HSS Chapter 18
Translated by Novice Translations
Proofread by Yserieh
Chapter 18: Wages
Although Mu Xiaoya earlier said that she would come home to pack, Shen Qingyi helped her daughter pack in advance. Mu Xiaoya had nothing to do, so she accompanied her mother to do housework. When Bai Chuan saw Mu Xiaoya had returned to her parent’s house and didn’t pay attention to him, he was quiet and obediently sat on the sofa in a daze. Anyway, when he was in a daze, it was common for him to stay that way all day long.
This scene fell into his father-in-law’s eyes and he couldn’t bear it anymore. Before Bai Chuan was only a neighbor's child, Mu Ruozhou would often find him to do mathematical problems. One point was that Bai Chuan can solve these math problems easily and the other was that he wanted to find a method for Bai Chuan to communicate more. Now that Bai Chuan is his son-in-law, he doesn’t need a reason to take care of him.
‘Even in my heart, I can't help but feel a little depressed. Other people’s son-in-law is in a hurry to get along with their father-in-law.’ But when he comes, he has to get along with his son-in-law instead.
"Xiao Chuan, come over and help me look at these questions." Mu Ruozhou took a few Olympian math questions and put them in front of Bai Chuan.
Bai Chuan glanced at them and began to write with a brush. Soon he wrote the entire formula and worked out the problem with the simplest and easy to understand calculation method.
"It could be solved in this way and be calculated with such a simple formula." After solving two questions, Mu Ruozhou was once again convinced by Bai Chuan's mathematical talents, instantly discarding the identity of the father-in-law and turning into a fanboy.
Bai Chuan ignored him and continued to solve the problems, then calculated the remaining mathematical problems together, still using the original formula.
"So this formula can be used here? But if this formula is replaced here." Mu Ruozhou circled a large part of the calculation process written by Bai Chuan on the draft paper with a red pen and wrote a brand-new formula next to it. "With this formula, you can save a lot of steps ah."
Bai Chuan's problem-solving methods are simple and clear, and he never makes mistakes, but it’s strange that he only uses the simplest formulas when solving problems. There are many clear conclusions that can be reached in one step. He has to use three to four steps. Although it was correct, it wasn’t the best methodology. To this point, Mu Ruozhou felt very strange. At last, he can only blame this behavior of Bai Chuan on his scholar syndrome.
Mu Ruozhou had read some articles on the Internet, saying that many people with scholar syndrome see a problem in their eyes, and the brain automatically comes up with formulas and calculation processes. Perhaps the simplest formula can only come out of Bai Chuan's brain?
"I don't understand." Bai Chuan suddenly spoke.
"What?" Mu Ruozhou looked up.
"It's too complicated for Xiaoya to understand." Bai Chuan replied that in order to let Mu Xiaoya understand the problem-solving process, he researched and used a mathematical formula learned from elementary school instead. He spent more energy than he needed to solve math problems.
"..." Mu Ruozhou remembered that his daughter wasn’t good at math since she was a child, but she didn’t learn from her father who taught math. Instead she liked to go to Bai Chuan next door to learn math. The reason she did that was because if she didn’t understand, Bai Chuan won’t scold her for being stupid.
Therefore, Bai Chuan's problem-solving techniques only use the simplest formulas. Was it for his daughter?
The corner of Mu Ruozhou's mouth was drawn, and he didn’t know whether it was time to scold his daughter for being stupid, or to scold her for using Bai Chuan like using a fucking knife to kill chickens.
(TN: In Asia, usually you just break the chicken’s neck with your hands by twisting it, and don’t need tools.)
Because of this, Mu Ruozhou glared at his daughter several times during dinner, causing Mu Xiaoya to feel inexplicable and didn’t know what she did wrong.
After dinner, Mu Xiaoya chatted with her parents for a while before taking Bai Chuan back to the Bai family’s villa. Refusing Li Rong’s good intentions to find a servant to help her unpack, Mu Xiaoya dragged her luggage and directly went to Bai Chuan’s closet.
Bai Chuan's closet was large, but there weren’t many clothes nor styles. At first, Mu Xiaoya wondered why Bai Chuan’s mom didn’t buy more clothes for Bai Chuan, but on second thought, Bai Chuan’s personality probably caused him not to wear them. And if there were too many things in his room, Bai Chuan wouldn’t be happy.
