Prince charming, your persona has collapsed!

"Look at your pathetic self, you think I'll take you back? Am I really that cheap?" Liu Shuo snorted coldly, pulled up his pants, and threw down eight hundred yuan before leaving.

Lv Hui finally saw reality clearly; it was impossible for Liu Shuo to reconcile with her, and Li Qiang, who had nothing to his name, was struggling in life and had a bleak future ahead.

One evening, Li Qiang returned to his rented apartment from a part-time job, holding freshly bought milk tea, eager to share with Lv Hui how much he'd earned from his work.

But as he pushed the door open, he found the room surprisingly clean. A glance revealed that Lv Hui's previously scattered clothes on the bed were all gone.

On the table, there was only a letter left by Lv Hui.

The letter was straightforward, Lv Hui wrote:

I've left, don't look for me.

Thank you, Li Qiang.

You're a good person, but unfortunately, we're not suitable.

You're only 19 this year, and you still have many possibilities ahead.

But I'm turning 27 this year, I don't have time to accompany you any longer.

I want to go back home and find someone suitable to marry.

The letter contained no extra words, just the painful reality.

Li Qiang held the letter for a long time, wanting to shed a few tears, but for some unknown reason, they wouldn't come. He didn't seem to feel that hurt.

Maybe in those months together, Li Qiang realized too that they were unsuitable for each other.

Li Qiang would remember, in his youth, there was an elder sister a few years older who was with him, but he wouldn't linger on it, just as Lv Hui said, his youth would continue.

Every time he got drunk after that, Li Qiang would think of Lv Hui. He would even sob loudly, saying Lv Hui was the woman he loved most in this life.

Of course, during that time, he pursued other girls.

Sadly, he failed.

A drunken Li Qiang was carried back to the dormitory by several underclassmen.

At the dormitory door, Li Qiang waved at the underclassmen who escorted him, saying no need, no need to see me off!

"Hey, I know my way home blindfolded!"

Li Qiang said with a grin.

Outside the boys' dormitory, two girls were pleading with the dorm manager.

The girls were dressed fashionably, with pleated skirts and black knee-high socks—any man would take a second look. But after a second glance, the girls pleaded with the dorm manager, "Auntie, help us, please. Just deliver this milk tea to a senior named Chang Hao!"

The dorm manager surely waved her hand, indicating that in a dorm building with hundreds of students, how would she know which one they're talking about?

Li Qiang noticed the milk tea in the girl's hand and said, "I know Chang Hao!"

The girls were overjoyed upon hearing this and quickly gathered around, saying, "Senior, please help us!"

"No problem, no problem! Haozi and I are like brothers who share the same pair of pants, let's arrange a dinner together!"

Li Qiang took the milk tea from the girls, grinning as he spoke.

He bid farewell to the girls and stumbled back to the dorm, a bit puzzled. He thought Chang Hao wasn't as handsome as he was, so why was Chang Hao so popular?

"Old Chang, look what I brought you?"

A four-person male dorm now had only two remaining occupants.

The dorm was unusually quiet.

Chang Hao was still as skinny as before, but compared to his freshman year, he now wore black-framed glasses, sitting in front of the computer, no longer gaming day and night.

"Yo, writing a novel again?" Li Qiang saw Chang Hao typing away and couldn't help but peek.

Chang Hao quickly closed the window.

Seeing this, Li Qiang chuckled secretly and said, "What's there to be afraid of, you write it for people to read, don't you? Why be shy?"

Chang Hao disliked the smell of alcohol on Li Qiang, wrinkling his nose slightly as he asked, "Do you need something?"

"Hey, I don't need anything, brought you some milk tea from two girls in the environmental design department," Li Qiang handed the milk tea to Chang Hao while complaining, "Speaking of which, Old Chang, you barely leave the room, how come girls like you?"

"When I got back, I saw those two girls outside, and the dorm manager wouldn't let them in, luckily they ran into me." After putting the items down, Li Qiang went about his own business.

Chang Hao knew which girl it was when he heard it was from the environmental design department, and said, "Oh, I see."

He put the milk tea aside.

Chang Hao continued typing away at his novel.

Li Qiang didn't come over to look anymore, he painstakingly climbed onto his bed, lay down, exhaling a long breath, the alcohol still lingering on his face. He grinned crookedly and said, "Old Chang, it's about time, don't tell me you still can't get over Zheng Yanyan? I say, just find a girl to date. As the saying goes, 'Don't waste youth, cherish it while you can, pluck the flowers while they bloom, lest they are gone with only bare branches left.'"

Li Qiang was truly drunk, wobbling as he rambled on, then fell sound asleep.

Chang Hao listened to Li Qiang's words but didn't say anything.

Originally, he intended to keep writing but found his thoughts disrupted by Li Qiang.

Moreover, Li Qiang started snoring, and Chang Hao couldn't concentrate on writing anymore, so he picked up a pack of Xuanhe Clan cigarettes and a lighter and headed to the balcony.

With a flick of the lighter lighting up.

Chang Hao exhaled a long puff of smoke.

Zheng Yanyan, huh?

In fact, this girl's image had already faded in Chang Hao's mind. After being rejected by Zheng Yanyan, Chang Hao really slumped for a while, drowning himself in games day after day until he found them utterly boring.

He wanted to do something, anything, but didn't know what. Over the summer, he signed up for a guitar class, thinking he'd learn to play, but after just two days, he lost interest.

Then he heard Zhou Yuwen had made quite a lot from writing novels, and indeed, Chang Hao envied Zhou Yuwen, wanting to succeed in some field, then be envied by many.

So he opened a web novel site, curious about what makes these novels so captivating.

The first book he read was the wildly popular "Battle Through The Heavens". After reading once, he couldn't stop, going through "Ordinary People Cultivation," "Buddha Is Tao," and other popular novels on the site. By then, Chang Hao was no longer pining over love but was immersed in the world of fantasy, discovering how thrilling the novel realm could be.

Throughout the summer, Chang Hao devoured one novel after another, straining his eyes to near-sightedness, yet craving more stories.

He thought perhaps he too could write a novel like Zhou Yuwen's.

Perhaps it could become popular?

This fleeting thought lingered every day thereafter.

Finally, on a restless sleepless night.

Chang Hao got out of bed, went to his computer, and typed his first word: Rebirth of...

Web novels weren't that easy to write, and lacking Zhou Yuwen's natural gifts, Chang Hao wrote whatever came to mind. As for signing a contract, it seemed a distant prospect for him now.

But it didn't matter, for Chang Hao, it was about having something personal to focus on amid a dull university life.

Everyone was busy with their own lives. Amid their hazy, chaotic rush through university, news broke about Zhou Yuwen auctioning off land.

This news shocked everyone in the Jinling Business District, and at Zhou Yuwen's school, it became an earth-shattering incident for all.

Comparisons, indeed, are odious.

Upon seeing this news, Chang Hao couldn't help thinking about how he'd racked his brain over signing a novel contract while Zhou Yuwen was about to build a skyscraper.

It was no wonder Zheng Yanyan chose Zhou Yuwen, in his shoes, he'd have picked the same.

As for Li Qiang, after learning about this news, he naturally bragged to everyone, regaling every underclassman hanging out with him that "Do you know Zhou Yuwen?! He was my brother, sharing the same pair of pants with me back then!"