Film and Television World Life Record

Guan Juer also advised, "Yes, Yingying, what Sister Fan said makes sense. This Manager Bai is a bad person and will cause problems sooner or later. It's a good thing that it was discovered in advance for you."

Qiu Yingying glanced at Fan Shengmei and Guan Juer with teary eyes. Although she felt that what they said made sense, she was still very sad. She threw herself into Fan Shengmei's arms again and started sobbing.

Fan Shengmei sighed. What else could she do but continue comforting him?

Chapter 134 The Poor 2202

A few days later, just as Qiu Yingying's mood was starting to improve, another difficult day began for Room 2202.

Room 2202 had two particularly difficult days, or rather, difficult days for Fan Shengmei and Qiu Yingying.

One is the 15th of the last month of each quarter, five days after receiving their salary. On this day, the three girls sharing the apartment must prepay three months' rent for the next quarter.

This is no small sum. Guan Juer and Qiu Yingying are a bit better off, but for Fan Shengmei, she really needs to be very careful with her money and save as much as possible to scrape together this amount.

The second difficult day was the middle month of each quarter, the day to pay the property management fees.

Now comes the second hardship: it's time to pay the property management fees for the next three months.

At this time of year, the building manager, Xiao Zheng, is always exceptionally attentive. Sometimes, even without verbal reminders, Xiao Zheng will prompt residents to look at the electronic screen at the entrance of the complex, where there are notices about paying property management fees.

If something comes up and it drags on until the end of the month, as a tenant, I always feel uneasy and uncomfortable passing by here, facing Xiao Zheng's smiling gaze.

Compared to those who walk, those who own cars have it much better.

The car drove directly into the underground parking garage, took the elevator from there, and didn't even have to see Xiao Zheng, thus avoiding that uncomfortable gaze.

Fan Shengmei and the others didn't delay. As soon as Xiao Zheng gave them a hint, the girls paid the property management fee for the next quarter together.

As Qiu Yingying walked out of the property management office, she patted her purse and said with a pained expression, "My boyfriend just got arrested, and now my wallet is even thinner. Why am I so miserable!"

Guan Juer chimed in, "Yes! Rent in Shanghai is expensive, and property management fees aren't cheap either. The cost of living is too high."

“If my mom hadn’t disagreed, I would have preferred to go back to work.”

Qiu Yingying said, "Exactly! I also want to go back to my hometown to work. The cost of living is low, there's not much pressure, it's so wonderful!"

“But my dad didn’t want to. He felt that I could only succeed by working in Shanghai, so he kept refusing to let me go back. I could only keep going like this.”

Watching her two friends pour out their troubles to each other, Fan Shengmei smiled faintly and didn't say anything. In fact, she was suffering even more than her two friends.

The two sisters earn their own money and spend it as they please, and their families occasionally help them out. Although they are not well-off, they have always lived a good life.

She had a much worse situation. Although her monthly salary was not small, she had to send living expenses to her parents and pay off her brother's mortgage. The little left was what she could have.

She lives like she's walking a tightrope, carefully budgeting every month just to maintain her current stable life.

If she overspends that month, or has an unexpected expense, she will suffer for the entire month. In order to balance the income, she can only be very frugal and save the money from the overspending in other ways.

The same is true now; her wallet is much emptier than her two girlfriends'.

She had just received her salary ten days ago. She used it to pay off her brother's mortgage, sent living expenses to her parents, and also had her own expenses, such as meals, phone bills, and transportation costs, which added up to a considerable sum.

After paying the property management fees, the money in her card plummeted to three digits. She still had twenty days until her salary was due, and this would cover all her expenses for the next twenty days.

Watching the two girls still complaining to each other, she sighed slightly, not wanting to join the conversation, nor daring to join it.

If she were to reveal her predicament, it would only damage the image of the "big sister" of Room 2202 and hurt her self-esteem.

Not only her girlfriends, but also her financial difficulties, which she dared not mention to Li Mu. Her family background would deter any man, easily damaging her image in Li Mu's eyes.

Aside from her financial difficulties, Li Mu provided her with a comfortable material life, something she had previously longed for but never wanted to lose.

They could only endure it, swallowing all the pressure and silently bearing it.

You can always get through this.

However, this kind of thing is not so easy to hide.

These past two days, Li Mu noticed that Fan Shengmei wasn't in a good mood and seemed sullen, which puzzled him.

It wasn't until the community notified her to pay the property management fee that she suddenly realized that Fan Shengmei's rent and property management fee were paid quarterly, and there was still some time before she would receive her salary.

Therefore, it's easy to see why she was in a bad mood.

Although he had a suspicion in his mind, Li Mu did not show it on his face. After the others went to the bathroom to take a shower, he opened Fan Shengmei's phone and checked it. Sure enough, the bank SMS showed that the balance was only 816 yuan.

Fan Shengmei's monthly salary wasn't small, so how come she only had so little left? She checked her records again: property management fees, mortgage payments for her brother, living expenses for her parents... After removing the miscellaneous expenses, she realized that she really only had this much left.

Li Mu sighed. Fan Shengmei had indeed had a hard time. As his wife, he couldn't let her continue to live in such a predicament.

However, the money cannot be given directly. If the money is given this time and the door is opened, what will happen in the future? Will it be given indefinitely?