"This half is my closet." Mu Xiaoya dragged the suitcase in front of the closet.
"All for you." Bai Chuan said generously.
Mu Xiaoya laughed: "No, your closet is too big. I don't have that many clothes."
Bai Chuan blinked and didn’t speak. He stood by and watched Mu Xiaoya open her luggage and hang the clothes one by one in the wardrobe. When Mu Xiaoya finished hanging them, only then did he understand Mu Xiaoya’s words.
Xiaoya's clothes were really few, not as many as his.
"Don't stand there. Go and take a shower." Mu Xiaoya said and took a pajama from the closet and threw it to Bai Chuan, "You go wash first, I will go wash after you."
Bai Chuan looked down at the clothes in his hands, then obediently turned and left. Soon, Mu Xiaoya heard the sound of water coming from the bathroom.
Mu Xiaoya didn't bring many clothes this time, just summer clothes. Her other seasonal clothes were left at home. She wasn’t in a hurry to move in. Anyway, she will go home often to visit her parents and take things away slowly.
After she finished unpacking her clothes, Mu Xiaoya went back to the bedroom, placed the computer and some drawing tools she had brought with her on the only desk in the room, then began to tinker with her skin care products. To be honest, the skin care products she was using now were significantly less effective than the ones she used four years later, but the price was much lower. Fortunately, she had just graduated from college and Milk Muscle wasn’t popular on the computer yet and didn’t cause her to produce excess oil, so she didn’t need to spend a lot of money to buy skin care products.
Isn’t she a woman? Beauty should be treated as number one and one should always be willing to treat herself.
"Well, I have to work hard to make money ah."
While sighing, the bathroom door suddenly opened. It was Bai Chuan in his pajamas who just finished his bath and walked out.
"I'm done washing." Bai Chuan said and looked at Mu Xiaoya.
"Then I'm going to wash." Mu Xiaoya went to the bathroom holding the skin care products in her arms, and suddenly remembered something before entering the door. She turned back and said to Bai Chuan, "If I place something inappropriately, you tell me, and I’ll fix it. "
During the day, Professor Feng said that some autistic patients have obsessive-compulsive disorder in the placement of objects in their space. She took over a large amount of space for herself and didn’t know if Bai Chuan would be uncomfortable.
"No." Bai Chuan shook his head.
"What?"
"Your things aren’t inappropriate." As long as it belongs to Mu Xiaoya, he thinks it is appropriate to put it anywhere.
It seems that the obsessive-compulsive disorder in Bai Chuan wasn’t very serious. It was unnecessary to move her things, Mu Xiaoya was so happy that she went into the bathroom with a smile.
The sound of water flowing in the bathroom was heard. There were many things that didn’t belong to him in the room. Bai Chuan wasn’t comfortable, but this discomfort was masked by the satisfaction from his heart. Bai Chuan went to his desk and moved the lamp back to its original place by one centimeter, but he didn’t move Mu Xiaoya’s things besides it.
After looking around the room again, he found that nothing else was moved. Bai Chuan breathed a little sigh of relief, opened the door, left the bedroom and walked to the third floor.
The Bai family’s villa has three floors, the first floor was the living room, dining room and kitchen. The second and third floors were the bedrooms and guest rooms. But because of Bai Chuan’s particularity, everyone in Bai Chuan’s family left the entire second floor to Bai Chuan in order to give him a comfortable space. The other three people of Bai Chuan’s family lived in the bedrooms on the third floor, but Bai Chuan almost never went up there.
In the room on the far right of the third floor, when Bai Zheng had just taken a bath and went to pour himself a cup of cold water, he was just about to read a book before going to bed when the door was suddenly knocked upon.
Who was looking for him at this point?
Bai Zheng frowned, there were knocks on the door but no voice. It couldn’t be the parents or the servants, was it… Mu Xiaoya?
This conjecture made Bai Zheng's expression a bit subtle, but he still walked over and opened the door.
"Xiao Chuan?!" Bai Zheng stared blankly at Bai Chuan who appeared at the door.
"I'm looking for you," Bai Chuan said expressionlessly.
"Ah? Oh, come in and say." Bai Zheng quickly got out of the way so that Bai Chuan could enter.
