It wasn’t until she reached the bus stop just outside the campus gate that Gu Lingluo finally managed to shake off the clingy class monitor.
The monitor waited for the bus; she walked toward a small alleyway nearby.
She could sense a faint negative energy nearby. She wondered if it was related to the ripple source she was investigating recently.
Just as she reached the alley entrance, the air beside her churned. A bicycle brushed past, lifting a few strands of her long hair that slowly settled back down.
Screeech!
The sound of brakes.
The bicycle stopped sideways in front of her. A beautiful, impossibly annoying face smiled at her with clumsy acting. “What a coincidence, meeting you again.”
Coincidence?
Hmph!
Gu Lingluo was usually very well-mannered and polite to people, but this one woman, in particular, made her feel frustrated every time she saw her.
This troublemaker!
“Don’t waste your time on me. I will not agree to be in a group with you.”
Liu Xia’s smile froze on her face.
Patron Mom was truly stunning—a beauty that could overshadow the fish and geese, make the moon hide, and flowers blush. Any praise she could think of could be pinned on her. But her words were incredibly impolite.
However…
In this era where beauty is justice, someone with Patron Mom’s overwhelming good looks was certainly spoiled since childhood. It was normal for her to be emotionally unintelligent, as few people were as firm in their beliefs and well-adjusted as Liu Xia.
In short, long live understanding!
Liu Xia might not have had many skills, but her self-counseling was instant. Her awkward smile immediately became dazzling again.
“Actually, you don’t need to be so hostile toward me. I just think you’re pretty and kind-hearted, and a great student, so I want to be your friend.”
Gu Lingluo’s face remained cold. “I regret to inform you that I never need friends.”
With that, she bypassed Liu Xia and continued walking.
Liu Xia quickly turned her bike to follow. How could she not follow? This was her life!
“How can you not need friends? Every person needs friends, especially when walking home alone! Don’t you know there are so many perverts these days? A goddess-level beauty like you is the easiest target for perverts!”
Gu Lingluo didn’t stop walking. She glanced sideways at Liu Xia. “Are you referring to yourself?”
Liu Xia: “…”
The silence was suddenly heavy, and the awkwardness was everywhere.
Liu Xia cleared her throat, slowed her pace a little, and quickly caught up with a clackety-clack of her tires.
“I think you might have misunderstood me. It’s just that the first time I saw you, I felt you were… familiar! Especially close! Don’t they always say that five hundred glances in a past life lead to one passing shoulder-to-shoulder in this one? I think both of our necks must have nearly broken in our past lives, just to exchange a back-row and front-row seat in this one.”
Gu Lingluo finally allowed a smile to bloom, though no warmth reached her eyes.
“Has anyone ever told you that you are…?”
“What?”
“Frivolous.”
“Me? Frivolous?”
Liu Xia exhaled and looked up at the sky. From now on, her name was not Liu Xia, but Liu No-Anger.
“I’m just being honest. How does that make me frivolous? Besides, you’re a woman, and I’m a woman. How can ‘frivolous’ apply here? Are you saying you’re gay and think I was flirting with you?”
Gu Lingluo gave her a chilling glare and continued walking straight ahead.
Such an ordinary reaction. No sign of shame turning to anger, no sign of being exposed. A clear-cut straight woman’s reaction!
See? What was all that about “nine out of ten beauties are gay”? Pure nonsense!
She and her Patron Mom were both straight—unyieldingly straight! Steel straight!
She chased after her with a grin, continuing her brainwashing attempt.
“Don’t be mad~~ I’m just being nice, worried that you’ll be targeted by criminals.”
“Fine, I admit I have a selfish motive: I want to form a CP with you, since you’re the top student, right? But don’t worry, my language learning ability is also quite good. Our combination would be a powerful alliance, absolutely invincible! Getting that credit in one year won’t be a problem!”
“Okay, we can put the CP thing aside for now. Come on, let me give you a ride home. Let’s let bygones be bygones.”
“Hey? Why are you walking so fast? I’m talking to you!”
“Hello! Junior! Gu Lingluo! Patron Mom!!”
Why was this person so annoying? She wouldn’t stop talking even when ignored!
And what was with “Patron Mom”?
Gu Lingluo automatically activated her firewall, walking calmly and looking straight ahead, pretending not to hear Liu Xia’s increasingly flowery words.
Liu Xia chattered incessantly, following her out of the alley and onto the main road.
