I Left My Stingy Fiancee

My girlfriend was known for being frugal and extremely stingy. When the chicken drumstick I loved went up by a dime, she decided they were too expensive and stopped buying them. When I got sick, she thought drinking warm water would be enough to make me better. Even the marriage certificate's nine-dollar processing fee was too much for her. She thought it was a waste of money. When the marriage certificate finally became free to acquire, I put on the only discounted suit she had been willing to buy for me and arrived at the city hall two hours early. I was eagerly waiting for her. Instead, from a distance, I saw her sitting by the lake with Henry, the male assistant she had hired six months earlier. A street photographer approached with a camera and asked if my girlfriend wanted some photos. Each photo cost a hundred dollars. I thought she would refuse on the spot, curse him for overcharging, and walk away. But she glanced at Henry beside her and said, "Henry, come to think of it, we've never taken a photo together. How about we take some?" Henry waved it off and said it was too expensive. The photographer quickly added that there would be a discount if they took more pictures. My girlfriend calmly retrieved her phone and transferred one grand to him. "No discount needed. Take a hundred photos of me and my junior. Put them in an album." I silently watched as my girlfriend and Henry posed intimately for a hundred photos. The time we'd agreed to meet finally arrived. My phone lit up. [I asked around. Although the marriage certificate itself is free now, we still need to take three ID photos. That's at least twenty dollars. That's enough to pay for one of our meals. Besides, getting the certificate is just a formality. We can still spend our whole lives together without it.] I quietly typed out a reply. [Okay. Let's not get married then.] I didn't want her anymore either. Chapter 1 Today, for the sake of marrying Jessica Little, I, Hunter Ludwig, had taken half the day off work. This was what I ended up encountering instead. I hailed a cab and headed back to the office. From a distance, I saw Jessica and Henry Kirby wandering around a nearby food street. Jessica was acting like an ATM. Whatever Henry took a fancy to, she bought for him. I'd never received that kind of treatment. It wasn't until midnight that Jessica finally came home. There was a blissful smile on her face the entire time. The moment she turned on the light and saw me sitting on the couch, her smile disappeared. "Why are you sitting in the living room with the lights off?" "I was waiting for you. Where were you this afternoon?" "At work. Where else would I be?" She turned her back to me as she changed her shoes. She was the same as always. Whenever she lied, she couldn't bring herself to look me in the eye. "I went back to the office this afternoon. You weren't there." Jessica raised an eyebrow and turned around. "I'm your boss. Do I need to report my whereabouts to you?" I nodded. "Right. You're my boss, so it's your freedom to go on a date with whoever you want." Jessica froze. "Who are you talking about?" "Henry." Jessica took a deep breath and poured me a glass of water. "You misunderstood. Henry is my junior from college. He helped me a lot when we were in school, so I wanted to return the favor. "Besides, he's very capable. I want to help him develop his potential. That's all." I looked at the glass of warm water in front of me. Whenever Jessica and I argued in the past, she would always pour me a glass of warm water. I would always soften at those moments, thinking that as the daughter of a wealthy family who had never lacked money, she must have gone through something terrible to become so stingy. That was why I forgave her and tried to understand her. But after seeing how freely she spent money on Henry, I finally understood that her frugality had only ever applied to me. I pushed the glass of warm water back toward her, along with everything she had just said. Jessica's hand stopped moving. A look of mixed emotions appeared in her eyes. "Are you still upset because I stood you up this afternoon? I'll make it up to you. Invite your friends over. I'll treat everyone to dinner and use it as a chance to announce that we're getting married. Will that make you happy?" Chapter 2 I gave Jessica a strange look. "You wouldn't even spend twenty dollars on photos, but you're willing to pay for a meal?" "I'm not stingy. I just don't think it's necessary," she said. "I'll pay for the marriage photos. You won't have to spend a dime. I'll even reimburse your ride. Will you come get the certificate with me?" Jessica raised an eyebrow and rejected the idea without hesitation. "Why are we even talking about money? We're practically a married couple. We're one and the same. Why separate everything into yours and mine? "Besides, is getting the certificate really that important? We've lived together all these years without one, haven't we? "And we're also in a boss-employee relationship. Company policy doesn't allow us to date. The way we're living now is perfectly fine." I