Chapter 44: I’m Actually Worth This Much
by Sunflower“Just to get to know me?” Chen Feng expressed his doubt.
“What else? Did you think I took the initiative to ask you to be my sugar daddy?”
Sun Xiaorui narrowed her almond-shaped eyes. Although she was still smiling, Chen Feng knew she was a little angry.
“Of course not. At the time, I just thought you were trying to pick me up.”
Chen Feng was telling the truth. In the beginning, he hadn’t thought about sponsoring anyone.
It was only later, seeing how forward she was, realizing he was missing a woman in his life, and considering he was about to die and had some money, that the idea of a sugar-daddy arrangement naturally came to mind.
Sun Xiaorui hadn’t refused at the time, only raising the price. In Chen Feng’s mind, she must have had similar thoughts.
But now, it seemed he might have misunderstood her.
At the very least, her original intention wasn’t to become Chen Feng’s mistress. Perhaps she wanted to be the girlfriend of a rich man like him in a proper relationship.
But as it turned out, Chen Feng had no intention of dating anyone and directly offered to pay to keep her.
“If you put it that way, you’re right,” Sun Xiaorui nodded with a smile. “You gave me a very good first impression. You’ve probably forgotten. At that time, when you were buying clothes, you were very decisive. You’d try on what you liked, and if it fit, you bought it. I thought you were incredibly cool then, not because you were rich, but because your decisive style was really manly.”
Everyone loves a compliment, and Chen Feng was no exception. He smiled and said, “Is that my only good quality? Besides being rich, I should have other strengths.”
Sun Xiaorui chuckled. “And you’re easy on the eyes. You have a square-shaped face, which gives off an impression of being upright and decent. But your face isn’t the serious or stern kind; it has a softness to it, very approachable. One look and you can tell you have a good temper and aren’t hard to get along with.”
Chen Feng touched his face and smiled, “This should be called a rectangular face.”
Sun Xiaorui nodded, “Yes, square faces are divided into long and short rectangular shapes.”
Chen Feng smiled, “You really know a lot.”
Sun Xiaorui laughed along, “I specifically Baidu-ed it.”
Chen Feng said, with a hint of teasing, “So, just because I’m handsome, rich, and have a good personality, you decisively took the initiative to get to know me. From that perspective, you’re actually more decisive than I am. You strike when the opportunity arises.”
Sun Xiaorui nodded slightly. “So far, my initial judgment and decision seem to have been very correct, don’t you think?”
Chen Feng gave her a thumbs-up, praising her sincerely, “That’s right. I have to say, you seized a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You didn’t misjudge the person, and your judgment wasn’t wrong at all. I am, in fact, the man you’ve been searching for all this time.”
Sun Xiaorui said, half-annoyed, “Without that last sentence, I almost would have believed you.”
They looked at each other and burst into laughter.
After laughing for a while, Chen Feng asked curiously, “Were you very surprised when I suddenly offered to sponsor you? Were you angry?”
“Of course, I was angry.” Sun Xiaorui glared at Chen Feng, then couldn’t help but smile again. “At first, I almost slapped you right then and there. I was thinking, do I look like I’m for sale? But I held back. I wanted to test what my price was in your eyes. So, I said 50,000. I never expected you to actually agree. At that moment, I suddenly felt a little touched. Because for the first time, I discovered I was actually worth this much.”
“You were always worth it,” Chen Feng said with a smile, reaching out to hug her. “However, I seriously suspect you were moved by me—or to be precise, you were moved by my money?”
Sun Xiaorui didn’t get angry. Instead, she retorted, “Who doesn’t like money? Don’t you?”
Chen Feng shook his head. “I’m not saying you’re greedy. I just want you to distinguish between me and the money. I am me, money is money. So you don’t fall in love with me.”
“You can rest assured on that point. I’m not a sixteen-year-old girl. I don’t fall in love that easily,” Sun Xiaorui said with a confident look, then explained, “Right now, I just see you as my benefactor and my boss. Keeping you company is my job. You pay me a monthly salary, and I provide my services to you diligently every month.”
Chen Feng praised her with a serious expression, “Not bad. If all the mistresses in the world had your sense of service, things would be much better.”
“Get out of here!” Sun Xiaorui lightly tapped Chen Feng again, then moved closer into his arms, saying with a hint of dissatisfaction, “I’m not a mistress. Because you said it yourself, you just got divorced and don’t have a girlfriend. At most, I’m your lover.”
“Alright. My mistake,” Chen Feng immediately corrected himself. “Actually, you can be considered my girlfriend now. It’s just that I don’t want to be in a romantic relationship with a woman right now, so I can only wrong you by having you as my lover.”
