Chapter 231: Currying Favor

Chapter 231: Chapter 231: Currying Favor

Fourth Grade, Class Two, Town Central Elementary School.

Gu Jiabao—or rather, Lin Jia Bao, as he was now called—took out a large lunch box, tightly wrapped in a padded cotton cozy. As he opened it, a faint wisp of steam escaped. As was his routine, he portioned out at least half of the egg fried rice, braised pork ribs, and fried shrimp onto the lid. In fact, he moved almost all the fried shrimp over, leaving only a single one for himself. Then, he pushed the lid toward his older sister, Gu Jiayi, before taking out a small thermos and pushing it into the space between them.

Gu Jiayi pulled the lunch box lid in front of her, took out her own spoon, and shoveled a large mouthful of egg fried rice into her mouth. After swallowing, she went right for the fried shrimp. Her eyes reddened as she looked at Lin Jia Bao. "I haven’t had Grandma’s egg fried rice and fried shrimp in so long. The taste hasn’t changed a bit; it’s still delicious." She looked at the food before her, a mix of envy and sorrow in her gaze. "Grandma really dotes on you the most. She didn’t say anything about you having to eat vegetarian for a mourning period. They think I don’t know, but who even follows rules like that anymore? The truth is, Auntie is just too cheap to let me eat anything good."

"...Today’s soup is seaweed and dried shrimp with egg. It’s your favorite, too. Have some more." After a moment of silence, Lin Jia Bao pushed the thermos a little closer to Gu Jiayi.

"Mhm." Gu Jiayi didn’t stand on ceremony, dipping her spoon into the thermos and ladling out several spoonfuls of soup. As the hot liquid went down, a warmth instantly spread through her entire body.

She wolfed down the lukewarm meal, alternating bites of food with sips of soup, letting out small, satisfied burps.

With her brother’s meal available, she couldn’t even be bothered to open her own lunch box. Hers only contained a steamed bun and a few pieces of pickled vegetables. It wasn’t just her lunches, either; even when she was back at her maternal grandmother’s house, she couldn’t eat any dishes with meat or fish.

It wasn’t that her maternal grandmother’s family didn’t prepare meat dishes, but none of it was for her. It was her aunt who said that since her mother had just passed away, as a daughter, she had to show proper filial piety. They weren’t asking her to eat a vegetarian diet for three years like people in the old days, but one year was required. Neither her grandmother nor her uncle had objected to this.

Gu Jiayi was incredibly resentful, but when you live under someone else’s roof, you have to lower your head. She didn’t dare let even a hint of her dissatisfaction show. At least living with her maternal grandmother was much better than it had been at the Gu family home. She had time to do her homework, was only expected to help with a few small chores, and no one was constantly hitting or yelling at her.

’By all rights, life should have been good enough,’ she thought, ’but whenever I think of my brother, I can’t help but feel how unfair it is.’ Her twin brother had returned to the Lin family, changed his surname back to Lin, and instantly transformed from a barnyard chicken into a phoenix. Meanwhile, she was still just a chicken, suffering and struggling. She’d probably never get back to her princess castle in this lifetime. There was no prince on a white horse coming to save her...

She would never forget the day Grandfather and Grandmother had shown up, driving over specifically to take her brother back to the Lin family. As they were about to leave, she had clung to her brother’s hand for dear life, crying that she couldn’t bear to be separated from him. She had repeated their mother’s dying wish over and over, begging her grandparents to take her along, too.

But not only was she disappointed, she was also humiliated.

Her grandfather, who had once doted on her, remained completely silent. It was useless even when her brother pleaded for her. Her grandmother, however, had sneered, her words merciless. "You’re not a child of the Lin family, so how could you go back to the Lin family home with us? And who told you that anyone is obligated to honor your mother’s dying wish?"

Gu Jiayi was so lost in her memories and self-pity that she didn’t hear Lin Jia Bao speak to her twice. Finally, he had no choice but to nudge her. "Sister."

