Chapter 43: Scoring Two Hundred and Fifty

“So miserable. You really need to be more careful—things like this should be paid daily!” Jiang Ruotang smacked Lu Guifan’s back boldly.

“You only get paid when you meet your KPI, though.”

But who would’ve thought that middle school student’s KPI went through the roof.

Jiang Ruotang thought for a moment and asked, “Hey, does Uncle Lu know how to drive?”

“He does. When he was young, he drove trucks for the rubber factory. When he worked there, he also did some temp driving for the factory accountant.”

“Oh, I know a senior who often has to go to Chengtan for business. His legs aren’t very convenient, so he definitely needs a driver. I remember Uncle Lu and Auntie Lu are both from Lujia Village in Chengtan, right? Maybe Uncle Lu could apply for that job?”

After he finished, Jiang Ruotang carefully glanced at Lu Guifan’s expression.

Lu Guifan looked calm as he turned back and said, “Thanks. Send me the details, I’ll talk to my dad.”

Seeing that he didn’t reject the offer, Jiang Ruotang smiled with curved eyes.

The two of them finished their jianbing at almost the exact same moment. Jiang leaned toward Lu Guifan with a grin and asked, “Can I push my luck a little more?”

“Oh? How exactly do you want to push your luck?”

“Can I come to you for study help Sunday evening after art class?”

“Sure, come over.”

Lu Guifan walked a few steps, then looked back and added, “How is that pushing your luck?”

Jiang Ruotang laughed as he followed behind. “Then what counts as pushing my luck? Offering myself to you in gratitude?”

Lu Guifan shot him a look that said, How childish.

“For example, if you asked me to get you into the top 100 of the whole grade—that would be really pushing it.”

“Huh? You can’t do that?”

“If your brain wasn’t damaged from that bump today, maybe I could.”

At the mention of that incident, Jiang Ruotang leaned toward him again. “Take a look. Seriously—check carefully. Is my scalp broken? It really stung at the time!”

Even though Jiang Ruotang was just describing it, Lu Guifan felt his own scalp tingle.

He leaned in as Jiang Ruotang parted his hair, revealing a slightly red patch of skin.

“Well? Is it broken?”

“Just a little.”

“No wonder—it still hurts.”

“There’s a pharmacy across the street. I’ll go see if they have some ointment…”

Before he could finish, Jiang Ruotang interrupted, “It’s no big deal. I’m not bleeding… Just blow on it for me.”

Lu Guifan’s throat tightened for some reason. Jiang suddenly felt he was being overly dramatic—it’s not like he was a little kid who fell and needed someone to blow on his boo-boo.

Just as he was about to lift his head, Lu Guifan leaned down, and a warm breath gently brushed over the top of Jiang Ruotang’s head.

His heart jolted like an electric shock, and when he looked up abruptly, he smacked right into Lu Guifan’s nose.

“Ugh…” Lu Guifan quickly straightened up, his black-rimmed glasses knocked askew, hanging off the tip of his nose.

Jiang Ruotang rushed over. “Let me see! Is your nose okay?”

Lu Guifan covered his nose with one hand. His eyes shimmered faintly with moisture, stunning Jiang Ruotang into a daze.

Class monitor… don’t make yourself look like this… it makes people want to bully you, you know?

That night after returning home, Lu Guifan saw his father downstairs in their dormitory building, sitting on a small stool repairing the tricycle. He silently walked over, set his backpack aside, and took the wrench from his father’s hand.

“No, no, go back upstairs and study. I can handle this—”

“I’ve got it.” Lu Guifan said as he worked, “Ruotang found a driver interview for you. I’ve sent the address and details to your phone. It includes the job requirements and salary package.”

Father Lu quickly wiped his hands and pulled out his phone to check.

“This pay is amazing! The probation salary alone is about the same as what I earned at the rubber factory. They even offer full insurance and benefits? There must be tons of people scrambling for this job… Can I really get it?”

Lu Guifan said unhurriedly, “A driver is half a confidant to his boss in many cases. Since Jiang Ruotang recommended you, it means the employer probably has some connection with his family. For this job, education isn’t the key—what matters is keeping your mouth shut and never letting out any of your boss’s business.”

Father Lu nodded earnestly. “I understand. I understand!”

“Also, I heard this Mr. Zheng has trouble walking. If he agrees to hire you, make sure you look after him well.”

“Of course.”

That evening, Mother Lu pulled out the suit Father Lu had worn years ago when he received the “Outstanding Employee” award. She heated water and used an enamel mug to steam and press it smooth. Father Lu asked a neighbor in the dorm building to help trim his hair, and he ended up looking much more spirited.

During class break the next day, Lu Guifan kept glancing at his phone, imagining how nervous his father must be and how much he cared about this job.

The more you care, the easier it is to mess up.