By the wall behind the campus, a towering old locust tree stretched its branches. Gu Lingluo stopped, looking up. The setting sun reddened the crown of the tree. A single locust leaf floated down, and she reached out to catch it, twirling the tiny stem between her fingers.
Even without her Thousand-Fold Sight, she could sense dark energy swirling around the veins of the leaf.
This tree… there’s a problem.
Liu Xia leaned in. “Wow! What a cute leaf! You have such good taste!”
Gu Lingluo closed her eyes briefly. This forced flattery… could it get any more cringey?
It wasn’t convenient with people around during the day. She would come back at night to examine it carefully.
Gu Lingluo tucked the locust leaf into her book and continued walking.
Liu Xia, undeterred by rejection, was energized. She chased after her and patted the bike’s rear seat. “Come on, come on! You’ve walked this far. You must be tired, right? I’ll give you a ride!”
Having found a clue, Gu Lingluo no longer felt like walking. She stopped and turned to look at Liu Xia, her semi-lidded starry eyes unfathomably deep.
“Have you heard that saying?”
“Which one?”
“I’d rather cry in a BMW than laugh on a bicycle. When you can send me home in a BMW, come back and talk to me.”
Liu Xia was petrified.
What… what did that mean?
Are the requirements for finding a same-sex partner this high now? If you don’t have a BMW, you don’t even deserve a friend?
Liu Xia suddenly realized how precious those two useless friends, Hao Yan and Gai Gai, were. At least they never demanded she have a BMW.
“Pfft! Hahaha—” Gai Gai bent over the table, clutching her legs and stifling her laughter in her arms. She managed not to let too much escape and ruin her image.
Hao Yan also chuckled quietly, resting her chin in her hand, her fingertips, painted with deep red nail polish, tapping her cheek.
“She really said that?”
Liu Xia looked utterly defeated. “One hundred percent true.”
Gai Gai wiped a tear of laughter from her eye. “I’m telling you, she’s so boring and old-fashioned. She doesn’t watch variety shows or gossip news, not even movies or TV dramas. I guarantee she just heard that line somewhere and has no idea what it means. She’s…”
Hao Yan suddenly reached over Liu Xia and pinched Gai Gai. Gai Gai blinked and immediately sat straight up, saying righteously, “What I mean is… she’s such a snob! Despicable! She must be despised!”
Snob?
Liu Xia’s eyes lit up. “I get it!”
Hao Yan and Gai Gai: “Get what?”
Liu Xia gave a mysterious smile. “A secret.”
Hao Yan and Gai Gai: “Tch!”
Tch, I’m not telling you!
Liu Xia solemnly decided she would never again consult these two unreliable friends about Gu Lingluo. They were more trouble than they were worth and only laughed at her.
She had, after all, been reborn. A slight analysis should have made it clear: Patron Mom killed her because of robbery, and she robbed because she was poor! Even if she wasn’t poor, she was extremely obsessed with money.
That’s right! She was so visibly impatient with that class monitor but forced herself to smile with him until the bus stop. Wasn’t it because of what he said?
[If you’re really short on cash and it’s inconvenient, I could actually… buy one for you.]
Buy one for you.
Buy!!
Oh my god! She was so good at grasping the key point! She admired herself!
The crucial, most brilliant word was “buy!”
This most important, most dazzling word was second only to the powerful temptation of, “You can swipe my credit card whenever you want!”
Who doesn’t use a mobile phone these days? Even elementary school students have them, and kindergarten kids have phone watches. It was highly suspicious that Gu Lingluo didn’t have a mobile phone. Even if she had a goddess-level beauty that attracted perverts, it wouldn’t make her completely give up a mobile phone.
Unless…
She was so poor she couldn’t afford a mobile phone, or could only afford a cheap one that would compromise her goddess temperament, so she decided not to buy one at all.
This sounded incredible, but it wasn’t impossible. It was evident from her walking to and from school every day, not having a bicycle, not taking the bus, and never eating in the school cafeteria.
Especially—especially—how girls generally carried a bag with a small mirror, hand cream, and other things. Gu Lingluo never did. When Liu Xia secretly peeked at her using the My Little Pony mirror earlier, she wasn’t wearing makeup or even basic lip balm.
How did that show any of the self-care a girl should have for her own beauty?
It seemed Gu Lingluo was truly poor. Maybe she had a sick relative, a bankruptcy, or some other emergency reason for needing money, leaving her with neither the time nor the spare money to care for her own appearance.
Liu Xia felt her guess was very close to the truth.
