Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Qiao Shao yawned and glanced at the duration of the call on the phone screen. Three minutes in and his maternal grandfather, who was already in his seventies, was still roaring with anger.

“I think your father, that scoundrel, has finally lost his head; sending you to study at such a lousy school. If his old Qiao Family can’t cut it anymore, you can come to me. You can have your choice of famous schools. Let alone domestic, even foreign …”

Qiao Shao could only repeat what he has already said countless times recently, “Grandpa, I chose this school myself. I was the one who wanted to go there.”

Yang Xiaolong paused. Though his voice was still as loud, it was no longer as fierce, “Why do you have to go to such a lous– … I mean such a faraway school?”

Qiao Shao tilted his head, picked his ears and said, “I met a fortune teller, and he told me my fortune saying ‘there is trouble in the west but fortune in the east, a change of schools to bring about a great feast.’

Yang Xiaolong: “…”

Qiao Shao said quietly, “Grandpa, didn’t you often tell me that it was better to believe and be prepared than not to and be too late?”

Yang Xiaolong was distressed: “Shao Shao, you’re only 17 years old. You shouldn’t be so superstitious.”

Qiao Shao said, “I’m not being superstitious. I’m just preventing troubles before they happen.”

Yang Xiaolong has berated countless people in his life, but he was helpless when faced with his grandson.

Qiao Shao coaxed him again, “The East District’s First High School is a very good school. Not just anybody could pass their exam. Grandpa, don’t worry, I will be in a new environment and I’ll study hard and make you proud.”

‘A new environment’, these three words moved Yang Xiaolong, and he finally compromised, “Okay …”

Hanging up the phone, Qiao Shao breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that his transfer was finally, completely settled.

From the day he proposed to go to the Eastern District’s First Middle School, he had received bombardment from every direction. His dad, his grandpa, his granddad, his older cousins; this pack of scoundrels, all took turns to have a “heart-to-heart chat” with him, wanting to know just what was he up to.

Actually, Qiao Shao didn’t have any ulterior motives. He wanted to go to a respectable high school and study hard to improve every day. However, when he said these words, the eyes of those who heard it turned even more doubtful.

Qiao Shao refused to give in. Why? Can’t he study hard? He really loves learning, okay?

Seeing as people that believed him less and less, he finally made up a cock and bull story about a fortune teller. He never could have imagined that this reason, which was beyond ridiculous, was what it took to get them to stop. For a moment, Qiao Shao didn’t know if he should be distressed over their stupidity or distressed about his moral bankruptcy.

After washing up, Aunt Wu called him to have breakfast.

Qiao Shao asked, “Where’s my dad?”

Aunt Wu said, “President Qiao went out at five this morning and said he has a meeting in Hong Kong at eight.”

Qiao Shao deflated and said, “Couldn’t he have gone a day in advance? Sleeping so late, isn’t he afraid of all his hair falling out?”

Aunt Wu laughed, “Oh, but President Qiao never sleeps outside.”

After hearing this, Qiao Shao didn’t say anything else and only poked the pancake on his plate.

Aunt Wu realized that she shouldn’t have said anything. She hurriedly said, “I have some cookies baking in the over. I’m gonna go see how it’s coming along.”

Qiao Shao nodded.

As soon as Aunt Wu left, Qiao Shao’s phone rang once again. When he saw the word granddad on the screen, his head started to hurt. If he remembered correctly, his paternal grandfather was in Italy at this time. There was a six-hour time difference but this old man was still awake at two in the morning!

Looks like it was hereditary. None of the Qiao men cared about their thinning hair!

After answering the phone, old master Qiao’s aristocratic voice said, “Go downstairs.”

Qiao Shao, “Granddad, I haven’t even opened the clothes from last season.”

Qiao Ruan said, “Throw it away.”

Qiao Shao could say with confidence that his paternal grandfather has dominated the fashion industry for more than 50 years. At aged 71, Qiao Ruan was still a spitfire. He was definitely someone you shouldn’t mess with.

Qiao Shao responded to him and said, “It’s already two in the morning over there. Hurry up and go to sleep. I’ll go downstairs to get my clothes and take a picture to show you.”

Qiao Ruan said, “No need to take pictures.”

He smirked. “Really?”

His grandfather was silent, but he did not hang up.

Qiao Shao’s eyes curved into crescents as he smiled, “Ok. Go and sleep. I’ll send them to you tonight. I’ll make sure that you’ll see handsome pictures of grandson when you get up.”

Qiao Ruan cut off the call.

After going downstairs, Qiao Shao, despite being psychologically prepared, was still startled. Gift boxes occupied half of the living room. Even worse, each gift box was tied with a bright orange bow. If ordinary people looked at it, they’d suffer eye strain.

Qiao Shao liked these bright colors like orange and gold. Qiao Ruan didn’t think it was fashionable enough, and he wouldn’t wear such clothes — he wouldn’t let Qiao Shao wear them either! But he was willing to indulge him in these small details.

It’s just that…

With so many glittering bows, Qiao Shao couldn’t bear to imagine what the assistants who brought all these in must think of him. A dignified and imposing man who liked girly things… Qiao Shao’s face felt a bit warm.

