How Hard can Losing Money even Be?

As Benny walked out of the dorn, his mind slowly drifted toward a very serious issue.

How should he spend his money wisely?

He had once heard a story about a beggar who won millions through the lottery, only to squander everything within a few months and return to begging on the streets.

Sure, the man probably enjoyed himself while it lasted.

But what came after that?

That thought alone made Benny instinctively flinch.

There was the saying, ’There is no greater misery than a poor man who became rich, only to become poor again.’

In their city, the average monthly salary was around 7,000¥. Just enough for an ordinary person to survive—barely.

Rent, food, transportation, utilities... after all the expenses, most people were left counting ¥ by the end of the month.

Yet Selena still managed to set aside 1,000¥ every month for his living expenses.

And this month, on top of that, she had even sent him another 6,000¥ for college books and necessities.

That was nearly an average person’s entire monthly salary.

And despite that, she still seemed capable of living normally afterward.

That alone was enough to tell Benny one thing:

The so-called "average salary" released by the government was complete nonsense.

Not everyone earned the same amount, some people struggled beneath that number.

Others quietly earned several times more.

Take Uncle Shen and Aunty Luo for example.

In this life, they had never spoken to him about their income before.

But in his previous life, after years of becoming one of their regular customers, the couple had eventually opened up during casual conversations late at night while cleaning the stall.

Their earnings had genuinely shocked him back then.

After deducting the cost of meat, seasoning, charcoal, and miscellaneous expenses, the two still made nearly 800¥ a day.

And during special occasions, like company gatherings, student reunions, club events, they could even pull in 1,300¥ in a single evening.

A roadside barbecue stall was making more money than university lecturers.

It sounded ridiculous at first, but reality had always been more absurd than fiction.

Of course, Uncle Shen’s stall wasn’t an ordinary one. It had the perfect location right beside the college district, and after years of operation, their reputation among students was excellent.

The stall was packed almost every night.

If opening a roadside stall was truly that profitable, then why would anyone bother studying themselves half to death just to become a professor?

The answer was simple.

Not every stall could become Uncle Shen’s stall.

Location mattered, timing mattered, skills mattered and most important of them all... luck mattered the most.

While lost in thought, Benny eventually arrived in front of an old rented apartment building.

The corridor walls were faded and cracked from age, and the iron railings carried traces of rust.

The building looked worn-down and shabby, the kind of place people only rented because they had no better option.

Still, at the very least, it was clean.

That alone already made it more respectable than many cheaper apartments nearby.

Benny walked up to one of the doors and pressed the doorbell.

A muffled voice soon sounded from inside.

"I’m coming! Give me a minute!"

A few minutes later, the door finally opened.

Standing there was a disheveled figure wearing a pair of thick glasses with blurry lenses.

Her hair was messy, several strands sticking up in random directions, and her half-open eyes looked completely unfocused, as though she had only just crawled out of bed.

She squinted at the person standing outside her door.

"Hello, Sister," Benny greeted first.

The girl froze in place before suddenly slamming the door shut directly in his face.

Bang!

"..."

Benny stared silently at the closed door for a few seconds.

Then he casually glanced around the corridor.

Looks like she immediately went to sleep after her work, he thought inwardly.

Not long afterward, the door opened once more.

This time, the girl standing there looked entirely different.

Her hair had been hurriedly combed straight, her glasses cleaned, and even her clothes were tidied up properly.

Although there were still traces of exhaustion on her face, at least now she resembled a normal human instead of a wandering ghost.

"Benny," she called out awkwardly.

"Hello again, Sister."

"Quick, come inside."

She held the door open for him, pretending as though the previous incident had never happened.

And from the look on her face...

She fully intended to keep pretending that way.

Benny obediently walked into the apartment.

But the moment he stepped inside, even he was slightly stunned.

The place was... a disaster.

Several garbage bags were piled near the corner of the room. Instant noodle cups littered the table.

Clothes were draped over chairs, the sofa, and even hanging halfway off a cabinet.

There were books everywhere.

On the floor, on the couch and even on the dining table.

Even the tiny path used for walking looked like it had been forcefully carved out from a battlefield.

The entire apartment carried the atmosphere of someone surviving solely on caffeine and sheer determination.

"Uh... Sister?"

Selena immediately looked embarrassed.

She scratched her cheek lightly before forcing out a dry laugh.

"I just didn’t have the time..." she muttered. "I’ll clean everything this weekend. Promise."

Benny looked around the apartment once more.

Then a thought instantly surfaced in his mind.

Hmm... If I help her clean this place up, maybe she’ll go easier on me after finding out I skipped school for two days.

The idea sounded more and more brilliant the longer he thought about it.

Without hesitation, Benny rolled up his sleeves.

"Alright, Sister," he declared confidently. "You go take a nap first and leave this place to me."

Before Selena could even react, he had already grabbed one of the garbage bags from the corner.

"By the time you wake up," he continued proudly, "I’ll make this apartment look so good that you won’t even recognize it anymore."