Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled-Chapter 786 - 593: Not an Easy Middle Age

Chapter 786 -593: Not an Easy Middle Age

Middle age is filled with countless difficulties.

Take divorce, unemployment, or even when your kid’s grades fall short as examples.

And of course, let’s not forget about aging parents getting sick and all that.

At this stage of life, everything requires money, and without money, you can’t sustain anything.

Chen Pingsheng rented out a top-tier restaurant to host a class reunion, though he only went as far as middle school in his education.

He had no experience of attending high school or university.

Back then, many of his classmates also dropped out after middle school. Some ended up working in factories, while others picked up skills.

Like car repair, cooking, hairstyling, and the like.

No matter how good or bad their relationships were in the past, whoever could make it showed up.

He rarely appeared in Sha City, but his reputation loomed large.

One instance that left an impression was for his grandmother. He completely shut down a hospital, causing a massive commotion.

That event ended with the investigation and shutdown of the hospital and the total collapse of the infamous Sha City gang led by the Third Master.

Another instance was when he stood up for his eldest sister’s daughter, Xiao Le, after the daughter of a school bully knelt at the gate of his villa for three days straight.

The school bully himself personally escorted his daughter into custody, becoming a story everyone in Sha City loved to gossip about.

It’s fair to say his fame in Sha City was entirely built on these two events.

That’s also why, when he called for a reunion, most of his classmates showed up.

Chang Fu came alone, while Chen Pingsheng brought both his spoiled brat and his Second Princess with him.

At their age, most had kids, and among those who were on good terms with them before, few remained unmarried.

The feast was abundant with fancy dishes.

Since many were still living in Sha City, they more or less knew each other’s situations.

As a result, the conversations flowed relatively smoothly.

For instance, Zhang Wei, who used to trail after them like a puppy, now owned two modestly sized barbershops in Sha City.

He’d been through one divorce and remarried—this time to the receptionist from his own shop.

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She was seven or eight years younger than him, not to mention quite pretty.

After finishing middle school, he jumped straight into learning hairstyling, and over two decades later, he managed to carve out minor success for himself.

The classic case of “not the worst but not the best”—making a steady three to four hundred thousand yuan a year.

This kind of income might be nothing in Magic City, but for a place like Sha City, buying a small villa wouldn’t be overly stressful.

And naturally, that means you can marry a young, beautiful wife.

Then there was the girl who had the best grades in their class, consistently ranking in the top three in the entire school.

She moved from middle school to high school and then to a decent university.

After graduating, she held down a stable job at an ordinary company for over a decade.

She was doing reasonably well now, owning a house, a car, and earning 12 or 13 thousand yuan a month.

For someone like her, you could hardly argue education wasn’t useful. Yet, if you just learned a skill and stuck with it, working hard in the same place for ten-plus years, you’d still make at least over ten thousand yuan monthly.

And that’s for someone doing the most basic kind of work.

Compared to her, another girl in their class also relied on her grades, though she wasn’t as good and went to a less impressive university.

But her current life was miles ahead of hers.

This girl was assigned to teach at an excellent public middle school in Sha City as soon as she graduated.

Not because of her abilities, but because her father was the village party secretary.

The only person in their village with an official government post.

Don’t underestimate a village party secretary; while their rank isn’t high and they’re the lowest tier within the system, their influence is far from ordinary.

Those who understand, understand. Getting her assigned to a better public middle school in Sha City wasn’t just about salary—it was about the circle of influence that came with it.

If you’re toiling away in some small business, while she’s employed at a good institution, even meeting up with her on normal occasions would make you instinctively look up to her.

That’s the power of a village party secretary. This classmate kept a low profile, never driving anything too luxurious in public.

Just a Honda Accord, that’s all.

But her daughter had been attending the best schools since childhood. The tuition and miscellaneous fees alone added up to 200 to 300 thousand yuan a year.

If you couldn’t spend that much, you wouldn’t even stand a chance.

She married a fellow middle school teacher; the couple merely kept a low profile.

If you compared wealth, what ordinary family could afford to spend over 300 thousand yuan annually on their children’s education?

Both of her daughters are raised like this.

This is their invisible income—something they’d never talk about, let alone flaunt.

Only an idiot would do that.

Besides staying modest in front of Chen Pingsheng, when meeting other classmates, their outward politeness couldn’t entirely hide the deeply entrenched sense of class disparity.

For those who understand, it’s obvious she and her kind utterly look down on people who run barbershops earning tens of thousands or work as chefs bringing in any given amount.

It’s only natural for people with established government posts to be a little arrogant.

That said, the couple was genuinely low-key. They wouldn’t lift a finger to help classmates using their resources, but they were still pleasant and approachable in private.

There were other classmates who had divorced, complaining about how materialistic their wives were, unable to endure hard times.

But the truth was, after one year, two years, or even ten, they remained the same.

The lack of hope is the greatest despair.

The changing times exposed these men’s wives to a wider world; a divorce was almost inevitable.

There were also cases where it wasn’t their fault at all.

A simple class reunion, yet so many kinds of lives, all walking their respective paths of mediocrity.

Of course, some attendees came purely to borrow money from him.

At this age, for some people, pride and dignity don’t matter anymore.

In their eyes, seeing Chen Pingsheng was nearly impossible on other days. If you left this place, even if you went to Magic City or Golden Mountain,

and told others, “I want to see your boss; I’m his old classmate,”

you would never get past the CEO’s office, let alone meet Chen Pingsheng face to face.

