Chapter 23: Step by Step Rising

Hearing this, Jiang Nian burst out laughing and stuffed a schoolbag into her arms.

"Great, help me carry my schoolbag."

As he spoke, he stuffed the empty schoolbag containing thirty thousand yuan into her arms. Then he took her schoolbag off directly, hefted it in his hand, and clicked his tongue.

"Did you bring bricks home? Not sleeping tonight?"

Xu Qianqian was speechless, but she didn't argue with him, just carrying Jiang Nian's schoolbag against her chest as she went downstairs. After walking for a while, something felt off, and she couldn't help asking curiously.

"What's in your bag? It's hard, like a brick."

"Money."

"You're sick." Xu Qianqian walked forward carrying the schoolbag, and smelling the sweat wafting from it, her face went pale. "Jiang Nian, how long has it been since you washed your schoolbag?"

"Just washed it last week, just picked up some of my sweat smell." He leaned in close on his own initiative, tugging at his white short-sleeve shirt. "Hey, if you don't believe me, smell it."

"Shameless!" Miss flung her head and put some distance between them.

On the way home, in the scattered empty stretches, Xu Qianqian still couldn't help making conversation.

"Hey, I heard the class promotion list is out."

"Mm."

"Which class did you get assigned to?"

"Ugh, don't even mention it, I got assigned to the Olympiad Class 3, 403."

Hearing his regretful tone, the girl's lips couldn't help curling up. As if to say, so you really wanted to be in the same class as me, but on second thought she couldn't feel happy about it either.

It was true they weren't in the same class, and she felt a vague sense of loss.

"Good thing you didn't come, I'm actually quite happy about it."

Arriving home, going upstairs, the two had already swapped their schoolbags back.

Jiang Nian entered the door and happened to see his parents still awake. The two were calculating something in the living room, Old Jiang had even put on his glasses, muttering quietly.

Li Hongmei didn't even look at Jiang Nian, just said directly.

"Take a shower and go to bed early."

Jiang Nian didn't respond, instead walking to the center of the living room and standing in front of his parents. The couple turned their heads one after another, looking at their son with puzzled faces.

Li Hongmei frowned immediately. "Go take a shower, you smell sour all over."

"It's not that I won't wash, the time isn't right." Jiang Nian said the most cocky words, unafraid of the harshest beating. "Ahem, Comrade Li Hongmei, Comrade Old Jiang, I have an announcement."

Old Jiang was puzzled, Li Hongmei gave a cold laugh, and started to get up to grab the chicken feather duster.

Suddenly, she saw her son pull out a pink brick from his schoolbag. Not a pink brick, it seemed to be... money? A whole thick stack, neatly piled together.

At that thickness, twenty or thirty thousand yuan! Piled on the table, the visual impact of the renminbi was maxed out instantly.

Li Hongmei's face went white on the spot, and she shot up to her feet.

"You robbed a bank! Take it back right now!"

Old Jiang was relatively calmer, recalling Jiang Nian's reaction this morning, seeming to have figured something out. He looked at the money on the table, then at his own good big son.

"You earned it?"

"Mm, this is all I've earned so far." Jiang Nian spread his hands. "How it goes in the future, I don't know, hard to say. Anyway, spend it freely, no need to scrimp."

Li Hongmei heard the words "no need to scrimp," and a flash of emotion crossed her eyes. But she still grumbled while telling Jiang Nian to deposit the money back, going on and on.

"There won't be any place to spend money in the future? Ate your fill today so you won't be hungry tomorrow, huh? The family's affairs are for me and your dad, what is there for a kid like you to worry about."

Jiang Nian laughed it off, tossed out a line that once it's taken out it can't be deposited, today was the odd-numbered license plate restriction day. Without waiting for Li Hongmei to blow up, he left a table full of money and darted into his room in a flash.

Click, the bedroom door locked.

Leaving his old dad and old mom in the living room, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Who does this kid take after, how is he like a rolling piece of fatty meat that won't stay put.

