Chapter 23
Su Zihan returned home and finally couldn't help but click on the video.
The girl under the spotlight sang freely, and the glitter on her hairpin reflected a brilliant luster. In the out-of-focus lens, the whole person was like an angel descending. In such a moving picture, the singing did not become a foil, but became the well-deserved focus.
She saw the tag Qi Yi had typed—#originalsong#. He also added a comment at the end: "After searching and verifying, I found that 'Chasing Dreams' was an original song by Shen Huaixin, which is truly rare."
Su Zihan felt her chest boiling, and the blood in her fingers, gripping her phone, gradually faded, turning pale from being squeezed. Her own show wasn't as good as hers, and what made her even more furious was why Qi Yi had to be the one to post it?
She swiped her fingers frantically across the screen, seeing the post had grown in popularity, with numerous replies. Everyone was fiercely debating which version of "Chasing Dreams" was better, Shen Huaixin's version or the version performed by Fang Xiaozheng in the gala. Both sides held their own opinions, and a few people mentioned the campus beauty rivalry, but it was gradually drowned out by the debate over the two versions.
She suddenly realized that the heat of the school beauty competition has been fading. People are always chasing after the first-hand gossip. Before it was the school beauty competition, and now it is the double version of "Chasing Dreams". She and her program are no longer the focus of people's attention.
The next day, Shen Huaixin got up, washed and dressed as usual, then picked up his schoolbag and went out of the bedroom to have breakfast.
She paused and saw Shen Chumo saying good morning to his parents, but no one paid any attention, not even the nanny. There was a pair of bowls and chopsticks and a few exquisite side dishes on the table. When her parents saw Shen Huaixin, they hurriedly called her over for breakfast so she wouldn't be late for school.
Shen Chumo stood there, like a child who didn't know what he had done wrong and was out of tune with this family.
Shen Huaixin couldn't stand this invisible cold violence, so she sat at the dining table, took a few bites of rice, and said she was full. Shen's mother sent her out, and Shen Huaixin looked back at Shen Huaixin who was still standing silently, frowned,
“What about Shen Chumo?”
"...He walks to school by himself. We don't have extra money to hire a driver," Shen's mother replied coldly, then forced a smile and pinched Shen Huaixin's face, "Study hard, and mom will make you something delicious in the evening."
“…”
【Chen Huaixin: Can I help him? 】
【System: No.】
Shen Huaixin got in the car, thought about it again and again, and felt that it would be more reliable to take the old approach.
[Chen Huaixin: Can the heroine help him? ]
【System: Yes.】
She turned on her phone and used a small account pretending to be Su Zihan to transfer money to Shen Chumo so that he could take a taxi to school. She said a few words of greeting. After a while, he replied "thank you" but did not receive the money.
Shen Huaixin knew what it felt like to be ignored, so she kept holding her phone and telling him interesting things that happened at school, from the car to the school, and only stopped when she hit someone.
She looked up and met a pair of eyes wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and quickly spoke,
"Qi Yi, good morning."
"morning."
"I'm looking for you for something. Can you help me contact Su Zihan?"
"……Can't."
Shen Huaixin was immediately discouraged. It seemed that Qi Yi really disdained her. He ignored her yesterday and rejected her directly today.
Seeing her expression, Qi Yi sighed and explained: "It's not that I don't want to help you, it's just that I had some unpleasantness with her."
Shen Huaixin was stunned and almost blurted out the word "impossible". She remembered that in the original work, the warmth of their relationship was due to the performance of the art festival, which also attracted a large number of CP fans. In the end, after the heroine purified Qi Yi, the relationship was completely broken and the two of them got married.
Theoretically, they were in a harmonious relationship and should have been a bit like a young couple. But somehow something went wrong and they started to have problems.
Shen Huaixin didn't expect Qi Yi to be so busy taking care of himself, so he could only say, "Hurry up and think of a way to reconcile."
[System: Yellow card warning! ]
Shen Huaixin was heartbroken, having accidentally forgotten that the original owner liked Qi Yi's personality. Qi Yi paused for a moment and stared at her: "Do you want me to reconcile with her?"
In order to prevent the system from directly using 100,000 volts, Shen Huaixin hurriedly said: “Of course not! But, won’t you be sad? I just hope you won’t be sad!”
Qi Yi opened his mouth, his mind racing, but ultimately he just pushed his glasses up and gave up saying anything, fearing he might accidentally give the girl an unrealistic illusion. He sighed, hefted his schoolbag onto his shoulder, and turned to leave.
Entering the classroom, Shen Huaixin heard someone discussing "Chasing Dreams". She was still thinking about Shen Chumo, so she didn't listen much. She just picked up her phone and pretended to send a message unintentionally.
Chen Huaixin: Fortunately, there is no traffic jam today. I have already arrived at the classroom. How about you?
Shen Chumo: Here we are.
Shen Huaixin breathed a sigh of relief and began to read in peace. When the morning reading was about to end, she walked out of the classroom early and found Shen Chumo standing alone outside the classroom, his forehead wet with sweat, holding his schoolbag in his hand.
Standing in the corner as punishment for being late.
Shen Huaixin's heart suddenly shrank. He lied just to stop himself from worrying. He didn't take the money and just ran to school, but he was still late. He did listen to his advice to "tell white lies when necessary", but he used it in the wrong place.
Just as the bell rang for the end of get out of class, some naughty boys walked out of the classroom, looked him up and down with unfriendly eyes, laughed at him and walked away. As more and more classmates came, both from the same class and the next class, they all saluted him and discussed why he was punished and whether he had not done his homework.
