After Becoming a Cannon Fodder Side Character, I Became the Group’s Favorite (GL) - Chapter 31

Regarding Xu Chacha staying the night, her parents were initially firmly opposed, and her attempts to act pitiful were ineffective.

One reason was that the family had finally managed to take a trip together, and the second was the fear that Xu Chacha would be a bother to others by staying there.

Finally, the elderly man brandished his cane and said, “I’m an old man who will have no company later. Can’t I have this little happy-go-lucky person for a few days?”

Xu Chacha instantly wanted to clap and cheer: Your acting skills make me ashamed of my own.

Thanks to the grandfather’s superb performance, Xu Chacha was allowed to stay. She promised her family that she would go back with them for the lantern festival and, in turn, instructed them to have a good time and not worry about her.

“Your little elbow always bends outwards,” Mrs. Xu pinched her nose, looking like she wanted to scold her but couldn’t bear to. “You’re driving me crazy.”

“Don’t be angry, Mom.” Xu Chacha cupped her face and gave her a loud kiss. “Chacha also wants to be with Mom every day, but I’m just worried about Auntie.”

“You little thing, you’re quite good at worrying about others.”

Xu Yanshu returned to the hotel with her parents. On the way back to their room, they encountered an acquaintance in the elevator.

“Hey, Old Xu, what a coincidence. You’re here for vacation too.” The man, wearing flashy beach shorts and holding a little girl with her hair tied in a small bun, looked behind Mr. Xu. “Where’s your little daughter? I hear you talk about her all the time. Let me meet her and see just how cute she is.”

Mr. Xu looked disheartened. “Little daughter? What little daughter?”

It seemed his daughter was being raised for someone else.

…

The rain had been falling for a while and seemed to show signs of stopping, but the weather forecast said there would be a thunderstorm tonight and it wouldn’t clear up until noon the next day.

After the funeral, everyone dispersed. The old house instantly lost much of its liveliness, and the temperature seemed to drop significantly.

The maids had cleaned the rooms and left. The elderly man didn’t like too many people staying in the house.

After dinner, Xu Chacha, holding a carton of milk that Wen Mubai had specifically bought for her at the convenience store, sat on the sofa watching TV with the elderly man.

He was watching a traditional opera channel, but the volume was low. He quietly hummed along, familiar with every word of the lyrics.

Wen Mubai was washing up. Xu Chacha, sitting by herself, quietly sipped her milk. The milk continuously flowed into her mouth through the straw. Just when one might mistake the carton for having an endless supply, a “hiss” sound came from the box, and the continuous white stream in the straw broke into several segments.

She shook the carton, confirmed it was empty, and then stood up to throw it in the trash.

On her way back, she passed the kitchen and grabbed a piece of osmanthus cake. When she returned, she found the elderly man had changed the channel and was now watching a drama.

His taste in shows surprised Xu Chacha; it was the kind of Mary Sue melodrama that young people would edit into kuso parodies.

A white porcelain bottle was placed on the low coffee table at some point, discreetly accompanied by a teacup.

Xu Chacha leaned in, twitching her nose to sniff. “Isn’t this liquor? Grandpa, are you drinking tonight?”

“Hehehe, don’t tell your Auntie Mubai.” He had probably already had half a cup, as the alcohol was starting to show on his face.

“Do you know the harms of drinking at night? Do you know how many elderly people die suddenly from myocardial infarction because of heavy drinking and smoking? Do you know—”

“Alright, alright, stop lecturing.” How could the elderly man know that this little child could nag more than an old woman? He quickly begged for mercy. “Can Grandpa just finish the cup and not drink any more?”

“You’ve already had quite a bit, haven’t you?” Xu Chacha wasn’t so easily fooled.

“You’ve only been gone for a few minutes. Grandpa just poured it,” the elderly man tried to cajole her. “Grandpa is in a bad mood and is afraid of having nightmares tonight. Just let Grandpa have a little.”

Xu Chacha sighed, secretly pouring a little of the remaining liquor back into the bottle, then capping it. “Then Grandpa can only drink this much. No more pouring.”

