Shu Er wanted to drag Huo Chao into the yarn shop to pick out some nice yarn. Ideally, she was hoping for colors suited for young girls, like pink and beige.
Huo Chao seemed to guess her intention and pretended to forget what she had said earlier. “What’s wrong? It’s getting late, let’s go.”
Shu Er groaned. She pulled out her mobile phone, found the picture of the hand-woven bag, and zoomed in for Huo Chao to see, leaving him no room to escape. “Brother, I told you I want this!”
Huo Chao averted his eyes, trying to suppress his impatience. “Then you can knit it yourself.”
Shu Er argued confidently, “I can’t!”
She was a girl who didn’t know how to knit; how could he possibly know? What kind of logic was that?
She poked him in the side with her finger, but Huo Chao quickly grabbed her hand. “Stop messing around.”
With a serious look, Shu Er replied, “I’m not messing around! Look, this bag was knitted by a famous actress’s mother for her. It’s not really about the bag; it’s the sentiment that matters.”
“Then I’ll buy you a Chanel bag,” Huo Chao said, noticing the brooch on the bag. Buying a bag should count as sentiment too, right?
Shu Er got angry. “If you buy it, it will have no soul! Only a bag that’s knitted by hand has a soul!”
What kind of “soul” did a bag have? Was it going to come to life?
Huo Chao, a typical guy, found it hard to understand.
He pushed Shu Er into the back seat. “We’re going home.”
Shu Er rolled her eyes internally.
She had already figured out that if the yarn was cheap, she could just buy it and the needles herself and give them to Huo Chao.
There was no way he wouldn’t knit for her.
Even if he refused, it didn’t matter; she would just keep pestering him until he personally knitted her a bag!
With that thought in mind, she stopped pressing the issue since there were many passersby, some of whom looked curiously at them, likely wondering what happened between them.
Shu Er wasn’t interested in letting anyone gossip about her, so after she got back into the car, she instinctively wrapped her arms around Huo Chao’s waist, signaling him to start driving.
Huo Chao let out a sigh of relief.
At first, he found it annoying to have someone hold his waist; he didn’t like it and had mentioned it to Shu Er several times. But now, faced with the choice between that and knitting a bag, he would choose the embrace.
—
On her way home, Shu Er ran into Aunt Zhang, who lived across from their house.
Aunt Zhang winked at her, probably because she saw Huo Chao sending her home again. Shu Er smiled politely but didn’t engage further.
She knew Aunt Zhang probably meant well, but she just didn’t like nosy people who would always meddle and report back to their parents.
It was Friday, and her father had come home early. The whole family, all five of them, rarely gathered for dinner.
After finishing dinner, Shu Er was about to head back to her room when Shu Rou pulled her into her room first.
Shu Rou’s room was a little bigger than hers, but not by much. It was clean and overall very pink, which was quite in line with Shu Rou’s aesthetics.
Shu Er leaned against the wall, not knowing what her cheap sister was up to, and asked straight to the point, “What’s wrong?”
Shu Rou said with a gossipy look on her face, “I heard from my classmates that if you vote for the legendary Shu Er, you can join the group with big shots and grab red envelopes?”
Shu Er was a little surprised; she didn’t expect the news to spread so quickly, that even Shu Rou, who was in vocational high school, had heard about it.
She found it amusing. “Sister, what’s your deal? You’re not even from No. 1 Middle School.”
“I’m not, but you are!” Shu Rou shot back.
“So?”
“So, have you voted for Shu Er yet?”
Shu Er shrugged. She couldn’t vote for herself, and even if she did, it would be invalid. So, she replied, “Nope.”
Shu Rou looked at her in exasperation. “Are you stupid? Just voting gives you a chance to grab red envelopes!”
There were 20 envelopes a day, each worth at least a thousand yuan.
The big shot probably had too much money to throw around, giving out 20,000 yuan in red envelopes daily. After four days, that was a substantial amount; how generous was he?
But it also made people envious of Shu Er.
Shu Rou felt a twinge of jealousy, but there were some things that couldn’t be envied.
Her phone was buzzing incessantly with notifications. She picked it up and read the messages while saying, “If students from other schools could vote too, that would be great. I could really use some pocket money.”
Shu Er didn’t know how to respond. It seemed many of Shu Rou’s classmates were thinking the same way. Shu Er felt she could win easily this time.
She leaned over to see Shu Rou’s screen, noticing their vocational high school group was buzzing about the red envelope issue.
Since she had completely handed the matter over to Huo Chao, she hadn’t been paying much attention to her own vote count. She didn’t realize that getting into that red envelope group wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
Not only did they need to verify the person’s name and class, but the individual also had to submit their vote results directly to the teacher, making it impossible to change their mind later.
