At the mention of South River Bay, Jiang Nian's eyelid twitched. Some of the students in his class were county locals, and they immediately let out a chorus of "Ooooh!"
"Holy crap, South River Bay! Those huge river-view apartments!"
"Damn, a real-life rich girl!"
South River Bay was the most expensive residential development in the county. It wasn't right beside the river, but it overlooked the South River waterfront. At its peak, an unfurnished apartment cost eight hundred thousand yuan. Furnishings depended on personal taste, but even the bare minimum would set you back another two hundred thousand.
That wouldn't even buy a bathroom in Shanghai, but in Zhen'nan County, it was top of the line. Even Country Garden only cost a little over five thousand per square meter, while South River Bay was pushing eight thousand.
People who could afford an apartment in South River Bay weren't exactly rare, but finding one in a single classroom certainly was.
Zhang Ningzhi blushed at her classmates' teasing. With her head lowered, she hurried back to her seat, took out her English textbook, and gripped her pen without daring to look up.
The two of them had been assigned seats in the middle of the third section, filling vacancies in two different groups. As luck would have it, Jiang Nian sat diagonally behind Zhang Ningzhi, to her right by the aisle.
Sadly, he hadn't landed the window seat in the back row, the birthplace of kings.
Getting into the advanced class was good enough. Who was he to be picky?
Jiang Nian reached out and poked Zhang Ningzhi in the back, diagonally ahead of him to the left. She stiffened at first, then raised her head a little. From his angle, he could see her flushed ears.
The girl seemed to gather her courage before shrinking in on herself and cautiously turning around.
Jiang Nian propped an arm on his desk, looking utterly carefree. With a pen tucked between his ring finger and pinky, he smiled at her and mouthed, "Pen."
Her face red, Zhang Ningzhi quickly turned back around. She pulled a pencil case out of her desk compartment, took out a pen refill, then paused. In the end, she handed him two.
His deskmate looked from Jiang Nian to the rich girl in front of them, his mouth forming an O. He lowered his voice and asked Jiang Nian curiously,
"You two know each other?"
"Sort of."
When classes ended at noon, Zhang Ningzhi instinctively turned to look for Jiang Nian, only to find him gone. His seat was empty. When she looked toward the door, he was already outside.
Hmph. Her cheeks puffed up in annoyance.
Jiang Nian had no idea anyone was looking for him. He had stood up the instant the teacher at the podium dismissed them. If he took his time getting to the cafeteria, there wouldn't be any food left. Both he and Xu Qianqian ate lunch there.
They never arranged to eat together, either. Arrange what, exactly? By the time they finished making plans, all the decent dishes would be gone.
Childhood friends were birds of a feather-until lunchtime, when they flew their separate ways.
The cafeteria was packed. The first- and second-year students had no energy for studying, but their enthusiasm for eating was off the charts. Pah, a bunch of study-hating slackers.
He hurried over and joined one of the shorter lines. Turning his head, he seemed to catch sight of a familiar figure-or, more precisely, a familiar pair of glasses.
Zhou Haifei? Right, Zhou Haifei!
Wasn't that my girl Haifei? Brave T-Sis, the introverted girl with long hair and glasses.
Jiang Nian watched as Zhou Haifei seemed to head toward the stall selling steamed buns and flatbreads. Hardly anyone went there at lunchtime, and her back soon disappeared into the crowd.
Jiang Nian withdrew his gaze, turned back, and felt his pupils contract.
Fuck! That bastard! Someone was cutting in line!
Motherfucker!
He was so furious his scalp felt ready to explode, but he was too far away to call the guy out directly. The student whose place had been taken simply put up with it, pretending not to have seen anything.
Whatever. Jiang Nian didn't want to argue with an idiot before lunch, either.
Hopeless. Not even a little bee elbow strike for that?
While waiting in line, he took out his phone and briefly checked his bank balance. He had earned thirty thousand, given his parents twenty thousand, and spent six thousand on classes. He now had...
Twenty-seven thousand.
A fortune. For a student in his final year of high school, that was already a fortune.
The line inched forward, and Jiang Nian habitually checked what the cafeteria was serving. A quick glance showed that six yuan bought two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes. At this school, everything was expensive except the food.
He bought a six-yuan meal and found an empty seat, scrolling on his phone as he ate his chicken drumstick and rice.
After lunch, he went outside the school to buy Xu Qianqian a room-temperature fruit tea, picking up an extra cup for Song Xiyun while he was at it.
In Xu Qianqian's name, of course.
Even best-friend relationships could fall apart without proper maintenance.
Song Xiyun didn't seem particularly grateful, though. When no one was around, she silently dragged Jiang Nian over to a secluded stairwell.
She checked both directions to make sure no one was there, then confronted him in a low voice, her eyes reddening.
"Why did you buy classes from my mom again? Are you-"
"Hold on." Jiang Nian interrupted her before she could finish winding up. "You can eat whatever you like, but you can't say whatever you like. Does your mom know you're interrogating her VIP client?"
"No, bro, I was just saying it." Looking utterly miserable, Song Xiyun raked a hand through her hair. "Do you seriously want to be my dad? You've practically become my mom's number-one spender."
"You've misunderstood. I just want to work out." Jiang Nian looked completely innocent.
Song Xiyun choked on her words, suspicion written all over her face.
"Then why did you buy my mom's classes? Ninety sessions in one go?"
"Because I'm kind."
"Go die! I knew it!" Song Xiyun instantly lost it, looking ready to charge over and bite him to death. "Jiang Nian, what will it take for you to-"
"That depends on how you behave."
"What do you mean?"
"My shoulders are a little sore. Ah, I've single-handedly borne all the suffering studying has to offer." Standing by the stairwell, Jiang Nian made a show of rolling his shoulders while watching Song Xiyun's reaction.
She understood perfectly well and gritted her teeth.
"Fine. I'll massage them."
With that, Song Xiyun reluctantly walked behind him and rose onto her toes to rub his shoulders. Finding she couldn't put enough strength into it, she switched to pounding them instead.
"Hey, why aren't you smiling?"
Song Xiyun sneered.
"Not cute at all. Not even as cute as your-"
Song Xiyun reluctantly forced her face into a pretty girl's smile.
Jiang Nian left, tossing out one last sentence before he went.
"If you have time over the National Day break, copy out my English homework for me. I don't really feel like doing it."
Song Xiyun: "..."
After the lunch break, Jiang Nian returned two pen refills to Zhang Ningzhi. But no matter how he looked at her, something seemed off about the rich girl. There was a hint of resentment in the way she looked at him.
*????*
What the hell?
That afternoon, Zhang Ningzhi kept her head buried in her homework like a little ostrich. She didn't dare look up. When people nearby spoke, she only pricked up her ears to listen.
Jiang Nian was used to being carefree. His academic ability was anything but average, and his social skills were maxed out. In just one afternoon, he had
already started chatting and laughing with the people seated all around him.
"Holy shit! You memorized all thirty-five hundred words?"
"Yep."
"You deserve to die. It hurts. It hurts so much." His deskmate was named Li Hua. He had ordinary looks and dark skin: an academic ace in English essay prompts, a clueless goof in real life.
Jiang Nian was happily chatting away and was about to turn sideways to say something when he suddenly caught sight of the rich girl in front looking back at him, her eyes full of hurt.
"????"
He didn't think he'd offended her. Where exactly had things gone wrong?
That afternoon, whether by coincidence or otherwise, Jiang Nian ran into T-Sis, Zhou Haifei, in the cafeteria again. She seemed to remember him too. Her gaze lingered on his face for a second before she lowered her head and left.
_)∠ゝw(_
(End of chapter)
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