The next day, Thursday.

"National Day is coming up soon, how many days off do you think the school will give?" Jiang Nian walked along the road, eating breakfast as he went. "Stingy as ever, give us three days and we'll behave."

"No idea, National Day is the day after tomorrow, right?" Xu Qianqian's pink lips were pursed very small, biting the soy milk straw, her eyes slightly squinted, making one really want to steal a kiss.

Jiang Nian's throat bobbed, and he fiercely berated himself internally for this absurd thought.

Damn, even rabbits don't eat the grass near their own nest!

Recently he didn't know what was going on either, maybe it's been too long since being single, even Xu Qianqian looked fresh and pretty to him. Sometimes he dreamed about her, and punched her into a puffy mess in the dream.

Absurd, truly absurd.

Jiang Nian superficially defined it as youth syndrome, shook his head, and kept walking forward.

When they parted at the stairway entrance, Xu Qianqian let out a hey.

"What?" Jiang Nian thought she was going to bring up the milk tea thing. "I'll treat you again at noon, what's with drinking milk tea early in the morning, were you born a water bucket?"

"Who wants it!" Xu Qianqian spat, and stuffed something into his hand.

Jiang Nian looked down, a box of "Step by Step Rising" pen refills, the red packaging looked festive. He looked up, and Miss had already walked far away, turning her head at the classroom door.

Their eyes met, Jiang Nian tilted his head to express his puzzlement, Xu Qianqian flipped him the middle finger (hmph).

During the morning break, the head teacher suddenly barged in.

"Jiang Nian, move your desk."

Hearing this, Jiang Nian still got a little coy. "Teacher, believe it or not, I'm actually going to miss it."

The head teacher looked at his cheeky face, visibly speechless. "Then stay? I'll write you a report, special case, special handling."

"That's duck-necessary, I was just kidding." Jiang Nian laughed sheepishly.

The class immediately erupted in laughter, the happy atmosphere spreading through the break.

"Get lost, get lost, study hard, don't embarrass our class." The head teacher waved his hand. "Upstairs 403, move your desk, chair, and books over now."

Jiang Nian found two close friends to help, and unexpectedly Le Zhi also came.

"Uh, thanks."

"No problem, just a small favor." Le Zhi had been somewhat quiet these past few days. Ever since the exam ended, he'd been holed up by himself, and—miracle of miracles—had actually started reading books.

They'd arrived early, while the rest of the class was out for morning exercises. Le Zhi had skipped it outright. He didn't seem to have any intention of leaving either, standing in the corridor outside Classroom 403, keeping Jiang Nian company.

"The day before yesterday, I had a falling out with them."

"Uh, why?" Jiang Nian was also a bit awkward.

Le Zhi leaned his whole body against the corridor wall, sunlight scattered around him, and recounted what had happened on the day the exam ended.

"I felt that if that bunch kept hanging around together, sooner or later they'd all turn into idiots. I think our head teacher said something right—for all the years we've endured in high school, we should at least get into a good university."

After chatting for a while, Le Zhi left.

Jiang Nian felt no particular stir in his heart. The whole reason he'd switched classes in the first place was to avoid getting mixed up with Zhou Yuting's crowd. Whether they'd truly fallen out or not had nothing to do with him.

Because of the morning exercises, the teaching building was basically empty. Suddenly, he heard the sound of desks and chairs being moved at the stairwell.

Jiang Nian turned his head and saw a familiar face.

Zhang Ningzhi?

Hmm? She seemed to be heading in his direction. The only girl helping her carry the desk and chair looked like she was struggling a bit, and Zhang Ningzhi's little face was flushed red.

After a few seconds of blanking out, Jiang Nian walked over to help.

"We meet again, what's this about....."

"Oh, it's you." Zhang Ningzhi blinked, then looked a little embarrassed, and softly called his name, "Jiang Nian..... I've switched classes, 403."