Chapter 331: Missy: I Only Feel Sorry for My Brother! Hailey: Alicia, You're So Beautiful!
Faced with the stubborn, repeating Sheldon, Howard was speechless.
He hadn't yet evolved into the fully-fledged Howard who could counter Sheldon in everything except academic ridicule.
"So,"
Leonard patted Howard's shoulder, looking at Sheldon with a confident smile, "Are you sure you want to refuse Chuck for an even worse offer?"
"..."
The previously repeating Sheldon immediately froze, looking warily at Leonard: "What do you mean?"
Hmm.
Was he trying to use the Devil himself to pressure me?
Or was he trying to tattle on me to the Devil?
If so...
Sheldon struggled to control his tongue, not instantly switching from one extreme to the other.
That's right!
Even facing the Devil Chuck, he had his own principles!
"What I mean is, if that's the case, then I'll have Chuck make another offer."
Leonard had already seen through Sheldon's bluster towards Chuck and smiled, "For example, 97% to him, and 3% to the three of us jointly, what do you think?"
"Don't joke around..."
Howard muttered, then saw Sheldon, who had seemed very assertive and indeed quite assertive towards them, actually hesitating and considering agreeing. He exclaimed speechlessly, "No way? You're not really considering it? I don't agree!"
It was perfectly fair and reasonable for them to get 30% combined, but now he's backing down and asking for worse terms. What kind of stupid logic is that?!
"This is my idea, I'm in charge!"
Faced with the damned pressure from Chuck, Sheldon felt powerless and almost resigned himself to his fate. But that didn't mean the intellectually challenged Howard could question his choice. So he raised his chin again and looked at Howard.
"Give me a reasonable reason?!"
Howard's forehead was practically radiating anger.
"I'll give you a reasonable reason, do you understand?"
Sheldon said dismissively.
"Alright, stop arguing."
As the linchpin of the trio, Leonard naturally couldn't let the situation escalate further, so he had to step in to smooth things over. However, seeing Sheldon's complete disregard for Howard, he thought for a moment and advised Howard,
"I didn't make this suggestion without a reason... I'll have Chuck increase his investment. That way, even if our overall percentage decreases by 27%, the value will increase, right?"
"I'd rather have more shares,"
Howard muttered, then readily agreed.
Sheldon didn't dare to contradict the Devil Chuck, but did he dare?
Don't be ridiculous!
Fortunately, he and Sheldon had a mutual friend, Leonard, who was considerate and always stopped him at crucial moments or gave him an explanation, saving him face and allowing him to escape unscathed.
Since things had come to this, he could just mutter a few words and it would be over. What more could he ask for?
"Sheldon, what do you say?"
Leonard was already quite experienced at managing to restrain Howard, who always cooperated exceptionally smoothly with his pulling and persuasion.
Once he had calmed Howard down, he turned to Sheldon. Sheldon's expression shifted, wanting to speak but hesitant, wanting to admit defeat but unwilling to, utterly conflicted.
Even facing the devil Chuck, didn't he have any pride?!
At least some!
Even if it meant secretly spending money!
"Sheldon?"
Leonard looked at Sheldon with a touch of pity, seeing him about to twitch his lips and experience eyelid spasms again, and chose to back down.
"Why don't you call your parents first and tell them to fly over right away? Anyway, whether you choose Chuck or the school, they'll be the ones signing the contract for you!"
"Right!"
Sheldon finally breathed a sigh of relief and said proudly, "Although I don't think I need my parents to make the decision, that's what the law says, and I can only follow it!"
"Hurry up and call."
Leonard laughed, "While your principal hasn't reacted yet, have the school buy them their plane tickets. Why not take advantage of this? Oh, and remember to buy round-trip tickets!"
"Is that okay?"
Howard asked in surprise.
"What's wrong with that!"
Leonard reminded him, "Not to mention the glory and publicity Sheldon's choice of Princeton brought them, just look at how much in donations he secured for the university by attending the banquet with the president. Even if Sheldon doesn't choose them in the end, can't they afford the plane ticket?"
He added enviously, "If I could get that much in donations for my university when I go there, I'd make sure everyone knows how capable I am!"
