There was something that Yang Han realized. The root of all evil – money – had painted her image as particularly tall and imposing in the eyes of her classmates.
Except for a few people who disliked her.
While they were having lunch together, Xu Jia told her that there was a female delinquent in class called Liu Zuo Ye. When everyone went to the dining hall for meals, she would tell them that Yang Han was a pretentious show-off.
Because in her eyes, that was what she looked like.
As soon as school started, the news about Yang Han’s ‘brother’ spread throughout the class and even reached the surrounding classes. She stayed low-profile for a week, but publicly showed off her wealth once after that, as if she was clueless about others’ family circumstances.
She did not hide or cover up any details, as though it was intentional of her to say it in front of Xu Jia.
Yang Han wasn’t bothered by any of what was spoken about her. Instead, her focus was on why her classmates’ names were all so strange.
Xu Jia comforted her, “Yang Yang, don’t be angry. Some people just resent the rich, getting all jealous when they come across rich people.”
Yang Han replied, “I’m alright.”
Those remarks were much milder than the ones she had heard before.
Xu Jia scooped up a few spoons of rice and muttered, “But Yang Yang, you really are super rich. What does your brother do for a living?”
Yang Han was puzzled, “Brother?”
Xu Jia stared at her puzzled look and blinked.
Yang Han suddenly remembered that day in the bus when Xu Jia saw her WeChat balance.
She quickly added, “Ohh…My brother, huh.”
It almost got exposed.
Hiding her panic, she ate a mouthful of rice and continued, “My brother is a company’s president.”
Xu Jia dropped her spoon on the plate, beyond shocked. She said in a trembling voice, “Woah…Which company is that?”
“Don’t spread it around, keep it to yourself, okay?” Yang Han whispered to her, “it’s Ji Xun Technology Limited Company.”
Xu Jia regretted the food she stuffed in her mouth earlier on because she choked on it and started coughing non-stop. Yang Han patted her back, soothing her.
People around them looked over and stared. Once Xu Jia had calmed down, she placed a hand on Yang Han’s forehead and asked, “Do you feel unwell recently?”
Yang Han sighed, “I’m not lying to you. My dad…Ah, that…My brother’s name is Han Shi Yu. Cousin, he’s my…cousin.”
Xu Jia had of course heard of the name “Han Shi Yu” before. Any high school student who had ever written essays had more or less used Ji Xun’s president as an argument before.
To think the relative of someone who lived as an essay material to them was right before her eyes. It was truly unbelievable.
Xu Jia still felt like she was in a fantasy world. She quickly switched to a different topic instead. “…I watched an autotuned remix of him on Qu Di during dinner last night. The title was ‘We don’t make money at Ji Xun’. Since Han Shi Yu liked that video himself, it went viral after that. I shared it as well.”
Yang Han took a sip of her milk tea.
Qu Di, one of the video sites under Ji Xun, was fairly popular among the younger generation.
Had Han Shi Yu evolved to the point of living in autotuned remixes now?
Xu Jia continued, “Yang Yang, you’re not making all of these up to trick me just because you admire him too much, right?”
Yang Han pointed at herself incredulously, “Me? Admire him?”
Why would she admire a simple-minded idiot who liked autotuned remixes of himself?
“Well, isn’t he the nation’s husband who’s young, rich and handsome?”
Yang Han put on a false smile and explained, “I don’t admire him.”
“Liar,” Xu Jia gave up on eating to argue with her, “Why else would you pretend that he’s your brother…”
Yang Han felt resigned, “He really is.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“……” Yang Han said, “Then come over to my place during the weekend. I’ll let you meet him in person.”
Xu Jia looked at her, half-believing and half-doubting her words.
Han Shi Yu protected the information on his family very well. He was a public figure after all. Many sought after him but there were just as many trying to ruin him.
Furthermore, his family was a unique one too. He didn’t mind announcing it publicly but exposing his family to various types of gazes would inevitably cause them to be somewhat affected.
Unless they received a large sum of money, paparazzies usually wouldn’t mess with a rich capitalist like him. After all, the platforms they publish their content to were all under his company. It would be easy to ban their account and their published news.
However, aside from his and his family’s privacy matters, Han Shi Yu never restricted anything regarding him in public. This caused all sorts of fan materials, gossips, rumours, inside jokes, autotuned remixes to circulate everywhere.
