Li Yan gave a bitter smile and said seriously, "Wen Qianyi, do you know that I met you before Xiaodi, while still having a bad impression of her, I got along well with you. Even..."

Even back then, my interactions with Zhang Yurong were still very lukewarm... but this was something he couldn’t and wasn’t convenient to say out loud.

"Let me put it this way! You know my identity, you know why I avoid feelings. But what about you? Xiaodi is very brave when facing emotions, to be honest, if it weren’t for her initiative and persistence, because of my own uncertainty, I wouldn’t have developed with her to where we are now. But with you..."

Seeing he was about to say it all, Wen Qianyi quickly interrupted him, "Stop, stop!"

She took a deep breath to calm herself down. Although she knew he had feelings for her, she didn’t want to voice it. One reason was she was afraid that after voicing it, she wouldn’t know how to face it. Another reason was she was afraid that if not handled well, they wouldn’t even be able to be friends anymore. So, even though everyone was aware of it, until they were ready to face it and had a good way to resolve it, it was better not to break the silence.

"Hehe, are you saying there’s a difference between Xiaodi and me?" Wen Qianyi looked at him with a smile, thoughtfully choosing her words, trying not to link it to him, but purely comparing her and Xiaodi’s perspectives, which made it a technical discussion indirectly. "Do you remember I was her tutor? Do you know what that means?"

"Generation gap?"

"A generation gap is another issue. What I want to say is, Xiaodi is at a romantic age full of fantasies, but I’ve reached an age where I pursue practicality. She’s still young, can love passionately, and even if you, this jerk, hurt her, she still has time to heal and recover; but me? I can’t afford to be hurt. If I’m going to date, I’ll find someone reliable and stable, date for a year or two, then we’ll get married and start a family. Do you understand?

Most women, when they reach around twenty-five, start having such thoughts and stop dreaming. Life can’t always be like an idol drama, or rather, we place our dreams in idol dramas, but when we walk out the door, we have to consider reality and strive for life."

Wen Qianyi had a slight bitter smile at this point. Everyone sees and envies everything she has now, but who that hasn’t experienced it, knows how much effort comes with success? How much hardship has been paid? Working in sales and business is difficult, laborious, and highly competitive, and due to some filthy social ambiance, pretty women can take shortcuts. But this shortcut, once it appears, makes it more difficult and cautious for more beautiful women.

Why does she have today’s charisma?

Why is she sly like an old fox despite her young age?

Why can she always maintain a charming smile, regardless of who she is with, whether happy or not?

These are the results of years of training! For pretty girls like her, having a natural advantage in first impressions, also means many guys are coveting and trying to achieve some transaction through means of authority. How to show her abilities and charisma without causing seduction or misunderstanding, nor letting those coveting beauties succeed, isn’t something achievable overnight. To protect herself, she didn’t know how many clients and deals she botched or gave up until she slowly became strong and mature.

But in the eyes of others, she seems to only have a house, car, and branded clothing at a young age; some unrelated or uninformed people, due to the mentality of ’sour grapes’ (men) or jealousy (women), would say behind her back that it’s all thanks to a man’s money, or she’s merely someone’s little woman, or she seduced men through sacrifices.

Just like a joke circulating online: Someone, during a red light, noticed the person driving a BMW next was a woman and made a remark to a friend nearby: ’She must be a kept woman.’ Only the voice was a bit loud, and the woman heard it. She retorted: ’Have you ever seen a kept woman rushing to work in the morning?’

Unlike Zhang Yurong and Yu Xiaodi who had good backgrounds, these harsh realities, misunderstandings, and bitterness are what girls like Wen Qianyi, who strive on their own, have to bear while achieving career success.

...

Over the past few years, Li Yan mixed in the city, no longer out of touch with society. But due to concerns about too many emotional problems, he hasn’t gotten too close to women, and there are still many ideas and issues he doesn’t understand much. Listening to Wen Qianyi’s words and looking at her face, he suddenly understood a lot.

"I understand now."

Li Yan understood that in Wen Qianyi’s eyes, or compared to her realistic requirements, his performance at the company before was far from enough. With a barely sufficient salary, how could he get together with her and form a family? Even if they formed a family, with the woman strong and the man weak, would it be harmonious and happy? She is a rational person, and if she can foresee a tragic future, naturally, she won’t start.

"Good that you understand, get up!" Wen Qianyi smiled.

Li Yan said seriously, "You should understand now too."

"Hmm?"

"Uh... regarding that person’s affairs, you already know. You should understand that your realistic difficulties, issues, and concerns are not problems. So, you might want to follow your heart, be brave for once, dream for once, and have a passionate love, right?"