Rebirth: A Cinderella's Counterattack
Chapter 81: Zhang Jingjing’s Commission

Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Zhang Jingjing’s Commission

Looking at the snowflakes drifting outside the window, Luo Qianqian sighed, "What’s the point of having class? With such heavy snow, we should go out and make snowmen."

"You’re right," He Wenyu said, gazing at the distant window. The heavy snowfall outside stirred in her a deep yearning. "This must be the heaviest snowfall since it began, right?"

"Yeah, it’s December already, and Christmas is almost here." Luo Qianqian thought that New Year’s Day was also approaching, and soon she’d have to make a phone call to a certain someone. With a sigh, she said, "I need to buy apples."

"Buy apples? Don’t we have plenty at home?" He Wenyu looked puzzled at Luo Qianqian. "But it’s true that we need to buy greeting cards."

"The day before Christmas is also known as Christmas Eve, and giving apples to someone you care about on Christmas Eve represents wishing that person a lifetime of peace and happiness." Luo Qianqian thought to herself that it seemed not many people celebrated this way anymore. In her previous life, the trend of giving Peace Apples instead of greeting cards hadn’t caught on until high school, so she was ahead of her time. She pursed her lips and said with a light smile, "I heard that those high school girls would give chocolate to someone they like on Christmas, just like on Valentine’s Day, except that on Valentine’s Day there is also friendship chocolate, which I haven’t heard about for Christmas."

"Apples, huh? Bringing a whole bag of apples to school? I have a lot of people I want to give them to: you, Brother Shufan, my parents and aunty, Old Niu, Jiang Qian, Zhang Sheng, Ye Chen... That’s quite a few pounds, isn’t it?" He Wenyu pouted, "Does that mean I don’t bring anything else to school, just apples?"

"For our family, you can give them at home, since we’re likely to have dinner together anyway. Just bring some for classmates and teachers. I’ll also give one to Jiang An, since we’ve been desk-mates for more than a month," Luo Qianqian counted on her fingers. "We have apples at home, but I need to buy wrapping paper and ribbons. I think it might cost as much as buying greeting cards."

"I saw some musical greeting cards for sale earlier and was planning to buy a couple. Now it seems I can save that money," He Wenyu said, shrugging nonchalantly. "You didn’t give me an apple last year either."

Luo Qianqian scratched her head in embarrassment. Could she say that it was the atmosphere in the school that reminded her? All she could do was explain, "I hadn’t read that book last year, but from now on, I’ll give you one every year."

"Alright~" He Wenyu giggled for a bit and then asked, "Isn’t it kind of silly for us to give apples to each other? They all come from the same box. You give to me and I give to you?"

"Seems like it..." Luo Qianqian frowned in thought, then had a flash of inspiration and said, "Let’s just give apples that aren’t from our home. It’s weird to give our family the apples from home."

"I want to eat one of those all-red apples," He Wenyu murmured.

In the front row, Zhang Sheng and Ye Chen picked up on their conversation and started thinking:

"What are you going to give this year?" Zhang Sheng nudged his desk-mate and asked.

Ye Chen looked at Zhang Sheng with eyes full of disdain, "Duh, apples. What’s the use of greeting cards? My mom throws them out once a year because they take up space."

"Yeah, you can eat apples," Zhang Sheng nodded and continued, "But that’s really a lot of apples to bring, huh."

"Just give them to a few key people," Ye Chen rolled his eyes. "You never gave greeting cards to the whole class any year, did you?"

"But that’s still a lot, okay?" Zhang Sheng argued.

At that moment, the door at the back of the classroom was pulled open, and a voice reached Luo Qianqian’s ears, "Luo Qianqian, come out for a sec."

Luo Qianqian and He Wenyu exchanged glances. It was Zhang Jingjing.

Since the teachers weren’t in the room for self-study, Luo Qianqian simply let Zhang Jingjing in, and the three of them squatted behind the last row of desks. Hidden by the desks, they went unnoticed.

"Why aren’t you in class? What brought you here?" He Wenyu spoke first.

"You think I wanted to come? You guys left school too quickly, I couldn’t find you," Zhang Jingjing took out an envelope she was holding and handed one to each of them.

"Aren’t you sending the card a little too early?" He Wenyu looked at the greeting card with green background and red and gold decorations and said, "It’s quite nice, though. Thanks."

Luo Qianqian didn’t speak because she had opened the ’greeting card’:

Dear Mr. or Ms. Luo Qianqian:

We sincerely invite you to attend the Christmas party held at Zhang Mansion.

The time is starting at 18:30 on December 24th

The location is No. 17 Jinfu Famous Court

Once again, we sincerely invite you to the party

Luo Qianqian looked at her name, twisting on the invitation, not sure whether to cry or laugh. Then she saw the time; it turned out to be in the evening, at a famous villa district in the city. Unconsciously, she glanced up at Zhang Jingjing and realized why her young stepmother was so generous with her.

"You guys must come, okay? I feel that woman is going to make a move on me. These past few days she’s been just like before, exceptionally gentle," Zhang Jingjing said with a shiver, "It even makes me feel a bit nauseated."

"Maybe it’s just a flood of maternal love, you might be overthinking," said Luo Qianqian, noncommittally. "But the timing is a bit awkward. We still have to have dinner at home, right? Who doesn’t want to spend Christmas Eve with their family?"

"Exactly, it’s so late, they wouldn’t possibly let us go out," He Wenyu also frowned at the name on the invitation. It was written so hideously.

"Please, how about I get you guys a few more invitations? Invite your families as well?" Zhang Jingjing begged with folded hands, shaking back and forth before the two of them.

"You arrange transportation, accompany us, and ensure we’re back home by eight o’clock," Luo Qianqian thought for a moment and nodded. After all, being home by eight would still allow them to celebrate, and the Apples for her brother, mom, and godfather, and godmother all needed to be prepared in advance.

Zhang Jingjing gritted her teeth and nodded, "Okay. Do you guys have clothes to wear?"

"We’ll wear our school uniforms," Luo Qianqian said with a light smile, "to indicate our identity."

"I could help you with..."

"No need. We’ll just wear our uniforms. We’re not from that circle anyway; there’s no need to blend in," Luo Qianqian waved her hand, cutting off Zhang Jingjing’s words.

"Ah, and here I was thinking about princess dresses," He Wenyu said with a sigh.

"Get out of here, as if you’d wear a princess dress even if you had one. If you nod, I’ll tell my godmother as soon as I get home," Luo Qianqian gave He Wenyu a glance. She knew her friend better than He Wenyu knew herself.

"Let’s pretend I never said anything," He Wenyu quickly looked down.

"What are you guys doing?" Zhang Sheng turned around looking for the two of them and found it odd that both were absent. He looked under the table and saw three little heads, then pointed at Zhang Jingjing and said, "Hey, isn’t that the one who had an affair?"

"..." The three of them rolled their eyes in unison, ignoring him.

Zhang Sheng felt he had indeed been somewhat boring, scratched his head and turned back to continue reading his comics.

Ye Chen shook his head, "Talk like that and be careful you end up with no friends."

"What’s that called? A mistress? Adultery? A domineering chick? I remember when Qianqian and Xiao Yu first came to our class, this woman came to stir up trouble. I just don’t know when these two innocent folks will stop worrying others," grumbled Zhang Sheng to his deskmate, "Sooner or later, they’ll be sold out and still help count the money."

"That phrase you’ve learned from the ’sold’ person in your mouth," Ye Chen said, "Their brains work better than yours, and who asked you to worry?"

All three, Luo Qianqian’s group, nodded in strong agreement.