Demolition Underway

Time passed quickly after that, as fleeting as a galloping white horse.

On June 25, the National College Entrance Examination results were released, setting countless families on edge.

Jiang Qin's score was exactly the same as in his previous life: 653. Getting into a Project 985 university was a sure thing, with no suspense whatsoever. He was calm as could be inside, but he still had to act sufficiently excited in front of his parents. That really tested his acting skills.

Mr. Jiang and Ms. Yuan, however, were genuinely thrilled.

653! That was twenty points higher than Jiang Qin's mock exam score! Yuan Youqin immediately went to White Cloud Mountain to burn incense at White Cloud Temple and fulfill her vow.

Jiang Zhenghong was so happy he practically lost his mind. He could neither sit nor stand, his clenched fists constantly shaking. In the end, he dragged Jiang Qin downstairs and ran three full laps around the neighborhood.

Jiang Qin could understand how his parents felt. To people of their generation, the National College Entrance Examination was a springboard to success, a major turning point in life, the only chance to change one's fate, and the key to wealth and glory.

But he could never have imagined that in just a few years, PhDs would be everywhere and master's degree holders would be a dime a dozen.

On the third day after the exam results were announced, the demolition matter also began to take shape.

On the morning of June 28, the neighborhood offices of Fanhua Neighborhood, Rongcheng, Xingfu Community, and Hongyun Community called Jiang Qin one after another. They briefly explained the demolition plans and invited him to discuss them with the specially established demolition teams.

Although the official demolition notice had not yet been publicly released, the matter was basically set in stone.

To save time, every neighborhood affected by the Old City Redevelopment Project had begun making preparations in advance.

This was not something announced to the public.

In fact, aside from the owners of the homes being demolished, no one else knew about it. That spared Jiang Qin, with his identity as a high school student, a great deal of trouble.

Over the following days, Jiang Qin constantly traveled between the various neighborhood offices, listening to them read out directives from above and hearing the compensation terms over and over again.

Although every neighborhood office repeated the same things, hearing it once felt good, and hearing it again felt just as good.

Once the official demolition notices were issued, the work entered the negotiation stage.

This stage was practically the most time-consuming, because there were plenty of greedy people. Especially for residents who had spent years living in old, rundown apartments, life had never been easy for them, so they wanted to jack up the price on the spot. The more they could get, the better.

But Jiang Qin knew when to quit while he was ahead.

He directly gave the neighborhood office a figure based on the highest ratio he had estimated before, telling them to call him if they agreed.

The reason he could stay so laid-back was actually quite important: once the demolition process entered its second stage, those who signed first would get priority in choosing resettlement housing. Picking a good location was far more important than haggling here over thirty or fifty thousand yuan.

If they dragged things out until the end, all the good locations would be gone. What if the remaining people did not want what was left? Sorry, then they could only draw lots.

The contracts were signed anyway. Who was going to keep pandering to these ancestors?

Besides, he had another urgent reason.

He needed to repay the money.

Although the money for buying the properties had been borrowed from Feng Nanshu, it was still her father's money no matter how one looked at it. The fact that nothing had happened so far meant her father had probably not noticed yet, but the longer it dragged on, the greater the risk. Jiang Qin did not know what kind of person Feng Nanshu's father was, so he did not want to take that chance.

The sooner he received the compensation, the sooner he could fill the gap. Then it would be as though this had never happened.

After settling the preliminary demolition matters, Jiang Qin finally freed up a day to relax at home, replying to all kinds of QQ messages.

Guo Zihang said he had scored 472, while Feng Nanshu said she had scored 671.

Guo Zihang's score was not surprising. That bastard was only capable of that much; getting even one more point would have been difficult. But Feng Nanshu was a genius girl, an academic queen of her generation, so it was rather surprising that she had not broken seven hundred.

Of course, Class One's homeroom teacher was also unconvinced by that score and thought it had to be graded incorrectly. On the very day the results came out, he went to the city to inspect her exam paper.

It turned out there really had been no grading error. She had indeed scored 671. The problem was her Chinese essay. Out of a full score of sixty, Feng Nanshu had only received twelve.

What was this year's essay topic again?

Jiang Qin had been reborn, and his memories of this period had mostly faded, so he specifically looked it up online. The moment he saw it, he nearly laughed himself apart.

It was an essay about friendship?

She did not even have any friends, and they wanted her to write about friendship?

Wasn't that like asking a rat to write about its experience petting cats?

Not a loss at all. Twelve points really was not a loss. She probably only got those points because her handwriting was neat.

"Stop laughing."

On the second floor of Jizhou City Library, sitting in their familiar spot, Feng Nanshu looked utterly lifeless. "I thought about it seriously. This is actually your fault."

Jiang Qin was full of question marks. "We did not even know each other during the National College Entrance Examination. What does you losing points have to do with me?"

"But if I had met you earlier, I probably would have known how to write it."

"Since you put it that way, let's suppose the current you had taken the National College Entrance Examination. How would you write that essay?"

Feng Nanshu raised her head with a solemn expression. "I met a friend at the library. He is a pitiful poor person who likes looking at breasts..."

"Stop!"

Jiang Qin directly cut off her improvised essay. "Is that really what I look like in your eyes?"

"Isn't it...?" A trace of confusion flashed through Feng Nanshu's eyes.

"If you had really written that, you would not even have gotten those final twelve points."

Feng Nanshu lowered her head and returned to her lifeless state. "Did I make a friend I cannot show off?"

Jiang Qin's face twitched. "It is already over, so there is no point thinking about it anymore."

"That makes sense..."

"You're the Young Miss of a rich family. Why did you even take the National College Entrance Examination? Wouldn't studying abroad have been easier?"

Feng Nanshu raised her head, her slender curled lashes trembling slightly. "A lonely girl who cannot socialize would die if you sent her abroad."

"..."

Jiang Qin really had not considered that. He had simply treated her as an ordinary wealthy young lady, but from Feng Nanshu's perspective, studying abroad really was a risky prospect.

Foreign countries preached freedom and democracy all day long, but their social environments were a mess. And then there was that damn free America, with shootings every day. Its population was only 370 million, yet there were 390 million registered guns. A Family of Three averaged four guns—were they planning to have a second child?

Throwing a naturally airheaded, socially anxious girl like Feng Nanshu into that sort of environment would be like tossing a little lamb into a pack of wolves.

"Whatever. Universities in China are pretty good too. Which one are you planning to attend?"

"Which one are you going to?"

She asked in return without expression, her thick lashes turned golden by the sunlight spilling over them.