Heartthrob, Your Image is Crumbling!

Chapter 620: Let's Go Back to the Room and Talk Slowly

Zheng Yanyan was in a fairly good mood today. After all, it was graduation season, and she ran into many acquaintances. Whenever they saw her slightly bulging belly, they would ask in astonishment, "Are you pregnant?"At those moments, Zheng Yanyan would proudly tilt her head up and declare, "Of course. Bet you didn't see that coming, did you?"

When she saw Chang Hao, Zheng Yanyan was only slightly surprised. Her previous disgust toward him wasn't nearly as strong as it used to be.

"Oh, long time no see," Zheng Yanyan said, waving at Chang Hao.

Chang Hao, on the other hand, was somewhat reluctant to look at her belly. He had fantasized countless times about their reunion, but he had never imagined that she would be pregnant.

For a moment, Chang Hao didn't know what to say to her.

After struggling internally for a long while, he couldn't help but ask, "Is the child Zhou Yuwen's?"

Hearing this, Zheng Yanyan found it truly unbearable. But remembering she shouldn't get angry during her pregnancy, she simply rolled her eyes and replied helplessly, "Who else could it be?"

"Ah, congratulations," Chang Hao uttered, his tone dry and dull.

Zheng Yanyan asked what he was doing on the sports field.

"Oh, I came looking for you." Chang Hao finally remembered his purpose.

Zheng Yanyan prompted him to continue.

Chang Hao said, "I... I'm getting married, and I wanted to invite you and Old Zhou to my wedding."

Hearing this, a genuine hint of joy actually appeared on Zheng Yanyan's face. "Are you serious? You're actually getting married? Where is the bride from? I never expected you to get married so early, Chang Hao. Good for you!"

Truthfully, this was not the reaction Chang Hao had hoped for.

Seeing the heartfelt happiness on Zheng Yanyan's face, a suffocating sense of frustration inexplicably welled up inside him.

He didn't understand. Why was Zheng Yanyan so happy about his marriage?

Did she really hate him that much?

"Hey, say something," Zheng Yanyan asked curiously when Chang Hao remained silent.

Chang Hao shook his head. "No, it's nothing."

"The wedding is in September. Are you coming?" he asked.

Zheng Yanyan thought for a moment before replying, "Not necessarily. I plan on going abroad to give birth."

"Anyway, we'll see when the time comes. Don't worry, even if I can't make it in person, I'll definitely prepare a big red packet for you!" she said, blinking playfully.

Chang Hao just smiled at her words.

They didn't say anything more. In truth, there wasn't much left to talk about.

A short while later, a few classmates called out, asking Zheng Yanyan to come take photos.

She told Chang Hao that she had to go.

With that, she left him standing alone in his spot.

Before finding her, Chang Hao had been full of determination, but after seeing her, his heart was a tangled mess of complex emotions.

Whatever.

He watched from afar as Zheng Yanyan was surrounded by a group of girls.

Chang Hao finally realized that he and Zheng Yanyan were ultimately from two entirely different worlds.

Forget it.

In reality, a university graduation wasn't always filled with so much melodrama. Some cohorts didn't even gather together; at most, they went on stage to don their bachelor's caps and receive their degrees.

More often than not, it was just small gatherings between roommates and dormitories.

The relationships among the classmates in the engineering cohort were decent enough. That evening, the boys all went out for a meal together.

Unsurprisingly, Zhou Yuwen missed the dinner due to prior commitments.

A year had passed in the blink of an eye. The classmates had matured a lot, yet in many ways, they hadn't changed much at all.

The night started off lively, with Li Qiang's booming voice dominating the room.

Zhao Yang and Chang Hao were chatting privately off to the side.

Later on, Li Qiang got drunk.

In a completely baffling and unprovoked outburst, he flipped the table.

The loud crash and commotion drew sideways glances from neighboring tables.

Then, Li Qiang started crying. His classmates tried to console him, urging him to calm down.

They told him to drink less.