Yang Han felt like she had opened the door to a whole new world.
Especially after she got recommended to a fanfiction by Xu Jia.
This fanfiction’s ‘CP’1 was Ji Xun’s president and Yue Xin’s president. Their CP name was ‘Ji Yue’. Even the term ‘CP’ was a new word Yang Han learned.
The president of Yue Xin Technology Limited Company was called Zhou Yi. Even though they were business competitors, Uncle Zhou and Han Shi Yu had a good relationship privately. Sometimes, they even visited each other’s houses.
The fanfiction’s title was ‘As if a fish bone was stuck in one’s throat’2, which Yang Han couldn’t help but think was quite poetic. It was about the two presidents’ love and hate relationship. Although they obviously loved each other, they weren’t able to get together. It was filled with painful angst amidst their fierce romance. A fanfiction that went in a flow of angst, fluff, angst, fluff, angst, angst, fluff.
Of course, this was what Xu Jia described to her since she hadn’t finished reading it herself yet.
Yang Han: “……”
Xu Jia said in a clear, loud voice, “Ji Xun is single-handedly controlled and managed by Han Shi Yu but over at Yue Xin, Zhou Yi still has to deal with the chairman, his father…Doesn’t it sound like a story of the emperor and the enemy’s crown prince? The setting is so satisfying.”
Yang Han: “???”
Perhaps she should drop by the infirmary and get her ears washed with a bottle of iodine.
“Comrade Xiao Yang, what are you looking at?” Han Shi Yu took a bottle of iced coke out of the refrigerator, turning towards Yang Han who was staring at her phone with full concentration on the couch.
Yang Han immediately pulled herself out of the fanfiction and put her phone down. “Chatting with a friend!”
Han Shi Yu frowned, “Is there a need to be so sneaky if you’re chatting with a friend? What friend is that? Did you start dating someone?”
“……” Yang Han really couldn’t figure out this person’s fluctuating thought process. “My classmate is coming over to our house this weekend…”
Han Shi Yu blinked, “How many?”
Yang Han replied, “One.”
Han Shi Yu readily agreed, “Ask a few more to come along. I’ll prepare a barbecue in the yard for you guys.”
“I want a bottle of coke too.” Yang Han said. She had always been curious about why Han Shi Yu – a president of a big company – had so much free time to learn a bunch of weird skills so she asked, “Why do you know how to make barbecue?”
Han Shi Yu said smugly, “To pursue your dad back then, I could basically do anything.”
He took out a bottle of coke and threw it at Yang Han.
She caught it and dissed him, “Only in the case of fooling around.”
“I’m coming!” Han Shi Yu downed the rest of his coke, tucked in his slippers and rushed over.
Yang Han sneakily followed after him, peeking into the kitchen from the corner.
Yang Mo: “The salt ran out, go buy a new packet.”
Han Shi Yu whined, “Your daughter’s playing with her phone there, why don’t you make her go?”
Yang Mo clicked his tongue and frowned. “She just finished her homework. Let her play a little. What are you doing idling around?”
Han Shi Yu refused to listen, hugging him from behind. “You have to reward me a little first.”
Yang Mo was really impatient and let out a ‘tsk’. “Stop fooling around.”
After getting married, Yang Mo had thought Han Shi Yu’s clingy habit would be more restrained, but instead, it only turned a few times worse. He became childish on top of clingy.
Han Shi Yu: “I’m not listening.”
Yang Mo didn’t have a choice but to plant a kiss on his forehead.
Satisfied, Han Shi Yu fished out the phone in Yang Mo’s pocket and skilfully unlocked it before sending some money to his own WeChat account.
He put the phone back after that and said, “Thank you for the pocket money, darling.”
Yang Mo: “……”
Yang Han: “……”
It should had been like a common occurrence to Yang Han at this point but her heartbeat started accelerating abnormally instead.
She covered her mouth and quickly slipped back to the living room after seeing Han Shi Yu toddle away to buy some salt with the pocket money he acquired.
After calming herself down, Yang Han glanced at the fanfiction on her phone screen again.
It’s all your fault. Yang Han thought to herself.
Despite saying that…
Yang Han still stayed up late to finish reading the several fanfictions that Xu Jia recommended her.