Moreover, the amount given cannot be too much. Without pressure, Fan Shengmei, who is not short of money, will have no motivation to make changes.

Giving money directly won't work either, as it would easily hurt Fan Shengmei's self-esteem, and it wouldn't achieve his goal.

After thinking for a moment, I took out two shopping cards with a limit of 5,000 yuan each from my bag. These kinds of things are easy to cash out, and they're not as sensitive as giving money directly, plus the amount isn't that large.

After Fan Shengmei finished showering, she entered the bedroom wearing a pink bathrobe.

Li Mu casually pulled two shopping cards out of his pocket.

"Huh, who sent this? I almost forgot."

He glanced at Fan Shengmei and casually tossed the two shopping cards onto the nearby table.

"Since you have so much free time, help me get rid of these two shopping cards."

Fan Shengmei didn't pay much attention at first, but when she saw that they were two shopping cards with a limit of 5,000 yuan each, her heart skipped a beat, followed by a burst of joy.

She was so poor she couldn't even afford food, with only a few hundred yuan left in her bank account. There were still twenty days until her next paycheck, and she was worried about this. She didn't dare to ask Li Mu for help, but then this good thing fell into her lap.

Compared to the tens of thousands of yuan worth of bags that Li Mu bought for her, these two shopping cards were nothing, but she was much happier than when Li Mu bought her the bags.

She dared not sell the bag for money, fearing that Li Mu would find out, look down on her, and think she was a gold digger.

These two cards are different; they're meant for spending money, and it's easy to exchange them for cash.

However, while Fan Shengmei was secretly overjoyed, she maintained a reserved demeanor. Seeing that Li Mu seemed completely unconcerned about the matter and had already forgotten about it, she also pretended to be indifferent to the two shopping cards, casually putting them into her bag.

Next, Li Mu noticed that Fan Shengmei's mood had completely changed; she was no longer sullen and was behaving unusually proactively and enthusiastically.

It would be more effective than Li Mu buying her a bag worth tens of thousands of yuan.

Unfortunately, in order to change the parasitic relationship between Fan Shengmei and her family, they had no choice but to let her continue to be poor.

Only when she is driven to the brink of despair and falls into a desperate situation can she take the initiative to reflect and have the desire and motivation to change.

Now, all I can do is laugh...

It all depends on what she chooses to do in the future.

Chapter 135 Losing My Job

That day, Fan Shengmei and Guan Juer returned home from get off work and found that Qiu Yingying had already come back, and they could faintly hear sobbing coming from the room.

The two were startled. Qiu Yingying had just recovered a few days after the incident with Manager Bai. Could something else have happened to her?

"Yingying, what's wrong?" Guan Juer pushed open the door first.

When Qiu Yingying saw her friend return, she ran over and hugged Guan Juer, feeling wronged.

"Guan Guan, I...I've lost my job."

Guan Juer was taken aback: "Unemployed... Weren't you working perfectly fine? How could you be unemployed?"

Qiu Yingying was even more heartbroken, and choked out, "The company knows that I dated Manager Bai. The HR department talked to me today and asked if I knew about Manager Bai issuing false invoices to embezzle cash."

“I remember Manager Bai once bragged to me about it, and I told him the truth about it.”

"As a result, HR actually told me to resign on my own, or they would fire me."

Guan Juer said angrily, "Why should you be fired? It was all Manager Bai's doing, it has nothing to do with you. Besides, you two just started dating, the company can't implicate others."

Qiu Yingying sobbed, "That's what I told HR. I only heard Manager Bai say that once. I wasn't involved, so why should I be fired?"

"The HR department actually said that I knew about it but did not report it, and that I was suspected of harboring and covering up the crime. If I did not resign, the company would have no choice but to fire me and make me bear legal responsibility."

"Guan Guan, how can they be so heartless? I told them the truth, and they actually want to fire me. I'm heartbroken."

Guan Juer comforted Qiu Yingying for a moment, then, remembering that Fan Shengmei worked in human resources, she quickly turned to ask, "Sister Fan, what should we do about Yingying's current situation? Is there still a chance?"

Fan Shengmei sighed and hugged Qiu Yingying.

"Xiao Qiu, how could you be so silly! You just tell people when they ask you? You shouldn't even admit to dating Manager Bai."

Qiu Yingying said aggrievedly, "But HR said it was nothing serious, just a conversation with me on behalf of the company, asking me to tell the truth. I thought it was just a casual question, so I told the truth."

"Who knew they would go back on their word and fire me?"

"Sister Fan, what should I do?"

Fan Shengmei was also helpless.

“Yingying, things have come to this point. From my perspective as a human resources person, you should resign. After all, Manager Bai has broken the law and been arrested, and you are his girlfriend. From the company's point of view, it is indeed not suitable for you to continue to stay there.”

"It would be better if you didn't admit it. But since you have, leaving is the best option. Leaving this company will prevent you from being affected by this incident, and you can continue to look for other jobs."

"If you go against the company and get fired, or have some blemishes on your resume, it will be hard to find a job in the future."

Qiu Yingying said aggrievedly, "But I'm not willing to accept this. The company is being so unreasonable!"

Fan Shengmei said, "You think you're not wrong, but the company doesn't believe you! They just sent their boyfriends to jail, do you think they'd keep their girlfriends at the company? What if they want to get revenge on the company?"