Peninsula: The young master is poor and doesn't want to date.

Chapter 30 Is picking up girls a passive skill?

The sound of an engine could be heard in the distance.

A gray-green rural bus slowly turned the corner, with the words "Donghai Transportation" painted on its side.

A bunch of burlap sacks and bamboo baskets were tied to the roof of the vehicle.

The black smoke billowing from the car's rear end gleamed purple in the rising sun.

The driver, an older man, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, pulled over to the side of the road.

As soon as the car door opened, a wave of heat mixed with the smell of poultry rushed out.

Several people were already seated in the carriage.

Two elderly women carrying baskets on their backs, an uncle holding a rooster, and a middle school student wearing headphones and dozing off.

The car's rooftop speakers were playing trot music, and the cheap speakers made the singer's voice sound shrill and thin.

Li Zheng threw a tree branch on the ground, stood up, and stretched.

"Let's go, bro, the car's here."

Lee Woo-bin didn't move.

He looked down at his bare foot.

She was only wearing one sock, which had a little yellow duck pattern on it.

This was a birthday gift that his eight-year-old niece insisted he wear.

He stared at the little yellow duck for a long time.

"Zhengyi".

"Um?"

What do you think I am?

"I don't care what you think, but you can't make the people on the bus wait for us."

Lee Jung-il pulled Lee Woo-bin into the car and smiled apologetically at the driver, who was already annoyed by the extra few seconds.

He pressed Lee Woo-bin down into the seat; he was covered in mud and looked extremely disheveled.

Li Zhengyi sat down next to him and looked out the window.

"You ask me who you are? You're a person."

No. What I mean is...

Lee Woo-bin raised his hand and made a blurry shape in the air, as if he wanted to grab something but couldn't.

"How do you think I've managed to survive until now? What have I relied on?"

"By spending money."

Lee Woo-bin's hand was suspended in mid-air.

"You've survived this long by chasing after female celebrities, driving sports cars, and installing a rickety cabin door on your dad's private jet to scare people. That's all you've done."

Li Zheng looked at him.

"Brother, don't you know that yourself?"

Lee Woo-bin slowly lowered his hand.

"I know, I just didn't want to be the first to say it."

At 5:55 a.m., the sunlight pierced through the car window, making faces clearly visible.

Two chaebol heirs, looking like mud monkeys, sat on an old-fashioned bus that was at least 20 years old.

If someone were to take a picture and post it online at this moment, the headline would probably be something like, "Shocking! The heir of the CJ family has fallen so low!"

But nobody here knows them.

"You ask me what I think you are. Fine, I'll tell you."

"You've been living in other people's scripts since you were a child. Your father's script was called 'Useless,' and your older brother's script was called 'Don't Get in My Way.' You've always acted accordingly. And you've acted quite well. To the point that you've forgotten how much effort you've saved while acting in this play."

Lee Woo-bin's eyes widened slightly.

Li Zhengyi continued.

"You could have chosen not to be a loser, but you chose to be one. Because being a loser is the easiest thing to do. No need to fight, no need to snatch, no need to confront the big shots head-on. All you have to do is spend money. All you have to do is chase after female celebrities. All you have to do is brag to your friends. And..."

He paused, then continued, "Those who play the fool are the most likely to survive to the end. Think about it, who in your family is least likely to be seen as a threat?"

"……I."

"That's right. The eldest brother fights the eldest sister, and the eldest sister fights the eldest brother. You squat on the sidelines eating sunflower seeds. Although everyone looks down on you, no one will come after you. The life you have now is the one you chose. It wasn't given to you by others."

When Li Zhengyi said this, there was no pity, no blame, he was simply summarizing.

Lee Woo-bin remained silent for a long time.

She was beautiful enough that the girl sitting next to her would count all the freckles on her face while looking in the mirror.

Then he spoke.

"The year you were kicked out, it was your eldest brother who did it."

Li Zhengyi suddenly stopped moving.

Are you sure?

"I investigated for two years. The person who handed you the wine that night was one of my brother's men, the person who helped you upstairs was one of my brother's men, and the person who went to call your stepmother was one of my brother's assistants. He arranged everything."

"How did you find out?"

"My older brother thinks I'm useless, so he's not very guarded around me."

After saying this, Lee Woo-bin laughed self-deprecatingly.

