Chapter 1

Qiao Shao yawned and glanced at the call duration on his phone screen.

Three minutes already, and his maternal grandfather, well into his seventies, was still roaring at full volume.

"That good-for-nothing father of yours must have lost his mind, letting you go to such a lousy school. If the Qiao family can't manage, come to me. Take your pick of elite schools, and not just in China—even abroad..."

Qiao Shao could only repeat what he'd said countless times lately: "Grandpa, I picked the school myself. I'm the one who wants to go."

Yang Xiaolong paused. His voice was still loud, but it had lost some of its ferocity. "Why does it have to be such a lousy... I mean, such a faraway school?" His grandson had picked it; he couldn't very well call it lousy.

Tilting his head, Qiao Shao dug at his ear. "I met a fortune-teller who did a reading for me. He said misfortune awaited me in the west, and good fortune in the east. If I transfer schools, I can rise up like a liberated serf and sing."

Yang Xiaolong: "..."

Qiao Shao said plaintively, "Grandpa, aren't you always telling me it's better to believe these things than not?"

Yang Xiaolong's heart ached. "Shaoshao, you're only seventeen. It's not good to be so superstitious."

"I'm not being superstitious," Qiao Shao said. "I'm taking precautions."

Yang Xiaolong had put countless people in their place over his lifetime, but he was utterly helpless against his own grandson.

Qiao Shao coaxed him some more. "East District No. 1 High School is a perfectly good school. Most people couldn't get in even if they tried. Don't worry, Grandpa. In a new environment, I'll definitely study hard. I won't embarrass you."

The words "new environment" struck a chord with Yang Xiaolong, and he gave in. "All right..."

After hanging up, Qiao Shao breathed a sigh of relief. His transfer was finally a sure thing.

Ever since he'd announced that he wanted to attend East District No. 1 High School, he'd been bombarded from every direction.

His father, his paternal grandfather, his maternal grandfather, his older male and female cousins, and his disreputable friends had all come to have a "heart-to-heart" with him, wanting to know just what he was up to.

Qiao Shao wasn't actually scheming. He just wanted to attend a proper high school, study hard, and improve every day.

Yet whenever he repeated that little slogan, people looked at him even more strangely.

Qiao Shao was indignant. What, was he not allowed to study hard? He loved learning, okay!

Since the more he explained, the less anyone believed him, Qiao Shao simply made up some nonsense about a fortune-teller.

Who could have imagined... that this utterly ridiculous excuse would actually fool them, one after another?

For a moment, Qiao Shao couldn't decide whether to feel sorry for those idiots or for himself and his bankrupt credibility.

After he washed up, Auntie Wu called him to breakfast.

"Where's Dad?" Qiao Shao asked.

"Mr. Qiao left at five this morning," Auntie Wu said. "He said he had a meeting in Hong Kong at eight."

Qiao Shao pouted. "Couldn't he have gone a day early? Getting that little sleep—is he worried he's got too much hair?"

Auntie Wu smiled. "Mr. Qiao never sleeps away from home."

At that, Qiao Shao fell silent and merely poked at the pancakes on his plate.

Realizing she'd said something she shouldn't have, Auntie Wu hurriedly added, "I've got some cookies baking, too. Let me go check on them."

Qiao Shao murmured his assent.

As soon as Auntie Wu left, Qiao Shao's phone rang again.

The sight of "Grandpa" on the screen made his head hurt.

If he remembered correctly, his paternal grandfather was in Italy, six hours behind them. It was two in the morning there. Why wasn't the old man asleep?

Apparently, the Qiao family's disregard for their hair was hereditary.

He answered, and Old Mr. Qiao's aristocratic voice came through. "Go downstairs."

Qiao Shao said, "Grandpa, I haven't even unwrapped last season's clothes."

"Throw them out," Qiao Ru'an said.

Qiao Shao didn't dare argue. His grandfather had ruled the fashion world for over fifty years, and at the venerable age of seventy-one, he was still setting trends. He was not someone to cross.

Qiao Shao agreed, then added, "It's only two in the morning over there, right? Go get some sleep. I'll head downstairs and get the clothes now, then take some pictures for you later."

"No need for pictures," Qiao Ru'an said.

Qiao Shao stifled a laugh. "Really? No pictures?"

Qiao Ru'an said nothing, but didn't hang up either.

Qiao Shao smiled until his eyes curved. "All right, go get some rest. I'll send them tonight. I promise you'll wake up to pictures of your handsome grandson."

Qiao Ru'an gave a hum of acknowledgment and ended the call.

When he went downstairs, even Qiao Shao, who'd braced himself, got a shock.

Gift boxes occupied half the living room. Worse still, every single one was tied with a dazzling orange bow. An ordinary person's eyes would probably hurt just looking at them.

Qiao Shao liked bright colors like orange and gold. Qiao Ru'an considered them insufficiently fashionable and would never get him clothes like that—even if he did, Qiao Shao wouldn't wear them!

But he indulged him in little details like these.

It was just...

With all these glittering golden bows, Qiao Shao couldn't imagine what the assistants who'd carried the boxes inside must think of him.

