After a while, Xia Shanshan went into the kitchen to cook.

Jiang Xia opened the company group chat and casually asked his two employees how they did on the exam.

Shortly after the message was sent out, Wang Ming called.

"Old Jiang, Yingying probably didn't do well on her exam. She's really upset right now. I've sent her a lot of messages, but she hasn't replied."

Hearing this, Jiang Xia wasn't surprised at all, since Shen Ying had become a real estate salesperson in her previous life because of her poor grades.

Although Lin Yanwan had tried her best to help her improve her grades, when it comes to studying, in addition to hard work, talent is even more important.

Haven't you seen many people who repeated a year of high school only to get worse scores on their first attempt?

"Don't try to comfort her now. Let her calm down. A person's value cannot be measured entirely by their achievements," he said.

Wang Ming's eyes lit up: "It has to be you. I'll copy this line and find you later."

"..."

Before he could even speak, Wang Ming hurriedly hung up the phone, presumably to go and lecture Shen Ying again.

But why doesn't that blockhead think about it properly? When people are extremely sad, they can't listen to reason. It would be better to tell her, "I also failed the exam," which might be more likely to resonate with her.

Sure enough, less than three minutes later, Wang Ming called again.

"Old Jiang, Yingying responded to me, but told me to get lost."

"...If it were me, I'd tell you to get lost too." Jiang Xia felt a slight toothache. Couldn't this kid ever finish listening to what he was saying?

There's a reason why I was completely fooled by a pretty but useless woman in my past life.

"Why?" Wang Ming asked in a muffled voice.

"It's simple. Because Shen Ying's grades aren't as good as yours, any comfort you offer will be subconsciously interpreted as her showing off, and she won't listen to anything you say. It'll be fine once this period passes."

Jiang Xia said earnestly, "Remember, you're most likely to win a girl's heart by offering a helping hand when she's at her most vulnerable."

"I understand, but not completely." Wang Ming scratched his head. "Isn't this her most vulnerable moment?"

"Didn't you see her curl up like a hedgehog to protect herself? Just like a boss's invincibility, this is called the human self-protection mechanism. After a while, when the protection mechanism fails and the deeper core is exposed, that's when she's most vulnerable."

Wang Ming finally understood: "As expected of you, I would call you a modern-day Casanova. No wonder you won over your sister-in-law so quickly back then."

Jiang Xia secretly twitched the corner of her mouth. The real reason was that the two were husband and wife in their previous life. Even if they decided to divorce back then, they still had feelings for each other after being reborn, and their old feelings rekindled. Otherwise, how could it have happened so quickly?

"Alright, back to you, how did the exam go?"

"Damn it, you were right! I did an exceptionally good job and scored exactly 610 points, ranking 1065th in the city. Now I'm a sure thing to get into the Central Academy of Fine Arts."

Jiang Xia could almost picture Wang Ming's excited laughter coming from the phone.

"Alright, no need to pay wages now," he said with a smile.

"A bet's a bet, but I'm especially happy today. My drawing efficiency has even improved a lot. So what if I'm working for free? Fine, I'll fight!" Wang Ming said with great spirit.

"How did you do on your exam?"

"Sigh, it was just so-so, I didn't perform well." Jiang Xia sighed.

"Oh? Tell me, if you don't do as well as me on the test, I'm going to laugh at you mercilessly." Wang Ming laughed out loud without any attempt to hide his laughter.

His score was an exceptional performance. Although Jiangxia had surpassed him in the first mock exam, the college entrance exam is still the college entrance exam, and it's already quite good to maintain a normal performance.

"It wasn't that great. He only scored 648 points, ranking 29th in the city. He's a full 9 points behind my child. Sigh, it's such a failure."

"Holy crap!! 648? You motherfucker...you motherfucker..." Wang Ming's eyes widened, and he kept repeating the same sentence. You can imagine how shocked he was.

"How the hell did you score so high?! You call this just average? You call this not performing well? You were just waiting to blunder in front of me so you could show off, weren't you? How could you be such a jerk!"

Jiang Xia chuckled: "When I said I didn't perform well, I meant I should have scored higher. My Chinese score was lower than the other two subjects, and my mom almost scolded me to death."

"...Damn it, I just really want to smash you to death with a hammer, you bastard!" Wang Ming said speechlessly.

I thought I had performed exceptionally well and that my overall score would surpass Jiang Xia's. But I never expected that he would also perform exceptionally well, and even better than me.

Well, he has a beautiful girlfriend, he's started an animation company and is now doing incredibly well. What kind of protagonist wish fulfillment story is this?

The key point is that he's never seen this guy reading or doing homework, so why is he the only one who gets this opportunity?

"Don't be obsessed with me, I'm just a legend." Jiang Xia said, using the most popular internet slang at the time, and unexpectedly, the meaning was just right.

"Get lost, thank you so much, now I can understand how Yingying feels."

"You're welcome."

"...Anything else? If not, I'm hanging up. I'm going to go draw."

"Excellent, turning grief into strength, the company needs people like you right now..."

Before Jiang Xia could even utter the word "talent," Wang Ming hung up the phone without hesitation, picked up his paintbrush again, and immediately began his grueling painting session.

At least Jiang Xia was right about one thing: turning grief into strength will increase the speed of painting, won't it?

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