Chapter 64: Song Jianian's Obsession

Monday morning, Chen Yuan bolted upright in bed as a new notification popped up in his mind.

[Task completed: Reward 1,500 RMB in cash, Balance Doubling Card * 1]
[Your baby Song Jianian spent 186 RMB this week, leaving 314 RMB. The Doubling Card takes effect, rewarding 31,400 RMB in cash]

At first, Chen Yuan hadn't taken this task seriously at all.

Given Song Jianian's spending habits, 500 RMB a week wouldn't even be enough for her snacks. Completing this task seemed extremely difficult, so he had basically given up on it.

However, the System never lies; her spending amount this week really was 186.

With such a tiny amount of money, what on earth did she eat?

That wouldn't even be enough to survive on fresh air and northwestern wind, right?

He picked up his phone and sent a message to Song Jianian.

Chen Yuan: "Let's grab breakfast together in the morning."
Song Jianian: "Okay!"
Song Jianian: "Get ready, I'll message you when I'm heading downstairs."
Chen Yuan: "Okay."

After washing up, Chen Yuan didn't leave with his three roommates. Instead, he waited another five minutes and only went downstairs after receiving Song Jianian's message.

She was wearing loose-fitting black wide-leg trousers, with Gucci dirty sneakers on her feet. Standing downstairs at the apartment building, the sunlight streamed against her silhouette, making her look like an ink-wash iris.

"Is there anything you want to eat? My treat."
"We can talk about that later. How much did you spend last week?"
"I need to check my ledger. It definitely didn't exceed 500."

Song Jianian held her phone and opened her personal bookkeeping app.

"I spent 209. I'm pretty impressive, right?"

The System had prompted that she spent 186 last week, which differed slightly from her own records by twenty-odd yuan, well within a reasonable margin of error.

"Tell me first, while ensuring you still ate meals, how did you manage to spend so little?"
"I didn't buy anything at all last week. I only ate breakfast and lunch. When I was with you, I had dinner for two days, and I spent an extra 20 yuan to ride the rocking horse. Otherwise, I could have saved even more."

Chen Yuan calculated: at cafeteria prices, eating only breakfast and lunch and choosing the cheapest options would come to around 15 to 20 per day, making it 105 to 140 for the week. Adding a few other miscellaneous expenses, the numbers seemed to match up.

"You didn't eat dinner at night? Didn't your roommates ask?"
"They did, and I told them I was going on a diet."

When other people said they were dieting and skipping dinner, there was usually an element of a tight budget involved, but not for Song Jianian.

When she said she was dieting, she meant she was genuinely dieting. Her roommates probably never suspected she was undertaking an abstract challenge to spend only 500 a week.

The two went to the Third Cafeteria, where there was a wider selection, higher quality, and better taste, though the prices were slightly steeper.

A single bowl of seafood porridge cost over ten yuan, though it actually contained a large shrimp. Even so, Chen Yuan felt it was a bit expensive.

"Classmate, that's 79 in total," said the guy serving the food.
"Such a small amount of stuff is 79? That's way too expensive."
"How is it expensive? It's been this price for all these years, alright? Don't talk with your eyes wide—"

Damn!
The famous quote had started.

"Stop, stop, stop. Not expensive at all."
"Alright, thanks for your support, classmate."

Holding their food, the two found an empty spot and sat down.

"Did you eat anything last night?" Chen Yuan asked.
"I did, but I ate it after 12 o'clock."

At the mention of food, Song Jianian pouted like a deflated balloon, looking a little depressed.

"Maybe I was too hungry. After 12 o'clock, I ate a lot of small snacks. I feel so guilty; I think I'm going to get fat."

Song Jianian's obsession exceeded Chen Yuan's imagination.

That week, she hadn't gone to Uncle Zhang's place for cut fruits, hadn't sent her clothes to the laundry, and apart from meals, had no extra expenses whatsoever. Even the small snacks were held off until after midnight when Monday arrived, strictly controlling the time down to the exact precision of a time machine.

Her level of obsession far surpassed his imagination. She was too stubborn.

"After going through this week, I realized that spending only 500 yuan a week really seems very difficult. I didn't dare buy anything. Fortunately, I didn't get sick; if I had to buy medicine, it probably wouldn't have been enough."

Someone who usually spent 500 a day insisted on spending 500 a week—of course it wouldn't be enough.

"You've experienced it, that's enough. There's no need to do this in the future."
"No, this is very necessary. No matter when, one must learn to be diligent and thrifty, and remain vigilant in times of peace," Song Jianian said seriously.

"Our breakfast alone cost over 79. If we buy a few other daily necessities, keeping living expenses under 500 this week should be impossible."
"It's fine, I can fake the ledger. No matter how much I actually spend, the records will definitely show under 500."

