There is One New Rule Every Month Globally

Chapter 282: Chapter 261: “Jiaye is gone too, where did these two run off to early in the morning?

“Ding-a-ling-a-ling!!!”

The piercing ringtone suddenly erupted in the dim room.

Chen Yi, who was zoning out, looked at the incessant flashing incoming call alert on his phone screen; there was no contact name, just an out-of-town number.

After a long silence, he eventually decided to answer the call.

“Hello?”

“Good day, Mr. Chen Yi, it seems that the 30,000 yuan you borrowed from PaiPai Loan has been overdue for seven days now. Our colleagues have already made several calls to you. Will you be able to repay it by six o’clock this evening?”

“Today is the last day; if you don’t repay today, I don’t need to tell you about the implications for your credit score.”

“For the first installment you only need to repay 2,000 yuan; can’t you, a grown man, afford even 2,000 yuan?”

“I will try my best.”

“Don’t talk to me about trying your best. It’s you who owes money, not us who owe you. I…”

Before the voice could finish,

Chen Yi ended the call and switched his phone to silent mode.

The other side was pressing hard; just today, he had already received seven or eight calls.

To owe a debt and repay it is only right and proper.

The problem was he had no money at all, not a dime.

“…”

After a long silence, Chen Yi walked out of the room, holding his phone and the data cable, heading downstairs; if he didn’t go down now, the convenience store would close.

…

Chen Yi, holding his mobile phone, laptop, and data cable, arrived at a convenience store. After giving the cashier a few smiles, he brazenly sat down on the store’s chairs, plugged the data cable in, and started charging his phone and computer.@@novelbin@@

Stealing electricity.

Such behavior wasn’t generally well-received.

But perhaps this cashier had faced hard times too and had quietly told him that as long as they were on shift, he could charge his devices at no cost, but this wouldn’t fly with other staff members.

A good person.

A bit of kindness encountered in desperate times is always remembered for a long time.

Just as he was grateful to this cashier from the bottom of his heart and wanted to give something back, yet he had nothing but empty pockets, he could only offer more smiles to express his thanks.

It seems that for the poor, a smile is the only way to show gratitude.

A man who constantly wears a smile may not necessarily be kind-hearted; he might also be penniless, putting up a smiling face before everyone as if that could hide his inferiority in his pocket.

About an hour later,

Chen Yi stood up, thanked the cashier, then left the convenience store to return to his now power-cut, eerily empty home.

The phone could run out of battery, but the laptop must stay charged.

After his entrepreneurial failure, he lost all sources of income and had many debts to pay. Getting a job wouldn’t suffice; wages were withheld, and he couldn’t wait the nearly one and a half months it would take.

Moreover, the salary would be too low for his capabilities and wouldn’t cover the loans.

So after pondering for a few days, he came up with a new plan: writing novels.

An industry with zero costs but an extremely high mortality rate.

One thousand novelists write, nine hundred and ninety-nine starve to death, and the last one can barely afford some meat.

But he still joined the industry.

Just like when he started a business, he never cared about how high the mortality rate was; he only cared if the returns met his expectations.

Like every man who believes he’ll be the knight who braves the thorns to rescue the princess, he never believed he would fall by the wayside. No matter how high the mortality rate, he would survive.

Confidence is a man’s last dignity.

Maybe luck finally chose to shine on him this time.

On the seventh day after publishing his book, he started earning over 100 yuan a day.

Chen Yi sat in the dim room, scooped a handful of dog food from the bowl and shoved it into his mouth, then leaned over the tap to drink a few gulps of water before patting his loyal dog and murmuring to the computer screen in front of him,

“I’m not trying to compete with you for food; it’s just that the finances have been really tight lately, and I’m getting anxiously hungry.”

“Once I get paid next month, I’ll treat you to a nice meal.”

Earnings were good for each day now, but he wouldn’t be paid until the 15th of next month; over twenty days away. For that period, he still had to persevere.

