Chapter 355: 355 Target

“Don’t talk about me anymore.” Liu Xiaoshang shook his head and asked Chen Xu, “What about you? How come you are eating here alone? Don’t you need to accompany your girlfriend?”

While eating, Chen Xu replied, “She’s on a business trip, so it’s just me now.”

“Speaking of which, I really envy you. Your girlfriend is so beautiful and treats you so well.” Liu Xiaoshang was clearly impressed by Yang Jinxia. “If my other half was half as good as her.”

Chen Xu looked at him, “What, you regret it?”

Liu Xiaoshang sighed, “Not really. How should I put it? There were troubles before marriage, and there are troubles after marriage.”

Chen Xu nodded and said, “That’s true.”

“Let’s not eat here, let’s go have a drink.” Liu Xiaoshang, who rarely bumped into an old classmate, suggested.

Chen Xu jokingly said, “You’re going to go back reeking of alcohol, aren’t you afraid of getting scolded by your wife?”

“It’s okay.” Liu Xiaoshang waved his hand and said, “At most she’ll scold me once.”

Chen Xu couldn’t help but laugh.

The two of them then left the fast food restaurant. Liu Xiaoshang’s company was nearby, and since he was familiar with the area, he took Chen Xu to a hotpot restaurant on the same street.

The hotpot restaurant was equally lively, and there was only one table left.

“Come on, let’s drink.”

After they ordered dishes, it wasn’t long before some peanuts and pickled radishes were served along with the beer. Liu Xiaoshang poured a beer for each of them, raised his glass, and said.

Chen Xu picked up the beer, clinked glasses with him, and drained it in one gulp.

After Liu Xiaoshang finished his drink, he refilled their glasses, picked up a fried peanut with his chopsticks, chewed it and said, “If you talk about regrets, I do have one. It’s that I married too early. It would have been better to wait for another two years.”

Both of them were the same age, twenty-seven this year. Soon they would be twenty-eight; waiting another two years would make them thirty.

“It’s not late for us men to be thirty, but women can’t wait that long. Your wife is a year younger than you, right?” Chen Xu said.

“Yes, at that time, she was constantly pushing for marriage, and my parents were also putting pressure on me. I just couldn’t withstand it.” Liu Xiaoshang sighed, “As someone who has been through it, I must give you a word of advice, being married is really not the same as being single.”

“Before marriage, although we also lived together and she spent my money, my income was decent enough. I bought a house, bought a car, the pressure wasn’t that big.”

“But once you get married, the feeling is completely different, suddenly there’s a huge pressure. Especially thinking about having kids in the future, you just can’t squander money aimlessly.”

“Before, I wouldn’t eat in this kind of fast food place when dining out. Now, where else can I afford to dine? My wife is the same, she used to buy cosmetics worth thousands without blinking an eye, but since the wedding, she hasn’t bought any, nor does she nag about traveling.”

“I mean, my income isn’t low, and I don’t even have a mortgage to pay. How did things come to this?”

“You should be content.” Chen Xu said, “I dare say your situation is better than ninety percent of people.”

Liu Xiaoshang was from a well-off family. After graduating from university, his parents bought him a house, which alone made him much better off than most of his peers. He had good abilities and strong connections, landing a decent job at a major company right after graduation; his salary wasn’t low. Plus, having a beautiful girlfriend, he was seen as a life winner by his classmates.

“Yet here you are complaining about the pressure. How could others live?”

At this moment, the waitress started bringing the dishes.

Liu Xiaoshang took another sip from his glass and said, “It’s just that, everyone has their own troubles, whether it’s about money, family, or work.”

“Look at you. Just by looking at your outfit, anyone can tell that you are very successful in business. Plus, having a beautiful and gentle girlfriend. You truly do make one envious.”

Liu Xiaoshang, being in sales, could tell from Chen Xu’s unassuming yet high-end branded clothes that he was not wearing anything worth less than $100,000.

Nearby, the waitress covered the table with vegetables and meat, and soon, the broth began bubbling vigorously.

Chen Xu picked some lettuce, spinach, and bok choy, added them to the pot, and watched the rising steam, “Indeed, now I have my career, love, my parents are healthy, and the relationships within my family are harmonious. From any angle, my life is very fulfilling.”

Liu Xiaoshang stared at him and said, “Are you purposely trying to provoke me?”

Chen Xu smiled, submerged the greens with a mesh spoon, added a few beef balls into the broth, and said, “It’s because of this that I feel like life doesn’t have much of a goal anymore. At most, I’ll just be more diligent at work, doing good for humanity and such.”

“But I am a mundane person; such lofty goals don’t really motivate me.”

Liu Xiaoshang was speechless. “You really lack a beating by society. When I first graduated, I felt similar to you, with my parents buying me a house and car and having a nice job and a beautiful girlfriend. It felt like there was nothing to pursue in life. But when my life moved to a new stage, new troubles arose.”

Chen Xu listened to him while adding tofu, fried tofu skin, and potato slices into the pot, smiled, and said nothing. Nowadays, there probably wasn’t anyone in the world capable of giving him a beating by society.

Of course, there was no need to say this out loud.

Just then, two girls entered the restaurant, overheard the waitress saying there was no room, looked disappointed, but didn’t turn to leave immediately. Instead, they scanned the restaurant to see if anyone was about to finish.

Suddenly, the slightly shorter girl’s eyes lit up, and she excitedly pulled her companion’s sleeve, “Look, look, who is that?”

The other girl followed the direction she pointed, and said in surprise, “Is it him? What a coincidence.”

“Let’s go over,” the girl turned back and told the waitress, “That table is where my friends are.”

The two girls approached the man from behind, tapped him on the shoulder, and excitedly called out, “Chen Xu.”

Chen Xu felt it before their hands came down, turned around, and was stunned, “How come it’s you?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing. How come you are here? Tell me, have you been following us all the way here? Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence?” the shorter girl said with a smile.

Chen Xu, not expecting to run into them, was also pleased, “If anything, you two must have followed me since I was here first.”

These two girls were university students he had met in Beijing, Shasha and Xiao Yin. As for their full names, he still didn’t know.