The Beautiful Cannon Fodder Becomes The Heartthrob of the Dating Show - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Is Xu Jingchu Ashamed?

Huo Yan’s fingertips paused, and the warmth in his eyes faded at a speed visible to the naked eye. “People are talking about him?”

Secretary Shen surreptitiously observed the man’s expression, choosing his words carefully: “They’re just kids who haven’t really entered society yet. They usually like to join in on the gossip…”

“The forum link,” Huo Yan interrupted him, hitting ‘send’ on a text message he had just finished editing.

“…” Secretary Shen silently copied the URL and sent it over in a text.

The moment Xu Jingchu walked into the classroom, he noticed that the gazes gathered on him were far more numerous than usual. However, he didn’t pay them any mind.

With a few minutes left before class started, Xu Jingchu took out his textbook and began flipping through it quietly.

“How can you be so thick-skinned?”

Suddenly, a mocking voice rang out.

Xu Jingchu looked up. He hadn’t noticed earlier, but Zhang Yihui was actually sitting to his left, with only an aisle separating them.

Seeing the undisguised disgust on the other’s face, Xu Jingchu frowned slightly. “What?”

Zhang Yihui gripped a sheet of photocopied paper tightly in his palm. “Don’t tell me you don’t know your photos are all over the campus forum.”

Xu Jingchu nodded. “I know.”

“If you know, how can you still come to class as if nothing is wrong?” Seeing how calm he was, the resentment piled up in Zhang Yihui’s heart almost burst forth. “Don’t you feel any shame?”

Xu Jingchu looked at him without saying a word.

Zhang Yihui: “Don’t you have anything to say?”

Xu Jingchu asked back, “What do you want me to say?”

Zhang Yihui’s expression gradually twisted. “Xu Jingchu, do you really not care at all what people say about you?”

Xu Jingchu’s tone was calm: “It is already hard enough for a person to live a healthy life. If one has to care about every single opinion of others, wouldn’t the time spent being happy be reduced over and over again?”

In his previous life, while lying on a hospital bed, he often thought that if he could recover his health one day, he would live happily. Leave aside the fact that he didn’t even understand the messy implications on the forum—even if he did, he wouldn’t care. Whatever was happening between him and Huo Yan was their business and had nothing to do with anyone else.

Zhang Yihui was momentarily speechless.

Ding-dong— A text notification sounded.

[Good Friend: The morning meeting has ended.]

Xu Jingchu’s eyes lit up slightly. Ignoring Zhang Yihui, he lowered his head to reply.

[Class starts in three minutes.]

“Are you really that desperate for money?”

Zhang Yihui’s voice came again.

Xu Jingchu felt the displeasure of being disturbed and frowned. “What?”

Zhang Yihui was aggressive: “Is it true that as long as someone gives you money, you’ll go with anyone?”

Xu Jingchu: “What on earth are you talking about?”

Zhang Yihui thought he was playing dumb and sneered. “There’s no need to fake it in front of me; you know exactly what you’ve done! Being poor isn’t something to be ashamed of, but selling your body because you’re poor—now that is shameful!”

He purposefully didn’t lower his voice, so nearly everyone around could hear him clearly. Combined with the photos on the forum, the gazes landing on Xu Jingchu for a moment were filled with contempt, mockery, coldness, disappointment, and even hushed pointing.

Xu Jingchu blinked. For a second, he actually found it a bit funny. Between his previous life and this one, he had never been poor. Now that someone was suddenly calling him poor, it felt quite novel.

Ring—ring— The class bell rang.

Xu Jingchu collected his thoughts and stopped paying attention to his surroundings.

When class dismissed at 11:30 AM, Xu Jingchu uncharacteristically hurried out of the classroom with his backpack. Upon reaching the school gate, after hesitating for less than three seconds, he hailed a taxi.

Thirty minutes later, the taxi stopped in front of the Tingfang Group building.

Tingfang Group was the legacy left by Huo Yan’s father; “Tingfang” was a combination of characters from his father’s and mother’s names. Over the past ten years under Huo Yan’s leadership, it had grown from a small company into a top-tier giant in the industry.

As Xu Jingchu took out money to pay the fare, the driver looked at the skyscraper whose top was lost in the clouds and couldn’t help asking, “Does a relative of yours work here?”

Xu Jingchu thought about it and curled his lips into a smile. “My brother works here.”

Huo Yan was older than him; there was nothing wrong with calling him “brother.”

The driver looked envious. “Your brother is really successful. I heard people break their heads every year trying to get in here, but most can’t.”

Xu Jingchu didn’t have much of a reaction to that, but it didn’t stop him from thinking Huo Yan was amazing. “I think my brother is very successful too.”

After getting out of the car, Xu Jingchu adjusted his backpack straps and walked briskly toward the towering building.

“Where did this pauper come from—”

Suddenly, a sharp voice rang out from behind, and a massive force shoved Xu Jingchu aside.

Caught off guard, he stumbled forward two steps and nearly fell.

“Where are the security guards? Can just any kind of person barge in now? Is the company paying you all to sit around and eat for free instead of doing your jobs?”

The sharp voice was loud and clamorous. It took Xu Jingchu several seconds to realize the person was talking about him.

He turned around.

Standing behind him was a middle-aged couple. The person who had shoved him was the woman.

Two security guards walked in from outside.

Huo’s Second Aunt stood with her hands on her hips, looking overbearing. “Hurry up and throw him out!”

The guards looked at Xu Jingchu. Although his clothes were ordinary, his ethereal temperament and his looks made it impossible to look down on him. They hesitated for a moment.

Seeing this, Second Aunt immediately pointed at their noses as if someone had stepped on her tail. “Are you deaf? I told you to throw him out!”

Her voice was loud and shrill. Since it was currently the lunch hour, she quickly attracted the attention of the surrounding employees. Some recognized her as a relative of the Chairman, but seeing how shrewish she was being, no one wanted to get involved and get “dirty.”

It was mostly just embarrassing.

Huo’s Second Uncle was an Alpha, after all. Being watched like this by his nephew’s employees made his face feel hot with shame.

He pulled at Second Aunt and lowered his voice: “Forget it, so many people are watching…”

Second Aunt slapped his hand away and turned her fire on him. “Huo Yan is my nephew! What’s wrong with me kicking out a beggar who’s wandering into his company?”

In just two sentences, Xu Jingchu had been downgraded from a “pauper” to a “beggar.”

Xu Jingchu looked at Second Aunt thoughtfully. Huo Yan is her nephew?

He suddenly remembered the few phone calls that had made Huo Yan unhappy this morning.

Xu Jingchu asked, “Are you Second Aunt?”

Second Aunt immediately snapped, “Who’s your ‘Second Aunt’? Don’t think you can just claim relatives because you have a bit of a face. A beggar is a beggar!”

The boy before her was clean from head to toe, and his attitude remained poised and calm—he looked nothing like a beggar. Second Uncle was so embarrassed he wanted to find a hole to crawl into, but in front of outsiders, he had to maintain his Alpha dignity. He could only put on a stern face and hint to Second Aunt: “Don’t forget what we came here for. Business first.”