Transmigrated as the Cannon Fodder Spouse of the Disabled Beauty - Chapter 19

Xu Luo proved with her actual actions that her heart was solely focused on “dry rice” (eating). When she arrived at her favorite barbecue restaurant, she shocked the owner with her staggering appetite, and even caused Song Yunran, who had accompanied her the entire way, to cast several side-glances in her direction.

Initially, Xu Luo didn’t realize she had eaten excessively much; it wasn’t until the bill arrived that she felt a pang of heartache.

Her increasingly withered wallet gave her a slight sense of crisis, which in turn led her to conceive and implement some rather unscrupulous ideas.

After returning home full and satisfied, she lay on her bed, took out her phone, and after some deliberation, sent a bedtime greeting to Song Yunran.

Xu Luo: Are you asleep?

The reply came back quickly: No.

Xu Luo seized the opportunity while the other party was still awake… to send her a “Red Envelope” Hongbao for the amount of $520$.

She watched with her own eyes as her balance diminished, her very breathing becoming shallow.

Song Yunran: ?

Xu Luo’s fingers trembled with stinginess, yet the words she typed were grand and full of “human sentiment”: This is to thank you for accompanying me to eat barbecue.

Not long after the message was sent, the system notified her that the red envelope had been accepted.

Xu Luo held her breath, waiting quietly.

One minute passed, two minutes, three minutes…

She received no further reply from Song Yunran.

Xu Luo: Are you asleep?

Song Yunran: No.

Xu Luo: What are you doing?

Song Yunran: Pondering how to use this incredibly precious red envelope Luo Luo gave me. Does Luo Luo think I should use it to buy a lipstick? That way, I can feel Luo Luo’s love on my lips every day.

Xu Luo: “…”

Xu Luo was suddenly annoyed: I’m going to sleep!

Song Yunran: Mm, goodnight.

Looking at the “goodnight” emoji sent by the other party, Xu Luo threw her phone aside and buried her head in the quilt like a dead fish.

She had occasionally seen “relationship masters” online claim that if one person in a special relationship sends a specific, meaningful amount to the other, there is a high probability of receiving an even larger “special” red envelope in return.

Bullshit relationship masters! They cost her $520$!

Sending that $520$ was exactly like “throwing a meat bun at a dog” never to return!

Xu Luo clutched her chest, mourning her lost $520$. Ultimately, unable to accept that her impoverished self had lost a small fortune, she spitefully reclaimed her phone. Her fingers flew across the screen as she spammed Song Yunran’s chat with a barrage of meaningless emojis.

Song Yunran: ??

Xu Luo didn’t reply. Only then did her mood improve slightly, and she fell asleep.

The next day, after Xu Luo finished breakfast, Song Yunran called out to her.

“Luo Luo, can you accompany me while I paint?” This was the second time Song Yunran had invited Xu Luo to be her model.

She was met with a cold rejection.

“I can’t.” Xu Luo faced her with crossed brows, scanning Song Yunran with a side-eye. “Our relationship isn’t that good, is it?”

The “friendship boat” between some people is made of paper it leaks.

Song Yunran lifted her gaze to look at her, her long eyelashes trembling slightly.

That slight tremble seemed to brush against Xu Luo’s heart, making her heart soften for just a tiny bit. But it was only for a moment; she quickly remembered her unreturned red envelope.

Ignoring Song Yunran, she opened a video app and played a clip of an influencer’s monologue. The influencer was talking about how many red envelopes she sent her partner on Valentine’s Day, and how many the partner sent back in return.

Once the video finished, Xu Luo glanced at Song Yunran out of the corner of her eye. The latter wore a faint smile and an innocent expression, as if she hadn’t noticed Xu Luo’s hint (blatant signal) at all.

Xu Luo was beyond frustrated. With a stone face, she took her phone and went to the courtyard.

She needed the healing power of the Yellow Orchid tree, very badly.

Xu Luo sprawled out on a lounge chair beneath the tree. Before long, she felt a gaze peering down at her from above. Lazily lifting her eyelids, she saw Song Yunran at the third-floor studio window. The latter smiled at her and then disappeared from the window.

Xu Luo closed her eyes.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

Annoying notification sounds kept coming. Xu Luo, thoroughly bothered, pulled out her phone to check. The next second, her eyes widened.

Rows of unclaimed red envelopes appeared on her screen. Her finger swiped, but she didn’t even reach the bottom. There were dozens of them, and the amounts were a uniform, consistent $1314$.

The relationship masters did not deceive the fish!

With a grin practically stretching from ear to ear, Xu Luo happily collected all the red envelopes and skipped upstairs with light steps.

She knocked on the door of the third-floor studio and smiled at the person inside like a blooming sunflower—

“Friend, do you still need an excellent model?”

The level of professionalism for a model who has received red envelopes is, naturally, different from one who hasn’t. This time, Xu Luo cooperated perfectly, remaining still no matter how tired she got, until Song Yunran said it was time to rest.

Xu Luo had been waiting for those words and immediately slumped.

She first ran over to see the results of Song Yunran’s painting, offering generous praise before heading to the window to lean against the sill and rest.

She had intended to just look at the scenery outside, but she spotted Grandma Fu. Grandma Fu was in the yard feeding the cats with a kind expression. Moved by the sight, Xu Luo took her phone and captured the moment.

