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Chapter 591: Chapter 257: Hurry, there’s fur to pluck!
Although the gathering was set for 6 o’clock, most people had already set off before 5:30.
Across from the main campus was Little Fat BBQ, where an additional grilling station was hastily set up outside.
Little Fat stood by the grill, eyes peeled, until he finally saw Su Huai but not the "poison", and his expression immediately darkened, "Young Master, where’s your car?"
"Lent it to a friend to drive around, what’s up?"
"Man, you’re really something!" Little Fat slapped his thigh, showing off his collar with a face full of regret, "Take a look, I put on my most expensive outfit, all ready to squat in front of your car for a photo. And now what, my show-off moment is wasted!"
Su Huai couldn’t help but chuckle, "That’s what this is about? You just perform well today, and I’ll come more often from now on, just to take photos. I’ll remember that for you."
"Deal! You better keep that promise!"
Little Fat was delighted; the guy was straightforward and pleasing. He immediately took off his rather formal coat and got down to work.
"The skewers for your table, I’ll grill them myself!"
"Thanks, man!"
Su Huai waved his hand and led Gu Jiuyue and a group of classmates into the restaurant, instantly causing an uproar inside.
"Huai!"
"Young Master Huai!"
"Mr. Su!"
Quite a few people stood up to greet him with various calls, but what was consistent was their enthusiastic vigor.
Who says there’s no sycophancy in school?
In fact, not only does it exist, it’s oftentimes more blatant due to youthful naivety.
Nevertheless, Su Huai didn’t look down on anyone for it. Being stricter with others than oneself isn’t a commendable habit; when he was weaker in his past life, he too had flattered leaders out of necessity in his life. Having personally experienced it, he understood the unavoidability of this enthusiasm.
"Yo, Chairman Zhang, Brother Nan, you guys are here too? You honor us with your presence!"
Greeting everyone one by one, shaking hands, patting shoulders — Su Huai handled it all with ease.
Many from the student council were there, including all from the management department, the former Chang Siyuan, the current Fu Zhitao, each surrounded by admirers, with beauties like Qiu Li, Li Xiaoyu, and Hu Shiyu looking dazzling.
Student council president Zhang Ye showed up uninvited, bringing a few upperclassmen unknown to Su Huai, while Nan Guangzhu flitted around like a social butterfly.
The rest were the more conspicuous among the new batch of management department freshmen, like Chu Changkuo, Lu Yuanxing, Ben Qiang...
Many faces were familiar to Su Huai, but he couldn’t recall their names.
"Thanks for the invite, Mr. Su!"
Nan Guangzhu exaggeratedly pumped up the atmosphere, "To be called by you, old Nan can now consider himself someone significant too. Come on, let me take a photo, I can’t wait to post it on my friend circle!"
Now that Nan Guangzhu had joined Xingyu as a part-time low-level agent, knowing Su Huai’s other identity, his calling Su Huai ’Mr. Su’ wasn’t a mere jest.
Thanks to this relationship, Su Huai directly retorted with a laugh, "Post what in your friend circle? Do you have any idea how much I’ve spent to remove photos from the Internet?" 𝖓𝖔𝖛𝔭𝖚𝖇.𝔠𝖔𝔪
"Oh! Look at my memory!"
Nan Guangzhu pretended to fan his face, lamenting, "My bad, my words were out of place. I’m not worthy of making Mr. Su spend another few million..."
"Damn!"
Hu Shiyu, still dressed in shorts and stockings despite the cold weather, cursed loudly, eyes widened in astonishment, "No wonder you can’t find a single proper photo of you online even with all that buzz, did you really spend that much money?"
"Not wanting that sort of fame always comes at a price. Alright, brothers and sisters, take a seat!"
Su Huai laughed it off, and with that, the topic was dropped.
However, after this incident, the rest of the people prudently put away their cell phones.
No one dwelt on their regrets deeply enough to ask why Nan Guangzhu would bring up such a demand right from the start.
Su Huai looked at him, smiled lightly, and nodded in satisfaction.
However, Nan Guangzhu showed no signs of triumph, seemingly still remorseful about his "unreasonable request."
Su Huai couldn’t help feeling that it was no wonder that person did well in his previous life.
After acquainting himself with everyone that needed to be acknowledged and greeting all that were due, Su Huai didn’t linger on the first floor and led his classmates upstairs.
During this time, he made no move to introduce Gu Jiuyue, and those savvy members of the student council didn’t bother her either.
Most of the male students had the common sense to know who was out of their league, and while a few rash ones contemplated calling out "sister-in-law," none dared to act out of line, intimidated by Gu Jiuyue’s beauty and aloofness.
Only after Su Huai had gone upstairs did the discussion begin below.
"Is that Gu Jiuyue?"
"Man, she’s too beautiful, isn’t she?"
"In my next life, if I become rich, I’ll definitely build bridges and pave roads, do lots of good deeds. If I could be as beautiful as her and only have to eat bran every day, I’d be willing!"
"Sis, you’re not making it hard on yourself, you’re making it hard on Yama!"
"Exactly! You think a lifetime of good deeds will make you look like her? You’d be better off saving the money for plastic surgery."
"Stop kidding, even if you showed her photo to the surgeon, they’d tell you you’re crazy."
"Truly too beautiful, and with such an aura, she far outshines all the celebrities I’ve seen!"
"And on top of that, she’s so rich. I’m so envious I could die..."
"We’re in the same boat, but I’m even more envious of Huai."
"Hahaha, you guys must all be envious of Su Huai. Do you know what they call him online now?"
"Nonsense! The God of Freeloading, right?"
"Wrong! The latest title is—Ancestor Master!"
