MRFD Chapter 16

Chapter 16

As the saying goes, rely on your parents at home, and rely on friends when you’re out.

Being out and about and short on cash, I could only borrow from friends first.

Rong Yi flipped through his contacts, feeling a bit of a headache. Among his close friends, one had recently emptied his pockets to buy a house for his wedding, another was a notorious spendthrift, and yet another had a saving habit but was enthusiastic about buying fixed-term financial products.

Clutching at a last hope, he called the last one. Before he could even speak, the friend excitedly recommended a fund. He said that although the rate of return was average, it was very safe and reliable, and he had invested all his spare money. He recommended that Rong Yi should not spend money recklessly and should seriously make some plans for the future.

Rong Yi hung up the phone in despair, and simply posted a message on his Moments, asking if anyone had some spare cash to help him out temporarily.

When posting, he specifically shielded some people. Such as his parents, Chen Ke Yao, some colleagues, and Zhou Li, whom he had only met recently.

He shielded his parents because he didn’t want them to worry. Rong Yi had been working alone in another city since graduation, and his parents were already very concerned. So he had long been used to reporting good news and not bad. Unless he was really at his wit’s end, he really didn’t want to bother the two elders.

As for Chen Ke Yao, he simply felt embarrassed. Asking the landlord to borrow money to pay the rent, what was that all about?

As for Zhou Li, although Rong Yi liked this Omega very much, he was always worried that the other party still had some feelings beyond friendship for him. Zhou Li had said before that he was also poor, and Rong Yi was afraid that he would forcibly tighten his belt to help him out. As ordinary friends, how could he repay this debt of gratitude?

Unexpectedly, less than five minutes after sending the message, his mother called and asked him what was going on, why he suddenly wanted to borrow money when everything was fine before.

Rong Yi was stunned.

At first, he thought someone had leaked the secret. While dealing with his mother on the phone, he opened his Moments to take another look, and his vision went dark. In a moment of confusion, he didn’t choose to shield these users, but instead chose “Only visible to these users.”

Rong Yi panicked and quickly deleted the post, then secretly prayed that no one else had seen it. Besides anything else, being known by some colleagues to be in such dire straits was extremely embarrassing to think about.

His mother on the phone was also very panicked.

This retired woman had a very rich imagination, asking him if he had borrowed some dodgy loan, or if he was already trapped in a pyramid scheme.

Rong Yi originally wanted to hide the truth, but seeing that his mother was even starting to worry about him falling into a financial scam, losing his job, ending up homeless and about to sell himself, he had to bite the bullet and tell the truth.

After that, he was naturally subjected to a lecture.

In order to prove that he not only had a place to live now, but also lived quite well, Rong Yi turned on the camera and walked around the house and then to the living room. Just as he was about to return to his room, Chen Ke Yao’s door suddenly opened.

“What are you doing?” Chen Ke Yao asked.

At the same time, his mother’s voice came from Rong Yi’s phone: “Oh my god!”

Rong Yi’s head suddenly grew bigger.

“Who is this? How can he be living with you? Hey, don’t cover the camera, let Mom take another look? What are you doing, child?”

As Rong Yi covered his phone to his chest and rushed back to his room to close the door, Chen Ke Yao’s voice came from behind: “Hello, Auntie!”

Although it wasn’t necessary, Rong Yi squatted on the ground after closing the door and deliberately lowered his voice.

“Mom, don’t think too much, that’s my landlord,” he said, looking at the phone, “Can you be a little more stable at your age?”

“Mom isn’t thinking too much,” his mother in the picture laughed non-stop, “But I know, my son definitely can’t help but overthink things with a landlord like that.”

“…”

Like mother, like son.

His mother knew exactly what he was like when he was infatuated with someone since he was a child.

“I really don’t have any thoughts about him,” Rong Yi’s face turned red, “Don’t look at my landlord looking presentable, he actually has something wrong with his brain.”

His mother frowned immediately upon hearing this.

“…The kind of problem that isn’t aggressive,” Rong Yi quickly added, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh…” His mother nodded, “Then if, just in case, you really can’t control yourself, you can’t force him, and remember to take precautions, okay?”

“…”

“How much money are you short? I’ll have your dad transfer it tomorrow,” his mother said again, “Hurry up and delete that post, how embarrassing is that?”

“…” Rong Yi looked away, “Already deleted it.”

Unexpectedly, after leaving home, he still had to rely on his parents in the end.

Rong Yi felt warm and ashamed, but he couldn’t help but rejoice that he had finally escaped a disaster for the time being.

After hanging up the phone and sighing to himself for a while, the phone suddenly vibrated again. Rong Yi thought it was his mother nagging again, but when he opened it, he was shocked.

Chen Ke Yao had sent him a WeChat transfer, and the amount was not small.

He quickly ran to knock on Chen Ke Yao’s door.

“Why did you suddenly give me money?”

“Food expenses,” Chen Ke Yao still had his phone in his hand, “Didn’t we agree to share the expenses, you provide the labor and I provide the money? You’ve been paying in advance, right?”

Rong Yi hesitated, “This is more than the rent… You can deduct it directly, there’s no need to give it to me specifically.”

“Let’s keep things separate, it’s easy to get confused if we mix them together.”

“…But,” Rong Yi was a little tangled, “Actually, it doesn’t cost that much to buy groceries.”

