You Look Like You’re Made of Money

When Hu Hang came to Shen Peiran's apartment looking for him the next morning, he saw beer bottles littered all over the place. When he went further inside, he almost vomited. The room had a horrible stench.

He squatted and turned over Shen Peiran and yelled: "Peiran, are you okay? Quickly wake up! You need to go to work today."

Although Shen Peiran was still drunk, he could make out that someone was beside him. He exerted great effort to open his eyes. When he saw Hu Hang, he cursed under his breath before turning his body to go back to sleep.

"Sorry, bro. Your parents called me and told me to check up on you." Saying that, Hu Hang pulled Shen Peiran up and dragged him to the bathroom. He stuffed him in the bathtub and immediately picked up the shower head and sprayed Shen Peiran’s body with cold water.

Shen Peiran was startled awake. He wanted to curse at whoever it was trying to douse him in cold water, but after seeing that it was Hu Hang, he didn't say anything. He turned away his head and spoke, his voice hoarse, "Get out. I will bathe myself."

Seeing that Shen Peiran had returned to normal and wasn’t intoxicated anymore, Hu Hang felt relieved. He threw the shower head on the floor and sighed: "Call your parents after you have bathed. No idea what happened here, but I will go and buy breakfast for you.”  

After 10 minutes, Hu Hang returned with breakfast and saw Shen Peiran dressed neatly, sitting on the sofa in a daze. Seeing Shen Peiran's behaviour, he went over and angrily scolded him: "What's wrong with you?! Don't know where your thoughts are flying off to these days. Peiran, don’t behave like a fu*king idiot anymore."

Shen Peiran didn't reply, he stayed motionless.

“No need to reply. It must be because of Su Yan again. Peiran, you should know your limits. There will be plenty of girls in the future, Su Yan isn’t the only one. Don’t blame me for being blunt. That person is now a married woman. What do you hope to get by continuing to chase after her? Must Jiang Jingchuan toss your family to bankruptcy for you to be satisfied? Don’t speak. Do you know what your name is? The day you give up your right of inheritance, your older half-brother would be relaxing while having a good laugh at you!” Hu Hang couldn't stand such a Shen Peiran. Once, twice, half a month, even an entire month was fine, he wouldn’t mind drinking together with him - sweeping everything else aside. But seeing his best friend’s dispirited appearance every day, he couldn’t help but be worried.

Shen Peiran suddenly spoke in a low voice: "Yesterday was Xiao Yan’s maternal grandfather’s birthday banquet. She went there with Jiang Jingchuan.”

"Huh?" Hu Hang stared blankly.

“I saw the Moments of Qin Xuan. Hu Hang, you don't understand how important she is to me. If I am to be honest with you, even if I succeeded the Shen Family. The future holds no meaning without her.” Only now did Shen Peiran realise how much Su Yan meant to him.

Unable to comprehend these words, Hu Hang leaned closer to him and spoke, “So you won’t give up, huh? Su Yan doesn’t pay any attention to you anymore. What can you do? Do you want to wait till she gives birth before giving up?!”

Shen Peiran’s eyes became gloomy upon hearing these words, and he shook his head, “I want to know why did she do this to me and what mistake did I make.”

“Have you lost your mind?” Hu Hang sneered at him, “Have you forgotten about Jiayu’s matter? Peiran, let it go. If Su Yan was still unmarried, I’d have definitely supported you. But she is not. Now she’s ignoring you. So what the fu*k are you still doing?”

If it was in the past, Hu Hang wouldn’t have cared, but now he couldn’t tolerate it anymore. Seeing his close friend becoming soulless as the days passed by made him very angry. As a result, he ended up ranting without giving it a thought.

“No. It’s not like that.” Shen Peiran met Hu Hang’s gaze resolutely, his lips straightened into a line, “Xiao Yan isn’t that sort of a person. In the beginning, I assumed that she was only angry, but that wasn’t the case. She has completely broken up with me. I don’t think it was because of Jiayu, there must be another reason that I’m unaware of. Even if it kills me, I must know the reason if I want to move on.”

It was true that at the beginning, he was filled with indignation and grief, but he had calmed down now. He and Su Yan have known each other since high school. He believed that it was enough time to sufficiently understand a person. Su Yan did indeed have a bad temper, but she would never, without any reason, break up with him. Even if they weren’t lovers, they would still be close friends. Su Yan was unlikely to sever their relationship like this unless something had happened which he didn’t know.

Even if he dies, he must at the very least, know what he did to hurt her, except the matter of Jiayu.

“What do you want to do?” Hu Hang calmly asked after seeing that Shen Peiran was thinking clearly and wasn’t too emotional.

Shen Peiran contemplated: “Now when I call her, she doesn’t pick up. I also can’t go to look for her directly, so I wanted to approach her through Wan Yi.”

