“Su Yue, do you want to go to school?” Du Chengfeng looked at Su Yue’s lowered head, secretly thinking it was a shame.
“School?” Su Yue lifted her head and looked at Du Chengfeng blankly, utterly confused inside, why had this turned into a conversation about school? She was here to raise his favorability.
“If you want to go to school, I’ll cover your tuition and living expenses all the way through university graduation.” Du Chengfeng looked at the dazed Su Yue, her clear eyes reflecting nothing but him, as if he were her entire world.
He should have dropped the word “as if.” Ever since she’d become his life assistant, whenever he showed up at the gym, she was always orbiting around him.
He suspected that even after work hours, if he made one phone call, she’d appear at his side the next second.
What had felt strange at first, he was now used to.
He didn’t yet know that being used to something was a terrifying thing, it could sink into your very bones, and quitting it later would feel like scraping poison off the bone.
In all his years, he’d never once given a girl a second thought, so it was natural he’d feel some stirring of emotion, but it was only that, a stirring.
Favorability +3
Hearing the system’s announcement, Su Yue’s eyes lit up. She hadn’t even done anything, just played the pity card a little, and the favorability was climbing steadily. The male lead really was an absolute sweetheart, the system hadn’t lied to her.
Good-looking, good body, good family background, upright values, kind-hearted, none of the arrogance of a rich second generation, none of the impatience of youth. If this weren’t a mission, she’d surely have fallen for him completely, luckily it was only a mission, which was the only thing keeping her clear-headed.
In Du Chengfeng’s eyes, though, he thought she genuinely longed to go to school.
“If anything else comes up, you can come to me too.” At this moment, Du Chengfeng simply didn’t want to see the light in Su Yue’s eyes dim. He hoped those clear eyes of hers would always stay that innocent.
“Brother Du, you’re truly such a good person!” Su Yue suddenly threw herself into Du Chengfeng’s arms, even rubbing her little face against his chest muscles.
Ahhh…
She’d finally gotten to touch them. She’d been eyeing them every day, practically drooling. It wasn’t that she had any ambitions, it was just that, well, every woman has a little bit of that kind of thought somewhere.
Du Chengfeng’s body went stiff, his hands not knowing where to go, should he push her away, or should he push her away?
In all his years, no girl had ever hugged him before. Her small frame throwing itself into his arms satisfied a man’s vanity quite considerably.
Favorability +5
Su Yue laughed inwardly with her hands on her hips, the system really hadn’t lied, hugging and getting close really did rack up more favorability.
Favorability had already reached 45%. The future looked promising.
“Let go of him! Are you, little bumpkin, using the excuse of being a life assistant to have other ideas?” Xiao Yu saw his uncle being hugged by Su Yue and, furious, marched up and yanked them apart.
What kind of person was she?
Just hugging him out of nowhere, did she have no shame at all?
Shameless…
“Brother Du, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I just, I just… no one has ever said something like that to me before in my whole life, and no one has ever protected me either. I just got too emotional.” Su Yue, her face flushed red, explained with a nervous expression.
The red face was from being angered by Xiao Yu, she’d already gone all in just to raise the male lead’s favorability, and now this little brat had to come stir up trouble.
The nervousness was from fear that Du Chengfeng might really think she had other intentions and pull far away from her. She’d swear on the tablets of eighteen generations of ancestors she couldn’t even locate that she only wanted to finish racking up favorability and leave, she’d never thought about developing any real feelings for the male lead.
She knew her own worth better than anyone, she was well aware she didn’t deserve him.
She carefully lifted her head to study Du Chengfeng closely, and found his face was still coldly composed as ever. She had no idea whether he was angry or not.
Seeing how careful she looked, and seeing her hands practically twisting themselves into knots, Du Chengfeng’s heart softened. He patted her head reassuringly, she was just a young girl, she couldn’t have that many ulterior motives.
Su Yue froze completely. Was this the legendary head-pat move?
In all her years, this was the first time anyone had ever touched her head. It gave her a feeling of being cared for, so warm, so touching!
She had no idea that right now her face was plastered with a silly grin, exactly like a little mouse that had just stolen a bit of oil.
By the time she came back to herself and looked at Du Chengfeng again, she found a face right up close to hers, startling her half out of her wits. She stumbled back two steps and patted her chest, still shaken.
“I’m warning you, don’t get any ideas about my uncle, or else, hmph…” It turned out Xiao Yu had planted himself between the two of them, as long as he was around, there’d be no shady romance near his uncle.
Su (Shady Romance) Yue: …
“Go do your homework over there.” Du Chengfeng was getting a little annoyed, there had been nothing going on at all, and now this kid was making such a fuss that anyone who didn’t know better might really think something had happened.
“Uncle…” That single cry of “Uncle” echoed on and on, dragging out so long that all three people present broke out in goosebumps without meaning to.
“All right, enough with the uncle this, uncle that. Adults’ business isn’t for kids to worry about, you’ll never grow taller worrying so much.” Zhao Cheng couldn’t stand it anymore and stepped in to smooth things over.
The seventeen-year-old, six-foot-tall Xiao Yu: …
He’d stake his own character on it, the little girl definitely had no romantic intentions toward Du Chengfeng whatsoever, otherwise he wouldn’t have let her stay.
Don’t be fooled by how carefree and indifferent he acted every day, whether a person or a ghost, nothing escaped these two eyes of his.
“I don’t want to go to those cram classes. I want her to teach me.” For the sake of his uncle’s personal safety, Xiao Yu went all in, throwing even his pride to the wind.
“I refuse.” Before anyone else could speak, Su Yue was the first to refuse.
She was here to raise the male lead’s favorability, how could she possibly leave his side? Besides, there was no way she could put up with this insufferable young master.
She wasn’t a piece of mud on the ground that liked being stepped on. Even if she were mud, she’d rather be mud that liked being smeared onto a wall.
“Look at her, clearly up to no good.” Xiao Yu, as if he’d caught hold of some damning evidence against Su Yue, wasted no time going to report her.
“A person should see things through to the end, the same goes for a job.” Su Yue was also worried someone might get suspicious of her, after all, the two of them were close, and she was the only outsider.
Seeing both of them nod, Xiao Yu suddenly felt a wave of helplessness, it was just like knowing full well this was a scheming consort who’d bring chaos to the court, and yet the king and his ministers simply couldn’t see it…
“I’ll pay double.” Xiao Yu refused to believe money wouldn’t move her. If open tactics wouldn’t work, he’d go covert, one way or another, he had to kick this little bumpkin away from his uncle’s side.
“Well… I get off work at five every day, I’m free after six, I could work until ten, and I don’t take any days off all week.” Su Yue rubbed her hands together, looking at Xiao Yu with an utterly sincere expression.
Double the pay, who could say no to money?
Her money-grubbing, willing-to-work-herself-to-death attitude was truly speechless-inducing, already so thin and frail, and not the least bit worried about wearing herself out.
Xiao Yu: …
In the end, nothing came of it. If the Xiao family wanted to find Xiao Yu a tutor, whether in credentials or experience, they could get the very best, and besides, Du Chengfeng wasn’t about to let Xiao Yu keep acting up like this.