It seemed that a person from the student union was responsible for the verification and was taking the task seriously. To rally votes for her, Huo Chao was not only using his financial resources but also his manpower.
Shu Er looked at the chat records in the vocational high school group for a while. Most of them were discussing the red envelope group while some were guessing which rich and noble flower Shu Er belonged to, and why they had never heard of her before.
Upon seeing that comment, Shu Er instinctively touched her face.
Of course, she was the most precious flower in the world!
Shu Rou noticed Shu Er spacing out and hurriedly urged her, “Vote for her!”
Shu Er shrugged, unbothered. “It’s useless.”
Shu Rou looked at her strangely, “Why would it be useless?”
“The rules for the campus goddess selection say you can’t vote for yourself.”
Shu Rou looked at her from head to toe for a long time, and then sneered, “Are you a plastic bag? Otherwise, how can you be so pretentious?”
Shu Er felt annoyed by that comment. How could she pretend? She is the person involved.
But Shu Rou refused to believe it. In her mind, her younger sister was just a girl who had grown up in the countryside with their grandmother, who had only returned home this month.
Besides, how could someone who had just transferred attract the attention of the school’s big shots so quickly? Is that even possible?
Are the big shots so easy to seduce? She certainly doesn’t think so.
Looking irritated, she said, “Do what you want. If you don’t want to vote, then don’t find excuses.”
As the saying goes, you can’t wake someone who’s pretending to be asleep, so Shu Er didn’t bother to explain. Let Shu Rou think whatever she wants.
Shu Er knew she had never told a lie.
—
The weekend always flew by, and before they knew it, it was Monday.
Even though voting was still open all day Monday, the winner for the “Campus Goddess” title for the second-year class had already been decided.
And that person is—Shu Er.
Shu Er was now the student with the most votes in the entire school. Whether it was because of Huo Chao’s face or his money, most students from No. 1 Middle School had voted for her, with very few opting not to.
As soon as she entered the classroom, her classmates showered her with congratulations. Shu Er smiled broadly, accepting all the well wishes.
What is this scenery?
This is it!
The entire class was now aware that Huo Chao had been spending money on Shu Er, transforming her in their eyes from a new transfer student into a captivating little goblin. If it were a few thousand years ago, she might have been capable of bringing down a kingdom.
In order to celebrate Shu Er’s successful victory, Zhao Zhifeng suggested that they celebrate it properly.
The venue was a private dining restaurant located closest to the school.
Shu Er brought Ning Meng along and joined Huo Chao and their group at the restaurant.
The five of them sat at a large round table, with Shu Er positioned between Huo Chao and Ning Meng.
After ordering the dishes, the restaurant served food quickly.
Soon, meat wrapped in vegetables was served. Wrapped meat consisted of lettuce, sauce, cucumbers, and chunks of meat all combined into one dish.
As soon as Ning Meng saw this dish, she exclaimed, “I love this!”
Ning Meng is a meat lover, so her eyes naturally lit up when she saw the dish.
However, when Shu Er saw the fatty meat, she lost her appetite. That much fat meant a lot of calories. While it was easy to eat, digesting it would be another story.
The meat was still roasting on the grill, emitting bursts of aroma.
Xu Chen and Ning Meng were eager to eat the meat, and they started eating it as soon as the meat was cooked.
Among the five, four of them dove in, while Shu Er remained indifferent.
Ning Meng, with grease glistening at the corners of her mouth, cheerfully called out, “Little Ear, don’t you want to eat?”
Xu Chen added, “Little Shu Er, this dish is the restaurant’s signature dish. It’s really delicious.”
Shu Er felt disdain in her heart. The meat was too fatty and greasy. Plus, eating such oily food could lead to breakouts, which would affect her beauty.
Nevertheless, under everyone’s gaze, she picked up a piece of lettuce and slowly took Huo Chao’s left hand, wrapping the lettuce around it.
Huo Chao had exceptionally nice hands—his fingers were slender and pale, with well-groomed, round nails that were a pleasure to look at.
Huo Chao: …
Everyone: ???
Shu Er dipped her chopsticks into some sauce and playfully drew a pair of smiling eyes on Huo Chao’s hand, adding a curved mouth to create a happy face. Then, she placed some cucumbers on his hand while wrapping the slightly small lettuce leaf around it, grinning as she said, “I don’t eat fatty meat; I’ll eat my big pig’s trotters instead.”
Wasn’t it just like a big pig’s trotter?
Once the heroine appears, she will be overshadowed.
So, before the heroine arrives, she might as well do as much as she can!
READ ADVANCE CHAPTERS ON MY KO-FI!
