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Eighth Period (2)
T/N: Translated by Jen on Broken Jinsei! Please do not repost my translations! All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
As the bus stopped at the next few stops, a few more waves of people got on, the bus becoming packed like a can of sardines.
Zhou Yanli was originally standing by Jiang Huihui’s side, but slowly, he just got pushed to the front by the crowd.
Young master Zhou, when going out normally, always had a chauffeur driving him around in a private car, as well as private jets. It was his first time riding this kind of public transportation. It was indeed a bit crowded, but it was also a novel experience.
His arms lightly propped against the vertical bar in front. He was tall, so particularly stood out in the crowd.
He looked at the scenery outside the window. Turns out, Pingjiang’s development a few decades ago wasn’t that great.
The place that will become a commercial district in the future was currently still crowded with low-level housing units[1].
As he withdrew his gaze, he subconsciously glanced in Jiang Huihui’s direction, seeing her uncomfortably shifting towards the edge of her seat.
And the one she was avoiding was precisely the man sitting next to her.
—–His head was currently resting on her shoulder.
The other party appeared to be asleep, yet he was always able to accurately lean his head over again whenever she tried to escape from his touch.
Zhou Yanli’s brows were tightly furrowed, a surge of anger rising up, “F$#%!”
He furiously pushed through the crowd, too lazy to waste his breath, directly picking that person up from the seat.
The other party instantly woke up, his legs dangling in the air.
“Who are you, what do you want to do?” He got tightly gripped by the collar, strangling his neck, trembling as he asked this.
Zhou Yanli coldly sneered, having him pressed against the floor of the aisle between the seats, angrily opening his mouth, “Didn’t you want to sleep, then sleep! Keeping sleeping for me, damn it!”
The disturbance here successfully made everyone on the bus all look over.
The man angrily cursed, saying that he was going to call the police, taking out his phone and standing up, but he got pressed down again by Zhou Yanli.
TN: All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
Zhou Yanli smilingly asked him, “Where are you going? Weren’t you quite sleepy just now? Couldn’t even push you awake.”
Seeing that he was just a student, the other party put on the authoritative stance of an adult, warning him, “Get out of the way, or I’ll report you to your school’s administration office!”
Zhou Yanli couldn’t ask for more, “Good, it just so happens that I have no interest in studying.”
Seeing him like this, the man thought that his threat was effective, “Then quickly let go!”
Zhou Yanli nodded, obediently letting go. However, when the other party tried to get up, he had him kicked onto the ground again. He lifted his foot and stepped on his shoulder, making him unable to move.
Zhou Yanli lowered his head and said, “Told you to sleep, do you hear me?”
This while, not the slightest trace of a smile remained on his face. It was entirely filled with fierceness and malice, menacingly warning him.
Jiang Huihui was scared that he really will resort to violence, so hurriedly went over to pull him, “Enough, there’s cameras on the bus, if he really were to call the police……”
She was timid by nature. The only fights she’d ever witnessed in this lifetime were probably just those few times Zhou Yanli had fought in front of her.
Zhou Yanli wasn’t really planning on doing something, just giving a warning. This kind of trash, whenever they see pretty, introverted girls, they will just want to take advantage of them.
F$#%!
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He took out the thermos from Jiang Huihui’s bag and directly poured the entire thing over his head, the slices of lemon even hanging from his forehead.
Before leaving, he didn’t forget to warn him, “I’ll let you off this time. In the future, better be careful when walking at night. If I catch you again, you won’t be this lucky.”
In a blind spot invisible to the camera, he ruthlessly kicked him in the stomach. The other party curled up in pain.
After getting off the bus, Zhou Yanli told Jiang Huihui, “If you feel uncomfortable because of something, then you need to speak up about it, no need to endure and give in. This way, it will only give others even more opportunities to bully you, understand?”
When he was around, he could still help stick up for her, but what if he wasn’t around?
When he first arrived, he just encountered her getting bullied by the delinquent girls from outside the school. Afterwards, he also encountered the thugs spreading obscene rumors about her.
Don’t know how much she’d suffered before this.
