Chapter 487: Chapter 168: The 80s Drama Queen Is Forced to Perform and Becomes a Top Student (Part 3)

As the old saying goes, when you give someone a rose, the fragrance lingers on your hand.

But now, after all the trouble he’d gone to this morning, this girl had ruined everything with just a few sentences.

’Heh. By now, the crowd must have a crystal-clear memory of Chief Editor Xiao: an ungrateful wolf who coveted his savior’s wife...’

Before Xiao Xuezhen could figure out how to salvage some dignity while the crowd was still around...

Sheng Leyun held out her small, grimy hands—hands that were used to constant labor, with old dirt caked under the nails—right in his face. "Mr. Xiao, that kind old lady who brought me here? While I was sleeping, she bought me a lot of snacks at the station."

"I don’t think it’s right for me to spend her money, since we’re strangers. So, Mr. Xiao, are you going to pay for it for your new daughter?"

Xiao Xuezhen’s head throbbed dully, as if being struck by a wooden mallet.

He pulled a ten-yuan bill from his pocket and shoved it at her.

Sheng Leyun tilted her head. "Mr. Xiao, you must not travel for work very often. Don’t you know things at the train station are very expensive?"

"The old lady seemed to have good taste; the things she bought didn’t look cheap. We can’t just take advantage of her kindness because she seems well-off, pretending we don’t know any better, right?"

"You might be willing to do that, but I’m not."

"Sigh... and you can’t just bully me because I’m young. You gave me two yuan earlier. What’s that supposed to buy? It’s 1988 now, prices are shooting up..."

Xiao Xuezhen could only grit his teeth. Forcing a smile, he pulled out another bill. "Yunyun, buy whatever you want to eat, but don’t be too wasteful."

"Oh, I won’t, I won’t," Sheng Leyun said with a smile as she took the twenty yuan. "It’s a two-day, two-night trip. I can definitely finish it all."

"By the way, Mr. Xiao, I heard that being a nanny for a family in the Capital City comes with a salary, and it’s not low, either."

"So, Mr. Xiao... my mom suggested I help with the cleaning, laundry, and cooking. Does that mean I’ll be a live-in nanny? Can I get a monthly salary of, say, five or six of those ten-yuan bills?"

She cupped her hands to her chest expectantly and blinked as she asked.

The expressions of the people in the crowd shifted. Their gazes toward Xiao Xuezhen filled with contempt, and their bodies honestly began to back away.

’They must have been blind. How could they have thought some smooth-talking fellow townsman they just met was a good person?’

Even his status as a veteran couldn’t cover up this stain on his character.

Tsk, tsk. Just the fact that he was taking in his savior’s wife and daughter was enough to make them ashamed to be associated with him!

And on top of that, he was planning to turn the little girl into a servant.

They glanced at the glamorous, well-dressed couple, then back at Sheng Leyun’s unpresentable state. The disgust in their hearts reached its peak.

"Chief Editor Xiao, you can’t be so calculating! You’re not the only smart person in the world, with everyone else being fools for you to play with!"

They were terrified that if they got too close to someone who would scheme against his own savior, they would end up being completely used by him!

"That’s right, Chief Editor Xiao! This little girl isn’t just any kid—she’s the orphan of a martyr! You have to treat her well. The public’s eyes are sharp. Otherwise... heh. As a section editor for a newspaper, you of all people should know the power of public opinion!"

As he spoke, the man pulled two ten-yuan bills from his pocket and pressed them into Sheng Leyun’s hands. "Little girl, this uncle was wrong earlier."

"You said it perfectly, uncle! This uncle was too materialistic, judging a book by its cover. I apologize to you!"

"You had a good father. You’ll definitely grow up to be just like him—a hero who fights valiantly and honorably for his ideals!"

The others also began pulling money from their pockets—all ten-yuan bills—and stuffing it into Sheng Leyun’s arms.

It was as if only by doing this could they forcefully cleanse themselves of their earlier foolishness.

Of course, in that moment, all the crowd’s respect, admiration, and gratitude for the hero transformed into the most direct and vulgar of things—money. But for the little girl, it was incredibly useful.

Whenever Xiao Xuezhen or Ren Xingchen tried to speak, someone would raise their voice to drown them out.

Sheng Leyun just kept smiling and thanking everyone in the crowd.

’Some people might have stubbornly refused what they saw as charity to protect their pride.’

’That was impossible. She needed the money to live, and they needed psychological comfort. They were using money to buy an antidote for their regret, to feed their vanity, to purchase a sense of self-righteousness.’

For these people, Sheng Leyun accepting the money actually made them feel much more at ease.

’Others might busk on the street; she was selling sympathy and vanity...’

Once they had given their money, the crowd slowly dispersed. Sheng Leyun ignored the ugly expressions on Xiao Xuezhen and Ren Xingchen’s faces and certainly didn’t stick around for a lecture. She went straight back to her seat to organize the money. Including what Xiao Xuezhen had given her, she had a total of one hundred and sixty yuan!

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