After the Sang-Style Beauty Married the Disabled Villain [Transmigration] - Chapter 17

At 6:00 PM sharp, Nan Liujing arrived home on time. As soon as he entered the door, he saw Uncle Li standing respectfully at the entrance with his head lowered, missing his usual air of composure.

“Young, Young Master, you must be tired from your journey. Please allow me to help you… change your clothes.” He was even stuttering.

Nan Liujing raised his eyes to size him up. The level of tension in the air today was excessive, filling one’s heart with a bad premonition.

“Where is Shen Jia-Li?” he asked in a low voice.

“M-Mr. Shen is still in the kitchen preparing dinner for you. Furthermore, Mr. Shen volunteered to go to the market himself to buy the ingredients for tonight.” Uncle Li thought, Better put in a good word for the kid quickly; if he really irritates the Young Master, he’ll likely be sent back to the “small dark room.”

“Mr. Shen has never lifted a finger since childhood, and it was his first time buying groceries, but his intentions were good.”

When Nan Liujing heard this, he understood: Shen Jia-Li had likely done something else that defied his plans. In the brief moment he spent pondering, Shen Jia-Li walked over carrying a tray.

Nan Liujing and Uncle Li’s eyes widened almost simultaneously, revealing disbelief and uneasy suspicion.

He was wearing a pale blue-gray sleeveless Lolita dress; the layers of lace looked like a magnificent little cake. His exposed arms were fair and slender, and his shoulders were round like orbs of jade. I’m dying; to match this dress, he even wore white silk stockings. As the skirt swayed, the thighs, slightly bulging where the stocking hems gripped them, were faintly visible.

However, the slippers on his feet were truly an eyesore.

Nan Liujing frowned: Does he want to knock my teeth out with an abacus? Didn’t he say he’d rather die than wear it before?

It wasn’t until Shen Jia-Li set the tray on the table that Nan Liujing seemed to understand his little schemes. On the porcelain plate, macaroni roughly the length of a finger was arranged into a long vertical strip, with three branches extending from the top—looking like an immature tree branch drawn by a child.

Nan Liujing raised his eyes and caught sight of his guilty, shifty gaze through his drooping bangs.

“What is this?” He lifted his chin, pointing at the tree branches on the plate.

Shen Jia-Li: “Water-spinach… pasta.”

Uncle Li hurriedly helped explain: “Because Mr. Shen misremembered the contents of the shopping list, he bought macaroni instead of water spinach… But he really worked very hard. Look, he did manage to remember the first two characters correctly.”

Nan Liujing tapped the tabletop expressionlessly. Although his gaze was directed elsewhere, his peripheral vision fell upon those faintly visible thighs. Indeed, he worked hard; to make up for his mistake, he arranged the macaroni into the shape of water spinach, trying to fool me.

And, wearing a dress.

“There’s also this.” Shen Jia-Li brought over a soup tureen and lifted the lid. A sweet, honeyed scent wafted through the air. Nan Liujing leaned forward to take a look. A single red date floated in a bowl of clear water.

“And what is this?”

Shen Jia-Li: “Rock sugar stewed snow pear. I didn’t buy any pears, but if you don’t mind, I have duck eggs.”

As he spoke, he even fished a duck egg out of the small lace bag attached to his dress and knocked it against the corner of the table. Nan Liujing stared with cold eyes and asked in a low voice, “What about the pan-seared agaricus?”

Shen Jia-Li scratched his cheek: “Bought the wrong thing too. If you don’t mind, pan-seared pig tongue?”

Nan Liujing slowly closed his eyes, his left hand clenched into a fist against his face, supporting his exhausted head.

Water spinach, agaricus, and snow pears—even without a shopping list, anyone with a sound mind wouldn’t have bought the wrong things. How could a normal, educated adult do something like this? It was highly likely that he was also deliberately provoking him. As long as he took the initiative to propose a divorce, he could logically obtain a large sum of compensation, and in the process, sell his misery to paint himself as the perfect victim.

Nan Liujing watched him calmly, his eyes dark and gloomy. Shen Jia-Li, who said you weren’t smart?

Across the table, Shen Jia-Li was thinking: I abandoned my dignity to wear a dress to coax him into a good mood—could you please not strip me of the opportunity to… I mean, don’t strip me of the chance to go grocery shopping.

Just now, to get into this complex dress, he had been jumping back and forth between “Forget it, it’s not worth it” and “Endure it for the sake of money.” He had been exhausted just by putting on the petticoat; he had to open the luxury cemetery advertisement and take two deep breaths to get some energy, then put on the outer dress, only to be exhausted again, so he had to open the ad and take two more deep breaths—

He had been so hardworking; I advise Nan Liujing not to be ungrateful.

“Thank you for your hard work.” Unexpectedly, Nan Liujing softened his voice. “I’ll leave tomorrow’s grocery shopping to you as well.”

Want to provoke me? You’re not quite skilled enough.

Since he wanted to show off so much, well then, let everyone witness his efforts. An ingenious plan surfaced in Nan Liujing’s mind. But it was soon replaced by those pale, fair thighs. Nan Liujing’s Adam’s apple bobbed; he looked away.

