Forced Me to Regress, Huh?

Inside the fruit shop at the school gate, Shen Qingning was stunned when she heard what Cheng Zhu said.

Hello, rumored girlfriend?

There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with his words. In fact, Cheng Zhu was essentially stepping into the gossip himself, casually joking about his own situation.

But this person exuded a bad-boy vibe, with naturally upturned eyebrows. Paired with his mischievous smile, he gave off a roguish charm.

Shen Qingning, this wealthy beauty with a commanding aura, had never faced a situation like this before.

For some reason, her heart quickened, and she felt embarrassed and annoyed. Is he teasing me?

He’s definitely teasing me!

“What nonsense are you spouting?!” Shen Qingning frowned and even wanted to throw the yellow dragon fruit in her hand at his face.

But she didn’t have Lin Lu’s lively temperament. If she really did that, it would only look like playful flirting.

Unfazed, Cheng Zhu continued smiling unabashedly and turned to browse the fruit platters in the cold display cabinet beside her.

He’s pretty relaxed about it! Shen Qingning didn’t know why, but she felt inexplicably annoyed.

What irritated her even more was that, after selecting a platter of chilled, sliced watermelon, he turned to her with a serious expression as he paid and asked, “Shen Qing… no, Senior Sister, do you have a discount card for this place?”

And just like that, he borrowed her membership card, used the discount, and transferred the savings to her via WeChat.

At first, Shen Qingning didn’t want to accept it, but the nagging suspicion that this guy had been deliberately teasing her made a small voice in this frosty woman’s mind declare, No way I’m treating him to watermelon!

Cheng Zhu, however, unwrapped the plastic film and offered the platter to her. “Want some?”

“No.”

“This piece looks like it’s from the center. It’s super red and extra crisp.” He speared a slice of watermelon with a fork and bit it hard under Shen Qingning’s gaze. “Did you hear that crunch?”

“Childish!”

The two of them walked out of the shop and stepped into the bustling crowd on the street.

As always, she turned heads wherever she went.

Speaking of which, the gossip on the forum had only been circulating for a day and a night. Although it spread quickly, not everyone would turn into a full-fledged gossip enthusiast.

Still, people were naturally prone to speculation.

Moreover, a certain scoundrel’s unusual way of greeting earlier didn’t help matters.

All of this made her a little uncomfortable, as if every glance cast their way was filled with gossip about their relationship.

She had told Lin Lu earlier that she disdained to pay attention to such rumors, confident she wouldn’t care and would maintain her indifference towards the gossip. But now, standing with Cheng Zhu amidst the crowd, she felt an odd and indescribable sensation she couldn’t quite put into words.

Meanwhile, the male lead in the rumors was far too at ease.

On this hot evening, he leisurely ate slice after slice of chilled watermelon, clearly enjoying himself.

“My car’s parked over there. I’m leaving now,” Shen Qingning said to him.

“Sure, let’s go. I happen to be heading that way too,” Cheng Zhu replied, glancing around casually.

When they reached the white Range Rover, just before getting into the car, Shen Qingning noticed Cheng Zhu scanning the shops lining both sides of the street and asked, “What are you looking for?”

She figured he wasn’t familiar with this street near campus and was looking for a specific shop. If so, she could give him directions.

“I’m looking to rent a shop,” he said directly.

If an ordinary girl were in her place and heard a first-year talking about renting a shop to start a business, she would likely be astonished by his wealth.

However, Shen Qingning had a prodigal older brother who had no interest in the family business and instead loved launching his own ventures. Yet every single one had ended in failure. Back in college, he had sunk money into multiple failed projects, essentially becoming a walking trial-and-error machine for entrepreneurship.

The cold and aloof girl stood beside her car and asked, “How big of a shop are you looking to rent?”

“Two units should be enough,” Cheng Zhu replied.

For this kind of business, a single unit would suffice for those who wanted to keep things modest.

But Cheng Zhu wasn’t the type to cut corners.

A space that small? Where would all the girls fit?!

That said, two units was definitely the upper limit. Renting three would only make it harder to break even.

After all, it was just a claw machine shop. No need to overdo it.

“There are two units for rent over there, but you’ll have to wait about ten days for the lease to expire.” Shen Qingning pointed at a sushi restaurant on the left.

“Is that so? The location is pretty good. Very visible.” Cheng Zhu took a glance.

Shops near campus often changed every year.

Many believed that a good location guaranteed profits, but in reality, it was far from that simple.

“You can think it over. If you’re interested, send me a message.” Shen Qingning opened the front passenger door to place the fruits inside.

“Huh? Don’t tell me you’re the landlady,” Cheng Zhu said with a sharp intuition.

She gave a slight nod.