A strapping young man with such girlish tastes. Qiao Shao's face grew a little warm.

When he opened the boxes, their contents warmed his heart, too.

There weren't just clothes, shoes, and watches, but also four schoolbags with no particularly obvious differences, presumably meant to match different outfits, along with two boxes of stationery. The fountain pens' excessively exquisite packaging left no doubt about their hefty price tags.

Qiao Ru'an, who had opposed Qiao Shao's attending East District No. 1 High School from start to finish, had nevertheless sent him the necessities just before school began.

But Qiao Shao wasn't going to use a single one of these necessities.

Although East High was a fairly ordinary high school, it did have special programs, such as classes for students with special talents and an international program.

Those classes were full of rich kids who knew what they were looking at. If Qiao Shao showed up decked out in all this, how the hell was he supposed to get any studying done?

Young Master Qiao had his heart set on studying, not showing off.

So he was going to buy his school necessities himself. From stationery to clothes, he would pick the most ordinary things he could find!

No sooner said than done. After asking Auntie Wu to put away the clothes and stationery, Qiao Shao pulled on an unremarkable sweatshirt and headed out.

A supermarket should be fine for buying stationery, right?

Qiao Shao rarely bought things himself, and he got quite into picking things out.

A backpack for a little over a hundred yuan, pens for a few yuan each, and plain old notebooks without any fancy smart features...

Everything came to just two hundred yuan. Qiao Shao couldn't help marveling that even if both the Qiao family and the Yang family went bankrupt, they could all still live pretty comfortably.

Qiao Shao reached the sale section and saw a banner stretched across a large rack: "Clearance at a loss! All-cotton T-shirts, originally 299 yuan—just 29 yuan today!"

Qiao Shao was stunned. Clothes could actually be this cheap!

This was perfect. It looked like he could get all his back-to-school essentials for under three hundred yuan.

Qiao Shao had just walked over when he heard several girls talking in hushed voices.

"How can anyone be that hot? I—I can't even look at him!"

"He's from East District No. 1 High School, right? Working a weekend job? Oh my god, why did I have to graduate? I want to repeat a year! I want to go to East High!"

"Wake up, girl. Instead of standing around dreaming, buy a few more shirts. You might even get to strike up a conversation."

"Boo-hoo... I've already bought ten. If I buy any more, my family will kick me out!"

From East High?

Qiao Shao looked up curiously and spotted the tall boy in the sale section.

The boy was very tall, more than half a head taller than Qiao Shao. Standing amid the bustle of the store, he wore a chilly expression. He was here to work a temporary job, yet he looked utterly listless, as though he hadn't quite woken up.

And yet that very laziness was what kept drawing the girls' furtive glances.

Ha. Ha.

Qiao Shao was thoroughly unimpressed.

Boss Qiao could fire two employees like that in three seconds!

Not even off-the-charts sales could excuse it. What a terrible work ethic!

Qiao Shao looked away and concentrated on choosing T-shirts.

Hmm. The T-shirts were cheap, but they were all so big. He could fit three of himself inside one.

The sale section was very close to the stationery section. Bored out of his mind, He Shen had looked up and spotted that picky Middle Schooler.

He'd spent five minutes picking out a single pen, only to choose a buy-one-get-one-free deal on pens about to expire.

He'd flipped through notebook after notebook, then finally picked one discounted because some of its pages were coming loose.

Now Middle Schooler had turned and come over. Seeing those sparkling eyes, He Shen could almost swear they had a 2 written in one and a 9 in the other.

He Shen had only been called in to cover a shift, and he wasn't happy about it. The supervisor didn't dare push him, either. After all, just having him stand there boosted sales more than tenfold.

Unlike Boss Qiao, ordinary people kept their eyes on the money. As long as sales were good, who cared about your work ethic?

He Shen watched Middle Schooler rummage through a pile of T-shirts, holding them up against himself one after another.

Middle Schooler was short and skinny. In a one-size-fits-all T-shirt, he looked like a kid wearing grown-up clothes.

Clearly, the kid wanted to snag a bargain, but unfortunately, he was too small and scrawny to fill one out.

Still... he could help him out.

The corners of He Shen's mouth lifted slightly. He pulled out a plain white T-shirt and handed it to him. "Try this one."

Middle Schooler looked up and hesitated.

He Shen said, "They're all on sale. Same price."

Visibly relieved, Middle Schooler took the T-shirt and held it against himself. "This one works. Thanks!"

He Shen kept a straight face. "No problem."

After paying and going home, Qiao Shao went upstairs to look over his haul.

The backpack was awesome, the pens were great, and the notebooks were excellent, too. This plain white, twenty-nine-yuan T-shirt was especially...

Wait.

Only then did Qiao Shao notice the label on the T-shirt—Pure Love Womenswear.

Little Qiao Shao was dumbfounded. The very first time he'd bought his own clothes, he'd actually bought a women's shirt??

Author's Note: Tease your wife once, feel good for a moment. Keep teasing your wife, keep feeling good forever. [Shut up.]