Chapter 240: Truly Beautiful

Guan Dan was a reporter for Jiangzhou TV Station.

She had been in the industry for six years now.

Over the years, she had covered countless interviews.

This time, the station had assigned her to interview a national gold medalist in the Math Olympiad.

A girl who had just started her second year of high school.

At first, she treated it like just another routine assignment.

But when she received the interviewee’s profile and saw how stunning the girl looked, her journalistic instincts immediately kicked in.

After all,

A beautiful girl,

Was already a story in itself.

And if she also carried the label of a top student?

With just a little bit of packaging on her part,

The buzz would be off the charts.

Guan Dan had been working on the education channel ever since she joined the station. She had long been itching for a change of pace.

Now, she realized this might be her opportunity.

If she played her cards right…

She might just climb a little higher.

Maybe even…

At that thought,

Guan Dan called out to the young man fiddling with equipment in the corner.

“Brother Ding! Do me a favor!”

“Talk to me,” the young man replied without even lifting his head.

“Can you help me gather all the recent news about Jiangzhou Middle School?”

Half an hour later.

Guan Dan stared at the six newspapers in front of her, dumbfounded.

“This is it?”

“Yup.”

“You sure it’s Jiangzhou Middle School? Not Jiangzhou First Kindergarten?”

At that, the young man let out a soft chuckle.

He opened one of the papers and pointed to a tiny corner section on the back page.

“Take a look.”

Guan Dan followed his finger.

【Warm congratulations to the successful conclusion of Jiangzhou Middle School’s 32nd Annual Sports Meet】

Then,

Unconvinced, she flipped through the rest of the papers.

【Warm welcome to the city’s education supervisors for their visit and guidance】

【Celebrating the 54th anniversary of Jiangzhou No.1 High School’s founding】

………

After skimming through them,

It wasn’t just that the news was useless—it was completely useless.

She couldn’t understand it.

This was a provincial key high school.

And yet there wasn’t a single piece of news worth hyping up.

Still,

Guan Dan wasn’t the type to give up easily.

She thought for a moment.

“Brother Ding.”

“You know where to find the kind of news that really grabs attention?”

Grabs attention?

More like sensationalizes it.

Ding Hai thought for a moment, then actually came up with something.

“Wait a sec.”

Before long,

Guan Dan saw Ding Hai walk over with a stack of brightly colored tabloids and drop them on her desk.

“There should be something useful in here.”

At his words,

Guan Dan randomly pulled out one of the papers.

【Luo Family’s “entangled battle” among three members nearing dramatic conclusion】

【Shocking! Female VP of Xinglan Group secretly raising a ‘pet’】

【Man at Feibi Bar grabs his balls in public, onlookers wince in sympathy】

………

One sensational headline after another.

Guan Dan’s face flushed just reading them.

But honestly,

These tabloid headlines were undeniably eye-catching.

The more she read, the more intrigued she became.

Before she knew it, she had flipped through several pages.

Then she remembered what she was actually looking for.

She quickly flipped back and focused on finding anything related to Jiangzhou Middle School.

Sure enough,

In a tabloid called 【Campus Stories】, she found an article about a Jiangzhou School Beauty Pageant.

Looking closer, it was even scored by category.

Appearance, facial features, aura, intelligence, personality, talents, fashion sense, family background, character, social skills—each rated out of ten.

Then the scores were totaled up.

And ranked accordingly.

“Pretty thorough,”

Guan Dan muttered, flipping to the first entry in the report—it was the girl she was looking for.

“Jiang Ning.”

“Jiangzhou No.1 High School.”

“Appearance: 9, Figure: 9, Aura: 9, Intelligence: 10, Personality: 5, Talents: 5, Fashion Sense: 4, Family Background: 4, Character: 8, Social Skills: 6…”

“Total: 69, ranked tenth.”

That…

Guan Dan didn’t quite know how to evaluate this girl.

Especially after reading the reasoning behind the scores.

The high marks for looks and figure were expected.

But the low scores…

Personality: Unpredictable

Talents: Virtually none

Fashion Sense: Obsessed with long pants

Family Background: A burden

Social Skills: Limited

Overall Comment: Truly beautiful

Reading that, Guan Dan was momentarily speechless.

But just from that blue-background ID photo of her in a white shirt,

She could easily rival the top anchors at their station.

Which made her suddenly very curious about the other nine girls on the list.

“Gao Jingyi.”

“Jiangzhou No.2 High School.”

“Total score: 71, ranked ninth.”

……

“Xiong Lingling.”

“Jiangzhou No.1 High School.”

“Total score: 73, ranked eighth.”

As she flipped through the pages,

Guan Dan noticed something interesting.

Among the top-ranked girls,

More than half wore elaborate makeup and dressed stylishly.

