After Transmigrating into a Book, I Saved the Cheap Shou - Chapter 14

The night market was packed with people. The cries of vendors rose and fell one after another. Gu Jingning was afraid they would get separated in the crowd, so he grabbed onto Su Chen’s sleeve as they moved through the throng.

Considering the appetites of two male high school students — and the fact that he had finally found someone willing to eat at the night market with him — he took the opportunity to buy all kinds of food.

Normally he went alone. Jiang Yunhe and the others still had some young master habits and always felt the food at night markets wasn’t clean enough, so no one was willing to come with him.

After buying to his heart’s content, he pulled Su Chen to a nearby park.

The sun had long set, but the evening breeze couldn’t dispel the lingering summer heat. They sat on the grass. For a while, neither spoke — mainly because Gu Jingning was starving and buried himself in eating, leaving Su Chen no chance to speak.

He hadn’t eaten all day, so he quickly devoured more than half the food. Seeing that Su Chen had barely eaten anything, he paused with his chopsticks halfway to the next piece of black wheel sausage and reflected for a second on his starving-ghost-like behavior.

He stopped. Su Chen also put down his chopsticks.

“You should eat more. Don’t be polite with your senior.”

Su Chen shook his head and said, “Senior, I… want to talk to you.” He didn’t dare look directly into Gu Jingning’s eyes. Lowering his head, he continued, “Senior, please stop doing those things for me.”

“My problems shouldn’t be something you have to bear.” After thinking about it all day, he had decided he shouldn’t continue accepting Gu Jingning’s help. At first, he had admitted there was a small part of him that wanted to take advantage of having someone willing to help lighten his burdens.

Having someone stand up for him and solve his difficulties — why shouldn’t he accept it? In the middle of the night, he had repeatedly convinced himself: a rich young master he barely knew was willingly helping him while in a good mood. Who knew when he might get tired of it and abandon him back to his old life? It was better to hide under those wings while he still could, even if they might be taken away at any moment.

But after seeing Gu Jingning confront Su Zhiguo, he realized that man was a bloodsucker. If he set his sights on Gu Jingning, he would suck him dry until nothing was left. Because of blood ties, Su Chen was forced to live that kind of life, but Gu Jingning was different — they were neither relatives nor friends. He had to keep Gu Jingning away from his family.

“I… I… I will pay you back the money. Please don’t do anything more for me. I can’t repay you.” Tears slid down his pale cheeks. He bit his lip hard, trying not to let any sound escape, but his slightly trembling shoulders betrayed him.

How did he start crying while talking?! Gu Jingning panicked and wanted to lift Su Chen’s face. Su Chen turned his head away, unwilling to let him see his miserable state. But the next moment, he heard Gu Jingning let out a soft sigh.

Was he finally going to give up on him? Things had gone exactly as he had wished, yet he couldn’t feel happy. His heart felt like it was bleeding, throbbing with pain, and tears kept welling up in his eyes.

In the instant he was dazed, Gu Jingning lifted his chin. Warm fingertips gently wiped away the tears that kept falling. He patted Su Chen’s fluffy head and said with relief, “You really are a good child.”

Su Chen: “…?” He forgot to cry for a moment. This was completely different from what he had imagined.

Gu Jingning took some tissue from his bag and wiped Su Chen’s tear-streaked face. “These past few days, it seems like I’ve only seen you crying. Sorry about that. Nothing good has happened since you met me.”

“How can you blame yourself for that!” Su Chen hurriedly refuted.

“Yeah! How can you blame yourself for that?” Gu Jingning looked at Su Chen with gentle eyes. His dark pupils seemed to want to pull people in.

It would be nice to drown in that gentleness.

“You’re only 16. It’s perfectly natural to ask adults for help.” Gu Jingning thought for a moment and added, “Even if you’re 26, 36, or even if you become incredibly wealthy in the future and can make the world tremble with a stomp of your foot, you can still ask for help. Is there any law that says people can only rely on themselves?”

Su Chen: “But you’re only one year older than me! You’re not an adult either! Such a large sum of money — did your money fall from the sky?! How can I… how can I…” The more he spoke, the more agitated he became. He even wanted to ignore etiquette and shake this naive fool awake.

A loud slap on the shoulder startled Su Chen out of his growing self-blame. Gu Jingning lowered his hand and said, “Su Chen.”

“You’ve asked Teacher Zheng for help before, and you’ve written anonymous letters to the principal. You’ve sought help from the adults around you. So why can’t you accept my help?”

“No reward without merit.”

“You’re about to starve to death! Do you still care about what I might want from you?” Gu Jingning felt both annoyed and helpless. What a stubborn little guy.

Su Chen widened his eyes. Gu Jingning had never spoken to him so sternly before.

“I hope you can think about yourself first. It would be even better if you used me.” Gu Jingning patted his own chest.

“I really like you. I hope you can live the life you want.” Don’t end up like in the book, giving everything just for a bit of weak affection.

He held Su Chen’s hand. “You’re smart, kind, and you work harder than I do. Why should heaven let you fall into the mud? You should get into the best university, enter the company of your dreams, and live together with your mother and younger brother.” Not spend every day worrying whether Pei Yuanqing is cheating again and confine your life to the kitchen.

