After Becoming a Cannon Fodder Side Character, I Became the Group’s Favorite (GL) - Chapter 26

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Xue Miaomiao felt self-conscious.

Xu Chacha sighed and decided to play along. “That’s right, I think you’re so cool, so I think you’re definitely suitable to be Class President.”

“Don’t worry, now that I’m also Vice President, you can often ask me for help.” Xue Miaomiao clapped her on the back in a buddy-buddy way.

Xu Chacha was nearly knocked off her feet by the pat. After steadying herself, she managed a forced smile. “Thank you, Miaomiao.”

The two went downstairs. Xu Chacha handed the pink Peppa Pig doll to Chen Qianqian and placed the rest on the sofa. “I won all of these. If you like any of the others, you can take them.”

“Really?” Chen Qianqian looked up in adoration. “Chacha, you’re amazing! I’ve never won one.”

Now, when Chen Qianqian’s mother saw a claw machine outside, she would grab her and run, afraid that if they walked too slowly, Chen Qianqian would rush to hand over money to the arcade owner.

“I’ll help you win some next time if I get the chance.” Xu Chacha curled her legs up on the sofa and bit into a piece of dried sweet potato.

Chewing this while watching TV was incredibly satisfying. It was chewy and you wouldn’t get tired of it even if you ate too much.

“You three.” Xu Yanshu had just changed out of her school uniform. She walked over behind Xu Chacha. “Aren’t you going to do your homework?”

Xu Chacha turned around, her face scrunched up. “Sister…”

“Pouting won’t help. You’re the Class President now, you have to set an example.” Xu Yanshu sat down next to them with her own textbooks. “Go ahead and write. You can eat while you write. I’ll supervise you.”

“We know, okay.” Xu Chacha pulled out her homework notebook. “Qianqian, Miaomiao, come on, let’s do our homework.”

Xue Miaomiao didn’t seem to mind, but Chen Qianqian immediately adopted the same defeated expression as Xu Chacha.

“Chacha’s sister is fierce.”

“Shhh.” Xu Chacha put her index finger to her lips. She had to defend her sister. “My sister is really nice. She even gave you little cakes to eat.”

“Okay.” Chen Qianqian leaned forward and said to Xu Yanshu, “Thank you, Sister, for the little cake. It was delicious.”

Xu Yanshu glanced at her. She had an impression of her in her mind; she was probably the little crybaby Xu Chacha often talked about. Her expression softened slightly. “Start writing. If you don’t know something, I can help you. If you like the cake, I’ll bring you a few slices when I go home.”

“Yay, yay, yay! That’s great!” Chen Qianqian retracted her head and whispered to Xu Chacha, “Chacha, your sister is genuinely a good person.”

Xu Chacha secretly shook her head, telling herself not to be surprised by the rapidly shifting emotions of primary school students anymore.

The first-grade homework didn’t require ballpoint pens yet. Xu Chacha’s pencil case had pencils neatly arranged from longest to shortest. She pulled out the shortest one and held it to write seriously.

Housekeeper Zhang came over and turned off the cartoon. Chen Qianqian, who had been stealing glances at the TV, had no choice but to concentrate.

Xu Chacha wrote her homework very quickly. She could fill in the answers for the mental math problems with just a glance, and she didn’t need to flip through the book for the vocabulary exercises.

She finished most of it, saving the copying assignment for last, which she would do slowly.

“How do you figure this out?” Chen Qianqian sniffed and pushed her homework notebook towards Xu Chacha.

Xu Chacha glanced at the question but didn’t give her the answer directly. “Page eleven of the textbook, there’s a similar example problem.”

“Oh, oh, oh.” Chen Qianqian was already used to her teaching method. She counted the pages to find the example, bit the end of her pencil, and began to study it.

“Chacha, did the teacher not teach us this word?” Xue Miaomiao, working on her English homework, quickly leaned over too.

“It’s in the small table with the star for extra-curricular expansion.” Xu Chacha didn’t even look up.

“Okay.” Xue Miaomiao withdrew.

Xu Yanshu quietly observed her sister, who was being serious for once. She hadn’t expected Xu Chacha, who was always soft and spoiled at home, to seem unexpectedly mature and reliable around her classmates, like an older sister taking care of her younger siblings.

“Sister?” Xu Chacha noticed her staring. “Don’t tell me you have a question you don’t know either.”

Xu Yanshu cracked up, quickly breaking the moment. “Your sister hasn’t reached that level yet.”

…

The movie project adapting Wen Mubai’s award-winning short story was quickly getting organized. In less than a month, the main actors had been mostly confirmed, and shooting was expected to start soon.

Because of this, Xu Chacha hadn’t seen her for a long time.

The news about Wen Mubai secretly registering for the joint entrance exam and changing her major had reached Mr. and Mrs. Xu in the last couple of days. Whenever Xu Chacha brought up Wen Mubai at the dinner table, they would laugh it off and steer the conversation away.

“Your aunt is busy these days. She’ll take you to the amusement park next time.”

Xu Chacha dug into the rice in her bowl. “Then where is Auntie staying since she had a fight with her dad and left home?”

“Her mother left her an apartment. If not, staying at the university would be fine too.” Mrs. Xu recalled, then cautioned Xu Chacha, “Your aunt did the wrong thing here. Why couldn’t she discuss things properly instead of running away? Don’t you dare copy her.”

“Auntie didn’t do anything wrong.” Xu Chacha pouted, defending her. “It’s because Uncle Wen is always so fierce and won’t listen to reason that Auntie was driven away!”

