Volume 1, Chapter 9: Bring a wrench, dismantle the bike chain! Jiang Yu is so cool!

Jiang Yu looked at the two brand-new dresses with their trendy patterns and felt a momentary sense of unreality.

In her past life, she had handed over every cent of her wages. Forget about new dresses; even for a patched-up old piece of clothing, she had to endure the cold glares of the Jiang family. She had given them her best, yet she had never received even the most basic, equal respect.

But here, she had given nothing yet, and she was already receiving such clumsy, sincere care.

Her nose tingled, and her eyes grew hot. She lowered her head and whispered, "Thank you, Father Huo."

Seeing her accept the gift, Huo Jianjun let out a sigh of relief, then sighed again, bringing up Huo Siye. "Don't take that brat Siye to heart. His mother passed away early, and I’m just a rough old soldier who’s been in the army for years. His older brothers couldn't keep him in line either, so he grew up with this lawless temper. He’s not a bad person, really; he just... he just doesn’t know how to get along with people. Especially with you and your mother suddenly appearing at home, he feels awkward, and he only knows how to act out in the stupidest ways."

He looked at Jiang Yu, his eyes filled with a hint of pleading and hope. "Xiao Yu, you study well and you're more sensible than he is. Father Huo wants to... I want to ask a favor of you. Could you help me guide him? You don't need to go out of your way to teach him; just let him watch you study and keep him from running wild outside all day. Can you do that?"

Jiang Yu looked up at this father, who was so worried about his son, and nodded. "I'll try."

...

For Huo Siye, the days of being forced to attend school and undergoing mandatory tutoring were nothing short of hell.

That evening, he was dragged by his ear by Huo Jianjun and tossed into Jiang Yu’s room.

"I don't need her to teach me! A country bumpkin—what does she know!" Huo Siye threw his schoolbag on the floor, his face full of resentment.

Jiang Yu didn't even lift her eyelids. She continued working on her exercises, her voice as calm as water. "You're right; your grades are certainly not something I can teach. After all, to pull a pile of mud onto a wall, you don't need a teacher; you need a miracle worker."

"You... who are you calling a pile of mud?!" Huo Siye bristled instantly.

Jiang Yu finally looked up, pushed his math paper—which had scored a fifty-three out of one hundred and fifty—in front of him, and spoke with an innocent and sincere tone: "Isn't it true? For a test like this, I could score higher than you even with my eyes closed. Teaching you is a waste of my time. The door is over there; you can leave. I’d actually prefer the peace."

With that, she ignored him and immersed herself back into her studies.

Being looked down upon by this young girl felt worse than getting a beating from Huo Jianjun!

Huo Siye’s pride was trampled upon as never before. With a flushed face, he snatched the workbook from in front of Jiang Yu. "What's so great about you! Just wait, I'll show you! I’m going to score higher than you!"

Just like that, driven by a need to prove himself, Huo Siye actually threw himself into his studies.

He stopped hanging out with his group of fair-weather friends. Every day after school, he would head straight home, either wrestling with a difficult problem or arguing until his face turned red with Jiang Yu over a specific way to solve an equation. Although he still called her a "country bumpkin" and maintained an abrasive attitude, he didn't even notice that the time he spent in Jiang Yu’s room was growing longer and longer.

The atmosphere at school changed as well.

Qin Xuewei noticed that Huo Siye no longer revolved around her, but instead spent every day with Jiang Yu, the person she looked down on the most.

That afternoon after school, she intentionally blocked Huo Siye at the school gate, pretending to be concerned. "Brother Siye, why haven't you been hanging out with us lately? Is it... is it that Jiang Yu won't let you associate with us? She’s so calculating; she wants to drive everyone away from you the moment she arrives."

Huo Siye was currently frustrated with a physics problem and waved her off impatiently. "Get lost, get lost! Don't bother me! I'm going back to do my work."

"What kind of problem is it? Let me see!"

"I'm not showing you. Would you even understand it?"

Qin Xuewei’s eyes reddened from his shouting. She watched him chase after Jiang Yu’s retreating figure and stomped her feet in anger.

Huo Siye caught up to Jiang Yu and slapped the workbook onto her desk. "Hey, bumpkin, how do you solve this problem?!"