He felt like applauding her.

These two shops were indeed hers, a gift from her father when she got into college.

Still so young and in college, and you’re already a landlady?

This brought to mind a news story Cheng Zhu had once read. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and former richest man in the world, had a unique problem that troubled him—his youngest daughter spent too little money.

He gave her a five-figure weekly allowance in USD, but she always ended up with a lot left over.

Once, she even bought a pair of discounted shoes, leaving Bezos reportedly frustrated and dismayed.

To encourage her to spend more, he even told her, “Stop buying useless assets. Since you love Star Wars so much, why not just buy the rights?”

Unbelievable. The rest of us bought merchandise, but this guy told his daughter to buy the copyright.

When his daughter wanted to go on vacation, he simply bought an island.

Interestingly, Bezos had adopted his daughter from an orphanage in Changsha.

As soon as this news broke, countless people shed tears of envy and asked if Bezos wanted another daughter.

After reading the story, Cheng Zhu thought to himself, This tycoon wasn’t just bragging. He was genuinely troubled by this issue and tried to figure out how to change his daughter’s perspective on spending and investing.

For people like them, money wasn’t meant to be saved.

Cheng Zhu, well aware of this logic, knew that girls like Shen Qingning, even while still in school, already had access to some resources. Her parents had likely already started guiding her to manage and leverage those resources to find her own way.

There was indeed a significant gap between people.

But Cheng Zhu had never harbored any resentment towards his parents.

Because he understood that the wealthy merely let a little slip through their fingers to allow their children to grow. After all, at such a young age, there was no reason to hand over a huge amount of wealth.

However, for ordinary parents like Old Cheng and Xu Yun, they had already done everything in their power—stretching on tiptoe, raising their arms as high as they could—to lift their children up, doing their best to expose them to the highest opportunities and broadest horizons.

After chatting with Cheng Zhu for a little longer, Shen Qingning drove off.

He went over to check out the sushi restaurant and found that business was indeed poor.

If I were dating this rich young lady, would I even need to pay rent? Just call renting as an investment, he thought, joking to himself.

Don’t say anything about dating a rich woman and getting money from it. That sounds awful.

That’s called getting career support!

Cheng Zhu continued walking forward, surveying the off-campus market. He planned to check out the entire street tonight.

Having Shen Qingning as the landlady was indeed a good choice. However, Cheng Zhu wouldn’t head back just because of this. He wasn’t going to stop exploring and looking for other options.

Many people failed to do thorough groundwork early on, only to regret it later and slap their thighs in frustration.

Meanwhile, Shen Qingning soon arrived at the apartment she shared with Lin Lu.

Lin Lu was watching anime in the living room. Shen Qingning wasn’t interested, so she simply said, “I’m putting the fruit on the table.”

“Got it! Thanks!” Lin Lu, sitting in front of her tablet, made a heart with her hands.

Shen Qingning grabbed a yellow dragon fruit and returned to her room. With nothing else to do, she started reading romance novels as usual.

As mentioned before, she was a seasoned romance novel fan and particularly fond of sad stories. She wouldn’t bother with anything that didn’t involve tragedy.

Recently, she had been experiencing a book shortage, so she decided to revisit a famous and beloved classic, My Sunshine.

Strictly speaking, this book wasn’t particularly tragic, and she had read it several times already.

The reason she picked it up again was that she heard a TV drama adaptation of the book was in the works and might be released in 2015, so she dug it out to reread.

And, like most books, rereading it brought new feelings.

This book wasn’t long, and she quickly reached the part about the male lead, He Yichen, and the female lead, Zhao Mosheng, during their college years.

This part of the story was about how rumors were spreading at school that He Yichen, the star of the law department, had a girlfriend, whose name was quite difficult to pronounce—Zhao Mosheng.

At this point, Zhao Mosheng was already pursuing He Yichen, but it wasn’t official yet. So after hearing the rumors, she rushed to find him and hastily clarified, “I didn’t start the rumors. You have to believe me!”

He Yichen’s response was simple. “I know.”

“How do you know?” she asked.

“Because I started them.”

The first few times Shen Qingning had read this book, she had simply thought this part of the story was quite sweet.

But for some reason, today, Cheng Zhu’s face kept drifting into her mind.

The storyline in the book was clearly far from what happened in reality.

The only similarity was that rumors were spreading at school.

And in her case, the ‘mastermind’ behind it all was the silly girl happily watching anime next door!

But for some reason, Shen Qingning couldn’t stop thinking about Cheng Zhu in the fruit shop, about the irritating smile on his face, and about that line: “Hello, rumored girlfriend.”

In an instant, she felt a jolt of electricity run through her body, and she turned off her phone screen. I can’t read this book anymore!