He wanted to spend money, urgently.
Jiang Nian was genuinely speechless. He'd gone out and run into a total turnoff of a woman.
The idiot at the front desk was bad enough. He'd finally found a female trainer switching jobs, only for her to be a block of wood that jumped whenever he poked it.
Apologize? Is apologizing all you can do?
With service skills like yours, you'd get absolutely destroyed in Japan! The customer comes first, so just say the damn words! I'm shaking with rage here. I even have to do all the work to spend my own money!
Zhao Qiuxue was utterly bewildered and instinctively uttered a single word.
"Huh?"
"Fuck!" Jiang Nian swore.
The irritable Jiang Nian finally stopped being irritable. Before opening the security door and going inside, Xu Qianqian turned back to look at him curiously.
"Why are you so happy tonight?"
"Oh, I found some money."
"Weirdo."
The door slammed shut.
Xu Qianqian's ankle injury had improved considerably, and she could apply the medicine herself now. It didn't matter if she massaged it a little more gently; it would heal in another day or two anyway.
Old Xu called. Another business trip.
Xu Qianqian hung up with a calm expression and walked into her empty home. After washing up, she sat in the living room in thin pajamas, humming as she applied the medicine.
As she rubbed it in, tears began falling, one after another.
At a food stall on Education Road Avenue.
Song Xiyun had just finished evening study and met up with her mother, Zhao Qiuxue, for a rare late-night snack. She'd already decided that she would tighten her belt from now on.
Since her mother had lost her job, she needed to shoulder some responsibility for the family too.
And yet.
"Xiyun, Mommy made a sale on her very first day! Pretty impressive, right?"
"Huh?" Song Xiyun looked stunned, her expression matching the sweating yellow-face emoji. "Didn't you just quit today? What do you mean, your first day?"
"I switched jobs." Zhao Qiuxue stuck out her tongue and boasted, "One of Mommy's regular clients came along with me."
"Oh, please. Your sales were zero."
Zhao Qiuxue: "Feeling wronged."
Song Xiyun slapped her forehead. "Mom, just tell me the truth. I'll help you figure it out."
"I'm the adult here. What could a kid like you help me figure out?" Zhao Qiuxue tried to reclaim her maternal dignity, but it didn't do her a damn bit of good.
With her daughter still staring at her, Zhao Qiuxue had no choice but to recount everything that had happened that evening.
"Isn't that handsome young guy strange? Not only did he buy a 998-yuan membership, he also bought thirty sessions at a hundred yuan each. Nearly four thousand yuan altogether! So expensive."
Listening to her mother ramble on, Song Xiyun felt her vision go dark.
"Mom, what did you say the guy who bought from you was called?"
"Oh, that handsome young guy? Jiang Nian~~~ Apparently, he's a senior in high school. I told him not to buy the sessions because he wouldn't have time to use them, but he insisted."
Those two syllables completely broke what little backbone Song Xiyun had left.
"How could it be him?"
"Xiyun, do you know that handsome young guy?" Zhao Qiuxue asked curiously.
"No, I don't!" Song Xiyun said in horror, remembering how she'd called him Daddy earlier that day. She'd only meant to liven things up, but now it had fucking come back to bite her.
She resolved to find a chance to ask him about it tomorrow.
Meanwhile.
Jiang Nian was happily checking his bank balance over and over. For some reason, Zhou Haifei had abandoned the idea from that morning's task.
Perhaps it was because of the mismatch in time. Zhou Haifei twenty years in the future wasn't the same as Zhou Haifei now. People's thoughts changed, after all.
He wasn't going to the gym. Not a chance.
As for reselling the membership and sessions, he had no plans to do that yet either. Who knew how the system would judge it? If he sold them the moment the money arrived, what if it turned around and deducted the money again?
Either way, trading four thousand for twenty thousand was a massive win.
He currently had twenty-three thousand yuan in his account. A week ago, he'd been a broke high school senior with only three hundred yuan to his name. Now, he was suddenly rich.
Feeling a little full of himself, Jiang Nian tossed and turned, unable to sleep. When he got up for water in the middle of the night, he found his parents in the lit living room, talking while keeping accounts in a notebook.
Li Hongmei looked worried as she murmured something to Old Jiang. Jiang Nian had barely stepped out of his room and asked what was going on before his mother sternly sent him packing.
"Shoo, shoo. What's a kid doing sticking his nose into everything? Go to sleep. You've got school tomorrow."
"Will do." Jiang Nian readily complied.
The system tasks hadn't refreshed yet. After returning to his room, he checked a few times and went to sleep.
The next day.
"Is your ankle better?" Jiang Nian brought Xu Qianqian breakfast as usual and gave her a suspicious look. "Hey, why are your eyes red?"
Xu Qianqian had washed up and was sitting in the living room waiting for him. At his question, she turned her head away awkwardly.
She was too embarrassed to admit that while applying medicine alone at home yesterday, she'd started missing her mother and couldn't hold back her tears. Then she'd gone back to her room and cried all night, soaking her pillow.
"I... I just didn't sleep well."
"Oh, okay. You haven't put the medicine on yet, right? Let me help." Jiang Nian crouched to look for the medicinal liniment. "Where did you put it after using it yesterday? You didn't throw it out, did you?"
"I can do it myself." Xu Qianqian lowered her head and touched her ankle, pressing it a little. "It's pretty much healed. I don't think it needs medicine anymore."
Jiang Nian ignored her, grabbed her foot, and pulled it toward him.
Her calf was fair and shapely, cool to the touch, its taut muscles tracing a graceful curve. The delicate sole of her foot flashed into view, and all five toes curled up.
"I told you, you don't need to..." she muttered.
"We're going to be late. You think I actually want to do this?" Jiang Nian lightly poked the sole of her foot. Xu Qianqian instantly let out a cry, her toes curling even tighter.
"Ah~~" Jiang Nian mimicked her.
Xu Qianqian immediately flushed. "Do you have a death wish, Jiang Nian?"
As they walked to school, Xu Qianqian's face was still a little red, and her ankle seemed to retain a lingering warmth.
Only when they reached the stairs in the classroom building did she remember.
"Are you confident about English?"
The stairs were packed, mostly with students arriving just before class. Jiang Nian only had time to turn back and say one thing.
"Should be."
Riiing!!!
The bell rang, and a commotion erupted downstairs like a charging zombie horde. The foot of the classroom building looked like the end of the world as students all around broke into frantic runs.
Xu Qianqian opened her mouth to say something, but the crowd swept them apart before she could.
The first period was math. Jiang Nian propped his head on his hand as he listened, his eyelids drooping and his mind foggy with sleepiness. It was all because he'd gotten too excited last night. His account had
an extra twenty thousand yuan.
That delicate married woman had even added him on WeChat. Jiang Nian thought that was totally unnecessary.
Yawn~~ So sleepy.
For high school seniors, getting hit with two math periods first thing at eight in the morning was hell on earth.
He finally made it through to third-period English. The English Teacher arrived late, carrying a stack of answer sheets, without the slightest smile on her face.
The class wasn't afraid of the English Teacher, so they didn't react much, but they still did her the courtesy of quieting down.
"This exam... ahem." The English Teacher was a thirty-year-old married woman who never wore the same outfit twice. The handbag on her desk cost over ten thousand yuan.
"Very poor results. Only three people scored above a hundred and thirty!"
Thanks to Wenba for the tip of 1,000 Qidian coins. Wishing you a strong back and healthy kidneys, boss!
(End of chapter)
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