Zhong Suian froze.
No wonder he hadn’t been with his three roommates—he had been working here.
Thinking back to what his coworker had said about “just getting paid yesterday,” she suddenly felt a little guilty.
The twenty cents she had accepted without a second thought had actually been earned through Zhong Yaoran’s hard work.
The campus parcel station only hired students from the university as part-time workers.
During the rare lunch break, the others were in no hurry to get back to work.
They ate leisurely while chatting.
“Hey, why did you guys take this part-time job?”
The boy beside them set down his lunchbox and sighed.
“What else? I want to buy a new phone.”
“Same here,” another boy quickly chimed in.
“I’ve been eyeing a game console for ages. I want it so badly I even dream about it.”
Biting on his chopsticks, he sighed dreamily.
“Seriously, when is fortune ever going to fall from the sky? If someone randomly gave me one, I’d quit this job immediately.”
“Stop dreaming.”
Another boy laughed and shoved him.
“If we weren’t desperate for money, who’d want to sort packages out here in this heat?”
After joking and complaining for a while, the conversation naturally shifted back to Zhong Yaoran.
One of them lowered his voice as he looked at Zhong Yaoran’s busy figure.
“Have you noticed? He’s the hardest worker every single day, but after payday he won’t even buy himself a drink.”
Everyone immediately nodded in agreement.
“Exactly! Every day he just eats steamed buns and pickled vegetables, yet he still looks perfectly happy. Something’s definitely going on.”
The group exchanged glances before someone suddenly slapped his thigh.
“I know!”
“He must be dating someone!”
Wiggling his eyebrows, he continued,
“Think about it. He’s working this hard because he’s saving money to buy gifts for his girlfriend.”
“Tsk, what a great guy.”
A chubby boy stroked his chin with admiration.
“If it were me, I definitely couldn’t keep it up.”
Before they could continue, a voice suddenly came from behind them.
“Zhong Yaoran?”
The group jumped in surprise.
Their laughter instantly stopped as they turned around.
Zhong Yaoran’s busy figure visibly stiffened.
When he saw Zhong Suian, his face filled with astonishment.
“A-An’an? Why are you here?”
He immediately dropped the package in his hands, jumped down from the delivery cart, and hurried over to her.
Seeing the younger sister he rarely got to meet, Zhong Yaoran became unusually nervous.
After holding it in for a long time, he finally managed to say,
“It’s so hot outside. Why didn’t you stay at your university? Why are you running around?”
Although his words sounded like a scolding, his face clearly radiated nothing but delight.
Zhong Suian simply smiled innocently and waved her phone.
“Didn’t someone tell me yesterday to come pick something up?”
“You forgot already?”
Zhong Yaoran was immediately speechless.
He had indeed said that.
He just hadn’t expected Zhong Suian to actually come.
And of all times…
“I left it in my dorm.”
He scratched his head awkwardly.
“If you were coming, why didn’t you tell me in advance?”
“It’s fine.”
Zhong Suian wasn’t bothered.
“You do your work.”
She lifted the bags in her hand.
“Oh, by the way.”
“I brought these for you.”
The paper shopping bags were stuffed full, making it impossible to tell what was inside.
Zhong Yaoran frowned.
“I don’t need anything.”
“Don’t waste your money next time.”
Even so, his eyes remained glued to the bags.
He repeatedly wiped the dust from his hands onto his clothes before carefully accepting them.
Before he even had a chance to open them, his coworkers immediately swarmed over, their faces full of curiosity.
“Oho~”
The chubby boy whistled.
“Who’s this beautiful girl? Aren’t you going to introduce her?”
Another nudged Zhong Yaoran with his elbow.
“So many bags? What did she buy? Let us take a look.”
Zhong Yaoran rolled his eyes.
“Get lost.”
“Don’t you guys have work to do?”
“You almost knocked my bags over.”
As he spoke, he carefully opened the bags.
The others eagerly crowded around.
The air fell silent for several seconds.
Then a chorus of shocked cries erupted.
“Holy crap!”
Xiao Zhang’s voice even cracked.
“Isn’t this the newest Fruit phone?”