But clearly, Gu Lingluo was also proud. Otherwise, she would have accepted the monitor’s offer of a mobile phone.
So, even if Liu Xia wanted to bribe Gu Lingluo with money, she had to do it discreetly. Otherwise, Patron Mom might reject her out of pride.
But how could she make the bribe discreet?
The countdown to the next German elective class was five days.
Familiar evening, familiar bicycle, familiar sun at a fifteen-degree angle on the horizon.
Liu Xia hid behind a cluster of hollies.
Gu Lingluo was now with a different boy, taller and more handsome than the previous class monitor. He had his hands in his pockets, his gaze was cold, and he struck a posing stance, garnering excited looks from girls along the way.
On closer inspection, Liu Xia recognized him: the Student Union President, and the Nth first love of Gai Gai, whom she had been obsessed with for three weeks.
Yes, the Nth first love. That’s right.
While others had one first love, Gai Gai had countless.
Because of Gai Gai, Liu Xia knew this President well. His family wasn’t wealthy; he relied entirely on scholarships for tuition and tutored part-time. He had always clearly and unambiguously refused Gai Gai’s pursuit. He was considered an excellent student and senior.
But Liu Xia felt that such a poor person would certainly not catch Gu Lingluo’s eye. A robber’s eyes must only be on money!
Sure enough, Gu Lingluo stopped walking after only a few steps.
“The semester just started, and I have a lot of things to do. I really can’t spare the time. I apologize.”
The Student Union President smiled gently. “That’s alright. We can talk again after you’re not so busy.”
Gu Lingluo politely returned a smile, and the two waved goodbye.
Liu Xia seized the opportunity, cycled out from behind the hollies, and chased after her.
“Hi! What a coincidence!”
Gu Lingluo turned and glanced at her. Just one look, then she continued walking straight ahead, hugging her books.
Liu Xia patted the “Thick-Skinned” label that was about to fall off her, maintaining a smile that showed eight teeth.
“I have a two-thousand-dollar business deal I’d like to discuss with you. Can you spare a moment?”
Her allowance for this month was only two thousand dollars. It was a small amount, but to someone who needed money, it should still have some appeal… right?
Gu Lingluo’s sideways glance was typically frosty. Liu Xia suddenly felt uncertain.
“Um, I haven’t finished yet. It’s two thousand dollars a month, until I receive my German credit. You don’t have to do anything difficult, just form a CP with me and share some of your grade points.”
Gu Lingluo lowered her head and massaged her Jingming acupoint. Her long eyelashes were slightly lowered, showing annoyance.
“You don’t need to give me money. I’ll give you fifty thousand dollars if you just promise to never bother me again.”
Fifty thousand?
Patron Mom must be joking. If she could afford fifty thousand dollars, how could she not afford a mobile phone and have to walk to school every day?
Furthermore, even for a regular office worker, fifty thousand dollars wasn’t a small amount. It was impossible to casually give it to an unrelated person.
Liu Xia flicked her bicycle bell and tilted her head, gazing at Gu Lingluo. The autumn wind blew her loose hair, but couldn’t disrupt the mischievous smile on her face.
“Fine. If you can really give me fifty thousand dollars, I promise I won’t appear within fifty meters of your line of sight. However, if you can’t produce it, then call the class representative immediately and form a CP with me.”
Gu Lingluo looked up at her. “Promise not to appear within fifty meters of my line of sight?”
Liu Xia was inexplicably confident. “Yes!”
She paused, sticking to her foolproof principle, and added, “I mean before this time tomorrow. Don’t tell me you’ll give me fifty thousand dollars after graduation.”
Gu Lingluo suddenly curved her lips into a smile. The smile was extremely subtle, but it was like sunlight reflecting on snow, instantly dazzling Liu Xia’s eyes.
“No need to wait until tomorrow. I can give it to you right now.”
“Now?”
Gu Lingluo took the initiative. She took the bicycle, and with a single, smooth, and elegant movement, she swung her leg over the seat.
Liu Xia blinked several times, a little confused about the situation.
“You, you’re doing this?”
“Get on.”
Liu Xia was confusedly seated on the back of the bicycle, confusedly taken to the nearest ATM, confusedly pulled out her own card holder, and confusedly watched as Gu Lingluo transferred fifty thousand dollars to her.
Fifty thousand dollars. A full fifty thousand dollars! Not a penny less!
An interbank transfer within the same city, with no transaction fees deducted.