"I asked about the banquet. It's 3,800 yuan per table."
On a Saturday afternoon in a Jiangcheng coffee shop, Xu Yun said, "And about the packaging for the wedding candy, I gave them the design you sent me last time."
"They said they need to redo it. We have to go look at a sample in a couple of days."
"Okay."
The woman across from him, who was quite attractive, replied distractedly while playing on her phone.
Her name was Huang Mengyao, Xu Yun's girlfriend. They were about to get married.
Seeing her glued to her phone, Xu Yun frowned. "What's wrong? Weren't you really into all this before? You seem a bit out of it today."
"It's nothing."
Huang Mengyao kept her head down, still focused on her phone. "Did you buy the drinks and the liquor?"
"I bought the drinks."
Xu Yun replied, "But I wanted to talk to you about the liquor. Is it okay if we get Guojiao 1573?"
"Didn't my mom tell you to buy Maotai?"
Huang Mengyao looked up, a little angry. "Can you please pay a little more attention to this!"
"I did a rough calculation. Over 60 tables means over 60 bottles of liquor."
Xu Yun explained, "If we buy Maotai, it's about 1,500 yuan more expensive per bottle. For 60 bottles, that's almost 100,000 yuan."
"Hmph."
Huang Mengyao said, displeased, "Are you trying to settle accounts with me? Do you think marrying me is costing you too much money?"
"All the money I saved in the five years since I graduated is with you. You know how much that is—a little less than 200,000 yuan."
Xu Yun said helplessly, "The 166,000 yuan for the betrothal gift is gone, and I had to borrow 300,000 yuan from my mom for the wedding banquet. You tell me…"
"Stop!"
Holding up her phone, Huang Mengyao cut him off, annoyed. "You didn't have the 288,000 yuan for the betrothal gift, so okay, I didn't ask for it. I asked you for 166,000 yuan, right?"
"And I didn't make you book one of those so-called luxury hotels, did I?"
"You saw my best friends' weddings. They spent tens of thousands on flowers alone, and now you're nickel-and-diming me over this?"
"I'm just trying to discuss it with you. Don't get so worked up."
Xu Yun said, "We're the ones who have to live our lives. Whether we live well or not has nothing to do with other people."
"Back in my hometown, a wedding table costs just over 2,000 yuan, and that's considered high. I'm not asking to go by that standard, am I?"
"I just think we should live within our means."
After hearing this, Huang Mengyao gave him a look of disdain. "This isn't your little hometown. This is a big city. It's a matter of principle, and there's nothing to discuss."
"Fine, fine, we'll do it your way."
They were about to get married, and Xu Yun didn't want to fight with her.
"Good. While we're on the subject, there's something else I wanted to tell you."
Huang Mengyao put down her phone. "After we get married, my parents are going to come live with us."
"Mm, that's fine."
Xu Yun nodded. "We can give them the slightly larger room. My mom's by herself, so she can take the smaller one."
"Your mom is coming to live with us?" Huang Mengyao sounded surprised.
"Yeah, didn't I tell you that a long time ago?"
Xu Yun replied, "She sold her house back home and added her entire life savings just to buy this apartment for me."
"No, it's not convenient for your mom to live here."
"If she doesn't live in this apartment, where do you expect my mom to live?"
Even a saint has his limits. Xu Yun was getting angry. "She's the one who bought this apartment."
"I know she bought it."
Huang Mengyao said in a hostile tone, "But she bought it for the two of us as our marital home."
"By that logic, your parents shouldn't live here either."
"That's impossible. My parents raised me for over twenty years. They won't feel at ease or comfortable if I'm too far away from them."
Xu Yun scoffed. "Far? When we bought this place, the whole point was that it was close to your family's home. It's just a base taxi fare away. And now you're telling me it's far?"
"Our two families come from different backgrounds. It's just not convenient for us to live together."
"Not convenient?"
Xu Yun retorted, "My mom used her life savings and sold her own house to buy this apartment, and you won't let her live here?"