Bai Chuan went in according to his words and stood still in the middle of the bedroom.
"That... you sit down and say, if you want something to eat, I'll let Uncle Li bring it over." His younger brother visited his room for the first time, and Bai Zheng was in a hurry and didn’t know how to greet him.
"No need, I'll leave after speaking." Bai Chuan shook his head.
"Uh, what do you want to talk about?" Bai Zheng curiously asked, what was the matter that made Bai Chuan come to him tonight.
"I want a salary."
"?!" Bai Zheng was blindsided. What did his brother just say just now, "What did you say?"
"I want a salary." Bai Chuan repeated, and this time his voice was obviously louder than before.
"..." Bai Zheng confirmed that he didn’t hear wrong just now. His brother was really asking him for a salary. "Why?"
"Everyone in the company has a salary. The salary is paid monthly. I worked for three years, six months and seven days ..." Bai Chuan began counting his employment at the company.
"Wait a minute ..." Bai Zheng held his forehead, who wanted to calculate salary with you, "I asked you why you suddenly want a salary, before you didn’t want it."
"Xiaoya has no money." Bai Chuan straightforwardly said. Yes, Xiaoya has no money, and she has to borrow money from others to buy gifts.
"..." After hearing this answer, Bai Zheng really didn't know what to say. Mu Xiaoya has no money, so Bai Chuan came to him for a salary. Was it wrong? Yes, of course. Mu Xiaoya, a college student who just graduated, had no money. It was reasonable. Instead, their Bai family didn't think enough, and they didn't expect to give them some living expenses. He even forced his younger brother to come to his room in the middle of the night to ask for a salary.
"I'll let the accountant settle your salary tomorrow." Bai Zheng deeply felt he made a mistake.
Bai Chuan nodded and reminded him, "Three years, six months, and seven days."
"Don’t worry, you won’t lose a dime." Bai Zheng had black lines on his face, how could he also reduce his brother's salary.
Bai Chuan was immediately satisfied, turned, opened the door, and left. The action was done in one movement without saying goodbye to his "boss".
"..." Bai Zheng.
When Bai Chuan returned to the room, Mu Xiaoya had come out of the bathroom and was sitting on the bed wiping her hair with a towel.
Bai Chuan looked around, walked to the bathroom to get the hair dryer before walking to Mu Xiaoya.
"You're back?" Mu Xiaoya smiled at Bai Chuan. She just came out and didn’t see Bai Chuan and was surprised.
"En, I’ll help you blow dry your hair." Partners help each other. Yesterday Xiaoya helped him dry his hair. Today, he also wants to help Xiaoya dry hers.
"You’ll help me blow dry?" Mu Xiaoya raised her eyebrows. "My hair is very long and thick, and it will take a long time to blow dry."
"I will blow dry." Bai Chuan insisted.
After blow drying for a while, Bai Chuan found that Mu Xiaoya was right, her hair was really hard to dry. Mu Xiaoya's hair is about 29 times the length of his hair, which draped from her scalp in layers. It was difficult for the hot air to enter. He needed to lift her hair with his fingers, then slowly blow dry until it was dry. It took about six to seven times longer than when he usually blows dry his hair.
But Bai Chuan didn't find it troublesome. He liked the feeling of Mu Xiaoya's long hair running across his fingertips.
"What are you doing?" Mu Xiaoya turned her face strangely, her hair was dry, why did Bai Chuan still hold her hair?
"Before..." Bai Chuan smiled. "You took your hair and pricked it on my face."
With that, Bai Chuan held up the long hair and stuck it to his cheek.
Itchy, not like that time, but very comfortable. Thinking about it, Bai Chuan's smile deepened unconsciously, and two dimples suddenly appeared, greeting Mu Xiaoya happily.
"Ba-dump!"
Mu Xiaoya heard her heart beating.
==
Little theater:
Mu Xiaoya with braids: Brother Bai Chuan, why do you ignore me.
Bai Chuan continued to read without looking up.
Mu Xiaoya grumbled angrily, then used her two black and thick braids to slap Bai Chuan's face one by one.
Bai Chuan felt itchy and finally raised his head.
Mu Xiaoya waved a braid and proudly said: Ignore me, I'll prick you.