Chapter 61: Rewards for Improved Grades...
Chapter 61
Jin Ran agreed.
In fact, Jin Ran had already made up her mind the moment Jiang Mingxu brought it up.
Over the past few months, she and Jiang Xuli have gotten along quite well. Although he is a rebellious and immature teenager, he has a good heart and has helped her a few times. Jin Ran is not made of stone, and now that he is determined to go to Yushan, she is naturally willing to take care of him.
But in reality, he still scoffed, "If Xiao Li does well on the exam, you'll owe me a favor. Now you want my help again? What's the meaning of this?"
It refers to the stakes in the original bet.
Jiang Mingxu curled the corners of his lips and thought about it seriously for a moment: "Otherwise, how about I owe you two favors?"
That's more like it.
The day after stargazing, Jiang Mingxu went back to work.
Because of this, Jin Ran, who felt that she hadn't asked for enough, even suspected that the other party was doing it on purpose.
Although she knew in her heart that Jiang Mingxu's status made it impossible for him to leave the company for an extended period of time, it didn't stop her from secretly speculating about him. She thought, "The client is unreasonable, and the client's woman is even more unreasonable."
Jin Ran used a chicken feather as a token and did whatever she wanted at home, to the point that she completely forgot about a certain matter.
Until Xu Zhen came to her with the travel plans she had prepared...
"I've thought it through. Although it's a relaxing trip, we need to keep the itinerary within limits." Xu Zhen sent over the itinerary while making the phone call. "These provinces are only three or four hours away by high-speed rail. If the interview results are released, we can come back anytime. Do you see any places you'd like to visit?"
Xu Zhen is always decisive and efficient. After deciding to travel together, she quickly selected several destinations and even prepared a detailed itinerary within two days.
That's when Jin Ran suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to tell Xu Zhen about the promise she made to Jiang Mingxu!
Such a flip-flopping is ultimately not good. Jin Ran felt a little guilty and wanted to explain, but when she heard Xu Zhen's enthusiastic voice, she swallowed her words. While struggling with this, she casually opened the schedule and flipped through it. Suddenly, a certain place name caught her eye.
"W City?" Jin Ran's heart skipped a beat. "Isn't that a tourist city?"
“Oh, you mean this?” Xu Zhen explained, “It’s a place that’s recently become popular. Yushan in W City has developed a ‘Fish City’ project, which claims that the most delicious fish are in Yushan. My aunt went there in the first half of the year and said that the fish soup there was especially delicious.”
Jin Ran touched her nose, a little embarrassed: "How about we go to Yushan?"
As soon as she finished speaking, her face flushed. Without hiding anything, she told Jiang Xuli about her trip to W City, without mentioning the specific reasons.
She had made up her mind. It was normal for Xu Zhen to be angry. She was in the wrong this time, and she would definitely make it up to her afterwards.
To everyone's surprise, Xu Zhen breathed a sigh of relief after hearing what she said.
She was also a little embarrassed: "I thought you were going to tell me that there was no time. To be honest, I really wanted to go to Yushan."
As a true foodie, Xu Zhen had a bit of ulterior motive when planning the trip. She originally intended to let Jin Ran make the decision, but unexpectedly, the two of them chose W City by coincidence, which was a pleasant surprise.
After hanging up the phone, Jin Ran held the black screen of her phone, her smile gradually turning into a solemn expression.
A moment later, she turned and went into the study, opened the locked file on the computer, and turned to a page of her notes.
7.12, Yushan, W City.
No wonder she felt it was somewhat familiar; it turned out this place was Jiang Mingxu's hometown.
For some reason, Jin Ran always had a feeling that the original owner of this body seemed to know some things that would happen in the future.
For example, the Jin family went bankrupt, and Jiang Mingxu injured his right arm. Following this logic, could something similar happen to Yushan? Or rather, is there something about Yushan that the original owner of this body was particularly concerned about…?
Jin Ran frowned slightly, her brows gradually twisting into a tight knot. For a moment, she even suspected that the other person was also a transmigrator from a book, just like herself.
A jumble of thoughts swirled in her mind, turning into an inextricable tangle. Finally, she sighed deeply and simply stopped thinking about it.
Well, there's always a way. Anyway, I've already decided to go and take a look. The original owner marked it with a red pen, so it must be something very important.
As noon approached, Jin Ran came out of the study and went to the dressing room to choose clothes.
After briefly setting aside her teacher identity, she was finally able to dress as she pleased. Today, she opted for a high-saturation color-blocked fashion look: a blue striped sleeveless top paired with an avocado green casual skirt, and a light khaki sun hat. She looked exceptionally radiant and charming.
