Chapter 210 — Reaching an Agreement

Although her tone betrayed deep concern, Wei Zhao read a different flavor in her eyes. Shen Yushu was not angry in the least about her car being wrecked.

Could she have some other aim after all? Watching Gu Mengyao prodding him on from the side, Wei Zhao grew ever more certain that these two girls were keeping some secret from him.

"What sort of settlement? You're not going to make me pledge myself to you, are you?" Wei Zhao looked at Shen Yushu with a perfectly innocent air.

"Um..." Shen Yushu's words caught in her throat. She had already been on edge about the coming confession, and hearing Wei Zhao speak of pledging himself to her flushed her cheeks crimson in spite of herself.

Just then, Gu Mengyao's phone started ringing. She took it out and saw that the caller was her daddy, Gu Pengzhan. She did not want to be distracted at a moment like this, but it was a call she could hardly ignore.

"Hello, Daddy?" Gu Mengyao answered.

"Yaoyao, I'm at a meeting in the neighboring city and had Xiao Zhang bring over your dinner. Has he arrived yet?" Gu Pengzhan's voice came over the line.

"He's here. He just left." Gu Mengyao was anxious to end the call as quickly as she could.

Meanwhile, Shen Yushu seized the very instant Gu Mengyao was on the phone to whisper to Wei Zhao, "Arrow Bro, after dinner, you play along and act out a little scene with me, and the matter of the car is settled! Got it?"

"What—" Wei Zhao had just started to ask which scene, but Shen Yushu cut him off at full volume.

"Arrow Bro, you broke my car, so you have to promise me one thing! I haven't thought of what it is yet—I'll tell you once I do!" Shen Yushu said loudly, afraid that Wei Zhao's questions would catch Gu Mengyao's attention.

Seeing her being so secretive, Wei Zhao more or less understood that she was hiding this from Gu Mengyao. By rights he could have refused outright—he had been hired by Gu Pengzhan, so his chief responsibility was to Gu Mengyao. But since Shen Yushu was seizing on the car as a pretext, Wei Zhao could only nod his agreement.

"Xiaoshu, keep your voice down!" Gu Mengyao frowned slightly, finding it increasingly hard to make out her daddy's voice on the phone.

"Yaoyao, you're talking with Xiaoshu, aren't you? All right then, nothing else. I'll be back tomorrow. We'll speak again then." Hearing his daughter's words, Gu Pengzhan hurriedly hung up.

"Oh, all right... Bye, Daddy." Gu Mengyao ended the call, but her eyes stayed fixed on Shen Yushu. "Xiaoshu, what exactly are you up to?"

"Nothing..." Shen Yushu stuck out her tongue. "I just want Arrow Bro to compensate me, but since I haven't decided what compensation I want, I'm having him promise me a condition instead! Arrow Bro, you still haven't said whether you agree!"

"Fine." Knowing full well she was putting on a show, Wei Zhao went along with it.

"Then it's settled!" Shen Yushu nodded with a grin, shot Wei Zhao a look full of hidden meaning, then turned to Gu Mengyao. "Sis Yaoyao, Arrow Bro and I have reached an agreement about the car! Let's have dinner... Wow, braised hairtail—my absolute favorite! La la la..."

With that, Shen Yushu snatched the lunchbox out of Wei Zhao's hands and dashed into the villa.

Gu Mengyao watched her in bafflement. What had gotten into her? All that wild, giddy behavior—could she really have already settled things with Wei Zhao? That didn't seem right. She had been watching the girl the whole time, and there had been no chance for her to say any more than a few words. She looked at Wei Zhao and asked, "What's wrong with Xiaoshu?"

"How would I know?" Wei Zhao shrugged. "If I hadn't seen her chest get squeezed this afternoon, I'd have thought it was her head that got squeezed..."

"Don't talk nonsense!" Gu Mengyao shot him a withering glare. "I won't have you speaking nonsense about Xiaoshu."

"..." Wei Zhao smiled faintly. You've been completely fooled by Xiaoshu, and you're still standing up for her?

The two walked into the villa together to find that Shen Yushu had already laid the dishes out on the dining table, set out three place settings, and filled every bowl with rice. With all her worries cast aside, Shen Yushu was in the finest of spirits—so happy she nearly hummed a little tune... Of course, she absolutely must not let Gu Mengyao catch on, or everything would be ruined.

Seeing Shen Yushu so uncharacteristically diligent, Gu Mengyao was all the more puzzled, though she said nothing. She sat down in her usual seat and, noticing Wei Zhao still standing there, pointed to the far side of the table. "Come and eat too. From now on you'll dine with us, so we needn't set aside a portion for you anymore..."

"Hah... all right." Wei Zhao's standing in the household had clearly risen a grade. At first he could only eat the leftover scraps; later, food was set aside for him; and now he ate at the same table as the ladies—it seemed Gu Mengyao was slowly coming to accept that he was a member of this family.

Shen Yushu, for her part, seemed to make nothing of it. That girl had no temper and no sulky moods—easy to get along with, to be sure, but the things she did were enough to make one's hair stand on end.

"Sis Yaoyao, today's braised hairtail is delicious. Have a taste?" Having tried a piece and found it wonderful, Shen Yushu picked out another and put it in Gu Mengyao's bowl.

"Xiaoshu, did you come down with ADHD or something today? When do I ever see you behave like this?" Gu Mengyao finally could not hold it in.

"Sis Yaoyao, I'm just... um... in a little while I'm about to take the most important step of my life, so I'm all excited! You know what it is..." said Shen Yushu.

"..." Gu Mengyao was left speechless. The most important step? Are you really taking that confession as the real thing? The most important step, of all things? At the thought, a faint displeasure welled up in her heart... It was only a joke, yet she had to go and make such a solemn ceremony of it.

Wei Zhao ate in silence. At mealtimes he had never been fond of much talk, and on a topic he could not get a word into, he preferred to keep his peace altogether.

Both Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu today reeked of oddity. And what could Shen Yushu's so-called "act with me" possibly mean? Very strange indeed.

But when Gu Mengyao pictured how Xiaoshu was sure to make a fool of herself in a moment—the dumbfounded look on Wei Zhao's face once the confession hit him—that wisp of unhappiness in her heart dissolved like smoke.

It was high time Xiaoshu made a spectacle of herself anyway. Over the past few years that girl had played no end of tricks and caused her no end of trouble, and Gu Mengyao had never found the chance to pay her back—nor the heart to do it, after all. Who told her she was the older sister?

Take, for instance, the time Shen Yushu got a craving for grilled squid: she told Zhong Yongliang in all seriousness that it was Gu Mengyao who wanted it, whereupon Zhong Yongliang skipped class and scampered off for miles to buy back several skewers of grilled squid, which Xiaoshu then devoured with tremendous relish...

And at the New Year, when she wanted to hear firecrackers, it was the same story—she egged Zhong Yongliang on to set some off, claiming it was what she longed to hear... and, sure enough, Zhong Yongliang fell for it yet again...

There were times Gu Mengyao wondered whether Zhong Yongliang's IQ could possibly be a little higher. How could he be taken in again and again, and still never learn his lesson?

For the fastest updates and a pop-up-free reading experience, please search for the original.