Chapter Ninety-Five: The Gambling Den

  When I was in school, I would always hesitate and struggle between attending classes and not attending them. I would come up with all sorts of excuses and methods to skip class as much as possible, and I always felt that there were too many classes and not enough free time.

  But when I became a free man, idle and staying at home all day, I found that the busy feeling of the past was also so wonderful. The leisurely life every day makes me occasionally shout alone in my house, and the only physical labor is to cook two meals for Qin Ke Yi, living like a househusband.

  Qin Keyi has been very busy lately, apart from going to the real estate company as a saleswoman, there are always modeling jobs that can't be finished, almost every day she leaves home very early and returns very late, dragging her tired body back, after chatting with me for a couple of sentences on the bed, she quickly fell asleep.

  Although Qin Keyi was busy, she still found that I had been a bit strange recently, so she asked me why I never went to school. After I glossed over her with the reasonable excuse "there's nothing going on in senior year", I started to regularly and intentionally increase my outdoor activities.

  Just in time, recently, various companies' recruitment and school organizations' job fairs have been swarming in. Under the drive of naive thoughts to try my luck, I participated in several recruitment sessions. Facing the fiery scene, I finally felt the benefits that expansion has brought us, and didn't feel the results of family planning implemented over the years at all.

  Due to the strange habit of state-owned enterprises and large companies to measure whether a person is a qualified talent from their academic qualifications and some messy certificates, I specifically chose some relatively small private enterprises, naively thinking that their bosses would be more practical, although in some places, the certificate earned by four years of youth was not very useful.

  But every time the person in charge of recruitment heard that I was expelled without graduating, the expression on their face made me feel like a despicable villain who suffered their contempt. No matter how beautifully I expressed my words afterwards, they would always look at me with disgust and urge me to leave as soon as possible. After experiencing several such "fair" treatments in a row, the last bit of illusion about this society that remained in my heart was shattered. So I gave up my fearless struggle and began searching for a position in the recruitment section of the newspaper that should belong to my current social group...

  My dormitory brothers and school friends received the news of my expulsion one after another, and they all called or came to visit me in person to express their sympathy and condolences, and expressed their deep dissatisfaction with the school's decision. But I used a calm tone and attitude to comfort them, telling them to be open-minded and recognize the reality of being in this strange school. This made many people feel surprised and even felt that they were the ones who had been expelled, not me. In the following days, my main job was to receive and comfort batches of visitors and phone calls from sympathizers, which made me suddenly feel grateful and surprised that there were so many people in the school who cared about me silently.

  In the afternoon, after I had just sent away a couple who came from afar to comfort me, Marco coincidentally appeared at my door and looked at me with sympathetic eyes. With recent frequent experience of receiving visitors, I knew that Marco must have also known about my being fired.

  "Come on in! Don't stand at the door..." I said lightly to Mark, then turned and walked into the house.

  "Alright... I know... " Marco's expression and tone were the same as those of other visitors who came to offer their condolences, seemingly helpless and somewhat sad, but I knew that most people were just pretending, while Marco was absolutely sincere.

  "I knew you knew, I could tell by the look on your face when you came in." I said calmly to Marco with a smile.

  "What the...! How can you behave like this now?!" Marco asked disbelievingly.

  "What should I do then? Hold you and cry bitterly or kneel in front of the principal and beg him to give me another chance?"

  "What are you going to do from now on!? Are you just going to leave it like this!?" Mark continued to ask excitedly.

  "So what should I do!?"

  "It's not a big deal, it can be settled with money. Our school didn't have students who were expelled but came back after paying money before?" Mark sat down beside me and said confidently, but I just kept watching TV silently after hearing him, without any reaction.

  "If you're short of money, let everyone help you out! Besides, there's Qin Ke Yi, that rich woman, she won't ignore you, will she?!" Ma Ke said excitedly to me.

  "After all these years, don't you understand me? Besides, it's still unknown for now, and I don't want her to know about it recently either..."

