Yuan thought Lao Huang and A Huang were pretty similar, but since the person involved had no objections, he naturally didn't say anything.
"Spit it out if you have something to say."
Shen Yuan replied unceremoniously.
Normally, this scoundrel would call him 'Third Brother,' so since he called him 'Brother Yuan' this time, he definitely had something to ask for.
The nickname 'Third Brother' had also been changed once. Originally, the other two roommates called him 'Lao Shen,' but Shen Yuan felt it was inappropriate because that's what he called his father. So, because he was the youngest, it was changed to 'Third Brother.'
"Help me bring up two servings of fried rice. One with two eggs and extra ham, and the other without ham or green onions."
"No."
Shen Yuan replied decisively, adding, "Unless you call me Dad."
Lao Huang was usually incredibly lazy. The cafeteria was right downstairs, and it only took a few minutes to go down from the fifth floor, yet he just refused to go downstairs.
"Third Brother, please let me off, I'm already suffering enough today."
"How are you suffering? Tell me so I can be happy," Shen Yuan replied.
"Damn it! Third Brother, you're really not a good person! It's a long story, I'll tell you in detail when you get back."
"Alright then."
Next to the Overseas Affairs campus gate, there's an alley where many street food vendors set up stalls at night. There were several stalls selling fried noodles and fried rice, as well as jianbing guozi, grilled cold noodles, fried skewers…
Shen Yuan walked to a fried rice stall they often frequented, ordered two portions of fried rice, and carried them back to the dormitory.
As soon as Shen Yuan pushed open the door to dormitory 503, Cao Shunjin was the first to pounce, clearly ravenous.
Cao Shunjin was from Liaobei, tall and sturdy, with an honest appearance, and he usually ate a lot.
"What's the rush, no one's going to snatch it from you," Shen Yuan grumbled.
Huang Haibao, from Guangdong, was thin and weak, wearing glasses, and sat on a chair looking dispirited, like a frost-bitten eggplant.
"Lao Cao, what did you do to Lao Huang?"
Lao Huang's expression was as if he had been sodomized, and Shen Yuan mused that it didn't make sense, as Cao Shunjin was a straight man.
Huang Haibao looked up at Shen Yuan, then at Cao Shunjin, who was devouring his food like a hungry tiger, and had an expression of wanting to speak but hesitating.
"I'll go take a shower first."
Shen Yuan estimated that he still needed some time to compose himself and wouldn't be able to speak anytime soon. The weather was hot today, and he felt sticky and uncomfortable.
Ten minutes later, Shen Yuan finished his refreshing shower and walked out in just his shorts: "Can you talk now?"
Cao Shunjin had almost finished eating, even devouring Huang Haibao's portion, and chuckled honestly, "Lao Huang, are you going to tell him, or should I?"
"You son of a bitch, Cao Shunjin, you're still laughing!"
Huang Haibao glared at him and said indignantly, "Actually, there's nothing much to say, it's just a breakup."
Shen Yuan was a bit confused. He and Huang Haibao had been roommates for so long, and this scoundrel had never even been in a relationship, so what kind of breakup was he talking about?
"Be specific," Shen Yuan wanted to hear the rest.
"My goddess Fang Minhui went to watch a movie with that damned Li Zhanpeng today!" Lao Huang said, gnashing his teeth.
"That's it?"
Shen Yuan suddenly felt like laughing. He knew that Lao Huang was infatuated with Fang Minhui, who was in the same class.
But Fang Minhui didn't like Lao Huang and had never had any dealings with him; they hadn't even chatted much on WeChat.
And Fang Minhui was just going to watch a movie with someone else, they weren't even together, so what the hell was Lao Huang talking about?
Fang Minhui was the Class Beauty of their Guomao Class 2 of 2020.
To be able to become the Class Beauty in Overseas Affairs, a place renowned for its abundance of beautiful women, especially in their class where the girls were famously high-quality, she definitely had some real substance.
Shen Yuan vaguely remembered that on the night of military training three years ago, the instructor was in high spirits and suggested that talented individuals in the company come out to perform.
At first, everyone was shy and hesitant, as they weren't familiar with each other yet, and it was in front of so many people.
The instructor called out a few times before a boy came out to sing. Li Zhanpeng, that show-off, even specifically ran back to the dorm to get a guitar for an acoustic performance.
However, singing didn't really liven up the atmosphere, and Shen Yuan found it rather dull.
Until Fang Minhui appeared.
She took off her military training jacket, flung it into the air, and it happened to land over Huang Haibao's head, probably disorienting him at the time.
It was probably then that Lao Huang's heart began to stir.
Underneath Fang Minhui's military training uniform was a low-cut white camisole, revealing a large area of fair skin on her chest and back, making the eyes of the boys in the company go wide.
As the explosive dance music played, Fang Minhui began to sway to the rhythm, her supple waist and proud bust continuously stimulating the senses of the boys.
But before the boys in the company could fully feast their eyes, the dance was forced to stop.
There was no way, the boys from the neighboring company wouldn't even stand in military posture, insisting on turning their heads to watch Fang Minhui dance, and the instructor kicking their butts didn't work.
The instructor of Shen Yuan's company could only prematurely end this dance.
Fang Minhui went wild that night, her momentum unmatched for a time.
At that time, let alone Huang Haibao, every male freshman in the entire 2020 cohort remembered that incredibly alluring body.
Speaking of which, Shen Yuan also felt a bit of pity that Fang Minhui had been single for three years, and now she was actually involved with Li Zhanpeng.
"Third Brother, I treat you like a brother, what kind of expression is that?"