Chapter 435 - 431: You Can Do It Like That?

Cecilia Sterling stopped in her tracks. Wyatt Sherman watched her, making no attempt to hide his interest. His goal was clear, and he didn’t bother making any excuses to conceal his intention of getting to know her.

After a moment, Cecilia Sterling smiled and nodded.

Wyatt Sherman’s eyes lit up. He quickly took out his phone. After they added each other on WhatsApp, he introduced himself, "Wyatt Sherman."

"Cecilia Sterling."

"Does that mean ’compassionate’?"

"It does."

"That’s really special."

"Thank you. There are still a lot of new students who need your help. You should get back to it. Goodbye."

After stepping out of the elevator, Cecilia walked away. Wyatt Sherman watched her back, then looked down at the friend request acceptance on his phone and smiled.

After dropping off her brother, Cecilia had to drive back to her own school. It was also move-in day for new students, and the scene at Lorcain Tech was just as bustling as the one at Lorcain U.

Cecilia was heading toward her dorm building, pulling her small suitcase, when she unexpectedly ran into Charles Jennings.

This surprised her.

Ever since Estelle Goodman and Charles had that talk, he hadn’t come over to their dorm.

’Did they get back together over the summer?’

Cecilia thought that was unlikely, because Estelle had been hitting it off with her go-karting coach recently.

"Cecilia Sterling!"

When Charles Jennings saw Cecilia, he greeted her with his usual composure.

Cecilia had always had a very good impression of him, so she smiled and replied, "Long time no see. Are you here to see Estelle?"

Hearing her question, Charles’s expression visibly dimmed. He shook his head. "No, I just helped a first-year move into her dorm."

"Oh..."

Cecilia felt a little awkward and was about to say goodbye, but Charles couldn’t help but ask, "How has she been lately?"

"She’s doing great," Cecilia answered truthfully. "She’s been learning to go-kart recently. She’s pretty addicted to it and goes every day."

"Go-karting?" Charles frowned, remembering the time Estelle hit her head and got a huge bump while learning to drive. "She dares to drive one of those?"

Cecilia smiled and nodded. "She was like a fish out of water at first, but she’s making progress. It’s just a hobby. Her sense of direction has always been terrible, so maybe this will help improve it. She might even be able to get her driver’s license in the future."

Charles thought what Cecilia said made sense and couldn’t help but nod along. "That’s true. It’s rare for her to have a hobby besides binge-watching shows. That’s good."

Just as they were talking, Charles’s phone buzzed. He instinctively picked it up to look, and his expression sank.

"What’s wrong?" Cecilia asked instinctively when she saw his face.

Charles looked at Cecilia. Perhaps because of his connection to Estelle, he considered Cecilia a friend, too. He hesitated for a moment before handing her his phone.

Jennings, thank you for your help just now. You’re so handsome. Can I ask you out sometime?

It was followed by a cute, shy emoji.

Girls these days are so direct. Cecilia couldn’t help but smile after reading the message. "Is this from the first-year you just helped?"

Charles nodded, his face blank. "How do I turn her down?" he asked tentatively.

"You’re going to reject her without even thinking about it?"

"You know me," Charles said helplessly.

Cecilia felt even more helpless, but seeing his pitiful expression, she could tell he had zero experience with this sort of thing. She decided to help him out.

"I’ll teach you a trick. You can use it anytime you run into this situation in the future. It’s absolutely foolproof."

With that, Cecilia quickly typed out a reply for Charles.

You’re welcome, sweetie pie! You’re a cutie patootie too! UwU

Three seconds later, the other person replied, "..."

Just looking at the ellipsis, you could feel the other person’s deafening silence.

"All taken care of." Seeing the result, Cecilia handed the phone back to Charles with a satisfied look.

Charles took it and looked, completely baffled. "This is enough? What does this even mean, Cecilia?"

"You don’t get it?"

Charles shook his head, a look of pure confusion on his face.

"Read the message I sent out loud."

Charles hesitated, but he complied, reading it out in a deadpan, perfectly enunciated voice: "You’re welcome, sweetie pie! You’re a cutie... patootie? Ooh... woo?"

"PFFT..." Cecilia couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing at his endearingly awkward expression and tone. "That’s so you. Even such cutesy words sound completely clueless coming out of your mouth."

Charles didn’t care about that. He asked persistently, "So this will work?"

"Mhm. Don’t worry, she won’t have any interest in you anymore."

Seeing how confident Cecilia was, Charles believed her, though he was still puzzled.

’This actually works?’

Cecilia didn’t explain any further. For someone like Charles, his current state was actually quite good. He was clueless, or even completely ignorant, about anything outside of the people and things that interested him. People like that were pure and simple, with a kind of earnest obtuseness.

In an era where information spreads at lightning speed and is force-fed to you from all directions, someone like Charles—a virtual caveman—was incredibly rare.

Estelle was the other extreme.

That’s why their personalities were truly, incredibly complementary.

Still lamenting this pair of star-crossed lovers, Cecilia arrived back at her dorm. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see that Estelle and Blair were both already there.

"I was just about to message you. I thought you weren’t coming this morning."

Estelle Goodman stood up and came over. "It’s almost ten. What took you so long?"

"I was at Lorcain U, dropping off my little brother."

"You dropped him off? I thought Miss Sterling would do it."

Cecilia sighed helplessly as she started unpacking her suitcase. "My mom’s become a total career woman. Ever since my brother finished his college entrance exams, she’s been leaving early and coming home late every day. Her housekeeping company is really starting to look like a proper business now."

Estelle Goodman could relate. "My mom doesn’t even use our community’s cleaning service anymore. She only uses Miss Sterling’s employees. She books them twice a week. They polish the marble floors in our house until they shine."

Hearing this, Cecilia smiled. "Please thank Mrs. Duncan for me."

"Cecilia," Blair said, walking over and lowering her voice. "There’s something I need to tell you."

Cecilia looked at her curiously. Seeing the smile on Blair’s face, she knew it was good news. "Go on."

"The streaming revenue from the ’Top 100 New Streamers’ event came in. I can buy my master’s courtyard back."

"It came in?"

Blair had stood out from the competition and won first place in the "Top 100 New Streamers" event. According to the rules, her agency didn’t take a cut of her streaming revenue during the event period.

However, the platform still took its usual fifty percent cut, and she also had to pay personal income tax by law.

Even so, Blair’s earnings over the past few months were more than enough for her to achieve complete financial freedom.

Cecilia didn’t ask exactly how much she had earned, but as for buying back the courtyard, she had been waiting for this day for a long time.

"No problem. We’ll go do the paperwork this afternoon!"