TSIFB Chapter 9

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穿成校草被迫营业 / Transmigrated into a School Idol and Forced to Do Business
Bring home a son-in-law

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He Yan held more than a little disbelief in his eyes. He lowered his voice. “…Be together?”

Yu Baizhou recovered his spirit, and found that he had been so anxious that the words he spoke turned into something else entirely. He quickly clarified in a panic. “No, not be together, I meant stay together, I want to stay together with you more.”

He deliberately stressed the word ‘stay’.

Yu Baizhou finished his explanation and waited for He Yan’s response.

He Yan looked at Yu Baizhou’s flustered expression. His heart was tied in a complicated knot.

He had thought that the printed love letter he received yesterday was just another one of Yu Baizhou’s pranks, but now it seemed like…

Not personally handwriting the letter was because he was worried about being recognised? Was the panicked explanation also because he was scared of being seen through?

He Yan’s beautiful eyes were full of thoughts.

While the two were at a stalemate, Li Bei had already made his way over. He stared at Yu Baizhou’s hand, which was still holding onto He Yan, and his doubtful gaze hovered between the two. “You guys…”

He Yan narrowed his eyes at Yu Baizhou’s hand. “Let go.”

Hearing this, Yu Baizhou finally reacted and quickly retracted his hold.

Li Bei was surprised that Yu Baizhou actually listened to He Yan’s words.

When Li Bei saw that the dishes on Yu Baizhou’s plate were cold, he said with a caring tone, “How come you were so late today? I heard from Da-Wei* that he saw you here, and had even replied ‘impossible’, but I came over and actually saw you. I already ordered hot food from the restaurant next door. The dishes here are already cold, so come with me to eat.”

[T/N: “大伟”: like how “小”/xiao/little is an affectionate term, “大”/da/big is a term you give to someone you respect, followed by a character of their name]

Li Bei looked at He Yan. “Are you coming as well?”

Yu Baizhou knew that He Yan would definitely decline, so he had prepared to also refuse Li Bei’s kindness. However, he didn’t expect He Yan to open his mouth first to say, “You two can go, I have some unfinished business.”

Yu Baizhou: “???”

He Yan finished speaking and left.

Yu Baizhou kept his eyes on the back He Yan had left for himself. Wait, ge, didn’t we make an appointment to have dinner together? Just like this, you left me all alone here???

I didn’t take you to be so ruthless?!?

He Yan walked away. Li Bei wasn’t entirely keen on continuing to persuade him, so he said to Yu Baizhou, “Let’s go.”

Yu Baizhou was so angry he wanted to cry, but in the end still followed Li Bei.

But, even with the hot food, Yu Baizhou’s mood still didn’t get any better. On the one hand, it was because he was still annoyed at He Yan, and on the other hand, it was because all the dishes that Li Bei ordered were the original owner’s favorite. What boiled cabbage, what braised pig trotters…

He doesn’t want these, he wants mapo tofu!!

Yu Baizhou ate a bowl of boiled cabbage in tears, then slammed the bowl down, startling the people next to him.

Such a good opportunity had been torn away from him, he was very unhappy!

He tried going back, attempting to contact He Yan several times in order to create some lucky scenarios, but the other party immediately turned away when he saw him, as if he was some kind of terrifying creature.

The next day happened to be Sunday.

After taking a shower, Yu Baizhou returned to his room and laid down on the soft bed. No, he must change his strategy!

Guilt value = current feelings value.

[T/N: “负罪恶值=正好感值”: the guilt he feels now is only for this period of time, since he thinks everything will get better]

He found that since He Yan didn’t seem to like being physically close to him, he must carry out his operation through long-distance brushing.

He analysed the situation from a different angle and planned to start with the things that He Yan liked.

Since He Yan didn’t like being too close to him, he’ll treat the other as if he were a target in a strategy game. From a distance, he’ll send He Yan something he liked remotely.

If the gift he sent was chosen well, the goodwill value could definitely rise. Although this process was slower than face-to-face interactions, it’s still very reliable in the early stages.

After all, in a strategy game, you have to give a gift before you are able to get along with the target. In reality… It should be about the same!

Since Yu Baizhou said he’d do it, then he must keep to his words. He picked up a pen and a small notebook, then began to jot down He Yan’s preferences from the novel’s data.

During He Yan’s high school chapter, the author was stingy with pen and ink. They didn’t mention any of He Yan’s preferences at all, it was as if he was born not liking anything nor disliking anything. He Yan’s life during this time took up one line, and there was absolutely nothing useful to be dug up. This passage, pass.

His college chapter, still no information that seemed to be worth noting, pass.

After graduating college, he entered the society chapter. Due to constantly being bombarded with work, He Yan’s three meals in a day basically consisted of only coffee. A cup in the morning, to refresh his mind. A cup at noon, to avoid napping. A cup in the afternoon, to not go insane during overtime. But, coffee… Forget it, that was just the usual for office workers. Coffee, pass, pass!

He continued to search through the information and finally found something useful——strawberry cream bread!