The more he thought about it, the more pissed he felt, what the hell was Zhou Jinwei doing?
It was better to let Jiang Huihui first change this weak and timid personality of hers, or at the very least, learn how to reject others.
Thus, the two of them started role-playing on the spot.
“Right now, I’m a stranger. You need to learn how to reject me, understand?” Zhou Yanli said to her.
Jiang Huihui nodded, “Understood?”
Zhou Yanli immediately put on the look of a thug ready to mug someone, “Lend me some money.”
Jiang Huihui’s backpack was hanging from his shoulder. She walked over and took out her wallet from inside, saying with an innocent look, “I only have fifty left, is this enough?”
Zhou Yanli helplessly facepalmed, feeling hopeless, “…….Keep it for yourself.”
Forget it, better take it slowly. Expecting her to change overnight was impossible.
A few girls passed by, their chatter and laughter a bit loud. Zhou Yanli unconsciously glanced in their direction, looking at not their faces, but their clothes.
He then looked down at the one in his hand.
Earlier on the bus, Jiang Huihui felt it was too hot, so took off her jacket. Zhou Yanli casually took it to hold for her.
The jacket clearly was a bit too big, the color also very weird, giving off a faded worn-out look.
When she was wearing it, nothing seemed amiss about it. Mainly because that fair and delicate face of hers was too eye-catching, beautiful to the point of overlooking everything else.
In this moment, that jacket was in his hand, thus finally noticing what was wrong with it.
Seeing him staring at her jacket and not saying anything, Jiang Huihui felt somewhat awkward, “This was my older cousin’s. There aren’t any damages or anything like that. It’s because it was a bit too small on her, so it was given to me.”
This explanation successfully made Zhou Yanli’s expression even more unsightly. He narrowed his eyes in disdain.
No wonder it didn’t seem to fit, turns out it was even someone else’s hand-me-down?
He recalled going to her home last time and seeing that huge pile of toys for boys in the living.
The cost of any random one of them was enough to buy her a new set of clothes.
He was the only child in his family, having enjoyed undivided pampering since childhood, so he has never experienced that feeling of being neglected.
But his heart ached in sorrow, unable to clearly explain the reason, especially when thinking of all the hardships she had endured all these years.
He felt that he’d still come a bit too late. If he could come here when she was one year old, then how great would that be.
He kept walking forward. Jiang Huihui was confused as to why, reminding him, “You’re going the wrong way, it’s in the back.”
Zhou Yanli didn’t turn back, “You really want to directly go over empty-handed? We should at least buy a bit of something as a gift.”
Jiang Huihui was confused. It was just going over for work, not like they were visiting as guests, so why should they buy a gift?
But seeing him being this mindful, unknown as to why, she actually felt somewhat heartened.
At least compared to the first day they met, he has become a lot more polite.
All the way until he stopped in front of a clothing store.
She blanked. Buying a gift from this kind of place?
As soon as Zhou Yanli entered, he just got drawn over by that dress in the display window.
He took it down and held it up in front of Jiang Huihui, visualizing it on her. It was light blue, the hem of the dress very long, perfectly stopping slightly above her ankles.
He felt it was quite fitting, “Try it?”
That dress was indeed very pretty. It was prettier than all the clothes in her closet.
Aside from her school uniform, she seemingly didn’t have any clothes that fit her, practically all clothes that her older cousins didn’t wear anymore, or have outgrown. Afterwards, her aunts would bring them over to give to her.
Jiang Huihui actually didn’t like those dresses.
She just wants a well-fitting dress that only belonged to her.
But whenever she would object, she would always get scolded by her mom, “It’s not easy to make money these days, so we have to save wherever we can. Do you know how much it cost to send you to school every year?”
Afterwards, Jiang Huihui never brought it up again, even if her tuition fees were all paid by scholarships.
She would rather wear the school uniform. At least, they fit her.
In this moment, seeing that dress held before her, she instinctively shook her head, feeling that she wasn’t worthy of wearing such a pretty dress, “No need.”
However, Zhou Yanli already had the dress handed to the female store clerk.
