My System Forces Me to Live off Women-Chapter 74 - 72: Two Longings and One Ordinary Man
Capital, inside Jintian City Apartments.
"He actually hung up!"
Xu Manning frowned: "Hand me my phone, I’ll call him again."
Wu Wenyue shrugged: "One is enough. If he already hung up, don’t call again."
"Do you have the number for his supervisor, Zhao Qingge?"
"No, I usually don’t socialize."
Xu Manning was silent for a moment, then said: "Isn’t it possible... he’s still in a meeting?"
Wu Wenyue looked at her with a bit of sympathy, and a bit of helplessness: "Seeing you like this, I feel that saying is really right."
"What?"
"You don’t need to trick a girl. If she likes you, she’ll trick herself."
Xu Manning glanced at her: "Did you change your gender? If you really did, I’d marry you right now and make him the ’other woman’."
Wu Wenyue blushed: "I don’t even like him..."
Xu Manning sneered: "Sorry, though I really like you, that lie of yours just makes it impossible for me to trick myself!"
Wu Wenyue sat down by the bed, wrapped her arms around her waist, and guessed: "I just think maybe his phone ran out of battery."
Xu Manning was stunned: "How does a phone with a dead battery hang up a video call?"
"The ringtone sounds, then it runs out of battery. It’s not that he wanted to hang up; the phone just shut down automatically."
"Are you serious?"
Wu Wenyue nodded: "This happened to me before. Otherwise, why do you think he didn’t pick up the video call? Could it really be he’s on a date with a girl?"
...
"If I were, I would be. If I weren’t, I wouldn’t be. What do you mean by saying I’m on a date with another girl?"
Li Peifeng walked in front of a jewelry stand on Wuzhen’s pedestrian street, carrying a bag in one hand and holding a phone in the other, letting the camera sweep around, then explained to the two women on the screen: "A date usually refers to two people meeting at an agreed time and place with the purpose of romance."
"As for me, at most, I’d just find a local female book fan to act as a guide, go shopping with me, have a meal, and, when the moment is right, hold hands and kiss a bit."
Sometimes the truth is revealed in a joke...
The two girls in front of the camera glanced at the dimly lit Wuzhen street displayed on the phone screen and didn’t react to Li Peifeng’s statement.
"Stop the nonsense."
Xu Manning asked directly: "An hour ago, why did you reject the video call?"
"I was having a meal with a female book fan at the time, it wasn’t convenient."
Li Peifeng juggled everything, video-calling them while selecting jewelry and asking the stall owner: "How much is this?"
Xu Manning, disappointed, turned to Wu Wenyue and complained: "I told you it wasn’t because his phone ran out of battery; he really was on a date!"
Wu Wenyue frowned: "Do you believe everything he says? Do you see anyone else beside him?!"
"Yeah!"
Xu Manning understood: "Where’s the beautiful female book fan you were kissing? Let us see what she looks like!"
"She’s not with me. She’s waiting for me at the dessert shop."
Li Peifeng swept the camera over the bags in his hand: "These are clothes she helped me pick for you while shopping, blue-printed fabric, quite unique."
He spoke so convincingly that the two were half-believing and didn’t know what to say.
Li Peifeng pointed the camera at the dazzling small items at the jewelry stand: "See if there’s anything here you like, I’ll bring it back for you."
"No need."
"Whatever."
With these two different answers, Li Peifeng casually bought them. However, Wu Wenyue and Xu Manning were clearly very interested in the female book fan he mentioned, continuously asking for details.
"Did you meet her in the book club group? Why can’t I join your group now?"
"Is she from Hangzhou? How old is she? Is she a student or working? What’s her real name?"
Li Peifeng chuckled and answered with a question: "I’m quite curious. What kind of feeling do you have asking about her like this? Am I your boyfriend, or rather... are both of you my girlfriends? Otherwise, why are you so concerned about other women around me?"
"Forget it if you don’t want to say." Xu Manning looked gloomy: "I’m hanging up."
She meant it when she said hang up, but this was a group video; Wu Wenyue’s was still on, they were in the same room, she should be able to see too.
"You’re overthinking this."
Wu Wenyue grinned but also had a hint of irritation: "I’m your dad, she’s your mom. Does the eldest son have anything else to fart? If not, I’m going to console your mom."