After tearing open the gift boxes, Qiao Shao’s heart also felt warm.

Not only clothes, shoes, and watches, but there were also four similar-looking school bags, probably meant to match with different outfits. There were also two pencil cases with undoubtedly expensive, elegant pens.

From the very beginning up until the very end, Qiao Ruan never agreed with Qiao Shao’s decision to attend the Eastern District’s First High School. But now that he was right about to start school, his granddad still sent over everything he needed. However, Qiao Shao won’t be using any of these things.

Although East High was a standard senior high school, it also had special classes like the international classes and the special ability classes.

In there were all the children from rich families. Every one of them had a discerning eye. One look at Qiao Shao’s outfit and they’d be able to tell everything about him. Qiao Shao wanted to focus on his studies. He didn’t want to act like a pretentious prick. Therefore, all his school essentials, he had to buy himself. From his stationery to his clothes, he has to pick the most common!

Time to get to it. After telling Auntie Wu to pack up these clothes and stationery, Qiao Shao put on an unremarkable sweatshirt and went out.

Do you buy school supplies from the supermarket?

Qiao Shao rarely bought things by himself and so he was very enthusiastic even when just choosing the items. A schoolbag priced at about a hundred yuan, a pen worth a few yuan, and an ordinary, no-showy-smart-features notebook…

It only cost 200 yuan to get everything. Qiao Shao couldn’t help but feel deeply moved. Even if the Qiao Family and the Yang Family went bankrupt, those old guys would be able to live in comfort.

Qiao Shao went to the discount area and saw a banner on a large shelf, which said — Clearance Sale (at a loss)! The originally priced 299 yuan pure cotton T-shirt was only 29 yuan today! Qiao Shao was shocked. Clothes could actually be this cheap! This was perfect. It seemed like he’d be able to get everything he needed for school for just 300 yuan.

As soon as Qiao Shao walked past, he heard a few girls talking in hushed voices.

“How can he be so handsome? I, I don’t even dare look at him!”

“He’s from East District’s First High School. Did he come as a part-timer during the weekend? Oh my god, why did I graduate? I want to repeat a grade, I’m going to East High!”

“Wake up, girl. If you’ve got time to daydream, you might as well buy some clothes. Maybe you can strike up a conversation.”

“Hu hu hu, I’ve already bought ten. At this rate, I’ll be kicked out of my house!”

East High?

Qiao Shao looked up curiously and saw a tall boy in the discount area.

The boy was very tall, a full half head taller than Qiao Shao. He stood in the middle of the lively store but his expression was cold. He apparently came to work as a temporary worker, but he looked sluggish, as if he hadn’t completely woken up yet. Unexpectedly, it was this sluggish and indolent manner that apparently made the girls keep sneaking peeks at him.

Ha ha. Qiao Shao was disgusted. Such an employee, Boss Qiao would fire him in three seconds flat! Even if his performance was off the charts, it still won’t do! He was too unprofessional!

Qiao Shao looked away and focused on selecting a T-shirt. Alas, although the T-shirts were cheap, they were big enough to cover three of him.

********************

The discount area was very close to the stationery area. He Shen was bored to death and when he looked up he saw this picky middle schooler.

He took five minutes to choose a pen and when he did, he chose the outdated one that was buy one take one. He flipped through several notebooks, and finally chose the one that was discounted because it was missing a few pages.

At this moment, the middle schooler turned around and walked over to his area. He Shen could almost see the ‘2’ and ‘9’ reflected in his sparkling eyes.

He Shen was originally called to stand in for someone and he was completely reluctant to do so. The supervisor also did not dare to impose. After all, so long as he stood there, the sales volume would increase more than ten times. Ordinary people weren’t the same as Boss Qiao. They placed money above all else. As long as your performance was great, who cared whether you were dedicated to your work or not?

He Shen watched as the middle schooler rummaged through the piles of t-shirts, holding each one up to his body to compare the size. The middle schooler was short and thin. He looked like a child wearing an adult’s clothes when he tried on the free-sized t-shirts. It was easy to see that this child wanted to take advantage of the cheap price but he was too thin to wear any of them.

But … he could actually help him out.

The corner of He Shen’s lips ticked up. He held out a pure white T-shirt to him, “Try this.”

The middle schooler looked up and hesitated.

He Shen said, “Everything’s on sale for the same price.”

The middle schooler was obviously relieved. He took the T-shirt and looked it over. He said, “This one is fine, thank you!”

He Shen didn’t bat an eyelid, “It’s nothing.”

**********************

After paying for his purchases and heading home, Qiao Shao went upstairs and looked over his spoils of war.

The schoolbag was awesome, the pen was great, and the notebook was also excellent. This 29 yuan pure white T-shirt was especially…

Wait a minute!

Qiao Shao belatedly saw the label on the T-shirt — Pure Love Women’s Shirt.

Little Classmate Qiao Shao was stupid. The first time he bought clothes for himself and he unexpectedly bought women’s clothes!!!

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The author has something to say: bullying the wife for a bit is refreshing. Bullying him all the time is refreshing all the time [Shut up]