AMRWFA -Chapter 296 Meeting an Old Classmate

Xu Nannan was very puzzled. Ma Aotian had already gone in, so logically, she should have already broken free from the control of the plot. So why was the “mark” on her still there?

She only understood after meeting her old classmate Hua Yirou.

That day, she had just finished meeting with her agent and the head of an art institution for a meal. After leaving the restaurant, she suddenly heard a surprised shout.

“Nannan?”

Xu Nannan looked up and found that she recognized this person—it was her old classmate, Hua Yirou.

“It’s you. What are you doing here?”

Hua Yirou immediately smiled and said, “I should be the one asking you that. Why are you here? Didn’t you go abroad?”

Xu Nannan blinked. “I did go abroad, but I came back. Are you here to eat? Are you alone?”

Hua Yirou smiled and said, “No, I’m with my boyfriend. But he’s still at work and will come later, so I came first.”

“You have a boyfriend? Since when? How come I never heard you mention it?”

“Do I need to announce it all over my social media? You’re always so busy anyway. Even if I wanted to invite you out for tea, you never have time. Even if I wanted to introduce him, you’d need to be free first.”

“Then let’s make time to meet up.”

“I don’t work anymore, I’m free every day. The real question is you—when will you actually have time?” Hua Yirou said. “Give me a definite time. Don’t stand me up again.”

Xu Nannan originally just wanted to politely decline, but she didn’t expect Hua Yirou to insist on fixing a time, so she could only agree helplessly.

Later, when she returned, she even mentioned it to her close friend Liao Jingna.

Liao Jingna complained, “If you don’t want to meet her, just ask her for a time instead.”

“I did! She said she doesn’t work and is free every day. What can I do? She acted like she didn’t understand I was refusing her.”

“It’s not that she doesn’t understand,” Liao Jingna said. “She just doesn’t want to understand. Your older brothers are doing bigger and bigger business, and her parents are also in that circle. She must’ve heard about it and wants to get close to you.”

“What’s the point of getting close to me? She knows I’m in the arts—I can’t interfere in the family business.”

“Even if you can’t interfere, if she builds a good relationship with you, maybe you’ll say something nice about her in front of your family one day. For example, if there’s a project your family is competing for against her family, and they’re evenly matched, she asks you to mention them to your brother—wouldn’t you help a little?”

Xu Nannan: “……”

Although she wouldn’t interfere in company matters, if an old classmate asked her to say a word, and the outcome depended on the company’s strength anyway, she really might do it as a favor.

After all, people should help each other in society. She also needed to leave some room for the Xu family—what if one day they needed the Hua family’s connections?

Liao Jingna directly said, “If you can’t figure it out, just hand over your social circle to your family so they know what’s going on. Otherwise, one day you’ll be sold out and still help count the money.”

“Got it…” Xu Nannan felt a bit defeated, as if she were really that clueless for her friend to worry so much.

She told her family about it later, and then met Hua Yirou again—as well as her so-called “boyfriend.”

Xu Nannan originally thought that with the Hua family’s background, even if she didn’t marry someone of equal status, she should at least choose someone with some personal capability. She didn’t expect Hua Yirou to actually date a “pretty boy.”

Yes, exactly.

A pretty boy—one who lives off a woman, only knows how to please his girlfriend, and does it shamelessly and comfortably.

“What are you thinking?” Xu Nannan asked quietly when Hua Yirou’s boyfriend wasn’t around.

Hua Yirou didn’t hide it. “What do you mean? Are you worried I’m being love-blind, or that I’m being deceived into dating someone who has nothing except looks?”

Xu Nannan didn’t answer, but her expression said it all: Isn’t that exactly it?

Hua Yirou laughed. “Nannan, you’re still the same—so naive.”

Xu Nannan pointed at herself in shock: Me? Naive?

You, Hua Yirou, are in any position to say that?

You’re not any better yourself!

Back in school, Hua Yirou had been their class’s “dodder flower princess”—beautiful, but except for spending money, she could do nothing. She was destined to rely on others in the future, which was how she got that nickname.

Hua Yirou rested her chin on her hand and smiled. “I’m different from you. You have several older brothers. Even if you do nothing, the family business will still be inherited, and you just wait for dividends. But I’m an only child. My parents only expect one thing from me—to live happily.”

“I know. Isn’t that something you’ve always been proud of?” Xu Nannan said. Because she was too spoiled at home, sometimes even more delicate than her, Xu Nannan didn’t really enjoy interacting with her.

She herself was someone served by others—when she was with Hua Yirou, she had to serve her too. Why would she bother?

Hua Yirou shrugged. “Then here’s the problem. I’m not capable, I don’t have brothers. What happens to my father’s company? Should we really hire professional managers or hand it over to cousins? Even if my parents agree, I don’t want to. I don’t want my family’s things to fall into outsiders’ hands.”

“But you’re not suited to run a company. If you were, you wouldn’t have studied art with me back then.”

“Exactly. So I plan to find someone decent, have a child, and let my father train my son directly.” Hua Yirou said. “Besides, Mingjie is completely obedient to me, doesn’t mind being a live-in son-in-law, and he’s handsome. Why wouldn’t I stay with him?”

Xu Nannan understood. “So you’re planning to… have the child and discard the father?”

“Discard the father?” Hua Yirou laughed. “What are you talking about? He’s the father of my future child. We’re a family. He hasn’t done anything wrong—I’m not discarding anyone. As long as he doesn’t cross my boundaries, he’ll always be the child’s father.”

She even turned to persuade Xu Nannan: since her family already had everything and she didn’t need an arranged marriage, why not find a handsome, obedient man and live happily?

With their family background, they had full freedom to choose men.

Xu Nannan was a little tempted.

She felt that compared to ordinary “pretty boys,” this kind was much higher quality—devoted, obedient, and good at handling social pressure like marriage expectations…

Most importantly, you wouldn’t have to worry about anything unsafe.

People always said: men can have multiple partners, so why can’t wealthy women do the same?

If men can do it, women can too.

Xu Nannan had indeed considered living freely and dating several men. But she quickly gave up on that idea because her mother said: “What are you trying to prove? That you’re as bad as them?”

“Men and women are different. Men can just walk away, but women carry the consequences of pregnancy for ten months. How can you guarantee nothing unexpected happens?”

“Even one accident, and you’re the one suffering—not the man.”

“And don’t you know there’s some medical basis for the idea of ‘men bringing bad luck to wives’?”

“Women can get cervical cancer from infection transmitted by men, while men are fine, but women die from it…”