Chapter One Little Girl

  The bus swayed back and forth, stopping and starting, the noisy engine sound stirring up people's anxiety and impatience. In the territory dominated by big boys, a girl tightly grasped the handrail, standing quietly in his breath, her head lowered, silent all the way.

  She wanted to find a topic, to be serious about his studies as usual, do her job well as the class leader, and help Li Luoyu get out of the small group that had fallen from their dormitory. However, every time she tried to open her mouth, the hot blush and the shyness of smelling his breath would make her feel that opening her mouth now would definitely be weak and timid, and might even be misunderstood as a coquettish request.

  The car screeched to a halt, and two people were still standing there. The driver yelled out, "We've arrived, get off the bus."

  The hissing sound of the bus door woke up two people, Li Luyou and An Zhi Shui, who lifted their heads to see a few scattered people getting off from various corners of the bus. Some people glanced at the two, with a somewhat strange look in their eyes.

  Originally, there were people getting on and off along the way. As they gradually approached the terminal station, more and more people got off. The bus already had many empty seats, but An Zhi Shui and Li Lu You remained standing there.

  They glanced at the time, a total of one hour and eighteen minutes, both people were standing there, not knowing what they were thinking about, but that kind of quietness, stillness, made people feel a little dizzy and immersed in it, apparently involving some soft, gentle emotions that made him and her forget about things around them.

  An Zhishui's face was flushed, her white dress making her skin look even more rosy. Standing in the sunlight, she couldn't bear the heat wave anymore. An Zhishui quickly ran up to a nearby platform, rubbed her feet and looked at Li Luyu who also came running over, complaining: "I'm carsick... why didn't you notice earlier? There were seats available, but I had to stand all the way."

  He shifted the blame onto him, Li Lu smiled slightly, his eyes seemed to be narrowed by the sunlight, he ordered two cups of iced sour plum tea at a roadside stall and sat on the high stool at the counter drinking, taking a break.

  Even in the afternoon when the temperature isn't too high, it's still stuffy. The plum juice is deep red, with ice cubes floating inside and making a slight hissing sound as I suck on the straw. And there are those tiny droplets of water condensing on the outside of the glass. All this helps to dissipate the heat in my heart and the warmth on my cheeks.

  Li Luyu drank quickly, and the sour plum soup was left with only ice cubes. He looked up at An Zhi Shui, who was lightly biting on a straw, looking at Li Luyu. Their eyes met, and An Zhi Shui hastily lowered her head, sucking hard, and suddenly choked, coughing.

  Li Ruyu wanted to pat her back, but was afraid she wouldn't accept it, so he handed her a tissue to wipe her mouth instead.

  An Zhishui felt embarrassed and quickly put down the cup, "Let's go take a look at the refrigerator... by the way, what else do you want to buy besides the refrigerator?"

  "TV, microwave oven, washing machine... mainly these three. Let's see if there are any other small household appliances that we can buy second-hand too. You don't know, almost all the electrical appliances in my place have broken down." Li Luyou believed that it wouldn't happen again, Annan Xiu had already known that once she released electricity, her beloved refrigerator would break down, and she should be able to control herself not to mess around in the room again.

  "Will the second-hand explode?" An Zhishui said with a worried expression.

  "The TV is mainly found in the home appliance sales field, and the sample machines of the home appliance sales field are not necessarily returned to the factory. Sometimes, the representatives of the home appliance sales field will make a loss report, but actually sell it as a second-hand product. The quality of this kind of TV is reliable and the price is cheap. As for other electrical appliances, just pay attention to whether there are any signs of major repairs, no need to worry too much." Li Luyu's life experience is naturally not comparable to An Zhi Shui's.

  "How did you know which shops are connected to the underground market?" An Zhi Shui couldn't help but admire Li Luoyu, she hadn't even thought of it, and there was actually such a life hack.

  "Look at the storefront, this kind of storefront is mostly filled with flat-screen TVs, and they are relatively new. The layout of the store follows the selling floor's arrangement." Li Luyou was not here for the first time to stroll through the second-hand market, he had already been familiar with it.

  "This house is probably it!"

  An Zhishui felt that he had found the place Li Luyu was looking for, and looked at Li Luyu with some excitement. Seeing him nod, he immediately ran in.

  "How's this TV?" An Zhi Shui pointed to a 55-inch Sony LED LCD TV, which looked very new and was rarely seen in second-hand stores.

  Sony's design is indeed commendable, it looks beautiful, no wonder An Zhiyu fell in love with it at first sight, but Li Luyu shook her head, "This model, even a second-hand one would cost around 7,000 to 8,000."

  An Zhishui didn't believe it and asked the salesperson, "How much does this one cost?"

  The salesperson had already heard Li Rouyou speak and knew he wasn't some amateur, so didn't have much interest in making a hard sell. "This one has a broken HDMI port, special price of 6,800."

  "How about a 50% discount?" An Zhi Shui thought for a moment and gave out what she considered an appropriate discount suggestion.

  Li Lu was startled, so this is what she meant by "helping you haggle"?

  "Beautiful girl, are you kidding me?" The salesperson smiled but didn't smile.

  "Didn't you say it was broken? Or is it second-hand." An Zhi Shui persisted.

