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“Oh? So it turns out there was something she wanted your help with.”
Du Mengying’s voice came through the receiver, lightly falling into Jin Hanshuang’s ear, unconsciously reminding her of Lu Yunshu’s expression when she pleaded for help.
Ai-ya…Such a pitiful little kid.
She rolled over and picked up her phone. “See, she really is just a well-mannered person, so you shouldn’t jump to conclusions in the future. You are a little narrow-minded.”
Jin Hanshuang had never believed Lu Yunshu was interested in her, and after Lu Yunshu’s official seal of denial, she was even more convinced.
Didn’t it make sense?
How could Lu Yunshu like her?
The Lu family and Shen family rarely interacted, and neither did they. So how could she and Lu Yunshu have the opportunity to cultivate one another’s feelings or produce a spark with each other?
Not to mention she was also seven years older than Lu Yunshu, which was quite a significant difference.
She’d had many lovers, but Lu Yunshu seemed to be the devoted type.
These rich people, with all their big families and businesses, didn’t they all prefer to find useful partners who could help each other?
Her deceased husband was like this.
She was useful to him, and he was useful to her, so they got married.
Lu Yunshu might have a pure love for another person, but it wasn’t her.
They were so different that she couldn’t even imagine it…
So Lu Yunshu could not possibly like her. Absolutely not.
The little kid called her “jiejie” a few times, but she shouldn’t be presumptuous.
Du Mengying’s voice rang in her ear. “Alright, alright, I’m narrow-minded.”
Her friend asked curiously, “So, what did she ask you for help with?”
The Lu family and the Shen family didn’t get along.
Lu Yunshu and Jin Hanshuang had no relationship with each other whatsoever[1].
So what could Lu Yunshu possibly ask Jin Hanshuang for help with?
Could it be to reconcile with Shen Wenxin?
Du Mengying was very intrigued.
But Jin Hanshuang shut her down with just one sentence. “It’s a small matter, but I have to keep it a secret for the kiddo, so I won’t tell you~”
It wasn’t something that needed to be reported to Shen Wenxin, nor was it something that needed to pass through others.
Du Mengying said, “Tsk, you’re so annoying.”
Jin Hanshuang laughed, “Haha.”
She turned to look at the deep darkness outside the window. “Maybe I’ll tell you when I have the chance.”
Lu Yunshu sat cross-legged in her chair, wiping her hair.
Her phone was on the table beside her, buzzing faintly as her friend’s voice cracked through the speaker. “Ah—you’re so devious.”
Lu Yunshu chuckled, not responding.
After expressing her disdain, Le You couldn’t help but find the situation…well, a little bit interesting. Having the person you like teach you to pursue them, tsk tsk, only Lu Yunshu could come up with something so amazing.
Curious, Le You asked, “I mean, how did you even dare to make this request? What if she refuses…wouldn’t that be really awkward for both of you?”
Lu Yunshu frowned. Her hand paused in the middle of drying her hair, and she put down her towel. Her calm voice followed, “I haven’t thought about it.”
She didn’t dare think about the consequences or consider the possibility of being rejected. She could only hope that Jin Hanshuang wouldn’t turn her down.
Fortunately, the heavens were as generous as Jin Hanshuang.
“She is very kind-hearted.”
When she talked about Jin Hanshuang, her eyes softened.
Hearing this, Le You laughed. “Yes, she is so kind. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have even been able to add her on WeChat back then.”
Lu Yunshu lowered her gaze, the past flickering behind her eyelids as a soft smile curved her lips. “Mm, she’s very good.”
If Jin Hanshuang was not kind, she would not have taken the initiative to add her contact information. That’s right, between the two of them, it was Jin Hanshuang who offered first.
“What’s your next move?” Le You asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t figured it out yet,” Lu Yunshu admitted. “Maybe tomorrow.”
She fell into deep thought.
The next evening, Jin Hanshuang received a call from Lu Yunshu. Her little friend had come to ask the teacher a question.
“Did President Lu just get off work?” Jin Hanshuang asked politely, her voice lazy.
“Mm.”
“You’ve worked hard, President Lu.”
“It’s what I do.”
“Is there something you need?”
“I have something I want your opinion on.”
“What about?”
Lu Yunshu carefully recited the words she had prepared that morning:
“I want to give her a gift. What do you think I should give her?”
Almost instantly, Jin Hanshuang responded with an answer, “Didn’t you say she worked in the fashion industry? Think along those lines. You can never go wrong with catering to her tastes.”
