Epic Fail Unfolds

As the red Ferrari 488 pulled up to the school gate, a crowd quickly gathered.

"Wow, a Ferrari supercar! That's over four million RMB!" someone exclaimed.

"And there's a handsome guy driving it! Look at him, single-handedly steering the wheel—so cool!" another added.

The driver, a tall young man around 25 or 26 years old, stepped out and approached Zhao Yuqi.

"Yuqi, where are you headed? Let me give you a lift," he offered smoothly.

"No, thanks, Senior Zheng Bin. I've already made plans with someone," Zhao Yuqi politely declined, shaking her head.

"Who are you meeting? Why not invite them along? I know a great private restaurant with excellent food," Zheng Bin suggested, trying to mask his irritation.

"It wouldn't be convenient," Zhao Yuqi responded firmly.

She wasn't swayed by the flashy car; after all, the Ferrari 488 cost a mere four million RMB, while Chen Yuan's recent gifts could easily buy two of them.

Zheng Bin's face darkened. He hadn't expected Zhao Yuqi to be so hard to win over. Ever since he met her at a birthday party, he had been determined to make her his girlfriend. He even made a bet with his buddies that he could do it in under two weeks. But here he was, more than a week in, with no progress to show for it. Pulling up in his luxury car, only to be turned down, was a first for him.

Just then, a young man with a clean-cut look rode up on a bicycle.

"Yuqi, I hope I'm not late. I timed it to be right on the dot, but I didn't expect you to arrive early!" Chen Yuan said, a little apologetically. He checked his phone; it was exactly 6:30 PM—neither a minute early nor a minute late.

In the past, when he would ask Lin Shutong out, she would always be at least half an hour late. He'd usually arrive 30 minutes early himself, so by the time she showed up, he would have waited for an hour.

After enduring this many times, he got smart—he would tell her he had already arrived, then show up just in time. But today, with Zhao Yuqi, he decided not to play any tricks and arrived exactly on time.

What surprised him was that Zhao Yuqi, a school beauty and goddess, had shown up more than ten minutes early!

As for Zheng Bin, it was clear that he was trying to poach his date.

"Senior Zheng Bin, we'll be going now," Zhao Yuqi said politely before getting on the back of Chen Yuan's bicycle.

The crowd watched in stunned silence as she rode away.

"No way! Zhao Yuqi would rather sit on a bicycle than in a Ferrari. Maybe I do believe in love again!" a bespectacled student said, eyes wide with disbelief.

"Love it! Zhao Yuqi really is different from all those gold-diggers. Such pure and noble character!" another chimed in.

"I'm officially a fan now!" someone declared.

"Wait, isn't that Chen Yuan, the 'simp' everyone talks about? This..."

Zheng Bin watched, his face turning a dark shade of red, as Chen Yuan pedaled away with Zhao Yuqi. Losing to a fellow rich kid, he could accept.

But losing to a guy on a bicycle? That was something else entirely.

"Humph! A nobody trying to play the big shot? We'll see about that," Zheng Bin muttered under his breath, driving off with a stormy expression.

He wasn't about to let Zhao Yuqi go so easily. He was going to show that broke student what reality looked like.

...

"Yuqi, where should we go for dinner? Don't forget, it's your treat today!" Chen Yuan asked with a grin as they rode along on his bicycle.

He couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. Zhao Yuqi, the campus goddess, had chosen to hop on his bike instead of getting into that flashy Ferrari.

The world felt especially bright today. Who said girls always prefer to cry in a BMW rather than laugh on a bicycle? Zhao Yuqi was living proof to the contrary!

"There's that place near the school, 'Yitang Lobster.' The food is pretty good. Let's go there!" Zhao Yuqi suggested.

"Sounds good!"

They arrived at the lobster restaurant, which had a pleasant atmosphere and reasonable prices. A meal there would typically cost around 300 to 500 RMB, and if split among three or four people, it would only be about 100 RMB per person—affordable even for most students. Unsurprisingly, the place was bustling with customers.

Zhao Yuqi seemed to have a particular fondness for lobster and ordered the spiciest option available.

This side of her—the girl who loved intense flavors—made Chen Yuan realize that she wasn't just a distant goddess but a real person with real preferences.

It was almost amusing to think that even goddesses enjoy bold flavors and, well, are human too.

As they began peeling and eating their lobsters, chatting and laughing, a couple entered the restaurant.

The man was decked out in Versace, and the woman was youthful and attractive, though not quite on Zhao Yuqi's level in terms of aura, figure, or looks.

"Lin Shutong?" Chen Yuan muttered, feeling a wave of bad luck wash over him. How was it possible to run into these two everywhere?

First at the Gucci store, and now at Yitang Lobster—it was like they were haunting him.

Lin Shutong was equally surprised to see Chen Yuan. But when she noticed that he was dining with Zhao Yuqi, her shock turned into disbelief.

How could Chen Yuan have possibly scored a date with Zhao Yuqi? It didn't make any sense! Even though her opinion of Chen Yuan had somewhat improved over the past few days, she still couldn't shake the image of him as a "simp."

But who would have guessed that this supposed "simp" had managed to go on a date with the top beauty of the Literature Department, the second-ranked campus queen at Hunan University?

Was there something exceptional about Chen Yuan that she had missed all along? Why else would Xu Lele have given him a sketch, and now Zhao Yuqi was having a lobster dinner with him?

"Did I really misjudge him? Is there something uniquely special about Chen Yuan that I never noticed?" Lin Shutong began to question herself.

And she wasn't the only one. Even Huang Junkai, her boyfriend, was starting to doubt reality. Zhao Yuqi was a top-tier girl, someone even he couldn't win over, so how had Chen Yuan, of all people, managed it? 

"Junkai, maybe we should go somewhere else," Lin Shutong suggested, tugging at his sleeve uneasily.

"There's no need. This place is great, and look, we've even got some familiar faces here," Huang Junkai replied, making a beeline for the empty table right next to Chen Yuan's.

He wrapped his arm around Lin Shutong's waist, his hand roaming in a display of possessiveness, as if showing off. But his eyes were locked on Zhao Yuqi the entire time, clearly indicating that he was trying to have it both ways.

Suddenly, a loud voice erupted from a corner of the restaurant.

"Junkai, you scumbag, what do you think you're doing?"

Everyone turned to see a group of four girls seated in the corner, one of whom was a particularly fierce-looking and rather heavyset woman now standing up and shouting.

"W-Wei Xiaoqing, what are you doing here?" Huang Junkai stammered, his face going pale.

"That's what I should be asking you! Who's that skank beside you?" she demanded, her voice dripping with anger.

"And you, you little tramp! Don't you know he has a girlfriend?" she yelled, turning to Lin Shutong.

"You're disgusting, Huang Junkai! Haven't I been good to you? I buy you clothes, shoes, watches, even let you borrow my car, and this is how you repay me—cheating on me with some side chick? You're worse than a dog!" Wei Xiaoqing shouted furiously,

delivering a hard kick to Huang Junkai and then slapping Lin Shutong across the face.

"Smack!"

The slap left Lin Shutong stunned, completely bewildered by the sudden turn of events.