Chapter 8: Taming

Should he… give this computer to the public security authorities and let them handle it?

No, what if rescuing Yi Yi could only rely on this computer?

Moreover, Lü Yang had taken on tasks now. If he didn’t complete those tasks and the Phantom Points in his Zero Hour account remained negative, he would be erased from this world just like Yi Yi!

Lü Yang sat in place, lost and dejected, thinking back and forth. Unconsciously, it was already noon. He hadn’t eaten anything in the morning and was long starved. At this time before, Yi Yi would have definitely already come from their rented place carrying a thermal container. Then she would smilingly dish out the food, come close to Lü Yang, and eat together with him.

When Yi Yi was around, Lü Yang didn’t feel that she was particularly good. Instead, he thought she had many bad habits—like sleeping in, being petty, lacking ambition, and being careless. But now that she was gone, Lü Yang suddenly remembered many good things about her.

Especially today, at lunchtime when Yi Yi should have brought over the meal, but she was nowhere to be seen. Lü Yang couldn’t help feeling very panicked inside.

Was she really gone?

Lü Yang always had a feeling that Yi Yi was just a little angry, hiding somewhere unwilling to see him. When he went back in the evening, she would appear before him just like usual.

He waited until half past twelve, but Yi Yi didn’t push the door open as before, carrying the thermal container with prepared food, looking at the dust on Lü Yang’s head and face with concern, serving him rice, then smiling as she watched him eat and ate with him.

Lü Yang didn’t know why Yi Yi had fallen for him. When she was around, besides sleeping, her favorite thing was to stick by his side. Although Yi Yi was very careless, she was also a person who felt very insecure. She often said that if Lü Yang didn’t want her anymore, she would surely starve on the streets.

Lü Yang always thought she was exaggerating and that there was some element of trying to scare him. Lü Yang believed that someone as careless as her couldn’t understand something as romantic and delicate as love. If she hadn’t latched onto him, she would surely find someone else to latch onto, then cook and do laundry for that person, so she could continue sleeping in in the mornings.

Even so, now that Yi Yi had suddenly disappeared, Lü Yang felt an indescribable sadness in his heart, even a faint ache. It seemed he only just realized how very, very important Yi Yi was to him.

Time flew by, and it was one o’clock in the afternoon. Another wave of strong hunger hit him. Lü Yang quickly washed his face, wiped the dust off his hair, changed into clean clothes and shoes, pushed the door open, and went out, wanting to find a small Restaurant to grab something to eat.

Although Lü Yang was a renovation worker, to put it plainly, a Migrant Worker, he always paid attention to his appearance. When entering the construction site, he would change out of his clean clothes and shoes. Before leaving to go out, he would wash his hair and face and change back into his clean clothes and shoes. This way, when he walked out in the Residential Area, no one could tell he was a Migrant Worker.

Lü Yang always believed that even as a Migrant Worker, one should have dignity—work diligently, be honest, first respect yourself, then others will respect you.

…

Lü Yang, lost and dejected, went downstairs and walked blankly toward the exit of the Residential Area. When he reached the gate of Qingyuan Residential Area, he bumped right into Yi Ya, who was just getting out of a Taxi and walking toward the Residential Area.

Clearly, Yi Ya was here to find Lü Yang; otherwise, she wouldn’t have come here.

“Are you looking for me?” Lü Yang stopped, looking at Yi Ya with a strange expression because he didn’t know how she had become his girlfriend.

To be honest, when Yi Yi was around, Lü Yang did really like Yi Ya. This liking was pure—the kind of liking for a pretty girl, a common trait in men. However, Lü Yang never thought Yi Ya was the type to marry and settle down with. Lü Yang was a very practical person; he knew that a pretty girl like Yi Ya, with high standards and pride, was not someone he could tame or afford to support.

To take a wife, he should find someone like Yi Yi—dependent on her man, very devoted, thrifty in managing the household, and who enjoyed cooking and doing laundry. In modern society, it was hard to find a Woman like Yi Yi who was still willing to wholeheartedly serve a man. As for Yi Ya, Lü Yang had never seen her cook or do laundry even once.

The two sisters didn’t look much alike, and their temperaments were even more different. The most obvious difference was their spending habits: like how Yi Ya preferred hailing a Taxi when going out, while Yi Yi would walk if possible and not take a vehicle; even if she had to, she would choose the bus.

Also, if eating out, Yi Ya liked places with atmosphere like cafes or Western Restaurants, while Yi Yi would eat at home if possible and not go out. Even when going out with Lü Yang for fun and having to eat out, she would choose very cheap roadside eateries.

But Lü Yang didn’t think Yi Ya was bad because of this. On the contrary, he admired Yi Ya because all the money Yi Ya spent was earned by herself through part-time jobs outside of class, and she was still just a university student.

Given Lü Yang’s current financial situation, he felt he could afford to support Yi Yi. Moreover, being with Yi Yi, he could save a lot of money each month, and maybe even buy a house in the remote suburbs of Guishe City someday. But he absolutely couldn’t afford to support Yi Ya, let alone save money to buy a house.

Also, Lü Yang knew that Yi Yi was like a little bird under the eaves, overjoyed just to find shelter from the rain. Yi Yi needed his care, and he could give her the care she needed. But Yi Ya had always been ambitious and hardworking; her aspirations were to soar in the sky and battle the winds. Even if Lü Yang wanted to care for her, he couldn’t.

Her world, he didn’t understand; his world, she disdained to understand.

In the future, the gap between the two would only grow wider.

…

The moment he saw Yi Ya, Lü Yang seemed to suddenly see many good points of Yi Yi again, feeling that Yi Yi was practically tailor-made for him. All of this, when Yi Yi was around, he had never seriously thought about.

“What happened to you this morning?” Yi Ya asked Lü Yang directly.

“Let’s find a place to sit,” Lü Yang said, carefully staring at Yi Ya’s pretty face, the feeling in his heart growing even stranger.

He really wanted to know now how Yi Ya had become his girlfriend and taken a couple photo with him that was stored in his wallet, because he thought such a thing was simply impossible, just like a famous celebrity wouldn’t marry an ordinary guy.

After sensing Lü Yang’s gaze, Yi Ya shot him a glare, then turned to look outside the Residential Area: “Where shall we go?”

“How about… the soup place across the street? I’ll get a bowl of noodles,” Lü Yang said after thinking, choosing a small roadside soup Restaurant where he had eaten with Yi Yi before.

He only had the means to eat noodle soup and didn’t want to pretend to be refined in front of Yi Ya by going to some Western Restaurant or cafe.

Yi Ya turned back to look at Lü Yang: “You haven’t eaten yet?”

“Not yet,” Lü Yang shook his head.

“My treat,” Yi Ya said, then walked to the roadside, hailed a Taxi, opened the door, and sat in the front passenger seat.

Lü Yang shook his head again, slowly walked over, opened the rear door, and got in.