“What about…jewelry?” Lu Yunshu asked.
“Sure,” Jin Hanshuang said with a smile. “When she sees beautiful jewelry on her body, it will no doubt raise her spirits.”
At least, it was true for her.
This was her simplest happiness.
Hearing Jin Hanshuang’s carefree voice, Lu Yunshu had an epiphany. She turned and gently took out a white velvet box from the drawer beside her. Inside lay a pair of asymmetric silver-white crescent tassel earrings.
When she opened it, the earrings lay silently under the bright light, gleaming softly like the Milky Way spilling across the night sky, incomparably beautiful.
These were the earrings she had specially made for Jin Hanshuang. They were one of a kind, and she only recently received the finished product.
She had always wanted to give them to Jin Hanshuang, but she couldn’t find an excuse. Just by hearing Jin Hanshuang’s words, she became excited.
She stared at the earrings for a while before gently putting them down.
“I know what to do now,” she said. “Thank you, jiejie.”
Her mature voice passed through the receiver, sounding especially gentle and well-behaved.
Jin Hanshuang bit into a piece of fruit.
Before she could reply, she heard Lu Yunshu say, “I’ll go pick something now.”
Extremely decisive.
Jin Hanshuang said, “Mm, go ahead.”
“Don’t hang up yet.”
“Hm?” Then Jin Hanshuang calmly changed her tone. “Hm.”
Lu Yunshu probably wanted to show her some photos and ask for her opinion.
Since she had nothing else to do, she would just act as a fashion consultant and see how good this kid’s taste was.
After a while, she received a photo from Lu Yunshu on WeChat.
Curious, she clicked on it. Then she saw the earrings. They were silver and asymmetric with crescent tassels, very beautiful—exactly her style.
Unbeknownst to Jin Hanshuang, Lu Yunshu had immediately opened the earring designer’s WeChat when she said she was going to “pick” something out. In their chat history, she had saved several photos of the earrings.
Lu Yunshu deliberately waited for a while before sending them to Jin Hanshuang, like a tardy student circling outside the classroom, trying to make her entrance seem more natural. Now, she heard a soft gasp in her earbuds.
“So beautiful,” Jin Hanshuang sighed. “I like this one.”
It was special, alluring, and dazzling—all her favorite things.
“If we’re talking about gifts,” she exclaimed, “I choose this one!”
The clear enthusiasm in her tone soothed Lu Yunshu’s nervous heart.
Lu Yunshu breathed a sigh of relief, a brisk smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Her eyes were bright—it was a wonderful thing.
“Alright, this will be the gift.”
After the call ended, Lu Yunshu picked up the earring box and looked at it again before gently closing it. At this moment, she couldn’t help but want to share her joy with her friend.
She forwarded the picture she had sent to Jin Hanshuang to Le You.
[She likes this pair of earrings, really likes them.]
The hint of surprise in Jin Hanshuang’s voice lingered in her ears. Her undisguised delight for the earrings sent Lu Yunshu to the moon.
Lu Yunshu’s efforts had not been in vain.
It seemed she had won a little of Jin Hanshuang’s favor.
After a while, Le You replied: [Not bad! Your efforts to have them custom-designed paid off! So, are you going to give them to her directly?]
[Lu Yunshu]: I don’t know.
[Le You]: ?
[Lu Yunshu]: She was helping me choose a gift for my crush.
[Le You]: …
[Le You]: Wait, so let me get this straight, do you mean she thinks these earrings are for the person you like?
[Lu Yunshu]: Yeah.
[Le You]: So if you give them to her directly, it’d be like confessing[2]?
[Lu Yunshu]: That’s right.
[Le You]: …
She couldn’t help but clap her hands in front of the screen.
Amazing. It was the most mind-bending love story she had ever seen.
On the other side, Lu Yunshu clicked on the voice message Le You had sent.
A single sentence floated out of the receiver:
“I wish you luck, my friend.”
The author (热到昏厥) has something to say:
Le You: My CPU is overheating.
[Don’t bother me, I’m cooking.jpg]
[1] Here, the original text uses the Chinese idiom “八竿子打不着的关系” (bā gānzi dǎ bùzháo de guānxì) or literally “a relationship that can’t be hit with eight poles” to emphasize the main leads’ distance from each other.
[2] In the original text, Le You uses the term “自爆” (zìbào) or literally “self-explosion/self-detonation.”