Once in the family car, the driver, Xiao Sun, asked, "Madam, where should we go first?"
Jin Ran thought for a moment and said, "Let's go pick up Xiao Li from school first."
Today is the day Wencheng Middle School announces the results, but in fact, Jin Ran had already obtained the students' results from the homeroom teacher of Class 3 a day earlier. The reason for keeping it a secret was simply to let someone personally experience that surprise—of course, it was definitely not to satisfy her little wicked pleasure.
When they arrived at their destination, people were already coming out of the school. She didn't get out of the car, but asked Xiao Sun to park the car across the street.
On the other side, Jiang Xuli, who had just received the exam paper, was somewhat dazed.
The bright red corrections were striking, the handwriting almost penetrating the paper, and one could almost hear the homeroom teacher's praise: "Although the grades are not being announced, I still want to give special praise to one student who improved from 25th to 9th place, a progress of 16 places. Everyone should learn from Jiang Xuli in the future."
In class, Jiang Xuli was usually kept at a distance by his classmates because of his cold personality and family background. Apart from a few people like Chen Xunliang and Wang Shuya, very few people took the initiative to talk to him.
But today, as soon as the homeroom teacher left the classroom, several girls who usually had no interaction with her timidly surrounded her: "Jiang Xuli... can we borrow your math test paper?"
Jiang Xuli was clearly stunned.
Seeing his hesitation, the girls blushed instantly, feeling both ashamed and afraid: "I'm sorry! If it's inconvenient, then forget it..."
Before she could finish speaking, a clean and tidy exam paper was handed to her. Jiang Xuli simply asked calmly, "When are you returning it to me?"
The girls were overjoyed that he agreed so readily: "Just one minute! We'll take a picture and return it to you right away!"
Seeing how easy he was to talk to, other students who were watching also crowded around to borrow the book. What was originally agreed to be half a minute turned into half an hour in the blink of an eye.
Jiang Xuli was not angry at all. Instead, she said to the last student who borrowed the book, "No rush, I can wait for you for another ten minutes."
This once made the students even faster.
With the release of report cards, students at Wencheng Middle School officially began their summer vacation.
In this final exam, not only did Jiang Xuli make amazing progress, but even Chen Xunliang, who had consistently ranked at the bottom, achieved a leap in improvement.
"My mom absolutely has to buy me those sneakers this time! Last time she refused to buy them for me because she thought my grades were too bad, let's see what excuse she has now!"
Although her tone seemed to be complaining, the close relationship between mother and son was evident in her words. Chen Xunliang had originally wanted to ask Jiang Xuli what gift she wanted, but then he suddenly remembered Uncle Jiang's strict upbringing, and he couldn't recall that Li-ge (Jiang Xuli's son) had never received a reward before...
Chen Xunliang immediately regretted his words and hurriedly changed his tune: "Actually, the reward isn't that interesting. How about we go to the arcade and play for two days and two nights?"
"No," Jiang Xuli surprisingly refused, and the boy's lips curled up slightly. "I'm going to Yushan this summer."
Chen Xunliang was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding: "What are you going to Yushan for?"
Jiang Xuli glanced at him, her tone as nonchalant as could be: "It's nothing, just a reward for improved grades."
Chen Xunliang: "?"
As they were talking, Jiang Xuli, who had just walked out of the school gate, spotted his father's Maybach.
Although Wencheng Middle School is not a prestigious private school, it still has many students from wealthy families. However, this top-of-the-line luxury car still attracted the attention and photos of many students.
"Oh? Uncle Jiang came to pick you up?"
Chen Xunliang curiously peered out.
Jiang Xuli clearly remembered that his father had gone to the company this morning, and the only person who could drive this car was... He felt a slight stirring in his heart, hurriedly said goodbye to Chen Xunliang, and quickly walked to the car. He opened the car door and, sure enough, saw Jin Ran sitting in the passenger seat.
"Finally school's over? Get in the car," Jin Ran said with a smile.
Despite wondering why she would kindly pick her up, Jiang Xuli still habitually sat in the back seat.
The car drove smoothly away from the school, and the carriage fell silent for a moment.
However, after a short while, Jin Ran couldn't stand the loneliness and turned back to chat with Jiang Xuli. Perhaps out of some secret psychology, Jiang Xuli took this opportunity to casually place his schoolbag on his lap, deliberately leaving the zipper undone, so that a corner of the test paper was sticking out.
Jin Ran noticed and, remembering that today was the day students received their results, asked, "How did you do on the exam?"
Jiang Xuli nodded reservedly: "It's alright."
