Chapter 54: Sigh! Flower Shops & Capitalism

In the early hours of the morning, all was silent.

Normally at this time, Lu Weixi would have just finished a military meeting and be preparing to enjoy some personal time. Unfortunately, he was still serving his suspension and had only just gotten off duty from the campus patrol unit.

Mentally exhausted, he returned to the student apartments. Most upperclassmen in the Military-Political Department had already completed their graduation requirements and left campus, leaving him alone as he crossed the dark residential complex.

After scanning his access permissions and opening the door, Lu Weixi immediately tossed his military cap and coat onto the floor.

Then, while undoing the buttons of his uniform, he let out a pig-slaughtering wail and dove headfirst into the soft couch.

This is f*cking killing me. Why is life so damn miserable?

He was practically on the verge of passing out from exhaustion.

The apartment complex had a curfew, and during patrol they had spent the entire night chasing wandering students while being cursed at by them. The patrol officers were used to it, but Lu Weixi couldn’t tolerate it at all. He’d spent nearly the entire patrol arguing with people.

“Bzzzz—”

His terminal vibrated.

Without even looking, Lu Weixi knew it had to be Lu Suiyuan.

He pulled out the terminal and accepted the call, his face still buried in the couch cushions.

“The matter in District Four has been finalized.”

Lu Suiyuan’s tone made it clear he wasn’t discussing it—he was informing him.

“The original investigation has been canceled. Once your suspension ends, you’ll receive a notice for the field-study program.”

“Got it. I’ll go.”

Lu Weixi sounded lifeless.

Then he added,

“Do you want to talk to Zefi?”

Lu Suiyuan paused.

“Why don’t you use that pig brain of yours and think about why he told you about the subchain instead of contacting me directly?”

“Because you don’t want him involved.”

Lu Weixi lifted his head from the couch and spoke confidently.

“But honestly, I don’t see the problem. Instead of forcing someone to learn how to make screws from scratch, why not just ask someone who’s already made screws before? Why overthink it?”

“I’m already letting you and Jiang Yi investigate this matter. Doesn’t that tell you how important and confidential it is?”

After several seconds of silence, Lu Suiyuan sighed.

“I think you really should buy yourself a secondhand brain.”

Lu Weixi gritted his teeth.

“How did you know?”

“The day you called me, I already knew you’d been fooled.”

Lu Suiyuan sounded amused.

“So I casually checked the records.”

He laughed lightly.

“I’ll give them credit—they were pretty good at imitating me. For a moment, I thought I’d sleepwalked and made the call myself.”

Lu Weixi shot upright from the couch and started pacing.

“f*ck! You already knew?!”

Then he hurriedly asked,

“Did you find out who it was?”

“Not telling you.”

Lu Suiyuan sounded even more cheerful now.

“Ah, I originally planned to save that information until I beat you up and mock you properly. Didn’t expect to accidentally let it slip.”

“Are you sick in the head?!”

Lu Weixi was getting angry enough to see red.

“If you already checked the records, what’s the big deal about telling me?”

“When you’re stupid, you need to learn your lesson.”

Lu Suiyuan said with a smile,

“You don’t actually think I enjoy cleaning up your messes, do you? Don’t eat before coming to see me. My fists will fill you up just fine.”

The call disconnected.

Lu Weixi stared miserably at the terminal.

His scalp tingled.

Because he knew Lu Suiyuan was absolutely serious.

Although they had a good relationship, Lu Weixi had long lived under the man’s psychological shadow.

Back in elementary school, during a banquet, Lu Weixi had once asked Lu Suiyuan why he always wore that stupid smile.

The next day, Lu Suiyuan tricked him into poking a beehive.

Lu Weixi got stung so badly that he spent three days in a medical pod.

On the fourth day, Lu Suiyuan had somehow acquired several bees and deliberately released them into the pod.

Trapped inside the sealed chamber, Lu Weixi watched the mechanical bees buzz around him in terror, screaming and pounding frantically against the glass.

Almost ten minutes later, Lu Suiyuan finally opened the pod.

Smiling pleasantly, he stroked his chin and asked,

“Do you understand now why I’m always smiling?”

Lu Weixi never answered.

He’d already fainted from fright.

Even now, remembering the incident made his whole body uncomfortable.

Irritably, he punched a pillow twice.

Then he opened Weibo and checked his private messages.

Still no reply.

His anxiety immediately increased.

Damn it. It’s only two in the morning. They’re already asleep?

Just a little while ago the account was still showing online. Did they miss my message?

Ding—!

The popularity ranking of your followed topic [Military-Political Department Charity Fundraiser] has increased and is currently ranked #98!

A notification popped up.

