Long reprint: The Road to Love Exchange - Chapter 1

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Chapter 1
My name is Lu Jianhao, I'm 31 years old, a middle-aged man who's been approaching 30 for ten years and is finally going to pass away. My career is so-so, I work at a fairly large travel agency in Shanghai, a job with a 9-to-5 schedule, occasional overtime, and a monthly income of a little over 10,000 yuan.

My wife's name is Chen Xinyue, she's 28 years old, and she's an English teacher at a private middle school. Her work isn't very busy, and due to the nature of teaching, she rarely needs to work overtime, so her schedule is relatively stable. Her income is slightly lower than mine.

Our combined income of over 20,000 yuan would be more than enough to live comfortably for many people, but in a city like Shanghai with a high cost of living, it's still quite a lot of pressure.

By the way, we don't have children yet, which eases our financial burden a little. The reason we don't have children is largely due to my wife's wishes. Although private schools offer higher incomes, the stability and hidden income are not as good as public schools. If she gets pregnant and has a baby, she'll need to leave her job for at least six months, and her teaching duties during that time will definitely be taken over by another teacher. Returning to work then is uncertain.

We've been married for four years. My wife and I met in a rather old-fashioned way – through a blind date. Even now, I sometimes jokingly ask her how someone as attractive as her ended up on the blind date market. This usually earns me a glare from her, because the story of our blind date isn't so simple.

I still remember it was six years ago, I came home from work, and my mom's daily question came again.

"Son, have you found a girl you like lately?"

"Mom, aren't you tired? Didn't I tell you I'd bring a girlfriend home to meet you? How could I hide it from you?"

"You're 25 already. My old colleague, Aunt Xiaofang, her son is a year older than you, and her grandson was a month old last month."

"Okay, okay, Mom, you know how young women in Shanghai are these days. Do you expect me to find someone older than me?"

Mom was silent for a while, seemingly agreeing with me, but then she said, "Anyway, I've told you everything. I don't expect you to get married right away, but at least find someone to date. Don't tell me you haven't forgotten your ex. I don't care. Even if you bring that woman back, I won't acknowledge her. I've already asked someone to introduce you to someone. You'll have to go on blind dates then."

Mom left without looking back, leaving me standing there bewildered.

The woman she was talking about was my ex-girlfriend. Actually, I've always doubted whether that relationship could even be called a real relationship. We met online. She's from Guilin and was studying in Suzhou at the time. After chatting for over half a year, she decided to come to Shanghai to see me.

I was initially hesitant; too many relationships don't last. We got along well online, and I was afraid that meeting in person would mean losing such a compatible online friend. I'm actually quite confident in my appearance. While I'm not exactly stunningly handsome, my 180cm height and slightly stocky build are enough to attract some women.

After meeting her, I found myself falling for this girl who was pretty but definitely not breathtaking. Her personality was so different from the Shanghai girls I knew. She didn't have the princess complex of everyone revolving around her, nor the domineering personality of someone who would easily turn on you.

Soon, this liking turned into love—an inescapable infatuation.

But I gradually discovered that she was hiding many things from me. Perhaps moved by my love, she half-voluntarily, half-passively revealed many secrets I didn't know before. For example, she actually had a boyfriend in Suzhou, but his mother didn't like her being from out of town and seemed to oppose their relationship.

If we had known about her situation while chatting online, I swear I would have always treated her as a close friend. But I only found out after falling madly in love with her, so these things didn't seem like a big deal to me anymore. So I did something that seems quite impressive now: I took the train to Suzhou, took a taxi to her apartment building, picked her up, and she moved into my house.

My parents didn't have a bad impression of people from out of town, and since their son liked her, they accepted this unexpected future daughter-in-law. But the good times didn't last long. I underestimated other people's feelings and overestimated my own love. The happy days only lasted a little over a month before she finally packed her bags and left under her ex-boyfriend's advances.

Back to my wife... oh right, it was a blind date.

About a week after my mother's conversation, I was told that a girl was waiting for me on a blind date. Apparently, she was introduced by my aunt's friend. I felt I had to give face to my elders, so I embarked on this blind date journey that would affect my life.

