☆, Chapter 14: Asking for Money
Of course, you have to strike while the iron is hot. Taking advantage of Hao Weiguo still basking in the glow of yesterday’s compliments from the reporter, Hao Ren planned to ask him for money the next morning, just as he was about to leave. For the first time in her life, she was going to ask her father for money. She had spent half the night rehearsing the scene with Daizi. She had to seem close, but not fawning. In short, she needed to be as natural as a father and daughter in an ordinary family. Hao Ren and Daizi had practiced it seventeen or eighteen times before it looked somewhat decent.
Hao Weiguo got up. Hao Weiguo was drinking water. Hao Weiguo was about to leave…
Just as he was about to leave, Daizi gave Hao Ren, who was still hiding behind the door, a hard shove. Hao Ren had been full of confidence, but the moment she saw Hao Weiguo’s face, her heart began to pound again. It couldn’t be helped; in her memory, that guy had always been too ferocious.
“Dad…”
“Mm.”
“Dad, Unlucky Ren, you’re up early!”
“Oh, Little Yi, how rare. You’re up so early today!” He had been stern with Hao Ren, but the moment he saw Hao Yi, that guy Hao Weiguo’s face instantly broke into a benevolent smile.
The courage Hao Ren had just mustered instantly sank. Although she kept telling herself that that person was not her father, her nose still couldn’t help but tingle.
“Unlucky Ren, do you have something to say to Dad?” Just as Hao Ren was about to retreat, Hao Yi suddenly walked over and, with a smile, pushed her in front of Hao Weiguo.
If she didn’t say it now, she would have even less of a chance later. Understanding this, Hao Ren took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and shouted in Hao Weiguo’s direction, “Dad, I have no clothes to wear. Give me some money, I want to buy clothes! Everyone knows I’m your daughter, I can’t dress too shabbily and bring you shame, right?”
The originally designed dialogue was supposed to be a normal conversation between a father and daughter, but Hao Ren delivered the lines as stiffly as a robot. Out of nervousness, her voice was loud enough to deafen someone.
When she opened her eyes, Hao Ren saw that the room was completely silent. Not only was Hao Weiguo stunned on the spot, but even Hao Yi’s expression was a bit off. He wasn’t shocked, though; he was trying hard to hold back his laughter. Hao Ren’s performance just now must have been truly ridiculous.
“Oh, alright. You should buy a few new outfits.” Hao Ren took a deep breath, her palms sweating from nervousness, but Hao Weiguo’s reaction was very calm. He opened his bag, pulled a bank card from his wallet, and handed it over.
Hao Ren held the easily obtained bank card, her face a mask of disbelief. It seems much simpler than I imagined!
“Weiguo, what are you doing?” Auntie Mei’s voice suddenly came from the stairs. She was asking a question to which she already knew the answer. Judging by her extremely ugly expression, she must have seen the moment Hao Weiguo gave her the bank card. Hao Ren had originally wanted to avoid her, but she hadn’t expected her to be up so early today. No, looking at her, she had probably been so angry about Hao Ren becoming the top scorer that she hadn’t slept all night.
Hao Ren secretly glanced at her, a flash of pleasure in her heart. Since she had already gone that far, why should she care about her expression from now on? A true hero would be someone who could make her fly into a rage every day. Right, since she didn’t like Hao Yi playing with her, then she would deliberately ask Hao Yi to come along.
“Hao Yi, it’s a rare weekend. Come shopping with me!”
“Sure, sure! I don’t know what got into my mom last night, but she ordered me not to sleep in anymore. I’m still half asleep. A walk with you to wake myself up sounds good! Wait for me, I’ll go change!” Hao Yi yawned and was about to go back to his room to change.
“You’re not allowed! Get back to your room and study!” Seeing Hao Ren openly leading her son astray, Auntie Mei certainly couldn’t just stand by and watch.
“Mom, you can’t be so unreasonable. You were the one who told me to balance work and rest! Aren’t you afraid I’ll go run into a wall again like last time?” Hao Yi yawned again. It seemed he really hadn’t slept well last night.