“You will find a partner who suits you.” Gu Jingning paused. “Well… being single isn’t bad either. Good Alphas are rare. You can’t want those with strong Alpha supremacy, those unwilling to stand up for you, and definitely not those who would cheat…” Before he could finish, a hand with thin calluses covered his mouth.

“Enough! Enough! Senior, stop talking.” Su Chen’s face had turned completely red at some point, even his neck was flushed.

So beautiful it’s almost edible… No! Gu Jingning slapped his own cheeks with both hands to wake himself up. This wasn’t the time to think like that.

“But you’re right. My money didn’t just fall from the sky.”

Su Chen blinked, feeling slightly relieved.

Gu Jingning removed Su Chen’s hand, took out a contract from his bag — two identical copies — which he had prepared in his spare time.

“Sign this contract! Consider the money a loan from me. You can pay me back once you start earning income. But I’ll still charge interest every month. As for the interest… you can repay it with your body!”

Hehe. He had already thought this through. Su Chen definitely wouldn’t accept outright financial help. So, to make him accept it while keeping others from noticing he was helping, the best way was to make himself publicly appear as one of the people “bullying” Su Chen!

Stealing the cannon fodder roles that bullied the protagonist shou and secretly going easy on him would definitely be much easier than exhausting himself chasing around to catch people trying to bully Su Chen.

Su Chen gripped the thin sheets of paper tightly. Gu Jingning’s name was already signed on them.

With his body?… Did Senior want him?

Ripples spread across the surface of the lake. The surrounding sounds gradually faded. He stared blankly at those bright eyes, his breathing becoming disordered, his heart beating irregularly and slamming wildly inside his chest.

If it was Senior… it would be better than giving himself to those lowlifes.

Seeing that Su Chen still hadn’t picked up the pen, Gu Jingning grew anxious. He thought back to the novels he had read — how did cannon fodder usually provoke the protagonist?

In a flash of inspiration, he said sharply, “You don’t think you still have a choice, do you? Other than signing this contract, you have no other rights!”

“Senior… are you asking me to repay the interest with my body?”

Why does this sound so strange? Gu Jingning felt puzzled, but still followed the script: “Otherwise, what else do you have that you can give me?”

He watched with satisfaction as Su Chen signed the agreement with a flushed face. He put the contract away, leaving only one sentence: “Wait for my contact.”

—

That night, when Gu Jingning returned to the dorm, a pillow flew straight at his face.

For the first time, his three roommates stood united. Xu Yuxi crossed his legs, a lollipop in his mouth, mimicking the motion of smoking as he asked fiercely, “Where have you been fooling around? You didn’t even come back to the dorm.”

Lin Mo, as gentle as always, said, “Luckily we helped cover for you during room checks last night and tonight. Ah Ning, where did you go? You didn’t even answer your phone.”

Gu Jingning pretended to be scared by Xu Yuxi and hid in Lin Mo’s arms, acting pitiful. “Wuwu, Mo Mo, Yuxi’s glare is so scary.”

“Don’t be afraid, Ah Ning.” Lin Mo patted his back soothingly. “But where are my snacks? Weren’t you going to the convenience store?”

“Oh! Those… I left them at Su Chen’s house…”

“You didn’t accidentally lose them somewhere, did you?” Lin Mo smiled “kindly.”

“You’re trying to say you lost my limited-edition merchandise that went off sale yesterday, right?” Lu Tianhao also came over and put an arm around his shoulder.

“No, but it might… perhaps… take a little time to find them again.” Gu Jingning pitifully twiddled his fingers.

“Fine, we won’t tease you anymore. As long as you’re okay. We didn’t see you for a whole day and night — we almost called the police.” Lin Mo pinched the soft flesh on Gu Jingning’s cheek and added, “Yunhe was really worried about you. He called you several times but couldn’t get through. He asked me to tell you to call him when you get back.”

Gu Jingning took out his phone. It had run out of battery. After plugging it in and turning it on, the screen lit up with 438 missed calls!

About three hundred were from his roommates and Jiang Yunhe. The next highest number was from Su Chen, and there were also…

Gu Jingning’s eyes darkened. He swiped away the notifications. Out of sight, out of mind. He turned back with his usual expression and apologized to the three, “Sorry for making you worry.”

After reporting that he was safe to Jiang Yunhe, he quickly washed up. He didn’t even have time to review his lessons before falling asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

After he fell asleep, Lu Tianhao lowered his voice and asked the other two, “Do you think the gossip on the forum is true? Ah Ning, he…”

Xu Yuxi slapped his back. “Don’t talk nonsense. Don’t you know what kind of person Ningning is?”

“But there are photos. The discussion section has been talking about it all night, and the person involved hasn’t come out to clarify. What do you think, Lin Mo? You’ve known him the longest. Did you notice anything off about Ah Ning’s behavior just now?”

Lin Mo shook his head. “I believe Ah Ning wouldn’t do something like bullying others, but we still need to figure out where he was last night.”

“Maybe he’s under too much academic pressure? See, I told you not to keep calling him the ‘Beta Pride.’ Now the pressure is so bad he’s looking for places to vent.”

“…Should I apologize? Let him relax for the exams.”

“Tomorrow I’ll ask Yunhe to check!”

The three of them stared at Gu Jingning’s sleeping face but couldn’t reach any conclusion.

Tonight, only one person in Dorm 308 was destined to sleep well.