Rebirth: A Cinderella's Counterattack

Chapter 87: Chapter 86: New Year’s Day Still Comes

After Christmas, New Year’s Day approached rapidly, and as each day went by, Luo Qianqian grew more and more restless.

Luo Shufan, seeing his sister’s distressed expression, walked into her room with concern and sat on the bed. He asked, ”Qianqian, do you feel unwell somewhere?”

Luo Qianqian glanced at her brother from the corner of her eye, then lowered her head. Despite having such a great brother, why did she also have to contend with another brother who was such an annoyance? She said, ”Brother, a classmate invited me out to play, but I don’t want to go, yet I’ve already promised I would. What should I do?”

”Is that what’s troubling you?” Luo Shufan rubbed the back of his head, unable to grasp why such a trivial matter could make his sister look so troubled for so long, and so he advised, ”Since you’ve already promised, you should go. If you’re not having fun, then just come back. Your classmate isn’t some Great Demon King who’s unreasonable.”

”Pfft!” Luo Qianqian couldn’t help laughing when she heard her brother’s accentuation on ”Great Demon King,” and responded, ”Yep, my brother is the real Great Demon King. Then I’ll go out to play tomorrow, especially since Grandpa Zhang and the others won’t be home.”

”Right, Qianqian, there’s something I need to tell you, but don’t be upset, okay?” Luo Shufan was about to leave when he remembered something and sat back down, looking a bit sheepish and not daring to meet his sister’s eyes.

Luo Qianqian widened her eyes. ”Did you steal my yogurt?” she asked, and pounced on her brother, fiercely grabbing the zipper on his clothes.

”No, no!” Luo Shufan hastily raised both hands in plea for mercy and only relaxed after his sister let go of his clothes. After smoothing out the creases on the front of his shirt and seeing that his sister didn’t seem to mind too much, he said somewhat sheepishly, ”Well, I made it to the finals.”

”What finals?” Luo Qianqian was somewhat puzzled and after a moment finally realized what he meant. She then smirked and said, ”You should have told me earlier. I didn’t want to say anything and risk upsetting you, but I made it too.”

”What the heck?” Luo Shufan looked incredulously at his sister. ”Really?”

”Really, Old Cow Geng told me, and Xiao Yu heard it too. I’ve known about it for a long time,” Luo Qianqian rolled her eyes. She certainly wouldn’t admit that she had simply forgotten to brag about it to her brother. She had just purely forgotten about it.

”Mom, come quick, Mom!” Luo Shufan, beaming with happiness, called out loudly for Luo’s Mom, who was still busy in the kitchen. Meanwhile, his sister covered her ears. With such a loud voice, wasn’t he afraid someone would call the cops on him for disturbing the peace?

”What is it? Did Qianqian bite someone again?” Luo’s Mom hastily wiped her hands and jogged into her daughter’s room upon hearing her son’s shout.

With a pout, Luo Qianqian complained, ”I bit someone just once, and it’s still being brought up. It’s so unfair.” She then sullenly sat back in her chair and leaned on her desk, her face scrunched up with displeasure.

”What’s happened now?” Luo’s Mom, seeing that her son wasn’t bitten and her daughter didn’t look guilty of wrongdoing, was totally confused and wore an expression of bewilderment.

”Mom,” Luo Shufan excitedly turned to Luo’s Mom, ”Sis and I both made it to the finals!”

”Finals? Keep working hard and don’t get cocky, make sure to...” Luo’s Mom said matter-of-factly, assuming it was about a good test performance, but then her eyes widened in disbelief as she gripped Luo Shufan’s shoulders. ”The finals?! The one you two went to Provincial City for?”

”Yes, Mom, Qianqian also made it to the finals!” Luo Shufan said excitedly, his tears uncontrollably slipping down his cheeks. ”Sis made it to the finals!!”

”Qianqian is so amazing!” Luo’s Mom let go of her son, hugged her daughter, who was still sulking and leaning on the desk, and kissed her fiercely on the top of her head. ”How is my Qianqian so talented?”

”I’m still angry,” said Luo Qianqian, twisting uncomfortably in her mother’s embrace. She certainly hadn’t said she wasn’t angry anymore.

Luo’s Mom didn’t care about all that, her face was filled with excitement, joy, and teary eyes.

Luo Qianqian couldn’t help but think to herself that, had it been her previous life, with such an achievement she would probably feel the same way, right? What a shame that with a lifetime of memories, being satisfied with just this would be selling herself short.

The new year would come, and New Year’s Day with it. Luo’s Mom was supposed to take the siblings shopping for new clothes during her break, but since her daughter had made plans with a classmate, she relented, only able to take her son to buy some snacks and cook a nice meal as a treat. Meanwhile, the He Family took advantage of the rare holiday to take He Wenyu back to their hometown.

With her little wallet and her backpack stuffed with all sorts of messy sheet music and lyrics, Luo Qianqian sneaked into a small shop not far from home and made a phone call:

”Hello?”

