No Ulterior Motives C07

Chapter 7: You Actually Believed It?

Xia Ling was a sophomore-to-be majoring in finance.

With her soft and gentle personality, she loved hugging something while sleeping at night—it gave her a strong sense of security.

Her favorite was the big teddy bear on her bed at home.

But since the bear was too large to carry around, she couldn’t bring it to school.

Left with no choice, she settled for hugging pillows and other soft things while sleeping.

However, today, after having dinner with her roommates, she was wandering along the small path behind the school when—

From a distance, she spotted a pile of fluffy things.

Fluffy!?

Xia Ling’s gaze was instantly drawn in.

At that moment—

She was overjoyed. Without a second thought, she grabbed her roommate’s hand and rushed to the street stall, eyes locked onto the largest brown teddy bear there.

“Boss! How much is that big bear?!”

Big bear?

Hearing the question, Jiang Ning followed the voice and looked over. When she saw the girl was referring to the 1.8-meter-tall brown teddy bear, she paused for a moment before replying,

“Eighty!”

Hearing the price, Xia Ling quickly compared it to the one she had at home.

Much cheaper.

But she didn’t take out her money right away. Instead, she spoke in a negotiating tone,

“Boss~ Can you make it a little cheaper…? I’m just a poor student. I only get 200 yuan a month for living expenses~”

200 yuan?

Jiang Ning raised her head and sized up the girl speaking.

A coordinated outfit, Nike sneakers, and a pair of headphones hanging around her neck.

Tsk, tsk. And she claims she only has 200 yuan in spending money?

Who’d believe that?

But Jiang Ning didn’t expose her. Instead, she put on a troubled expression and said,

“Big sis… I’m also a poor student. Setting up this stall at night is just to earn some tuition money…”

Her pitiful tone, paired with her youthful and pretty face, made her seem even more pitiful.

Seeing this, Xia Ling immediately realized this girl wasn’t easy to deal with either.

But the bargaining instinct in her blood still made her try again.

“Little sister, can you make it a bit cheaper? Big sis didn’t bring enough money~”

Mmp.

Doing business with women was seriously frustrating.

Jiang Ning cursed in her heart but kept her pitiful expression on her face.

“Fine, since you put it that way, let’s make it 75…”

Then, to stop her from bargaining further, Jiang Ning quickly added,

“Considering that big sis is my first customer of the day, if you agree, I’ll even throw in a little giraffe keychain.”

“This keychain normally sells for ten yuan each!”

Hearing this, Xia Ling understood Jiang Ning’s point. She exchanged a glance with her friend before pulling a 100-yuan bill from her pocket and handing it over with a grin.

Seeing this, Jiang Ning’s eye twitched slightly, but she calmly took the money and gave back two 10-yuan bills and a 5-yuan bill.

Before long, after watching Xia Ling leave with the big teddy bear, Tian Wenhao, who was in charge of watching the bikes, walked over.

“Cousin, is Auntie’s family really that…?”

“Should I… go back and talk to my mom…?”

He actually believed it?!

Jiang Ning turned around in shock, staring at her foolish cousin with a gaze full of disdain.

Just like that, with the first sale as a good start, she sold quite a few plush toys throughout the evening.

By the time they packed up around nine o’clock, Jiang Ning counted the earnings.

Hey—

After deducting the cost, she had made over 400 yuan in one night.

Then, feeling generous, she took out a 100-yuan bill and handed it to her cousin.

“Here, this is your share for today.”

Seeing this, Tian Wenhao shook his head like a rattling drum.

Jiang Ning didn’t hesitate. She simply stuffed the money into his hands.

“Don’t be sentimental. Money doesn’t come easy!”

With that, she pointed at the remaining plush toys.

“It’s getting late. I need to go home. You know I’m a girl—I can’t stay out too late. So, find a place to store these toys for me.”

“Oh, okay…”

Holding the money, Tian Wenhao couldn’t argue with Jiang Ning and had no choice but to accept it. Deep down, he silently vowed to help his little cousin as much as he could.

“Oh, and we’re running low on stock. I need to restock tomorrow. Come to my place in the afternoon to pick up the goods, got it?”

With a few simple words, Jiang Ning had basically set up the plan for the coming days.

She would handle purchasing and selling.

Tian Wenhao would be in charge of transportation and other physical tasks.

And things really did go as she planned. In the following days, the two of them worked together seamlessly, each taking care of their respective duties.

Of course—

They made quite a bit of money, too.

As time went on, more students returned to school, and sales kept increasing.

At first, they were making 400 yuan a day. Then 500, 600…

The highest earnings in a single day reached nearly 2,000 yuan.

Of course, that was due to a bulk order from a real estate company.

But even so, in less than a month—

After deducting Tian Wenhao’s share each day, Jiang Ning counted her savings and realized she had nearly 30,000 yuan.

Adding in her initial capital, her little treasure trove had surpassed 30,000 for the first time.

Keep in mind, in this era, the average monthly income of a regular worker was only about 500 to 1,000 yuan.

So, in just over half a month, Jiang Ning had made the equivalent of several years’ worth of wages.

As a result, for the past few days, she had been going to bed with a big smile on her face.

Even the annoying songs of this world sounded a little better.

However, with the new school term approaching—

Jiang Ning needed to gradually step away from running the street stall.

Tian Wenhao understood and assured her that he could take over managing the stall.

And so—

After sorting out the details of inventory and restocking, Jiang Ning pushed her bike and headed home.

On the way—

As she pedaled along leisurely, she was thinking about her next steps.

Running a street stall wasn’t a long-term plan.

Although the costs were low, she couldn’t set up shop on rainy or windy days.

And in a year or two, once the streets were put under stricter regulations, she wouldn’t be able to sell like this so freely.

With that in mind—

Jiang Ning thought it over for a long time and finally decided—

She should rent a storefront.

As for the location, she figured it should still be near Jiangzhou College—students made for the best customers, after all.

Hmm, looks like she needed to start scouting for a place soon.

As she pondered, she continued riding, completely unaware that—

She had already veered into the traffic lane.

By the time she realized something was wrong—

A sharp screech of brakes tore through the night and reached her ears.

“Screech!!!”

Jiang Ning instinctively turned her head—only to see a silver-gray sedan speeding straight toward her.

At that moment, her mind went completely blank.

By the time she reacted and tried to dodge—

The front of the car had already swerved right in front of her.

“Bang!”

A loud crash.

Jiang Ning felt an uncontrollable force slam into her, knocking her off her bike.

“Thud.”

She hit the ground.

Then—

That car screeched to a stop—just half a meter away from her.

(End of Chapter)