"Although I'm not capable, I have something you're better at: patience. I spent two years piecing it together, on and off. After you were kicked out, the family's four heirs became three. By the rules, my eldest brother and I should have been evenly matched. But my eldest brother is too capable, and my eldest sister has gathered a bunch of people around. I have nothing. My only skill is spending money, chasing female celebrities, and driving sports cars."

"My father never really cared about me. But since you left, he rarely even looks at me anymore. It's like he kicked me out with you."

Li Zheng thought for a moment and then asked.

Is Father's health truly failing?

"Liver cancer. My brother's people have kept the news under wraps. But I know it started to worsen last winter. Now, Long Zhangzhu is basically in charge of the group's daily decisions. My brother is in charge of strategy, my sister is in charge of content, and I'm in charge of... Dad's private jet."

Li Zhengyi looked at his second brother, who was slumped in his seat, swaying with the movement of the car.

Just two hours ago, this person was trying to scare himself by skydiving from 10,000 meters in the air.

An hour ago, I was so scared in the rice paddy that I wet my pants.

Sitting on the bus now, I feel like an inflatable doll that has been emptied out, pouring out all the shameful things that happened at home.

He had a lot to say.

I wanted to say, "If you had told me sooner, I wouldn't have had to jump off the plane."

I wanted to say, "Why the hell didn't you tell me sooner after investigating for two years?"

I want to say, "You thought you were safe by being useless, but you ended up protecting none of the things you were trying to protect."

But what he said was...

"Go home and wash off the mud."

He took off his old Converse sneakers and threw them at Li Yubin's feet.

I stepped barefoot onto the cool car floor.

Lee Woo-bin looked down at the shoes.

The toe is coming unglued, the sole is worn flat, and the shoelaces are made of two different colored threads joined together.

He put it on.

It's a bit big.

But it can walk.

The gray-green rural bus headed towards the city in the morning light.

Outside the car window, the smoke from the chimneys of Donghai Town was slowly dissipating, and the orange trees on the hillside became a row of silhouettes in the backlight.

The car stereo was still playing trot, singing "Life, oh life, is like a winding river."

Lee Woo-bin leaned against the car window, still clutching the blue and white checkered handkerchief in his hand.

He did not return it to Li Zhengyi.

Li Zhengyi didn't ask him for it either.

He looked out the window at the telephone poles rushing past and suddenly said.

"I won't give up on Bae Joo-hyun's matter."

Li Zheng turned his head to look at him: "What?"

"I'm telling you, Bae Joo-hyun, I'll keep pursuing you. I'm not afraid of you. I saw it coming on the plane earlier."

He paused for a moment.

It seems like I'm looking for a suitable word.

"She was just putting on an act for me."

Li Zhengyi didn't care.

"Do whatever you want, but you'd better do it differently, otherwise, I wouldn't mind making you fly through the air again."

"This time, I will pursue her openly and honestly, not as the young master of the Li family, but as Li Yubin. I won't rely on money, but on a sincere heart."

Li Zheng rolled his eyes.

"Then you have no chance. Strip away your status and money, your heart is empty, and your charm is zero."

Lee Woo-bin did not refute this.

he asks.

"That girl who drives the tricycle, did you really only chat with her for a few minutes?"

"real."

"Then why did you ask her for her contact information?"

Li Zheng thought for a moment and realized that he didn't have a standard answer.

He just added him on a whim; they got along well, so he added him as a friend.

It's that simple.

"I think she sings well, and I might need her when I start my own company in the future."

"Your company? You have the money to start a business?"

"Why should I tell you? This is my trade secret."

Lee Woo-bin chuckled.

I don't believe it.

"Don't believe me if you want."

The bus continued westward.

As we crossed a bridge, the morning light finally pierced through all the fog, turning the entire river into a flowing gold.

The uncle holding the rooster started snoring. The rooster held its head high, majestically guarding its master's dream.

The two elderly women began to share a bag of dried persimmons, and the sweet aroma of the persimmons filled half of the carriage.

Li Zheng looked down at his bare feet, then at his second brother next to him wearing his Converse sneakers that were coming unglued.

"You'll have to buy me a new pair of shoes when we get back."

"Okay. What brand?"

"They're the same brand as your leather shoes."

"My pair was custom-made; they're not in stock."

"That's not called compensation. That's called an upgrade. You have to upgrade me because you're the one who caused me to lose my shoes in the rice paddy."

Lee Woo-bin wanted to refute, but realized that he was indeed in the wrong in this matter.

He eventually gave up, rested his head against the car window, and closed his eyes.

"……good."