"Don't even think about it!"
Sheldon immediately accepted Leonard's praise, then gave him a sarcastic laugh before picking up the phone to call home.
"Hello?"
Missy's voice came from the other end.
"It's me!"
Howard snatched the phone from Sheldon, grinning as he spoke to Missy on the other end, "Howard Wolowitz, beautiful Missy, how have you been lately?"
"It's you again!"
Missy said irritably.
"Yes, it's me again!"
Howard chuckled smugly, but before he could finish, Leonard interrupted, "Me too, Missy! I have great news... You can fly to New Jersey with us! You've been wanting to come and visit for ages!"
"Really? That's amazing!!!"
Missy's excited voice came from the other end of the phone.
"Yeah!"
Leonard's smile stretched almost to his ears; he nearly jumped for joy.
Howard, on the other hand, cheered wildly and gave Leonard a thumbs-up. He'd only been thinking about money and shares, completely forgetting about Missy.
So, who's really the smooth operator here?!
That's right!
Ever since seeing a picture of Sheldon's twin sister, Missy, Leonard and Howard's tolerance for Sheldon increased dramatically.
He's their potential brother-in-law, after all!
As long as they can tolerate it, they have to.
"I disagree!"
Seeing their excited expressions, Sheldon, his brow furrowed like an old man scrolling through Facebook, grabbed the phone and uttered his classic line.
"Why?"
Howard immediately glared at Sheldon.
Missy was so cute and pretty, why was her twin brother so annoying and ugly!
"Because it's my idea, I decide!"
Sheldon dismissed Howard with a single sentence, then ignored Missy's pleas on the other end of the line and said directly, "Let Mom answer the phone!"
"Sheldon, you've always known I'm proud to have a brother like you. You used to tease me, saying I'd be a waitress or flight attendant, but as your sister, I've never even been on a big plane. Is that appropriate?"
Missy ignored his request to call their mother and continued to argue with him.
"Perfect!"
Sheldon bluntly stated, "It's precisely because I never flew on a large airplane as a child that I have fantasies about flight attendants, a service job with no technical requirements. Otherwise, if you had even a tenth of my brain, you wouldn't think being a flight attendant is a good job."
"How can you say that about Missy? She's your sister!"
"You're going too far! What's wrong with being a flight attendant? Only those who are pretty enough can become flight attendants. Someone like Missy, if she grew up and became a flight attendant, would definitely be a top flight attendant, much better than you! Because you'll never be the first person in the scientific community!"
Missy's pitiful pleading and Sheldon's ruthless words immediately enraged the two admirers, Howard and Leonard, who immediately lashed out at Sheldon.
Leonard, in particular, habitually seized upon Sheldon's Achilles' heel, relentlessly attacking him!
"Stop yelling at him!"
Missy said pitifully on the other end of the phone, "You're his only friends. I don't want him to lose you because of me, even though I'm disappointed and upset... But he's still my best brother, and I only care about him!"
"Look, look! You have such a good sister and you don't cherish her at all, you even deliberately make her sad, you're heartless!"
"Missy, don't worry, if he doesn't agree to you coming this time, we'll never talk to him again. Of course, this won't affect our relationship with you at all."
"..."
Sheldon was momentarily stunned by the three of them, who were using both soft and hard tactics.
But seeing his two friends getting more and more excited, their faces red and necks thick, and even Leonard taking out his asthma inhaler and breathing heavily—completely different from his past mocking demeanor—his super genius brain and his flexible survival instincts instantly made an instinctive choice.
"Okay, I'll have the principal help you buy the plane tickets, you can come along."
"Yeah!"
Missy exclaimed happily on the other end of the phone, "I'll go get Mom and Dad right now!"
A moment later, Sheldon's parents came through the phone. After hearing the whole story, the typical Texas parents looked at each other, bewildered: "Is this worth that much?"
"At least the plane ticket!"
Missy laughed from the side, "You don't trust Sheldon, but don't you trust Chuck's judgment? At worst, we can go for a free trip!"
"That's right!"
Sheldon's father immediately perked up.
"Should we hire a lawyer?"
