Chapter 239: A Little Minx With Spring in Her Heart

Rumors are a fascinating thing when they start to spread.

With each retelling, the story seems to shift just a little.

Take this one, for example.

It all began when someone saw Jiang the Enchantress helping carry a stretcher outside the Boys’ Dormitory.

That’s exactly what they told the next person.

But by the time it reached a third party, it had already morphed into—

“Hey, did you hear?”

“Someone from our floor confessed to Miss Jiang on the balcony, got rejected, and jumped!”

“What!? Who’s that brave soul?!”

…

“Hey hey, got some juicy gossip for you.”

“What is it?”

“This morning, someone jumped off a building right in front of Jiang the Enchantress!”

“!!!”

…

“Did you hear!? Someone saw Jiang the Enchantress jump off a building this morning!”

“Holy crap! Are you serious?!”

“Totally! If you don’t believe me, go check the Infirmary right now!”

…

And so.

Once the keywords “jumped off a building” and “Jiang the Enchantress” got tangled together.

The rumor spread like wildfire.

In just fifteen minutes.

It had already reached the office of the Grade 11 faculty.

Guo Ming had been wondering why Jiang Ning and Qi Wen hadn’t shown up for their cleaning duty.

If it were just Jiang Ning absent, he wouldn’t have thought much of it.

That girl was notorious for doing whatever she pleased.

Skipping class and handing in fake excuse notes was nothing new for her.

But Qi Wen was different.

She had excellent grades, a sweet disposition, and never gave teachers any trouble.

The model student every teacher adored.

But today.

Even the model student didn’t show up.

That struck Guo Ming as odd.

Just then.

Yang Mei rushed into the office, hurrying over to Guo Ming at his desk.

“Teacher Guo, quick! Go to the Infirmary!”

“One of my students just told me.”

“That Jiang Ning girl apparently fell from the second floor!”

…

Meanwhile.

In Class 2 of Grade 12.

Li Mingwei had arrived early.

He sat at his desk, reciting vocabulary from an English wordbook.

Ever since he found out that Jiang Ning had won an Olympic Gold Medal.

He’d felt a strange pressure settle over him.

So heavy it was suffocating.

Only by burying himself in study, cramming his brain with knowledge, could he ease that pressure even a little.

But Li Mingwei knew this was only temporary.

To truly lift that weight.

He had to give it everything he had.

He needed grades so impressive that his entire family would take notice.

Only then would he have the confidence to say the words “Jiang Ning” in front of his mother.

With that thought.

Li Mingwei opened his pencil case.

Inside was a photo of a girl with a smile as bright as spring blossoms.

His lips curved into a faint smile.

But just then.

Hu Gugu suddenly appeared at the classroom door.

She rushed over to Li Mingwei, face full of urgency.

“Mingwei-ge! Something terrible happened!”

“Jiang Ning jumped off a building!”

———

???

“I jumped off a building?”

“What the hell would I do that for?”

Miss Jiang stared blankly at her Homeroom Teacher in front of her.

Beside her, Qi Wen was equally dumbfounded.

“Teacher Guo… you must’ve misheard.”

“We were just helping carry a classmate with a sprained ankle to the Infirmary!”

A sprained ankle?

Ohhh.

Miss Jiang suddenly remembered.

She jumped in place twice.

“See? I’m totally fine. Nothing to do with me.”

“Really?” Jiang Ning didn’t look like someone who had just fallen from the second floor.

Guo Ming frowned and asked, “Tell me exactly what happened.”

At that, Jiang Ning and Qi Wen exchanged a glance.

Qi Wen began explaining in detail, while Miss Jiang subtly used her foot to nudge the Infirmary door open a bit behind her.

After a while.

Lao Guo finally nodded.

“That student’s alright?”

“From Class 9, right? Okay, I’ll go talk to their Teacher Du later.”

“Want to come in and check on them?” Jiang Ning offered politely.

Guo Ming hesitated, but remembering the pile of cleaning duty assignments he still had to handle, he shook his head.

“Forget it.”

“I won’t disturb them. Let the student rest.”

“As for you two…”

Guo Ming paused, then sighed.

“Just stay here. I’ll assign someone else to your cleaning zone.”

Huh.

There was a silver lining?

Miss Jiang was overjoyed.

If Lao Guo weren’t a guy, she would’ve run up and kissed him.

However.

Her joy didn’t last long.

Ten minutes later.

She stood in the hallway outside the Infirmary, arms crossed, staring at the crowd in front of her.

A sea of people had gathered.

She was speechless.

“So.”

“You all came here because you believed the rumors?”

