AnnouHey everyone! If you’re enjoying the story, please leave a rating and review on Novel Updates!

  Join my Discord: https://disc/SZBqtJxcyd

  Thanks for your support!

  Chapter 198: A Simple Hand-Holding, Causing an Uproar

  TL: Etude

  As time passed, more and more boys gathered around the mutton soup stand to watch Feng Nanshu. Naturally, Jiang Qin received an increasing number of disdainful looks.

  However, his soul had grown weary, and he had almost fotten the names and faces of his high school cssmates. He couldn’t even reize everyone in his own css, let alone someone from the ext door.

  But Yang Shu’an knew all about these people and rattled off their details. “That one is the perpetual sed-pcer in css one, always sg just behind my aunt in the monthly exams.”

  “That’s Liu He, studying aviation. Many say he’s the most handsome guy in school and has expressed his liking for my aunt more than once.”

  “And that one, Sun Lei, a rich sed geion. His family is quite wealthy, aen ‘actally’ bumps into my aunt at the stairwell.”

  “That’s Cao Jian from css six. Nothing special about him, just like me and Old Guo, nothing at all.”

  “…”

  As Yang Shu’an handed a bowl of mutton soup to a er, his casual remark “nothing at all” turned Guo Zihang’s face dark with embarrassment.

  Jiang Qin smiled faintly, thinking how childish and immature kids were. He then pulled the hood of the down jacket over the little rich dy’s beautiful face, hiding it from view, not allowing anyone else to see.

  “Uncle, looking at their lip movements, they seem to be cursing you. Do you want to curse back?”

  Yang Shu’an asked casually, c the pot with a lid.

  “No need, Shu’an. In life, one must learn to be low-key. Even if scolded, we should vihers with reason.”

  Jiang Qin looked at the boys with an air of calm indifference, but his mouth slowly curled into a more and more crooked smile.

  Seeing this triumphantly smug expression, the boys across froze, as if struck by a ton of bricks, and immediately started cursing uheir breath.

  What was this? The mockery of the victor?

  “See, this is how you vihers with reason,” Jiang Qin said coolly.

  Yang Shu’a a tingling in his scalp. “So this is what they call ving with reason… I’ve learned something new…”

  “Little rich dy, are you cold?”

  The wind was quite strong on Wu’an Mountain, and their stall was only half-protected from the wind, with the rest shielded by felt, but often wind would blow through the gaps. Jiang Qin, feeling a bit cold himself, instinctively tightened his down jacket and was a bit worried about Feng Nanshu.

  “Jiang Qin, my hands are ice cold.”

  Saying this, the little rich dy slipped her hand into his pocket, her cold gaze turning warm and watery.

  “Doing this, I’ll be very much hated.”

  “?”

  “Never mind, let them hate. In the end, it’s me, yood friend, who’s unfairly bearing all this for you.”

  Jiang Qin took her other hand, rubbed it, and held it in his palm, warming his best friend’s hands.

  Feng Nanshu puffed her cheeks, her icy hands gradually warmed, her eyes brimming with joy.

  “Jiang Qin, why are they all gritting their teeth at you?”

  “They’re probably envious of our pure and fwless friendship, without a hint of ambiguity.”

  Meanwhile, the boys opposite could no longer hold back. Shaking their heads, they wao leave, wishing they had never e to this temple fair. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have had to witness such a heart-wreng se.

  “Let’s go, don’t watymore. The more we watch, the more stifled we feel.”

  “Maybe… they’re just friends?”

  “Damn friends, Feng Nanshu is letting him touch her hands so casually. Even Zhao Gao wouldn’t dare say suonseh open eyes.” (Zhao Gao = A ese official who was traitorous, therefore is famous for lying)

  “What a lousy temple fair, not a single good thing. Wasted my time, damn.”

  “Damn, why are these roasted chestnuts sour?”

  A group of boys retreated from the open space, only to enter a few from css two not far away. Leading them was Qin Zi’ang, known as the “Bully of gnan,” famous for once deg he’d pick up the eab at the cafeteria. Despite being addressed respectfully as “Young Master Qin” by many, he wasn’t well-liked.

  Particurly by Sun Lei, a fellow rich sed geion, who, due to his family’s business being depe on Qin’s real estate, couldn’t stand up to Qin and often suffered his arrogance.

  Knowing Qin Zi’ang and Jiang Qin had cshed in high school, Sun Lei saw this as an opportunity.

  “Master Qin, you’re here for the temple fair?”

  Qin Zi’ang, dressed iest fashion, approached with an aloof stride, nodding arrogantly without uttering a word.

  “Jiang Qin is over there selling mutton soup. Why not go a him serve you?”

  Sun Lei, gritting his teeth with a forced smile, thought to himself, let Jiang Qin embarrass you.

  “You, you.. Who did you say was ahead?”

  “Jiang Qin, the one you don’t get along with, is selling mutton soup.”

  As soon as the words left his mouth, Qin Zi’ang’s face ged, recalling several painfully embarrassing memories involving Jiang Qin.

  The first was a 300,000 yuan i in a bar, the sed involved Feng Nanshu uhe oonlight, and the third was an enter with Hong Yan outside their uy.

  “Damn, there’s a dog ahead; ’t go this way, retreat!”

