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nXiao Qin earned another silver star from today’s radio exercises. Now she’s saved up five gold stars, which is enough for me to buy her a new cell phone.

nAfter lunch, I discussed it with her and asked her which brand she prefers, but she mumbled that she didn’t want me to buy her a phone anymore.

n“Why not? Weren’t you hoping to receive a gift from me?”

nI expressed my confusion.

n“But, but, a phone is too expensive.” Xiao Qin hesitated and said, “I’ve thought about it carefully in the past few days. If I accepted the phone that you give me, then it would make me seem shameless.”

nNo, as Celery-sensei, I’m pretty sure you are very shameless. Bring out the same shamelessness you show to your readers and stop being embarrassed.

n“Um… let’s buy a cheap phone charm instead. You can buy a lot of phone charms for the price of one phone! I really like the two dollar ring you bought me last time…”

n“The phone isn’t an ordinary gift, it’s also a tool you could use to check your star list!”

nThe cell phone that Xiao Qin used now only looked nice and took high resolution photos. All the other functions were seriously outdated and it couldn’t even access the internet.

n“I could look up the star list on my computer. If I really wanted to know, I could also ask you…”

nI stuck both my hands in my pockets and felt a bit annoyed.

n“Why do you keep changing your mind, didn’t we already agree on it earlier? If you don’t want the phone, then I’ll give it to someone else.”

n“Who, who are you planning to give it to?” Xiao Qin had a worried expression.

nI didn’t actually plan on giving it to someone else, so I randomly made something up:

n“If you don’t want it… then I’ll give it to Winnie. Winnie acted as a distraction on Cui Song Mountain to give me a chance to catch the butterfly and I promised I would buy her a new phone.”

nIt actually wasn’t even a serious agreement between me and Winnie. Also, Winnie’s phone was already modified by Dr. Yu and could play the newest games. Winnie wouldn’t even accept even if I gave her a new phone.

nXiao Qin breathed a sigh of relied when she heard.

n“You scared me. If you’re buying it for Winnie and you already made a promise, then it’s fine. After all, you’re someone who keeps his promises… I’ll be satisfied if you buy me a phone charm…”

nWhat, are you not jealous anymore because I’m buying it for your best friend instead of the class leader?

nHow innocent and childish. Don’t you know the three areas modern women take precautions against are fires, burglars, and their best friends? Do you know how many boyfriends get stolen by best friends?

nHowever, Winnie doesn’t really seem like the kind of person who would snatch their best friend’s boyfriend as long as she doesn’t eat any more weird berries.

nI’ve always been very stubborn since I was young and I didn’t like it when other people forced me to do something. For example, the Little Tyrant beat me up every day and forced me to admit defeat, but I would always put on a tough face and fight back.

nIn the same manner, I would feel inexplicably angry if someone doesn’t accept my gift. Currently, it feels like Xiao Qin is forcing me to not give her a gift.

n“Hmph, Winnie’s phone has already been upgraded by Dr. Yu. It would be unnecessary for me to give her another phone and she would suspect I was trying to woo her.”

n“So that’s how it is…” Xiao Qin nodded, “If the phone has a special meaning, then please give it to me. Please woo me…”

n“It doesn’t have that meaning. I guess you could consider it as wages that I should have given you a long time ago.”

n“Huh, did I help with something that would need you to pay me?”

nA freshman walked past and heard Xiao Qin’s comment. He immediately had a look of fright and felt third years were scary for making shady deals at school.

nBy wages, I was referring to when I forced Xiao Qin to copy Chinese characters for Ai Mi. The amount I’ve deducted without giving to Xiao Qin amounted to about ¥‎4000.

nThat’s the amount that should have been paid by the American Express card, but it was frozen by Ai ShuQiao and I couldn’t pay Xiao Qin anything.

nTechnically speaking, Ai Mi is the one who owes Xiao Qin these wages. If I told Ai Mi, she would generously reimburse Xiao Qin since she is pretty generous in this respect.

n“It doesn’t matter if they are a subordinate or a dog, you should make sure to always pay them on time. If you don’t pay them on time, they won’t be loyal and will betray you at key moments.”

nAi Mi once said to me.

nIt doesn’t matter if she learned it from her mother or not, it does seem to make sense. I heard a story about a certain boss of a real estate company who hired a hitman to get rid of his competitors. He was also brazen enough to not pay the hitman on time. One day, the hitman took on another job given by the real estate boss to get rid of a target in an office building.

