Qiao Sheng didn’t have a stomach to share, but she could empathize with the emptiness in Gu Huo’s stomach at that moment.
In her previous life, she had gone hungry, and the first thing she experienced after transmigrating was also hunger.
It was too unbearable.
She remembered that later, Gu Huo developed stomach problems, largely due to his irregular meals at this time.
People’s hearts are made of flesh and blood. While reading the book, aside from feeling sorry for the male lead, she hadn’t given it much thought.
But after transmigrating into the book, when the once-fictional male lead stood before her as a living person, Qiao Sheng couldn’t help but feel heartache for him.
She hadn’t “inherited” the original host’s domineering and entitled attitude toward Gu Huo, but she had come to feel the “mutual dependence” that the original host had long ignored.
No matter who Gu Huo would become in the future, right now, it was him who was accompanying her through hardship.
They were two lonely souls bound together by fate, finding warmth in each other in an unconventional way.
It was still far from school time. Why had Gu Huo left home in such a hurry?
Qiao Sheng had a bad habit: not only did she like to skim through books, but she also enjoyed skipping chapters.
So, no matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t figure out why Gu Huo had left in such a hurry. However, she did remember that he had accompanied the original host to the comic convention on time, where someone took a photo of him and posted it on social media. As a result, many people who knew him—his homeroom teacher, the convenience store owner, and others—learned of his “lack of focus on serious matters” and were deeply disappointed in him.
Fortunately, she remembered that the selection competition ended at ten o’clock. So, when it started drizzling outside, she immediately grabbed the only umbrella in the house and ran out to pick him up from school.
…
Gu Huo was used to going hungry and could endure it. Unfortunately, his stomach hadn’t inherited his ability to face hardship with indifference. It was cramping and spasming, hoping to catch its owner’s attention and soothe its turbulent emptiness.
Thanks to its efforts, Gu Huo’s mind was indeed occupied with thoughts of food.
He imagined the soft, sweet, and fragrant roasted sweet potatoes and unconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
Qiao Sheng loved roasted sweet potatoes.
On the way back, he would buy her a large one and a cup of milk tea she loved.
It was hard to imagine that, even while hungry, he was thinking about satisfying someone else’s stomach…
All morning, as if possessed, his mind replayed the scene of him leaving home that morning on a loop.
The girl’s slender figure stood outside the door, her dark eyes filled with concern.
“Then buy something to eat on the way.”
These simple seven words, spoken in the hurried morning, dispelled the chill of early spring and warmed his heart. That warmth lingered until now, transforming into an incredible source of motivation. Even though his stomach was completely empty, it kept his spirits high, as if his body contained boundless energy.
His footsteps unconsciously quickened.
He hadn’t even realized it himself, but because of that concerned gaze and those simple seven words of advice, for the first time since his grandmother’s passing, he felt a deep attachment to that “home”—the place that always seemed to keep him endlessly busy, the place he resented but couldn’t let go of.
In the increasingly heavy rain, Gu Huo stared straight ahead toward the school gate, his breath catching.
He doubted his eyes. Among the parents picking up their children, he thought he saw a familiar figure.
Looking more closely, he was sure he hadn’t mistaken it—it was Qiao Sheng.
She was wearing a long black down jacket, her small head tucked under a large hood that revealed most of her clean, fair, and delicate face. In her hand, she held a blue-checkered straight-handled umbrella.
There was only this umbrella at home. On rainy days in the past, she would rather stay indoors than go out with this umbrella, thinking it looked too old-fashioned.
She had once bought a stylish and pretty umbrella, but after going out for a trip, she had no idea where she lost it.
Since it hadn’t rained recently, she hadn’t made a fuss about buying a new, pretty umbrella.
Seeing her tiptoeing and looking around like this, Gu Huo couldn’t believe his thoughts—it was raining, and she was afraid he would get wet, so she had specially come to pick him up after school?
The simmering warmth in Gu Huo’s heart suddenly turned into a blazing fire, scorching his blood and surging restlessly within him.
He quickened his pace, but when he was still two meters away from Qiao Sheng, he suddenly stopped. The burning flames were doused as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over him, sizzling and extinguishing…
He tugged at the corner of his mouth mockingly.
He had been overthinking it.
He had actually deluded himself into thinking she had come to pick him up.
He really took a little kindness and ran with it.
Everyone who truly cared about him had, without exception, left him.
He was destined to be a loner, unworthy of anyone’s kindness, and no one would ever remember him.
“Tsk, she’s really going all out to get your attention.”
“Sending cold water in summer, hot drinks in winter, and an umbrella on rainy days.”
“Young Master Zhou, considering she’s putting in more effort and dedication than the others, why not show a little mercy and give her a sliver of hope?”
Qiao Sheng had arrived early and had been waiting outside the gate for a long time.
She didn’t dare find shelter from the rain, afraid that if she wasn’t careful, Gu Huo would leave and her trip would be in vain.
It wouldn’t matter much if she had made the trip for nothing.
But Gu Huo had gone hungry early in the morning, and she couldn’t let him get soaked on his way back.
So she kept waiting in front of the school gate. People started coming out, but unfortunately, none of them were him.
Not this one, not that one either…
Qiao Sheng waited patiently, and finally, she saw him!
He seemed to have noticed her too.
Qiao Sheng knew he would still go to work in the afternoon, but there was time in the morning. She had already planned it out—at noon, she would stew the two pork ribs she bought yesterday. They could have both soup and meat, and she would steam some rice. She wasn’t hungry and would eat less, but she had to find a way to make him eat more to nourish his body.
He was tall enough, among the taller ones for a boy, but he was too thin.
Why did he suddenly stop while walking?
Qiao Sheng was puzzled and was about to step forward when the umbrella in her hand was suddenly snatched away.
Raindrops pelted her face.
Qiao Sheng: “??”
Was the world this dangerous? In broad daylight, someone was stealing an umbrella?!
She looked up in surprise and only then noticed that two boys were standing beside her, though she had no idea when they had arrived.
One wore gold-rimmed glasses and had a teasing, mocking smile.
The other was quite handsome, with an indifferent expression and an air of superiority between his brows. His gaze flickered with a hint of surprise and an almost imperceptible moment of hesitation when he looked at her, but apart from that, all that remained was coldness.
At that moment, Qiao Sheng’s umbrella was in the hands of the boy with glasses.
It was held over his and the cold boy’s heads.
The boy with glasses even looked disdainful, wiping the umbrella handle Qiao Sheng had held with a tissue, his expression one of reluctant acceptance. “This umbrella is really ugly.”
If it were the original owner, hearing this would have made her so ashamed she’d wish she could crawl into a hole.
The original owner was vain and feared others seeing her poverty. She spared no effort in squeezing every last drop of value from the male lead to make herself appear more glamorous.
However, Qiao Sheng was not the original owner.
She was dazed for a few seconds, standing in the rain for a moment, before finally snapping back to reality after the bespectacled man said in a condescending tone, “I’ll take the umbrella on behalf of Young Master Zhou. You may leave now.” She snatched the umbrella back in one swift motion!