Jiang Yu: "..."

But good times didn't last long. He caught the eye of Wang Laohu, a notorious troublemaker from a nearby vocational school.

Wang Laohu was a well-known thug who frequently got into fights and trouble. In the past, Huo Siye had also run around with the crowd, occasionally tossing some money their way, which kept Wang Laohu satisfied. The two sides had stayed out of each other's way.

Recently, however, the "tribute" had stopped coming, and added to the fact that Qin Xuewei, whom he secretly admired, had complained tearfully about Huo Siye ignoring her, his anger boiled over.

That afternoon after school:

"Yo, isn't this the little young master of the Huo family? What's the matter? Not so high and mighty lately? I heard you've been tamed by that step-sister of yours from the countryside?" Wang Laohu sneered sarcastically.

Huo Siye didn't like the sound of that. Who the hell is from the countryside?

"Clean up your damn mouth!"

"And what if I don't?" The men behind Wang Laohu immediately surrounded them, backing Huo Siye and his two followers into a corner. "We've been sick of you courtyard kids for a long time! Today, I’ll teach you what 'rules' are!"

Although Huo Siye was a bit of a bully himself, he had lived a life of luxury and was no match for these vocational school thugs who fought daily. With no backup—having dismissed his own lackeys to focus on studying—he was beaten black and blue within a few rounds, unable to fight back.

Just as Wang Laohu was about to kick Huo Siye to the ground, a cold voice rang out from behind them.

"Stop."

Everyone turned to see Jiang Yu pushing her small tricycle, standing quietly at the entrance of the alley. Her thin silhouette was stretched long in the sunset, her expression unreadable.

Wang Laohu saw her and paused, then burst into boisterous laughter. "Hahaha! Isn't this that little yellow-haired girl? What, trying to stand up for your pretty-boy brother?"

The thugs joined in the laughter.

Jiang Yu ignored him. She simply looked at Huo Siye, who was bleeding from the corner of his mouth, and said blandly, "If you can't beat them, running away isn't shameful."

"Do I need you to teach me that?!" Huo Siye roared back, both ashamed and angry.

"Huh. You've got guts." Jiang Yu nodded.

Then, to the astonishment of everyone, she reached into the tool bag on the back of her bike and pulled out a heavy, half-meter-long iron wrench.

She weighed the wrench in her hand and spun it twice with great skill. It looked intimidating.

Her gaze swept over the bicycles the vocational school thugs had left at the alley entrance. Her voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone’s ears clearly: "Which one of you wants to have a leg broken?"

The sheer ruthlessness in her tone sent a chill through Wang Laohu and his gang. They were genuinely intimidated by the little girl. What kind of girl carries a wrench when she goes out?

Taking advantage of their momentary shock, Jiang Yu suddenly shouted at Huo Siye: "What are you standing there for? Get on!"

Huo Siye instinctively lunged toward her.

Wang Laohu snapped back to reality and roared, "Get her!" The men immediately turned to rush toward their bicycles.

However, as soon as they jumped on their bikes, they realized something was wrong.

"Damn it! Where’s my chain?!"

"Mine too! The chain is gone!"

The thugs looked down and realized their bicycle chains had been removed!

They could only watch helplessly as Jiang Yu pedaled away, carrying the battered Huo Siye, disappearing into the distance amidst their angry curses.

On the bike, Huo Siye felt the wind whistling past his ears and the thin but strong back of the girl in front of him. He suddenly burst into laughter.

It felt great!

"You can still laugh? How embarrassing!"

Huo Siye was laughing happily. He thought Jiang Yu was so cool!

When they reached the entrance of the courtyard, Jiang Yu stopped the bike. Huo Siye jumped off the back seat, his face covered in bruises—he looked a bit of a mess, certainly.

Jiang Yu parked the bike and prepared to head inside.

"Hey!" Huo Siye called out from behind her, unwilling to let it go. "When did you take off their chains?"

Jiang Yu paused, looked back, and made a face.

"While you were busy being used as a punching bag."

"Jiang Yu! You were there the whole time!! You watched me get beaten up!! Is that how a sister acts!!?"

Jiang Yu froze.

A sister?

Yes, a sister.