The Self-Redemption of the Wronged Fool [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 3

Ji Qiuchi did not know what everyone was thinking. He only felt something arching against him in a daze. He frowned unhappily and slapped “it” away, but in the end, he was entangled. His lips were blocked, and breathing became difficult, yet he still failed to wake up.

It wasn’t until morning that he climbed out of his… out of Lin Ming’s bed with a splitting headache. Wait, why was he in Lin Ming’s bed? No, this was originally his own bed, but why were both he and Lin Ming undressed?

Ji Qiuchi immediately woke the other person up: “Where are your clothes?”

Lin Ming opened his eyes and saw Ji Qiuchi’s anxious gaze. He spoke groggily: “Brother, you tossed and turned with me all night last night. I was too tired, so I went to sleep without changing.”

Ji Qiuchi: ???

“What nonsense are you talking about? What do you mean ‘tossed all night’?”

Lin Ming: “Oh, it’s just that Brother threw up, and I gave Brother a bath.”

Ji Qiuchi breathed a sigh of relief, nearly scared to death. If he had actually touched Lin Ming, he would definitely have been kicked out of the house.

Looking at Lin Ming again, the young master who had just woken up had a face like peach blossoms. Tsk, no wonder Zhao Lingyun shifted his affections; later on, he truly fell in love.

He turned his back to put on his clothes, completely unaware that Lin Ming was in a very good mood, deeply satisfied that Ji Qiuchi was stained with his scent.

Ji Qiuchi intended to leave, but Lin Ming called out to him: “Brother, wait for me. Let’s have breakfast together.”

“Alright.”

Ji Qiuchi was very satisfied. Actually, there were benefits to leaving the “Life Winner Group.”

Members of that group didn’t have good family relationships. Brothers usually fought to the death either you went to Africa to mine coal, or I poured cement over you and sank you into the sea. Now that his relationship with Lin Ming was so good, it was a truly novel experience.

After so many days of observation, the other party seemed to genuinely want to be brothers with him.

As soon as Ji Qiuchi walked out of the room, he saw Lin Ming’s parents. He greeted them and went back to change his clothes.

For no other reason than the clothes he was wearing belonged to Lin Ming.

Ji Qiuchi didn’t expect this body to be unable to touch a drop of alcohol, causing him to black out completely until this morning.

On this side, Father Lin saw this and actually nodded with satisfaction, saying to Mother Lin: “It seems the two children are getting along quite well.”

Mother Lin’s expression was somewhat unnatural, but in the end, she said nothing.

When Ji Qiuchi returned to his room, he called out the system: “No, I have to move out. Mother Lin’s attitude toward me isn’t right. She shouldn’t have such an attitude toward ‘Ji Wang.’ She didn’t dare to look at me just now and was even somewhat cold.”

“Holy cow, you noticed that?” the system said.

“Of course, what did you think? Regardless, the original owner was raised by them for so many years. Distance creates beauty. It’s the same if I live at school. Mother Lin’s attitude is still very important. If they truly don’t support me, the original owner’s so-called dream of being a jewelry designer is a joke.”

On the other side, Lin Ming watched the other party leave in a hurry and couldn’t help but smile, though he soon felt dejected again.

“It’s been a long time since we met, and Brother has truly forgotten everything. You clearly promised to marry me, yet you ran away and made me look for you for so long. You’re truly wicked, Brother.”

However, the current simple and cute Brother was also very delicious. He was certain that something had gone wrong with Ji Qiuchi. If it were the old him, he would have been able to recognize him at a single glance, as “Lin Ming” hadn’t even bothered to conceal his aura.

He didn’t know what had happened to Brother to make him come to this world, but fortunately, they had met.

However, the next day, Lin Ming learned that the other party had already moved into the school dormitory. What could Lin Ming do? He also had to apply for residency.

Ji Qiuchi had chosen a single dormitory and enjoyed a happy day, but someone knocked on his door the next morning, appeared before him, and even delivered an exquisite breakfast.

“Why are you here?” Ji Qiuchi looked up at Lin Ming.

“Brother, the coursework is heavy. I also think it’s better to stay at school. If you are alone, I won’t be at ease. Besides, we can look after each other.”

Truly a good younger brother. “Alright then.”

As Ji Qiuchi was about to start eating, he heard the other party speak.

“By the way, Brother, the Spring GI Jewelry Design Competition is about to start. I want to team up with you.”

The system was surprised: “How does this development seem wrong? He was clearly supposed to team up with Zhao Lingyun!”

Ji Qiuchi also looked at Lin Ming and raised an eyebrow: “Did I hear that right? You’re asking to team up with me?”