glanced around the house. Everything in it had been bought on sale. "We don't even have a single photo together. What's so good about the way we're living? It's not even as good as what you have with your junior." Jessica's expression instantly relaxed. It was as if she'd suddenly figured everything out. "So that's why you've been making sarcastic remarks. You saw me taking photos with him, so you're deliberately giving me a hard time. "I took him to get photos because his family is poor. I just wanted to let him see what the world outside is like. You're really going to make a fuss over something this trivial? "Enough. Go to bed. We have work tomorrow." I wasn't making a fuss. I just felt that none of this was worth it. - I pushed open the conference room door and sat down beside Jessica. The moment I entered, I saw Henry leaning close to Jessica and speaking to her in a soft, embarrassed voice. "Ms. Little, Finance is taking too long to approve the reimbursement. They still haven't paid me for the last one. I'm living paycheck to paycheck, so I'm a little short on cash. Could you help me hurry them along?" "How much do you need? I'll transfer it to you first." "No, no, I can't take your money. It's only a hundred bucks. I just need Finance to process my reimbursement sooner." He said he didn't need the money, yet he'd already given her the exact amount. Right in front of me, Jessica transferred two hundred bucks to him. "Take it. What if you don't have enough money in an emergency or when you get sick? As the general manager, it's my responsibility to look after the employees reporting to me." I remembered how, when I had a high fever, she hadn't taken me to the hospital or allowed me to call for an ambulance. I'd endured it by drinking cup after cup of warm water that she poured for me. Thinking about it now, I gave a self-deprecating laugh. "Do you really need to go to the hospital when you're sick? Can't you just drink some warm water?" Jessica's grip tightened around her pen, but she said nothing. The other employees didn't know about our relationship. One of the women said jokingly, "Mr. Ludwig, whatever you do, don't say that when you're dating someone. That's one of the most classic lines in the jerk handbook. It basically screams that you don't want to make an effort and are just brushing someone off." "Mr. Ludwig, if you keep telling people to drink more warm water, you'll never find a girlfriend." Everyone laughed and took their seats. No one noticed that Jessica's expression had already turned livid. Wham. Jessica slammed her pen onto the table. She looked furious. "Is this an office or a marketplace? What's with all the laughing and joking around? Let's get started on the reports!" The conference room immediately fell silent. One by one, everyone went up to present their proposals. Jessica observed them the entire time with a cold expression. Once everyone had finished, she announced something. "Hunter, I'm giving the project you're working on to Henry. He'll use his own proposal." There were surprised gasps in the conference room. Everyone thought they'd heard wrong. My fingers went stiff, and I sat upright. "I need a reason. The proposal my team and I prepared is clearly more comprehensive. "Henry's proposal is still nothing more than an idea. Are you going to replace a finished proposal with a half-baked one?" Jessica leaned back in her chair and spoke in a strictly professional tone. "I won't deny that your proposal is good, but you've been with the company for years. We need to give young newcomers a chance." Chapter 3 "If we don't give him a chance to make mistakes, how is he supposed to grow? Everyone starts out not knowing anything and learns along the way," Jessica added. That wasn't true. Back then, when my proposal had clearly been better than those of the senior employees, she had still given the senior employees the lead, saying it was about showing respect to those who had been there longer. Now, with Henry, she had suddenly adopted a completely different standard. Apparently, I was the only one who was supposed to take the fall. Henry stood up awkwardly and waved his hands. "Ms. Little, you're giving me too much credit. I was only throwing ideas out there. How could that possibly count as a proposal? Mr. Ludwig still needs to oversee the project." Jessica dismissed his concerns. "He's the team lead. He's merely the one who makes the final call. His team handles all the details of the project. Don't make him out to be some incredible person. Anyone sitting in that position could come up with a proposal like that. "Alright. Young people shouldn't be so timid. The opportunity is right in front of you, so make the most of it. If there's anything you don't understand, ask your coworkers. I'm sure everyone will be happy to help." Henry glanced at me. A flicker of smugness appeared in his eyes. "Since you put it that way, I'll accept the opportunity. "Mr. Ludwig, this is the company's decision. I'm sure you won't object. "I'm only a newcomer. If I run into any problems, I'll have to ask for your guidance." The employees reporting