Not until after lunch did Lu Guifan finally receive a text from his father:
[Mr. Zheng agreed to hire me! He even bought me lunch and praised me for being honest and hardworking!]

Seeing this, Lu Guifan quietly exhaled, then glanced a few rows ahead—Jiang Ruotang was slumped on his desk after lunch, with only two tufts of hair sticking up at the back of his head.

In truth, Mr. Zheng chose Father Lu not only because he was honest and hardworking, but also because he was from the fishing village of Chengtan, spoke the local dialect fluently, and understood the local ways of doing business. When it came time to handle projects in Chengtan, this would make things much smoother.

Mr. Zheng messaged Jiang Ruotang:
[What should the company be named?]

Jiang thought for a moment—this money had been left by his grandfather, and the person his grandfather cared most about in the world was his daughter, Jiang Ruotang’s mother, He Yun.

[Let’s call it Tang Yun, then? Tang Yun Investments or something like that. Mr. Zheng, you decide the details.]

With the help of Mr. Zheng and Dai Ming, Jiang Ruotang’s company quickly received its business license and set up the necessary accounts. In just one week, they reached an initial agreement with the target in Chengtan, completed all the procedures, and hit the goals Jiang had set before the end of the month.

What delighted Jiang most was that they spent less than fifty million yuan—meaning Mr. Zheng could manage the remaining assets for stable investments.

When Father Lu received his probation salary, he was so happy he couldn’t stop grinning. He even bought extra groceries and said he wanted to invite Jiang Ruotang over for a proper meal.

Mother Lu asked Lu Guifan, “Since little Jiang got your father such a good job, shouldn’t we properly treat him to dinner at a restaurant? Also, what does little Jiang like? Should we buy him a gift to thank him?”

Meanwhile, Lu Guifan was struggling with Jiang Ruotang’s error-filled workbook—getting him to understand even one problem felt like earning a lifetime achievement award.

“Mom, he’s not the factory director from your old workplace—there’s no need to go giving him gifts or anything like that. Besides, he eats takeout all the time at noon. Let him have some healthy home-cooked food for dinner instead,” Lu Guifan said lightly.

“Then… what does little Jiang like to eat?”

Lu Guifan thought back and realized that whether it was things that flew in the sky, swam in the water, expensive or cheap—Jiang Ruotang happily ate it all. “He’s not picky. Easy to feed. But he does have a special obsession with your chive and egg pancakes.”

Mother Lu couldn’t help laughing. “What do you mean ‘easy to feed’! He’s not your son, you know.”

Staring at the messy chemical equations in front of him, Lu Guifan felt like his blood pressure was constantly rising at his young age. “If he were my son, I’d probably have already reincarnated by now…”

Senior year was extremely busy for both of them—either they had evening study sessions at school, or Jiang Ruotang had art classes. It wasn’t until the second monthly exam ended that Lu Guifan sent him a message:
[Want to come over to my place for dinner?]

Jiang Ruotang replied:
[Of course I do, but I’m afraid if my scores are too bad, you’ll make me kneel on durian shells.]

Lu Guifan:
[Thanks for the reminder. On the way home I’ll swing by the supermarket and pick up a nice shell—so you can kneel comfortably.]

Jiang Ruotang couldn’t stop grinning at that.

That night, Mother Lu cooked a huge spread—not just the chive and egg pancakes Jiang loved, but also stuffed green peppers, shredded pork in garlic sauce, and fried ribbonfish.

Ever since he’d gotten close to Jiang Ruotang, Lu Guifan would instinctively buy things he almost never touched before, like Coke, chips, and cookies.

He used to wonder what was so great about Coke—but that time drinking it with Jiang Ruotang somehow made him start to enjoy the happiness it brought.

At the moment, Jiang Ruotang popped open a can with a crisp “ka-chunk” sound, raised it in front of Father Lu, and cheerfully shouted, “Here’s to Uncle Lu—wishing you success at work and good fortune!”

Then he took a sip, closed his eyes, and let out a content “haaa” from his throat—like he’d just downed an old bottle of liquor. He looked totally silly and adorable.

Lu Guifan suddenly thought the name “Coca-Cola”—”happiness”—really fit.

As they chatted, Mother Lu sighed. “Thanks to little Jiang, your Uncle Lu has a job now… but I’m always sitting around at home… I don’t know what to do with myself…”

Father Lu gently nudged her leg under the table. “The kids just finished their exams. They’re in a good mood… don’t go worrying them.”

Jiang Ruotang munched on a pancake and asked, “Auntie Lu, have you sent out any resumes? What kind of job are you looking for?”

“Ah, someone like me… probably just cleaning in a mall. The textile and shoe factories pay okay, but they won’t take someone my age.”

“But Auntie, you cook so well—why not work in housekeeping?” Jiang asked curiously.

