Chapter 5 Unexpected

  "Ugh..." Xiao Chan was annoyed, what kind of person is this, actually sending her underwear? He's really got some nerve! But since he's already left, she couldn't just throw the underwear away, so she had to pick it up and take it home. She'll have to find a chance to return it to him, this is just too embarrassing!

  She lived in an old house, the whole building looked a bit worn out, especially the stairs and walls, the cement had fallen off in some places. Moreover, because of its age, the sound insulation effect was poor, when she walked upstairs, she could hear people talking inside their rooms.

  "Today I went to the supermarket and saw that woman on the third floor buying milk powder, she broke someone else's jar but didn't even want it, and was caught red-handed by the manager, how embarrassing!" The mistress' voice.

  "What business is it of yours how others are doing? What are you saying they're doing?" The male owner's voice.

  "Oh well, just say it casually." The voice faded away.

  ……

  It seems that this kind of topic is performed every day, and the content discussed by each family is different, but without exception, they are all talking about others' gossip. This world can't do without gossip, as if it's unbearable to not talk about others for a day.

  On the third floor, she took out her key and opened the door.

  How come you're back so late? Trying to starve us to death, aren't you?! Good-for-nothing! Little Chan's mother, Wu Zhen, scolded as soon as she saw her return, while holding her crying little brother.

  "Today is really unlucky, went to the supermarket to see milk powder, don't know which cheap person bumped into me, the milk powder can was broken and it was counted on my head, really unlucky to death!" Wu Zhen was still muttering and complaining.

  Life can really drive a person crazy, the loving and somewhat arrogant mother of the past now also shows her ugly face under the pressure of life.

  Anyway, it's not the first time, Xiaochan has already gone from initial shock to sadness and now calmness. Life still needs to go on, right? So why bother with so many concerns? Besides, she is still living off them, her wings are not hard enough for her to do something that would harm herself.

  Sometimes Wu Zhen also occasionally had a few good conscience, gave her some living expenses, of course, the premise is that Dad just paid wages and she had some money in her hands. However, those living expenses were only 300 yuan, absolutely not one more cent. But what's the difference? Having something is better than having nothing.

  Luckily, I had put all my undergarments in my backpack outside the door earlier, or else Wu Zhen would have seen them and who knows what she would have said. She threw her backpack into the room and then went to busy herself in the kitchen. Before she was 14 years old, she didn't do any household chores, not even washing a bowl. After turning 14, all the household chores were done by her alone.

  Doing the dishes is a must, cooking is also necessary, and even washing clothes has gradually become her responsibility, including her brother's diapers. She is no longer a young lady, but a laborer. Washing dishes and cooking are still okay, from initially not knowing to slowly becoming skilled, especially with cooking, she can now cook delicious meals.

  But doing laundry is a bit difficult, because she has to wash clothes for all four family members by herself. It's okay in the summer, but in the winter the water is icy cold and the washing machine broke down early on so she has to do it all by hand. She's still just a developing child herself, and washing adults' clothes can be a bit of a struggle.

  Is there any way? As long as she still lives here, everything has to be done. However, Xiaocui also has her own plan and will try to move into the school dormitory within this year. Once she moves into the dormitory, she won't have to do household chores anymore and can save a lot of time for studying. But this might be a bit difficult, because now Wu Zhen is the only one taking care of the child at home, and Xiaocui estimates that she will not let her move into the dormitory.

  The main reason for boarding is the accommodation fee, and she will apply to see if she can get a waiver because she was admitted as the top student. The school may exempt her from paying the accommodation fee. Moreover, most schools now advocate for boarding since late self-study sessions are about to start, and it would be unsafe for her to return home too late.

  The next day, Xiaochan squeezed onto the bus to go to work as usual. Rongying should have also set off on his trip out of town. Even if he was in Xiaochan, he rarely took his car, it's not a good habit to cultivate.

  Chu Li still quietly followed behind her, occasionally handing her a bottle of milk, and then accompanying her to sit on the bus. Sometimes when there was only one seat left, he would ask without asking and directly pull her by the back of her collar to go sit down, every time making Xiao Qing so angry that her face turned bright red, yet she couldn't do anything about it.

  Xiaochan had a mobile phone given by Rongying, but she didn't know the value of it because she wasn't familiar with the market. One time when she sent a text message to Rongying on the bus, she was targeted by a pickpocket behind her.

  Nowadays, there are many thieves on the bus, and all kinds of people may be thieves. On the bus that Xiaocui took, I don't know how many girls' things were stolen, although they reported to the police afterwards, but who would want to spend time investigating such a small case? The matter was over and it was over.

  The thief had been eyeing Xiaochan's phone for a long time, and it was a genuine product. If they could get their hands on it, they could sell it for a handsome profit. So several people stared at her for several days, but there was no progress at all. Why? Because Chuli was always following Xiaochan closely. Moreover, Chuli was very tall, which gave them great psychological pressure. Those thieves were only about 1.65 meters tall on average, how dare they approach the nearly 1.9-meter-tall Chuli?

  So, the thieves who had been squatting for several days did not succeed in stealing the phone, but were caught by the police instead. Why? Because a girl who had been stolen from before remembered one of their faces and reported to the police. This is called "losing rice while trying to steal chickens".

  However, Xiaochan didn't know about these things. She didn't know that Chuli was following her and could even fend off thieves. She still hoped that one day Chuli would get tired of following her and stop, then she would feel at ease.

  After Xiaochan finished selling bread, she took out her textbook and quickly reviewed it. Last night, her younger brother cried loudly, Wu Zhen held him and was busy cooking for him, letting her hold him for a long time. It wasn't until almost 11 o'clock that the younger brother finally calmed down, but by then Xiaochan was also very tired. She had washed clothes earlier, so in the end she didn't review her homework and went straight to sleep.

  Chu Chen was still sleeping on the table, motionless as if struck by lightning. It's a miracle he hasn't been expelled from school yet. The teachers didn't like him either, but they wouldn't make things difficult for him, it was as if they had to tolerate his existence for some reason.

  When it was time for the English class, as soon as the teacher came in, she said, "Put your English textbooks under your desks."

  Then have the students quietly write down the words on the blackboard that we discussed yesterday and will be quizzing today. Also, there are teachers observing today, if the class performance is too poor, it will be hard for the teacher to save face.

  There were three classmates who went up to write quietly, but none of them wrote correctly. The teacher frowned slightly, and in order to prevent this from happening again, he had already given advance notice, yet the error rate was still so high. He looked around the class and then called out Xiaocui's name.

  Xiao Chan went up and wrote out all the words that the teacher had asked, earning continuous praise from the English teacher. However, a nearby teacher suddenly asked about the vocabulary of the next chapter.

  This time it's not writing on the blackboard, but standing up and reading out loud. Xiaochan hasn't reviewed anything, but she has read some of it before, so she can still handle the simpler ones.

  She thought the teacher wouldn't be too hard on them, but unexpectedly, she was asked a relatively long and unfamiliar word that was difficult to remember. Xiaocui was a bit fuzzy about that word, so she slowly spelled it out, "H-y-p-o-"

  The voice behind her became a little smaller, as if she had forgotten. The English teacher saw her hesitant appearance and was anxious, while the observing teacher also had an expression of "so-so".

  A low, husky voice sounded in her ear.