Chapter 127: A Blooming Young Lady

March.

Early spring.

All things were awakening; the animals that had been in hibernation were now crawling out one after another with each successive rumble of spring thunder.

Among them was a creature named Luo Shanshan.

For some reason, as the weather warmed up, this milk cow’s energy seemed to get better by the day.

No matter what class they had in the morning, she never took naps at noon and would drag one of the girls from their group out to the track to run.

At first, Jiang Ning thought the girl was lovestruck—maybe she had a crush on one of the handsome guys who jogged on the track.

But after running with her a few times, she realized there weren’t any hot guys to speak of—only that she herself had gotten caught up in a mess.

She was almost mistaken by a second-year girl for trying to steal her boyfriend.

Dear god.

That girl didn’t even stop to consider what her boyfriend looked like.

He was 180 cm tall, but those legs were so skinny they were nearly the same width as Jiang Ning’s.

In the end, Jiang Ning backed out and swapped in Sun Qian to take her place.

Sure enough, the “flat-screen tablet” (Sun Qian) got the job done. Just two days later, she coaxed the truth out of Luo Shanshan.

Turned out it was because her dad said she was getting fat and told her to lose weight—promising to buy her a computer if she lost ten pounds.

A computer.

The other girls were all jealous.

That included Jiang Ning.

Jiang Ning really wanted to have a computer at home so she could play StarCraft, Red Alert, and maybe watch some artsy movies now and then.

Unfortunately… no money.

More precisely, her mom had no money.

Even though her mom had now opened a store and started doing business, that 8-square-meter shop wasn’t exactly booming.

It had been open for over a week now.

The first couple of days were okay—friends and old coworkers came by to support and she made a few hundred yuan.

But as time went on, acquaintances couldn’t show up every day.

The daily revenue barely covered the rent.

Utilities had to be paid out of pocket.

Lately, this had her mom quite worried.

She would ask Jiang Ning now and then if there was any way to boost business.

But Jiang Ning had never run a clothing store before.

All she could do was apply some chicken shop logic and suggest trying a discount promotion sign.

It worked—business did improve a bit.

But because everything was on sale, there wasn’t much profit to be made. It was all effort for the sake of popularity.

Even so, Jiang Ning comforted her mom.

Take it slow.

Don’t rush.

In contrast to her mom’s struggling shop, Jiang Ning’s own ventures were booming.

Not to mention the two old locations—even the two new ones were pulling in daily revenue comparable to what the station store made when it first opened.

For a time, Jiang Ning suspected there might be some shady manipulation going on with the sales numbers.

She spent a few days checking both shops carefully but found no issues.

Only then did she gradually relax.

On top of that, she discovered something interesting.

While sitting in at the shops, she noticed quite a few people from other restaurants dropping by to buy food.

Some of them even looked around like they were searching for someone.

After asking Tian Wenhao, she learned that they were people curious about her shop—wondering how it had managed to survive so long under the pressure of a major local association.

They wanted to see if there was some kind of secret to her success.

This left Jiang Ning both amused and exasperated.

She reminded her cousin to be careful about maintaining privacy and didn’t bother with it further.

Actually, Jiang Ning still had one more thing to deal with.

Those suppliers who had sided with the association to pressure her before—now they were all coming back.

One after another, they showed up with guilt-ridden faces, begging for forgiveness, which only disgusted Jiang Ning.

But business is business.

You can’t afford to offend people too deeply.

So aside from Old Wang—the one who had actually cut off her supplies—the rest had renegotiated their prices and signed new contracts.

As for Old Wang…

Jiang Ning tilted her head, the droning voice of the history teacher in her ear, eyes drifting out the window.

Honestly, she hadn’t figured out how to deal with this chicken supplier who had broken off their contract.

She could just kick him out, sure.

But her cousin’s farm had already reached its supply limit.

If they cut off Old Wang and her cousin’s supply had any hiccup, then all of her shops would suffer.

So Old Wang had to stay—for now.

But the old terms? Definitely not happening. Price and contract terms would have to be completely reworked.

The only question now was how exactly to do that.

—

That afternoon.

Biology class.

When the biology teacher walked in carrying two plastic human organ models, the class let out a collective “waaah” of excitement.

Like a bunch of country bumpkins.

Jiang Ning snorted in disdain and rolled her eyes.

Then her gaze involuntarily drifted toward a certain brotherly part of the plastic model, and she found herself sighing with melancholy.

If there’s no meat to eat… then come back.

She had so much meat around her now.

She could guarantee a different one every day of the week, no repeats.

“Jiang Jiang!”

“Jiang Jiang?”

“What are you spacing out for?”

Her daydream was abruptly cut short. She shot the moo cow a side-eye.

Luo Shanshan had no idea what Jiang Ning had just been thinking, and leaned over with a weird grin on her face.

“Jiang Jiang, do you think that thing really looks like that?”

“You’re really curious?” Jiang Ning’s tone turned ambiguous.

“It can swell up to the size of an arm, you know.”

An arm!?

Luo Shanshan jumped in shock.

She looked down at her own arm and compared.

Her face turned pale.

“Th-th-then if that thing…”

She looked down between her legs, then shook her head furiously.

“No way, no way!”

“That’d kill someone!!”

“So do you still want a boyfriend in the future?” Jiang Ning teased, voice full of mischief.

At that moment, all of Luo Shanshan’s earlier curiosity vanished.

