Lunar Farmer: Richest Man, Regretful Ex

When applying for colleges, I give up a prestigious university for Priscilla Reed's sake. But in the fifth year of our relationship, I break up with her. I see her outside the dorms, diving into Jeremy Stark's arms and tilting her face up to kiss him as no one else matters. Priscilla sneers at me. "You're just some farmer. What kind of life can you possibly give me?" She seems to forget that the Chanel dress she wears and the Hermès bag she carries are things I bought for her. That's the moment I end things with her. Let someone else play the doormat. I'm done. After that, I focus on farming, even managing to grow crops on the moon. Then, the press reveals who I really am—the son of Javonbury's richest man. Jeremy's father comes to me, bowing and scraping. He even forces Jeremy to kneel in front of me so that he can beg me for a partnership. Priscilla's eyes are red and swollen as she tugs on my sleeve and tells me she regrets everything. Chapter 1 I'd just finished working out in the fields, but there I was, holding a small cake and rushing to see my girlfriend, Priscilla Reed. I'd forgotten that this mud-splattered version of me was the one she hated to see most. Downstairs at the female dorm, a few young women were chattering away. "Priscilla, are you and Jeremy Stark together now?" "You're amazing. You even have a rich kid like Jeremy wrapped around your finger." Their fawning made me stop in my tracks. I thought I would hear Priscilla deny it and explain everything, but I only saw her lower her head shyly. "Don't be silly. We're just friends. Jerry just invited me to a concert, that's all," she said. The other women exchanged looks and giggled. "Just a concert, huh? Then why didn't he invite me to it?" "He's obviously pursuing you. When are you going to set up dinner so we can help you check him out?" One of them said enviously, "Then again, it makes perfect sense. Priscilla is rich and pretty herself. It's only natural that another rich kid is pursuing her." A sharp pain shot through my chest. Priscilla and I had grown up together, and she'd also been my girlfriend for the past four years. Yet she had never once acknowledged our relationship in front of anyone. She'd once said, "Is it really that important to go public? Loving someone is something you keep in your heart. It's not just about pinning a chat in WhatsApp." But once, I accidentally saw that she had pinned her chat with Jeremy. She'd lied to me over and over again, and I'd backed down each time because I loved her. This time, though, I didn't want to back down anymore. I stepped out from under the shade of a tree. Priscilla froze when she saw me, but she still remembered to turn to her roommates and explain, "My upperclassman from the student council needs to talk to me about something. You guys go on ahead, okay? I'll be right back." I was the upperclassman, and Jeremy was "Jerry". It was clear who was near and dear to her. Priscilla's roommates weren't in any rush to leave, though. One of them glanced at the cake I held and sneered. "Some people really don't know their place. They're really reaching beyond their league." She slowly ran her eyes over my muddy clothes. "Priscilla's bag alone costs several thousand dollars. Can you even earn that much in a lifetime?" I was the one who'd bought that bag for Priscilla last week, wasn't I? Afraid I would expose her, Priscilla hurriedly grabbed my arm and dragged me off to the side. "Don't say that. There's nothing shameful about earning money with your own two hands." From a distance, I could still hear her roommate saying, "Priscilla's just too nice. Her family's loaded, yet she doesn't look down on that farm boy." In the shade, Priscilla's expression turned cold as she demanded, "What are you doing here?" I held the cake out to her. "I wanted you to—" I didn't even get to finish saying that I wanted her to celebrate my birthday with me before the cake was slapped out of my hands. It hit the ground and turned into a splattered mess. Priscilla said impatiently, "I already told you I'm on a diet and can't eat sweets. Why can't you get that through your head?" Her expression turned icier, and a flash of disgust flickered through her eyes. It wasn't just the cake that lay in pieces on the ground. My broken heart lay there with it. I finally couldn't hold it in anymore. All the grievances I'd swallowed over the years surged out at once. "Don't think I don't know you're going to that concert with Jeremy Stark tonight." I thought that, at this point, Priscilla would at least look guilty. I was wrong. "Since you already know the truth, then why bother questioning me?" She lazily toyed with her freshly done nails. They'd cost 250 dollars, and I'd paid for them. She continued, "I just want a better life. What's so wrong about that? If you want to blame someone, blame the fact that you were born in some backwater town and will never make it big in your whole life. Jerry, on the other hand, was born with a silver spoon. "Oh, and also blame yourself for insisting on majoring in agriculture. You