Chen Yuan: "..."

"You could actually spend a bit more. You only spent 209; on Saturday and Sunday, you could have completely spent the remaining budget. It would still be under 500 anyway."

Chen Yuan felt a bit uneasy inside; this state of affairs wasn't quite right.

"Didn't you say that if I saved a lot of money, you would give me a big reward? So I wanted to spend less, that way I could exchange it for a reward from you."

Her autumn-water-bright peach-blossom eyes reflected a lively gaze, like a giant boulder falling into the calm lake of Chen Yuan's heart.

She wasn't trying to save money; she just wanted a reward...

"So that's what you were thinking."
"Right, I just wanted a reward."

Song Jianian was very frank, hiding her thoughts not at all. It seemed her week of hard work was all just waiting for this moment.

If only she could go ride the coin-operated rocking animals, but he didn't seem to like them very much. Even if she shed tiny golden beans of tears, he probably wouldn't agree, right?

Sigh, such a prideful man...

He really wanted to give her one million to buy up all his pride, but she probably wouldn't sell, and he wasn't sure if ten million would work either.

"Why go to all this trouble? Even if you overspend, as long as you say where you want to go, I'll accompany you."
"Except for the rocking animals."
"Can you ride the rocking animals with me?"

The two spoke almost in unison, with a tacit understanding as if they had synced up.

"I starved for a week, can't I even exchange it for a ride on a rocking animal?"
"You can sit on my head and rock, but don't make me ride a rocking animal with you."
"Then anything is fine. You'll have to think of it."
"Give me some time. You were thrifty for a week, this reward can't be too casual."
"Okay, is there a deadline? Give me something to look forward to."

Chen Yuan thought for a moment. "Then let's make it the weekend. We're VIPs anyway, taking a leave of absence shouldn't be a problem."
"Alright, I'll listen to you."

After finishing their meal, Song Jianian went to the Second Teaching Building, and Chen Yuan went to the First.

On the way to the classroom, Chen Yuan's pace wasn't fast.

Having suddenly earned over thirty thousand, bringing his total balance to over forty thousand, it was definitely a huge sum of income for an ordinary family.

Yet, facing this income, Chen Yuan couldn't feel happy at all; it didn't feel like it came from an honest path.

Chen Yuan felt he was sick, and only when he caught sight of the young married woman's white legs did he feel cured.

As for what kind of reward to give Song Jianian, he had roughly figured it out.
He could take her to the zoo for a stroll.

After the English class ended, the next class was Advanced Mathematics. Chen Yuan moved to the back row and caught up on some sleep.

Near the end of class, he received a message from Jiang Wanyi.

Jiang Wanyi: [Picture.JPG]
Jiang Wanyi: "Broke the record, 300 milliliters."
Chen Yuan: "There's still this much left after feeding?"
Jiang Wanyi: "No, I had something to do and needed to go out, so I expressed it beforehand."
Chen Yuan: "Who's at home watching the baby?"
Jiang Wanyi: "I had my mom come over, so..."
Chen Yuan: "So what?"
Jiang Wanyi: "Guess?"

As a veteran straight man who had played the supporting role for years, Chen Yuan was briefly stumped.

Chen Yuan: "Your concubine—this Emperor cannot guess!"
Jiang Wanyi: "Dumbass!"
Jiang Wanyi: "My mom is helping me watch the baby tonight, so I'm free! I can stay out a bit later."
Jiang Wanyi: "I want to relax!"
Chen Yuan: "Can this be interpreted as you asking me out?"
Jiang Wanyi: "Hmph, who knows, [Grimace.JPG]"
Jiang Wanyi: "I'm packing my things to go out, I'll talk to you later."
Chen Yuan: "Okay."

After finishing the chat, it was time for class to end.

After eating, Chen Yuan called Old Li, fabricating a story that he had won thirty thousand yuan from a scratch-off lottery ticket.

Fortunately, his acting skills were convincing enough that Old Li didn't suspect a thing.

"Just transfer 27,000 to me and keep 3,000. Winning the lottery is a good thing, go treat your roommates to a meal."
"Mom, this is windfall money, give Dad a share too. He used to smoke cheap 'Great Cloud' cigarettes, and now he's upgraded to 'Liqun'."
"Wasn't that to save money for you to marry a wife? What cigarette doesn't smoke? As long as it produces smoke, it's fine."

After a few more words of instruction, Old Li hung up the phone.

Chen Yuan thought to himself that he might have sabotaged Old Chen.

Having given Old Li 27,000, according to expectations, Old Chen should be able to get 2,000 in pocket money.
Though there was also a chance he would be forced to hand over another 3,000, making it an even thirty thousand.

Sigh...