Chapter 7: Ticket Resale (Part 1)
After Jiang Bao returned to school, she went to the classroom for evening self-study.
When she requested a leave of absence before, the class teacher was quick to agree. After all, there remained half a month before the midterm exams and Lin Can had agreed to withdraw from school herself after the exams had ended.
Jiang Bao sat down as she took out her textbooks and flipped through them. As Lin Can had missed far too many classes previously, the books were all practically brand-new.
Jiang Bao only skimmed through the pages as she didn’t intend to review, but wanted to understand the depth and scope of the high school sophomore subjects here.
MIT is a famous school of science and technology. Undergraduates must take six subjects alongside their own related chosen majors: unit calculus, multivariable calculus, biology, electromagnetism, chemistry, and mechanics.
And Jiang Bao got As for all of them.
There were rumors on the Internet about having to stay up all night in the self-study room, but they were somewhat exaggerated. It was normally just until 2 or 3 am.
Naturally, these courses were all related to high school physics and chemistry. Only, they were more difficult and specialized.
Luckily, Jiang Bao’s foundation was quite solid, so the high school syllabus was very simple for her.
With half a month to go, she was confident about scoring high on the midterms.
After all, she was good at dealing with all kinds of exams.
When Jiang Bao’s father was young, his energy was spent entirely on business and women. However, as he grew old and retired, he became rather strict with his children instead.
He never allowed Jiang Bao to say “I can’t do it” in self-defeat, or even “I’ll try” in uncertainty.
The answer always had to be “I can”.
At the same time she was perusing the book, the others watching Lin Can all thought she was simply playing around and just glancing through the pages with no understanding at all. She was like an academic loser posing as an excellent student.
Jiang Bao had a habit of drinking coffee and needed to drink two cups a day. During the first recess of the evening study session, she went to the vending machine on the first floor.
She normally drank Esmeralda coffee; the water temperature needed to be maintained at 93 degrees, and the coffee needed to be hand-brewed. Now, there was only instant Nescafé coffee available.
But, Jiang Bao wasn’t very picky. Ever since she had nothing but shaobing[1] for two days straight, she felt she could try a variety of food. A human’s adaptability is quite incredible.
Zhou Zi Yi felt uneasiness in her heart these days. She was afraid Lin Can would really report her as the one who pushed her into the water.
If the situation became serious, she may be forced to withdraw from school.
Several of them only wanted to embarrass her by making her completely drenched, but they didn’t expect Lin Can to not be able to swim.
As she was hospitalized afterward, they were also afraid.
A few days passed, and Lin Can never took any action. Zhou Zi Yi then came back to her senses. She had to give Lin Can a good lesson. After all, the former Lin Can wasn’t one to fight back.
Zhou Zi Yi brought along her sisters[2] to stir up some trouble.
“Oh, it’s you, central park girl,” Jiang Bao spoke without thinking as she turned her head, spotting them.
This duck was wearing a BBR shirt and a pair of old dad shoes of the same brand today, looking like a sales clerk with poor performance.
Zhou Zi Yi instantly exploded. “What do you mean by that, are you mocking me?”
She couldn’t understand the term, so she guessed it had the worst possible meaning, and immediately hated it.
Jiang Bao then turned her head and her back to them.
She didn’t want to talk to the other side. They were noisy ducks.
Zhou Zi Yi was furious. She was about to complain to her friend about Lin Can’s poor attitude when she saw Ye Ying staring at Lin Can attentively.
“Her lipstick doesn’t stain the cup when she drinks, and her lipstick wasn’t smudged at all. That’s just too impressive. How did she do that?” Ye Ying said with an astonished face.
She added in her heart, “Her lips are also very nicely shaped.” She was just leaning against the wall and sipping coffee, but her aura was ridiculous! Her posture was also great!
As a face-judger[3], Ye Ying had forgotten that she was supposed to cause trouble for her.
Zhou Zi Yi reminded the others. “That day Lu Min had kissed Lin Can by giving her CPR!”
Jiang Bao was stunned for a moment and opened her mouth to ask. “Wait a minute. You’re saying I was saved that day because I was rescued by a classmate?”
Zhou Zi Yi scoffed, “Now that you know it was Lu Min, you must be delighted in your heart, aren’t you?”
Jiang Bao looked at her as if she was an imbecile and glanced at the people as she faintly said, “CPR is the most common emergency procedure done to resuscitate people without the ability to breathe on their own, that’s not a kiss, just like there are many surgical procedures that require patients to take off their underwear. It is for the safety of the patients, not to observe them naked.”
Zhou Zi Yi: “How sophistical!”[4]
“That’s your shallow insight. The fact that this student was willing to provide emergency care to me only shows that he is very smart and kindhearted.”
Ye Ying coughed: “…… actually, I think she has a point. Lu Min is quite smart and kind.”
She enjoyed hearing people praise Lu Min like that, and Lin Can didn’t seem to be quite the same as the rumors said about her.
Jiang Bao nodded to the person. “It’s good that you understand. Then, I’ll be leaving now.”
She still had to continue studying and didn’t want to talk to ducks.
Zhou Zi Yi was one of the few primary culprits of the bullying at the school.
Based on the other party’s behavior today, it wasn’t hard for Jiang Bao to guess how this one had once fanned the flames and made people in the school alienate Lin Can.
All the things they’d done lead to the Lin Can of a few years later to continue to feel discomfort with 17 or 18-year-olds and have no way of interacting with people normally.
Lin Can had passed away, but these murderers didn’t receive any retribution.
Their backgrounds were completely clean; as if they had done nothing wrong. Years later, because of good grades, some went to very good universities and even had happy families.
To try making them feel any remorse would be meaningless. Jiang Bao liked to be fair, in the way of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
There were still long days ahead.
Footnotes:
[1] Shaobing: a type of baked, unleavened, layered flatbread in Northern Chinese cuisine. Shaobing can be made with or without stuffing, and with or without sesame on top. The stuffing is mostly savory or sweet.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaobing
[2] sisters = girl best friends/her gals
[3]Face-judger/appearance complex = loves good looking people
[4] ZZY meant Jiang Bao was arguing irrationally; turning things upside down by a stretch of the language; defending oneself by sophistry (although it was the other way around (￣ ￣|||) )