With her trained eye,

She could tell that at least half of them weren’t even as attractive as that ninth-ranked Gao Jingyi.

That girl’s long legs alone could wipe out the competition.

Let alone that tenth-place girl.

Guan Dan even started to wonder if the ranking was listed in reverse.

She skipped straight to the end.

To the one ranked first.

“Ye Weiwei.”

“Jiangzhou No. 2 High School.”

“Looks: 8, Figure: 8, Presence: 9, Knowledge: 8, Personality: 7, Talent: 9, Fashion Sense: 9, Family Background: 10, Conduct: 8, Social Skills: 6…”

“Total Score: 82, Ranked First.”

Finally, a perfect ten in one of the categories.

And there was even a detailed description for that perfect score.

Guan Dan looked closely.

Eldest daughter of the Sanmu Group?

Seriously?

If that’s true…

No wonder the family background score was a ten.

Actually, it’s a shame the maximum is capped at ten. Otherwise…

Originally, Guan Dan thought that this was the most important piece of gossip in the whole tabloid.

But when she flipped to the next page,

She found something that truly caught her off guard.

——————

2:00 PM.

The Jiangzhou TV station van arrived right on time at Jiangzhou Middle School.

As soon as they got off,

A balding, short middle-aged man approached Guan Dan with a broad smile on his face.

“Hello, hello, are you Reporter Guan?”

Guan Dan smiled politely and nodded.

“Mr. Liu, is it?”

“Oh, don’t call me Mr. Liu. Just call me Teacher Liu.”

Liu Liang spoke warmly, gesturing for Guan Dan and the cameraman behind her to follow him.

“Then I’ll trouble you, Teacher Liu.”

Guan Dan responded, then exchanged a glance with the cameraman, Ding Hai.

They followed Liu Liang into the school.

It was class time.

There were hardly any students walking around.

With the lush greenery, the crunch of leaves underfoot, and the sound of students reading aloud in the classrooms,

Guan Dan was hit with a rare wave of nostalgia.

It felt like she had gone back in time.

Back to ten years ago.

That summer before graduation.

The scenery around her had been just like this.

Tall trees, blue skies.

And the youth walking toward her.

No, wait.

It was a girl with skin like porcelain, bright eyes and white teeth, and a graceful figure, her ponytail swaying behind her.

She walked lightly, weaving through the trees.

With each step,

She moved like a butterfly in flight, her skirt fluttering with her motion.

Beneath the hem of her skirt were two slender, porcelain-white legs.

Long and straight.

Not a single crease on her knees.

“That’s her—”

“Jiang Ning,” Liu Liang confirmed.

In that instant, Guan Dan recalled the evaluation from the tabloid.

And murmured under her breath,

“She really is…”

“Stunning.”

Meanwhile,

On the second floor of the teaching building,

Class 5, Grade 11, during self-study.

Bored out of his mind, Gao Ye sat rocking in his chair, staring out the window.

Suddenly,

His eyes caught something.

He craned his neck for a better look down below.

And in the next second,

His eyes widened in shock.

Elsewhere,

On the third floor of the same building,

Class 8, Grade 11.

Luo Shanshan was joking around with her deskmate when someone suddenly exclaimed, “The enchantress is wearing a skirt!”

In an instant,

Several students turned their heads toward the window in unison.

Luo Shanshan wasn’t surprised.

She stood up and looked outside.

And then—

She saw a familiar figure.

Standing under a phoenix tree below.

Wearing the school’s blue-and-white uniform.

Being interviewed by the TV station.

“She… she…”

“She’s wearing a skirt?!”

In that moment,

The news that “Jiang the Enchantress is wearing a skirt” spread like wildfire.

Even more shocking than the time she almost jumped off the building.

Yet amid all this,

Miss Jiang herself was completely unaware.

At the moment, all she knew was that something inside her skirt was itching.

She couldn’t tell if it was a loose thread or if the hot pants she wore underneath were just too tight.

Miss Jiang felt like her butt was being strangled.

It was incredibly uncomfortable.

And right then,

The cameraman gave an OK gesture.

The pretty reporter turned toward her and held the microphone up to Miss Jiang’s mouth.

Looking at the thick, round mic,

Miss Jiang instinctively leaned back a little.

But by then,

The reporter had already asked her question.

“Jiang Ning, may I ask, what was going through your mind at the moment your results were announced?”

“I was pretty calm, I guess.”

“Was it confidence in your own abilities?”

“No, I just hadn’t fully woken up yet…”

…

“In your daily life, how would you describe your personality? Introverted? Extroverted?”

“A mix of both.”

…

The reporter fired off several questions in a row.

From her daily routine to study tips, Miss Jiang answered each one in an orderly and composed manner.

Everything was going smoothly.

Just when Miss Jiang thought the interview would end without a hitch,

The reporter’s questions began to veer off course…

(End of Chapter)