At her words.

The crowd either gave her sheepish grins or lowered their heads with flushed faces.

Most of the latter were girls who were on friendly terms with Miss Jiang.

Take Luo Shanshan, Sun Qian, and Zhu Hui—her Sister Group. Then there were her roommates like Yuan Lu and Yang Ke, and close friends like Yao Yao and Xia Zhi.

As for the others, most of them were a bunch of random guys who showed up out of nowhere.

Li Mingwei and Hu Gugu were familiar faces, so she didn’t count them.

But those other guys whose names she couldn’t even remember—what the heck were they doing here?

Miss Jiang really wanted to give them a piece of her mind.

But then again, they were just trying to be nice.

In the end, all she could do was sigh and say helplessly,

“You all know the situation now.”

“It has nothing to do with me.”

“So go do whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing.”

As soon as she said that,

The Sister Group was the first to leave.

They only left behind a cheeky “See you at the usual spot for lunch,” then walked off with mischievous grins.

Miss Jiang could already imagine it—how these girls were going to tease her over lunch.

Next to leave were her roommates.

Each of the three had a different expression.

Yuan Lu was waggling her eyebrows, Yang Ke gave a knowing smile, and Mai Wanting looked shy and bashful.

The sight left Miss Jiang feeling a little wistful.

As for the guys who were still hanging around…

Well.

At least they had some self-awareness.

Most of them just said a few words of concern before turning and making a hasty exit.

They probably realized they didn’t exactly have the right to be here. Their words didn’t carry weight—ugh.

What words? More like nonsense.

They were acting like they were her concubines or something.

Miss Jiang pouted.

At that moment,

She turned her attention to Li Mingwei, who was still standing in front of her.

“Xiao Li, do you still need something?”

Hearing that,

Li Mingwei looked like he wanted to say something, but Hu Gugu beat him to it.

“Jiang Ning, since it’s not you, we’ll head out first.”

“If anything comes up, give us a call!”

He made a call-me gesture, then dragged Li Mingwei away.

Yao Yao also said a few soft, caring words before turning to leave as well.

Now,

Only Miss Jiang and Xia Zhi were left in the hallway.

“So…”

“Yeah, I actually had something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh? Go ahead…”

A moment later,

As she watched Xia Zhi’s back disappearing down the corridor,

Miss Jiang rubbed her chin, lost in thought.

When Xu Suihe first faxed over the contract to join “Shi Ning Ji,” she hadn’t realized what kind of ripple effect it would cause.

She’d thought Xu was just another military brat using her allowance to dabble in investments for fun.

But now that several other second-generation elites had shown up,

Miss Jiang finally realized—these second gens were a kind of resource too.

They had connections, they had money.

What they lacked were solid, profitable projects.

And on her end, the one thing she had in abundance was projects.

So…

———

Noon.

Under the Phoenix Tree.

Miss Jiang was treating everyone to lunch.

A group of girls gathered around, happily eating skewers.

From kelp to enoki mushrooms, from fish balls to meatballs…

Each person had a dozen or more skewers piled in front of them.

They were having a blast.

After a while,

Once they were mostly done eating,

Sun Qian suddenly raised her soda and called out,

“Come on, come on!”

“Let’s toast to our gold-medal Jiang Jiang!”

“Next week’s monthly exams—we might catch some of her good luck!”

Hearing that,

Luo Shanshan immediately rolled her eyes.

“Can we not ruin a perfectly good moment by bringing up something depressing?”

Her exaggerated pout made everyone burst into laughter.

Then,

Zhu Hui suddenly asked,

“Jiang Jiang, have you decided which school you want to go to?”

That one question instantly drew everyone’s attention.

Miss Jiang just smiled.

“No rush. I’ll decide in senior year…”

Hearing that, the girls were filled with envy and a touch of jealousy.

Soon after,

They grew curious about what had happened at the Olympiad event.

They bombarded her with questions.

With no other choice,

Miss Jiang picked a few stories to share with them.

But when they heard that Jiang Ning had gotten several phone calls during the evening gala,

Each of them had a look that said, “Of course she did.”

Luo Shanshan even scooted over with a teasing grin.

“Queen of Seduction, how many hearts did you steal this time?”

“Mind sparing one for poor little me to try out?”

That comment

Had the girls laughing uncontrollably.

Even the target of their teasing couldn’t hold back.

She laughed and scolded,

“You horny little minx!”

“One day you’re gonna fall hard for some guy!”

(End of Chapter)

———

Lao Guo (Old Guo) is friendly way of address , Lao Ming is his actual name