Chi Wan paid the one hundred and eighty tuition fee, agreed with Zhang Lei on the class schedule, and left the martial arts dojo.
"Sigh, I thought a big client came in. Never thought I'd lose my shirt on this," Zhang Lei muttered, sighing as he watched her retreating figure walk away.
His lonely, hunched figure slowly made its way into the inner hall, and he dialed the little financier's number.
"Hello, Azhi, do you see anything else you want to learn?"
"What about that brat Yan Xu? His judo is a complete mess, shouldn't he brush up on it?"
"Alright, I'll spell it out. Your master is about to sleep on the streets..."
……
Chi Wan felt the one hundred and five left in her pocket after paying the tuition, took a breath, and felt a surge of irritation in her heart.
She muttered to herself, "I need to find a way to make some money."
She slowly walked back to the residential complex and arrived home.
The television in the living room was turned up loud. A thin, sickly boy was lying on the sofa, with one leg propped high up on the backrest.
The boy merely glanced at Chi Wan as she entered, his eyes fixed right back on the anime on TV. "Mom and Dad aren't coming home for lunch today. You're cooking."
His tone was one of absolute, natural entitlement.
Chi Wan gave him a cold look. This was Song Xuan, the son Fu Ping and Song Wenbin had yearned and prayed for, raised like precious jade, yet weak and sickly simply because he was born prematurely. While Chi Wan lived from hand to mouth, malnourished and frail since childhood, Song Xuan was skinny due to extreme pickiness and frequent illness.
She had no desire to clash with them for the time being, nor could she break away from this household. Lacking any capability right now, she had to bide her time, but she would never again let them beat and scold her at will like in her past life.
At noon, Chi Wan stir-fried a vegetable dish and coaxed Song Xuan into giving her some money to buy spare ribs. Because he was extremely fond of braised spare ribs, but Fu Ping kept his diet restricted for nutritional balance, he never got to eat his fill.
Chi Wan tucked the twenty yuan remaining from the spare ribs into a hidden compartment of her schoolbag.
In this household, apart from Fu Ping and her husband, the wealthiest person was Song Xuan. A mere eleven-year-old child already had his own bank card and cell phone, whereas in this era where everyone held a phone, she didn't even have a basic push-button burner phone.
Chi Wan picked up the watch resting under her pillow to check the time, pulled over a small stool, spread her textbooks out at the foot of the bed, and began reviewing her sophomore high school coursework.
Outside the door was the blaring sound of Song Xuan watching TV in the living room. Chi Wan frowned, steadied her mind to tune out the noise, and dove into her math problems.
Fu Ping and Song Wenbin worked at the same factory—one as an inventory clerk and the other as a financial manager. In the evening, Fu Ping pushed open the door carrying multiple large bags filled with snacks, fruit, and groceries, and ran right into Chi Wan, who was coming out to pour a glass of water.
"Hurry up and come help me carry these, I'm exhausted," Fu Ping shouted loudly at her.
Chi Wan looked at Song Xuan, who sat apathetically on the sofa watching TV, and Song Wenbin, who was following empty-handed behind Fu Ping.
She put down her cup, walked over slowly, and took two of the bags.
Even so, she was still scolded by Fu Ping, "I ask you to do a little something and you look totally unwilling. How come I never see you looking unwilling when it's time to eat?"
Chi Wan remained silent, placing the bag of snacks on the coffee table. Song Xuan immediately straightened up and reached out for food, his hands rummaging back and forth through the plastic bag.
"Look at her attitude. I've said it before, she's already this old and can't be won over. If it weren't for Aunt Chi leaving, I certainly wouldn't have brought her back here," Fu Ping complained in a low voice to Song Wenbin.
She thought her voice was quiet, but Chi Wan heard every word—or perhaps she had meant for her to hear them in the first place.
"Alright, stop nagging all day long, go make dinner already. The food at the cafeteria at noon tasted awful, I'm starving," Song Wenbin interrupted her complaints impatiently, walked over to the dining table to pour a glass of water, and joined Song Xuan on the sofa to watch TV.
Seeing that Song Wenbin wanted to watch television, Song Xuan immediately changed the channel from the anime he had been watching to his father's favorite drama.
Chi Wan watched as Song Wenbin affectionately patted Song Xuan on the head and asked what he had eaten for lunch. The father and son were extremely close.