Next month, if he could get paid 2,000 yuan, he could pay off one installment of his loan and then buy some dry food to last him another month or so.

It’s alright.

Things were moving in the right direction.

…

“Hello.”

A girl walked into the convenience store she had just left a moment ago, looked at the cashier and started speaking with deliberate calmness, “The man who just left seemed pretty familiar to you, do you know him?”

“What about him?”

The cashier glanced up at the girl in front of him and said nonchalantly, “Can’t say I know him. A man who’s been down and out lately; doesn’t even know his name. Comes around this time every day to charge his phone.”

“But I can’t tell if it’s just my imagination—even though the man looks very down and out, can’t even take a dime out of his pocket—”

“I always feel like he could get back on his feet.”

“Do you know why?”

The cashier suddenly grinned like a fortune-teller and said with enthusiasm, “This man, despite his downfall, his clothes not so clean, there’s a sharpness in his eyes. How to put it, there’s this defiant energy in them.”

“He has a straight back.”

“A man who can’t be brought down is quite frightening.”

“Probably going through hard times recently. We’re all workers here, life’s not easy, so if you can lend a hand, why not? Besides, the electric bill is paid by the boss, right?”

“Oh, I see.”

The girl nodded thoughtfully, then hesitated slightly, biting her lip, “I’ll leave my phone number with you. Next time he comes, could you ask him to add me on WeChat?”

“Sure.”

The cashier confidently slapped his chest, promising, “But he comes down every day at this time. If you want to find him, why not wait here for him tomorrow?”

“I’m only here on a business trip today, won’t be around tomorrow.”

“Ah, I see.”

The cashier nodded and tucked the slip of paper with the phone number into a drawer, “I’ve got it, don’t worry. But, I feel obliged to remind you of something. If you’ve taken a liking to this man, now clearly isn’t the best time.”

“A down-and-out man is like a completely vigilant hedgehog.”

“Any kind of affection from the opposite sex will be perceived as a challenge and disdain.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just what it sounds like. Alright, what did you say your name was? I’ll make a note.”

“Jiaye.”

“Alright, rest assured, I’ll definitely hand the note to him personally tomorrow.”

…

The next day.

Chen Yi slept in until late afternoon, got up, cleaned up briefly, then sat on the bed, zoning out.

After a while, he prepared to go down to the convenience store to charge his phone as usual.

“…”

Upon seeing that the cashier had been replaced, Chen Yi was a bit stunned and hesitated before asking, “Excuse me, shouldn’t it be that chubby cashier on duty now?”

“You mean Old Li? Old Li has been fired.”

“Why?”

“Because he let you charge your phone for free every day, and the boss was furious.”

…

Meanwhile.

Tuberculosis Rabbit and the others had just gotten up and, while yawning, walked up to the rooftop. They rubbed their sleepy eyes and looked around.

“Hey, where’s Yi?”

“Jiaye is gone too; where did these two run off to so early in the morning?”

“Did they leave us behind and go down to the map by themselves?”

The next second—

Chen Yi and Jiaye appeared on the rooftop at the same time.

Jiaye with tears streaming down her face, rushed into Chen Yi’s arms as soon as she saw him. She sobbed uncontrollably, her arms tightly wrapping around Chen Yi’s waist.

Chen Yi’s eyes were also red-rimmed, and he kept his lips tightly sealed as he hugged Jiaye, gently patting her back as if to comfort her.

Tuberculosis Rabbit, who had just lit a cigarette to wake himself up, saw this, and turning to Sword Without End next to him, he swallowed nervously and asked in a quivering voice, “Yi’s eyes are red?”

“I’ve been with Yi for many years, this is the first time I’ve seen his eyes go red.”

“Even when Yi confirmed that his parents were not coming to pick him up, his eyes didn’t go red. He just sat alone on the wall all night and afterward, he never went back to the wall again.”

“Now…?”

He actually wanted to ask Jiaye, what exactly did you do to Yi down in the map, to get such a tough guy to have his eyes go red?

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