nWhen the target saw the hitman pull out a gun, he immediately said: “Don’t shoot. How much were you paid? I’ll pay double and pay it right now.”

nHe opened a drawer at his desk that was filled to the brim with cash.

nThe hitman betrayed his old boss and followed a new boss, then he made sure to cleanly get rid of his old boss.

nHitmen follows the code that if you take other people’s money, then you have to get rid of their problems. The hitman never received money from the old boss (because he would delay payments), so it doesn’t count as going against the hitman code.

nLater, the hitman and the new boss began to cooperate and became inseparable. Unfortunately, good things never last and they were arrested. During the criminal process, everyone found out the old boss was actually brave enough to delay payments to a hitman. Hence the golden saying of ** around and find out.

nIt’s true Ai Mi is critical towards her subordinates and always calls them ‘trash’, ‘swine’, or ‘maggots’, but she would always pay them on time. The reason why she owes Xiao Qin is entirely because of me (Xiao Qin doesn’t even know she should have been paid).

nAs matters stand, I have to take responsibility since my sister’s debt is also my debt. Although ¥‎4000 is peanuts for Ai Mi, but for me, it was all of my income for playing the roles of the evil monk and Jin Ling Young Thug (a part of the income was used to treat my dad to a meal). I decided to independently give Xiao Qin her salary and decided to repay her with a new phone.

nI even forced Xiao Qin to copy those words even when she had menstrual pain! It really seems inhuman when I think back on it. If I was the company’s boss and Xiao Qin was the employee, then she was basically working overtime while she was sick.

nI already decided that I was going to buy a cell phone for Xiao Qin without explaining the matter with the wages. Xiao Qin couldn’t change my mind, so she brought up her mother and said:

n“I also just realized if you buy me a new phone, my mom will definitely find out. How would I explain myself?”

n“Just say I bought it for you.” I had a bright idea and said, “The reason why I had the opportunity to play the evil monk has a lot to do with Auntie Ren being in the cast. Not to mention the fact that later on, she ran into an anti-pornography brigade at the hotel while she was trying to deliver my paycheck, and she almost appeared on TV…”

n“That’s true.” Xiao Qin walked alongside me while playing with the zipper on her uniform, “When my grandfather and I dealt with the reporter called Zhao Yao outside Cui Song Mountain hospital, he explained how he wrongly accused my mom and Uncle Ye of being together. He actually suspected our parents of having that kind of relationship, it’s unforgivable…”

nUm, it’s true my dad and Auntie Ren were innocent when Zhao Yao accused them of prostitution. Xiao Qin is the only one right now who doesn’t realize the truth.

nAuntie Ren wasn’t willing to give my wages directly to me and stubbornly insisted on giving it to my guardian, which was my father. She gave my wages to my dad two times in total. On the second time, she ran into the avian flu incident and was quarantined at the hotel. That’s how my dad and Auntie Ren developed their relationship.

nSo the reason why I have the money to buy a phone for Xiao Qin was because Auntie Ren paid the price!

nAnyway, I told Xiao Qin not to worry about her mom and that I had a lot of reasons to give her. I could even say it was to repay Xiao Qin for saving my life in Cui Song Mountain.

nThe bell rang after we agreed to go pick out a cell phone on Saturday or Sunday.

nIn politics class, the class leader didn’t seem very energetic when she answered questions. I’m afraid she was still worried about her mom saying she would be transferred to Shanghai earlier.

nI don’t have the ability to predict the future and I didn’t know at the time that Auntie Lin had given up on buying a house early because Huo ZhenBang wanted to be her neighbor, so of course the matter of letting the class leader transfer to another school was also put on hold.

nHowever, I had already contacted Huo ZhenBang, and I believe that it would be a trivial matter for him to handle as one of the heads of the triads (I’m only worried about him resorting to violence), so I wasn’t as worried as the class leader.

nDuring break, during a chance encounter in the corridor, the class leader apologized to me for her mother’s impulsiveness. I said that it didn’t matter, other than that overly creamy broccoli soup, the other food was all delicious and I was able to eat my fill.

n“Ye Lin, I…” The class leader said something and hesitated as she looked out the window at the students playing outside.

n“Do you like this city?” The class leader finally asked a question.

n“It’s okay.” I followed the class leader’s gaze and looked out the window as well. Ever since our third year began and our classroom was moved to the third floor, the playground looked smaller than before and it felt a bit further away.

n“Do you find the weather in Dong Shan City to be hot or cold?”

nIt felt like small talk that transitioned into a riddle. I couldn’t really understand what the class leader was trying to say.

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