Chapter 133 – Jiang Ning Hates Pretty Boys

Time flew by.

Like a stream, the days drifted into the end of April.

At the end of the month, Jiang Ning had just passed the midterm assessments and earned a month of leave. She hadn’t even had time to celebrate before receiving news that Du Xinrui was leaving.

“Didn’t the semester start in May?”
“Isn’t it a bit early to go now?”

In the multimedia classroom, Jiang Ning stood by the piano, looking at the gentle and elegant young woman in front of her with confusion.

Seeing this, Du Xinrui simply smiled and ran her fingers across the piano keys.

“Did you think I’d just clock in on the first day?”
“There’s registration, finding a place to live, getting familiar with the area—those all take time.”

“But…”

Jiang Ning opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say. She just hung her head in disappointment, silent.

Seeing this, Du Xinrui smiled and gently took Jiang Ning’s hand.

“Alright, Jiang Ning, I’m only going to study. It’s not like I’m never coming back.”
“Besides, it’s just two years.”
“I’ll be back just in time to see you take the college entrance exam.”

Feeling the softness in her hand, and breathing in that mature, feminine scent, Jiang Ning suddenly thought of something. She let out a low snort.

“Miss Du.”
“I’ve heard foreigners have body odor.”
“Especially the good-looking ones—they reek.”
“And those rich ones who drive sports cars, always chatting you up about hobbies and interests? Be extra careful.”
“Being flirty is in their nature!”

Du Xinrui could hear exactly what Jiang Ning was implying. She didn’t say anything, just smiled and brushed a strand of hair from Jiang Ning’s face.

Such gentle eyes, such soft movements.

Something itched in Jiang Ning’s heart. She couldn’t resist anymore and threw herself into Du Xinrui’s arms.

“I’ll miss you…” she murmured.

“Mm, I will too…”

At that moment in the classroom, bathed in the hazy glow of the setting sun, a quiet tenderness lingered, wrapping the two in an unspoken longing.

—

The next day, Du Xinrui left.

Alone, with her suitcase in hand, she ate the breakfast Aunt Hu made. Quietly, she walked away. She didn’t even ask Wang Jianguo to help carry her suitcase to the gate.

When Jiang Ning found out, she didn’t say much.

But inside, she felt a little empty.

Thinking back to yesterday afternoon in the multimedia room—Du Xinrui had refused the bank card Jiang Ning tried to give her.

That made her inexplicably unhappy.

“Hey Jiang Jiang, why do you think Miss Du suddenly decided to go study abroad?”
After finishing eye exercises, Luo Shanshan hugged a piglet pillow and voiced her confusion.

“Who knows.”
From the back row, Sun Qian chimed in with a guess:

“Maybe she thought you all were just too hard to teach.”
“Especially you.”

Her aim locked in, Sun Qian pointed right at Luo Shanshan and righteously added:

“Your singing sounds like a bear howling.”

“Who are you talking about!?” Luo Shanshan raised an eyebrow and flung her pillow at Sun Qian.

But her hand slipped.

The pillow flew into the group of boys in the back row.

A chorus of “whoa!” erupted, like frogs croaking in a pond.

The class instantly turned chaotic.

Meanwhile, Jiang Ning, seated at her desk, propped her head up with one hand and clicked her tongue.

“Hui…”
“Why do you think Shanshan and Sun Qian never get along?”

“Maybe it’s a case of complementary body types?” Zhu Hui replied.

That answer set Jiang Ning’s imagination off. She gave Zhu Hui a big thumbs-up.

In truth, Du Xinrui’s departure didn’t stir up much reaction. The school didn’t even make an announcement.

It wasn’t until the next music class that students realized their teacher had been replaced by a very fair-skinned male teacher.

“Hello, students.”
“I’m your new music teacher, Wu Ming.”
“Wu as in the number five, Ming as in bright.”
“I specialize in bel canto and vocal performance. If anyone’s interested in developing in that direction, feel free to talk to me after class.”

After speaking, this new music teacher gave the class a light bow.

It took no time at all for Sun Qian, known for being boy-crazy, to switch allegiance and gush at Jiang Ning:

“Wow! This teacher is so handsome and refined!”
“Totally my type!”
“I hereby declare he’s now my number one teacher!”

Well, that was fast.