Xu Luo didn’t have a habit of secret photography; after taking the picture, she shouted down to the courtyard to inform her subject: “Grandma, I took a very good photo of you! Do you want to see?”

Grandma Fu looked over at the sound of her voice and smiled.

Xu Luo smiled back.

“You have a very good relationship with Grandma,” Song Yunran said, stopping her color-mixing.

Xu Luo grinned: “Who could dislike Grandma Fu?”

She looked at the photo on her phone. The elderly woman captured in the frame wore a simple qipao. In this villa courtyard where the scenery wasn’t particularly vibrant, she felt perfectly at one with her surroundings.

Xu Luo liked this kind old lady.

Song Yunran glanced at Xu Luo and gave a soft “Mm.”

Xu Luo felt the photo was truly beautiful and couldn’t wait to show it to the elderly woman, so she told Song Yunran and ran off to find Grandma Fu.

She found her downstairs. When Grandma Fu saw the photo, she also showed a look of affection and said, “If only this photo could be printed out. It could go in my album.”

“An album?” Xu Luo heard a new word. Merfolk didn’t use such things.

Seeing her curiosity, Grandma Fu went to her room and brought out her old photo album.

Grandma Fu’s album was an old object filled with the sense of passing years, yet Xu Luo found it fascinating. She saw many old photos, one of which caught her eye.

The photo depicted a birthday scene. A teenage Grandma Fu, wearing a white dress and a paper crown, sat before a cake bristling with candles. She was cheek-to-cheek and forehead-to-forehead with another young girl, both of them smiling radiantly.

Xu Luo was moved by the beautiful atmosphere of the photo. Her gaze lingered on it for a few seconds. Seeing this, Grandma Fu dazed for a moment, a watery sheen appearing over her eyes as her expression became infinitely soft.

Her finger gently brushed over the girl in the photo as she introduced her: “This is my friend.”

Grandma Fu’s friend was a girl with eyes like a deer, filled with light.

Grandma Fu explained that when her parents were alive, they were very close to a nearby orphanage. Her mother often went there to do volunteer work. Due to the policies at the time, some children from the orphanage were allowed to live with local families before being adopted. Grandma Fu’s friend had moved into her home under those circumstances.

Yes, Grandma Fu’s friend was a child from the orphanage.

Being similar in age, the two quickly became close.

This photo was of the last birthday they spent together. Grandma Fu was 18 at the time, and so was her friend.

“What about your friend? Where did she go later?” Xu Luo asked.

Grandma Fu smiled: “She went home. When she was 18, her family found her after she had been missing, and they took her back home.”

Hearing that it was their last birthday, Xu Luo had assumed some tragedy had occurred between them. Hearing that the girl had simply gone home, she breathed a sigh of relief.

She asked, “Did you two never meet again after that?”

The light in Grandma Fu’s eyes dimmed slightly. She didn’t answer the question and instead closed the album.

Noticing the low mood emanating from Grandma Fu, Xu Luo said, “When is your birthday, Grandma? Let me celebrate it for you!”

Xu Luo said this out of kindness, but Grandma Fu froze upon hearing it. After a long while, Grandma Fu shook her head gently: “I… don’t celebrate birthdays.”

“Eh?”

Don’t celebrate birthdays?

Why?

A look of guilt appeared on Grandma Fu’s face: “No one celebrates birthdays in this villa.”

Xu Luo: ??

Before Xu Luo moved in, there were only two permanent residents in the villa the Song family had given to Song Yunran: Grandma Fu and Song Yunran.

Neither of them celebrated birthdays.

Because of the hurt caused by her mother, Song Yunran was very avoidant of birthdays. However, three years after Grandma Fu arrived, she seemed to have forgotten her mother’s hurt and invited Grandma Fu to attend her birthday.

But Grandma Fu refused because she had things to attend to that day.

Song Yunran wasn’t disappointed. She just… just adjusted the relationship between herself and Grandma Fu.

And then, she continued to stop celebrating birthdays.

Grandma Fu realized later. She realized what that single refusal meant to Song Yunran. She had rejected the opportunity to become someone precious to Song Yunran, pushing her back into solitude.

Grandma Fu was filled with overwhelming guilt, so from then on, she also stopped celebrating birthdays.

Song Yunran said she had never met anyone who treated her as well as Xu Luo. Grandma Fu had taken care of her for ten years why didn’t she count Grandma Fu?

This was the reason.

Xu Luo didn’t know the things that had happened between Grandma Fu and Song Yunran; Grandma Fu didn’t say.

Xu Luo was full of doubt, but no one gave her an answer. She was called back by Song Yunran to continue acting as a model, carrying her questions with her.

When she returned to the studio, she saw Song Yunran still mixing colors. The latter smiled at her return, called her “Luo Luo,” and said: “Luo Luo, my birthday is coming up. What gift are you planning to give me?”

Xu Luo: “…”

What a coincidence. What was with today? Everyone was mentioning birthdays!

And  Wasn’t it said that no one celebrates birthdays here?!

Xu Luo instinctively touched her phone, recalling her treasury balance. With a bit of a lack of confidence, she asked: “Then… which day is your birthday?”

Song Yunran said: “December 12th.”

Xu Luo: “…”

That’s soon. Only a few months away.

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