"That’s right, that’s right, and there’s also Male Role Model, Duck Emperor, Cursed A Thousand Times, Wheel-Turning King... I’m dying of laughter!"
"I get all the previous ones, but what’s with ’Wheel-Turning King’?"
"Come on! Sweetie, don’t ask questions you shouldn’t!"
"Huh?!"
Downstairs, the chatter was so lively, with small groups discussing all sorts of things.
However, it was the first time senior students who saw Gu Jiuyue could not make heads or tails of the situation—
"I just don’t get it. Miss Gu is so beautiful, and her family is so powerful; she definitely isn’t lacking suitors of the same level. Why is she so devoted to Huai?"
The girl immediately retorted, "Su Huai is so charming! What’s there not to understand?"
The boys were too embarrassed to say it directly, but they all thought similarly: not a good match.
A family wealthy enough to earn pocket money by selling sour plum drinks, compared to a super-rich and beautiful girl who could casually gift a billion— they just didn’t seem like they were on the same level.
A princess and a poor boy?
Too damn fairy-tale-like...
Then everyone started to discuss what exactly made Su Huai charming, and the overwhelming opinion among the girls was that it was his sexiness, leaving a bunch of big boys looking at each other in disbelief.
"How... how do you even figure that out?"
While it was noisy below, it wasn’t quiet above either.
Su Huai and Gu Jiuyue led the way up the stairs. On the second floor, private rooms surrounded the Central Hall, with two tables right opposite the stairs: on the left were the other sisters from Dorm 515, and on the right were a calm Chen Nuanhan sipping tea, and a shy Yan Mengqing full of unease.
Gou Huai’s pupils shrank. He felt a bit uneasy but more than that, anger.
Nice, coming to stir up trouble in my den?
What trick are you up to now, Old Chen?
Chen Nuanhan might have really wanted to cause trouble, but Yan Mengqing let her down.
The tea queen stood up in a hurry, her voice weak, "Junior Su, I’m sorry for interrupting. Nuannuan invited me to dine, and I didn’t know it was your birthday banquet. She dragged me here by force... I didn’t even prepare a gift, I am so sorry..."
Chen Nuanhan was stunned and then burst out laughing in irritation.
Before arriving, you were so eager and impatient, but once here, you backstab me... You really are a bitch!
But as annoyed as she was, she couldn’t really do anything to Yan Mengqing, after all, she still hoped she could cause some damage.
So, Chen Nuanhan simply accepted it.
She lazily said, "I thought you welcomed all beauties, especially on your birthday. I was just helping you gather your ’Five Golden Flowers’... Huh, how many are we missing?"
Hearing such frivolous words, Gu Jiuyue frowned.
Su Huai, on the other hand, really gave it some thought—Gu, Old Chen Pi, Yan MQ, Hu Shiyu, these four all had beauty scores above 90. Ding Yi, Huang Mengting, Bai Huitian, Qiu Li, Li Xiaoyu also had around 85, making it 9 in total.
So he seriously replied, "If you really like playing the matchmaker that much, help me gather a ’Twelve Golden Hairpins’. My body is strong; I can handle it."
Since it was all just trash talk, why not fire back!
Chen Nuanhan indeed rolled her eyes at the comeback, but today she was unusually non-confrontational.
"It’s your birthday today, I’ll let you off this once. If you really want a scene filled with beauties, you’d better ask Miss Gu’s permission first. If she agrees, I’ll immediately go next door to the KTV and bring them here for you!"
Was that backing down or not?
Others were confused, but Su Huai let out a big sigh of relief.
She backed down.
"Let’s go," he gently pulled Gu Jiuyue, "Let’s sit inside."
As he passed by the girls from Dorm 515, he greeted them with a smile, "Start with some snacks; there’ll be enough drinks later."
Before they could react, Gou Huai deftly shifted the conflict elsewhere.
He shouted at the girls from his own Dorm 511, "Those with grudges, seek revenge today; an opportunity is before you. If you lose, no more complaining about others to me!"
Bai Huitian and the Dandong Girl heard this and instantly forgot everything else.
You’ve actually been talking behind our backs?
This cannot stand!
The sisters from Dorm 515 immediately clashed with Huang Mengting and her group, with Chen Nuanhan in the middle, rendered helpless to cause further trouble for Su Huai.
Caught off guard by Gou Huai, she quickly got drawn into the fray, becoming a part of the conflict.
Yan Mengqing, seeing the whole box of beer brought over by Fat Sister and laid on the table, panicked and started waving her hands, "I have an injury, I can’t drink!"
Chen Lan scoffed coldly, "If you can’t drink, then go downstairs to the kids’ table!"
Flirting with Dog Class Leader with that tea aroma, do you think we girls from the Big Data class are just decorations?
Huang Mengting followed up with a shout, "Exactly! If you want to drink tea, go downstairs and turn left; the tea house is also booked by our class leader, bye-bye!"
Yan Mengqing was both angry and anxious.
She was truly injured, afraid to even sit properly on the chair.
But she didn’t want to leave; wanting to re-add Su Huai on the messaging app, today might be her only chance.
Caught between a rock and a hard place.
Gou Huai settled two issues swiftly, all without Gu Jiuyue lifting a finger. Post-gift service couldn’t be better.
However, just as he was about to earn some brownie points with Gu, a sudden uproar from downstairs caught everyone’s attention.
Sitting at the very inside, Su Huai could even hear Nan Guangzhu’s booming voice.
"What the hell? Principal Wang?!"
Huh? Why is he here?
That was Su Huai’s first thought.
Immediately after, he slapped his thigh, pulled out his phone, and excitedly said to his friends, "Come quickly! There’s a big sucker we can fleece!"
**********
I’ve been quite sick this time; let’s see if I can get back to normal tomorrow.