There were some fanfictions where Han Shi Yu was both the Gong and Shou; another where the ship was National Radio and Television Station X Ji Xun; there was even Han Shi Yu X the autotuned remix uploader.
In those fanfictions, Han Shi Yu was described as an affectionate, loyal dog sometimes and even a domineering president. Some portrayed him as a delicate, frail puppy, which was OOC3 of him.
Yang Han diligently searched up the meaning of some terms while she read them. Her knowledge for this strange side soared overnight.
The most important point here was that Xu Jia’s requirement for a fanfiction’s writing was extremely high. Furthermore, she knew full well how to recommend them in a proper, steady sequence. For a beginner like Yang Han, she started with some light-hearted ones before throwing in some with kissing scenes. The smutty ones were next.
There were a few angsty fanfictions that left Yang Han feeling unfulfilled and unable to let go of.
Especially that ‘As if a fish bone was stuck in one’s throat’. It completely lived up to its title. Yang Han felt such a heartache that she almost called Uncle Zhou in the middle of the night just to comfort him.
She woke up the next morning with dark eye circles. Running into Han Shi Yu who was brushing his teeth in the bathroom, she mumbled, “You scum.”
Han Shi Yu: “???”
Yang Mo noticed the dark circles under her eyes and asked, “Did you stay up late?”
Yang Han nodded, diving right into Yang Mo’s arms while feeling wronged. She muttered in a low voice, “It’s all Han Shi Yu’s fault. Ahh—”
Yang Mo: “???”
There were a lot of question marks written across Han Shi Yu’s face. There was toothpaste foam on his lips, “What’s wrong with me?”
You cheated in the fanfiction and made a harem of your own.
Yang Han thought to herself.
When the weekend rolled around, Yang Han invited Xu Jia, the class president, Shang Xue and Fang Jia to her house.
Shang Xue was shocked but also flattered with the invite, insisting on dragging his best friend along so Fang Jia came as well.
Xu Jia reached out to the class president with the intention of asking him to tutor them. And so, the class president recommended Lu Yue Ming instead, since he excelled in mathematics and physics.
A total of 6 of them gathered in the park, agreeing to stay behind and have lunch in Yang Han’s home.
Except for Lu Yue Ming, who politely declined as his parents didn’t allow him to join.
Upon seeing Yang Han and greeting her, Xu Jia asked, “Did you finish reading the fanfictions I recommended you?”
Yang Han: “Yeah.”
“Pretty good, right?” Xu Jia laughed, “I still have some more on the mpreg and stepmother-son troupe. I’ll recommend them to you on a later date, see if it’s to your liking.”
Yang Han was full of doubts, “What and what troupe?”
The class president laughed a little and said, “Xu Jia, you’re ‘tainting’ yet another innocent child.”
Xu Jia: “I’m not. She’s having quite a great time reading them too!”
Shang Xue overheard their discussion and came closer, asking curiously, “Yang Han, you also read those gay fanfictions?”
Xu Jia retorted, “There’s a specific name to them and it’s Danmei literature4.”
Shang Xue shrugged, “Aren’t they all the same.”
Fang Jia was only concerned with food, so he asked, “What are we having for lunch today?”
Yang Han answered, “My dad said he’d prepare a barbecue for us.”
The two males cheered, “Then, let’s go buy some drinks.”
Lu Yue Ming asked, “Do you need my help?”
Shang Xue grinned at him, “No need, no need. You’re not staying behind for lunch, plus you’re tutoring us too. We can’t make you spend on this as well.”
Lu Yue Ming smiled back in response.
Soon after the two of them went into the supermarket, the car that was here to pick Yang Han up arrived.
A black Mercedes-Benz drove by quickly. The driver was wearing a white t-shirt and black sunglasses. He looked very flashy.
Yang Han waved at a little and called out to him. The sports car that had drove past made a U-turn.
Rolling down the car window, Han Shi Yu took off his sunglasses and greeted all of them with a smile. “Why did you only invite three people over?”
Yang Han: “Another two went to get some drinks.”
Xu Jia: “……”
The class president: “……”
Lu Yue Ming: “……”
The three of them probably never expected they would be stunned on the spot in the same moment, in the same place and in the same position.
Looking at the person from the photo in their essay materials, smiling at them.