In the entire living room, she was the only one who felt like an outsider, completely out of place.
After dinner, Chi Wan consciously cleared the table and washed the dishes, which actually earned her an extra glance from Fu Ping.
Because of Chi Wan's arrival, Fu Ping—who previously had to rush home every noon to cook for Song Xuan—handed the midday cooking chores entirely over to her. Chi Wan didn't have any objections to that; after all, she could pocket quite a neat little sum out of the grocery money provided.
Every day, Chi Wan left the house right on the heels of Fu Ping and Song Wenbin leaving for work. After finishing her class at the martial arts dojo, she would stop by the market to buy groceries, head home to cook, and spend the afternoon buried in her bedroom reading and doing homework.
Before long, the start of the school term arrived.
Normal University High School was one of the premier high schools in Jinshi. Even the students in Class 17, widely considered the most hopeless bunch, would stand out as top-tier talents if placed in other high schools.
From freshman to senior year, each grade at Normal University High School was divided into seventeen classes, assigned according to academic performance. Class 1 was naturally the cream of the crop.
The school operated on the principle of survival of the fittest: students from Class 1 could potentially fall into Class 17, while students from Class 17 rarely ever made it into Class 1.
Chi Wan ended up in Class 17, and moreover, she entered dead last. She had studied in rural schools since childhood, and their educational resources and teaching standards simply could not compare to Jinshi.
In both her past and present lives, Chi Wan had always wondered how on earth Chi Jin had managed to get her enrolled in Normal University High School. A rural woman, barely literate, with no relatives or friends—although Fu Ping called her Aunt Chi, to Chi Wan's knowledge, the two women had no blood relation.
Chi Wan set off early with her schoolbag on her back, taking the bus alone just as she had in her previous life.
The difference was that she was now thoroughly familiar with the route from home to school, unlike her past life when she didn't even know how to ride the bus and had to ask people everywhere how to get to Normal University High School.
At 7:30 in the morning, the bus stop platform on Fuzhou Road was packed with office workers and students starting the new school term, chatting in small groups and making a noisy racket.
Chi Wan stood quietly with her hands in her pockets, as if all the commotion had been blocked out and couldn't touch her at all.
Jiang Zhi was riding a mountain bike while Yan Xu pedaled alongside, chattering endlessly, "Bro, are we still hitting the internet cafe tonight? Old Li says we have to start evening self-study now that we're sophomores."
"Yeah," Jiang Zhi replied indifferently, his gaze on the road suddenly freezing in place.
Yan Xu looked in puzzlement at Jiang Zhi, who had suddenly stopped. He saw him put one foot down on the ground and stare at the bus stop across the street.
"What are you looking at?" Yan Xu looked across the street, seeing only a dense crowd of people with no clue what caught his eye.
Jiang Zhi didn't answer him, nor did he look away. He stared at the girl leaning against the stone pillar of the bus platform, who was calmly sizing him up in return.
Chi Wan narrowed her eyes slightly as she stared back at Jiang Zhi, raising an eyebrow without making any other move. After all, the two of them didn't know each other right now.
She recalled that mass brawl where she had merely happened to cross paths with him, repaying the favor of the umbrella he had lent her in her past life. From then on, they were even.
There were two legendary figures at Normal University High School. One was Qin Nanyang, a student council senior universally respected and favored, who consistently topped the academic rankings and was gentle, elegant, and impeccably polite.
And the other was Jiang Zhi, a figure both loved and loathed, notorious for fighting and skipping classes, with the sole exception that no one had ever seen him romantically involved with anyone. As the crown prince of a Jinshi real estate tycoon, he was someone looked up to by everyone. People said he was merely a swaggering playboy who possessed a handsome face and nothing else; if not for his surname Jiang, he would be nothing more than a common thug.
The bus slowly pulled into the platform. Chi Wan withdrew her gaze and squeezed onto the bus along with the surging crowd.
"Bro, if we don't move, we're not going to get any breakfast," Yan Xu urged anxiously, seeing that Jiang Zhi wasn't budging.
Jiang Zhi watched the bus pull away, scoffed at him, and said, "Alright, let's go. All you ever think about is eating, you act like a starving ghost reincarnated."
Yan Xu protested vociferously, "No way, food is the paramount necessity of the people. Even if I'm not hungry, I still have to eat."