always reek of dirt and mud that never washes off. I play the violin, and my roommates either play piano or cello. How am I supposed to hold my head high if they find out I have a farmer for a boyfriend?" The more she spoke, the more worked up she became. In the end, her face was blotchy with anger. Before I could say anything in response, a lazy male voice drifted over. "Priscilla, I'm here to pick you up for barbecue. I also wanted to return the thing you left in my car." As he spoke, he pulled a crumpled pair of red lace panties from his pocket. Chapter 2 I'd suspected for a long time that Priscilla was half out the door of our relationship. About a month ago, she'd posted a social media update. Flowers, wine, steak—everything was done in exactly the style she liked. In one corner of the photo, a man's wrist had been visible, with a very expensive watch peeking out. Back in the day, just because Priscilla had said that she didn't want to be too far away from me, I'd given up going to a prestigious university in a different city and chosen a local university instead. In her senior year of high school, I'd tutored her every single day, just so her grades could reach the cutoff for the university we both attended now. In freshman year, she'd tugged at my sleeve as her tears fell. Every tear had been a hammer on my heart, making my chest go numb with heartache. I'd wanted to reach out and wipe her tears away, but I'd feared that my fingers, rough and callused from constantly gripping a hoe, would hurt her delicate skin. So, when she told me her roommate was some rich, spoiled socialite who always dressed in Chanel and carried Hermès bags, I'd promised to buy them for her despite not having heard of those brands before. During that time, I'd skipped class every day to work. A day only had 24 hours, and I'd wished I didn't have to sleep at all just so I could earn more money. When I'd finally given Priscilla her first Gucci bag, her eyes had lit up like there'd been stars in them. She'd thrown herself into my arms and said sweetly, "Gideon, I know how you feel about me. I'll be your girlfriend." In that moment, I would've given her my life if she'd asked. After we officially became a couple, I'd rarely said no to Priscilla. I'd covered her living expenses and often given her extra money to buy clothes and bags. But she'd wanted more and more, and I'd slowly realized that what I earned from part-time jobs would never be enough. So, I'd started teaching myself programming, trying to make money with my brain instead. Later, I'd discovered that even though my major was agriculture, most of it focused on modern, high-tech farming. The programming I'd learned became a powerful boost. Because of my grades, I'd gotten to know quite a few entrepreneurs. One of them had turned out to be my biological father—the richest man in Javonbury. After being reunited with my father, the money I had just kept growing, and the things Priscilla wore had become more and more expensive. I'd been afraid Mom would be upset, so I'd never made public who my father was. And because I'd been busy all the time, the only way I could make it up to Priscilla was by giving her money. I used to think I was lucky because Priscilla wasn't greedy. If she'd wanted both my money and my constant company, I really would've been stretched to the breaking point. But now, the realization dawned on me—she'd never thought much of me as a person from the very beginning. From start to finish, she'd only ever wanted to use me. I stared at the panties in front of me and at Priscilla, whose ears were red. Suddenly, I felt disgusted. It was my birthday, yet she hadn't texted me all day. She claimed she was on a diet and couldn't eat cake, but she was all for having barbecue with Jeremy. She hadn't suddenly gone rotten. She'd been rotten from the start. Jeremy stuffed the panties into his pocket and looked at Priscilla with a teasing smile. "Since you're not taking them, I guess you want me to keep them as a souvenir." She playfully slapped his chest, while he just wrapped an arm around her waist in return. With a tug, my girlfriend fell straight into another man's arms, her full chest pressed tightly against him. My eyes burned. I dug my nails so deep into my palms that they broke the skin, yet I felt no pain. In a daze, I saw ten-year-old Priscilla in front of me again, her hair in pigtails as she handed me a slice of juicy, ripe watermelon. "Gid, this is for you." "What's a lowly farmer like you doing here?" Jeremy's voice shattered my beautiful memory into pieces. I stood there in the same old camouflage clothes I wore for working the fields, so worn that they'd turned pale at the seams. My pant legs were splattered with dirt from the mountains and the fields. In front of me, Priscilla wore a perfectly tailored black dress and a pair of nude lambskin heels. As for Jeremy, he had on a custom outfit with no visible logo. Next to them, I really did look like something the cat had dragged in. "Why aren't you getting lost? We're about to have some fun in the car. What, are you planning to