The store clerk naturally won’t go against their sales performance. Since the one paying had the intention of buying, even if needing to lift, she would still have Jiang Huihui lifted into the changing room.
Jiang Huihui wasn’t good at refusing others. Facing the other party’s enthusiasm, she repeatedly looked to Zhou Yanli for help.
The latter crossed his arms and smilingly shrugged at her, expressing that he was unable to help.
In the end, Jiang Huihui could only get pushed into the changing room.
That dress was indeed very fitting on her. She was pretty and also had a good figure. Normally, even if getting covered by a bunch of ill-fitting ugly clothes, she was still able to become the most eye-catching one in the crowd.
Jiang Huihui somewhat nervously looked at Zhou Yanli. The latter stood leaning against the wall, nodding with a doting smile, “Pretty.”
The store clerk seemingly had Zhou Yanli mistaken as her boyfriend, praising with a smile, “You really have a good eye, look how fitting this dress is on your girlfriend.”
Jiang Huihui hurriedly explained, “Not my boyfriend.”
The store clerk apologized for her mistake, “My mistake, hahaha, you two seem to be around the same age, also both this good-looking, so look quite like a couple.”
“She’s not a couple with me; she’s a couple with my dad.” Her clothes were too few. Zhou Yanli wanted to take this opportunity to buy a few more for her. He picked out a few more outfits, letting Jiang Huihui try them all on. If they fit, he’ll just directly buy them.
When the store clerk heard his words, the smile on her face stiffened, her mind blanking.
The two of them appeared to just be around seventeen, eighteen years old, but the girl was actually the boy’s…..step-mother?
While the store clerk was immersed in her enormous shock, Jiang Huihui already got pushed into the changing room by Zhou Yanli, holding a huge pile of clothes he’d picked out beforehand.
In the end, those clothes naturally were all purchased.
The store clerk although still hasn’t completely come out from the shocking relationship revelation, but today’s sales performance has already caught up to this entire month’s performance. When bagging the clothes, she couldn’t stop grinning, endlessly praising Jiang Huihui’s beauty.
However, in reality, her eyes were continuously looking in Zhou Yanli’s direction.
Good-looking guys weren’t hard to come by, but to be this handsome and full of vitality, it was just very rare.
He had a kind of wild and unbridled air.
For someone like him, randomly walking through the shopping district, he can at least run into six talent scouts handing him business cards.
When Zhou Yanli finished paying, Jiang Huihui saw the receipt get printed out. The amount on there made her jaw drop and eyes pop out.
It was almost as much as her family’s living expenses for an entire year.
“This expensive?” She softly gasped.
Zhou Yanli nonchalantly tore up the receipt, “What are you scared of? If we run out, I’ll just go ask him for more.”
Jiang Huihui knew who he was referring to.
Zhou Jinwei.
Thinking for a moment, she still softly warned him, “Zhou Jinwei…..it’s best for you to not offend him.”
Whenever mentioning this person, she would just be filled with fear, as if the other party was some beast of the apocalypse.
If she were to know that this beast of the apocalypse not only married her and had a child with her, he even never remarried after her death, would she change her mind about him?
However, carefully thinking it over, the Zhou Jinwei twenty years from now was a hundred times scarier than the current Zhou Jinwei.
It was very hard to imagine, if the current Jiang Huihui were to encounter the Zhou Jinwei from the future, what kind scene that will be.
Based on her guts, afraid a single glance from him will directly scare her into tears.
Jiang Huihui looked down at the time. It wasn’t early anymore. If they don’t go over now, they will be late. She hurriedly pulled him, “Let’s go, if we’re late, the pay will get deducted.”
Zhou Yanli wanted to say so what if it gets deducted; in any case, he has money.
He reached out and touched the flattened pocket of his coat.
He finally recalled that he’d already spent everything buying clothes for her.
He shouldn’t have torn up the receipt. He should’ve kept it to take to Zhou Jinwei to get reimbursed.
His son took his wife to go buy clothes. As the head of the family, wasn’t it only natural for him to pay?
[1] See below.
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