The meeting place was a Starbucks next to a large park in the city center. I arrived half an hour early, ordered a coffee, and started scrolling through my phone, occasionally glancing up at the door. I was a little nervous and expectant, and every time a pretty girl walked in, I wondered if it was her. But none of them came towards me.

Five minutes past the appointed time, two girls walked in. As usual, I looked up and saw two people. My instinct was that it wasn't them, but I couldn't help but scrutinize them.

Both girls were quite tall, probably around 168-170 cm. One looked slightly older, about my age, while the other looked more youthful, probably a university student or a recent graduate. Both girls had long hair and were quite pretty, but the younger one was more striking.

The two girls entered and glanced around. When their eyes landed on me, I instinctively lowered my head, as it wasn't good for a girl to be seen being spied on.

But when I looked at them again out of the corner of my eye, I saw them walking towards me. My heart skipped a beat—could this be one of them? I looked up again. The two girls were already in front of me, and one of them cautiously asked, "Excuse me, are you Lu Jianhao?"

I was overjoyed. So there are gems on blind dates! I could accept either of them.

I stood up politely and gave a slight bow, saying, "Yes, that's me. May I ask which one is Chen Qianyi?"

The slightly older girl smiled and said, "I'm Chen Qianyi, and this is my cousin, Chen Xinyue."

Only then could I take a good look at the two girls. Chen Qianyi's face was more masculine; if she had short hair, the girl would probably like her too. Chen Xinyue's face was more in line with popular beauty standards—a typical oval face, which was very pleasing to the eye.

I ordered them both a coffee and some desserts and we started chatting. Chen Qianyi was indeed the same age as me, working as a clerk in a foreign trade company. Chen Xinyue had just graduated from university six months ago and was working as an intern teacher at a school.

Chen Qianyi was also being pressured by her family to get married, so some nosy family members had taken the initiative to help arrange it, and this meeting was brought about with some reluctance. Chen Xinyue, who was visiting her cousin with her parents, heard about this fun opportunity and insisted on coming along.

"Actually, the older generation's views are different from ours. What we take for granted, they find daunting, while conversely, what they consider ordinary, we may not be able to accept," I said with a smile.

"Yes, yes, that's exactly it. It depends on fate, you can't rush it. Actually, this is my fifth or sixth blind date, maybe it's just not meant to be. What about you? How many times?" Chen Qianyi asked.

"Haha, I didn't expect you to be such an expert! This is my first time, really." Seeing Chen Qianyi's incredulous look, I didn't forget to add.

The group chatted and time flew by. Chen Xinyue didn't talk much; she just ate and drank while watching us talk with her big, blinking eyes. When she heard that I was in the tourism industry, she seemed to have found common ground and started to chime in.

The two girls politely declined my offer to treat them to dinner, and Chen Qianyi and I exchanged WeChat contacts before I said goodbye.

This blind date was more pleasant than I had imagined; after all, the other person was quite good in many ways, and Chen Qianyi also expressed that she liked me and was willing to give it a try. Both sets of parents were very happy about this. Afterwards, Chen Qianyi and I went on several more dates—dinners, bars, movies—and our relationship progressed normally, from holding hands, to putting our arms around each other's waists, to kissing each other on the cheek, and occasionally even sneaking a kiss on the lips. It seemed like the next step would be a normal process, but we never crossed that final line.

Just when I was slowly forgetting that image of her from before, another blow came unexpectedly.

"Jianhao."

"Qianyi, what made you call me?"

"I have something to tell you."

"What is it? What's so important that you had to call me? Hehe."

"Let's break up." "

Hehe, uh, what did you say?"

"I said let's break up. I'm sorry, it's my fault. I don't want to hold you back. Let's end it before our relationship gets too deep. I don't want to hold you back." I

was completely confused. By the time I tried to ask her again, she had already hung up. I couldn't quite describe my feelings. I felt a little sad, but not as heart-wrenching as last time. Like she said, we hadn't known each other long enough, and our relationship wasn't that deep yet. It was more of a strange sense of absurdity. Had I been dumped again?

I tried to contact her again, but I couldn't reach her. I didn't even think about going to my elders to reason with her. I just let it go.

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Long reprint: The Road to Love Exchange - Chapter 1

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