Reborn with Consumption System-Chapter 366 - 186: The Fated One [Major - ]_3

Generally, if a woman you’ve been intimate with, who acts like your girlfriend, consistently avoids introducing you to her social circle or friends, there are usually three possible reasons.

The first is that she sees you as a backup, just playing around. This is the most common and familiar scenario.

Second, she likes you but doesn’t fully trust you yet, so she’s decided to wait and see. She isn’t looking for anyone else; she just wants to observe you a bit longer. If you get past this stage, it generally means you’re heading towards marriage.

Third, she wants to put some pressure on you. A true master of this game wouldn’t easily introduce their partner to their friends. Instead, they’d frequently mention their close friends and share stories about what happens in that circle. They’re trying to send a message: ’I’m independent, I’m not lonely, I have my own life.’ This is meant to pique your interest in knowing more about her, but by not satisfying this curiosity, it creates anxiety and a sense of crisis. You’d unconsciously become more anxious around her because you’re so unfamiliar with her circle, leading to constant, uncontrollable emotional fluctuations. And they, in turn, can use this to easily prompt you to actively approach them.

However, your initiative might not always be met with positive feedback. The longer this goes on, the greater the pressure, until the balance of power completely shifts.

Obviously, that’s exactly what Pan Ge was doing. She hadn’t given up yet. She still wanted to struggle, still wanted to provoke, and she would definitely have other tricks up her sleeve in the future.

Han Lie chuckled and shook his head, finding it extremely amusing. After a moment’s thought, he replied to her, "That’s good. Then I can rest easy when I’m busy."

Then he didn’t wait to see how she responded and exited to scroll through other people’s comments.

Chen Yanfei sent a series of hammer emojis. Han Lie laughed and asked, "Tried the stockings yet?"

He received a barrage of bomb emojis in reply.

Ding Xiang had been too shy to contact Han Lie, but Brother Lie, not one to play favorites, took the initiative. "How would you rate the gift?" he asked. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

She replied with an emoji of someone covering their mouth to stifle a giggle. A moment later, she sent a single word: "Endorsement."

"’Yanyan said she wants to break your legs...’"

Sigh, this girl is still too reserved. Han Lie thought. We’re flirting here; why bring Chen Yanfei into this?

But Ding Xiang was shy, so Han Lie didn’t dare tease her further and ended the chat with a single sentence.

"So scary! Better go home and sleep then!"

It smacked a bit of trying to act cute, but little girls fell for this kind of thing. Besides, our Brother Lie wasn’t one to care about his image anyway. The strongest armor withstands the deadliest blows. Without this belief, why bother with a harem?

Looking further, the rest of the messages were basically unimportant, except for one from Fang Tongzhi that made Han Lie pause.

Fang Tongzhi: "Han Shao, do you have time today? If you’re not busy, come over to the suite; the guys have prepared a gift for you."

What serious business could they have? If it was something important, why not just call directly?

Han Lie scrolled through his missed call list but didn’t see any from Fang Tongzhi or Wang Xiaotian.

Alright, it was probably nothing significant. But since I have time to spare, it wouldn’t hurt to check it out.

So, Han Lie rerouted to the Marriott.

When he arrived upstairs and opened the door to the suite, he saw two large boxes in the entryway. They were sealed with tape and labeled with his name: Han Lie.

Good, I’ll have to remember to take these with me later.

Several young women were sitting at the small bar near the entrance. It wasn’t clear whose girlfriends they were, but they all seemed enthusiastic at the sight of Han Lie. One of them even proactively came forward to help him with his coat.

"Brother Lie, long time no see! You’re getting more handsome!"

That was quite the half-hearted flattery.

But Han Lie didn’t hold it against her. He just nodded with a smile, "Hello everyone. Hey, go on with what you were doing, don’t mind me."

He said that, but how could anyone with a bit of social awareness actually continue to sit there carelessly? One after another, they rose, their expressions a mix of enthusiasm, restraint, or flirtatiousness. The quicker ones had already turned to get him a drink.

"Minister, would you like something to drink?"

Taking a closer look, Han Lie was surprised to see it was a newcomer from the Literature and Art Department, Huo Xiaoyu. She was a beauty rated above 85 points, one of the so-called ’Eighteen Arhats.’

It couldn’t exactly be considered a coincidence; it was quite normal for the pretty girls from the Literature and Art Department to show up here. The rich kids from the International Relations Institute and the campus’s second-tier beauties—a perfect match. In the Humanities faculty, with its 7,000 female students to 1,000 male students, almost all of the two or three hundred beauties and budding beauties were monopolized by those 150 or so rich second-generation students from the International Relations Institute. Essentially, any privately-run college with an international institute was a nightmare instance for average male students. Those who have experienced it know how poor that gaming experience is. Others zoom by in luxury cars, their passenger seats never disappointing. While guys like us are scrounging for cash by the end of every month, and even liking a modestly cute ’class beauty’ means being strung along as a backup. Of course, there were also many poor but handsome male leads who defied the odds to marry rich but not particularly beautiful women, first living as a live-in son-in-law, then turning into the Dragon King, and finally, in their early thirties, becoming a revered ’Bathhouse Emperor.’ But at the end of the day, most of the beauties from schools like these end up with wealthy, handsome men. Han Lie’s ’Harem Department’ was actually a prime example of this phenomenon. Few of the sophomores and juniors in it had been single since birth. Wang Tianqing had even dated a fellow second-generation rich kid. However, because she’d wasted a lot of time on Yu Xueqin, she was still ’brand new’ when Han Lie got to her. Forget about the rest of the ’Eighteen Arhats’; Ma Ke’s and Wang Hong’s ex-girlfriends were among them. The ’Four Heavenly Queens,’ however, were all single. However, Han Lie wasn’t sure if they had always been single or were just recently single. He hadn’t inquired; ’Righteous Lie’ didn’t care about such personal matters. After all, they were the ones hitting on me, and I sternly refused them.

...

Facing Huo Xiaoyu’s attempt to please, Han Lie casually acknowledged it.