sit in the front seat and watch?" Jeremy snarled. Priscilla covered his mouth with her hand, her voice sugary sweet as she whined, "I'm going to hit you if you keep talking nonsense!" Then, she turned to me, her tone suddenly icy. "Gideon, you should head back. I'll be on time for tomorrow's meeting…" The rest of her words were swallowed up as Jeremy captured her lips with his. I couldn't hold back anymore. I swung my fist and smashed it straight into Jeremy's face. Chapter 3 Jeremy covered his nose, yelling that he'd get someone to take me out. I didn't back down. "Go ahead if you've got the guts. I'll make sure everyone knows you're a shameless side piece!" Jeremy froze on the spot and just watched me walk away. I thought this meant things between Priscilla and me were over for good, but the next day, she called me. "Gideon, what's wrong with you? Why didn't you transfer my living expenses this month?" I was speechless. "Whatever. I'm not gonna argue with you. Just transfer me 10,000 dollars first. It's my birthday this month, and I want to treat my roommates to dinner." Had she lost her memory, or did she think I had? I hung up on her without the slightest hesitation. She called again, and I declined the call. After a few rounds of this, I blocked her number. Not long after, a new number came through. I picked up, and Priscilla's enraged voice blasted in my ear. "You've really grown a pair, haven't you, Gideon? How dare you hang up on me!" "What do you want? Spit it out, or I'm hanging up ag—" "Wait!" she screeched. Her tone remained haughty as she said, "Look, whatever. I won't ask for 10,000 dollars this month. Just give me 5,000 dollars for—" I hung up again without a word. … That afternoon, I was out in the fields turning the soil when one of my classmates ran over, waggling his brows and saying a hot girl was looking for me. I walked over and saw Priscilla. She was gingerly standing at the edge of the field, one hand hooked around a small designer bag, and the other clamped over her nose as if something reeked. When she saw me come over, her brows drew together in annoyance. "Why did you hang up on me? If you hadn't done that, would I have had to come all the way out here to look for you?" Looking at how disgusted she acted, one would think she'd forgotten that we were both kids from the countryside. Hadn't we all worked the harvest back in the day? Now that she was all polished and put together, she actually looked down on a bit of dirt. She must have snuck out here, because the second she saw her roommates walking by, she immediately covered her face. She hadn't expected them to notice anyway. They spotted her and stared in surprise. "Priscilla, what are you doing out here?" Then, they noticed me. They instantly formed a protective circle around Priscilla like mother hens with a chick. "Is he harassing you? Don't be scared. We'll report him to his advisor." I met Priscilla's diffident gaze and deliberately asked, "Was I the one who asked you to come here?" She faltered, tongue-tied, but in everyone else's eyes, it just looked like I was putting her on the spot. One of her roommates said angrily, "Don't be scared of him. I already texted Jeremy. He's on his way." This time, Priscilla truly panicked. She stammered, "N-No, that's not necessary." "Relax. Jeremy's got connections with the university. He'll definitely make them expel Gideon so he'll never get the chance to harass you again." "Gideon wasn't harassing me. Let's just go," Priscilla muttered. She wanted to leave, but I wasn't going to let her. I stepped in front of them, blocking their way. "Priscilla, didn't you come here to get money from me? Have you changed your mind?" "What? He owes you money? Priscilla, don't be afraid. You have to make him pay you back!" Priscilla couldn't back out, but she couldn't push me, either. She could only force herself to put on a calm front. "Gideon, forget it. Just pay me back what you owe, and I won't hold this against you." She'd told that lie so many times that she actually believed it herself now. But the truth was, I'd been throwing money at her since elementary school. The year her parents divorced, neither of them had wanted her. I'd kneeled the whole day and taken a beating so bad I was bedridden for three days before Mom relented and agreed to let Priscilla live with us so she wouldn't starve to death. As Mom dabbed ointment on my bruises, she had asked if it was worth it. My ass had been on fire, but I'd felt sweet on the inside. "Of course it's worth it. Priscilla's going to be my wife in the future. It's only right for a man to protect his wife." Later, Priscilla ended up living with her mother, who had no income. I'd skipped breakfast and saved every cent so I could buy her food instead. Yet the girl I'd once protected with everything I had was now demanding that I pay her back like it was only natural. While we were at a stalemate, a flashy sports car screeched to a halt in front of us. Jeremy climbed out with all the swagger in the world and lifted his chin slightly. He said, "I heard someone's been bullying my woman."