  "It has four high-definition interfaces, which is enough for you to build a home theater and play games. The price of this new machine in the market is at least 15,000 yuan, can you give me this price......" The salesperson knew that they had encountered a real rookie, but this kind of rookie was unreasonable and couldn't be reasoned with. No matter how good the product was, they just didn't understand.

  "Alright, I'll add 200, making it 3,600..."

  Just then someone came into the store and the salesperson immediately turned around to greet them.

  Li Luoyou hastily pulled An Zhishui away, he figured it out, An Zhishui simply wouldn't haggle.

  "Try to find a store that can buy everything, so the price can be more favorable and convenient for delivery." Li Luoyu looked at a store with a seemingly large scale from afar and walked over directly. The second-hand market is not like a large retail store, which has high costs due to store fees and other expenses. The second-hand store's scale can effectively reduce costs.

  "Don't buy a washing machine anymore... it feels quite disgusting." An Zhishui's mood was still okay, and he didn't get discouraged just because the price-cutting failed. He just felt that he hadn't played his role well, so he quickly gave some opinions to Li Luyou.

  "There's something disgusting, after buying it back, of course, you have to use disinfectant water to rinse it thoroughly, carefully clean the water pipes and filters, excluding psychological effects, the actual detection of bacterial count is even cleaner than a brand new machine." Li Luoyu couldn't listen to her, he was planning to buy a fully automatic washing machine, a brand new fully automatic washing machine that could get home appliance subsidies for over a thousand yuan, but they were all limited to a few units.

  "Otherwise... I have one at home, I'll sell it to you." An Zhi Shui had originally wanted to give it to Li Lu Yu, but last time he himself offered to lend him money, he didn't even borrow it. If he said he was giving it to him, he probably wouldn't be willing.

  "Why are you selling your family's washing machine?" Li Luyou asked in puzzlement.

  "Because... that's where I washed my clothes, and once accidentally threw in a sock too... it hasn't been used since." An Zhi Shui said with great embarrassment.

  What can Li Luyu say? Although An Zhi Shui often deliberately presents herself as ordinary, in fact her concealment skills are not high, and she has long made Li Luyu feel that her background identity is not simple. Look at the demeanor of this young lady from a wealthy family, because the washing machine washed a pair of socks once, the good washing machine can't be used anymore.

  "I'm usually very careful, but that time I was too tired from dancing and didn't notice." An Zhishui didn't want Li Luyu to think she was a careless girl, her clothes were washed together with her socks, she felt wronged, it was clearly the maid's mistake, she hadn't even touched the washing machine.

  "Alright, since it's useless, don't let it collect dust at home, sell it to me instead..." An Zhi Shui said she wanted to give it as a gift, but Li Luoyu probably wouldn't accept it. Although An Zhi Shui, as a girl, had a social status far higher than his, he didn't have any ulterior motives towards her and only considered her a friend. He tried to establish an equal relationship with her, so he couldn't accept too much help from her. Otherwise, no matter what the original intention was, it could inadvertently put him in a psychologically disadvantaged position when facing An Zhi Shui, making him often think about how he should behave on certain issues after taking something from her, and it would be hard to maintain a normal mindset when interacting with each other.

  "Then buy everything else from my family!" An Zhi Shui raised her hands, clenched her small fists in front of her chest, and looked up at Li Luoyu with excitement and anticipation, as if she had discovered something particularly fun.

  "Do you have one at home?" Li Luyu was very surprised. Do rich people's families prepare everything in advance and put it at home?

  An Zhishui nodded repeatedly, "Because the house was newly renovated this year, all the old electrical appliances were replaced. I had a favorite antique lamp that was also replaced by them, and it wasn't until recently when I went to look for it that I found everything had been put in the warehouse in the backyard."

  The backyard... In a city like Zhonghai where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold, to have a house with a backyard, and a warehouse in the backyard... Li Luyu took a deep breath, An Zhiyuan really was hiding his wealth.

  That warehouse, probably many white-collar workers can afford it after 10 or 20 years of saving, that's the price of land in Zhonghai.

  It's not that she's being secretive, but rather, people can tell from An Zhi Shui's interpersonal relationships that her family background is quite good, yet they don't have the opportunity to understand more about it. Otherwise, An Zhi Shui wouldn't have had the heart to hide it in the first place.

  Li Luyu is now worried that the things from An Zhi Shui's house, even if they are second-hand, might be a bit difficult for him to afford with the little money he has in his pocket. His original intention was to spend no more than 5,000 yuan.

  His limit must be raised now, and it's okay if things are a bit better. After all, his sister is in her third year of high school, and he will definitely let her attend boarding school next semester. Even though she is currently attending the best private high school in Zhonghai, that's only the best in terms of promotion rate. The students' food and accommodation are actually average. Li Luyu has a deep understanding of this, and he still feels more at ease taking care of her himself. In that case, a better living environment can also make her feel more comfortable.

  Considering this, Li Luyu made up his mind. His attitude towards his sister was actually no different from that of many parents. As long as it was for Haixi, he could make decisions that he couldn't make before and give up things that he couldn't bear to part with.

  Before 12 o'clock, there is still one more update, three updates a day, Xia Hua will stick to it.