“Me? A good cook?” she chuckled.

Jiang Ruotang nodded seriously. “Yeah. Delicious. Your stuffed green peppers? I bet people would fight to hire you as a home cook.”

Mother Lu covered her mouth, laughing. “That’s just because you’re not picky. You eat anything. Even Guifan says you’re easy to feed.”

“Really?” Jiang turned to Lu Guifan. “But I do have standards, you know. If you want to keep me fed, there’d better be meat at every meal.”

Lu Guifan picked up a piece of ribbonfish and dropped it into his bowl. “Here’s your meat. Eat up.”

“Hey… wait a sec…” Jiang set his chopsticks down, reaching for his phone but hesitating because his fingers were greasy.

Lu Guifan, perfectly in sync, pulled out two napkins and wiped Jiang’s fingers clean.

Jiang Ruotang pulled out his phone and found a message Zhao Yunshu had posted in the family chat group. “Here… this one… this is my mom’s best friend. She just had her second baby and is all over the place right now. She already has a nanny for the kids but needs someone to take care of her. Auntie Lu, do you want to give it a try?”

“Your mom’s friend? She must be rich and fancy… probably expects a lot. I’m not even registered with a domestic service company. I’ve never had any training. She wouldn’t want someone like me.”

Auntie Lu lowered her head, looking nervous.

No education, laid off without warning, shooed away when trying to set up a street stall—her drive and confidence had long been worn away by reality.

“I meant my current mom,” Jiang explained softly. “She climbed up from the bottom herself. Her best friend—Miss Hong—is no rich lady either. Right now she’s handling two kids alone. Her husband teaches at a university in the U.S. and is only home three months a year. Don’t you think someone like that really needs help?”

“Why doesn’t she go with him to the U.S.?” Auntie Lu asked, confused.

In her world, a wife should follow her husband wherever he went.

“Because she’s built her own career here. She’s a partner at a big law firm in Sheng City with lots of clients and cases. If she gave that up to follow him, she’d have to learn U.S. law, pass their bar exam, and she might never get back into law. Too risky.”

“True… by the time the kids are older, she’d have lost everything she worked for. That’d be lonely.” Auntie Lu sighed, thinking of her own situation.

“So you should give it a shot, Auntie Lu. Look, the food you made today is really good. Once Miss Hong and her kids taste it, they’ll definitely want more.”

“Little Jiang’s mouth is always coated in honey—makes people feel so confident.”

Jiang shook his head, holding a stuffed pepper. “I don’t flatter just anyone, you know.”

“Oh? What’s your standard for flattery?” Lu Guifan asked.

Jiang leaned in with a mischievous smile. “Anyone I flatter has to promise to devote themselves to me.”

Lu Guifan gave him a flat look. “If your problem-solving skills matched your flirting, I’d probably live a few years longer.”

“Come on, maybe if you max out your experience points with me, you’ll become a master teacher!”

“No thanks. I’d like to keep my thick hair intact.”

Jiang tilted his head—honestly, Lu Guifan did have really great hair.

---

On Monday morning, rumor had it that the exam scores were finally, finally, finally out.

Zhao Changfeng lay weakly on his desk. “I don’t get it—can’t these teachers rest on the weekend? Why stay up late grading papers?”

Jiang Ruotang leaned back and patted Zhao Changfeng’s head like soothing a big puppy. “Since ancient times, who hasn’t died? Sooner or later, death comes for all. Before the college entrance exam, it’s just a cycle of death.”

Zhao gave up struggling—listening as Jiang uttered the word “death” dozens of times—then flopped to the other side.

Lu Guifan walked in with the grade sheets. A few ranking-obsessed classmates immediately rushed him. He casually handed the towering stack to them.

Jiang Ruotang tilted his head, eyes shining, watching as Lu Guifan came over. That hand slipped from his pocket.

If Jiang did poorly, Lu Guifan would probably curl his fingers and knock twice on the desk—a silent message that all this month’s effort was wasted.

If he did okay… most likely…

Lu Guifan reached out. Jiang instinctively closed his eyes and hunched his shoulders.

A warm hand landed on his head, fingers threading gently into his hair, ruffling it.

“Not bad. You ranked 250th.”

“Huh?”

It wasn’t until Lu Guifan walked past that Jiang realized—he wasn’t being insulted.

He actually ranked 250th in the whole grade!

If that was true, then he’d improved by almost a hundred places since the last monthly exam!

Jiang Ruotang sighed. “Maybe I’m not entirely talentless at studying after all?”

Lin Lu immediately encouraged him: “Ruotang, you’re amazing! At this rate, by the final exam you might even make it into the top 150 in the grade!”

“Uh… I don’t have such grand ambitions…” Jiang Ruotang smiled.

But Jiang Ruotang’s happiness didn’t even last a full day. Just after class at noon, the homeroom teacher, Mr. Wang, called him to the grade office.

