Chapter 117 – Is He Still Alive?

High school classes were getting more and more intense.

Especially now that they were in the second semester of their first year.

Whether it was the amount of homework or the content of the lessons, everything had jumped to a whole new level compared to the previous semester.

Jiang Ning had been feeling a little dazed these past two days.

Especially with the memorization assignments given by Leader Yangmei.

A classical text every two days, a prose piece every three days.

It got to the point where Jiang Ning and Luo Shanshan started their conversations with “Confucius says” and ended with “zhihu zhe ye.”

“Confucius says: What’s the next class?”

“P.E.”

“How’s Black Tall Guy doing?”

“Rumor has it he’s sick again.”

“Sigh, poor guy. Always trying to find a way to get sick. His body’s even more delicate than us girls’.”

Sun Qian’s comment made everyone around her laugh.

You really couldn’t blame the students for their sarcasm.

I mean, a man built like a tank, big and strong like an ox, always asking for leave?

Anyone with eyes could guess the reason.

But still, skipping P.E. for half a month straight? That’s pushing it.

Sure enough—

When Qi Xiaoniu walked over to the blackboard and changed the next class from “P.E.” to “English,”

The whole class groaned in despair.

At noon, after lunch—

Jiang Ning went out for a walk with Qi Xiaoniu to help digest.

While Luo Shanshan, Sun Qian, and the others went back to the classroom to catch up on homework.

Watching the three figures slowly disappear in the distance,

Jiang Ning suddenly realized something she’d been subconsciously avoiding.

It was already the second semester of their first year.

Next year, they’d be split into science and liberal arts tracks.

With Jiang Ning and Qi Wen’s grades,

Choosing science was practically set in stone.

But the other three were a different story.

Sun Qian and Luo Shanshan were both strong in liberal arts but weak in science.

And Zhu Hui—no need to even mention her.

She chose art purely because her science grades were hopeless.

So—

Next semester, the five of them would inevitably be split up.

They all knew this.

But none of them had brought it up.

Not even Jiang Ning herself.

Maybe sensing Jiang Girl’s mood,

Just as she was getting a little gloomy,

A soft, delicate hand suddenly held hers.

Jiang Girl turned around—

And locked eyes with a pair of bright, lively eyes, blinking playfully at her.

Afternoon.

The last class was music.

After it ended, Jiang Ning was asked to stay behind.

Same music room, same twilight-drenched setting.

But unlike last time—

This time, Ms. Du Xinrui was clearly much more proactive.

She patted the seat next to her.

“Come here.”

Hearing that,

Little Jiang said “Oh” and obediently sat down.

Sitting beside Ms. Du, smelling that mature woman scent, she felt relaxed and refreshed.

“How’s your fingerwork lately?”

Du Xinrui placed her hands on the piano keys. Her gentle tone tugged at Jiang Girl’s heartstrings.

“Not bad.”

“Wanna try?”

“Sure.”

And so—

With Du Xinrui’s close-up guidance, Jiang Girl played a moderately difficult piano piece.

When the last note faded,

Du Xinrui nodded in satisfaction.

“Jiang Ning, you’ve got a real sense for music.”

“If you had started learning piano as a child, you might already be a somewhat well-known pianist by now.”

Jiang Girl chuckled bashfully at the compliment.

“That’s all thanks to your good teaching, Ms. Du.”

Which earned her an exaggerated eye roll from Du Xinrui.

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

Knock knock knock.

“Come in.”

With Du Xinrui’s permission, the door opened.

And when Jiang Ning saw who came in, her face lit up with surprise.

“Huh? Mr. Tang?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be sick?”

That’s right—

It was none other than Tang Yukang, their P.E. teacher, a.k.a. “Black Tall Guy.”

And clearly, he didn’t expect a female student to be in the multimedia room.

When he heard her words, his dark face turned a deeper shade of red-black.

“Ahem. Just a stomachache. I’m fine now.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Jiang Ning had already guessed why he was here.

She turned her head to look at the elegant woman beside her.

“Ms. Du, should I excuse myself?”

“What for?”