“Really?” Chen Ke Yao was very surprised, “I never buy groceries, so I don’t know. But when I used to hire an auntie to come over and cook every day, it cost about the same, and she didn’t even help me tidy up the living room, and her cooking skills weren’t as good as yours.”

“…”

“You think it’s too much?” Chen Ke Yao said, “Then I’ll take it back.”

Rong Yi frowned and stared at his face for a while, and finally silently returned to his room.

He actually wanted to ask Chen Ke Yao if he had seen his previous post on Moments. But when the words came to his lips, he still felt embarrassed, and finally forced himself to swallow them.

After lying back on his bed, he hesitated for a long time and sent a message to Chen Ke Yao, who was under the same roof.

“What do you usually like to eat?”

The money Chen Ke Yao gave him did help him out of a tight spot. After all, in order not to worry his parents too much, he had understated the amount of his deficit.

The next day at the company, a colleague who he wasn’t very familiar with secretly came over during lunch break to ask him if he still needed help. Rong Yi felt a wave of warmth in his heart after thanking the other party for their kindness.

His luck seemed to have really started to rebound after hitting rock bottom. As the saying goes, after surviving a great disaster, there will be good fortune. Thinking back to the experience of facing the thief that day, it was extremely thrilling, but he was unharmed, and now he had successfully survived what he thought was the most difficult economic crisis.

Moreover, these days, perhaps thanks to Zhou Li, that Bald Jerk from the Client Company had become very easy to communicate with, and the entire team’s work was progressing smoothly, and it looked like they could complete the task ahead of schedule. That meant a vacation and a big bonus.

With such smooth sailing, it wouldn’t be surprising if a perfect Alpha suddenly fell from the sky and fell in love with him at first sight, promising each other a lifetime, right?

The perfect Alpha who fell from the sky hadn’t appeared yet, but there was quite a perfect Omega right in front of him.

Zhou Li complained to him, saying that he suspected he had encountered workplace sexual harassment. One of his Alpha leaders had recently been finding excuses to ask him to his office for private discussions, and his gestures were somewhat ambiguous, touching him while talking, making him feel very uncomfortable. But if he were to speak up, the other party hadn’t done anything too outrageous.

“Send me a photo!” Zhou Li said to him on the phone, “I’ll set it as my desktop wallpaper on purpose to let him see it, that should make him a little more self-aware, right?”

Rong Yi thought about it: “How about I pick you up from work this weekend?”

Chen Ke Yao had a class that day and didn’t have to go back to cook, and he had been feeling a bit bored recently, just going back and forth between two points, and wanted to find a friend to go out and hang out.

Zhou Li was very excited to hear this: “Okay, okay, you come, I’ll treat you to dinner!”

Rong Yi was so skilled at pretending to be an Omega’s boyfriend that it made him feel sorry for himself.

He had done similar things too many times since he was a child. In addition to helping to persuade unwelcome pursuers, he had also helped friends who were not favored by the opposite sex because of their ordinary appearance to get through tough situations. Many Omegas had affectionately wrapped their arms around his, and the feeling was indescribable.

But for some reason he couldn’t explain, although he felt sorry for himself every time, he always volunteered to help whenever his friends had similar needs.

Rong Yi made careful preparations before going into battle. When he stood still downstairs at Zhou Li’s company, a strange Omega came over to flirt with him.

Just as he was about to refuse, Zhou Li walked out of the building. With him was an Alpha with a slightly plump figure. After watching Zhou Li run to Rong Yi like a released bird and grab his arm, the Alpha’s face immediately changed color.

“Honey~” Zhou Li acted so well that Rong Yi was a little at a loss, “You came to pick me up specially, but you didn’t tell me in advance, I’m so surprised~!”

“…” Rong Yi wanted to laugh a little, but he forcibly held it back, “That’s why it’s called a surprise.”

Then, Zhou Li turned to look at the Omega who had come to flirt: “Excuse me, what do you need my boyfriend for?”

The other party ran away immediately.

Zhou Li looked up at Rong Yi and smiled secretly, then turned around and waved to the Alpha who was still standing at the gate: “My boyfriend is here to pick me up, you really don’t have to trouble Manager Li to send me!”

Rong Yi very skillfully cooperated with him and gave a smile to that chubby Manager Li.

Then, just as the two were about to slip away, the Manager Li, who had been frowning, suddenly shouted from behind: “Rong Yi? You’re Rong Yi, right!”

Rong Yi’s heart skipped a beat, and he turned his head back stiffly.

Zhou Li beside him immediately became nervous as well.

“You know each other?” he asked softly.

Rong Yi stared at the other party’s slightly round face, thinking hard, feeling that he did have some impression, but he couldn’t match it to a name at the moment.

That shouldn’t be someone he knew, right? Rong Yi hesitated whether to simply tell the other party that he had mistaken him for someone else.

In the brief gap of his entanglement, the man frowned and took a few more steps towards them.

“You don’t remember me?” he said, “I’m Li Xiao Ran.”

Rong Yi blinked twice, and then some terrible memories suddenly revived in his mind.

“You really know each other?” Zhou Li asked again.

More than just know each other.

Rong Yi felt like he was about to lose all face.

This person, he had chased after him back then.

The author has something to say:

I have temporarily solved the problem of “how to address the male Omega/Beta who gave birth to me without seeming awkward or out of character.”

It’s best to set the parents of the two main characters as one male and one female!