He thought he was going to be praised, but as soon as he reached the door, every teacher inside looked grim, the air so heavy he could hardly breathe. This didn’t feel like praise at all—more like he was about to be scolded.

And he wasn’t the only one called in. Curly-haired Cai Ji, his old nemesis Meng Yang, and Meng Yang’s gang were all there—the usual crowd from the bottom two exam halls.

Meng Yang and his buddies were all sports students, each over 1.8 meters tall. Lined up like that, they did have some presence.

If Jiang remembered right, just two weeks ago Cai Ji and Meng Yang had faced off in the staff kitchen by the microwave. And now they’d dragged the drama all the way to the grade office?

What’s more, Mr. Wang’s usually sparse hair looked like it was about to stand on end from anger.

“Jiang Ruotang, you did pretty well on this monthly exam,” Mr. Wang said coldly.

“Huh? Are you serious, or are you mocking me for dragging the class down?” Jiang Ruotang felt his tone was off. Sure, respect your teachers and all that—but if a teacher had something to say, they should just say it, not speak in weird riddles.

“You scored 93 out of 150 in math—that’s the highest you’ve ever gotten since enrolling, right?” Mr. Wang said.

“I guess so… but aren’t you the Chinese teacher? Why do you care about my math?”

Jiang thought, Wasn’t my Chinese score just normal this time—only 88?

Mr. Wang stared him down. “Your science composite score was impressive too. This is the first time I’ve seen an art student get 150 in the sciences.”

Jiang really couldn’t take it anymore. “Mr. Wang, could you please just say what you mean? With all this weird praise, I almost thought the full score for sciences was 150!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the math teacher, Mr. Song Qinghe—who’d been giving Jiang meaningful looks—couldn’t help but laugh.

Standing off to the side, arms crossed and full of attitude, Meng Yang suddenly blurted out: “Huh? Science isn’t out of 150?”

His buddy explained: “No, science is out of 300!”

“Then what’s so great about getting 150? That’s not even passing,” Meng Yang muttered.

Mr. Wang was so furious he nearly threw the lid of his enamel cup.

Cai Ji, who had been hanging his head like an ostrich this whole time, finally spoke. “Mr. Wang, I’ve told you over and over—this has nothing to do with Jiang Ruotang. He did well because he worked hard. Everyone saw him doing practice questions even during breaks.”

Mr. Song Qinghe also spoke up. “Mr. Wang, you said yourself you just wanted to ask Jiang a few questions, not accuse him like this. You’ll kill his motivation. This kid has been grinding the question bank for two months straight. When I call on him in class, as long as it’s a basic question, he gets it right. He’s not the same Jiang Ruotang as before—you can’t suspect him like this.”

Mr. Wang coldly said to Jiang: “We still need to check your phone. See if anyone sent you answers!”

“Huh? Answers? What’s going on?” Jiang looked at Mr. Song, waiting for him to explain.

Mr. Song explained: “During this monthly exam, Meng Yang suddenly jumped from the bottom thirty to 170th in the grade. The rest of these guys also improved by seventy or eighty places at least.”

Jiang looked at Meng Yang and figured out what these idiots had done. Did they really not know their own abilities?

“Wow, Meng Yang, you’re amazing! Your progress is rocket-speed! I thought your brain was so dry it had no moisture left.”

Meng Yang didn’t get the sarcasm and just grunted.

Mr. Song said, “He made Cai Ji hand in his paper early, then send him the answers after leaving the room.”

Jiang was shocked. “Such an old-school way of cheating?”

Cai Ji kept his head down and mumbled a yes.

“To prevent others from using similar tricks, the grade committee reviewed everyone who improved too much and called them in for questioning. Jiang Ruotang, you were one of them,” Mr. Wang said coldly. “Hand over your phone. Let’s see if you got any answers from Cai Ji.”

Before Jiang could speak, Cai Ji suddenly said firmly: “I didn’t send Jiang Ruotang any answers!”

The more Cai Ji distanced himself from Jiang, the more annoyed Meng Yang got. He sneered: “Maybe you did send them, then you two deleted the messages. Otherwise why are you so eager to protect him? Maybe we were just side customers and Jiang Ruotang was your real big client!”

“You—!” Cai Ji was so angry his face turned red.

Hearing this, Mr. Wang—determined not to let anyone off—raised his voice again. “Jiang Ruotang! Did you really earn this score on your own?”

Mr. Wang had never liked Jiang Ruotang—this rich, idle type who studied art, acted like a celebrity fan all day, dragging others into his hobbies. No discipline at all. Mr. Wang simply refused to believe such a person could suddenly study hard!

After all, Lin Lu—also a son of an entertainment company boss—was so much more mature and hardworking than Jiang Ruotang.