Sun Xiaorui asked with a sympathetic tone, “Did your ex-wife hurt you so deeply that you’ve become emotionally closed off?”
Chen Feng shook his head. “No. I was the one who initiated the divorce.”
“Huh, you initiated it?” Sun Xiaorui looked stunned. “Did you get tired of her? Or did she cheat on you? Or did you have a mistress—no, you probably didn’t have a mistress… right?”
“None of the above,” Chen Feng shook his head. “In short, there were no feelings left between us. Life was boring, so it was better to let each other go early and go our separate ways.”
“What was your ex-wife like?” Sun Xiaorui asked with a gossipy expression.
But Chen Feng didn’t satisfy her curiosity, directly refusing, “I don’t want to talk about her, just like you don’t want to talk about your ex-boyfriend.”
Sun Xiaorui pouted. “Who said I don’t want to talk about my ex-boyfriend? You just didn’t ask. If you had asked, I would have told you about him long ago.”
“Oh, since I’m asking now, why don’t you tell me about him,” Chen Feng looked at her with a playful expression.
After a slight hesitation, Sun Xiaorui still spoke, “To put it simply, he’s a ‘phoenix man.’ He didn’t have any major flaws, the main issue was that he was too selfish, self-centered, and didn’t really consider other people’s feelings. Very chauvinistic.
“When we were together, I always had to be the one to accommodate him. After a long time, I definitely couldn’t take it anymore.”
“How long were you two together?”
“About four or five years.”
“That long?” Chen Feng was a bit surprised. “Did you date anyone before him?”
“No. He was my first love. Before him, I was always a good girl and never had any deep contact with boys.”
“How did you two get together?”
“He pursued me. At that time, I had just graduated and was working as an intern at McDonald’s. He was a year younger than me and hadn’t graduated yet. Every time he came to McDonald’s, he would deliberately wait for me to be at the register to order. Over time, I started to notice him.
“During his junior year summer break, he even found a way to work at my store as a summer intern, becoming my colleague. I was quite touched by his efforts at the time. Plus, he walked me home every day, and slowly, we got together.
“Other than that, it was probably because he was quite handsome and a top student from Donghai University. I’m just a vocational college graduate, so I naturally had a bit of admiration for students from prestigious universities like him. Mainly, I was just too young back then.”
Donghai University was one of the top-ranked universities in the country, and the best in the province.
“What’s his job now?”
“He works at a foreign company. His monthly salary is around ten thousand yuan.”
“That’s so little.”
“It’s not bad. He just started working there.”
“Just started?”
“Yeah, he went to graduate school.”
“Oh, that’s really impressive. Although master’s degrees are more common now, a master’s from Donghai University still holds a lot of weight.”
Sun Xiaorui nodded. “Yes. His personal abilities are quite good, otherwise I wouldn’t have called him a ‘phoenix man’ just now. He definitely has things to be proud of. After we broke up, plenty of women actively pursued him. He’s handsome, highly educated, and has a good job. These are all his strengths.”
Chen Feng said with a hint of sourness, “Since he has so many strengths, why did you break up with him?”
Sun Xiaorui smiled. “Didn’t I just say? He’s too self-centered. Especially after he joined that multinational foreign company, his ego got even bigger. He started looking down on me more and more, probably feeling that a vocational college graduate like me wasn’t good enough for him. Sometimes the things he said were very hurtful, and he often treated me like a maid, the kind that pays for the privilege. I definitely couldn’t stand it.”
Chen Feng nodded in understanding. “I see. He didn’t cherish a great girlfriend like you. He’ll regret it in the future.”
Sun Xiaorui shook her head with a bitter smile. “When I brought up breaking up with him, he didn’t try to keep me or say a single soft word. Instead, he got angry out of shame and said that if I left him, I would definitely regret it in the future.”
Chen Feng couldn’t help but chuckle. “Your ex-boyfriend is really self-centered, way too full of himself.”
Sun Xiaorui said with a bitter smile, “He had the confidence to say that because his current job has a lot of room for advancement. It’s a technical role, very sought after. It’s possible for him to have an annual salary of a million in the future.”
Chen Feng said dismissively, “No matter how amazing he is, he’s still working for someone else.”
Sun Xiaorui smiled, “That’s true. He’s definitely not as impressive as you, Master.”
“I like the sound of that. You get a reward.”
“How much?”
“Half an hour.”
“Huh?”
“An hour, then.”
“…”
Chapter 44 is now translated. This chapter provided a lot of insight into Sun Xiaorui’s past and her perspective on her current arrangement with Chen Feng.
Shall we continue to the next chapter? Or would you like to discuss the term “phoenix man” and its cultural significance to better understand the character dynamics?
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