Chapter 32: Transmigrated as a Cheapskate Phoenix Man (32)
Friday night arrived.
After washing up and returning to his bedroom, Cen Yu saw the big fat cat squatting at the head of his bed, looking at him intently—
“Host, Qiang Yuanqing is coming to pick you guys up tomorrow.”
The big fat cat let out a meow, then walked over to rub its head against Cen Yu’s wrist. “Do you still remember how it was written in the original novel?”
Cen Yu wore an expression of grim determination.
In the original novel, Cen Yu’s behavior in the car was truly rock-bottom low. First, he compared heights with Qiang Yuanqing, and after discovering the guy was taller than him, he began feeling sour. Then, catching sight of the man’s car, he started deliberately probing into how much it cost and whether it was bought on a loan.
Next came prying into where he currently worked and how much money he pulled in a month.
Heh, even matchmakers couldn’t pry as much as he did.
And the more Qiang Yuanqing was probed, the more disgruntled he felt inside, suspecting that Yu Xinyu’s brain had truly been kicked by a donkey to pick such an extraordinarily rare, bottom-tier low-class man.
Sitting on the edge of his bed, Cen Yu consulted forum breakup threads and social media rant posts to summarize a list of low-class man quotes, before nodding at the big fat cat—
“I’ll do my best.”
When Qiang Yuanqing parked his car downstairs at Yu Xinyu’s building, he spotted the two people standing near the street.
Actually, he had wanted to ask Yu Xinyu why he pretended he didn’t know how to drive when he clearly owned a car… Through the windshield, his gaze landed on the man standing beside Yu Xinyu.
Though slightly shorter than Yu Xinyu by a few centimeters, the man possessed a cold, striking handsome look. When unsmiling, a visible detachment washed over his features, as if nothing or no one in the world could spark his interest.
He had two beauty marks beneath his eye, dark black hair, and cool white skin—a face one couldn’t forget after a single glance.
Qiang Yuanqing froze for a few seconds, genuinely not expecting Yu Xinyu’s partner to look like this—
After all, in Yu Xinyu’s descriptions, Cen Yu was chauvinistic and petty. Yet Yu Xinyu, with beauty in the eye of the beholder, felt his baby was great in every way, viewing him through a filter thicker than any idolizing fan.
After parking, Qiang Yuanqing opened his door and stepped out. Offering Yu Xinyu a smile, he was just about to greet him—
“You put elevator insoles in your shoes, didn’t you?”
Cen Yu spoke up out of nowhere.
“?” Qiang Yuanqing hadn’t expected Cen Yu to say something like that.
Cen Yu immediately began spouting utter nonsense, avoiding eye contact with Qiang Yuanqing so he wouldn’t break character mid-act.
He looked Qiang Yuanqing up and down, then cast a glance at the soles of his shoes—
“Bro, is that really necessary? So vain,” he said to Qiang Yuanqing. “Adding six or seven centimeters just for a meetup.” Qiang Yuanqing stood around 186 cm tall; dressed casually, there was no way his shoes looked like they contained elevator insoles.
Yet Cen Yu lied through his teeth anyway—
“Looking at you…” he continued provoking, “you’re 176 at most, right?”
He let out a dry laugh. “It’s fine, faking height isn’t embarrassing. I get it.”
The bewilderment in Qiang Yuanqing’s eyes was almost impossible to conceal. He instinctively turned to look at Yu Xinyu beside him, only to find the guy looking at Cen Yu with starry eyes, as if he felt every word made absolute sense.
—No, was your brain seriously kicked by a donkey?!
Qiang Yuanqing was genuinely about to lose his temper!
“…I didn’t put insoles in,” Qiang Yuanqing tried to calm himself down.
“Sure, sure, whatever you say,” Cen Yu said with impatience.
Yu Xinyu pursed his lips and offered a subtle smile. “Yes, we believe you didn’t put insoles in.”
“…” Screw you, Yu Xinyu!
Qiang Yuanqing nearly couldn’t maintain his aristocratic composure anymore. What do you mean, you believe it or not?!
He was about to say something more when he saw Cen Yu pull open the rear left car door with total natural ease, tossing his duffel bag onto the back seat. “Alright, cut the chatter. I’ll sit in the back.”
“You two haven’t seen each other in a while, perfect timing to catch up.”
His words sounded full of thoughtfulness, but only Cen Yu himself knew that he was creating an opportunity for Yu Xinyu!
Besides, Qiang Yuanqing’s estate was located almost in the neighboring city, a drive of over two hours… He genuinely lacked the confidence to keep up the act for that long and had already decided to lean back and pretend to sleep once he finished his fixed lines.
Laying out his plan like this, he watched a dark-faced Qiang Yuanqing slide into the driver’s seat. Although Yu Xinyu wanted to sit in the back with him, feeling it was rude to treat Qiang Yuanqing like a hired driver, he opened the front passenger door and sat inside instead.
The moment the car started up, Cen Yu went off again—
“Hey? This car looks pretty nice, must be worth a bit, huh?” Cen Yu began feeling the leather seats and interior in the back, then looked closely at the sound system before staring at Qiang Yuanqing in the driver’s seat. “Did you buy this on a loan?”
Frowning, Qiang Yuanqing looked at Yu Xinyu beside him, genuinely wanting to ask—
Is he out of his mind?!
“Mm…” Qiang Yuanqing gave a perfunctory response. “Didn’t cost much.”
“Oh, so it really isn’t worth much then,” Cen Yu said, sitting back in the rear seat.
“Buckle your seatbelt,” Qiang Yuanqing said, suppressing his anger.
Seeing that Qiang Yuanqing was on the verge of losing his composure, Cen Yu knew when to quit while he was ahead. Obediently buckling his seatbelt, he stopped talking altogether.
Meanwhile, a smile remained plastered on Yu Xinyu’s face the entire time, as if he didn’t feel in the slightest that Cen Yu’s behavior was bringing him embarrassment during a first-time introduction.
He even let out a satisfied smile.
“Don’t be mad,” he said softly to Qiang Yuanqing. “My hubby is just blunt and straightforward, he doesn’t mean any harm.”
Cen Yu: “…”
Qiang Yuanqing: “…”
My god, romantic fools are terrifying!
Yet only Yu Xinyu himself knew what he was thinking. Seeing the disgust and impatience in Qiang Yuanqing’s eyes, he merely felt Cen Yu had performed too well. He wished Cen Yu would say even more, right up until Qiang Yuanqing thoroughly despised him.
For someone like Qiang Yuanqing who loved putting on airs and being pretentious, he had actually gotten out of the car to take their luggage when meeting them.
Others might have assumed it was Qiang Yuanqing’s gentlemanly manners.
Only Yu Xinyu, who had known him since childhood, knew that the man had caught sight of Cen Yu’s appearance and felt curious, wanting to step closer for a better look, which was why he had walked over to them.
He sneered internally, though maintaining a gentle, meek facade on the surface.
Qiang Yuanqing turned on the in-car music—
“Nah, let me connect my Bluetooth and switch to mine,” Cen Yu piped up again.
Genuinely terrified the guy would play some obnoxious rave track, Qiang Yuanqing turned off the music directly. “Forget it, let’s just focus on driving,” he said, turning his gaze back to Yu Xinyu, who sat smiling beside him.
Determined to drop a subtle warning to the guy—
“Your elder brother… is coming too.”
He stopped talking after saying this, waiting to see Yu Xinyu’s reaction.
The smile remained on the corners of Yu Xinyu’s lips, but the light in his eyes instantly went cold. Mindful of Cen Yu sitting behind them, he could only suppress it and say—
“Is that so? How terribly unfortunate.”