Li Peifeng sighed: "Hang up then. One of you is a wolf, the other is a fox. I traveled so far, unfamiliar and lonely, dying here. Yesterday, you didn’t even say ’I miss you’ when I let you video call. Today, I became a nobody in the meeting, feeling all aggrieved."
"Finally, when the meeting ended, I wandered aimlessly with sore feet, just to carefully pick gifts for you, but I didn’t hear a single kind word, only getting anger from you..."
"Alright, alright, stop."
Wu Wenyue frowned and said, "Come back early, we’ll cook for you."
Outside the screen, it seemed Xu Manning kicked Wu Wenyue, causing the latter to exclaim in surprise and her body to sway. Then, a furious voice echoed, "Wu Wenyue, are you shameless? He’s out dining with beautiful fans, enjoying himself, and when he comes back, we still have to cook for him? I won’t even let him in the door! Where’s his luggage? Pack it up and kick him out!"
"Why did you kick me?"
Wu Wenyue pouted, saying to Li Peifeng, "Xiaofeng, come back early, Manning actually misses you."
"Stop talking nonsense!"
"Who’s talking nonsense? You were sleep-talking last night! Calling out ’Peifeng, Yueyue, come here, I want...’."
Halfway through, Wu Wenyue mimed gagging, "It was so disgusting, so flirtatious, I felt ashamed to imitate it."
"?!"
If you talk about this, I’m all ears.
Li Peifeng instantly perked up.
Xu Manning’s voice was panicked yet certain, "Impossible, absolutely impossible. I never sleep-talk. Plus, you were the one who made the video call just now, don’t blame me. If you want that rascal, don’t drag me into it."
Wu Wenyue rolled her eyes, "You clearly asked me to make the call."
"You’re lying!"
Xu Manning was clearly outraged to the extreme. She stood up, entered the frame, and dared to stand up to Wu Wenyue, pinching her cheeks without letting go...
"Alright, this little thing doesn’t seem to know its own place!"
Wu Wenyue angrily sneered, tossed the phone onto the bed, then hugged Xu Manning and threw her onto the bed as well.
"Ah, what are you doing?!"
"Beating you up!"
"Peifeng! Yueyue is bullying me, come back quickly!"
"He’s too far away to save you!"
Xu Manning laughed in surprise, the phone tossed onto the bed, its camera facing the ceiling.
Li Sang, the lilies back home have bloomed again...
According to Li Peifeng’s guess, the scene might become quite violent.
Decisively, he chose to hang up for safety, feeling a bit restless inside.
He felt like hitting someone!
The first thing after returning to the Capital is to tie up these two women and beat them with a stick!
Even Jesus couldn’t stop me, I’m telling you!
But just as he hung up the video, a message from [Happy Family] popped up...
Xu Manning: "Miss you, don’t mess around!"
Wu Wenyue: "Miss you, mess around and I’ll kill you!"
Stars popped up all across the screen, neither of them @ed anyone, nor did they indicate who they were talking about, and then both retracted their messages within five or six seconds.
But that was enough time for Li Peifeng to see.
This longing stretched over more than a thousand kilometers, finally expressed after many days.
Like seeds buried in the soil, nurtured by spring rain, taking root, sprouting, blossoming, and bearing fruit, leaves gently trembling in the breeze.
Is this happiness?
Li Peifeng felt his heart sway gently on a swing, very comfortable, very content, but another new message quickly pulled him back to reality...
Huang Tianxuan: "Where have you run off to? The dessert is ready."
Li Peifeng: "I’ll be right back."
Having sent the voice message, Li Peifeng stood still amidst the bustling street, feeling that the vibrant neon lights had nothing to do with him, and sighed quietly.
"Suddenly, for a moment, I realized I might have taken a wrong turn."
At this point, the stall owner brother who witnessed the entire video call finally wrapped up the dozen or so pieces of jewelry Li Peifeng selected into small gift boxes, handed them over in a bag, and succinctly said, "Four hundred and six altogether."
Li Peifeng’s gaze was deep, "Could you please give me two more bags? There are too many things, I need to split them into three bags."
The stall owner took a look at him and tossed him two plastic bags, saying something with profound meaning.
"Little brother, gifts can be divided into three, but can the heart be divided into three?"
Li Peifeng made no response, silently divided the jewelry into three bags, put two into a large bag in his jacket, carried one in his hand, and turned to leave.
In this eternal conflict with reason, feelings have never failed... I’m not a scumbag, just an ordinary person.