Du Xinrui shot the girl a look, then turned to Tang Yukang.

“Mr. Tang, do you need something?”

Hearing that,

Black Tall Guy glanced at Jiang Ning, looking conflicted.

But after a couple of breaths, he took a deep breath and said:

“Ms. Du!”

“Are you hungry tonight?”

“I’d like to treat you to dinner!”

???

Hungry? Tonight?

What kind of weird-ass pickup line was that?

Jiang Ning burst out laughing at his words.

Then quickly covered her mouth and turned away.

She couldn’t help it.

If Black Tall Guy held a grudge, and remembered her laughing at him—

How was she supposed to survive P.E. class in the future?

Luckily—

Black Tall Guy’s attention was completely on the person he was inviting.

He totally ignored the snickering student next to him.

As for the invitation—

The woman just smiled gently.

“Sorry, Mr. Tang.”

“I already have plans tonight.”

A clean, solid rejection. It made his already dark face even darker.

He looked super awkward.

“N-no problem.”

“Maybe next time.”

He turned to leave.

But then Du Xinrui said, “Wait.”

Tang Yukang turned around hopefully—

Only to be met with something called a “Nice Guy Card.”

“Mr. Tang, you’re a good person.”

“But maybe not the right person for me. So next time, please don’t treat me so nicely, okay?”

One sentence.

Tang Yukang left the multimedia classroom, utterly dejected.

Jiang Ning clicked her tongue at the scene.

It’s over.

Looks like Black Tall Guy really might get sick for real.

——————

Nighttime.

As soon as Jiang Girl got home, her mom dragged her into the living room.

After receiving a word-by-word crash course on fashion industry terminology,

Jiang Ning was finally allowed to escape.

To be honest—

With how fired up her mom was these days,

If she’d had that same energy back in elementary school,

She’d have racked up little red flowers for “Model Student” all year long.

A while later—

Jiang Girl finished washing up.

Alone in the bathroom, she dried her hair.

By the time she was done, her head was buzzing with a nonstop “vrrr vrrr vrrr.”

She went back to her room,

Lay down on the bed,

Turned off the lights,

Spaced out while staring at the night sky through the window… and then reached under the bed to grab her phone.

Powered it on.

“Vrrr vrrr vrrr…”

A bunch of new messages came in.

After filtering out a few casual check-ins from familiar people,

She spotted one from an unknown number.

She opened it right away.

【Jiang Ning, it’s Xu Suihe. This is my number—save it.】

Xu Suihe?

Jiang Ning didn’t recall ever giving her number to that ridiculously pretty woman.

She thought for a second, then typed a reply.

【Where’d you get my number?】

【From Tao Tao. I poured sixteen bottles of beer into him before I could fish your number out of his phone.】

Sixteen bottles of beer?

Thinking of her own half-a-cup rice wine tolerance, Jiang Ning instantly raised her guard against this woman.

【Is he still alive?】

【Temporarily not dead.】

After seeing that line, Jiang Ning suddenly lost all desire to keep chatting with her.

She saved the number anyway, then went on to check the rest of her messages.

Li Mingwei pouring his heart out…

Great. Looks like this place has officially turned into a confession booth.

Jiang Ning skipped the content and opened the next one.

From Yao Yao.

Asking Jiang Girl to hang out at a newly opened amusement park over the weekend.

Truth be told—

She didn’t mind amusement parks.

But if she went with Yao Yao, her two ride-or-die sidekicks would definitely tag along.

So she sent a polite rejection and moved on.

Next: from Liao Liao.

Asking how the girl she sent was doing—was she useful or not? If not, she could replace her immediately.

Jiang Girl thought about Wang Jianguo’s recent performance.

She’d been leaving early, coming home late.

Took a ton of photos too.

Some of which were especially useful to her.

Just for that, there was no way she was replacing that little pup of a paparazzo.

And then—

When Jiang Ning opened the final message,

She was surprised to see it was from Du Meilan.

Just a short line:

【Someone tried to get me to raise your price. I said no. Question—did you piss someone off?】
(End of chapter)