  With a wave of his hand and ation, Qin Zi’ang turned and fled with his ente.

  Last summer, even Guo Zihang, Jiang Qin’s godson, had ridiculed him mercilessly. Fag Jiang Qin himself now, how could he stand a ce?

  Go there? To be humiliated?

  Qin Zi’ang was clear-headed. He might boast about being a rich sed geion, but Jiang Qin dared to cim he was the first. That automatically put him at a disadvantage – an unjust o that.

  The boys from the gnan, stunned by Qin’s abrupt departure, couldn’t uand why the usually fearless bully was fleeing like this today.

  “What’s gotten into Qin Zi’ang?”

  “I don’t know; he seems like a mouse running from a cat.”

  “’t be, right? I remember him being really cocky. What’s happeo him now?”

  They pondered for a while but couldn’t figure it out, unaware of the extent of Qin Zi’ang’s past humiliation by Jiang Qin. They were just disappoi missing out on a potentially dramatic se.

  But soon, another opportunity arose. The boys hadn’t gone far when they ran into two other cssmates from css two.

  One was Chu Siqi, dressed in a long white down jacket, and her friend Wang Huiru.

  Carrying bags in their hands, they seemed to have e for the temple fair too.

  Chu Siqi was well-known in gnan High School for her beauty and brains. It was that Jiang Qin had once pursued her and even fessed his feelings on the day of their high school final exams, only to be rejected. Enraged, he had snatched back his love letter in front of everyone, a move that had beealk of the school.

  The boys, nursing their own grudges against Jiang Qin, suddenly had an idea.

  What if…

  What if Chu Siqi appeared before Jiang Qin? Would he still be able to smile as he did just now?

  “Chu, you’re also here for the fair?”

  “Yes, just joining in the fun.”

  “Jiang Qin is over there selling mutton soup. He’s the one who fessed to you after the college entrance exams, remember?”

  Chu Siqi’s gaze faltered, dimming as her smile faded. “He’s here too?”

  “Shall we go over?” Wang Huiru whispered.

  Chu Siqi shook her head. “Let’s head back, Huiru.”

  “Aren’t you craving roasted chestnuts? We just pretend not to see Jiang Qin, it’s fine.”

  “I don’t want to go, I ’t…”

  After speaking, Chu Siqi, holding Wang Huiru’s hand, walked back the way they came, but not without stealing a gnce back.

  The crowd was too dense, and she couldn’t see anything. She could only guess Jiang Qin’s location by the steam of the mutton soup, her mood turnie.

  Did she regret it?

  Of course, she regretted it deeply.

  The more outstanding that man became, the more she despised her past self, who was busy basking in admiration and missed out on a good man.

  Now, she couldn’t even stand near him like a friend to bask in his brilliance.

  “…”

  Watg Chu Siqi walk away, the gnan High School boys exged gnces, all expressing their fusion.

  Qin Zi’ang fleeing was ohing, but why did Chu Siqi also run away?

  Chu Siqi, the css belle of css two, was famously proud and temperamental. How could she be so rattled by a failed suitor?

  And what was with that gnce she cast back? Why did it carry so much regret aance?“How do you see it, Sun?”

  “I think it’s bizarre. Must have missed something in the almanac today.”

  “…”

  Jiang Qin was pletely unaware that he had iently scared away two groups of people. By now, he had left Yang Shu’an’s stall and was taking the little rich dy to enjoy the fair.

  The mountainside was bustling with various stalls – selling snacks, Spriival couplets, cy figurines, showg street performances, ring toss games, a dazzling array of attras.

  “Little rich dy, want to py the ring toss?”

  “Yes.”

  Feng Nanshu eagerly took the pstigs handed over by the stall owner, ready to try her hand.

  Ten mier, with only six rings left, she had securely ringed half of the toys and small por cups oall.

  “That’s enough, let’s stop. Look, the stall owner is about to cry. Let’s not bully them.”

  Jiang Qin stopped Feng Nanshu, preventing her from tinuing her ruthless quest of the stall.

  “Okay, then I won’t py anymore.”

  Feng Nanshu obediently put down the rings and put her hands ba Jiang Qin’s pocket.

  “Brother, we don’t he prizes we won. It’s tough running a business. Just pick two as souvenirs and give us our money back.”

  Jiang Qin’s words breathed new life into the grateful stall owner.

  In the end, they got their money bad also took away a little dog toy that the little rich dy liked.

  “What else do you want to do?”

  “Jiang Qin, I’m getting hungry. I want some ‘bao kao ji ji’ and ‘du g zhao chi.'”

  Feng Nanshu’s mouth watered a little.

  Jiang Qin paused, fused by her violent-sounding request, then looked in the dire she pointed. “Miss, you’ve read it wrong. It’s pronounced vertically: bao du, kao g, ji zhua, ji chi!”

  “?”

  After a five-miroll in front of the snack stalls, they discovered all the snacks were overpriced by 20 to 30 pert above market rates.

  With Jiang Qin’s temperament, he wouldn’t usually indulge such overcharging vendors, but he ended up buying a bunyway.

  He had no choice – the little rich dy wahose peculiar snacks. If he didn’t buy them, she would call him ‘big brother’ in a suddenly soft tone, appearing cold yet uedly vulnerable, making it impossible for him to resist.

  EtudeTranstions