In fact, this result was already an extraordinary performance for him, and a secret sense of pride inevitably welled up inside him. He quietly raised his eyes, waiting for Jin Ran to continue asking questions, but saw that she simply nodded and turned back to chat with the driver about other things.
Jiang Xuli: "..."
The boy's lips tightened. He stared incredulously at the figure in front of him, staring for a while, then a while longer, but Jin Ran never turned around again.
Finally, he shoved the test paper back into his bag with a loud zipper, thinking somewhat defiantly—it was just one improvement in grades, nothing to brag about.
He kept telling himself this, but his mood kept sinking. When the car stopped, he mechanically got out, his mind still on what had just happened. He didn't even notice his surroundings. Then, he was led by Jin Ran to a place.
“I remember when we were having barbecue, you said you wanted to eat hot pot. It just so happens that you improved by twelve places in the monthly exam. At my suggestion, and with your dad's financial support, we decided to have hot pot together as a family to celebrate!”
Standing at the entrance of the hot pot restaurant, Jin Ran announced today's itinerary with a smile.
What does it mean to have a "turnaround" or "a turn for the better"?
What does it mean to see the light at the end of the tunnel?
Jiang Xuli, overwhelmed by the surprise, realized that her head was actually buzzing when she was in a daze.
At that moment, he felt as if he were standing in God's eye, hearing himself ask in a slightly hoarse voice, "How did you know my grades improved?"
Okay, that's not actually the question he wanted to ask.
But he couldn't quite bring himself to ask the question he really wanted to ask, so he simply went with the flow.
Upon hearing this, Jin Ran's eyes darted around, and she seemed a little guilty: "Hey, don't you even know who I am? Your homeroom teacher even came to talk to me about your math grades."
Jiang Xuli didn't notice the woman's unease at all. At this moment, he only had one thought in his mind: it turned out that she wasn't indifferent, but that she already knew.
She even remembered his preferences and quietly brought him to the celebration.
The gloom that had been building up in his heart was suddenly blown away by a gust of wind. He pursed his lips, and despite trying to control himself, the corners of his mouth still curled up.
Half an hour later, Jiang Mingxu also arrived.
This hot pot restaurant is near Mingji Technology. The three of us ordered a half-and-half pot, one with mushrooms and the other with spicy, and also got a lot of meat and vegetable dishes.
When it was time to order drinks, Jiang Xuli suddenly spoke up: "Want some milk tea? It's on me."
Faced with the curious looks from the two, he added somewhat awkwardly, "It's only fair to reciprocate... and your math teaching is really useful, so my good performance this time is also thanks to you."
In just a few words, his face turned as red as a persimmon. Jin Ran pretended not to notice the boy's discomfort; children sometimes need to have their pride.
She raised her hand without hesitation: "Okay, then I'll order the most expensive one, with all the toppings!"
Seeing her reaction, Jiang Xuli relaxed as well, and then, upon hearing the request, couldn't help but retort, "Are you drinking porridge?"
"It's none of your business. Are you going to invite them or not?"
"Please, please, please!" He pursed his lips, almost amused and annoyed by her taking every opportunity to fleece him. When he turned to his father, his tone became reserved again: "Dad... would you like something to drink?"
Jiang Mingxu pondered for a moment, then calmly said amidst his son's nervousness, "Give me a cup of porridge too."
Jiang Xuli: "..."
Finally, the delivery guy brought three identical cups of "Family Reunion" milk tea porridge.
After finishing their meal, the sun had just passed its zenith. Jiang Mingxu needed to return to work. As he was leaving, he looked at Jiang Xuli, who seemed hesitant to speak, and said, "Yushan is not as good as home. If you go there, there won't be as many people taking care of you, and your food, clothing, and daily necessities won't be the same as they are now. Have you thought it through?"
This means that Jiang Xuli has agreed to go back to her hometown.
Understanding this, Jiang Xuli breathed a sigh of relief. As for the problem his father mentioned, fifteen or sixteen-year-old high school students are fearless and dare to claim to be number one. Poor living conditions and lack of care are not worth mentioning in his eyes. If his father could grow up in that place, what could he not adapt to?
"I've made up my mind," he replied decisively.
Jiang Mingxu nodded and didn't say anything more: "I'll have Assistant Wang buy you tickets."
"you?"
Jin Ran, who was standing next to her, suddenly laughed: "That's right, it's us. I'm going to Yushan with your teacher, Ms. Xu. Would you mind coming along?"
Jiang Xuli glanced at the two people in front of him, feeling that there was something he didn't know about. Finally, he muttered helplessly, "Whatever, it's none of your business."
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