Chapter 2213 - 1879: I’m Not That Kind of Person

Chapter 2213: Chapter 1879: I’m Not That Kind of Person

With solid, real cash prizes dangling in front of them, the whole blind-date event looked downright promising!

Even the staff who’d originally just come to join the fun sighed deeply: the reason they hadn’t found anyone at past events—was that really because their standards were too high? Clearly it was because their work unit hadn’t been sincere!

If you had to say there was any flaw, all the blemishes were lodged in the hearts of the remaining male comrades.

After all, with those security guards shining like pearls and jade in front of them—even if they were disabled—it was hard for the girls to shift their attention onto anyone else.

Take Zhang Chen, for example. He watched Wu Lei, who was also staring unblinkingly at the security guards doing the games, and for a moment he didn’t know what to say.

Brother, do you have any idea you’re also here today to show yourself a bit?

He asked, "Do you also want to place bets and join the games?"

Wu Lei’s eyes lit up slyly: "How’d you know? I feel like I’m pretty good at reading people! I’d definitely win a lot of prize money."

Too bad all the chances were reserved for the girls; he had no shot.

Even good-tempered Zhang Chen couldn’t help letting out a cold little snort at this moment: "Good at reading people? You must be hallucinating."

Everything he said today somehow came out a bit harsh.

Wu Lei didn’t get mad. He thought it over, finally dragged his attention back, and then looked at him with a hint of worry:

"What’s with you being like a little kid?"

What?

That out-of-nowhere line stunned Zhang Chen, and before he could ask, he saw Wu Lei sigh: "You’re not thinking that now I’ve found someone, I’ll definitely stop caring about my brothers, are you? Let me tell you, I’m not that kind of person."

His clear, open face was full of sincerity, even carrying a bit of tolerance: "Forget it, forget it, I haven’t achieved anything anyway. Teacher Tang already said it before—if you don’t have a single shining point on yourself, how are you going to attract someone who does?"

He simply stopped watching:

"Come on, while there’s no one in the fields, I’ll take you to pick some sweet melons, and I’ll pick out a good watermelon for you too."

Zhang Chen: ...Turns out when a person is completely speechless, they really will feel like laughing.

Seriously.

...

Compared to Wu Lei, Zhou Tianyu at least seemed a bit smarter.

Once the games started, he quietly stepped back to the side again. Now he saw Aunt Zhang Hong coming over:

"Tianyu, your mom told me to create more chances for you. You should take the initiative a bit too—when you’re not hosting, find some topics and chat with people."

Hadn’t he been doing that education course sales thing in Beicheng before? If he did sales, he should be relatively good at finding topics, right?

Zhou Tianyu glanced around the venue twice, then slowly retracted his gaze: "Forget it, I don’t want to waste my time. Most of these people are just here for the fun."

You didn’t need to think hard to know: civil servants and people with proper posts mostly found partners internally; how could they possibly look twice at a disabled security guard from the countryside?

He let out a sigh like "everyone else is drunk while I alone am sober": "Song Tan really... all this money down the drain this time—you see this whole place, aren’t they all just trying to win prize money? In the end, she’ll probably be left with nothing for all the effort."

Aunt Zhang Hong was speechless for a moment.

She didn’t know what to say, so she simply walked off to the side again and went to confirm once more with Wu Lan:

"Li Lanhua said Zhou Tianyu is in Beicheng doing some adult education thing, and every month he has to push courses, said his performance is pretty decent... she wasn’t lying to us, was she?"

With a mouth like his, how could his performance be even "pretty decent"? Are people in Beicheng that easy to fool?

Wu Lan looked blank; she didn’t know what this random question was for.

But—this isn’t exactly something worth lying about, right?

"What’s going on?" she asked with concern. "Li Lanhua’s been worried sick over him. He’s hosting today, and he’s actually got quite a bit of free time. Has he made any effort to show himself off?"

"Let’s not have him show anything, please."

