"How has everyone been doing lately?"
While waiting for the food to arrive, Lin Shen took the initiative to start a conversation and looked toward Guo Haoran.
"Why didn’t you bring Han with you? Is she working overtime?"
"We broke up."
Guo Haoran adjusted his glasses and said this with incredible calm, but it startled the other two—everyone but Lin Shen.
"You broke up?"
Zhao Ye put down the sunflower seeds he was snacking on, his face full of disbelief.
After a waiter brought over a keg of draft beer, he gestured for his girlfriend, Sun Yue, to pour everyone a drink. He then dropped his playful attitude, his expression turning exceptionally serious.
"How did you break up? Haven’t you two been together since your sophomore year? It’s been about six years by now, right?"
"Yeah."
Qi Junxian was also full of curiosity.
"I remember you said last time you were getting ready to talk marriage with Han. We were all waiting for our wedding invitation."
"The talks fell through."
Guo Haoran took the large, full glass of beer from Sun Yue, thanked her in a low voice, and sighed softly.
"Han’s family demanded that I make a down payment on a house in Modu, at least a hundred square meters. After all, they said we’d have two kids in the future, and each would need their own room."
"If I couldn’t do it, I had to follow Han back to her hometown, because she won’t marry someone from another place. As for the betrothal gift, 288,000."
"See? What did I tell you!"
Zhao Ye was the type to speak his mind—blunt and straightforward, never filtering his thoughts or worrying too much about the consequences.
"I’m not trying to be prejudiced against certain regions, but the poorer and more remote a place is, the more they haggle over the betrothal gift. They’re afraid their daughter will seem less valuable than the neighbors’ daughters."
"I warned you about this back then, but you wouldn’t listen. You almost got into a fight with me over it. Now look what happened, it came true, didn’t it?"
"You’re right."
Guo Haoran gave a self-deprecating smile, then raised his glass and clinked it against Zhao Ye’s before looking at Lin Shen and Qi Junxian.
"Let’s drink!"
"Didn’t you drive here?"
Before Qi Junxian could finish his sentence, Guo Haoran had already downed a third of his beer.
However, he drank too fast and started choking, coughing violently.
Seeing this, Sun Yue quickly pulled out a tissue and handed it to him.
"Thanks."
Guo Haoran wiped his mouth with the tissue and looked at Zhao Ye with eyes full of envy.
"Your girlfriend has such a great personality! When are you two planning to get married?"
"Not anytime soon."
Zhao Ye pursed his lips.
"I bombed both my grad school and civil service exams this year. What fucking marriage?"
"Huh?" Qi Junxian was stunned.
"I thought you started studying for the grad school and civil service exams right after graduation? You still haven’t made it?"
"Yeah. For the grad school exam, my English score didn’t meet the national cutoff. I actually made it to the interview round for the civil service exam, and I was ranked second, but!"
Zhao Ye held up three fingers, a sense of bitter absurdity on his face.
"They were hiring three people. I came in fourth."
"That’s such a shame," Qi Junxian said with regret.
"Didn’t you ever think about finding a job and studying at the same time?"
"I did."
Zhao Ye took the skewers of barbecue a waiter handed him, placed them on the table, then spread his hands and shrugged.
"I got fired before my probation period was even over."
"Why?"
"That old bastard was too fucking much. All he did in meetings was spout a bunch of nonsense and mock people. I just blew up and started cursing him out."
"..."
Lin Shen and the other two exchanged a look. They were surprised, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected.
Seeing their reaction, Zhao Ye raised his glass in frustration.
"Ah, let’s just drink! No more talking about this stuff!"
GLUG—!