Chapter 210 — Reaching an Agreement

Though her tone made it sound as if she cared a great deal, Wei Zhao read something altogether different in her eyes. Shen Yushu was not the least bit angry that her car had been wrecked.

Could she be after something else? Watching Gu Mengyao hurry her along, Wei Zhao became ever more convinced that these two girls were hiding something from him.

"What kind of explanation? Surely you're not going to ask me to give myself to you in payment?" Wei Zhao said to Shen Yushu with an air of injured innocence.

"Uh..." Shen Yushu stalled at that. She had been worrying over the matter of her confession, and hearing Wei Zhao say "give myself to you" brought a flush to her cheeks.

Just then Gu Mengyao's phone rang. She pulled it out and saw it was her father, Gu Pengzhan. She did not want to be distracted at a moment like this, but she could hardly ignore the call.

"Hello, Daddy?" Gu Mengyao answered.

"Yaoyao, I'm at a meeting in the neighboring city. I sent Little Zhang to bring you your meal — he should have arrived by now, hasn't he?" Gu Pengzhan's voice came through the receiver.

"He's been here. He just left." Gu Mengyao was a little impatient, eager to end the call.

Meanwhile, seizing the moment while Gu Mengyao was on the phone, Shen Yushu said to Wei Zhao in a low voice, "Arrow Brand Bro, after dinner, play along with me in a little scene, and we'll call the business of the car even. Remember?"

"What..." Wei Zhao was about to ask what scene she meant when Shen Yushu cut him off in a loud voice.

"Arrow Brand Bro, you wrecked my car, so you have to promise me one thing! I haven't decided what yet — I'll tell you when I have!" Shen Yushu said loudly, afraid that Wei Zhao's questions would draw Gu Mengyao's attention.

Seeing her cover things up like that, Wei Zhao more or less understood that she was keeping it from Gu Mengyao. He could simply have refused — he had been hired by Gu Pengzhan, after all, so his first responsibility was to Gu Mengyao. But Shen Yushu was using the matter of the car as a pretext to press her demands, and Wei Zhao could only nod in agreement.

"Xiaoshu, keep your voice down!" Gu Mengyao knitted her brows slightly; she could barely make out her father's voice on the phone.

"Yaoyao, you and Xiaoshu are talking, aren't you? That's fine, nothing else to discuss then. I'll be back tomorrow — we'll talk again." Hearing his daughter's words, Gu Pengzhan hastily hung up.

"Oh, all right... goodbye, 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 wanted Arrow Brand Bro to compensate me, that's all, but I haven't worked out what I want yet, so I made him promise me one condition! Arrow Brand Bro, you still haven't said whether you agree or not?"

"Fine." Wei Zhao knew she was putting on an act, so he went along with it.

"Then it's settled!" Shen Yushu nodded with a grin, shot Wei Zhao a meaningful glance, then turned to Gu Mengyao. "Yaoyao, Arrow Brand Bro and I have reached a consensus about the car. Let's have dinner... Wow, braised hairtail, my absolute favorite, la-la-la..."

With that, Shen Yushu snatched the lunchbox from Wei Zhao's hands and ran off toward the villa.

Gu Mengyao watched her, baffled. What on earth was the matter with her? Carrying on like a madwoman — had she and Wei Zhao already come to some agreement? It didn't seem so; she had been watching her the whole time, and Xiaoshu had had no chance to say much of anything. She looked at Wei Zhao. "What's wrong with Xiaoshu?"

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

"Watch your mouth!" Gu Mengyao shot him a glare. "You're not allowed to talk about Xiaoshu like that."

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

The two of them walked into the villa together. Shen Yushu had already set the dishes out on the dining table, laid out three sets of cutlery, and filled a bowl of rice for each of them. All her worries had melted away, and she was in such high spirits she was all but humming a tune... Of course, she absolutely could not let Gu Mengyao notice, or it would all be over.

Seeing how busy and cheerful Shen Yushu was, Gu Mengyao grew even more puzzled, but said nothing. She took her usual seat at the table, and seeing that Wei Zhao was still standing there, she pointed to the other side of the table. "Come and eat with us too. From now on you'll eat with us — saves us having to set aside a portion for you..."

"Heh... all right." Wei Zhao's standing in the household had risen markedly — from at first being allowed only the leftovers, to having a portion set aside for him, and now to eating at the same table. It seemed Gu Mengyao was slowly coming to accept the fact that he was a member of this family.

Shen Yushu, by contrast, seemed unbothered. The girl had no temper and no petty tantrums; she was easy to get along with — it was only her conduct that was enough to make one's hair stand on end.

"Yao Yao, the braised hairtail is really good today — try some?" Shen Yushu ate a piece of hairtail, found it delicious, and put a piece in Gu Mengyao's bowl.

"Xiao Shu, have you got a case of the fidgets today? How come you're never like this any other time?" Gu Mengyao finally could not hold back.

"Yao Yao, it's just... mm... in a little while I'm going to take an important step in my life, so I'm excited! You know..." Shen Yushu said.

"..." Gu Mengyao was somewhat speechless. An important step? You're really taking that confession seriously? An important step? At the thought, Gu Mengyao felt a faint stirring of displeasure... It was a joke, and you're treating it with such solemnity.

Wei Zhao ate quietly from the dishes on the table. At meals, Wei Zhao had never liked to talk much — and on subjects he could not get a word in on, he wanted to say something even less.

Today, both Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were giving off something strange. And he had no idea what this "playing along with her act" that Shen Yushu had mentioned actually referred to. It really was rather odd.

Still, when Gu Mengyao thought of how Shen Yushu was bound to make a fool of herself in a moment, and of the stunned expression on Wei Zhao's face after being confessed to, the trace of displeasure in her heart scattered like smoke.

It was about time Xiao Shu made a spectacle of herself. Otherwise, all these years the girl had done no end of mischief at her expense, and she had never had the chance to get her own back, nor the heart to do it — who had made her the elder sister?

For instance, when Shen Yushu wanted grilled squid, she would lie to Zhong Yongliang that it was Gu Mengyao who wanted it, and Zhong Yongliang would skip class and trot off several li to buy back a few skewers of grilled squid, after which Xiao Shu would eat them in bliss...

It was the same with the firecrackers she wanted to hear at New Year — she egged Zhong Yongliang on to set them off, saying that she wanted to hear them... and Zhong Yongliang fell for it again...

Sometimes Gu Mengyao wondered: couldn't Zhong Yongliang's IQ be a little higher? How could he be fooled time and again and still not learn his lesson?