One self-introduction and a fair face, and he’d already knocked every other teacher off the podium.

If Ma Hongwei, who prided himself on being the hottest teacher at No.1 High, heard this, he’d probably throw ten math test papers at her on the spot.

But what truly surprised Jiang Ning was—

It wasn’t just Sun Qian who was taken with the new music teacher.

Many other girls praised his looks too.

Even Qi Wen, who was always indifferent toward guys, looked slightly shy when the new teacher talked to her.

That didn’t sit well with Jiang Ning.

For the first time ever, she found herself on the same side as the boys in class, glaring at the pretty-boy teacher with open hostility.

She kept staring at him through the whole class.

And naturally, she got held back after.

“Student Jiang Ning.”
“Do you have a problem with the teacher?”

“No! Teacher! I think you’re great!” Jiang Ning’s ability to lie with a straight face had always been top-tier.

Wu Ming stared at her for a few seconds.

Her expression was so sincere, so pure.

After a moment, he seemed to give up trying to dig deeper and changed the subject with a warm smile:

“Jiang Ning, you’re the class’s arts and entertainment rep. I assume you’re also the music class rep?”

“Excuse me?” Jiang Ning blinked, then immediately shook her head.

“Sorry, Mr. Wu.”
“I’m just the arts rep. Our music class rep is Nie Yao.”

“Really?” The pretty-boy teacher looked surprised.

“You mean the short girl with red-rimmed glasses sitting in the front row?”

Jiang Ning nodded at his description.

“Alright then. Could you please ask Nie Yao to come see me?”

—

To Jiang Ning, this kind of teacher change was just a minor blip in daily life.

Something that would be forgotten quickly.

She had too many things on her plate these days.

School during the day.

Running back and forth between a few shops during lunch break.

Helping her mom tally the accounts at the clothing store in the evenings.

Honestly—

That ten thousand yuan worth of inventory?

No matter how many times you count it, it’s not going to magically become twenty thousand.

But her mom was endlessly enthusiastic.

Always hunched over the receipts and order forms, calculating line by line.

Like today.

“Lace-trimmed, rhinestone-studded rose-red short sleeve, XL two pieces, 2XL one piece, 3XL three pieces…”

“Green knit cardigans, size 2XL, two pieces… 3XL, two pieces, 4XL…”

Jiang Ning was holding a stack of purchase orders, reading out the sizes one by one.

Beside her, Tian Cuilan was hunched over the table, checking each item against the list.

Just then—

Jiang Ning spotted a cashmere sweater so large it looked like a bedsheet, and couldn’t help but say:

“Mom… someone who can fit into this kind of sweater…”

“In ancient times, they’d at least have been some kind of fearsome bandit, right?”

But before she could finish the thought,

a smack from her biological mother’s hanger forced her to stop speculating and focus instead on hanging up the ‘bedsheet.’

Looking at the sheer size of the sweater—which almost covered half of their balcony window—

Jiang Ning couldn’t help but click her tongue in amazement.

Then—

Inventory check completed.

Miss Jiang glanced at the ledger.

With just a glance, she noticed something was off.

Apparently—

Business over the past two days had been surprisingly good.

There were only 113 pieces of clothing left in stock.

You had to know that just three days ago during the last inventory check,

there were 130 items in stock.

Down 17 in three days…

That’s an average of six pieces sold per day.

Each one brings in roughly 70–80 to just over 100 in profit.

Which means they’re making six to seven hundred a day.

Two thousand in three days.

Well, damn.

Mom’s shop’s doing great.

The ratio of shop area to sales is absolutely wild.

No wonder Mom’s face has been glowing these past few days.

Jiang Ning had thought her mom was dating again.

Turns out, it was the shop making bank.

Actually, Rich Lady Jiang had been making a ton of money lately.

Like, a lot.

Not even mentioning the two older stores—

Just the two new ones that opened on March 1st had been booming from the start.

Whether it was dine-in or delivery,

each of them was doing daily sales of 30,000 to 40,000.

Even at a conservative 40% profit margin, the two new shops were bringing in over 30,000 in profit per day.

Add to that the station shop and the university store—

Over the past two months,

Miss Jiang’s bank account had already crossed the two-million mark.

So now,

Jiang Ning was facing a new problem:

How exactly should she spend all this money?

(End of chapter)