Unconventional [Rebirth] - Chapter 7

After entering the ninth grade, his schoolwork became a lot busier. They even added an extra self-study session every morning. For Jiang Rui, this didn’t have much of an impact. It just meant he spent more time at school. He usually finished all his homework there, so when he got home, all he had to do was tend to his flowers.

He Fulan was initially worried about her son’s studies. She specifically went to his homeroom teacher, Zhao Chenghai, to ask about his grades. She was relieved to find that his scores were still consistent.

In the second half of the ninth grade, the students entered the tense countdown to the high school entrance exams. Some boys and girls who had been getting close started to distance themselves, while others, feeling that graduation was near and they might not see each other again, began to frantically pass love letters and confess their feelings.

Jiang Rui received many love letters these days and was stopped five or six times by people confessing their love, which gave him a headache.

He wasn’t gay. In his previous life, it was Ye Wenbin who pursued him relentlessly. One night, after drinking, he couldn’t control himself and offended Ye Wenbin, and that’s how they got together. In this life, he didn’t plan on getting revenge on Ye Wenbin, as the current Ye Wenbin hadn’t wronged him yet. But he also didn’t plan on falling in love with a man again.

In this life, he just wanted to live a simple life and marry a kind, gentle wife. Of course, he didn’t plan on getting married too early. At least for now, he couldn’t get involved with these “little girls.”

His psychological age was over forty. He wasn’t a pervert; these “tender greens” were not for him.

Zhou Yang had a crush on Wu Ziwen, the “class beauty” of Class One. Their class and Class One were both honors classes. Wu Ziwen came from a well-off family, and her looks were only average, but because she was always cold toward people, especially boys, and was also an excellent student, she was very popular in the middle school. Many boys in the seventh and eighth grades were obsessed with her.

Jiang Rui rarely left his classroom and didn’t have any friendships with students from other classes, but he had seen Wu Ziwen a few times in the teachers’ office. The girl had tried to talk to him a few times, but he ignored her because of Zhou Yang. After that, whenever Wu Ziwen saw him, she would give him a look of revengeful contempt.

The only girl Jiang Rui was close to was his deskmate, Wang Xiaorui. Wang Xiaorui was aloof and said very little. She would only reply to him with a word or two when she was impatient.

For some reason, even though the homeroom teacher had changed their seats several times, he and Wang Xiaorui were always put together again. They were incredibly fated.

Recently, Wang Xiaorui seemed to want to say something to him. Seeing her rare hesitation, Jiang Rui felt a little nervous. Could my deskmate be about to confess to me too?

Thinking this, Jiang Rui suddenly felt that Wang Xiaorui was too nice to him in his previous life. Could it be that she liked me too?

“Did you hear what I said?” Wang Xiaorui frowned, looking at her distracted deskmate.

“Huh? What?” Jiang Rui came back to his senses.

Wang Xiaorui repeated what she had just said with an impatient tone: “The entire school is spreading a rumor that you have a crush on Wu Ziwen and want to date her.”

Jiang Rui felt that either he had misheard her or he had gone insane.

He looked at his deskmate with a funny expression and asked her, “Who started this ridiculous rumor?”

Wang Xiaorui saw his calm attitude and, having already found the rumor strange herself, now felt more at ease.

“If you don’t like her, then someone is definitely targeting you and trying to frame you. The high school entrance exams are coming up soon, so you need to be careful,” Wang Xiaorui said with a serious face.

Jiang Rui chuckled. “There may be a lot of people who have a crush on her, but I am definitely not one of them.”

Even so, Jiang Rui still mentioned the matter to Zhou Yang over the weekend.

Zhou Yang was aware of the rumors at school, but he and Jiang Rui were together almost every day, and he had never seen Jiang Rui look at Wu Ziwen even once. Besides, he had told Jiang Rui that he liked Wu Ziwen. If Jiang Rui had been interested in her, he would have told him and competed fairly instead of hiding it.

Now, hearing Jiang Rui’s explanation, he also found it strange. Who on earth started this outrageous rumor?

Jiang Rui chose to ignore the rumor, even when it reached the teacher’s ears. When the homeroom teacher called him in to talk, Jiang Rui just gave him one answer: “It’s not true!”

Zhao Chenghai initially didn’t believe Jiang Rui. But later, seeing that Jiang Rui almost never left his classroom and barely spoke to any girls in his class, let alone Wu Ziwen, whose classroom was so far away, he had no choice but to believe him.

However, some people did believe the rumors.

Jiang Rui had to deal with several groups of Wu Ziwen’s “guards” from both inside and outside the school. Only after he had thoroughly beaten them into submission did the matter come to an end.

Zhou Yang was also dragged into the matter. Later, Cui Xiyun was so worried about him that she had him become a day student and had a driver pick him up and drop him off every day. After all, the town was only half an hour’s drive from the city.

The classmates also found out for the first time that the chubby class monitor, who usually smiled like a Buddha, came from a very wealthy family. Zhou Yang’s popularity, which was already good, became even better.

The most surprising thing was that Wu Ziwen, who had always been cold to Zhou Yang, also came to him to apologize!

“I’m sorry. It’s all because of me that you guys got into trouble. I don’t know any of those people, and I didn’t know they would do this. I’m really sorry.” Wu Ziwen’s beautiful face was full of guilt.