Drinking strong liquor out of a teacup—what kind of warrior was this? She had to admire the elderly man for his own bravery.

“Fine. Grandpa will listen to you, my little good girl, this one time.”

…

The bathroom door opened, and steam spread out through the gradually widening gap. Wen Mubai, wearing basic shorts and pajamas, stepped out, the towel on her neck absorbing the water dripping from her hair.

She stepped barefoot onto the absorbent mat. Her ankles looked slender and strong, with the ankle bones subtly protruding. Perhaps because the floor was cold, her skin was tinged with red.

Covering her mouth and nose to sneeze, she slipped on her slippers, poured herself a glass of hot water as she passed the kitchen, and headed towards the living room, following the sound of the big and small voices talking.

“During morning reading and recitation, Miaomiao confidently raised her hand, but she stumbled when she stood up. She’s thin-skinned and cried from frustration, complaining to me that she had memorized it perfectly at home, but couldn’t recite it in class.” Xu Chacha’s tone was the familiar light and cheerful one, with a hint of amusement. “Then I calmed her down with a piece of chocolate.”

“Our little Chacha certainly uses up a lot of chocolate being a class monitor.” The elderly man laughed heartily, recalling a past event. “Your Auntie also went through something like that. When she was little, she dropped in rank on a test and was afraid of being scolded at home. She took a bus all the way here, knocked on our door, and cried, begging to stay, too afraid to face her parents.”

“My Auntie?” Xu Chacha raised her voice, clearly intrigued. “She cries, too?”

“Of course! She was much cuter than she is now. She was good at acting spoiled and was a bit of a crybaby. I remember there’s a photo album under the TV cabinet. Come, Grandpa will show you.”

Wen Mubai’s heart skipped a beat. Shame from having her past exposed came crashing down, forcing her to quicken her steps to stop him, but she was a moment too late.

The elderly man usually coughed every three steps up the stairs, but he was incredibly fast when it came to revealing her embarrassing past.

As Wen Mubai walked up behind Xu Chacha with the water glass, Xu Chacha was pointing at a photo. “Is this Auntie?”

“Don’t look. There’s nothing to see.” Wen Mubai tried to take the album away.

Xu Chacha didn’t fight for it, but just held her empty hands and looked up at her, her small mouth pouting. “Auntie is stingy.”

“I’m right here. Why look at photos?” Wen Mubai hardened her heart and closed the album.

“That’s not fair.” Xu Chacha puffed out her cheeks. “When I grow up, Auntie will know what I was like from childhood, but I won’t know. You won’t even let me see the photos. Auntie is stingy.”

“Why are you bullying the child? Your Grandma and I took these photos for you. I decide to let Chacha see them.” The elderly man joined in.

“…” Wen Mubai let out a long sigh, handed the album over, and made one last struggle verbally. “There really isn’t much to see. Don’t all kids look the same?”

“I still want to see.”

Xu Chacha held the photo album and turned her back, secretly letting out a smile. No one saw the fleeting cunning in her eyes.

Just listening to the elderly man’s verbal description, Xu Chacha couldn’t quite connect the name Wen Mubai with “crybaby.” Now, she had photographic evidence.

“Hahaha, Auntie really was a crybaby!” She laughed, clutching her stomach.

She couldn’t help it. The shock from the photos was too much.

Little Wen Mubai looked similar to her now, just with rounder eyes and cheeks, lacking the current sharp, cool demeanor.

She did love to smile and cried often. Half the ten photos showed her smiling, a third showed her crying, and the rest were candid shots and sleeping pictures.

“Xu Chacha.” Wen Mubai sat down next to her, wrapping her long arm around the back of her neck and pinching her chubby cheek. The warning was clear. “You’re very ‘lively’ today, hmm?”

The low-pitched “hmm” in her warning made Xu Chacha feel threatened. She shrank her shoulders. “I won’t laugh anymore, okay… Pfft, hahahahahahaha!”

How could she possibly hold it in?