“Wait!”
“There’s a tablet, a laptop, headphones, and a smartwatch underneath…”
The chubby boy swallowed hard.
“This is the entire Apple ecosystem!”
“Hold on!”
A bespectacled young man rushed over and pulled out a black box.
“I-Isn’t this the limited-edition game console?”
“I took this part-time job just to save up for one! Waaaah…”
So fortune really had fallen from the sky.
Unfortunately, it hadn’t landed on him.
“There are so many clothes underneath too…”
“That’s unbelievably thoughtful…”
Amid everyone’s envious gazes, Zhong Yaoran stood frozen in place, clutching the shopping bags.
His throat tightened.
“T-There’s too much…”
“I can’t use all of this…”
Zhong Suian replied casually,
“I bought them on a whim.”
“If you don’t need them now, just keep them.”
She pointed toward the bag of clothes.
“They’re all your size.”
“I got them as complimentary items when I bought the bag, so just wear them.”
Silence suddenly filled the air.
Since when could Hermès clothing be described as “complimentary”?
Any single piece cost more than half a year’s wages from their part-time jobs.
She was seriously wealthy.
Their eyes turned red with envy.
Xiao Zhang suddenly dropped to his knees dramatically in front of Zhong Suian.
“Little sister, are you looking for someone to cling to your leg?”
“I eat very little, work very hard, and I don’t mind being number three!”
“Me! Me!”
“I’m twenty years old, have no bad habits, and I’m perfectly healthy!”
“I can even marry into your family!”
Zhong Yaoran’s face darkened like the bottom of a pot.
The veins on his forehead bulged.
He grabbed an empty cardboard box nearby and threw it toward the crowd.
“What are you yelling about?”
“Finished with your work already?”
The moment he shouted, everyone scattered like frightened birds.
As they ran away, one of them shouted back,
“Look at him getting jealous!”
“Relax! We’re not stealing your sister!”
Zhong Yaoran’s face darkened even further.
Once everyone had disappeared, leaving only the two siblings, Zhong Yaoran suddenly felt awkward.
“Um…”
His voice was slightly hoarse.
“Don’t pay attention to those idiots.”
“These things are too expensive.”
“I really don’t need them.”
“You should take them back.”
Zhong Suian shook her head.
“Come on.”
“Why are you being so polite with me?”
“I haven’t even had breakfast yet.”
“Want to eat together?”
Remembering the two steamed buns Zhong Yaoran had been eating, Zhong Suian originally wanted to take him out for a nice meal.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out.
He had a competition at three o’clock that afternoon, so they could only make do with lunch in the campus cafeteria.
To keep her lonely older brother company, Zhong Suian happily decided to stay and watch the competition.
Besides…
A sports university was full of broad shoulders, narrow waists, and athletic physiques.
Since she had come all this way, it would be a waste not to enjoy the view.
Although Zhong Yaoran kept insisting he didn’t care, he secretly felt a great deal of pressure.
He silently resolved to perform well in front of his sister.
He went early to the locker room to change, leaving Zhong Suian wandering backstage by herself.
As she wandered, she accidentally got lost.
“It should… be this way?”
She hesitantly pushed open a door.
Instead of a hallway, she walked straight into a warm, solid body.
Caught completely off guard as her face bumped into the other person’s muscular chest, Zhong Suian instinctively covered her nose and looked up.
The first thing she saw was a broad expanse of smooth, damp skin.
He had obviously just finished showering.
Warm steam still clung to him, leaving his fair skin lightly flushed.
Tiny droplets of water slid from the ends of his hair, traveled across his chest and abdomen, followed the lines of his V-shaped waist, and disappeared beneath the waistband of his shorts, leaving a damp patch behind.
The feeling was so unexpectedly firm that she reflexively squeezed his chest twice.
Only when a muffled groan sounded above her head did she snap back to reality and quickly pull her hand away.
“S-Sorry.”
“I didn’t mean to come in.”
“This place is just so big that I got lost…”
“Oh, right.”
“Speaking of big…”
Her gaze drifted downward and stopped.
Well…
It was indeed quite impressive.