“Brother, your grades are excellent, and you’ve always been first in the major. I’m still a newcomer and don’t know anything, so I can only look for you,” Lin Ming spoke sincerely.

The GI International Jewelry Design Competition was a relatively famous competition in the country. It was held every spring and served as a warm-up for the Tiangong Jewelry Design Competition, the authoritative event in the domestic jewelry design industry.

Compared to GI, which anyone with professional certification or industry designers could enter, Tiangong was the “ceiling” event of the jewelry design world.

It had registration requirements; designers generally needed to have won awards in conventional competitions. Most students in their major would choose to participate in GI at this time, aiming to win an award.

There were sixty finalist slots in total, but in the end, there were only twelve award-winning spots.

There were six winners in total Champion, Runner-up, and Third Place for both the Master Group and the Student Group.

The Master Group was actually for industry professionals and designers with their own brands. The Student Group mainly featured works by students currently in school.

Of course, the requirements for the two sides were different. If designers in the Student Group worked for a brand design company or as an assistant to a designer, they could also choose to participate in the Master Group. They could choose which group to compete in.

However, not only designers from their city but also those from all over the country were rubbing their palms in anticipation. The design competition was also divided into two areas: the Drawing Area and the Public Area. Counting the six winners from each, it totaled twelve.

People like Ji Qiuchi usually chose the Student Group Public Area competition. Compared to drawing, the Public Area had a higher “gold content.” If one wanted to participate in the Drawing Area, they could submit the drawing as well.

The Public Area involved personally selecting raw gemstones and metal materials. To ensure fairness, the quality of the jewelry was strictly regulated. It was necessary to display the finished product, while the Drawing Area used computer-aided design.

Lin Ming was a freshman and could be said to know nothing about jewelry design; it wasn’t his previous major.

As for Ji Wang, the Lin family had intended for him to enter the Master Group Public Area competition this year, and his personal brand launch had long been in preparation. Unfortunately, this incident happened at this critical juncture.

The competition judging consisted of judge votes and an offline “one person, one vote” format using ID cards. The process from finalists to the finals consisted of two stages.

Of course, according to the plot development, Lin Ming would win first place in this design competition with the help of Zhao Lingyun. Meanwhile, because he (the original owner) was not focused on design, his negligence would lead to the design drafts being stolen by Zhao Lingyun and Wen Jing.

In the end, he would end up with a reputation for plagiarism and wouldn’t even succeed in becoming a finalist.

During this plot line, the relationship between Lin Ming and Zhao Lingyun would become very close. The “scapegoat” (the original owner) would start causing trouble out of jealousy, only to be slapped in the face, suffering both physically and mentally as miserable as could be.

Although “scapegoats” would fail no matter what they did and were inexplicably targeted by the protagonist, Ji Qiuchi hated trouble, especially trouble caused by people he disliked.

Lin Ming wanting to team up with him must be because he had no other choice, right? After all, he had been won over by his charm. A trace of pride flashed in Ji Qiuchi’s eyes, and he finally agreed to Lin Ming’s request.

In class, the instructor also specifically mentioned this matter. Anyone interested could participate. Wen Jing did not forget to talk tough: “Ji Wang, do you dare to bet? The one with the lower rank in the GI Design Competition drops out of school.”

“You’ve never beaten me before, so where does your confidence come from now?” Ji Qiuchi laughed.

“You only had those grades because everyone was coddling you. Now that you’ve lost all that, do you think you can still take first place? Do the ugly things you design even deserve it?” Wen Jing snorted coldly and left.

The GI competition allowed for individual participation or team design, though most people had a team behind them.

Wen Jing knew Lin Ming would also participate, and it was impossible for the Lin family to be biased toward Ji Wang. After all, he was just a fake, and Lin Ming was the future heir to Lin Jewelry.

When Zhao Lingyun went to find him to team up this morning, Lin Ming refused. Wen Jing felt the other party might choose to go solo, so resources would definitely be poured into him. As for Ji Wang? He probably wouldn’t get anything.

On this side, Ji Qiuchi chuckled: “Fine, then it’s settled.”

As Zhao Lingyun’s “simp,” even though Wen Jing knew the other party had an engagement with the Lin family, he still chose to keep simping.

This provocation was actually because Zhao Lingyun had “accidentally” mentioned Ji Qiuchi in front of Wen Jing.

The incident that happened at the hotel a few days ago had given Zhao Lingyun an inexplicable sense of crisis. His mood was very irritable, feeling that it was because Ji Wang and Lin Ming had a good relationship, which he found an eyesore.

It clearly shouldn’t be like this. Why? It was so uncomfortable. As expected, it was because he hated Ji Wang.