Jiang Rui put his arm around Zhou Yang’s shoulder and looked at his friend with a half-smile.

Zhou Yang was embarrassed by his gaze.

Jiang Rui found it amusing. Zhou Yang was not like the other boys who liked Wu Ziwen. The chubby kid looked kind, but he was very cunning. If Wu Ziwen had continued to be so “cold,” she might have become a cherished memory for Zhou Yang. But with this apology, especially at a time when Zhou Yang’s family background had just been revealed, the sincerity behind her apology was questionable.

“It’s okay. We don’t mind. Besides, Jiang Rui beat all those people away. If anything, they’re the ones who lost more,” Zhou Yang said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Wu Ziwen quickly looked up at Jiang Rui.

That “shy” look gave Jiang Rui goosebumps. What happened to the cold goddess?

Jiang Rui patted his friend’s shoulder and quickly left without laughing at him.

Zhou Yang and Wu Ziwen talked a bit more. Before she left, she turned around and looked at him again. The look, as if she had something more to say, made many boys who had a crush on her glare at Zhou Yang. The chubby boy’s face was almost frozen.

Jiang Rui unceremoniously hid to the side and laughed. Even Wang Xiaorui, who usually had a cold expression, had a hint of a smile in her clear eyes.

Yang Feng’s schedule was unpredictable, so for convenience, Jiang Rui used his connection to get a storefront in Qing City to use as a flower house. At the end of the month, Yang Feng would send someone to pick up the flowers.

Jiang Rui was envious of the current real estate prices in Qing City, but he was still a minor and didn’t have an ID, so he couldn’t buy a house. And the cash he had was limited. He couldn’t touch the gold for now, so he could only watch.

Jiang Rui’s parents were initially suspicious about their son selling flowers at such an exorbitant price, but after receiving nine thousand yuan every month for half a year, they no longer had any doubts.

Jiang Jianjun’s salary at the brickyard was about four hundred yuan a month, but the work was dangerous. And after working there for so many years, his body had been damaged. Jiang Rui was worried about his health. He Fulan’s work making clothes also took a toll on her eyes.

After some thought, Jiang Rui found a large storefront in Qing City and planned to have his parents open a supermarket.

The couple thought the storefront in the city was too expensive and that they would be better off opening a small convenience store in the village. Jiang Rui used Yang Feng as an excuse and said that he was given a twenty-thousand-yuan bonus because the person was satisfied with the last six months of their partnership.

When the twenty thousand yuan was placed on the table, his parents said nothing more.

Jiang Jianjun and He Fulan had no experience in business and didn’t know the ropes. They suffered many losses at first. But with Jiang Rui’s guidance, they slowly got the hang of it.

The couple realized that their son had a mind of his own, and the two of them combined couldn’t compare to him. Whenever they encountered a problem they couldn’t solve with the supermarket, they would ask for their son’s advice, and things would always become simple in his hands.

With the supermarket in the city, it was no longer convenient for Jiang Rui’s parents to go back to their old house in the village. They rented a two-bedroom apartment near the supermarket to live in.

When the villagers saw that the Jiang family wasn’t coming back for a long time, and with the frightening sight of the men in black suits, a rumor began to spread that Jiang Jianjun had offended the underworld and that they had kidnapped his entire family.

The families of Jiang Jianlin and Jiang Jianheng, of course, also heard the rumors.

Jiang Jianheng and his wife were honest people. They didn’t think their older brother would offend anyone because of his personality. They went to the old house to look for Jiang Jianjun several times. Once, they happened to run into him when he came back to get some things and found out that he was doing business in the city.

Jiang Jianjun didn’t say much about the supermarket, only that he was selling things. His son had told him not to say too much to the family yet, as the third family might cause trouble.

Upon hearing that he was “selling things,” Jiang Jianheng immediately assumed that Jiang Jianjun had a street stall in the city, which was not a respectable job, so he didn’t want to talk about it much. He knew that some people in the village had stalls in the city to earn money. It was hard work, and he heard they were often fined by the city management, and their income was unstable. In his eyes, it was not as good as his brother’s previous job at the brickyard.

Jiang Jianheng tried to persuade his brother a few times. Seeing that he couldn’t convince him, he said nothing more and went home.

Jiang Jianlin initially thought his older brother had offended some powerful people and was taken away. He later found out that his brother and his wife had just set up a street stall in the city.

Having a street stall at that time was not a respectable job, and people would look down on you. Jiang Jianlin felt embarrassed and didn’t want to be associated with his older brother’s family.

Li Xiuzhi’s child had been born for almost half a year and was a boy. The couple doted on him as if he were their lifeblood. Jiang Jianlin didn’t want his son to be dragged down and laughed at because of his older brother, so he told Li Xiuzhi to go to the old house less and to have less contact with his older brother’s family.

Ever since she paid the more than ten thousand yuan and gave birth to a son, Li Xiuzhi considered herself a hero of the Jiang family. She was no longer as respectful to the old lady as she used to be. From the time she was in her confinement period until now, she hadn’t even brought a meal to the table. She used the excuse that giving birth had hurt her body, and the old lady was still doing all the chores at home.

Jiang Jianlin was lazy and a glutton. He didn’t have a regular job and would constantly ask his mother or his wife for money. Once he got the money, he would leave the house and go somewhere. He would only come back when he was out of money.