But Li Qiang only cried harder. "You all look down on me! Every single one of you looks down on me!"

He then buried his face in his hands and sobbed openly.

Chang Hao watched coldly from the sidelines. When it was getting late, he announced that he had things to do and took his leave.

Zhao Yang and the others tried comforting Li Qiang for a little while longer, but seeing how stubborn he was, they eventually gave up and dispersed.

Someone, though no one knew exactly who, booked a hotel room for Li Qiang.

Li Qiang slept there for the night. When he woke up the next morning, the empty room was utterly deserted.

In that solitary moment, tears streamed down his face once again.

Once stepping into society, no one would cater to anyone else's tantrums anymore.

Li Qiang hadn't done anything inherently wrong.

But in the end, they were all just strangers.

Youth was an endless poem.

But this poem did not apply to a select few.

Some arrived here lugging countless bags and heavy suitcases.

And they would leave carrying just as much baggage.

If he could do it all over again...

Li Qiang thought he wouldn't spend his university days like this. He was born in a poor countryside village and had always assumed everyone was the same. He used to think Lu Yuhang was too effeminate.

He thought Chang Hao was incredibly pretentious and an absolute idiot.

He felt Zhou Yuwen was also pretentious, not to mention incredibly selfish.

He felt that his own rough-around-the-edges demeanor meant he was genuinely trying to be friends with them.

He had grown up watching TV shows where university roommates would rank themselves as the oldest, second oldest, third oldest brother, and so on.

Li Qiang had wanted that, too. Back then, he even dreamed of leading his roommates to make money together.

But his university experience had been nothing like that.

If he could start over, Li Qiang wouldn't bother with any of them.

He would just keep his head down and focus on his own path.

He would take up part-time wedding services jobs to make money.

He would earn a fortune, and then he would pursue Sister Hui. Speaking of Lu Hui, the urge to cry washed over Li Qiang again. He missed her.

Even though he had dated other girls afterward, no woman had ever given him the same feeling that Lu Hui did.

He truly, deeply missed his Sister Hui.

Li Qiang stayed in the hotel all morning. In the afternoon, he finished packing up and returned to his hometown in the north. Jinling simply wasn't suited for him. After that day, no one ever heard from Li Qiang again.

In September, Chang Hao got married. He invited many people, including Zhao Yang, Lu Yuhang, Zhou Yuwen, and Li Qiang.

However, only Zhao Yang attended.

Zhou Yuwen had prior engagements and couldn't make it, so he sent five thousand yuan as a wedding gift.

Li Qiang had long since blacklisted Chang Hao's contact.

Chang Hao married a girl from a wealthy background, and just like that, he started a family.

The following year, Chang Hao had a daughter.

Both Chang Hao's parents and his wife's parents were ecstatic, urging him to pick a name for the little girl.

Chang Hao pondered for a long time. With a flicker in his eyes, he suggested, "Aiyan?"

"Chang Aiyan? That's such a beautiful name! Yanyan, you have a name now!" his wife said with a bright smile.

Around the time Chang Hao got married, Su Qing gave birth to Zhou Yuwen's eldest daughter, named Zhou Ying.

Tao Tian delivered twin girls for Zhou Yuwen, named Zhou Mei and Zhou Li, combining to mean beautiful.

Jiang Xinyi gave birth to his fourth daughter, named Andy, or Zhou Di.

The name was somewhat boyish. In truth, Jiang Xinyi had originally wanted a son, and upon finding out it was a girl, she had been disappointed for a while.

But since the other girls had all given birth to daughters as well, Jiang Xinyi didn't complain any further.

Similarly, shortly after Jiang Xinyi's delivery, Zheng Yanyan gave birth to the fifth princess, Zhou Keya.

Not long after their children were born, Lu Lin also brought a daughter into the world, named Zhou Ying.

Shen Yu, Lu Wanting, Qu Jing, and the other women also successively gave birth to daughters.

Since they had all given birth to girls, some of them were unwilling to accept it and pestered Zhou Yuwen about having a son for him. However, the newborn girls were incredibly fussy and demanding.

