Chapter 37: The Tycoon Himself

The girl in the mirror was too fat to sit cross-legged, so she could only stretch her legs straight and awkwardly sat flat on the carpet.

Her shoulder-length hair was messy, her bangs thick, her face round and plump, and the corners of her fair mouth stained with chocolate.

Her vacant stare made her look quite silly overall.

Indeed, no one would believe she was the Pei family's Eldest Young Lady given her appearance.

Pei Muyin had long grown accustomed to such remarks at home, so hearing them elicited little reaction.

Whenever the Pei family hired a new servant, the veteran servants would give them this kind of 'popular science' explanation.

It wasn't embellishment; most of it was true.

Grandmother didn't like her, and father… also didn't want to see her.

That's why she chose to stay away from home year-round.

Pei Muyin had no friends; each day, aside from attending class, she was accompanied only by her violin.

She actually wanted to make friends, but at home, whenever she exchanged a few words with a servant, that servant would soon be dismissed.

At school, she hoped to befriend whichever classmate, but that classmate would end up becoming friends with the lively and outgoing Shi Yao.

Perhaps it was destined to be this way; no one would like or care about her dull personality.

She thought so.

Pei Muyin urgently stuffed more chocolate into her mouth, a sign her mood had sunk to an extreme low.

She tore at the chocolate wrapper, and suddenly an empty cake box rolled out from the snack pile before her.

This box had originally contained a piece of strawberry yogurt mousse.

The mousse had been eaten, but she had washed the box clean and kept it.

Pei Muyin cupped the cake box in her hands, and also recalled the Musi Jiejie she had met in Anshi.

She loved it so much that, upon happening to see a push notification from that dessert shop, she would run all the way over to buy sweets, but she hadn't expected to meet such an older sister.

Pei Muyin still remembered her appearance and her voice.

She was very beautiful, her speech gentle, her voice pleasant, and most importantly, when she handed her the mousse, she showed such thoughtful care for her awkwardness.

The feeling Musi Jiejie gave her was truly warm; recalling it actually made her want to cry from feeling wronged.

Pei Muyin rarely felt such pure kindness, and had never before developed a similar sense of dependence on a stranger she had only met once.

A rebellious idea sprang up in her mind.

... She wanted to go find Musi Jiejie.

Shu Lingchen didn't know what Shu Shu went to Jing Shi to do, but he could sense that upon returning from Jing Shi, Shu Shu's mood was inexplicably somewhat silent.

He couldn't help asking, "Mom, what's wrong?"

Before confirming her daughter was still alive in this world, Shu Shu didn't plan to tell her son about this matter.

One person's disappointment is better than two people's disappointment.

But Shu Shu did not give up believing her daughter was still alive just because the trip to Jing Shi yielded nothing; as long as there was the slightest possibility, she was willing to believe and devote time and effort, even if it ended in vain.

Shu Shu tapped Shu Lingchen's forehead and changed the subject: "Adult matters, children shouldn't ask."

"Ow." Shu Lingchen covered his head: "I'm not a child anymore; I'm seventeen."

Shu Shu: "Oh, what use is being seventeen in body if your intellect is still that of a three-year-old? No, maybe it's even regressed—you don't have the intellect of a three-year-old, after all you were quite clever when you were three."

"……" Shu Lingchen had wanted to retort that his brain was smart, but thinking of his monthly exam score of only 72 points, he kept silent.

He didn't want to seek embarrassment in front of his mother, who had scored a total of 748.

Recently at San Zhong, Shu Shu's limelight was very great.

— Just after transferring to San Zhong, she directly overbearing kicked the gym, taking the top seat of first place in her grade, still the kind of first that tosses the second place two streets away.

Moreover, her family was filthy rich, living in a luxurious spacious flat over six hundred square meters in Yujingyuan.

Everyone at school was gossiping whether Shu Shu was the daughter of some super tycoon, a miss from a wealthy family deliberately hiding her identity.

No one guessed that Shu Shu herself was the tycoon.

Shu Lingchen also heard some of it and curiously asked Shu Shu, "Mom, did you buy Imperial Scenic Garden 1600 over ten years ago?"

Shu Shu said, "Yeah, I bought it for you; when kids grow up, they generally don't want to live with their parents and want their own space."

Upon hearing this, Shu Lingchen was moved to tears, nearly bursting with emotion: "Mom, you're really good; back then you considered these things and bought me such a big house."

Shu Shu raised her hand: "No, you misunderstood; the six-hundred-square-meter flat was bought for me to live in, while the smaller one upstairs is yours. Haven't you heard the saying? You can't make the child suffer without also making the mother suffer."

"……" Shu Lingchen had only heard that you can't make the parents suffer without also making the child suffer.

He recalled when he was little, his mother bought a box of French shell macaron pastries, seven pieces.

The mother and son each ate one, leaving only one at the end.

Who should eat it?

Shu Lingchen gazed longingly at Shu Shu, thinking his mother would, like those parents who begrudge themselves a bite so the child can have an extra one, give him the remaining macaron to eat.

The result was Shu Shu patting his shoulder, then pointing outside the window and shouting, "Son, quick look, the Calabash Brothers have come to our house!"

By the time Shu Lingchen excitedly ran to the balcony and saw nothing, then turned his head in confusion, the last macaron had already been eaten by Shu Shu.

That day, after school.

Shu Lingchen furrowed his brow, sighing from time to time, repeatedly taking out his phone only to put it away again, dejected.

Shu Shu tilted her head and said, "Son, what's troubling you? Tell me so I can be happy."

"……" Shu Lingchen scratched his head: "It's Chu Chu; she's been replying to my messages very rarely lately, and even when she does reply, it's extremely brief—just an 'en' or 'en en'. She's never been like this before; this is really wrong."

Shu Shu raised her eyebrows, thinking to herself, "This is just right!"

Shu Lingchen, who lacked money that could be extorted even without a house, had no further use value to Chu Lian, so Chu Lian naturally wouldn't coax him as before.

Shu Lingchen sent Chu Lian a message asking what was wrong.

Chu Lian replied to him, and Shu Shu glanced at Shu Lingchen's phone screen, only to see—

Chu Chu: "Nothing, I'm reading a book, I don't want to look at my phone."

Very aloof.

"Oh~ So it's because you have to study." Shu Lingchen let out a sigh of relief, immediately believed it, and thoughtfully replied: "Then Chu Chu, you can read your book in peace, I won't disturb you."

Shu Shu looked at the gullible little simpleton, couldn't help shaking her head.

Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks and abruptly turned her head.

Shu Lingchen beside her blinked in confusion: "What's wrong?"

Shu Shu gazed at the ordinary street behind her, frowning.

These past few days she constantly felt someone was following her.

Once might be a mistake, but two or three times likely isn't.

But Shu Shu said aloud: "It's fine."

Then she continued walking forward as usual with Shu Lingchen, until turning the next corner, Shu Shu grabbed Shu Lingchen and pulled him behind the wall; not long after, sure enough, someone came up behind them—