The Bidding

Once they dropped Nanxi back to her own house, Lu Wenzhou drove Chuyi home. 

Lu Wenzhou hands her the crutches and Chuyi uses that as support, and walks inside the house. Good thing she only injured one arm or else she'll really need to be in wheelchairs for almost two weeks. 

The first thing Chuyi did was go to her brother's room. But before she could do that, Lu Wenzhou stops her. 

"What is it?" Chuyi questions him as if she didn't know why he's blocking her way. 

Lu Wenzhou looks at him and points to her feet. "Are you sure you can go up like that?" 

Chuyi looked down and saw the bandages around her left ankle. "I forgot," she says as she scratches her head. 

Lu Wenzhou shakes his head, and yells "Lin Chuyu." 

"Ge, where's my album?" Chuyi asks nicely with a smile. 

Who told Lin Chuyi to be his sister? Chuyu went to get the album that Chuyi asked for before he went on his business trip. 

Chuyi quickly takes the TF Boys ten years album from him. Her eyes are like stuck at it and forget that there's two men standing in front of her. 

"There's no thank you?" Chuyu asks as he saw how she got attracted to the album. 

"Thank you thank you," Chuyi said carelessly. 

Chuyu shakes his head, "how ungrateful," he said under his breath. 

Lu Wenzhou looks at him like he said something wrong. "It's not because you doted?"

What Lu Wenzhou said was right, Lin Chuyi is the youngest in the family, and so everyone gives her extra love and attention. But there's nothing wrong with that, according to their family and even Lu Wenzhou. 

Lin Chuyi went to sit on the couch, and opened the wrapper. Good thing it was those easy plastic wrapper, or else her only good left hand won't even be able to even open it. 

She quickly called Liu Sichun and told her about the album. 

Lu Wenzhou stood between the dining room and living room as he watched Chuyi talk about the different picture cards, and how handsome the members are.

"Are they really that handsome?" he mumbles to himself. 

After talking to Liu Sichun for almost two hours, they finally ended the call. Chuyi looks at her favorite member one more time before neatly putting it back. 

As she tries to get up and goes to her room, she notices that there's no one here. Lu Wenzhou left?

Even though Lin Chuyi likes to chase after stars, she also has a little secret of hers. As she leaps across the living room to the kitchen with her crutches, she finds her brother there. 

"Lu Wenzhou left?" she asks him. 

"There's a meeting he has to go to." Lin Chuyu responds and then looks at his sister. "Are you hungry?" 

Lin Chuyi nods. 

"Mom and dad should be back soon. Just wait for another two hours," he says and quickly runs back upstairs. 

She knew she shouldn't have high hopes that he'll cook her something to eat. If only she could run up and fight him. Chuyi walks over to the fridge and the counter. There's only ramen and crackers, but she doesn't feel like cooking. She took two packs of crackers and poured herself a glass of water. 

As she's eating, she just remembered that today is Tuesday, and tomorrow is New Year's Day. 

Lin Chuyi forgot that tomorrow's New Year's Day. It's not like New Year's Day is any special, but she has something important to do. She puts down the food, and hops upstairs to her room. She opens her laptop and opens the bidding website. 

"Phew," there's still 7 hours left before the bidding starts. 

Lin Chuyi looks at the bidding item, which is volume one of the manga series "One Piece." It's not like she can't get this elsewhere, but this volume was limited edition and has the artist's signature. 

Chuyi has decided to not leave her room until the bidding starts, or else she'll forget and miss the time. 

Two hours later, a knock came through her door. 

"Come in," she says. 

Lin Chuyu walks in with a tray of food. "Here you go Princess," he puts her dinner down at her desk and wonders what she's doing up here. 

"One Piece? You read that manga?" he asks and doesn't remember her ever reading One Piece before. 

Chuyi eats the food and doesn't answer him. 

After a few hours, a food coma starts hitting her. Maybe it's the food or maybe she was just tired from today. But she can't sleep. She checks her computer again, and there's only one hour left. 

She decided to go take a shower to wake herself up. As she takes off her clothes, she just realized a problem too. Her left ankle and right arm can't be wet. 'How wonderful,' she says to herself and at the end she just wiped herself clean instead. 

The bids start off at $100 and go up by $20. 

Chuyi just realized another thing, which is money. She has money, but is also at the verge of being broke. She quickly calls her brother. 

At this time, it's already close to 12 AM, and Chuyu was already sleeping. 

"Hello?" he says with a groan. 

Chuyi knew this wasn't the right time, but she needs this manga. 

"Sorry brother, but can I borrow your credit card? I'll pay you back once I get a job. I promised!" Chuyi says and ends with a nice polite tone. 

Chuyu's brown furrows, "you called me this late just to tell me you want my credit card?" 

Chuyi knows that she's disturbing his sleep, but she has no other choice. After talking and talking, Chuyu couldn't stand anymore. He came to her and threw her the card. "There's no next time," he said and then went back to sleep. 

Chuyi didn't dare to say a word, and looked down at the credit card. She evilly smiles and ties up her hair.

After twenty minutes of bidding, the price went up from $100 to almost $500. 

Most bidders have already given up, and now it's only Chuyi and this other bidder. Even though Chuyi doesn't want to pay this much for a manga, she also really needs this. 

At last, after numerous rounds of bidding, Chuyi finally got it. But after looking at the final price of getting this manga, Chuyi starts to feel bad for her brother's credit card. She takes a hard swallow and then clicks pay. 

Chuyu, who didn't know and was sleeping. And his phone suddenly buzzes with a credit card transaction message. 

The next morning, Chuyi changed into her new clothes and got downstairs. Her brother is already sitting there eating breakfast. 

Chuyi remembered what she did last night with his credit card and felt a little bad. It's not like she won't pay him back, but at the same time, she doesn't have that much to pay him back. 

"Good morning," she says cheerfully with a smile. 

Chuyu looks at her with his hand out. Chuyi instantly takes out his card, "thank you thank you!" she says sincerely. 

Their mom walks out from the kitchen and puts down a bowl of congee in front of her. "Don't eat anything that's spicy or strong flavor food. I'll make some pig feet soup later." 

Chuyi looks at her bowl of plain congee and then at Chuyu's plate of stirred fry noodles. 

"Don't think about it," he said and continued eating without looking at her.