Chapter 41: Quick, Teach Me How You Won Over Sister-in-law
The school’s convenience store was still bustling with activity.
Some students who might have woken up late and missed breakfast would come over to buy something to eat after the morning reading session.
Plenty of others with a sweet tooth, or those who liked to bring snacks into the classroom, would also come to the store to stock up so they could eat sneakily during class.
Still fuming from being effortlessly overpowered by Chen Mo with a single hand, Zhao Yuanyuan immediately picked out two snacks she considered rather expensive, plotting her revenge.
The total came to ten yuan.
One of them, a Dehua chocolate bar, cost several yuan on its own. The other was a pack of "mint candy bombs."
The transparent plastic tube contained ten super-strong mints. Su Yuqing had once accidentally swallowed one and choked until her eyes teared up.
Zhao Yuanyuan was scheming to slip one into Chen Mo’s mouth when he wasn’t looking, as payback for the "atrocity" of pinching her cheek that morning.
"That’s all you’re getting?" Chen Mo said with a smile, glancing at Zhao Yuanyuan, whose face was a smug mask of triumphant glee.
"That’s all? What do you mean, ’that’s all’? This is ten yuan! My entire weekly allowance is only ten yuan," Zhao Yuanyuan pouted at Chen Mo.
Chen Mo just shook his head and laughed, grabbing a bottle of mineral water from a nearby shelf. "Just eating chocolate without any water? You’ll make yourself sick."
After speaking, Chen Mo turned to Su Yuqing, who was watching them bicker with a smile. "Yuqing, don’t you want to buy something to eat?"
"No, thank you." Su Yuqing shook her head. She had been spending Chen Mo’s money for the past two days and felt really bad about it.
Chen Mo thought for a moment, then grabbed a lollipop from the shelf. "It’s fine. Having something sweet will boost your sugar levels and cheer you up."
Chen Mo also bought a bottle of water for Su Yuqing, and then the three of them left the convenience store.
Just as they stepped outside, Chen Mo spotted Zhou Hao slouching on the ledge of a flower bed in front of the store.
The guy was once again secretly watching that girl with the single ponytail.
He was so engrossed that he didn’t even notice the three of them walk right up to him. He even let out an annoyed "tsk," clearly blaming them for blocking his view.
"Haozi, if you keep this up, you’ll be mistaken for a stalker sooner or later," Chen Mo said to him with a laugh.
Hearing the familiar voice, Zhou Hao, who had been craning his neck to follow the ponytail girl, finally looked up at the person in front of him.
"Old Mo! Hey, sister-in-law." Realizing he was being teased by Chen Mo, he immediately looked at Su Yuqing and called her "sister-in-law."
This made Su Yuqing’s face flush with embarrassment.
Then Zhou Hao looked at Zhao Yuanyuan and said, "And this must be the sec—"
"The hell you mean, ’sec-’! This is my daughter, Little Yueyue. Quick, say hi to Uncle Zhou," Chen Mo said, laughing as he ruffled Zhao Yuanyuan’s hair.
"Bah!" Zhao Yuanyuan shot Chen Mo a look, her cheeks puffed out, before turning to Zhou Hao. "I’m his aunt."
"Ouch, ouch!" The words were barely out of her mouth before her chubby little cheek was pinched. She quickly begged for mercy, "I was wrong, I was wrong! I’ll be whatever you say I am."
Only then did Chen Mo laugh and let go.
"Yuqing’s Mother, look at the man you picked! He’s abusing me all day. Let’s hurry up and dump him," Zhao Yuanyuan immediately tattled to Su Yuqing.
Su Yuqing gave a helpless smile, reached out to rub Zhao Yuanyuan’s cheek, and said to Chen Mo, laughing, "Stop bullying her all the time."
"You hear that~?" With backup, Zhao Yuanyuan immediately got bold again.
"My daughter’s going through her rebellious phase. She needs to be taught a lesson," Chen Mo said, giving Zhao Yuanyuan a light flick on the forehead before turning to Su Yuqing with a smile. "You can’t spoil her too much."
Watching the three of them get along so well, Zhou Hao, from his spot on the side, let a trace of envy show through his devil-may-care facade.
He also wished he had friends he could fool around with like that during his school days.
But because of his efforts to build a tough reputation, most people gave him a wide berth.
The ones who did approach him usually weren’t up to any good.
Aside from Chen Mo, he didn’t really have any other friends at school.
"You two head back first. Haozi and I have something to talk about," Chen Mo said to Su Yuqing and Zhao Yuanyuan after they had fooled around for a bit.
"Let’s go! We’ll go back and finish the chocolate. We won’t save any for him," Zhao Yuanyuan said with a mischievous grin, pulling Su Yuqing along as she ran off.
Seeing her act like a little girl, Chen Mo couldn’t help but give a fond smile.
Whenever he saw her, Chen Mo always had the feeling that he had a little sister. Su Yuqing often felt the same way.
Because both of them often gave in to Zhao Yuanyuan, she was very reliant on and close to them.
Even though Chen Mo was always pinching Zhao Yuanyuan’s cheeks, when it really mattered, he always took good care of her.
Because of this, even when it looked like she was being bullied by Chen Mo, Zhao Yuanyuan would always be laughing cheerfully again in no time, completely carefree.
Looking at the snacks she chose earlier, ten yuan seemed like a lot, but she was actually planning to share them with everyone.
She wasn’t just buying them for herself.
Once the two girls were a good distance away, Zhou Hao finally snapped out of it and looked at Chen Mo curiously. "Old Mo, you said last night you had something to tell me today. What’s up?"
Hearing this, Chen Mo plonked himself down on the stone ledge of the flower bed and said with a smile, "You’re interested in Qu Danwan from Class 1, aren’t you?"
"Wh-who told you that?" Suddenly having his best friend find out the name of his secret crush, Zhou Hao was so nervous he started to stammer.
He might act all carefree normally, but when it came to this kind of thing, he’d never been so nervous in his life.
He wouldn’t be nervous at all facing ten people in a fight, but if he had to face Qu Danwan alone, he’d be so nervous his heart would leap out of his throat.
"You think I’m blind? You stare at that girl every single day. I bet she’s noticed you a long time ago," Chen Mo said with a laugh.
"Then... then what do I do?" Zhou Hao nervously started wringing his hands.
Suddenly, he looked at Chen Mo with a determined expression, grabbed his shoulders, and put on a pitiful face. "Old Mo, since you already know, this brother of yours won’t be shy about it. It is what it is. You have to teach me... how did you win over sister-in-law?"
Chen Mo smiled and said, "I told you, you’ve misunderstood. We’re just good friends."
Zhou Hao gave Chen Mo a surprised look, not understanding why he’d deny it, but he still put on a placating smile. "Right, right, ’good friends.’ Just teach me. I want to know how to become ’good friends’ with someone too."
"I’ll impart my knowledge to you, but you can’t share it with anyone else," Chen Mo said, looking at Zhou Hao with a smile.
"Hurry, hurry, tell me," Zhou Hao said, instantly perking up his ears and looking at Chen Mo.
Suddenly, Chen Mo reached out and patted him on the chest. "There’s only one secret: be sincere. All you have to do is show her your true feelings. It’s much better than any of that flashy stuff you could try. But..."
"’Be sincere?’" Zhou Hao had a look of half-understanding on his face.
’Chen Mo only said this because he knew Zhou Hao had successfully gotten together with her in the previous timeline.’
’The less he interfered, the purer the path of their relationship would be.’
’There was no need for him to meddle blindly. What he needed to do was remove the obstacle that stood between them.’
"But what?" Zhou Hao asked, looking at Chen Mo nervously.