Wen Jing could endure, and his mind was extraordinary; his considerations were relatively thorough. For him, this wasn’t enough.

He intended to make Ji Qiuchi lose his reputation this time. To be safe, he still chose to hire someone to steal Ji Qiuchi’s design drafts.

Ji Qiuchi was indeed designing jewelry in the school studio, but he was not the original owner. He would not leave the actual design drawings in the laboratory; he would take them with him when he was finished.

He already had a plan when Lin Ming teamed up with him. He had to win the GI competition since it was a “Career and Love Double Harvest” mission. However, he didn’t expect Lin Ming to choose to design alongside him, asking him about anything he didn’t understand.

The theme for this spring’s GI jewelry design was “First Love.” Regarding the theme, choosing jewelry such as cherry-blossom pink diamonds or passionate red diamonds would be a good choice, and this was what most people would select. However, Lin Ming expressed a desire to choose warm and bright yellow tourmaline, which was considered unconventional.

Ji Qiuchi was very curious about why he chose this gemstone. Lin Ming looked into his eyes and smiled: “Someone once said that the color of ginkgo is very beautiful. I feel that such a bright color is even more beautiful on him.”

Hmm? Wait, could Lin Ming have someone he likes?

A hint of interest appeared in Ji Qiuchi’s eyes. Zhao Lingyun probably wouldn’t like yellow tourmaline; the other party liked noble gemstones that could represent his status. The value of yellow tourmaline was not the highest in the gemstone world.

The Lin family representative quickly searched for suitable yellow tourmaline, finding the highest quality “Canary,” while they were currently working on the metal design.

Their major included metalwork, forging, setting, 3D modeling, enamel, filigree, engraving, glass, composite materials, jewelry hand-painting, and so on. The original owner was actually best at metal processing and had a knack for designing metal.

It was not as “worthless” as Wen Jing claimed. The other party always felt that he only achieved results by relying on the Lin family’s design team.

Ji Qiuchi could least tolerate other people’s provocation or betting against him. By the time he realized it, he found that he seemed to be quite invested, staying in the studio with Lin Ming every day.

He had even become accustomed to this way of life, but since it had already reached this point, Ji Qiuchi didn’t care. He had always been a person who did as he pleased, doing everything according to his own mood.

“Brother, you are truly amazing. Some design techniques don’t seem to be found in textbooks.”

Lin Ming was watching him touch up his design, his head only ten centimeters away from Ji Qiuchi’s.

It was very close. The warm breath brushed against his ear, making Ji Qiuchi snap back to reality from his focused drawing. He rubbed his ear.

Ji Qiuchi: “Naturally, it’s not in the textbooks. This is my own experience.”

Lin Ming couldn’t help but smile seeing this proud appearance of his. “So that’s how it is.”

As a member of the original “Life Winner Group,” Ji Qiuchi was not an employee who relied on props and halos to cheat. All the worlds he had stayed in were completed by him personally learning and finally passing.

He didn’t even know how many skills he currently mastered. His mind was like a “Memory Palace”; whenever he wanted knowledge, he just had to open that door and take it out.

He had truly done jewelry design before and had even held jewelry exhibitions, achieving fame both domestically and abroad.

Participating in the Student Group would be a complete slaughter of these newcomers… Wait, Student Group?

Ji Qiuchi narrowed his eyes. Why participate in the Student Group? He would just sign up for the Master Group instead. Looking at the time, it happened to be the very last day of the registration deadline.

He looked at Lin Ming: “Xiao Ming, let’s change our registration to the Master Group.”

Although Lin Ming was a bit surprised, he still nodded with a smile and quickly found a computer to perform the operation.

However, because the two of them changed their registration at the last minute, neither the Lin family nor the school actually knew. Everyone assumed they were participating in the Student Group competition and would only focus on the Student Group’s award results.

Only Wen Jing and Zhao Lingyun discovered that Lin Ming had actually been staying with Ji Wang all the time. Unlike them, they had no opportunity to have much interaction with Lin Ming.

“Lin Ming is somewhat distant toward me,” Zhao Lingyun said.

“Ji Wang must have said something! Otherwise, why not invite Young Master Lin to dinner? Spending more time together should make things more familiar.”

Zhao Lingyun had always discussed everything with Wen Jing. Now that Zhao Lingyun was troubled, Wen Jing naturally offered an idea immediately.

But after saying it, he secretly regretted it. He didn’t expect that even now, Zhao Lingyun was thinking about Lin Ming. Was he truly invested? Wen Jing thought, his mood falling to rock bottom, a flash of gloom crossing his eyes.

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