to me looked increasingly unhappy. I pushed my chair back and stood up. "How could I object to my superior's decision? "As for guidance, I don't think I'm qualified. An unfinished proposal has already beaten me out of the running. You might as well take my position as the team lead too." Jessica slammed her hand on the table again and stood up furiously. "Hunter, stop making a scene!" I casually dug a finger into my ear. "I'm giving the newcomer a chance, aren't I? Letting him become team lead directly would be quite the challenge." I didn't wait for Jessica to announce the end of the meeting. I headed straight for the door. "Hunter!" Jessica was about to follow me when Henry suddenly grabbed her sleeve and looked at her with a wounded expression. "Forget it, Ms. Little. I just don't have what it takes. It's only natural that Mr. Ludwig looks down on me. We should give the project back to him." Jessica angrily sat back down. "Stop saying things like that. What's yours is yours. You keep the project. If he has a problem with it, he can come to me!" That day, I used my annual leave and went home to rest. Jessica approved it. She came home that night. Neither of us spoke at first. We simply let the silence stretch on for thirty minutes. Finally, Jessica broke the silence with a long sigh. "At the company, we're boss and employee. I can't show you favoritism. You understand that, don't you?" Could I really have expected her to show me favoritism? I'd already consider it a miracle if she stopped deliberately targeting me. Seeing that I didn't respond, Jessica softened her tone. "Tomorrow is the anniversary of your dad's passing, isn't it? I'll go with you and your mom to visit his grave." "There's no need, Ms. Little. My mom and I can go on our own." Without another word, I ignored her sour expression and walked straight into the guest room. The next day, Jessica still came to the cemetery. She even brought someone else with her. "Mrs. Ludwig, Hunter, I'm here to visit Mr. Ludwig." Mom looked at Henry, who was standing behind Jessica, and gave her a puzzled look. Jessica pushed Henry forward and introduced him. "Mrs. Ludwig, this is my junior and a colleague from the company. He grew up in the countryside and has never seen a cemetery in the city before, so he wanted to take a look. That's why I brought him along." Henry looked around curiously. "I didn't realize city cemeteries were divided into such tiny individual plots. I've heard they're really expensive and that you have to keep paying fees forever. What a waste of money. You might as well scatter the ashes at sea." Chapter 4 I glanced at Jessica. She silently fiddled with the flowers. She seemingly agreed with what Henry had said. "I can afford the fees for my dad's burial plot. As for you, if you're worried your descendants won't be able to afford yours, you can let them know in advance and have your ashes scattered at sea," I said. Henry's lips twitched. "I'm sorry, Mr. Ludwig. I was just saying whatever came to mind. I'm really sorry I offended you." Jessica immediately stepped in front of Henry. "Hunter, he didn't mean anything by it. Why are you being so harsh?" When Henry insulted me, she had stayed silent. The moment I hurled insults back at him, Jessica couldn't stand it. Seeing that we were about to argue, Mom hurried over to stop us. "Hunter, that's enough. Today is the anniversary of your dad's passing. Don't argue." Henry also apologized. "I'm really sorry, Mrs. Ludwig. I didn't think before I spoke, and I upset you. Please accept my apology." He apologized with words, but there wasn't a trace of sincerity in his expression. His eyes kept wandering around. His attention soon landed on the jade bracelet around Mom's wrist. "Mrs. Ludwig, that bracelet is beautiful. It's real jade, isn't it? I've never seen real jade before. Could you take it off and let me have a closer look?" Before Mom or I could say anything, Jessica answered for us. "It's no big deal. Mrs. Ludwig, just take it off and let him see it." I stepped in front of Mom and refused. "No. That's the token of love from my dad. It's very precious to her." "Looking at it won't break it. You're being way too stingy." "Yeah, I'm not as generous as you. You spent one grand on a hundred photos and didn't even want a discount." "Hunter, do you really have to keep bringing up the past?" Seeing us arguing again, Mom took off the bracelet herself. "Alright. That's enough. Stop arguing. He's only taking a look. It's fine." But after going to all that trouble to get his hands on it, how could Henry have intended to merely look at it? As he reached out to take it, he deliberately loosened his grip. Clatter. The bracelet Mom had worn for thirty years, the bracelet that carried so many precious memories, shattered across the ground. For a moment, my heart stopped beating. Henry put on an exaggerated expression and ran toward me while apologizing. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Ludwig! My hand slipped!" "Get lost!" I raised my hand and intended to push him away, but before I could even touch him, Henry deliberately fell backward with the motion and hit the ground. He scraped his hand badly enough to draw blood. "Henry!" Jessica instinctively rushed over to help him up. When she saw that he was hurt, she glared at me furiously. "It was only a broken bracelet. I'll pay you whatever it costs. Was there any need to hurt someone?" "That was my dad's keepsake. Do you really think it's just some worthless bracelet?" "No matter how valuable something is, that doesn't give you the right to hurt someone." Mom wiped away her tears and defended me from the side. "Jessica, I saw what happened. Hunter didn't push him. He lost his balance himself." Jessica glanced at Henry. Henry lowered his head. "Whatever Mrs. Ludwig says goes." Jessica immediately became angry. "You're his mother, so of course you're going to defend him!" Jessica supported Henry as they slowly walked away. Mom tried to go after them, but I grabbed her arm and shook my head bitterly. "Forget it, Mom." Jessica didn't even treat me like her partner anymore. Why should I keep chasing after her and humiliating myself? I picked up the broken pieces of the bracelet from the ground. I had just retrieved my phone to see if I could find someone who'd repair it when I received an email from headquarters about a new work assignment. Jessica and I gave each other the silent treatment for several days before she finally took the initiative to text me. [I'm sorry about what happened the other day. I was upset and said things without thinking. Don't take it to heart.] Chapter 5 "I didn't forget that I promised to treat your friends to dinner tomorrow. I've already made a reservation. Just go there and ask for the room directly." She sent me the restaurant's address. It was an expensive place. The next day, all my friends gathered in the private room. They looked around in disbelief. "No way. Jessica is so stingy. Did she really agree to treat us to a meal here? This place must cost at least fifty bucks per person." I smiled and told them some good news. "She's not paying. I am. I received a transfer order from headquarters. I'm going to be the general manager in Astarville City." My friends were thrilled. "Congratulations! Doesn't that mean you'll be on the same level as Jessica now? But you'll have to be in different cities. Have you told Jessica yet?" I shook my head and was about to speak when my phone rang. The screen displayed a single name. [Jessica.] When I answered, the voice on the other end belonged to Henry. "Don't wait for her. She's not coming. Hunter, you've been dating her for all these years, but do you know why she's so stingy?] "When she was little, her mom got into a fight with her dad and deliberately took her and left. She accidentally got lost and wandered on the streets for six months before she was finally found and brought home. "She was terrified of being poor after that, and ever since then, she's had this obsession with saving money and never spending it. She never told you any of this, did she? What a pathetic boyfriend you are." I'd asked Jessica countless times about the reason behind her behavior. She'd always brushed the questions aside. It turned out I simply wasn't worthy of knowing. I said nothing. Henry's voice continued. "You must be wondering how I know so much, right? Let me tell you the truth. There's nothing ordinary about the relationship between Jessica and me. We were never just senior and junior from college. "If it weren't for the huge gap between our families and her family's opposition, we'd have gotten together a long time ago. "She got together with you because you're cheap and convenient. You're nothing more than my replacement. That's all." The call ended. The entire private room fell silent. The smiles disappeared from my friends' faces and were replaced by anger. "How could she treat you like this? This won't do. We have to confront her." I shook my head. "Let's wait another thirty minutes. If she doesn't show up by then, I'll stop waiting for her for good and report to work at my new position." My friends wanted to persuade me otherwise, but they couldn't find the words. In the end, they silently waited with me. Ten minutes later, Jessica sent me a message. [Something urgent came up at the company. I'll be late.] Twenty minutes later, she sent me another message. [I'm getting ready to leave now.] Thirty minutes later, I received yet another one. [I'm almost there. If you're hungry, order something first.] The time was up. I grabbed the suitcase I'd already packed and hailed a cab. "This one's on me. We're celebrating my promotion. I'm just going to miss part of it. Next time, visit me in Astarville City, and I'll drink with you until we're all wasted." Not one of my friends tried to stop me. They practically pushed me out the door. They were afraid I might change my mind, but I wouldn't. My seven-year relationship came to an end at that moment. An hour later, I arrived at the airport and was about to board my flight when I received another message from Jessica. [I'm here!] This time, I didn't even tap on it. I blocked her number and boarded the flight toward a brighter future.