Lu Weixi nearly broke down.

The ranking wasn’t particularly high.

But it meant people were discussing it.

And if people were discussing it—

He was definitely getting roasted.

Despairingly, he opened the topic page.

As expected, several media accounts had reposted clips from the event. Each video already had hundreds of comments.

[I’m dying. Who came up with doing homework while lying in bed?]

[Who was the person who asked that question? They’re so cool. Calm, rational, speaks clearly, and even funny…]

[The Celestial Dragons’ imagination about poverty is truly limited.]

[He sounds so eloquent and humorous when discussing military affairs on TV. Why is he so stupid here…?]

[Ugh. Regardless, people who actually do things are better than people who just criticize.]

[The girl who asked the question looks familiar. Wasn’t she in an interview before? The one who entered Military-Political through first place in District Sixteen’s joint exams? That’s insanely impressive.]

[Screenshot][Screenshot] I think it really is her… And she’s an orphan too. Amazing.]

[Not anymore. I’m her mom-fan now.]

[Being blonde doesn’t mean you’re smart—the stereotype increases.]

[So the so-called cradle of senior officers is filled with giant babies, huh? lol]

[Zhiyan is her given name. Lin is my surname. You get me, right?]

[As a fellow student, please just criticize Lu Weixi and leave our school out of it.]

[Ah yes, the school’s hereditary defenders have appeared. Weren’t you the same people posting threads calling Lin Zhiyan pretentious and accusing her of stepping on Lu Weixi to gain popularity?]

[Those were obvious trolls, okay? Besides, some people started by saying everyone in Military-Political are idiot Celestial Dragons.]

[Who was it that mocked everyone supporting Lin Zhiyan as poor people jealous they weren’t Celestial Dragons?]

[Can you all go back to arguing on the Round Table Forum? This is starting to look like fan wars.]

[Who has more fans than your school’s Celestial Dragons? Every other sentence is bragging about family backgrounds.]

The argument escalated.

People started throwing screenshots from the Round Table Forum at each other.

Supporters of Lu Weixi spammed photos of his summit appearances, military exercises, and service records.

Supporters of Lin Zhiyan fought back with her report cards and interview screenshots.

At first it was just a few people arguing.

Then random netizens started choosing sides.

Then the people who picked sides started fighting too.

The comments section descended into complete chaos.

For f*ck’s sake, stop arguing!

Originally the video only had a few dozen comments.

These idiots had somehow fought it into the hundreds.

His head throbbed.

His body was exhausted.

After turning sideways and draping himself over the couch armrest like a discarded coat, Lu Weixi promptly fell asleep.

The next day was bright and sunny.

Morning classes ended.

Lin Zhiyan left the academic building with Aiwen and headed toward the cafeteria in a particularly good mood.

Aiwen looked happy as well. Holding Lin Zhiyan’s arm, she said,

“This is the first time we’ve had lunch together. You were always busy before.”

Right. Because I was broke.

Things were different now.

All spending today was sponsored by Jiang Yi.

Lin Zhiyan kept that thought to herself and simply smiled.

“We can eat together more often. Though I still have to work this afternoon.”

“That’s okay. I start my internship today too.”

Aiwen smiled.

“Looks like we’re both going to be busy.”

Lin Zhiyan was shocked.

“You’re already interning?”

“Of course.”

Aiwen explained seriously.

“Generally speaking, most people start gaining work experience during high school.”

Lin Zhiyan froze.

High school?

High school?!

Seeing her expression, Aiwen elaborated,

“Most people’s families already make rough career plans for them when they’re young, so they decide what they want to do much earlier. They also know what resources they can use.”

Then she added,

“For example, some students in the Military-Political Department already graduated from military academies and served before coming here.”

“…Hard to imagine.”

Lin Zhiyan sighed.

“When I was in high school, I was studying day and night. The most I did was tutoring.”

“That sounds so interesting!”

Aiwen looked genuinely fascinated.

“In all those romantic novels and dramas, tutoring jobs always lead to things like meeting a lonely male protagonist.”

“There was no lonely male protagonist.”

Lin Zhiyan poked her forehead.

“There was only an overindulged super-aggressive son, a doting mother, a lecherous father, and a silent gardener.”

Aiwen’s green eyes trembled.

“T-That sounds terrifying.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

Lin Zhiyan laughed.

Then she frowned slightly.

“Though something feels strange.”

Aiwen looked puzzled.

The two found seats and sat down.

Only then did Lin Zhiyan lower her voice.

“I feel like a lot of people are watching us.”

Realization dawned on Aiwen.

“It’s probably because of yesterday.”

Lin Zhiyan became even more confused.

