All I Want Is to Hold the Heroine in My Arms [Transmigration into a Book] - Chapter 12
The next morning, just as expected, Wan Shuang didn’t show up at the flower shop.
As soon as Shi Yi opened the shop door, a thin young man appeared beside her and introduced himself politely.
“So you’re saying… Wan Shuang hired you?”
“Yes, didn’t Miss Wan tell you?” The man scratched his head awkwardly, clearly feeling a little uncomfortable.
Shi Yi gently set the flowers down, tapped on Wan Shuang’s profile on her phone, and said to the man apologetically, “Please wait a moment. Let me ask her.”
She began typing quickly on her phone screen.
Ten minutes later, several messages arrived.
Shi Yi-jie, Xiao Huang got the highest score in my 81-question test. So don’t worry about his professional skills.
Also, I’m the one paying his salary, so you can’t fire him, okay?
Ugh… it’s the first morning I haven’t seen you, and I miss you already.
The third message was automatically filtered by Shi Yi’s phone.
“What’s this ’81-question test’?” Shi Yi pointed at the phone and asked the man, who introduced himself as Xiao Huang.
“It’s the test Miss Wan gave during the recruitment process,” he replied.
Shi Yi became curious. “What kind of questions were on it?”
“Um…” Xiao Huang thought for a moment. “Most of the questions were about flowers. I don’t remember anything else.”
“Oh, right. The last question was, ‘Do you like men or women?’” Xiao Huang slapped his forehead and chuckled awkwardly. “Among the three male applicants, I was the only one who scored on that question.”
That question was difficult?
“I answered that I like men,” Xiao Huang added shyly when he noticed the puzzled look on Shi Yi’s face.
That explains it. Now Shi Yi finally understood why Wan Shuang had hired Xiao Huang.
Elsewhere, Wan Shuang set down her phone and turned her attention back to the computer screen in front of her.
Fluctuating red and green lines filled the display.
“Jing Yijie, do you really think you can threaten my Shi Yi?” Wan Shuang muttered with a soft laugh as she looked over the Shi family’s stock information.
For nearly a month, Jing Yijie had been using the excuse of a business collaboration with the Shi family to constantly appear around Shi Yi.
Each time, Wan Shuang had found a way to block him, preventing their interactions from developing like they did in the novel.
But now the new school semester was about to start.
Once school began, Wan Shuang wouldn’t be able to stay at the flower shop every day, always guarding Shi Yi and cutting off every romantic approach.
Out of all the people surrounding Shi Yi, Jing Yijie worried Wan Shuang the most. He stood at the very top of that group.
As the male lead, if she wasn’t there to interfere, there was no doubt he would eventually take Shi Yi away from her.
Wan Shuang rubbed her forehead, troubled. “Why am I fighting the male lead for a woman?” Then she grumbled, “It’s all her fault for being too beautiful.”
Her second concern was Jian Xizhuo.
He wasn’t as threatening, and honestly, didn’t give her the same sense of crisis.
After all, Jian Xizhuo was the second male lead. He didn’t end up with Shi Yi in the novel. Not then, and certainly not now.
In her heart, Wan Shuang gave him a mental hug. “I originally came here to help you, but I didn’t expect this to happen…”
Other than Jing Yijie and Jian Xizhuo, the rest of the potential suitors were so unremarkable that Wan Shuang didn’t bother to worry about them.
So in the days before school started, Wan Shuang made a firm decision. She left the flower shop behind and focused all her energy on preparing for the battle against Jing Yijie.
The first step in that battle was finding a company strong enough to compete with Jing Yijie’s. She needed a rival company that could contend for the Shi family’s partnership.
That way, Jing Yijie would lose his excuse to constantly meet with Shi Yi.
And Wan Shuang’s gaze fell on Wan Cheng.
In M City, aside from the Jing and Shi families, the only other powerful force was the Wan family.
However, Wan Cheng and Jing Yijie were still close friends at this point. They weren’t enemies yet, unlike in the later chapters of the novel.
Convincing Wan Cheng to interfere in the business deal between Jing Yijie and Shi Xiangnan would be difficult.
Unless…
That evening, a deep and magnetic voice echoed through the quiet living room.
“Alright, tell me. What is it this time?”
Wan Cheng had just gotten home when he was dragged to the sofa by Wan Shuang, who eagerly began massaging his shoulders.
Ten minutes passed, and just as her hands began to ache, Wan Cheng finally spoke.
Still massaging, Wan Shuang said cautiously, “Brother, I need to tell you something.”
“Hmm?”
“I’ve fallen for someone.”
The moment he heard those words, the relaxed look on Wan Cheng’s face disappeared. He opened his eyes sharply, turned to look at her, and furrowed his brows with a piercing gaze.
He looked just like a farmer discovering a worm on the cabbage he had carefully raised.