At the mention of running into a wall, not only did Auntie Mei become nervous, but even Hao Weiguo’s expression changed. It seemed the words of that antique shop owner had really scared them.
“It’s a rare weekend. If the kid wants to go out, just let him. It won’t make a difference for one day!” Since Hao Weiguo had spoken, Auntie Mei naturally had no further objections.
“Hao Yi, are you done yet?” Hao Ren had only asked Hao Yi along to annoy Auntie Mei. She hadn’t expected that guy to be more trouble than a woman when it came to changing clothes. She had been playing with Daizi and Lucky downstairs for nearly half an hour, and there was still no sign of him.
Just as she was suspecting that he had gone back to bed for a nap and was about to go upstairs to check, he finally appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Dressed up so flamboyantly, you have a date today?” Looking at the guy’s meticulously dressed-up, showy appearance, Hao Ren didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. No wonder it had taken so long.
“No, it’s just rare that I don’t have to wear a school uniform, so I couldn’t decide what to wear…” Hao Yi’s face turned red, his expression a bit awkward. Hao Yi attended a private high school, and that school’s uniform was modeled after those in Japanese and Korean idol dramas, a world apart from the ugly uniforms of ordinary high schools. To be honest, compared to the slightly mature outfit he was wearing now, that guy Hao Yi looked more handsome in his school uniform. Youth is invincible, after all.
“Really, the troubles of the rich…” Taking half an hour because you can’t decide what to wear. Hao Ren had always thought that was a trouble only girls had. She hadn’t expected boys to have it too. It was a real eye-opener.
“Ahem! Let’s go!” Hearing Hao Ren’s sigh, Hao Yi became even more flustered. He quickly came over and patted Hao Ren’s shoulder, then stepped out into the summer sun ahead of her.
There was a well-developed commercial street near the villa complex, and the roads were all tree-lined, so even in the scorching summer sun, walking was not a problem at all. Thus, Hao Ren, Hao Yi, plus one cat and one dog, strolled leisurely along the tree-lined path.
To be honest, Hao Yi’s financial situation wasn’t bad at all right now! Because her grandmother had just passed away during the winter break of her third year of high school and had secretly left her an inheritance. The old lady didn’t dare to give it to her directly, so she entrusted a reliable friend to secretly slip it to Hao Ren. The passbook was in Hao Ren’s name, and the deposits had started in the year Hao Ren was beaten for taking pocket money from her grandmother. One thousand yuan a month, without fail. The password was her mother’s birthday.
Her grandmother was just an ordinary female worker with a low pension. This was more than half of her pension, and it had been a full ten years now. Hao Ren knew that her grandmother had always been frugal, and it was only when she got the passbook that she realized it was for her. Even now, taking out that passbook would still bring tears to Hao Ren’s eyes.
When Hao Ren was young, her grandmother had tried to give her pocket money, but it was fiercely rejected by Mr. and Mrs. Hao on the grounds of interfering in family affairs. Hao Ren had even been innocently beaten for it. After that, even if her grandmother gave it to her, she didn’t dare to take it. Even if she took it, she didn’t dare to use it. She would just secretly bring bags of snacks home every time she visited her grandmother’s house.
When they were young, Hao Yi’s favorite thing to do was to throw Hao Ren’s food on the ground, sometimes ev
en mischievously stepping on it. Hao Ren was stubborn; if it was thrown on the ground, she simply wouldn’t eat it. Even so, Hao Weiguo would still beat her, the reason being that she was wasting food. From that moment on, Hao Ren understood a fundamental truth of the world: if you want to bully someone, you’ll never be short of a reason.
All the clothes Hao Ren currently wore had been bought at a small commodities market, where Hao Weiguo had sent Auntie Zhang to take her.
My grandmother had bought me quite a few clothes, but I had always kept them hidden in the closet, never daring to wear them. I still remembered the fate of the beloved dress I had bought for the first time. When Hao Weiguo cut the dress, it was actually on my body. Although I was only a middle school student then, my body had already started to develop. Even though there were no outsiders at home, being stripped down to my underwear in front of Hao Yi and his parents, that helpless despair and the shame of being naked, still tormented me to this day.