His time was meticulously scheduled; he wouldn’t bump someone else off for you.

So many people went straight to the point, saying their parents were terminally ill, or their daughters were sick.

Looking distressed—but really, all they wanted was to borrow money.

Borrowed money they never intended to repay.

Chen Pingsheng listened to their implausible excuses idly, agreeing to anyone who asked.

Whether they asked for a million or ten million made no difference to him because no one would leave with more than 200 thousand.

That was his version of fairness.

The ones who didn’t ask for money would look down on those who did.

Meanwhile, the ones borrowing money would mock those who kept quiet.

“What’s the pretense for? Didn’t we all come to this reunion to cozy up to Chen Pingsheng?”

“Sure, he’s doing great now, but isn’t this reunion just his way of showing off?”

“If he really saw us as genuine classmates, why hasn’t he kept in touch?”

“Now he comes back just to rub his success in our faces?”

And this is precisely why Chen Pingsheng dislikes organizing these so-called reunions.

When life’s disparities grow so vast, no matter your willingness, you realize you can’t go back to how things used to be with old friends.

Because they feel inferior around you, disappointed with themselves,

and weighed down by the constant reminder of your success.

They feel it even if you stay silent.

Yet they can’t help being drawn to you, hoping to gain some benefit from your success.

Like finding excuses to borrow money.

This is middle age—the regret, the inferiority, the disappointments in life—it all becomes the price you pay for indulging your youth.

So after six or seven people in a row came asking to borrow money, even the Second Princess grew annoyed.

She’s not some pushover; she speaks her mind unapologetically.

No one present could make her back down.

With one line, she left those pleading for money utterly humiliated.

“Why do you all act like beggars?”

The reunion concluded amid mixed feelings—not quite a disappointment, but not without its regrets.

Of course, some did earn an invitation to visit his private villa afterward.

For instance, the teacher classmate, Zhang Wei with his barber shops, and a few others who refrained from asking for money.

They all shared one trait—they had worked hard when they were younger.

Now, while they couldn’t claim extraordinary success, they certainly weren’t down and out either.

As long as they didn’t yearn for some massive windfall, they’d be more than secure for the rest of their lives.

But the Second Princess’s single comment left many people mortified.

Not that she limited herself to just words. Regardless of whether the excuses they gave were legitimate or bogus,

if she were in Magic City and heard that one of her dad’s old classmates couldn’t afford their mother’s or daughter’s medical bills,

she’d show you what the Second Princess of a wealthy family really meant.

She’d throw five million yuan on the table, telling you to grab as much as you could with just your hands.

The catch? You were only allowed to use your hands.

The Second Princess embodied many traits of a spoiled heiress, ones born from her family’s innate privilege.

No amount of life experience—like a brief stint in a part-time job—could change that. Just like the old nouveau riche in Magic City.

Even if they ran out of money, they’d still dress impeccably with their old designer clothes.

This elegance was in their bones, distinguishing them from the ordinary crowd.

They wouldn’t permit themselves to lose this sense of refinement, no matter how small their living arrangements became.

The Second Princess was the same; her innate sense of superiority had been immense since the moment she was born.

No matter how unruly she acted, if an average person dared point fingers at her,

she could dismantle their dignity with a single retort, forcing them to reassess their worth.

This kind of privileged arrogance was prevalent among children in her circle. Few were like Chen An’an,

who could retain her purity of heart and genuinely connect well with ordinary classmates.

Even if Chen Pingsheng considered the Second Princess’s behavior a flaw, he couldn’t change it.

Because this was the natural product of her high-quality upbringing.

Look at it from another perspective—this was a six-year-old girl who could easily spend millions without a second thought.

Meanwhile, you’re someone slaving over mortgage payments, grinding hard for a salary of a few thousand or tens of thousands.

Even if you grasped logic and reason to perfection, weaving words into pure poetry,

she could bring you crashing down with just one sentence:

“Have you paid off your mortgage yet?”

Just from that one line, would you still want to argue with her?

This was the Second Princess. Except for her dad’s reasoning, she listened to no one.

Because the gap between you and her was simply too vast.

And those in her class aren’t ones to reason with others.

Reason may appear to be the most effective and rational thing in this world,

but in reality, it’s absolutely useless.

For example, if you helped an old lady cross the street, you’d think you were doing a good deed. But if she falsely accused you of hitting her, your average family couldn’t bear the consequences.

If the Second Princess did the same thing, imagine accusing her of causing harm. Dare to try?

She could ruin not just your life but the lives of your family for generations—ensuring no major company would ever hire any of you.

Is that reason?

No, that’s just the reach of her family’s influence.

So instead of calling her unreasonable, it’s more accurate to say she doesn’t buy into the weak’s notion of reason.

Only if you’re far superior to her will you earn enough respect to teach her a thing or two.

If not, she’ll quickly make you toe the line.

Even Chen Pingsheng could barely say much about this trait in her.

Because she only acknowledged reasoning that came from the strong.

In her social circle, true strength always trumped reason.

As long as they refrained from actively bullying the weak, they were already considered decent people.

What more could you ask for?

It might seem like the Second Princess was acting recklessly, but she already had her own set of principles.

In her own words: “I’ll do whatever I want.”