Everyone in the Group is a Main Character, Except Me Who's the Villain

84: Human choice”Zhao... Zhao Ruilong?” Zhou Yuan repeated the name, his eyes vacant.

As a youth from the bottom of society who spent his days weaving through the cracks of the city, he had naturally never heard of Zhao Ruilong’s name.

But he understood the value of Zhao Ruilong’s outfit, he understood the awe and envy in the eyes of the people around him as they looked at Zhao Ruilong, and more importantly... he saw Xiao Ya snuggling close to Zhao Ruilong, her head slightly bowed, her fingers nervously clutching that brand-new bag.

It was a kind of dependence on another man that he had never seen in Xiao Ya before.

”Xiao Ya...” Zhou Yuan’s throat hurt from dryness. He looked at Xiao Ya, his eyes holding one last trace of humble pleading: ”Tell me, this isn’t true... Do you have some kind of difficulty? Is he forcing you? That day in the shop... you were clearly just angry, you...”

”Zhou Yuan!”

Xiao Ya suddenly raised her head and cut him off.

Perhaps Zhao Ruilong’s phrase ”my woman” gave her confidence; the weakness and guilt on her face faded, replaced by coldness and impatience.

”I don’t have any difficulties!” Xiao Ya spoke extremely fast, as if she wanted to make things clear and draw a line immediately. ”We aren’t children anymore; can’t we be a bit more realistic?”

She avoided Zhou Yuan’s bloodshot, hurt eyes, her gaze drifting elsewhere, but her words became sharper with every sentence.

”Look at yourself right now!”

She pointed vaguely at Zhou Yuan’s sweat-soaked T-shirt and dust-stained pant legs, her tone full of disdain. ”Covered in sweat, face caked in dust, running to a place like this to make a scene. If you aren’t embarrassed, I am!”

Zhou Yuan froze on the spot as if struck by lightning.

Xiao Ya seemed to have thrown caution to the wind; she took a deep breath and straightened her back.

”Besides, look at this dress of mine. Brother Long bought it for me; it cost three thousand six hundred!”

She pointed to her dress and shook the bag in her hand. ”This bag, a Hermès quota item—even though it’s just an entry-level model, it’s worth six months of your delivery earnings!”

”And my shoes, my necklace...”

She listed them off like family treasures. With every price she quoted, Zhou Yuan’s face grew a shade paler, and the light in his eyes dimmed.

”What Brother Long can give me, you won’t be able to give in a lifetime!”

Xiao Ya finally concluded her speech with a near-cruel decisiveness: ”Zhou Yuan, we’re over. We’ve been over for a long time. Don’t come looking for me again.”

”Xiao Ya, you...”

Zhou Yuan looked at the girl before him, who felt both familiar and like a stranger.

He opened his mouth to say something, but found his throat blocked as if by something, unable to utter a single word.

His mind went blank, and a buzzing tinnitus replaced all external sounds. He watched helplessly as Zhao Ruilong put his arm around Xiao Ya’s waist, turned, and disappeared into the crowd.

Zhao Ruilong didn’t even spare him another glance, as if he were just an ant by the roadside, not even worth being stepped on.

Xiao Ya did cast a quick glance at him before turning. That look was complex and hard to decipher—perhaps there was a hint of guilt, but more so, it was the relief and determination of stepping toward a new life... Zhou Yuan didn’t remember at all how he left the Auto Show Center; he only remembered the scorching sun outside beating down on him, making his skin burn.

After an unknown amount of time, he found himself sitting on the curb of a quiet road near the Exhibition Center.

Behind him was the scent of plants baked by the sun from the green belt; before him was the endless flow of traffic and hurried pedestrians.

Everyone was rushing toward their own destinations, busy and fulfilled.

Only he sat there slumped like discarded trash, not knowing where to go next or where he could go.

Memories of every little detail of his time with Xiao Ya flashed through his mind uncontrollably, like a movie.

Meeting for the first time in a university club; she was wearing a white dress, with shallow dimples when she smiled.

He had scrimped and saved for three months to buy her a dress she had been eyeing for a long time, and she had jumped into his arms in surprise.

When she found her first internship, though the pay was meager, she excitedly dragged him to eat spicy hot pot to celebrate. They shared a bowl, gasping from the heat but laughing happily.

On her birthday, he used money he’d saved for a long time to buy a small cake and lit a candle for her in their rented room. When she made a wish, she said, ”I hope we’ll always be together.”

The sweetness and beauty he once believed in had all soured upon recollection.

That dress he had saved so hard to buy—she hadn’t seemed to wear it much later, complaining the style was outdated.

That bowl of shared spicy hot pot—she later always said it was ”unclean” and ”lacked nutrition.”

It turned out that those memories he cherished, which sustained him through wind and rain, were so fragile in the face of reality.

It turned out that his lifelong struggle was just a joke in the eyes of others.

”Heh... hehe...” Zhou Yuan lowered his head, burying his face in palms stained with sweat and dust, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably.

He I want to cry, but found his eyes painfully dry, unable to shed a single tear.

”Hey.”

A calm voice sounded beside him.

Zhou Yuan slowly raised his head. In his blurred vision, a somewhat familiar face appeared.

Was it the person who helped him at the entrance earlier?

Zhou Yuan didn’t know when Fang Ming had arrived, nor how long he had been standing there watching.

Fang Ming didn’t sit down. He just stood in the shade of a tree not far away, holding an unopened bottle of ice-cold mineral water. His face held no particular expression—neither sympathy nor disdain—calm as if he were just passing by a stranger.

”Have some water.”

Zhou Yuan took it subconsciously. The icy touch cleared his chaotic mind slightly.

He unscrewed the cap and gulped down more than half the bottle. The icy water slid down his throat, slightly suppressing the surging bitterness.

”Tha... thanks.” Zhou Yuan’s voice was extremely raspy.

Fang Ming watched the heavy traffic on the road, his tone flat. ”Don’t think about it. This society is just that realistic.”

”Love, for some people, might be a necessity, but for others... it’s just a commodity with a clear price tag.”

Zhou Yuan tightened his grip on the water bottle, the plastic making a faint crackling sound.

He looked up at Fang Ming, a trace of struggle and indignation in his eyes.

”But we were together for three years. Three whole years—is there really no feeling at all? Just because I’m poor? Because I can’t give her those things right now?”

His voice trembled with emotion. ”I can work hard. I’m still young. I can fight for it. One day...”

”How long is ’one day’?”

Fang Ming interrupted him, turning his head to look at him with a calm gaze. ”One year? Three years? Five years? Or when you’re thirty-five, and you’ve finally scraped together enough for a down payment, only to find your health has collapsed, your parents are old, and you’re still struggling at the bottom?”

Fang Ming’s words were like a cold hammer, shattering Zhou Yuan’s last illusions.

”She can’t wait, or rather, she doesn’t want to wait anymore.”

Fang Ming’s voice still lacked inflection, yet every word was clear. ”Once someone sees the scenery from a higher place, it’s very hard for them to crouch back down.”

”Look at her today. Do you really want her to keep eating ten-yuan lunch boxes with you, living a life of worrying about next month’s rent? This isn’t a question of right or wrong. This is the choice of human nature. If it were me, I would choose the same.”