“That’s a good idea. You can ask Wan Yi. Her relationship with Su Yan was very good, she must know something.” Originally, Hu Hang also thought that Su Yan was throwing a tantrum, but he didn’t think so now. It was clear that now Su Yan’s every thought and action, no longer has any connection to Shen Peiran. In order to prevent his close friend from being hungover like this every time, he would support him in his search for answers.

At first, Wan Yi had thought to call Shen Peiran herself, but she didn’t have time as she was too busy dealing with the matters in all the shelved files. She had never expected him to call her first.

When the time came for dinner, Wan Yi took Shen Peiran to a Family Tea Restaurant near her company. After they ordered, Wan Yi went straight to the point, “I went to see Xiao Yan after you had called me that day.”

Shen Peiran was still wondering what to say when he heard her words, he quickly asked: “Yes, then?”

Seeing that Shen Peiran cared so much, Wan Yi couldn’t bring herself to directly repeat what Su Yan had said. She thought about it before asking: “Shen Peiran, do you really love Xiao Yan?”

“Of course!” Shen Peiran said decisively.

Was there still any doubt? His feelings for Su Yan were genuine.

“But I don’t think so.” Wan Yi was actually very delicate and pretty. The black-framed glasses she wore made her look adorable, but her expression was very stern, “I’m not criticizing you, but as Xiao Yan’s best friend I feel that I must say this. Do you remember? When we were in our second year of college, Xiao Yan ended up getting an allergic reaction upon eating a mango. In fact, it was a very grave situation at that time. We accompanied her to the hospital. She called you, but you said you were busy and didn’t come at that time. Although after that incident you brought Xiao Yan a present, and showed utmost concern for her, but from that time onwards I started to resent you.”

Shen Peiran didn’t expect Wan Yi to bring up that matter. He faltered while explaining: “I was really busy at that time……”

“I know. Xiao Yan later told me that that day that you were celebrating your younger sister’s birthday, and you couldn’t just leave with your whole family there.” Wan Yi’s tone was flat, “But that day Xiao Yan’s condition was very critical. To tell you the truth, that time in addition to us, there was another young girl who lived with us in the dormitory and had to catch a flight the next day, but she didn’t go back to take a rest, instead she transferred to a different flight time. What I don’t understand is that, what a good friend can easily accomplish, how can you, as the person whom she loved, couldn’t do?”

Wan Yi’s opinion on Shen Peiran wasn’t formed over one or two days. She thought it was better to let it all become clear today. Since she had already said this much, if she said the next few sentences - as long as Shen Peiran had even little consideration - he shouldn’t become agitated, and might even give up by himself.

Shen Peiran could say nothing in reply. He was wrong in this matter and couldn’t give any proper explanation.

“I don’t know what Xiao Yan meant to you, but I do know that if you really like a person, you wouldn’t let her marry someone else. I even realise that if you truly care about a person, you wouldn’t skirt the line legally and morally with her when she is still bound by the law of marriage. Did you ever think what would happen if someone reported your involvement with her to the mass media? How would it affect Xiao Yan? I don’t mean to say that Xiao Yan is correct, as she shouldn’t have pulled you along into a precarious situation.”

Although Wan Yi had never been in love, she was extremely disgusted with Shen Peiran and her close friend’s that kind of relation. As a close friend, she couldn’t distance herself and therefore had no choice except to remind Su Yan again and again when they met each other occasionally. However, Su Yan never listened. But now, her best friend finally listened to her and even corrected herself. As her best friend, Wan Yi promised that she would help her in resolving the connection with Shen Peiran.

Shen Peiran felt mortally ashamed. It wasn’t that he wasn’t aware of the fact he was the third party in Su Yan and Jiang Jingchuan’s marriage, except that it was the first time that someone pointed it out directly.

“I am not acquainted with Mr. Jiang nor do I know how he treats Xiao Yan, but I do know that as long as he and Xiao Yan don’t divorce, he will be her lawful husband and will be protected from the Law and public opinion. Shen Peiran, when I talked to Xiao Yan that day, she told me that she really wants to live a good life with Mr. Jiang. I feel that she is serious. What do you think?”

Shen Peiran didn’t know what to say. With that matter mentioned by Wan Yi at the beginning, he felt that he really wasn’t in any position to comment.

His hands just slowly clenched under the table.

Even if the whole world doubted his feelings, as long as Xiao Yan believed it, he wouldn’t care what other people thought about him.

Shen Peiran asked in a low voice: “Did she tell you why she is ignoring me?”

Wan Yi silently regarded Shen Peiran. She still didn’t like him. When Su Yan had an allergic reaction, if the reason was something else, like even if he was studying, she would’ve accepted it somewhat. But he was actually celebrating another woman’s birthday, someone who didn’t have any blood relation with him whatsoever. Since something like that happened, she truly didn’t feel good about Shen Peiran.

That’s right, Su Yan didn’t take it to heart afterwards because she liked him, but their friends didn’t like him as they were able to see the complete picture, so there was no way they’d overlook this matter.

Barb Notes: Yep, that is the title.