Little Wen Mubai, with two buns sticking up, a red dot painted on her forehead, smiling foolishly at the camera, was practically trampling on Xu Chacha’s funny bone.

Wen Mubai initially tried to maintain a serious demeanor to scare her, but she was soon infected by her “hahahaha” and a few laughs escaped her own lips.

“Is this Auntie’s mom?” Xu Chacha looked at the woman holding Wen Mubai in the photo.

She had never met Wen’s mother or searched for her information online. Just looking at the woman’s photo from her younger days, she could immediately match her with the wild, unrestrained, and prickly young lady described in the book.

Xu Chacha imagined a woman like Wen’s mother would surely have the slender eyebrows and slightly downturned eyes in the photo. She possessed the grace of a woman from the Jiangnan region, yet carried a brilliant aura that made people keep their distance.

“Mmm,” Wen Mubai nodded, holding the water glass and looking away to take a sip. She didn’t turn back.

Her feelings for her mother were much more complicated than for her father. She knew how to handle the latter, but for the former, she no longer had the chance for trial and error.

Wen Mubai really wanted to tell herself with a fully accepting heart that she was a good mother, but whenever she thought that, an opposing force would tug at her heart. It wasn’t too heavy or too light, but it always left a subtle, nagging discomfort in her heart.

And she was terrible at expressing her emotions. That small discomfort clogged her heart and slowly turned into a dead knot.

“Why does your face look so pale, and your lips are white?” the elderly man asked Wen Mubai. “Did you forget to close the window last night and catch a cold?”

Xu Chacha turned her head to look at her. “Really, Auntie, your face looks terrible.”

Wen Mubai’s lips were naturally light-colored, but now they looked faded, as white as paper.

“No, I checked my temperature.” She finished the hot water in the cup, and the dryness in her throat felt much better.

It must have been because she was busy during the day and forgot to drink water.

“You should dry your hair after washing it,” Xu Chacha noticed her dripping hair, recalling that this wasn’t the first time she had done this. “You’ll catch a cold even if you weren’t sick before.”

She stood up, intending to find a hairdryer for Wen Mubai, but then remembered this was someone else’s house and she wouldn’t know where things were.

“Auntie, where is the hairdryer?”

“By the bedside in the room. I’ll go get it.” Wen Mubai made a move to stand up.

Xu Chacha pressed her shoulders to push her back down. “I’ll go get it. You sit still.”

“She looks so small, but she’s quite bossy.” The elderly man squinted, watching Xu Chacha’s small figure disappear around the corner of the stairs. He immediately stood up, opened the liquor bottle on the cabinet with surprising agility, poured some into the teacup, and then put it back. He didn’t even need his cane for the whole sequence of movements.

“Drink less,” Wen Mubai knew his temperament. Her family had been trying to get him to change his bad habit for most of his life, but they couldn’t, so she could only advise him verbally. “You didn’t eat much today. Drinking will upset your stomach tonight.”

“Who said I didn’t eat? That little girl stuffed almost ten osmanthus cakes into my mouth all afternoon. I’m incredibly full.” The elderly man held the teacup, his little finger cocked up comfortably, and took a sip. “Ah… Delicious.”

Wen Mubai shook her head and ignored him, bending her knees and placing her feet on the sofa. Her slender white arm, visible under her loose short sleeve, stretched out. She picked up the remote and changed the channel.

After flipping channels for a long time without finding anything interesting, she finally settled on a noisy variety show without watching it, and pulled a book from the shelf to casually flip through.

Pata-pata was the sound of Xu Chacha’s small steps coming down the stairs.

The elderly man, who was leisurely sipping his liquor, suddenly flinched, his body trembling in fright.

Wen Mubai looked at him in confusion, as if he had seen a ghost. The next second, she saw the elderly man pour the remaining half teacup of strong liquor into her water glass, urging her, “Quick, quick, help Grandpa drink some of this.”

Wen Mubai suspected he was joking. “What?”

