Chapter 100 – Treating to a Meal (请客)

In Su Chu’s eyes, Jing Yunzhao was a complete otaku. She usually would only leave the house on Saturdays at a specific time and then would lock herself in her room after returning. So Jing Yunzhao calling them out today was a really rare occasion and Su Chu accepted it without thinking too much about it. Although Gan Jinchen was a little hesitant, he couldn’t beat Su Chu. He changed his clothes and came out as well.

“Biao-jie, did the sun rise from the west today? You’re not going to study at home?!” Su Chu clung to Jing Yunzhao’s arm, her face full of excitement, “Where are we going?”

Jing Yunzhao smiled and replied, “I’ll treat you guys to a meal.“

A meal doesn’t take long, but it was just to see if Qiao Hongye would bite the bait.

“I’m also hungry right now. Then I want to eat Danpanji and grilled fish. Let’s go to that one by the street. It’s really good!” Su Chu said with a face full of gluttony. With one hand clinging onto Jing Yunzhao and the other pulling Gan Jinchen, she ran towards that stall.

Jing Yunzhao could feel that someone was watching them and couldn’t help but smile. She didn’t turn her head around and went along with Su Chu.

“Why did you suddenly decide to treat us?” After placing their orders, they sat down and waited. Gan Jinchen had a face full of suspicion. He felt that Jing Yunzhao’s expression was a bit strange. If this was in the past (when he believed the bad rumors about Jing Yunzhao), he would’ve thought that she was up to no good.

But because of the rumors that popped up these past few days, Gan Jinchen felt irritated from the weird stares he received. In turn, he started pitying Jing Yunzhao. He even thought that if she was able to peacefully study in this kind of a situation, she really was an exotic creature. He couldn’t help but be impressed because ever since these rumors began, he couldn’t hear a single word that was said during the lessons.

“I’ve been staying in your house for quite a while now, yet I’ve never o?cially had a proper meal with you two. Let’s use this meal to o?cially celebrate our meeting, how about that?” Jing Yunzhao smiled.

Gan Jinchen’s mouth twitched, “You and Chu-Chu are the same age. Why do you always talk so formally? Not like a child at all but a little bit like my grandpa.”

It was not just her way of talking. Her mannerisms and habits were almost completely like that of an elderly person. She didn’t get angry at all.

If Jing Yunzhao didn’t have the face the of 15-16-year old, Gan Jinchen would’ve treated her as if she was an elder.

“Biao-ge’s right!” Su Chu banged her chopsticks. “God-Biao-jie [1], you look super cold when you’re not smiling. All of our classmates feel like there’s a distance between you and them, that you’re hard to get along with, like a mini version of the Education Chief (教导主任)!”

[1] Since Su Chu is Grandpa Gan’s granddaughter and Jing Yunzhao is Grandpa Gan’s God-grandaughter, Jing Yunzhao is Su Chu’s God-Biao-jie (god older female cousin).

Jing Yunzhao’s mouth twitched. Education Chief? That Education Chief of theirs was stern and didn’t talk much but knew how to handle students. No matter how you saw it, they weren’t alike, right?

“The Education Chief probably looked a little uglier than you when she was younger,” Gan Jinchen added.

When Su Chu heard this, she laughed loudly while slapping table, “Yeah, yeah! Good thing Biao-jie’s pretty. Otherwise Education Chief might be your future! That’s why you should learn to dress nicely. How could you not when you’re born with such good conditions? If not because of your lack of care for appearances, then no doubt the top position of the school’s beauty ranking is yours!”

Jing Yunzhao rolled her eyes, “Are you two criticizing me?”

“Hehe, because it’s such a rare chance. I was only telling you the opinions of my classmates. Biao-jie, you’ll change, right? You’ll be more gentle and smile more and become cuter, right?” Su Chu squinted her eyes as she joked.

The corners of Jing Yunzhao’s lips curved. She paused for a while before saying, “This, I really don’t know how.”

This distance that she puts between her and others isn’t her being virtuous but her unconsciously protecting herself after going through all those years of her previous life. Instead of calling her virtuous, calling her careful and cautious was more precise. Her personality before rebirth was very, very humble. So now, it was hard to control those habits that were bone deep. If she were to suddenly turn cute and kind, wouldn’t it frighten others?