For a brief moment, he felt that the girl in front of him seemed a little unfamiliar, as if he had never truly known her.
He Xing’s gaze sent a shiver down Jiang Qu’s spine. She hastily composed herself and grabbed the man’s arm.
"That’s not what I mean, you know. I want to explore a bigger world with you."
"Are you so certain that I can accompany you to Beijing?"
From the very beginning, Jiang Qu had a vague trust and admiration for him, which greatly satisfied the man’s ego, and He Xing also believed he would succeed sooner or later.
But what gives Jiang Qu the confidence to trust him so?
From their first meeting, her eyes sparkled brightly, and that was the part of her that attracted him the most.
But now, that sparkle seemed to have turned into an obsession, making him feel pressured and uneasy, as if all his efforts were now just to satisfy Jiang Qu’s trust.
He hadn’t spent quality time at home with his grandma for a long time.
And as his grandma mentioned, Jiang Qu used to visit and chat with her, but now she hadn’t seen her in a long time.
"He Xing... you need to believe in yourself, you will definitely..."
"I will definitely what? Be successful in my career? What if I can’t succeed? What if I end up being just a farmer all my life? Will you still be with me?"
Jiang Qu was certain of his future and nodded without hesitation.
"I will, of course I will. I like you for who you are, no matter what you become."
Seeing her tear-filled eyes, He Xing couldn’t bring himself to continue questioning her. He turned around and walked towards the back of the house.
At the back of the house, he threw away the small bunch of pure white flowers tucked at his waist, then picked up a hoe and went home.
This scene was live-broadcasted to Jiang Lai by Little Buding.
"Their relationship isn’t that strong, is it? They started arguing over such a small setback."
"No matter how much Jiang Qu likes him, it can’t hide the fact that she has known from the beginning how successful he will be in the future. Her affection is purposeful, and if found out, that’ll be interesting."
Jiang Lai delightedly watched Jiang Qu’s tussles.
He laughed like a classic villain.
"You’re really bad to the bone."
"Thank you, thank you for the compliment."
——
Jiang Lai is quite lazy, and whatever she does, it’s always with a clear purpose.
If she studies, she focuses solely on studying and ignores everything else.
If someone brings a question to her, she would help look at it, provided the person has a good attitude. If someone acts like "asking you is a favor to you," Jiang Lai would directly show her attitude and just answer, "I don’t know."
Zhou Juan got this response.
"I just asked you a few questions; do you need to be this arrogant?"
"Who’s being arrogant? You’re almost making me kneel on the ground to explain it to you; who’s really being arrogant?"
Zhou Juan stamped her foot, pulled out the paper, turned, and left, making a loud noise as she dragged a chair.
She is the class representative for Chinese, and for every class, she arranged people to wipe the blackboard. From the first class, Jiang Lai had already wiped the board twice.
By the end of the third class, political class, when Zhou Juan called Jiang Lai again, Jiang Lai directly walked up, picked up the blackboard eraser, and with precise aim, threw it onto Zhou Juan’s desk, causing a puff of chalk dust.
Jiang Lai clapped her hands, leaned on the desk, and looked at her expressionlessly.
"The Chinese class representative is being a bully. Class president, are you going to do something about it?"
The class president is a neat-looking boy, fair-skinned, slender, not very tall but with delicate features. His voice is soft and gentle.
Seeing a blackboard eraser war about to break out in class, he quickly stood up to appease the situation.
"Zhou Juan, you’re indeed at fault. The blackboard wiping is done on a rotation basis every class. Jiang Lai has already wiped it twice, and asking her to do it again is unfair."
Zhou Juan stared at the class president, her face flushed.
"She was a month late and didn’t wipe the blackboard; what’s wrong with making up for it now? Besides, the teacher asked me to arrange it. If you all don’t cooperate, I won’t be the Chinese class representative anymore!"
Jiang Lai stepped down from the platform, raising an eyebrow.
"Quit if you want, it’s none of my business."
"You... don’t think that just because you did well on one test, you can do whatever you want! I’m telling you, nobody in this class likes you! Nobody welcomes you!"
Just as she finished speaking, a low male voice came from the doorway.
"Who says?"
Everyone looked over; wasn’t that Cheng Lie, who had just skipped two classes, standing at the door?
What was the relationship between these two?!
Cheng Lie was actually speaking up for Jiang Lai?
Was this a roundabout confession?
No way, these two never seemed to have any interactions usually.
Cheng Lie strolled in slowly, tossed his backpack onto the desk.
"Jiang Lai has raised the class average score, and she even helps you all for free with so many problems. Except for you, who in the class doesn’t like her?"
Since he said that, some people in the class began to agree.
"Yeah, Jiang Lai’s pretty nice. More than half of the class is using her math notes. Whoever doesn’t like her, just don’t use them, then."
"Anyway, I’ve never said anything about not welcoming Jiang Lai."
"Neither have I..."
"..."
Classmates started speaking up for Jiang Lai, leaving Zhou Juan isolated, her face taut as she stormed out of the classroom.
"Looks like Zhou Juan went to the office."
"Let her, she’s always causing problems, I’ve had enough of her."
"Exactly, she gives more homework than the teacher, like she’s some big shot."
Jiang Lai sat back down and thanked Cheng Lie.
Cheng Lie didn’t say anything, just pulled out a cloth bag from his backpack and handed it to Jiang Lai. When she took it, it felt heavy, like it was filled with stones.
Jiang Lai looked down and found two tin boxes of chocolates inside.
"Wow, chocolate!"
"It’s not for nothing; you gave me two eggs."
"Hehe, it’s nothing. I still have more. If you want some more, just ask."
Eggs for chocolates, there isn’t a better deal in the world.
Jiang Lai stuffed the chocolate into her bag and sweetly added, "Thank you, brother."
Cheng Lie didn’t respond, just laid his head down and continued to sleep, but his ears quietly turned red and stayed warm for quite some time.
"Heartbeat Value change.
Current Heartbeat Value ratio: 25."
Ha, the pure-hearted old man.
——
As the weather grew colder, Jiang Lai had already switched to wearing a thick cotton jacket, with cotton batting sewn in by Liu Shuping in the middle of the blue jacket. Although it made her look bulkier, it kept her much warmer. However, it was a struggle for Jiang Lai to lift her arms during class to write.
The second end-of-month test came again.
This time, Jiang Lai again achieved the top score in her grade, scoring seventeen points higher than the second place in the grade.
Soon, the math teacher called Jiang Lai out to ask if she would like to join the school’s math study interest group.
"It’s purely to improve your math scores. There are students from the first, second, and third years, with fewer from the first year and more from the third year. If you join, there will be opportunities to participate in some competitions."
```