QTIMP -Chapter 245 Character Persona – Vicious (Part 8)

In the end, after dinner, it was Wen Luo who came back and rode his bicycle to take Si Qiu home.

Wen Hongying of course disagreed, but Wen Luo insisted that it was unsafe for a girl to return so late. Using that as his reason, he forcefully took on the task. Because of this, he didn’t even stay to finish dinner with his mother—so he ended up not eating either.

But he didn’t feel hungry at all. He slowly rode his bicycle, heading toward the Si household under the last glow of the setting sun.

“Qiuqiu, I came all the way back just to see you. Aren’t you happy?”

“Not at all. Please address me as Comrade Si. There’s nothing between us.” Si Qiu said in a soft, coquettish tone.

Wen Luo felt a strange itch in his heart, and a laugh escaped him uncontrollably. He turned the bicycle and rode into a dead-end alley.

He stopped the bike, lifted Si Qiu down from the back seat, and leaned the bicycle against the wall. Si Qiu stood against the opposite wall. He placed one arm around her waist and pressed his other hand against the wall.

Their foreheads touched.

“Qiuqiu, don’t treat me like this, okay? When you say things like that, it feels like my heart hurts. It was my fault before—I asked for too much. I won’t do it again.”

Si Qiu pouted. This guy looked obedient when apologizing, but he was actually domineering underneath. Just like Wen Hongying said—older men were really pretentious.

Seeing no response from her, Wen Luo felt a little empty inside and started talking again just to fill the silence.

“Qiuqiu, did you not see the gift I brought you back? I didn’t just bring seafood this time—I also brought back a few very beautiful pearls and a bunch of coral.”

As he spoke, he lifted a small braid of her hair. “My Qiuqiu is so beautiful. You should eat well, wear nice things, and dress beautifully.”

Thinking about the pretty jewelry, Si Qiu’s eyes lit up slightly as she said coyly, “Wait until you mail them to me. Also, stop calling me ‘my Si Qiu.’ I am my own person. Do you think someone like you deserves to possess me?”

As she said this, she gave him a disdainful once-over.

Wen Luo felt his entire body go weak and numb. He didn’t know how to ease the feeling and instinctively leaned closer.

Then he was slapped.

He immediately snapped back to his senses and saw Si Qiu’s face filled with anger.

“Vile man, you think you can take liberties with me?”

Wen Luo’s voice turned hoarse. “Qiuqiu, it’s my fault. I didn’t know my place. You can hit me a few more times.”

He looked like he was willingly offering his neck to be struck. This didn’t look like someone who had been hurt—it looked like he was enjoying it.

Was Si Qiu the kind of person who would happily oblige? Of course not.

She shoved him hard, and Wen Luo staggered back half a step. Si Qiu stepped out of the space he had confined her in. Still not satisfied, she stepped hard on his foot.

“Put away your filthy, despicable thoughts. Even accepting your things is already a favor. How dare you be so greedy and covet me?”

The more she spoke, the angrier she became, stepping on his other foot several more times.

Yet Wen Luo did not resist at all—he let her vent her anger freely, because he felt she was right.

Wasn’t he exactly filthy and despicable in his thoughts?

But as long as Si Qiu was willing to pay attention to him, that was enough. As for being hit or scolded—wasn’t that just a reward?

Seeing that she had almost finished venting, he quickly lifted her back onto the bicycle seat.

“Qiuqiu, I also brought you a lot of dried fruit this time. I picked all your favorites. I even specially found families who are careful and clean when handling goods.”

“I guarantee everything is clean and safe for you to eat.”

At the mention of dried fruit, Si Qiu remembered the ones he had sent before—they really were delicious, completely different from fresh fruit. And she genuinely didn’t have those in her space.

Since he still had some usefulness for now, she would temporarily forgive him.

She would blacklist him when he became useless anyway—after all, she was exactly that kind of vicious person.

So she immediately said, “Alright then, but when you go back, mail me more of each kind. I quite like eating those things.”

As soon as Wen Luo heard that Si Qiu had taken the initiative to ask for things, he felt she must have feelings for him. He got so excited that his pedaling unconsciously became harder.

By the time he came back to his senses, he had already reached the alley near Si Qiu’s home. He immediately felt regretful—he had planned to ride slowly, so why had he sped up without realizing it?

Reluctantly, he took down the net bag hanging from the bicycle handle. “Qiuqiu, do you like pastries? I know a descendant of an imperial chef who specializes in palace-style pastries. He happens to be off tomorrow—how about I take you to try them?”

Si Qiu felt that he really did have some skills. But thinking that she also had some matters she wanted to inquire about from that person, she nodded and agreed.

After all, in her previous world she had also eaten imperial pastries.

But it seemed that modern ingredients and craftsmanship were always slightly inferior to those of later generations. Si Qiu lightly bit her lip.

“Alright. But I won’t get up too early in the morning. You go buy breakfast first, then wait for me at the open area on Qian Street. Once I’ve slept enough, I’ll naturally come find you.”

Wen Luo looked as if he had received an imperial decree, nodding excitedly. He was about to say something else, but Si Qiu had already turned around and walked gracefully back home.

By the time she disappeared from sight, he finally came back to his senses. Then he got on his bicycle and rode off quickly, even humming a tune on the way to his brother’s place.

He had to make arrangements in advance. In this era, some pastry ingredients were not easy to obtain and had to be ordered ahead of time, only to be picked up after they were made.

Every time someone came to drop Si Qiu off, he would insist they stop at the back alley of the residential building. Then he would take a detour and enter from the front alley instead.

The back alley was usually empty. Si Qiu put the items in her hands into her space, leaving only a small packet of dried fruit and a jar of canned goods in the net bag.

When she returned home, Father Si was sitting reading a newspaper. Mother Si and Si Xi were pasting matchbox covers, while Si Bei was folding scrap paper figurines.

Seeing her return, Mother Si’s expression turned unpleasant. “Why are you back so late? A grown girl still coming home this late—aren’t you afraid people will gossip?”

“If you don’t say anything, no one will. But if you really want to ruin my reputation so I can’t get married, then I can’t do anything about it.”

“What kind of tone is that? I’m your mother—can’t I even say you a little?” she snapped.

“Alright, say less,” Father Si scolded Li Guifang.

Then he put down his newspaper and deliberately softened his tone. “Old Third went to a classmate’s house?”

“Mm. These are some dried fruits and canned goods from the south that my classmate gave me.”

As Si Qiu spoke, she took out a jar of canned fruit and a handful of dried fruit from the net bag. She then gathered the rest and prepared to take it back to her room.

Si Bei grabbed a few pieces of dried fruit, said he was going to sleep, and went back to his room, closing the door firmly.

Seeing this, Mother Si frowned. “Give me the things. What are you keeping them for yourself?”

Si Qiu sidestepped and avoided her grab. “What do you mean, what am I doing? Of course I’m keeping my own things.

If I don’t keep them, are you going to mail everything to Si Dong again? Whenever there’s even a little snack at home, you send it all to him. You really don’t care about the other children at all.

I even wonder—are the rest of us really your biological children, or is Si Dong the one you had with someone else? Why is the favoritism so obvious?”