At this moment, on the Jinhai University campus forum—

[The final audition for the 2023 Jinhai University recruitment promotional video brand ambassador is live! Everyone, please vote! We decide our own ambassador!]

A hot post marked “HOT” topped the list, floating in the most conspicuous position on the forum homepage. Clicking in, the top post displayed four name bars of different colors, representing the vote counts of the four candidates, followed by their audition clips. To ensure fairness, the poster had removed the four people’s names, using serial numbers instead. Voting would close at 8:00 AM the next morning, deciding the winner with one hammer blow.

6L: [Came for Senior Lan Qing; he’s truly gorgeous, well-proportioned, and adorable.]

8L: [Our Haiwei brother is also very good! (heart-eyes) A sunny little hunk~ Everyone vote for number two!]

12L: [Who said Jinhai University is a paradise for nerds and a wasteland for aesthetics? You could pull anyone out of here and they’d debut in the center spot.]

17L: [12L, you’re so right.]

33L: [By the way, who is candidate number four? Holy crap, he’s too good-looking. Although he doesn’t seem very enthusiastic, that sense of listlessness is such a breath of fresh air. Does our school really have someone like this?]

34L: [Same question about number four, this face really hit my heart. Waiting online; I’m an impatient king.]

37L: [Hahaha, how can anyone not know Shen Jia-Li? Isn’t that the one who just married a cripple a while ago? A socialite of the upper class who knows how to play, but ended up being played by the cripple.]

39L: [Damn, SJL? Blame my eyes. I already voted for him—can I retract it?]

44L: [srds (although), Shen Jia-Li is really good-looking. When the sunlight hit him, he was absolutely stunning, really giving people a sense of “quiet years, peaceful world, and a beauty adding splendor.” I still want to vote for him.]

57L: [Please, we’re choosing a brand ambassador for a recruitment video; the personal image must be positive and upbeat. Shen Jia-Li stands there—good heavens, he didn’t even finish school, ran off to get married, and married a perverted cripple. His personal image doesn’t fit either. He doesn’t even know how to smile—what kind of ambassador is he?]

58L: [Some girls are really funny. Think about it carefully: when you’re licking your screen, is your “Brother Jia-Li” being screwed under a cripple? Oh, I forgot, he’s a cripple, so he must be getting screwed by silicone tools.]

61L: [58L, that sounds nasty. Did some low-class students from some third-rate school mix in here? Whether we like someone is none of your business.]

66L: [Whatever, let’s discuss it rationally. Don’t order anyone around; just vote for who you like.]

In the dormitories, cafeterias, and libraries, students were spreading the word, all holding their phones and watching the audition videos of each candidate.

Some were full of camera presence and not at all stage-frightened, even striking a classic pose while walking; others possessed an elegant temperament full of scholarly air, very much in line with the atmosphere of a top institution.

Shen Jia-Li’s audition video, however, seemed somewhat out of place. He had no obvious movements and didn’t look upbeat, but when that beam of perfect sunlight hit his face, illuminating his faint and elegant eyes and highlighting his distinct eyelashes, it was as if he had been ordained by the Lord of All Things, and everything around him became eclipsed, leaving no use for post-production rendering.

Even though he was notorious, his looks seemed to be a get-out-of-jail-free card. The vote count behind his codename grew rapidly with the naked eye, nearly neck-and-neck with the first-place Shen Lanqing.

If he couldn’t expand his lead, it was only a matter of time before he was overtaken.

Thus, the “fans” of each candidate stayed up all night, creating alt accounts and dragging their lists, swearing that they must have the person they supported appear in the recruitment video in the end.

The next morning, everyone ignored the risk of sudden death to snooze their alarms, forcing themselves up to crawl onto the forum and check the results.

The four name bars were of different lengths, with the first and fourth vote counts nearly equal. But the precisely calculated numbers behind the vote bars brought devastating news:

First place, Shen Jia-Li.

And he had only one vote more than the second-place Shen Lanqing; compared to the other two candidates, it was a crushing, landslide victory.

In an instant, countless posts popped up like weeds after rain.

[Who is Shen Lanqing, and who is Shen Jia-Li? Do you think this result is possible?]

[Vote-rigging? Otherwise, why would it be SJL?]

[Suggesting the moderator thoroughly check every voting ID in the backend to see if there is suspicion of vote-rigging.]

In everyone’s eyes, Shen Lanqing was virtuous, well-behaved, and of good character; being overtaken by the other two candidates might have been understandable, but Shen Jia-Li the Shen Jia-Li whom they viewed as morally corrupt, low-class, and frequently absent from class—barely beating someone so near-perfect?

Impossible, absolutely impossible!

The moderator was also someone who liked to join the fun, so when others asked him to check the IDs, he actually did.

When the results came out, he was dumbfounded.

Among Shen Jia-Li’s voters, there was one clearly marked with the forum username “Jinhai University Yu Yanxiang”…

Yu Yanxiang was their university president… And it was definitely him, because in the early days of the forum’s establishment, the president had posted to congratulate the forum on its founding. As long as one checked the post history of this ID, the identity was confirmed.

So, Shen Jia-Li, you still say you didn’t steal the account to rig the votes! Otherwise, would a provincial-level official like the president have the leisure to care about such trivial matters?