Seeing his expression change so quickly, Wan Shuang felt a twinge of fear, but she didn’t show it. Instead, she smiled sweetly, walked around the sofa, and sat down beside him.
Clinging to his arm, she said playfully, “Brother, I’m already twenty. Isn’t it normal to like someone?”
Wan Cheng didn’t care who it was. He just wanted to catch the ‘worm’ that dared touch his sister and beat him up.
His tone remained serious. “What’s his name?”
“Shi Yi.” As she spoke, a soft glow of admiration and affection lit up her clear eyes.
“Shi Yi?”
The name sounded familiar.
“Yes. She’s, my boss.”
Her boss? The one from the flower shop?
“If I’m not mistaken… she’s a woman” He suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Wan Cheng lit a cigarette.
He had never smoked in front of Wan Shuang before.
Even after lighting it, he simply held it between his fingers and never brought it to his lips.
His body leaned back slowly, head resting gently on the sofa. The sharp lines of his jaw were defined and attractive, his thin lips pressed tightly together.
The man who had always been the warm and smiling older brother in front of Wan Shuang now wore a face filled with sorrow. He tried to hide it, but the emotion still seeped through.
Why did his sister fall for a woman?
Wan Cheng didn’t understand.
He remembered how, growing up, Wan Shuang had always followed behind Jing Yijie, constantly chattering about how she wanted to marry him.
Wan Cheng had always believed she liked Jing Yijie.
Until a few days ago, when Wan Shuang suddenly told him she no longer liked Jing Yijie.
At the time, Wan Cheng thought she had finally grown up and learned how to move on. That realization had made him genuinely happy.
Why did Wan Shuang not liking Jing Yijie make him so relieved? Because deep down, Wan Cheng never wanted his sister to be involved with someone like that.
After being friends with Jing Yijie for so many years, Wan Cheng knew exactly what kind of person he was.
Outwardly, Jing Yijie appeared charming, flirtatious, and popular. But inside, he looked down on the very women who threw themselves at him.
To him, women were just toys.
He switched girlfriends every three days, bed partners every four. Wan Cheng had seen it all.
Of course, aside from constantly rotating the women around him, Jing Yijie didn’t have any other particularly disgusting habits.
But treating women like clothes you change daily—that was who he truly was.
If Wan Shuang had kept liking Jing Yijie, with her all-or-nothing personality and inability to tolerate betrayal, life with him would’ve been nothing but misery.
“What are you thinking about, Brother?” Wan Shuang asked, looking at him lying there with his eyes closed, pretending to sleep.
They had been talking about her liking Shi Yi. Why had he suddenly gone silent?
Before Wan Cheng got home, Wan Shuang had already imagined all the worst-case reactions he might have.
She thought he would be angry, shocked, even furious. She expected him to yell at her, forbid her from seeing Shi Yi, or lecture her about her choices.
She had never expected this silence.
The calmness unsettled her more than any outburst would have.
The truth was, Wan Shuang wasn’t completely ready to face everything that could come with revealing her feelings.
But unless she told Wan Cheng she liked Shi Yi, she couldn’t convince him to help her pursue a business partnership with the Shi family.
After three days of thinking, this was the only plan she could come up with.
One was his drinking buddy. The other was the little sister he adored.
If both of them liked the same person, there was no way Wan Cheng wouldn’t take her side.
Of course, all of this depended on whether he could accept that she liked a woman.
“Brother, you don’t think it’s weird that I like a girl, do you?”
“I know this might be hard for you to accept,” Wan Shuang paused, then added, “Honestly, I did think about hiding my orientation from you…”
“Why would you hide it from me?” Wan Cheng suddenly opened his eyes and interrupted her.
His eyes were cold and sharp, making Wan Shuang instinctively tense up. Nervously, she said, “I… I was afraid you wouldn’t accept it.”
“Then why are you telling me now?”
“Because someone is trying to steal your sister-in-law from me.”
That got Wan Cheng’s attention. He no longer cared whether his sister’s crush was male or female.
A dark gleam flashed through his deep eyes. His voice turned low and cold. “Who dares try to take something from my sister?”
Hearing that, Wan Shuang smiled sweetly like she had just succeeded. “Jing Yijie.”
After tattling, she added, “Also, Brother, Shi Yi isn’t a thing. She’s your sister-in-law.”
As soon as she finished, she realized something about that sentence felt a little off.
“So, the woman Jing Yijie has been chasing lately… is Shi Yi?” Wan Cheng raised an eyebrow, recalling how Jing Yijie had recently mentioned a woman who had caught his interest over drinks.
“Maybe. Who knows how many people he’s chasing at once?” Even now, Wan Shuang couldn’t help but label Jing Yijie a total scumbag.
Noticing the annoyance in her voice, Wan Cheng finally asked something he hadn’t yet. “Didn’t you used to like Jing Yijie when you were younger?”