  "I understand you! You're just too stubborn! I don't know why you have this attitude towards school! School wouldn't lose anything if you weren't here, it's like a cow losing a hair, nothing would be lost. But what about you? What are we going to college for? Is it for the sake of shouting 'strive for the four modernizations of the motherland' during the entrance ceremony? Or is it for learning knowledge? Isn't it just for getting a graduation certificate? How will you end up in the future if you continue like this? Have you considered your parents? Have you thought about Qin Ke?" This is one of the few times I remember Marco speaking to me with such seriousness and passion.

  "I don't believe that I won't be able to make a living in this society just because I don't have a graduation certificate or a degree!" I said with some indignation.

  "Don't be naive! Look at the recruitment units now, what's the first condition for recruitment? They all require a bachelor's degree or above! You say you've been to college, but who believes you if you don't have a certificate?! Maybe you can find a job, but you'll have to pay with countless times more effort!" Mark's words coincidentally confirmed my experiences over the past few days and heavily struck me. I could only choose to remain silent and continue listening to Mark's teachings. In fact, I had already understood what he said."

  "Do you think you can fool Qin Ke Yi like this? You're a public figure in school, and it's easy for news to spread in such a small place. She'll find out sooner or later, what will you do then?" I continued watching TV silently, but suddenly started worrying about Ma Ke's reasonable reasoning, however, judging from Qin Ke Yi's recent behavior, she seemed to still be unaware of the matter.

  "Come on! I'm treating you like a brother, that's why I'm wasting so much time talking to you! If it were someone else, I wouldn't give a damn! You're better at spouting grand theories than me, but I hope you can understand your current situation and be more realistic! Swallowing your pride isn't shameful, after all, you can't win against the stronger one!" Marco said with a tone of concern, but I remained silent. "Fine! You choose how to proceed, I'm not going to waste any more words on you, I'm leaving..." Marco sighed and said, seeing me still stubbornly silent, then stood up from the sofa and walked towards the door.

  "Brother! Thank you!" I suddenly said to Mark as he was about to open the door and leave. Mark stopped in his tracks, standing silently without a word after hearing me.

  "If there's anything you need help with, just give me a call!" Mark said with his back to me, and then he opened the door and walked out.

  I sat alone on the couch staring at the TV, but my mind was wandering back to what Mark had said earlier, making me feel comforted that although I didn't learn much in college, I did make friends who are worth more than any amount of money.

  Dazed and confused, lying in bed, was woken up by a ringing phone. After checking the time, it was already 4 pm, but Qin Ke hadn't returned yet. Reluctantly, she got out of bed to answer the call.

  "How are you? I'm Ke Yi's father, where are you now?" The calm but authoritative voice of Qin Ke Yi's father came from the phone and made me sober up a lot.

  "Oh! Uncle is good! I'm at home now!"

  "Alright, wait at home, I'll have Li Jia drive to pick you up in five minutes!" Qin Kaiyi's father said over the phone before hanging up, leaving me no room for thought. This might be a habit of his from always ordering people around. Given that our last argument was caused by Qin Kaiyi's father, I decided to run to the entrance of my residential area to wait for Li Jia, so as to avoid the possibility of Qin Kaiyi seeing Li Jia picking me up when she returns. So I hastily left a note for Qin Kaiyi and ran downstairs.

  After five or six minutes, Li Jia appeared at the entrance of my residential area in her car, very punctual. When she saw me standing there, she slowly stopped the car under my feet and smiled to signal me to get on. After I got on the car, she took me to a hotel not far from where I lived.

  Under Li Jia's lead, we went up to a private room on the second floor. Qin Ke Yi's father was sitting in the room drinking tea. When he saw me come in, he smiled slightly and gestured with his eyes for Li Jia to leave.

  "Sit down! How have you and Ke Yi been lately?" Qin Ke Yi's father asked me with concern.

  "We're all good."

  "Nothing happened at school, did it?" Qin Ke Yi's father continued to ask me, making me vaguely feel that this sentence seemed not just a simple concern for us.

  "Nothing... nothing's wrong!" I said with a guilty conscience.