Aunt Zhang Hong’s tone was cool: "If he keeps his head down, we can still pass as down-to-earth country folk. The moment he starts showing off, the effect we paid good money for today gets slashed in half."

Wu Lan was startled!

Zhou Tianyu had always had his little quirks, but how did it sound like things had actually gotten worse this time?

Of course it got worse.

Aunt Zhang Hong thought: he’s a grown man now, already in his twenties or thirties, and he can’t even manage a couple of polite lines about someone’s eyebrows and eyes—how is he supposed to get anything done?

Never mind anything else; they’re all about the same age, and Zhou Tianyu is even a bit older. If he gets a bit closer and calls her Tantan, nobody’s going to nitpick.

If he wants to stay a bit distant and call her Boss Song, that still sounds respectful, right?

After all, her mom works for them, her dad is basically a regular employee there now. Him calling her directly by name, like neither up nor down, what’s that supposed to mean?

Maybe young people don’t feel it, but to folks like them who literally hold their rice bowls in their hands, it’s really awkward to hear.

And another thing—she spent so much money organizing this blind-date event. Was Zhou Tianyu not participating?

He clearly is. He took the hosting gig too, and then turns around muttering about how she’ll end up with nothing to show for it...

Yes, Aunt Zhang Hong knew the conditions on both sides were mismatched; on the surface it did look like fake excitement.

But among the ten miles and eight villages, how many single girls of the right age could you scrape together? If even this fake excitement didn’t exist, how was she supposed to hold a blind-date fair? With just a couple of cats and kittens, they’d barely be enough to make people laugh.

Besides, what had she been hammering into them beforehand?

Sure, the girls from work units might not necessarily look up to their rural conditions—but can’t the big lads have a bit of confidence in themselves? What if someone really did have the insight to see their worth?

And even if we don’t indulge in that fantasy, aren’t young women’s Moments full of other young women?

If this one doesn’t work out, what if she has a suitable friend to introduce?

If they don’t rely on friends and relatives like this, and just sit in the village day in and day out, how many people are they ever going to meet?

They haven’t even tried yet, and he’s already spouting defeatist nonsense! Aunt Zhang Hong really couldn’t stand listening to it.

She mulled it over like this, then looked from afar at Zhou Tianyu, standing off to the side not moving an inch, and finally let out a sigh.

She was just feeling annoyed when three young people suddenly gathered around her, though she hadn’t noticed when they came over.

Looking closely, they were the new doctor and nurses that Doctor Xiao Guo had hired!

Their thoughts were blunt as could be: "Auntie, it’s all our fault for not listening to you! If we’d known there’d be this much prize money, we should’ve joined no matter what! Feels like we made a trillion-dollar mistake!"

Aunt Zhang Hong immediately puffed up with pride: "Didn’t I say you’d regret it? I even went to the clinic to call you, but you insisted you’d just arrived and didn’t want to..."

The three at the clinic were definitely regretting it now.

When Aunt Zhang Hong went to get them, she said it wouldn’t be a wasted trip, that there were prizes for joining the games and everything.

Come on, they’d all had their fill of those token pastries at work events with the leaders—at most 100, 200 yuan worth.

The three of them had just stabilized their jobs; what were they doing chasing some vague, nebulous "partner"? So they firmly turned her down.

And look how that turned out: during the earlier prize-guessing segment, they watched everyone privately getting several answers right, but they themselves didn’t even qualify to participate—only made them more frustrated.

And now they were playing games with the security guards—these games were all so fun!

But of all things, they’d come all the way here and still didn’t get to join in...

The three could only beat their chests in regret.

Aunt Zhang Hong, however, never let a single opportunity slip by. Right then she egged them on again: "Ah, the prize money is all small change. You’re following Doctor Guo; there’ll be no shortage of bonuses in the future, you won’t miss this little bit!"

"But since you’re here, and it’s so rare that everyone is putting in such careful effort to show themselves off, what now? There really isn’t anyone you’ve taken a fancy to?"

Young people still need to grab more opportunities.