“Oh, you child.” Mr. Xu shook his head, unable to refute her words.

He understood Mr. Wen’s personality well. He was indeed quite stubborn and concerned with appearances outside, so one could imagine his strictness with his two daughters in private.

“It’s true.” Xu Chacha swung her legs under the table. “Auntie is so good to me, teaching me homework and playing with me. But you still talk badly about her. If you keep doing this, I won’t be friends with you anymore, Mom and Dad.”

“Not friends with Mom and Dad?” Mrs. Xu’s face fell. “Are you also going to learn from your aunt and run away from home?”

Xu Chacha wasn’t afraid at all, standing her ground. “Chacha won’t run away from home because Mom and Dad love Chacha so much. They would never bear to drive Chacha away.”

With her saying that, any anger they had dissipated.

Mrs. Xu shook her head, laughing helplessly, looking like she couldn’t deal with her. “You little clever ghost.”

“The little clever ghost is loved.” Xu Chacha winked at her, acting cute.

“Yes, you are loved the most.” Mrs. Xu put a piece of meat on her plate.

…

Worried about Wen Mubai’s state, Xu Chacha had started sending her encouraging messages every night before bed, as regularly as clocking in for work.

“Go, Auntie, go! You must design lots and lots of beautiful clothes and earn much more money than Uncle Wen!”

Wen Mubai was unsure why the little one sounded so indignant tonight, so she listened twice more, chuckling softly.

She wasn’t staying in the dorm but had rented an apartment near the university, only returning to her own apartment on weekends.

She had just returned from a meeting with the film crew today, and after spending half the night checking references on her computer, she felt sleepy before 10 PM.

Perhaps it was Xu Chacha mentioning her every night at this time that subtly influenced her, forcing her biological clock back on track.

Wen Mubai closed her laptop and curled up lazily on the sofa. She hadn’t turned on the light, relying only on the light from the office building across the street, which operated all night, to illuminate the room.

She really liked being alone like this—dark, quiet, with no one to disturb her, allowing her to focus on what she wanted to do.

Right now, she just wanted to listen to the little one’s voice a little longer.

The weekly half-hour call was no longer just a reward for Xu Chacha; it was a brief moment of respite in Wen Mubai’s busy and dull life.

“Hello, Auntie!” Every time she answered the phone, Xu Chacha’s energetic voice was the first to burst into her ear without fail.

The corner of Wen Mubai’s lips curved upward. She answered softly, “It’s me. Are you asleep?”

“Not sleeping, not sleeping. I’m very energetic whenever I talk to Auntie.” Xu Chacha pulled a doll over to prop up her head and lay sideways in a comfortable position. “Auntie’s voice sounds very tired. Are you unhappy about something?”

“No, Auntie is fine.” Wen Mubai said softly, not wanting the little girl to worry about her.

She disliked any occasion that required socializing. After today’s meeting, she was forced to attend a dinner party. Although no one dared to pressure her to drink, she couldn’t just walk out rudely.

The director, the producer, and the pretty “assistants” called in from who-knows-where. Halfway through the dinner, the private room was filled with the smell of strong alcohol and rancid meat.

The alcohol poured down the girls’ throats was the strongest. The men who constantly took advantage of others were the foulest.

Seeing all this, she was even more grateful that she had chosen to be “rebellious” this time.

“Okay then, if Auntie doesn’t want to say, that’s fine.” Xu Chacha put the phone next to her pillow, stacked her hands under her cheek, and lay sideways in a comfortable position. “Chacha has many, many things to tell Auntie.”

“Is it because Qianqian cried again today? Or did Miaomiao use her catchphrase ‘I hate so-and-so the most’ again?”

“No, neither of those!” Xu Chacha laughed heartily. “It’s about today’s P.E. class. I cheated secretly.”

“You did something bad and dare to tell Auntie. That’s quite brave.”

“Because Auntie won’t tell on me.” Xu Chacha giggled affectionately into the phone receiver.

“So, what happened? Go on.” Wen Mubai lay down on the sofa, picked up an art book, and flipped through it while listening to Xu Chacha speak.

“Today, our P.E. teacher was going to test us on the 50-meter dash, but I just can’t run fast. Everyone passed the first time, but I kept running and running…”

Wen Mubai turned a page. She couldn’t focus on the posters in the art book, her mind was filled with the image of Xu Chacha’s pitiful, panting face.

“So, did the P.E. teacher let you off?”

“Of course not. I’m the Class President, too. It was so embarrassing!” Xu Chacha was truly upset today. Why were the physical fitness tests for primary school students so difficult!

“So then, when he went to the bathroom, I asked our Sports Representative to test me instead.”

“And changing the person testing you meant you passed?”

“I didn’t pass.” Because of her lack of stamina, Xu Chacha ran slower each time. “Then I made a deal with the Sports Representative. I’d bring him a small cake for a week, and he would secretly pass me, since the teacher wasn’t there anyway.”

“The Sports Representative?” Having chatted with Xu Chacha for several weeks, Wen Mubai knew all about their class positions. Her tone was knowing. “That would be Zhuangzhuang, right?”

Xu Chacha: “…”

“It’s Zhuangzhuang, isn’t it? The little boy who called out to you at the school gate last time.” Wen Mubai asked again, holding back a smile.

“I’m going to sleep now. Good night, Auntie!” Xu Chacha burrowed herself under the covers.

Hearing the little one’s angry voice on the other end, the smile on Wen Mubai’s lips grew more pronounced. “Good night, heartbreaker Chacha.”

“Say less, mean Auntie.”