Sheldon's mother asked the crucial question: "We don't really know much about these things."
"Right, right!"
Sheldon's father immediately thought of the headache of those documents, and then realized another troublesome problem: "Sheldon, you're in charge of the family taxes, can we afford a lawyer?"
"No!"
Sheldon replied honestly.
"We can ask Meemaw to sponsor some,"
Missy immediately suggested. "She has the money to hire a lawyer for us; we just need the school to buy her a plane ticket."
"Is that appropriate?"
Sheldon's mother hesitated. "Your meemaw still has her shop to run."
"Georgie can look after the shop,"
Missy laughed. "As for Meemaw, I'm sure she'd be willing!"
"That's true, Shelly has always been her most beloved grandson!"
Sheldon's mother nodded.
"It's not because of Sheldon,"
Missy said, dissatisfied with the fact but not arguing, "it's because it's New Jersey, and there's Atlantic City!"
"..."
Sheldon's mother was speechless, staring wide-eyed at her daughter who had brought up such a sensitive topic.
Atlantic City, along with Las Vegas, is one of the two major gambling cities in the East and West.
And Sheldon's meemaw was a typical gambling addict.
If you put loving Sheldon and going to the gambling city together, everyone knew what Sheldon's meemaw would choose.
"Is Meemaw very rich now?"
Sheldon's eyes lit up immediately on the other end of the phone.
"Anyway, she rented the record store next to the laundromat, and she's been having a falling out with the pastor and the others lately,"
Missy shrugged. "Looks like business is good."
"I want to talk to Meemaw!"
Sheldon said.
"Shelly, you want your meemaw to invest in you?"
Sheldon's mother immediately understood.
"Come on,"
Sheldon's father, who never got along with his mother-in-law, scoffed. "How could her little business invest in you? If it were really that good, she wouldn't have made me drive to New Mexico to pick her up last time."
"Isn't it because we're poor, and Georgie wants to earn money for his future children?"
Sheldon said bluntly.
"..."
Sheldon's father was speechless.
Ultimately, he was the breadwinner of the family, and the responsibility for their poverty naturally fell mostly on him.
"I want to talk to Meemaw!"
Sheldon emphasized again when the other end of the phone went silent.
He suddenly realized that, in this matter of not daring to resist but unwilling to submit to the devil Chuck, besides agreeing to the principal's even more demanding conditions, he had a better option.
Hmm.
If his meemaw was willing to invest in him as a personal investor, then he had nothing to fear. She was his own grandmother, and even if the devil Chuck knew, he probably wouldn't say anything to him.
At the villa halfway up the mountain,
Chuck drove Professor Alicia Harper over. Hailey was already standing there smiling, watching.
"Alicia, hello, I'm Hailey, Chuck's sister,"
Hailey introduced herself.
"Hello, Hailey,"
Professor Alicia Harper was pleased by Hailey's enthusiasm.
"You know, I've seen your picture before,"
Hailey laughed, "last year when I was still in Texas!"
"Hmm?"
Professor Alicia Harper mentally calculated the time and couldn't help but glance at Chuck.
They hadn't even met then.
"Hehe, you hadn't met Chuck yet back then,"
Hailey said, revealing her suspicion. "When Chuck said he wanted to take physics, we were all very curious. But I immediately realized that his real purpose might not be the subject itself, but rather the professor. Then I found your picture online, and the moment we saw you, we all instantly understood why Chuck did it."
Professor Alicia Harper couldn't help but smile.
"Then I just asked Chuck directly. Do you know what he said?"
Hailey hugged Professor Alicia Harper's arm.
"What did he say?"
Professor Alicia Harper was no longer bothered by the closeness of such a beautiful and adorable younger sister.
"I like her eyes!"
Hailey mimicked Chuck's tone, almost pressing her face against Professor Alicia Harper's, gazing into her sultry eyes: "Forget about him, I love them too, they're so beautiful!"
(End of Chapter)
[Power Stone Goal: 500 = +1 Chapter]
[Review Goal: 10 = +1 Chapter]
If you liked it, feel free to leave a review.
20+chapters ahead on P1treon Soulforger