"What is it?" Gu Jiayi snapped back to the present.

"Sis, it’s Thursday. Grandfather and Grandmother got me a day and a half off from school to take me to see my father. So, I won’t be back until next Monday. When you get to school tomorrow morning, you have to remember to take your lunch box to the cafeteria to be heated, okay?" Lin Jia Bao patiently repeated himself.

Lately, she had been eating the meals he brought, so she’d fallen out of the habit of taking her own lunch box to the school cafeteria to be heated in the steamers. He was worried that if she forgot again tomorrow, she would have to go hungry at lunch.

"You’re going to see Dad tomorrow?" A hint of disappointment crept into Gu Jiayi’s voice. Lin Jia Bao’s use of the phrase "my father" stung her, and for a moment, a wave of uncontrollable resentment washed over her. She thought back to the father who had doted on her, who would even get on all fours to give her and her brother piggyback rides. ’Even though,’ she thought, ’I later found out he wasn’t my biological father, he was the only one I ever truly considered my dad.’

Tears instantly streamed down her face. She buried her face in her arms on the desk and began to sob. "I want to go, too. I haven’t seen Dad in so long. But... he probably doesn’t want to see me anymore."

"Sis, d-don’t be sad," Lin Jia Bao stammered, feeling awful seeing his sister cry. He wanted to comfort her but didn’t know what to say. "After a few years, when Dad gets out, I’ll slowly try to convince Grandfather, Grandmother, and Dad. One day, he’ll accept you again." As her sobs grew louder, his gaze fell on the unfinished food before him, and his eyes lit up. He said quickly, "Sis, it’s not completely hopeless! Look, Grandma talks tough and says she doesn’t want you back, but when she found out you were only getting bad food for lunch, she started to feel sorry for you, right? She’s been packing enough food for both of us to eat our fill every day!"

Gu Jiayi’s sobs stopped abruptly. She looked up at Lin Jia Bao with a glimmer of hope, her gaze shifting to the food. "Really?"

"Of course it’s true! See? These fried shrimp are your favorite, right? And Grandma knows I don’t even like them that much, but she still made them today. Doesn’t that prove she’s really thinking of you?"

"You’re right—"

Gu Jiayi’s eyes lit up, and she finally broke into a smile through her tears. "That’s right. That must be it."

’But I have to wait several years... that’s so long,’ she thought. ’If only Grandfather and Grandmother would take me back tomorrow.’ She looked at her brother with renewed hope and began to tirelessly instruct him, "Jia Bao, from now on, you have to keep bringing me up in front of Grandfather and Grandmother. Make me sound as pitiful as you possibly can, you understand?"

"Don’t worry." Lin Jia Bao nodded firmly.

The other students in the classroom eating their own packed lunches secretly curled their lips in disdain as they listened to the siblings’ conversation. That afternoon, as soon as Gu Nuan Nuan arrived, Dong Xinran sidled up to her and recounted the scene before adding contemptuously, "That Gu Jiayi is so shameless. She’s not even a Lin anymore, but she still has the gall to eat her brother’s food every day. Especially before, when Lin Jia Bao didn’t bring that much. I’d see him letting her eat first, and she wasn’t the least bit courteous about it, not caring at all that he was going hungry. If you ask me, his grandmother isn’t packing extra food on purpose; she just feels sorry for her grandson! Do you really think his grandparents could ever like someone like that enough to take her back? It’d be a miracle if they did."

"Mhm, mhm, as long as they’re happy, I guess," Gu Nuan Nuan replied absently. She had no mental energy to spare for the drama between Gu Jiayi and Lin Jia Bao. She was too busy being annoyed—after all, anyone who suddenly found the person they least wanted to see in the world brazenly waltzing onto their home turf would be just as agitated and unable to feel happy.

She thought back to lunchtime, when she’d gotten back to the shop from school only to see that shameless bastard, Luo Hongyi, fawning all over her mother. In that moment, she had barely been able to restrain the urge to grab a broom and sweep him out the door—