Chapter 252 - 250: All Thanks to Me

Chapter 252: Chapter 250: All Thanks to Me

After entering the shop, the slim girl didn’t rush to start the consultation. Instead, she asked thoughtfully,

"Brother Zhang, what was going on with that lady just now?"

The girl knew Zhang Zhe. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have come to the shop in person at this hour—it was nearly dark out.

"I should be asking you that."

Zhang Zhe asked with a smile,

"What did you say to her?"

"I didn’t say much. I just told her a bit about my situation, and then she suddenly waved her hand and said..." The girl mimicked Teacher Wang’s tone. "Forget it, forget it. Don’t say any more. You should go find Zhang Zhe."

"After that, I didn’t say another word until you two came out just now."

Looking at the girl’s innocent expression, Zhang Zhe realized her problem was likely a big one.

’The bigger the problem, the less likely the person is to realize they have one.’

’Still, no matter how big the problem, she had to pay first.’

The girl didn’t hesitate and readily paid the fee.

"Brother Zhang, I’m not here for a simple marriage problem. It’s about something with my boyfriend, and I don’t know how to handle it."

"You’ve taken my money, so I can start now, right?"

"..." Zhang Zhe nodded reluctantly. "Let me give you a fair warning. I have zero tolerance for people who string someone along while looking for a better option. If your story is too out of line, I can’t guarantee I’ll remain impartial."

"I’m not stringing him along to find someone better."

"You don’t have to worry about that, Brother Zhang."

"My boyfriend and I have been together for four years, and he’s exploited me for all four of them. Now that his life has gotten better, he actually wants to break up with me!"

"I’m furious, and I’m trying to decide if I should try to save this relationship or find a way to get back at him."

"Revenge?" Zhang Zhe hadn’t expected to hear something so full of bitterness.

It sounded like the conflict between this girl and her boyfriend was more than just a minor squabble.

No wonder Teacher Wang had been at her wit’s end.

She had once told Zhang Zhe that her biggest fear was clients who had endured immense suffering seeking relationship advice, because it was so easy to get pulled into their emotional swamp.

’Of course, Zhang Zhe had to avoid that too. He couldn’t let the girl’s negative emotions affect him.’

"Alright, take a moment to collect your thoughts. Can you tell me, in a nutshell, what’s preventing you from having a normal breakup?"

"To be honest, he’s not that important to me. I want to break up too."

"But I just feel like I’ve sacrificed way too much." The young woman sighed as she spoke, and just listening to her made Zhang Zhe feel a pang of discomfort.

"What exactly did you sacrifice?"

"Tell me about it. I’ll see what you’ve given up and whether it’s worth all this anguish."

"Yes, I was just about to get to that." The girl began. "We met in college. He was a year below me, my junior."

"We were together for four years, and I was always the one making sacrifices..."

"Hold on a second," Zhang Zhe interrupted. "When you say ’sacrifice,’ you’re not just talking about your youth, are you?"

The prevailing wisdom was that when a man and a woman were together, the woman’s youth was considered more precious.

It wasn’t uncommon for women to demand financial compensation for their "wasted youth" during a breakup.

But that wasn’t this girl’s angle.

"What I’m talking about is definitely not something as superficial as ’youth’."

"For example, I’m the one who found my boyfriend his job."

"Does that count?"

"Of course." Zhang Zhe nodded. "You used your connections to get him a position at some top-tier company, right?"

"Well, not quite to that extent."

"?" Zhang Zhe asked, confused. "Then what did you do?"

"It’s like this, Brother Zhang. After my boyfriend graduated, he couldn’t find a job for half a month because his GPA wasn’t very good and he had no internship experience at any major corporations."

"He was living in my rented apartment the whole time."

"So I helped him revise his resume, screened companies for him, and even ran mock interviews with him. In the end, he successfully landed a job at a very good tech company."

"That company was only hiring one person from our university at the time. Without me, he definitely wouldn’t have gotten in."

"Now he has a good job and a high income. I feel that without my help back then, he definitely wouldn’t be where he is today."

’Hmm...’ Zhang Zhe nodded. ’That does count as a sacrifice.’

’In a way, for a working professional, helping them find a good job is a life-changing favor.’

’But it was still a far cry from the kind of sacrifice where you directly arrange a job for someone.’

’Because at the end of the day, her boyfriend must have had the fundamentals himself, or he wouldn’t have passed the company’s screening process.’

"You definitely helped him."

"But isn’t that pretty normal for a couple? A lot of couples who started dating in college help each other find jobs."

"That level of sacrifice really isn’t enough to..."

"But I didn’t have him help me. I found my job on my own," the girl said confidently. "It wasn’t mutual, which is why I’m calling it a sacrifice on my part."

"Alright, for the matter of his job, let’s say you get 20% of the credit."

"Anything else?"

"It’s more than 20%, definitely more," the girl said, shaking her head. "You don’t understand, Brother Zhang. My boyfriend is a typical STEM guy with very low emotional intelligence."

"His colleagues all say he’s honest and hardworking, a reliable, good person."

"In a corporate setting, someone like that would normally be taken advantage of, right? But because he had me, I was always helping him. So he gets along great with his colleagues and bosses. He never got screwed over and rarely had to take the fall for anyone..."

Zhang Zhe listened and summarized her points. Simply put:

The girl helped her boyfriend navigate his social dynamics at work, and whenever he ran into trouble, she would help him come up with solutions.

She was essentially his personal "strategist."

But there was a bug in her logic:

"So, you’re someone with high emotional intelligence who’s great at handling interpersonal relationships, while your boyfriend is an honest, socially awkward STEM guy, right?"

"That’s right."

"And you’re saying *he* exploited *you* for four years?" Zhang Zhe frowned. "You’re telling me that a socially awkward STEM guy, who needs your help just to deal with his colleagues, managed to exploit you for four years?"

"How did he manage that?"

"What an exaggeration..."

"..." Beside him, Xia Yi was trembling slightly as she tried to suppress her laughter.

To be honest, after the girl had said just a few words, both Zhang Zhe and Xia Yi felt:

’Anyone who could exploit *her* would have to be the world’s number one scumbag.’

’And based on her description, her boyfriend definitely didn’t have that kind of skill.’

"I don’t think you can look at it that way," the girl said, shaking her head. "The fact is, I was the one making all the sacrifices. Other than buying me some gifts, taking me out to eat, and going on trips with me, he basically never made any sacrifices."

"He treated me... like a normal girlfriend."

"But as for what I did for him... let’s just say, without me, he absolutely would not have the life he has now."

"I get it now," Zhang Zhe summarized. "So in your eyes, everything your boyfriend has now—except for the family he was born into, which you didn’t help pick out—is all thanks to you, right?"

"Yes, that’s how I feel."

"I’m just being objective."

"If it’s my credit, it’s my credit. I won’t try to claim what isn’t mine."

"Besides," the girl stressed, "my boyfriend himself has said that I’m very important to him..."

Zhang Zhe tried to put himself in the boyfriend’s shoes for a moment and felt only one thing:

Suffocation!