Still shaking her head non-stop, she even wore a look of lingering fear.

But then, as if something occurred to her, she asked in confusion:

“Then… then how do other people… how do they handle it?”

At this moment—

Before Jiang Ning could keep bluffing, Sun Qian from behind suddenly cut in:

“Cow, you really don’t believe it when people say you’ve got boobs but no brains.”

“Jiang Jiang is obviously bullshitting you.”

“She’s a pure and proper maiden who’s never even held a man’s hand—how could she possibly know anything about that?”

Like hell that could be tolerated.

Jiang the Old Man raised an eyebrow, ready to fire back.

But just as the words reached her lips, she stopped.

Fire back how?

Should she tell them—

That she had been peeing standing up for over thirty years?

That she knew the male anatomy better than the female biology teacher on the podium?

Say that out loud and these girls would probably think she was just a lunatic throwing a tantrum.

Damn it.

Jiang Ning turned her face aside, fuming.

Absolutely livid.

That anger simmered until Sun Qian came over to apologize, finally soothing her a little.

But Jiang Ning wasn’t going to let her off that easy.

Her eyes lit up mischievously.

Leaning close to Sun Qian’s ear, she whispered softly:

“Call me Daddy, and I’ll stop being mad.”

But her ploy failed.

Instead, Sun Qian took the opportunity to swipe a hand across Jiang Ning’s face.

That really pissed Jiang the Old Man off.

If it weren’t for class still being in session, she honestly would’ve gone full rage-mode right then and there.

——————

Nighttime.

Back home.

As soon as Jiang Ning stepped inside, she saw her mom hunched over the couch, poring over the accounting book.

Jiang Ning leaned over to take a look.

March 16, Friday.

Printed red short-sleeve, XXL: 140 yuan

Woolen orange floral long-sleeve, XXXL: 160 yuan

Patterned cashmere short-sleeve, XXL: 150 yuan

Two pairs of cotton socks: 4 yuan
Oh?

Today’s business was decent.

Sold two more pairs of socks than yesterday.

Made an extra four yuan.

Jiang Ning was just about to say a few words of praise, but when her eyes drifted lower to the next part of the record, her expression twitched.

Expenses:

Utilities: 0.7 yuan

Lunch: 3 yuan

One pair of gifted stockings: 2 yuan

Total: 12 yuan
Watching her mom sigh over every yuan, Jiang Ning took a deep breath and tapped the utilities row with her finger.

“Mom, how much are the utilities at our shop?”

“Seventy cents.”

“Then how did you end up with seven yuan?”

Her mom didn’t get it at first. But after staring at the numbers for a bit, realization dawned:

“Aha! No wonder.”

“I was wondering why the total loss was a few yuan higher.”

“I ran the numbers several times and couldn’t figure it out.”

“So that’s why.”

Watching her mom struggle for so long over a few yuan made Jiang Ning feel both amused and a bit pained.

She knew all the purchase prices of the clothes in the shop.

If something could sell for around 150, they were at least making 50 or 60 yuan profit.

But when you included rent and all the other expenses, they were really just making a few dozen yuan per day.

A few hundred a month, at best.

Honestly, with just that much—

Any one of Jiang Ning’s shops could earn in a single day what her mom toiled a year for.

But she couldn’t explain it to her.

At least not for the next year or two.

Jiang Ning’s plan was to wait until after senior year of high school—after the pressure of the college entrance exam—before she laid everything out for her mom.

Then, if Mom wanted to run a shop, she could.

If she didn’t, Jiang Ning would just give her the money so she could enjoy herself.

So for now…

Mom, just keep running your little 8-square-meter shop.

Half an hour later.

Back in her room.

Jiang Ning shut the door, turned off the light, stripped down and climbed into bed.

Just like usual, she curled up under the covers, pulled out her phone, and checked the day’s messages.

【Report, boss: Today’s station shop sales – 47,870 yuan; university shop – 27,988 yuan; Jinrui shop – 39,837 yuan; Times Square shop – 42,116 yuan. Report complete, over!】
—from Paparazzi Wang Jianguo, half an hour ago.

Looking at that message, Jiang Ning, for once, wasn’t too focused on the numbers.

Instead, she was wondering—

With Miss Paparazzi’s skills, wasn’t it kind of a waste to have her just doing daily sales reports?

Maybe she should assign her some other tasks too?

【Jiang Ning, are you home? It’s spring—the temperature swings a lot between morning and night. Remember to wear a jacket when riding.】
【Jiang Ning, did you know? Ever since my dad got promoted, both the boys and girls at school keep trying to cozy up to me. It’s exhausting.】
【Jiang Ning, why are there so many people in this world who care so much about power and status?】
—from the pure-hearted warrior Li Mingwei, one hour ago.

Honestly.

That kid Li sends her messages every day. Even though she rarely replies, he doesn’t seem to care.

Jiang Ning really admired that kind of devoted attitude.

If only… it weren’t directed at her, she’d admire it even more.

【Xiao Jiang Ning, it’s me, Liao Liao. Top Entertainment has a new “Strong Joy Project” and plans to promote your virtual idol. I’ll have Xiao Naiyu bring you the contract details.】
—from city beauty Liao Liao, two hours ago.

“Strong Joy Project”?

They want to promote my paper wife?

What kind of stunt is Top Entertainment trying to pull this time?
(End of chapter)