Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 139

Jiang Bai stared at the fifty yuan in front of him. That week, he earned fifty yuan. All he had to do was wear the clothes his sister had picked out for him, stand up straight at school, and walk around with his chest out to earn thirty yuan.

He looked at his sister, then at the money, back at his sister, and then at the money again.

In the end, he reluctantly handed the thirty yuan back to Jiang Ning. After thinking about it, he took out another ten yuan and gave it to her. 

“You said before that you’d give me ten yuan a week for wearing your matching clothes. Just give me the ten yuan, and you can take the rest back.”

That was all money. He turned his eyes away, telling himself not to look. He couldn’t bear to.

Jiang Ning smiled and stuffed the money back into his hand. “As I said, this twenty is your commission.” 

She continued, “Despite the large sales over the past three days, I estimate that the market in Wucheng is already saturated. At the end of the year, every household wants to buy new clothes for their family members, so the business has been booming. But now, everyone who needed to buy has already bought. The business should stabilize in the future, and Grandpa can manage the store on his own.”

When Jiang Bai heard this, he thought his sister didn’t want him to come to the store to sell clothes on weekends, and he immediately became anxious. That was ten yuan a day, and he had never made so much money.

Seeing his anxiety, Jiang Ning said, “Don’t worry. As I said before, as long as your grades don’t decline, I’ll definitely ask you to sell clothes. If your grades drop, that won’t work. Focus on improving your grades first; whether you make money or not isn’t the priority.” 

Thinking of Jiang Bai regretting not repeating another year to go to college twenty years later, Jiang Ning added, “Isn’t there a monthly exam coming up? We’ll know how you did when we see the results on Tuesday.”

Originally, Jiang Bai didn’t hate studying, but he wasn’t particularly fond of it either. He felt that since he spent money to attend school, he had to make it worth the cost and learn everything he was supposed to.

In fact, he didn’t have much motivation or a strong desire to learn.

Recently, he’d had enough meat to eat, thanks to his sister bringing it over from time to time.

After eating late-night snacks, he no longer felt dizzy or unable to concentrate due to hunger during class. His legs no longer cramped at night, and he wasn’t waking up due to growing pains.

After sleeping well at night, eating enough during the day, and feeling motivated to make money at Jiang Ning’s store, he became much more energetic in his studies.

In the past, he had always been a quiet person in the back, head bowed and silent. But lately, in class, he stared at the teacher with intense focus, his head held high, his back straight, and his whole demeanor full of energy.

Many students in the class noticed and thought that Jiang Bai had become even more handsome.

Even the teachers in the class couldn’t help but become more energetic when they were looked at by Jiang Bai’s bright, intense eyes.

At that time, when he heard his sister talk about his upcoming monthly exam results, he, who had never cared much about his grades before, suddenly became nervous. He was afraid that he wouldn’t do well on the exam, and he was also worried about what would happen if the business in his sister’s store wasn’t as good as before. He secretly thought to himself, ‘I must be more upright, hold my head up and chest out, and wear the clothes from my sister’s store better, so that people at school will want to buy the clothes after seeing them.’

So the young man looked even more energetic.

Tong Jingang teased him, saying, “Is there something wrong with you lately? Could it be that you’re in love?”

That one sentence made Jiang Bai’s face turn red. “Who’s in love? I’m with you every day. Did I fall in love with a ghost?” 

He looked around nervously, worried that the head of the Political and Education Department might overhear.

“Then why are you always dressing up so nicely these days?”

Thinking about it, Jiang Bai couldn’t help but purse his lips and smile. “Don’t you know this?” He whispered, “These clothes are all from my sister’s shop, and my sister picked them out for me. She said I should wear a few more sets at school. When others see how good I look in them, they’ll want to buy them too.”

That was the first time he praised himself so much, and even though he used Jiang Ning’s words, he still felt embarrassed.

Tong Jingang had heard that gossip a long time ago and hugged Jiang Bai’s shoulder. “Damn, that store at Jiangnan Garment Factory turned out to be your sister’s! Tell me what’s going on. Did you capture Director He who ran away with the young lady? He embezzled 35 million; that could buy a lot of airplanes and cannons for our country, right?”

Tong Jingang not only loved basketball but was also a military enthusiast.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier? If you had told me earlier, I’d have bought a couple of pieces to support our sister’s business.” He tightened his grip on Jiang Bai’s shoulder and said slyly, “Brother, I’m going to buy some clothes. Got any cheap ones?”

Jiang Bai struggled for a long time before stretching out five fingers.

“I’ll sell them to you for fifty yuan.” 

Tong Jingang just nodded.

During the evening self-study session, teachers from various subjects came to the class to hand out test papers. When the results came out, Jiang Bai was a little nervous. Unexpectedly, his performance had improved significantly, and he advanced several places. This was something even the teachers didn’t expect.

The teacher of Class 8 directly used Jiang Bai as an example, saying, “Look at Jiang Bai’s grades this time. What does this mean? It means that whenever you want to work hard, you can. There’s still time.”

Jiang Bai became the best example.

“His grades in the first and second years of high school were barely adequate. If he keeps improving at this rate, I won’t say Tsinghua University or Peking University, but he could definitely get into a provincial university if he works hard.”

Jiang Bai’s physics scores improved dramatically this time.

He usually slept in the back during physics classes, and the physics teacher didn’t pay much attention to him. He deliberately turned in blank papers for physics exams and got scolded by the teacher each time, but Jiang Bai didn’t care. He studied physics purely on his own.

However, his talent and understanding of physics were exceptional. He studied physics just like Jiang Ning studied political history—as long as he was willing to learn, it was easy to understand. So, this time, he did great in physics.

The physics teacher didn’t suspect him of cheating.

The teacher had disliked Jiang Bai for a long time, especially since he had deliberately antagonized him over the past two years, refusing to listen in class and turning in blank papers during exams. No one would like such a student.

But now that Jiang Bai was a senior in high school and was willing to study, the teacher was willing to teach, though he still didn’t have a good attitude toward Jiang Bai. Jiang Bai felt the same toward him.