Chapter 42: Damn It, You Guys Really Deserve to Suffer
Lin Yibai stood still on the street outside the hotel.
She was thinking about trying some seafood by the sea, but everyone knows that seafood near the ocean isn’t cheap.
Some of it is even more expensive than in the mountains or inland!
Lin Yibai turned down the staff’s enthusiastic recommendation for the restaurant’s famous fish noodles and ordered something cheaper.
"One egg fried rice, and a free bowl of seaweed soup, please."
Her simple and plain way of thinking made it hard for her to order a bowl of fish noodles that cost dozens of yuan.
She didn’t understand how other girls could live like so-called “princess” lifestyle.
All she knew was that going out meant spending money on food, clothes, housing, and everything else.
And it all costs money!
Her own money! Of course it hurt to spend!
Egg fried rice with seaweed soup might be seen by others as too greasy or salty, and definitely not “fancy.” But Lin Yibai’s idea was simple. As long as it fills her up, that’s good enough!
If people wanted to complain about oil, spice, and salt. Then she’d bring up all the stuff girls love to recommend. Big cups of milk tea, fried buns, barbecue, hot pot, spicy crawfish…
Aren’t those oily, salty, and spicy too?
If that’s what it means to live like a “princess girl,” Lin Yibai frowned and muttered, “I want that kind of life too!! But…”
She touched her pocket and checked her bank card balance on her phone. That cold feeling hit her hard, like a bucket of ice water.
Forget it.
Lin Yibai still refused to admit she was a girl. She just told herself she was a regular college student who could temporarily transform into a girl.
So eating food like greasy, salty egg fried rice didn’t bother her at all.
That girly “fancy” lifestyle? What does that have to do with a guy like me?
After finishing the meal, Lin Yibai sat in the restaurant, enjoying the air conditioning while looking the entrance of the hotel.
It was around 3 or 4 in the afternoon.
The small restaurant didn’t mind him staying and enjoying the cool air. The server was still very friendly and asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to try our fish noodles? They were even featured in a popular livestream! They smell really good!”
Lin Yibai politely said, “No, thanks.”
“Why not?”
“Too expensive.”
“Are you saying our prices aren’t fair?”
“No, no! That’s not what I meant!” Lin Yibai quickly shook her head and carefully explained, “I don’t mean your store’s prices are high. I just think seafood around this whole Binhai area is expensive, even more than the places back home, and this place is not even near the sea.”
“Ahh! So that’s what you meant!” The server laughed and didn’t seem upset. “It makes sense that you’d think that way. Most people assume seafood near the sea should be cheap, but unfortunately, that’s not always true!”
“Huh? Isn’t seafood near the sea supposed to be cheaper?”
The server glanced over at the counter.
After seeing the boss busy doing the books, he leaned in and quietly said, “If you want cheap seafood, just leave Binhai City and go to any random fishing village along the coast. The high-quality stuff is saved for selling, that's why it becomes expensive. But the regular kind of seafood is cheaper than pork! You can eat as much as you want...”
“...You know those mantis shrimp that cost dozens of yuan per kilogram? If they look bad, we feed them to ducks by the basketful! People used to feed those to chickens and ducks. They didn’t taste good, so who knows why they suddenly became popular.”
Locals living luxuriously?
Lin Yibai: What the heck?!
The server kept talking. “Binhai is a tourist city. Even as a local, I think the seafood prices are way too high. So it’s no surprise that outsiders like you think so too, haha!”
“……”
From a price-for-value point of view, it really seemed like a good idea to take a trip down to one of the fishing villages outside Binhai and enjoy some cheap seafood freedom.
But what about girls? Going alone to a small village?
Even with Lin Yibai’s usual carefree attitude, it seemed unlikely that she’d take such a risk.
By evening, the little restaurant got busy again. Lin Yibai felt it was awkward to stay any longer.
Luckily, it wasn’t so hot near the sea in the evening anymore. She leaned against a streetlight and finally said, “Wow, are you guys finally going out to have fun?”
After all, it was a road trip.
It made sense to rest during the day and go out in the evening.
Xia Changyu and Gu Xiaoxue went out first to look for a place to eat. Yang Yueping and the others followed them out of the hotel shortly after.
Not long after, a few guys appeared. But there seemed to be a serious argument going on.
Those guys… or more exactly, the boyfriends of Yang Yueping and her friends, looked really upset about this May Day trip.
“Yang Yueping, what’s going on? Didn’t you say the expenses would be covered?”
“Yeah, you said we’d get reimbursed!” another guy complained.
“With the round-trip travel, hotel, and everything else, I’ve burned through my whole month’s living money!”
“We came here to help you guys!”
“……”
Lin Yibai pretended to be taking tourist photos, but in truth, she made sure to get pictures of all of them.
She had regretted not getting pictures back at the library. She wasn’t going to miss the chance again.
Yang Yueping’s expression started to look bad. She snapped angrily.
“Why are you yelling? How would I know that Xiaoxue’s boyfriend would suddenly become such a stingy person? If Xiaoxue hadn’t begged him so hard, he wouldn’t even pay for our trip at all! Hmph!”
“Pfft!” Lin Yibai couldn’t help but laugh.
So according to Yang Yueping and her friends’ logic, they originally wanted Xia Changyu not only to pay for his girlfriend’s friends’ trip. But also cover the costs for their boyfriends or guy-friends?
Even the most hopeless simp guy alive probably wouldn’t agree to that!
Lin Yibai suddenly felt a mix of fear and relief. “Thank goodness I got dumped early. Tch!”
It looked like they hadn’t reached any agreement. Over this money issue, their “little boat of love” almost flipped over in the waves.
They even started blaming each other!
In a panic, Yang Yueping lashed out. “Lian Haifeng, are you even my boyfriend anymore? Sun Shangyang, I thought you were my best guy friend! Now you're both arguing with me so harshly over something like this?”
“That’s a whole month’s living expenses…” the two guys tried to argue.
“Enough!!”
“I’ve seen through you two now.”
Yang Yueping wanted to say “Let’s break up,” but since she still needed them for something, she changed her tone.
“I’ll talk to Xiaoxue about it and try to get some of the trip money back for you. Even if we can’t repay everything, just take it as a vacation trip, alright? Aren’t you guys men? Can’t you be a little more understanding?”
As for how much they'd actually repay, she gave no clear number.
A few hundred or a thousand? That’s compensation.
A few dozen yuan? Isn’t that compensation too?
Yang Yueping even gave a cold snort and added, “And the task I gave you, you’d better handle it well.”
One of the guys said, “When the time comes, you just lure that Xia guy down the alley near the end of the road. We already checked the area. No one will be around. Then we’ll beat him like a dog.”
Tch. Poor love rival!
His girlfriend’s besties had already set a trap to beat him like a stray mutt.
Then Yang Yueping’s boyfriend added something, as proof of their 'skill'.
“Just like when we beat up Lin Yibai before. It was like beating a little brat.”
Lin Yibai: …?
Damn it!
You people seriously deserve to suffer!!