Strawberry cream bread was the item that, besides coffee, appeared most frequently on He Yan’s table.

It was almost unbelievable, how could a cold diamond-like man actually enjoy eating strawberry cream bread?

En, this was probably the legendary ‘contrasting cuteness’*.

[T/N: refers to the great contrast between one’s appearance and one’s inner feelings]

Yu Baizhou was very glad to have finally found something He Yan liked.

Yu Baizhou originally wanted to buy it from some store, but after thinking about it for a while, he felt that if he made it personally then it would show more sincerity. Besides, he happened to already have strawberries in his freezer, and it was also a Sunday, so he decided to make it himself.

Although he didn’t have any experience in baking, he was very competent when it came to cooking meat and vegetables.

After all, it was just baking. How hard could it be?

Yu Baizhou stayed at home all day, studying the process of making strawberry cream bread. He found a video recipe online, and even wrote down specific tips from several different sources on sticky notes, then began to experiment by himself.

However, practicals were always more difficult than theory. Yu Baizhou fiddled around, and after a long time, had managed to cover the entire kitchen with whipped cream. Fortunately, the housekeeper auntie who had come back from buying food had arrived just in time to save the day. After cleaning up the kitchen, she began to teach him how to properly bake bread.

Yu Baizhou touched his face embarrassedly, and as a result, smeared whipped cream all over himself, causing the auntie to laugh at him.

After more than an hour of hard work, the finished product finally came out.

The bread that had been sliced in half was filled with pink cream, which had been mixed with freshly cooked strawberry jam. The baked bread had a golden brown and crispy crust, dusted with a thin layer of icing sugar. The end product really looked like it could be sold in stores.

When cut, the bread gave out an appealing crunch. The sounds created made it particularly appetising.

Yu Baizhou pulled apart a small piece and put it in his mouth. The rich milky fragrance immediately spread, and with the textural difference from the crisp shell, the taste was excellent.

The flavour was almost the exact copy of those that were sold in stores, but no matter how Yu Baizhou looked, he felt that there were still a few shortcomings. Thinking about it, he guessed that it was probably because of the missing fresh strawberries that adorned the top of the bread.

Since fresh strawberries were out of season, and frozen ones were unsightly, Yu Baizhou knocked on his brain and figured that strawberry-shaped chocolates would look pretty good as well.

With help from the auntie, they found a few chocolate molds and continued with his plan.

When Fu Xia returned home, Yu Baizhou was in the middle of coloring the melted white chocolate.

Fu Xia walked over and asked with a smile, “I have never seen you act so energetic before. Are you preparing a birthday present for your girlfriend?”

What girlfriend? What present? Yu Baizhou didn’t think as much as Fu Xia, and awkwardly corrected, “Dad, don’t tease me, I’m making this for a classmate, a boy. Please don’t misunderstand.”

Fu Xia joked, “A boy? If you bring home a son-in-law, I wouldn’t mind either.”

Yu Baizhou: “…”

On Monday morning, Yu Baizhou carefully put the bread he had made last night into his school bag, and quietly brought it into the classroom. Before He Yan arrived, he wrote a message on a sticky note and stuck it onto the packaging, then slid the bread into He Yan’s desk.

Yu Baizhou had wanted to observe He Yan’s reaction, but as soon as He Yan came, he was called to the office by a teacher.

The two passed by each other near the door of the classroom. Yu Baizhou secretly snuck a glance at He Yan and his heartbeat suddenly began to jump around nervously. He prayed in his heart for the plan to succeed.

He Yan entered the classroom and found a lone strawberry cream bread hiding in his desk.

He ripped off the sticky note. There was only a single character written on it——Yu.

This counted as a disguise?

Even without thinking, it was obvious that Yu Baizhou sent it.

…In the entire class, only he had the surname Yu.

He Yan frowned unconsciously. He had already made his intentions clear, so why hasn’t Yu Baizhou given up yet?

He picked up the bread from his desk and prepared to throw it in the rubbish bin at the back of the class. Suddenly, his eyes were brought to the attention of the delicate chocolate strawberries that decorated the bread… With eyebrows furrowed, the bread was still collected in the end.

Nevermind.

Boss He’s weakness—anything cute that was strawberry-shaped.

When Yu Baizhou returned from the office, he had already prepared his mind for the worst-case scenario, that is, the very likely event where He Yan ended up tossing his gift away.

But it doesn’t matter, since he brought two!

Walking into the classroom, he deliberately took a route that passed by the bin and gave it a glance. After looking, he excitedly jumped directly on Tu Gaoming.

The bread wasn’t thrown away! The bread wasn’t thrown away!!

Finally, there was progress! Hahahaha!!

There was too much energetic movement in Yu Baizhou’s corner so He Yan had turned towards it subconsciously, and happened to be greeted with Yu Baizhou’s joyful gaze and laughter. At this time, the hand that He Yan held the bread with suddenly tightened: “…”

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Courting begins~ (I’ll post a bit more during these two weeks since I’m on winter break)