Huang Mengyao looked down, typing a message on her phone. "I'm not saying she can't live here. I just think it's inconvenient for both families to live together."
"Besides, compared to that small town you're from…"
"My mom bought this place by selling her own house."
Losing his composure, Xu Yun cut her off, his voice rising. "She doesn't have a home anymore!"
"Why are you yelling?" Huang Mengyao was instantly annoyed.
"Me, yelling? That's not…"
Xu Yun struggled to control his emotions. "Have you ever considered my family's feelings? My mom doesn't have her own house. She has nowhere to live!"
"And now you're telling me she can't stay here? Then where is she supposed to live? She bought the apartment!"
"Isn't it her duty to buy it? It's a mother's duty to buy an apartment for her son."
Huang Mengyao said dismissively, "She's only bought this one apartment in her entire life. The fact that she used her life savings is her problem, not ours."
"My mom's problem?"
Xu Yun laughed in anger and shot back, "They say you raise children to support you in your old age. But with what you're doing now, not only can I not provide for her, but I'm supposed to kick her out of her own home."
"When two people get married, it's about two families coming together to build a new one, not for your family to be a bunch of leeches!"
"From the very beginning, you've looked down on me for not having money and looked down on my family for being from a small town. But have I not done my absolute best to meet every single one of your demands?"
"I can give in to you on other things, but this is impossible. It's not up for discussion!"
"If you can't sort this out, then we'll just have to postpone the wedding."
Huang Mengyao threatened him with the wedding. "I'll tell my parents not to message our relatives or send out the invitations. You go have a good talk with your mom."
"My mom is moving in in the next few days."
Xu Yun had been holding back for years. He didn't want to hold back anymore. If he kept this up, it would probably be for the rest of his life.
'To hell with it. Worst-case scenario, I just won't get married.'
"If you don't agree, then pack up your things and move out tomorrow. And transfer all of my money that you're holding back to me."
"…"
Huang Mengyao was stunned. She never expected the usually agreeable Xu Yun to suddenly take such a hard line.
Her expression changed as she demanded, "What do you mean? You don't want to get married anymore, is that it?"
"Marry my ass! Get the hell out!"
Huang Mengyao fumed, "Fine! You're the one who said it. Don't you regret this."
"Get out!"
Watching the furious woman get up and leave, Xu Yun wiped his face and ran his hands through his hair.
He had met this woman on a blind date three years ago. He thought she was decent-looking with an okay personality, and since his mother was always eager for a grandchild, he had decided to get married to fulfill her wish.
But who knew that right before the wedding, her personality would do a complete 180.
She listened to those "best friends" of hers, and the demands became endless, one after another!
'Everyone has their limits.'
'It's one thing for me to suffer a little or put up with some grievances—that's my own choice. But I can't wrong my own mother!'
'Besides, you're an unemployed woman who lives off me, eats my food, wears clothes I buy, and you still have the nerve to look down on me?'
'Screw you. You think you're hot stuff just because you're a little pretty?'
'When I'm rich someday, every woman I sleep with will be better than you!'
[The Do as You Please System has been successfully activated.]
(Note: What does it mean to Do as You Please? It means to follow your heart's truest desires and do whatever you want.)
[From this moment on, every time the host acts according to the Do as You Please principle, the system will issue a cash reward based on set criteria.]
[For making the Do as You Please decision to give up on marrying your blood-sucking girlfriend, the host is rewarded with 200,000 yuan in cash.]
Hearing the mechanical voice in his head, Xu Yun thought he was hallucinating from his earlier rage.
But in the next second, his phone buzzed. A text message appeared on the Xiaomi phone he had been using for three years.
"Your bank account ending in 6818 received a deposit of 200,000 yuan on March 24, 2024. New balance: 205,300 yuan. [Agricultural Bank of China]"
For a moment, Xu Yun's brain completely short-circuited.
After it rebooted, he opened his mobile banking app and checked the balance on his card. His breathing grew rapid…
'Did my dream… just become reality?'