"Hey, isn't this an excellent student with excellent academic performance? He's also being punished by standing?"
"I was caught late for class."
"Did your homeroom teacher tell you how long you'll be standing there as punishment? It can't be 80 years, hahahaha."
Shen Huaixin took in the scene before her. Even though she tried hard to help Shen Chumo, she couldn't stop his life from being eroded by malice. She was powerless, just like before.
When Shen Chumo looked up and saw her, a trace of panic flashed in his eyes, and he covered his face tightly with his schoolbag.
Before the second class started, Shen Huaixin went to see Su Zihan. Since Qi Yi couldn't pass on the message, he had to go directly to the person himself.
She handed the chocolate and biscuits to Su Zihan: "Here, give this to Shen Chumo and tell him it's from you. I'll give you the money after the job is done, and I won't let you run errands in vain."
Su Zihan sneered, her teeth grinding. She reached out and pushed all the snacks to the ground, and they fell all over the floor. Qi Yi frowned at this.
"... Very good." Shen Huaixin pointed at her nose, bent down, and picked up the snacks on the ground. He was angry for a moment.
To be honest, she really wanted to kneel down and hug Su Zihan's thighs, begging her to give the chocolate to Shen Chumo, but that was her damn personality!
He never says a nice word when asking for help, no wonder the heroine dislikes him.
Shen Huaixin has discovered that except for being a little gentler towards his parents and Qi Yi, acting like a normal person, he has to work hard at other times to avoid being seen as ooc.
When one plan failed, Chen Huaixin came up with another one.
She packed up the snacks and took advantage of the physical education class to tiptoe and stuff them into Shen Chumo's desk - he hadn't eaten breakfast and had been running all morning, so he must have been hungry, so a little filling would be good.
After the physical education class, Shen Chumo returned to his seat and wanted to take a textbook from the desk, but he found a bag of snacks. They were all relatively good for resisting hunger, such as chocolate, energy bars, biscuits, candies, etc. There was a yellow sticky note on it, with a simple signature of his name - Han.
His heart moved, and he stroked the area around the words with his fingers, then pressed down hard until the black ink burned into his fingertips.
Her secondary ID is the same as his.
After school, Shen Huaixin looked at Shen Chumo from a distance. He walked out of the school gate as usual, waiting for the car to pick him up, but Shen Huaixin knew that the car would not come. It would never come again in the future.
She got in the car, and the driver stepped on the accelerator and drove away.
Shen Huaixin muttered to himself: "Character setting...Character setting is important..."
"Miss, what are you saying? I didn't hear you clearly." The driver looked in the rearview mirror.
"nothing."
When she got home, Shen Huaixin saw her mother throwing things out in boxes, and the nanny and truck driver around were also helping to load the things into the truck. She looked closer and found that they were all Shen Chumo's clothes and daily necessities that had been specially configured for him.
"Throw away the quilt too? Then Shen..." Shen Huaixin paused and changed the subject, "What will he cover himself with in the future?"
"We have an old bed at home, which will suffice."
She watched as many brand new items were thrown out like garbage, her heart bleeding. While others were busy, she rescued a few items, but received a warning from the system and had to give up.
Mother Shen suddenly remembered something, turned around and said to the housekeeper: "By the way, freeze Shen Chumo's bank card. Cancel the birthday party, and return all the gifts that should be returned."
"The layout of the basement will be completed today. There are some other things I haven't thought of. Please take care of them and try not to miss anything."
"Okay, ma'am." The butler nodded in agreement.
Shen Huaixin asked hurriedly: "What should be arranged in the basement?"
"Bedroom. From now on, that bastard will live in the basement."
Shen Huaixin frowned slightly. The basement was cold and enclosed, never seeing sunlight all day long. There were some random things piled up there. No one had been there for a long time, so it was probably covered with cobwebs.
Shen's father also built a wine cellar in the basement, which took up most of the area. Therefore, the basement was very small and there was not much room for Shen Chumo to live in, but this was also what Shen's mother was happy to see.
“It’s really too cheap for him to provide food and accommodation,” Shen Huaixin nodded, and followed Shen’s mother’s meaning, “I have to go and comfort him.”
"Xinxin, Mom has thought this through carefully. You should focus on your studies now. Mom and Dad will take care of his affairs. Don't worry. Don't worry, we will make sure this bastard gets punished!"
Mother Shen hugged Shen Huaixin, and her trembling body calmed down a little: "Fortunately, you said not to hold a press conference. It was because of your careful consideration that we did not let our Shen family become the laughing stock of the whole city."
The motherly love and filial piety of the past few days seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Shen Huaixin pursed her lips, but she couldn't bear it after all, so she warned him, "Mom, why do you hate him? He might just want to gain family affection, so he went astray for a while."
"Xinxin, you are too naive," Mother Shen said gently, stroking her head again and again as if to comfort her. "If he hadn't been impersonating us, we wouldn't have stopped looking. We would have found him alive or dead. Given that we had some clues at the time, as long as we expanded the search area, your brother still had a chance of survival."
"For example, since he has Chu Mo's hair, as long as he provides us with clues, Mom is not ungrateful. As long as he asks, Mom is willing to adopt him as her son and treat him the same way as you and Chu Mo, without any favoritism."
"But what did he do? He took over my place, impersonated me, and left my real child alone and helpless, and he died in pain and torture..." Mother Shen's voice trembled and she gritted her teeth.
"It was him who killed Chu Mo."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
