Chapter 7: Fifteen Yuan for a Friendship

When my mother saw me, she rubbed her hands together.

“She insisted on coming in, and I couldn’t stop her. She said she wanted to apologize to you.”

I nodded, sat on the sofa, and set my bag aside.

I smiled.

“Didn’t Mom tell you? I found a job. I just got home from work.”

Li Lian’s smile turned stiff.

“I didn’t expect you to find a job!”

I gave a cold laugh and lifted the gift boxes Li Lian had placed on the table, setting them on the floor one by one.

After clearing the table, I poured myself a cup of tea.

“Online fame is temporary. I have real skills, and I haven’t done anything to be ashamed of. Why wouldn’t I be able to find work?”

Li Lian’s smile grew even more awkward.

She pointed at the gifts on the floor.

“Su Shu, I came here to apologize.”

She looked at me with what she hoped was a sincere expression.

Clenching her hands, she spoke one word at a time.

“I was too impulsive before. When you hadn’t paid the fifteen yuan for the noodles, I should’ve contacted you privately first. You’d already told me you would transfer it later. I shouldn’t have lost my temper and called the police, causing you to lose your job and get attacked online…”

Her voice grew quieter and quieter, as if she truly regretted it.

She smiled at me.

“I’ll delete the post. Let me rent your property again—one hundred thousand a month. Okay?”

I laughed when I heard her.

My mother gently tugged at my hand and whispered, “Sweetheart, maybe you should think it over…”

I patted her hand.

Then I gave Li Lian a cold look.

“Are you trying to make a deal with me? You’ll delete the post, and I’ll rent the place to you again?”

Li Lian smiled.

“Your reputation matters most, doesn’t it? I’ll delete the post and help restore your name. In return, you keep renting the place to me. Isn’t that fair?”

I scoffed.

“First, I’ve already rented the property to Mr. Wang. We signed a five-year lease, and he’s paying 150,000 yuan a month.”

Li Lian’s eyes widened.

“Second, I’ve found a job. Whether you delete your post or not won’t make much difference to me.”

“Third, I don’t care about my reputation!”

“So take your things and leave. I won’t rent to you again.”

Li Lian shouted, “Su Shu, we’re friends! We’ve been best friends for more than twenty years!”

I stood up and looked down at her.

“I remember you saying that our twenty-year friendship was something I’d imagined. That we could be ordinary friends—or not friends at all, just strangers.”

Li Lian sprang to her feet.

At last, panic showed in her eyes.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry for the things I said to you!”

My mother tugged at my hand again.

“She apologized. Maybe we should forgive her.”

I pulled my hand away and looked straight into Li Lian’s eyes.

“You came to apologize because your online buzz has died down and you can’t keep making money by stepping on me. Now you’re begging me to rent you the property so you can profit from my family again.”

“Are you sincerely admitting you were wrong? Do you really feel sorry for me?”

“If you truly did, you would’ve deleted the post before coming here to apologize!”

Li Lian’s face flushed red. She had nothing to say.

I pointed at the gifts on the floor.

“Take your things back. I don’t want them, and I don’t want to take advantage of you!”

“As for the post, delete it if you want. Clarify things if you want. Or don’t. It has nothing to do with me.”

“Get out of my house!”

After Li Lian left, my father came out of his room.

The dark circles under his eyes were obvious.

He sighed and looked at me.

“You drove Li Lian away, and you don’t even want her to clear your name. So you’ll have to carry this stain for the rest of your life. You really don’t care?”

“Our relatives and friends, your classmates and your old friends will keep avoiding you. You might never find a partner either. What man would marry you?”

I poured my father a glass of water.

“Dad, they treated our family this way just because they believed online rumors. We don’t need relatives and friends like that.”

“As for this so-called stain, I don’t care. I have money and a house. Even if a man married me for my money and property, he’d be happy to marry me. He wouldn’t reject a woman with money and a house because of baseless online rumors!”

“Oh, and those relatives who blocked us still owe us money. They have to pay it back. I’ll go to each of their homes and collect it.”

My father sighed.

He raised his hand and looked at me for a long moment, then finally lowered it.

I stood up.

Then I remembered that Li Lian still owed me 300,000 yuan.

But I wasn’t in a hurry.

Mr. Wang’s noodle shops were thriving more and more.

The online products were selling better every day, thanks to the way I’d organized the livestreams.

The shop in my family’s property had become the busiest branch in Mr. Wang’s entire chain.