I didn’t plan to wear the clothes in the closet. After all, besides the passbook, they were the only things my grandmother had left me. Although those clothes had never been worn out, every time Hao Ren looked at them, she felt a warmth in her heart, as satisfied as a miser looking at gold.
Lost in her memories, Hao Ren was staring blankly at the round spots of light filtering through the gaps in the trees when she suddenly felt her hand being grabbed by a damp, sweaty hand. She turned her head and saw that it was, of course, that guy Hao Yi.
“You’ve been spacing out… I… I was afraid you’d get lost…” Hao Yi, who was usually sharp-tongued, was actually stuttering a little.
“I’m holding onto Daizi…” Hao Ren lifted the leash in her other hand.
“I was afraid you’d get lost with it…” As Hao Yi spoke, his hand gripped hers even tighter.
Daizi’s gaze swept over their clasped hands, and after just one glance, it continued on its way. Lucky, on the other hand, was shouting, “Holding hands, holding hands!”
Although they had walked hand in hand on this road as children—or rather, not walked, but been dragged along at a run by Hao Yi—it felt a little strange now. Never mind, it’s not too uncomfortable, I’ll just bear with it.
Hao Ren didn’t realize at all that after years of intensive training by Mr. and Mrs. Hao, the policy of non-resistance towards Hao Yi had been deeply ingrained in her.
“What kind of clothes are you planning to buy?” The atmosphere was a little awkward, so Hao Yi took the lead in starting a conversation.
“Girls’ clothes, I guess!” Hao Ren hadn’t really thought about it.
In her past life, she had always worn a school uniform. And the school she attended wasn’t a prestigious one like Hao Yi’s. Chinese school uniforms have always had the strange effect of turning the magical into the mundane. One can imagine what she looked like during the best years of her youth. After the car accident, she had been a shut-in at home, wearing a few sets of pajamas until the end of time. The beautiful clothes and shoes that ordinary girls wore were completely out of her reach. The reason she had been able to muster the courage to ask Hao Weiguo for money today was also to make up for the wasted youth of her past life.
“Pfft—” Hearing Hao Ren’s words, Hao Yi burst out laughing. “Are you wearing boys’ clothes now?”
“You’re right! Hahaha…” Hao Ren glanced at the cheap lace T-shirt and denim shorts that Auntie Zhang had bought for her at the small commodities market and suddenly burst into unrestrained laughter.
The lace T-shirt was adorned with small pink bows, which was one thing, but the denim shorts even had sequins that could blind a dog, and those sequins had painstakingly formed a large rose on the left side of the shorts. This was indeed a girl’s outfit. To be honest, there was probably no outfit in the world more girly than this. Auntie Zhang had probably tried to dress Hao Ren up as a little princess on a limited budget, but unfortunately, thanks to her heaven-defying taste, it exuded a strong rustic style no matter how one looked at it.
And next to her was Hao Yi, in a preppy-style Burberry outfit. The contrast was too stark!
“Hey, Hao Yi, when we walk together like this, don’t we look like the village belle who’s hooked up with a tall, rich, and handsome guy? Right, Daizi, you stand on my side, and Lucky, a purebred famous cat like you must stand on Hao Yi’s side! Hahaha! This effect is simply heaven-defying!”
“Darling, I just love the unrestrained romance of your bow-covered body… oh… and that sparkling rose on your shorts is simply a masterpiece…” That guy Hao Yi was indeed a joker. With Hao Ren’s inspiration, he actually started playing along with a look of intoxication.
“Stop it!” Hao Ren actually twisted shyly. In fact, she did have the optimistic spirit of the martyrs who found joy in hardship.
Daizi squinted at the two lunatics, looking helpless. If it weren’t for the leash, it would definitely have run as far away as possible. Lucky was much more playful. After hearing Hao Ren’s words, it actually walked over to Hao Yi’s side, holding its head high and walking with an elegant cat-like gait, with an air of “I am a tycoon.”
And so, the tall, rich, and handsome guy, with his rustic-style little girlfriend, leading one cat and one dog, strode into the most expensive department store in H City.