She had no doubt people were discussing yesterday’s incident.

These Celestial Dragons were unbelievably idle.

Even trivial matters could keep the forum busy for days.

But previously, no matter how much people talked about her online, she never felt it in real life. Her classmates always acted as though they’d never used the internet before—polite and dignified.

With how skilled these people were at maintaining appearances, why were they openly glancing at her today?

“Why does today feel especially…”

She trailed off.

Aiwen understood immediately.

“Maybe because it spread outside the school?”

She forwarded several links.

“Videos got uploaded online. There was a lot of discussion. The most popular one had seven or eight hundred comments this morning.”

Lin Zhiyan opened a link.

A few seconds later, she turned the terminal toward Aiwen.

Confused, Aiwen looked down.

Then her eyebrows shot up.

[The requested webpage could not be found.]

[Page unavailable.]

[Discussion not found.]

Aiwen: “…Wow.”

Resting her chin on her hand, she sighed.

“You missed a lot. Plenty of people were praising you. I even liked their comments.”

Lin Zhiyan laughed.

She mirrored Aiwen’s posture and looked at her sincerely.

“Then thank you for helping boost my engagement. Keep up the good work?”

Aiwen blinked.

“Being personally urged by the celebrity to increase engagement feels pretty nice.”

Lin Zhiyan genuinely laughed this time.

Picking up a piece of bread, she stuffed it into Aiwen’s mouth.

“Fan service.”

Aiwen chewed happily.

Then she comforted her,

“But don’t worry. Everything that needed deleting was deleted. In a couple of days nobody will care anymore.”

She paused.

“Though it’s kind of a pity. The public opinion was actually very favorable to you.”

“There is no favorable or unfavorable public opinion, so it’s not a pity.”

Lin Zhiyan dipped a fry into sauce.

“I should be grateful everything got deleted.”

“Otherwise, in a few days, people would start accusing me of taking the moral high ground and discouraging young people from actually doing things.”

She pointed the fry at Aiwen and smiled.

“Or someone would expose my supposedly scandalous private life to prove what a terrible person I am.”

“Rather than that, I’d rather quietly disappear into the crowd.”

She bit into the fry.

After thinking for a moment, Aiwen asked,

“Have you ever succeeded?”

Then she added,

“I don’t think you can.”

Lin Zhiyan raised an eyebrow.

Aiwen continued,

“You’re a bit like a flame. Even when it looks like it’s about to go out, if someone puts paper near it, it still catches fire.”

“What an abstract evaluation.”

Lin Zhiyan’s expression remained cool as always, but there was a faint smile in her eyes.

“Still, I think that’s a compliment, so I’ll accept it.”

Aiwen laughed too.

Lunch soon ended.

Lin Zhiyan left campus and took public transportation to the flower shop.

Sigh.

First day on the job.

A little nervous.

Still, working in a flower shop sounded fairly elegant.

The shop had only just opened.

Not seeing Kui Furen anywhere, she found a seat and sat down while replying to Lu Weixi.

She’d left him hanging long enough.

By now, he was definitely anxious.

And anxious people couldn’t think clearly.

Lin Zhiyan finally sent a message.

[Tail-Free: Just saw your messages.]

[Tail-Free: If you’re really a schoolmate, I can help you. But first you’ll need to prove your identity.]

[Crushing Crispy Chips Bare-Handed: Isn’t that crossing a line? I can pay you or show you some screenshots.]

[Tail-Free: I’ve already met several people pretending to be schoolmates. They offered to help, then sent suspicious links to scam me. Some even sent weird pictures as pranks.]

[Crushing Crispy Chips Bare-Handed: [Image] Here’s a screenshot of my backend account info. I censored the sensitive parts. Is that enough?]

[Tail-Free: Can you prove it isn’t Photoshopped?]

[Crushing Crispy Chips Bare-Handed: …How am I supposed to prove that?]

[Tail-Free: Write a sentence on paper. Record a video saying it. Then place the paper on top of the screenshot and take another photo.]

[Crushing Crispy Chips Bare-Handed: …? That’s stupid as hell. Isn’t there an easier way?]

Lin Zhiyan was about to type a reply when a warm voice sounded nearby.

“Oh, you’re here already?”

Looking up, she met Kui Furen’s smiling eyes.

He sat down naturally beside her.

“We’re not open yet. How about I teach you some of the things you’ll need to do?”

A faint floral fragrance surrounded him.

Chestnut-brown hair fell over his shoulders.

His broad frame was wrapped in a pink apron.

His strikingly beautiful face carried a gentle, patient expression full of expectation.

Boss… Boss…

You smell really nice.

Lin Zhiyan thought quietly to herself.

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