“Hurry up! She’s coming!” The elderly man grabbed the cup and handed it to Wen Mubai. “It’s fine, it’s just this much. What does it matter?”

Wen Mubai took the water glass, seeing Xu Chacha already downstairs out of the corner of her eye.

The little milk bun noticed the elderly man’s unnatural expression. She put her hands on her hips and quickly walked towards him. “Grandpa! Were you pouring liquor again behind my back?”

The elderly man stood between Wen Mubai and Xu Chacha, trying to bluff. “Of course not! Look, Grandpa’s cup is empty.”

“Then why are you being so sneaky?” Xu Chacha pointed at him with her finger, then turned suspiciously to Wen Mubai. “Don’t tell me…”

Meeting Xu Chacha’s narrowed little eyes, Wen Mubai didn’t know why she suddenly felt guilty. On a whim, she tipped her head back and downed the “water” in the cup in one go.

Her throat constricted. The spicy burning sensation and the pungent alcohol on her tongue made her involuntarily frown. It was strong.

“Don’t tell me what?” the elderly man quickly changed the subject. “Didn’t you want to blow-dry your Auntie’s hair? If you don’t do it soon, your Auntie will catch a cold.”

“Oh, right.”

Xu Chacha pulled out the cord of the hairdryer she was holding and went to plug it into the socket.

“I’ll do it myself.” Wen Mubai reached out to take it, but Xu Chacha dodged her.

“Auntie is too tired today. Let me take care of you for once,” Xu Chacha walked behind her. “So you won’t complain that you always have to ‘serve’ me.”

She seemed to be trying hard to use precise words, but Wen Mubai only wanted to laugh. She lowered her head to conceal her amusement. “Fine, then you do it. Tell me if you get tired.”

The hairdryer was heavy, and she was afraid Xu Chacha’s arm would get sore from holding it up.

“It’s nothing. I’m a professional.”

Xu Chacha gathered Wen Mubai’s long hair behind her with both hands. She was about to insert her fingers into the roots to loosen the hair and start blowing it dry, but she noticed that Wen Mubai’s exposed neck and earlobes were flushed a rosy pink.

She quietly leaned closer, keenly catching the faint smell of alcohol on Wen Mubai.

“Hmm? Auntie, you…” Xu Chacha didn’t finish her sentence, wanting to save Wen Mubai some face.

How did you, the “good student,” also start going bad? Xu Chacha felt a bit disappointed.

“What is it?” Wen Mubai was clearly unaware, her eyes questioning.

“Nothing. Turn back around.” Xu Chacha pushed her face away.

It was fortunate that Wen Mubai wasn’t raised by the elderly man, or she might have become a little alcoholic long ago.

She grumbled silently while helping Wen Mubai. Her claim of being a “professional” wasn’t entirely a boast. She had often frequented various fashion shows and was quite familiar with makeup artists and hairstylists. One of them had taught her the technique of blow-drying hair.

Blow-dry wet hair to half-dry with hot air, then switch to cold air for the ends. This was less damaging to the hair quality and dried it quickly.

The sound of the hairdryer whirred close to Wen Mubai’s ear. Coupled with the belated rush of alcohol, she blinked, her eyelids drooping, feeling somewhat sleepy. Her consciousness was slowly drifting away to a place she couldn’t grasp.

“Go to sleep if you’re tired,” the elderly man stood up, holding his waist. “I should go to bed too. Don’t wake me up tomorrow. I plan to sleep until noon.”

Wen Mubai hummed to acknowledge.

Xu Chacha had just about finished drying her hair. She put the hairdryer away and turned off the TV. Wen Mubai remained seated in the same position, unresponsive, throughout all these actions.

She felt something was amiss. She walked over, spread her fingers, and waved them in front of Wen Mubai’s eyes. “Hey, Auntie?”

“Hmm?” Wen Mubai’s reaction was slow. Her opened eyelids carried a look of sleepiness and confusion. Her unfocused eyes, combined with her dazed expression, gave her a surprisingly adorable, slightly confused look.