”The young master waited for you all morning, and all you have to say is hello?”

Luo Qianqian frowned slightly. Sure enough, it was that annoying voice. How could she have thought in her previous life that his voice was magnetic, crisp, and pleasant to the ear?

”How do I give you the stuff?”

”Can you not make it sound like we’re dealing drugs? I’m a law-abiding citizen, you know.” Imagining the annoyed expression on the little one at the other end of the phone, Luo Yanran’s face broke into a big smile.

”Do you want it or not? If not, I’m hanging up.”

”Why so grouchy? Be careful, or you might not get married,” Luo Yanran muttered under his breath, only to hear a ’beep beep beep’ sound from the phone: ”Aiyoh, true to my sister’s style, such personality.”

As soon as she stepped out of the shop, she saw a car stop in front of her. The rear window rolled down, and Luo Yanran, holding a small Nokia in his hand, looked a bit unhappy: ”You dare hang up on me? Get in the car, hmmph.” As he spoke, he reached out to open the car door and made room inside.

Luo Qianqian’s mouth twitched. She knew he was pretending—how could he not know where she lived? After all, he could find her brother’s school. With these thoughts, she angrily got into the car, slammed the door shut, and furiously asked, ”Why are you sending stuff to my brother? You promised you wouldn’t bother Mom and my brother. You’re a liar!” The car sped away.

”Is that bothering you?” Luo Yanran looked incredulously at Luo Qianqian sitting beside him and said, ”This is called corporate benefits, okay?”

”Then why didn’t you send it to me? Why did you send it to my brother?” Luo Qianqian thought about it and realized it was indeed true, but she was still angry. What if her brother found something out? Wouldn’t he be dead?

”It’s not like he’s only your brother.” Luo Yanran grumbled softly, but still explained, ”I was just confirming something, and by the way, congratulations to you siblings for coming to the Capital City this month. As a corporate benefit, transportation, food, and lodging are all covered.”

”What are we going to the Capital City for? Do you think we don’t have classes? Do you think we can just skip classes like you?” Luo Qianqian leaned lazily against the warm seat cushion, tossing her bag onto Luo Yanran and said, ”There, take a look yourself, that’s the extent of my capabilities.”

”You’re not coming to the competition? Besides, isn’t it almost winter vacation?” Luo Yanran slowly opened the small backpack and the first thing he saw were two lollipops. His lips curving into a smile, he said, ”Although I’d really like to have them, I have to protect my throat and can’t eat sweets.”

”Who said they were for you?” Luo Qianqian snatched the lollipops back with a disdainful look and said, ”Even if we were going, we would have a teacher leading the team. What do we need you for?”

Luo Yanran couldn’t admit that he had bribed the provincial team leader. It took a lot of effort to let these two attend alone. After thinking about it, he said with a smiling face, ”I’m studying there, it’ll be familiar for you too. Besides, if you go by yourselves, you have to pay for it. Aren’t you afraid of being ripped off when two kids go to the Capital City alone? And you know,” he continued with a grin, ”company benefits include reimbursed plane tickets, so no need for such a long train ride.”

”Get to the main point, I have to get home early to do homework,” Luo Qianqian rolled her eyes. The tone was clearly that of the big bad wolf luring Little Red Riding Hood, and she didn’t believe a word.

Luo Yanran sighed. This kid was too hard to deal with; he’d have to start with her brother instead.

Then he started looking at the messy sheets of paper, his mouth twitching: ”These numbers aren’t music notes, are they?” he asked, unsure, looking at Luo Qianqian.

”Yeah, right, it was quite a hassle, but some parts aren’t quite accurate,” Luo Qianqian nodded.

Luo Yanran decided to ignore the music notes. What kind of music sheet doesn’t have sectional rhythm and pitch? It was like a string of numbers written from memory, wasn’t it?

He was quite satisfied with the lyrics, though. They looked quite poetic and suited his age to sing.

Luo Qianqian didn’t get to go home early. She had to record the song many times over in the studio rented by Shufan to make sure there were no issues before Luo Yanran took her away to work on the arrangements.

The lunch was takeout brought back, and the only drink was Fat Sea water, they wouldn’t even give her plain water to drink.

However, when sending Luo Qianqian home, he handed her three bags before she went upstairs. After Luo Qianqian returned to her room and checked, her mouth couldn’t help but twitch.

One contained a long white down jacket that was taller than her; it was obvious at a glance that it was meant for Luo’s Mom.

Another contained a short black down jacket with a sickle-shaped zipper and a large hood that gave off a bit of a Death God vibe—it looked like it was for Shufan.

In the last bag was a white down jacket with a white rabbit-ear fluffy hat and a pair of white short boots adorned with two pretty pompoms.

”Not bad for benefits, huh?” Luo Qianqian gritted her teeth. He even knew her shoe size? Is there no such thing as privacy anymore?