CH 20

Chapter 020 - Her plan is to expand her tools and resume her old profession. (3)

The atmosphere around the dining table was livened up all of a sudden. Yu Shen, not knowing what to make of that, stood up and said to Chu Qianli tenderly, “I have already had your cellphone ready for you and it is linked to a credit card. Let me show you how to use it.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Chu Qianli followed behind Yu Shen like a little tail. Her eyes were beaming, obviously couldn’t wait another minute.

He Zhenghe smiled and said, “I did promise you that yesterday. I should send you a red envelop as well. We don’t want the stars to lie now, do we?”

Chu Qianli said cheerfully, “Thanks, Dad. Thanks, stars.”

He Shichen never said a word this entire time. He had no problem with them giving money to Chu Qianli. His family had always been generous with his living expenses. In fact, they even had specific accounts and money set aside for him to play around on the stock market.

He simply was not used to this new atmosphere at home. Chu Qianli could act soft and cute to appease their parents. That was something that he could not do to save his own life. He felt an inexplicable sense of defeat. He knew that what he was feeling was unhealthy but he couldn't help but felt that he was being excluded.

They were a family related by blood and him, on the other hand, was merely a guest with no ties to them and didn’t fit in.

He Shichen’s eyes dimmed. He tried hard to not let his loneliness show.

Chu Qianli, with her new cellphone, saw the red envelope sent by He Zhenghe in their family chatgroup and had no qualms about accepting it. She then turned and looked at He Shichen hopefully and repeated her same trick, “Big Brother. I poor. Red envelope?”

He Shichen, “… …”

The melancholy that he was feeling dissipated immediately. Her words gave him goosebumps and he suddenly wished that he could be excluded.

He Zhenghe laughed heartily and said, “You know how to pick them. Shichen has more money than me. I heard from Second Uncle that you’ve made quite a bit on the stock market lately?”

“I did alright,” said He Shichen humbly.

Chu Qianli looked even more hopeful upon hearing that. Looking at him with her shiny eyes, she looked like a small critter begging for food.

Worried that more awkward words would come out of her, He Shichen typed in his password expressionlessly and took care of her with a red envelope. It wasn’t a lot of money; but he somehow found that disturbing.

Chu Qianli said cheerfully, “Thanks, Big Brother.”

He Shichen was so speechless that the tip of his finger was shaking. He didn’t want to give her a red envelope; he just wanted to beat her up.

After she had received her cellphone and the red envelopes, Chu Qianli quickly snuck upstairs. Her plan was to return to her bedroom and start her shopping spree.

Yu Shen, too, stepped away from the dining table, leaving He Zhenghe and He Shichen in the dining room by themselves. “How did school go today?” asked He Zhenghe caringly.

He Shichen, “Nothing special. It was just that……”

He Shichen hesitated. He wasn’t sure what to say. He wanted to say that Chu Qianli’s attitude toward studying had a lot of room for improvement. But her physics was stronger than his. He had a hard time accepting that even now.

Finally, He Shichen did not embellish any and just commented fairly, “Little Sister is only strong in certain subjects. The difference between what she is good at and what she is not is quite drastic.”

He Zhenghe wasn’t surprised by that at all. He said calmly, “She attended a regular school in the past so for sure her grades would not be as good as yours. She had just transferred over so don’t set the bar too high for her. Give her some time to adjust.”

He Shichen’s face became longer. If this was how she was like before she had adjusted, she would be leaps and bounds ahead of him once she had adjusted.

He Zhenghe went on to say, “Your mom and I had observed her some. Qianli doesn’t seem to be interested in business at all. She might not apply for the same type of universities as you. Her interest might lie elsewhere.”

He Shichen had always shown strong interest in business management so He Zhenghe and Yu Shen had been very supportive of that. They didn’t necessarily had priming an heir in mind. There are families that don’t have children who are strong in business. They could always hire someone to manage their businesses for them. It was not necessary for their businesses to be ran by family members.*

Chu Qianli, not needing to worry about money, had a much broader range to choose from. She might pick a different path than He Shichen’s.

Convinced by his father, He Shichen looked and feel better now. “I know.” He responded.

Chu Qianli mumbled about peculiar things day in and day out. She was not management material. At least she would not replace him in that area.

Inside her own bedroom, Chu Qianli had already had her cellphone figured out. The first thing that she did was added Tan Muxing on WeChat. She noticed that his profile picture was the polar bear from the manga series Shirokuma Café. The polar bear was charming and silly looking and Tan Muxing did somewhat resemble that. He was obviously an otaku.

The two chitchatted a little and Tan Muxing added her into the class chat. He also told her that the homework assignments for the weekend would be announced in this chatgroup.

Chu Qianli really wanted to quit the group right then and there. If only she could avoid doing homework that way.

She put the class chat and homework assignments aside and happily started shopping online. She ordered a dice for astrology, tarot cards, etc. along with a bunch of other random items. Her plan was to expand her tools and pick up her old profession.

___

Translator's notes:

Per the author, this was a quote from The Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook by Sue Tompkins. As this translator did not buy said book, I have re-translated what was translated into Chinese from its original English version… :D

**See in comment below from no_one who had found what we think is the original text. ^_^