Chapter 74: Like a Rat Spying on Others’ Happiness

Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Like a Rat Spying on Others’ Happiness

However, Liang City’s answer was somewhat unexpected. "No. I just heard it from others."

"Huh?!" Chen Jingle was stunned. "Weren’t you guys pretty close in high school?"

After all, even he would receive wedding invitations from classmates he hadn’t contacted in eight to ten years. Though in the end, he rarely attended any of them for various reasons.

Liang City replied with a shrugging bear emoji. "I’d say we were just okay. Maybe we just drifted apart after not keeping in touch for so many years. In college, I visited her school with some other classmates and even attended her graduation ceremony. But after graduation, we barely talked. Everyone’s busy grinding through life. It’s for the best that she didn’t invite me—I might not have the time to go anyway."

It was perfectly normal for former classmates and friends to grow distant as they aged, but it still sounded a bit lamentable. Life was like a train; not everyone would ride with you to the final destination. The vast majority of people chose to get off halfway.

"You don’t even have time during the National Day holiday?" Chen Jingle asked. "Don’t tell me you have to work overtime?"

"Hard to say," Liang City replied with a sighing emoji.

"That’s ridiculous?!"

Was this still the government job that everyone envied? Chen Jingle subconsciously shivered.

Liang City was used to it. "We have to deal with inspections from above. It’s standard procedure."

"Hang in there, bro." Chen Jingle didn’t know what else to say. He was used to the ease of lying flat now. He absolutely refused to go back to his old days of working himself to the bone with overtime. He wouldn’t do it even if they offered him a massive salary!

Liang City suddenly thought of something. "By the way, have you noticed that fewer and fewer people around us are getting married these days? At first, I thought everyone had just gotten married as they got older and I simply hadn’t noticed. But after chatting with someone today, I realized that it’s not just the guys among our peers who aren’t married—the women aren’t getting married either."

Just a few years ago, this would have been unimaginable. Anyone who dared to stay unmarried past thirty was considered a freak. The social climate had changed incredibly fast.

"People aren’t stupid." Chen Jingle smiled. "If there was actually money lying on the ground, anyone would pick it up. But the problem is that what’s on the ground right now is a hot potato. Who in their right mind would go out of their way to pick it up? I certainly don’t want to."

To borrow a quote from netizens: if there was a real advantage to be had, would it ever be the turn of ordinary people? Besides, in the current social atmosphere, a lose-lose situation was indeed better than losing one-sidedly.

"In that case, my luck is pretty good." Liang City felt somewhat fortunate. If he had waited just a few more years, he might have been influenced by external views as well. If that had happened, he would never have met Teacher Zhong.

"More than just good, it’s exceptionally good," Chen Jingle couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

This was the only thing he envied about Liang City. Teacher Zhong had great qualities in every aspect. Although she was a teacher, she didn’t bring the occupational habit of preaching home, let alone stir up unnecessary drama.

The only regret was that the two of them got married in 2022 and didn’t hold a wedding. The circumstances were rather special back then, and they never held a make-up ceremony later on.

Well, perhaps it couldn’t even be considered a regret? Neither of them was particularly interested in weddings anyway. They believed that a wedding was just paying money to suffer, while the guests only really cared about whether the food was good. It was better to spend the money on more important things.

From the time they met to now, with Liang Mingyue already being over a year old, the couple had never had a single argument. They discussed and compromised on everything, big and small. What man wouldn’t envy such a deeply devoted relationship?

Therefore, every time Liang City showed off intentionally or otherwise, Chen Jingle could only GRIND his teeth and indignantly think to himself, "Whatever, I’ll be just as happy in the future!!"

At times like this, he often felt like a villain in a novel, unable to stand the sight of the protagonist surrounded by love. Or like a filthy rat living in the gutter, only daring to hide in the corner and peek at the overflowing happiness of others. However, if someone told him to go out and date, he would hesitate and hold back.

In the past, he could use the excuse that he was poor, ugly, short, and totally unremarkable, so no one would be interested in him. But now, after being reformed by the system, he had completely left the goblin category behind. He could be considered excellent in every aspect. Even if he went on blind dates in the capital of live-in sons-in-law, he could easily secure a few luxury cars, houses, and storefronts in return.

Yet his heart remained as stagnant as a pool of dead water. Ultimately, it was a problem with his mindset.

Chen Jingle’s current mental state was worrying. He didn’t want to date, yet he wanted to find someone perfectly compatible with him to spend the rest of his life with. Or rather, he didn’t want to get married, but he wanted to raise a cute baby. If outsiders knew his true thoughts, they would probably point at his nose and laugh, asking him why he was daydreaming in broad daylight!

All these shifts in his mindset stemmed from an abnormal romantic relationship in the past. It truly was a case of being once bitten, twice shy.

On the other side of the city.

Liang City sat on the sofa. He looked up at Teacher Zhong, who was sitting directly on the floor nearby, holding a small plush toy and smiling as she coaxed their daughter to crawl over on her hands and knees. At this moment, his heart was completely filled with a feeling called happiness.

He was indeed inferior to Chen Jingle in many ways, but he had Teacher Zhong and the adorable Little Mingyue, and that was enough.

[Good job, baby! You have successfully completed the dinner mission. Rewarding 0.1 centimeters in height. Current height is 174.8 centimeters. As expected, you have to eat well to grow tall quickly!]

"It’s fine, I have the system," Chen Jingle comforted himself.

The system’s gentle voice was a rare medicine that smoothed out the restless emotions in his heart.

In his earlier years, Chen Jingle’s emotional fluctuations had been exaggeratedly volatile due to intense work pressure. After he returned to his hometown and embraced the "lying flat" lifestyle, his mood improved significantly, but he then veered toward another extreme, leaving him utterly lifeless. The appearance of the system had helped neutralize and regulate this part of his emotional state. He was calm, but possessed a bit more vitality.

Chen Jingle considered this shift in mentality to be a harvest on par with all the knowledge and skills he had acquired.

He had experienced many instances where a bad mindset led to disastrous results; emotional issues were a massive problem. It was only when he truly turned thirty that he barely began to learn how to control his emotions rather than being controlled by them. If his twenty-year-old self could have achieved this level of control, his career accomplishments would likely have been far greater than what they were now.

No wonder the ancients said, "Those who accomplish great things remain unfazed even if Mount Tai collapses before them, and do not bat an eye if a deer suddenly darts past."

He still needed more practice!

Next was shower time.

After successfully washing away all of the day’s exhaustion, he briefly blow-dried his hair and returned to the bedroom. It was often said that the moon was fuller on the sixteenth than on the fifteenth of the lunar month. Night had just fallen, and a bright, full moon was already hanging high outside the window.

Such a beautiful night, paired with mooncakes, snacks, fruits, and fragrant tea, was naturally the perfect time for reading and studying!

The book Chen Jingle planned to read today was called Logic of Politics. Although it wasn’t on Zhong Qing’s recommended reading list, it was one of the books he had previously planned to read. The author was a true heavyweight in the political sphere, and their level of theoretical knowledge ranked among the very best in the contemporary world.

It was definitely worth a read. However, the barrier to entry for reading it was quite high. Therefore, Chen Jingle viewed it as a crucial stepping stone for advancing his professional knowledge in ideological and political education.