Xu Chacha chuckled at this novel discovery and quickly pulled out her phone to take a snapshot when Wen Mubai wasn’t looking.

But one picture wasn’t enough. She unlocked her phone again, shifted her angle, and started…

“Click-click-click-click-click-click—” The death-by-burst-photo method.

“Chacha, what are you doing?” Wen Mubai shook her head, finally realizing her current state.

She usually never touched alcohol, and downing a mouth full of the elderly man’s high-proof liquor was, of course, too much for her to handle.

“I wasn’t doing anything.” Xu Chacha had enough photos. Her expression instantly changed. She put her phone away and rushed forward to support her, her face full of concern. “Auntie secretly drank too much and is drunk. Let me help you upstairs.”

Wen Mubai’s brows were furrowed, as if she was trying to formulate words, but after a moment, she suddenly forgot what she was going to say and quieted down again.

Xu Chacha said she was helping her, but it wasn’t exactly true. Wen Mubai could still walk; she just seemed slower to react than usual.

The elderly man’s house had a tatami room. Inside, two futons had already been spread out, one large and one small. The small floral pattern on the duvet covers was typical of an older generation’s aesthetic.

“Tired,” Wen Mubai murmured softly. Her raised dark eyes were moist. Even in the dim light, Xu Chacha could see her own face reflected in Wen Mubai’s eyes.

The alcohol had flushed her face a bit. The skin around her eyes and the tip of her nose were red, as if she had been crying, and her cheeks, which never reddened even after running, were now a rare shade of peach.

“Then go to sleep, Auntie,” Xu Chacha helped her take off her slippers and pulled her towards the large futon.

Wen Mubai was tugged but didn’t budge. She shook her head and sat where she was. “Hot.”

“…”

Was she pouting?

Although Wen Mubai’s tone didn’t sound much different from her usual one at first listen, Xu Chacha was convinced that she heard a hint of pouting in her slightly drawn-out cadence.

So, the parent roles were being exchanged now. It was her turn to take care of Wen Mubai, right?

Xu Chacha propped her hands on her knees, letting out an old, resigned sigh with her young face. “Fine, I’ll take care of you then.”

Wen Mubai probably didn’t hear her grumbling. At this moment, she took off her top on her own, leaving only a close-fitting tank top, and walked to the window to enjoy the cool breeze.

A light drizzle was still falling outside. Xu Chacha couldn’t let her expose herself like that. She quickly ran over, closed the window, and tugged on her arm to lead her back to the futon.

“You lie down first, Auntie. I’ll get you some water.”

Wen Mubai was relatively obedient. After a few tugs, she finally sat on the futon, but she still didn’t seem entirely lucid.

Fortunately, Xu Chacha had experience looking after drunk people. She wrapped the blanket around Wen Mubai and resignedly got up to go to the kitchen and warm up some milk for her.

Milk was a convenient and effective remedy after drinking, at least to prevent a bad headache the next day.

Fortunately, there were still two cartons of milk Wen Mubai had bought for her. Xu Chacha opened one, poured it into a cup, heated it in the microwave, and then brought it out.

Not wanting to be caught using the microwave, she unplugged it after heating and returned it to its marked original position.

The cup was still a bit hot from being heated, so Xu Chacha poured the milk into a new cup before daring to carry it upstairs.

When she returned to the room, she found Wen Mubai, who had been sitting up, was now lying down, but she didn’t seem to be asleep.

Wen Mubai was lying on her side, her long hair flowing down like a waterfall from her slender, snow-white neck to her delicate shoulder. The usually cool and composed woman now had a raised outer corner of her eye. The skin around her eye, reddened by the alcohol, looked as if she were wearing eyeshadow, adding a touch of allure.

She rested her hand on her forehead, her tone carrying an unusual laziness. “Hmm? Where did this little one come from?”

“…” Did I open the door the wrong way?

Before Wen Mubai finished speaking, she managed a small smile and said softly.

“So cute. Come here, sister will pinch your cheek.”

Xu Chacha was so startled that she nearly spilled the milk in her hands.