The mothers were completely overwhelmed just trying to take care of them.

This actually took a lot of pressure off Zhou Yuwen.

Zhou Yuwen even felt that if he had known this would happen, he should have let them have children much earlier.

Indeed, after having children, they were no longer the carefree girls they used to be. They had become mothers. Whether they liked it or not, their lives now revolved around their babies—a reality that would persist for at least the next five years.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yuwen, spending long periods apart from them and driven by natural physical needs, ended up sleeping with a few other girls.

This included Yin Songyue, who was already an internet celebrity signed under his company.

Yin Songyue was technically Zhou Yuwen's junior female student. He had previously invited her to join his cultural media company, but she had declined. Later, due to a prolonged lack of traffic support, she gradually faded from the ranks of top internet celebrities.

The next time they met was at the company.

When Yin Songyue saw him, she acted incredibly obedient and sensible.

Since there was no one else around at the time, Zhou Yuwen ended up taking her first time right there in the office.

It happened on the office desk.

Yin Songyue's long legs had been clad in a pair of white loose socks.

Then there was the female executive from Meituan, Zhu Hong.

Zhu Hong was a few years older than Zhou Yuwen. In her early thirties, she was at the absolute peak of a woman's charm.

Zhou Yuwen's feelings toward Zhu Hong were purely driven by a desire to conquer.

Once, when Zhou Yuwen went to Shanghai for a meeting, he bumped into Zhu Hong, who was attending the same event.

During their very first encounter, Zhou Yuwen had been nothing but a nameless university student. Even though he had achieved some minor success, he was completely insignificant in the face of a corporate giant like Meituan.

But now, meeting again, Zhou Yuwen was already Meituan's third-largest shareholder.

After gaining a stake in Meituan, Zhou Yuwen knew that Zhu Hong's days at the company hadn't been easy.

Meituan had reached a bottleneck in its development. Even though Zhu Hong had contributed tremendously to the company's success, her era was over.

Her position at Meituan was in imminent jeopardy.

As a result, she took the initiative to seek Zhou Yuwen's help.

After the meeting concluded, the two of them grabbed drinks at the hotel bar. Zhu Hong, looking stunning in an elegant off-the-shoulder mermaid-style dress, smiled and asked him, "President Zhou, I recall you saying before that you were quite interested in me. I wonder if I still have that opportunity?"

Dressed in a sharp suit, Zhou Yuwen simply smiled.

This year, Zhou Yuwen was twenty-three, right in the prime of his youth.

Meanwhile, Zhu Hong was already thirty-one.

"I'm still very interested in you," Zhou Yuwen replied.

Hearing this, Zhu Hong felt a surge of relief and gratitude. At that moment, she was very likely going to be ousted by the management team. She desperately needed to find a strong backer, and Zhou Yuwen was the perfect candidate.

She wanted to discuss her thoughts on Meituan's next strategic steps with him.

But Zhou Yuwen just let out a soft chuckle. Zhu Hong looked at him in confusion, not understanding what he found amusing.

Then she heard him say, "Sister Zhu, I have absolutely no interest in your proposals."

"Then you..."

"I'm not the man I used to be," Zhou Yuwen said, his gaze locked onto the radiantly beautiful Zhu Hong.

He continued, "In the past, what interested me was your capability."

"But now, rather than your skills, I'm actually much more interested in you as a woman."

"?"

Zhu Hong's eyes widened in stunned silence as she stared at the man sitting across from her.

To be completely honest, she had never expected Zhou Yuwen to say something like this to her.

After all, there was nearly a ten-year age gap between them.

Was the Zhou Yuwen standing before her actually propositioning her?

The lighting at the bar was dim.

Zhou Yuwen looked at Zhu Hong, who was clearly caught off guard.

He stood up, leaned in close, and whispered in her ear, "If you still want to continue this negotiation, let's go back to my room and talk slowly."

With that said, Zhou Yuwen turned and walked away.