Tenant's Secret Love

Chapter 71: The first blind date in life

At 5:30 p.m., half an hour before the date, I tidied myself up a little and walked out of the bathroom. My father also opened the door of the house with his briefcase in hand.

I once again felt the urge to ask my father for money, and after a while I said, "Dad, you got off work pretty early today."

"Isn't it always this time?" My 'stubborn father' replied indifferently.

I quickly poured him a glass of water. He didn't notice anything, and naturally accepted the glass from my hands. Then he asked me, "How are things with your job search these days?"

"I just sent in my resume, and I've only interviewed with a few companies, and I'm not really satisfied with any of them."

"Don't be too picky, just settle for something."

"I'm not a fresh graduate with no work experience, and I can't just settle for anything. You know how much young people spend these days, I need at least a living wage!"

I had already hinted at the high cost of living for young people these days, hoping that he would understand and give me some pocket money to tide me over.

But my 'stubborn father' said very casually, "I know it's expensive, so just spend less."

My Stubborn Father's logical way of looking at things left me helpless. I was silent for a long time, and he was too lazy to argue with me anymore. He put down his teacup and walked over to his study.

"Dad..." I finally called out, gritting my teeth.

He looked back at me with a stern expression and asked, "Is there anything else?"

His expression made me feel inexplicably flustered, and after a long pause I stammered, 'Well, um, can I borrow...borrow your car for a while? I have a blind date tonight.' After I said this, I wished I could smack myself in the face. How could I be so difficult to ask for money?

It was indeed difficult to ask...after all, I was an adult who had been working for several years, and it was ridiculous to still be asking my parents for money!

He didn't notice anything unusual, so he took the keys to the old Santana 2000 his company had given him out of his bag and handed them to me.

I looked at the car keys in my hand for a moment, then stupidly watched him go into the room. It wasn't until the door closed that I realized I had seemingly missed another opportunity to ask for money.

...

I drove my 'stubborn father's' nearly-worn-out Santana 2000 to the agreed-upon coffee shop, gritting my teeth the whole way. Along the way, I did consider asking my old friends for money, but most of these friends were from high school and I hadn't been in touch with them for a long time. It didn't seem right to suddenly come back and ask them for money.

Before I knew it, I had passed several intersections with traffic lights. Suddenly, I saw the café where we had agreed to meet about 50 meters ahead. The huge store sign made me feel even more uneasy.

After fumbling to park the car, I fumbled my way up to the second floor. Snail-walking, I took out my phone and looked at the photo again before standing in the lobby of the café and scanning the room.

After scanning twice, I finally found a girl in a corner whose appearance matched the photo quite well. I straightened my clothes and walked towards that corner.

I came up to the girl and took another look. I saw that the girl wasn't bad-looking, with nice features and skin. However, compared to Brittany, she lacked some of the same stunningness and temperament, and she didn't have Renee's world-shattering beauty, nor did she have Violetta's fashionable, avant-garde, sexy aura. In short, she was just an ordinary, pretty girl.

But this is the kind of girl you want to spend your life with, so my first impression of her wasn't bad.

I smiled and asked politely, "Excuse me, are you Daphne?"

The girl nodded and smiled at me, saying, 'So you must be Lucas?"

"That's right, I am... Can we sit down first?"

"Go ahead."

As soon as I sat down, the waiter came over with a menu and said, 'Sir, miss, can we take your order now?"

"So, do you pay after you finish eating or do you pay after you order?"

No one seemed to have ever asked such a strange question before, and the waiter was at a loss for an answer before he replied, "Well, either is fine."

I let out a sigh of relief and said, "Okay, give me the menu."

The waiter gave me a copy of the menu, and Daphne and I each ordered what we wanted to eat, and then we chatted some more while we waited.

Daphne is a pretty lively girl, and she took the initiative to say to me, "Let's start with an introduction. You already know my name, and since this is my year of the zodiac, you can guess my age. Currently, I'm the head of the account department at an advertising company, and I'm temporarily living with my parents because I don't own a home yet. That's about it."

I stared at Daphne with wide eyes. I found her so blunt in her self-introduction that it was unbelievable. It felt like I was asking for her personal information.

Daphne was also puzzled by my reaction, and after a while she asked in a tentative tone, "Is this your first blind date?"

"Yes."

"No wonder, the self-introduction I just did is a must for blind dates. If you embark on this path in the future, you'll get used to it," Daphne said with a smile.

I nodded and said, "Oh yeah, that's how it's done on TV!"

"So it's your turn to introduce yourself."

I sat up straight and said like a speech: "My name is Lucas, I am 26 years old, currently unemployed, uh...no car, no house, no savings, currently living with my parents, probably for a long time to come, and I don't have any special plans or goals for the future. I'm just kind of getting by."

Daphne seemed shocked by my self-introduction and said after a long pause, "Are you serious?"

"Yes, absolutely!"

"But that's not what Auntie Zhang, who introduced us, said."

"What did she say?"

Daphne recalled, "She said you just returned from Suzhou, are a white-collar worker at a large department store, diligent and motivated... a very nice young man!"

I laughed, "You believe what a matchmaker says? That's a bit much, I'm ashamed to hear it!"

Daphne looked at me with tears in her eyes, and after a long while asked, "Auntie Zhang said you play the guitar, is that also a lie?"

Daphne's words made me break out in a cold sweat. This really put my mother to the test. I guess she really couldn't find any good qualities in me, so she simply told Auntie Zhang that I play the guitar, and Auntie Zhang enthusiastically relayed this to Daphne.

After a while, I said to Daphne, "It's true that I play the guitar, but that's not really relevant to a blind date."

Daphne nodded and didn't say anything else.

I smiled and asked, "Do you feel like your ideal of fullness has suddenly become a reality of thinness, and you're feeling really lost because of the difference?"

Daphne shook her head and laughed, "Not really. I think you're not bad, at least you're very honest, much more so than the average man!"

I was overjoyed, thinking that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to find a way out of the situation. So I said thick-skinnedly, following Daphne's lead, 'I also feel very honest, but I have something else that I need to be honest about that I need to tell you."

Daphne looked at me with some confusion and asked, 'What is it?"

"...I don't have a penny on me right now, so...you'll have to pay for this meal!"