  "Really?! Then how did I hear that you were expelled!" Qin Ke Yi's father said calmly after taking a sip of tea. Given that he mentioned to me last time that he had several friends in our school, it didn't surprise me at all that he knew about my expulsion.

  "Uncle, you know too?"

  "I just heard it too, what are your plans for the future?"

  "I haven't had any plans, I've just been looking for a job recently." I said with some disappointment.

  "Don't you want to continue studying? Don't you want a graduation certificate?"

  "It's not about whether I want to or not!"

  "Do you need me to help you? The leaders of your school are still quite familiar with me."

  "It's okay... I'll handle my own affairs myself..." I hesitated for a long time before stubbornly saying to Qin Ke Yi's father, and at this moment, I don't know if I'm wise or what most people would call foolish.

  "Are you sure you don't need it? How will you find a job in the future?" Qin Ke Yi's father asked me.

  "Although it's difficult, I think I'll still find a way!" I said with a hint of confidence to Qin Ke Yi's father.

  "So confident? Why don't you come and help me out then! I'll arrange a job for you at my company! ... Don't get the wrong idea, it's not because you're my daughter's boyfriend that I'm offering you a job! I actually quite appreciate your abilities, and I know a thing or two about what you've been up to!" Upon hearing Qin Ke's father say this, I wasn't sure whether I should feel reassured that there were still capitalists in China who thought like this.

  "Thank you, uncle, but I still hope to find a job through my own ability..." After hesitating for another half day, I foolishly said that I was really afraid that after leaving this room, I would regret saying this.

  "Haha! Kang Jian, you're still too young! You haven't experienced the world yet! However, I like your personality, it's a bit like mine when I was younger, with some idealistic meaning! But without money, all that idealism is nonsense! I appreciate your strength, but your stubbornness is a bit too rigid! If you continue like this, how will you give my daughter happiness in the future?" Qin Ke Yi's father said to me with a cold smile.

  "I don't know what the future holds, but I'm definitely going to make the most of it and have a blast!" I said defiantly, not knowing where this sudden surge of courage and confidence came from.

  "What are you relying on? You don't even have a basic college degree! You're just relying on that small workshop of yours! Do you know I haven't deposited money into Qin Ke Yi's bank account for a month now? How can your little money support both of you, let alone Ke Yi who is used to spending lavishly!" As soon as I heard Qin Ke Yi's father say this, I suddenly realized why she had been working so hard recently to participate in various modeling performances and apply for sales jobs. It turned out that she was doing it all to save up living expenses for herself.

  Qin Kaiyi's father's worries also made my mood gloomy again. Indeed, I myself don't have the confidence to raise Qin Kaiyi now, nor do I have the confidence to make her happy.

  "Why are you doing this......?" I asked strangely at Qin Ke's father's move.

  "I was trying to get her to see me... Who would have thought this kid is so stubborn!" Qin Ke Yi's father said with some embarrassment.

  “She found a part-time job outside...”

  "That job can earn how much money! And still have to support you two!"

  "I will find a job as soon as possible!"

  "Hurry up! Get well soon! Let's get straight to the point, I'll give you half a year. If within six months you can't find a job that satisfies me, then sorry, I won't agree to you and Ke Yi being in contact again!" Qin Ke Yi's father suddenly said seriously, perhaps this was his purpose for finding me. At this moment, it felt like I had gone through a gamble, with the stakes being my future life with Qin Ke Yi.

  "Alright! Even if you didn't say so, if I don't achieve anything, I won't have the face to be with Qin Ke Yi anymore! I don't want to hold her back!" I said confidently to Qin Ke Yi's father, then stood up. "This time, I'll pay for the tea!" I took out 100 yuan and threw it on the table, then bid farewell to Qin Ke Yi's father.

  When I came out of the hotel, I regretted my irrationality and impulsiveness earlier because there was only 100 yuan left in my pocket. Although I had pretended to be awesome in front of Qin Keyi's father and satisfied my own foolish vanity, it had to cast a shadow of poverty over our already not wealthy life with Qin Keyi.