Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 169

Principal Sun, who was over 1.8 meters tall and well-built, wore an apron and brought out another plate of food. He said with a smile, “You guys eat first, and I’ll fry another dish. It’ll be ready soon.”

His face was serious, and even with a slight smile, he still looked authoritative, like a boss.

“That’s enough, that’s enough. There’s no need to cook so many dishes. These are plenty,” Director Zhang said, as he went to Principal Sun’s kitchen familiarly, took out a big bowl, and poured the two kilograms of pork head meat he had cut into the bowl. He then asked, “Do you have any sesame oil?”

Director Yin disagreed, “It’s good enough as is. What do you need sesame oil for?”

Director Zhang didn’t insist. Soon, Principal Sun finished cooking another dish, took off his apron, brought out a bottle of good wine he had been saving, and pulled his wife over to sit down. “Come, let’s have a drink.”

The principal’s wife also sat down with a smile. “It’s rare to see the four of you in such high spirits. What’s the big occasion?”

The only thing that could make the four of them so cheerful was the students’ recent performance.

Sure enough, Director Zhang, in high spirits, said, “Old Wang next door wanted to use our No. 1 High School to train his troops and to show off Wuzhong’s achievements, but our school pushed back. This time, six out of the top ten in the county are from our school. The first place is one of our students. Who dares to say our No. 1 High School isn’t as good as Wuzhong? Their faces must be burning.”

Director Zhang continued happily, “For this joint examination, Wuzhong was running around trying to meet with the Education Bureau and all, but when it comes to this year’s enrollment, if I don’t trample on then, it’d be an injustice for all the times they tried to step on us.”

The more he talked, the more excited Director Zhang became. He even used an operatic accent, shaking his head as he sang, “This was Zhou Lang’s clever strategy, but in the end, he lost both his wife and his troops.”

The last word was drawn out with a long vibrato, amusing the principal’s wife, who laughed and said, “No wonder Old Sun is so happy that he’s willing to bring out the wine he’s been keeping for years.”

The mood was very festive.

The four of them sat there, thinking about the joint examination and the coming enrollment. How could they be anything but pleased?

Meanwhile, Jiang Hehua was not in a good mood. When she saw Song Peifeng’s name in second place, she couldn’t quite believe it. Could someone really put pressure on him?

She found it a bit absurd.

She had always excelled academically, and as a result, had a rather high opinion of herself. Being the daughter of the brigade secretary, she had always been treated differently from the other girls in the village.

Although she wasn’t exactly a wealthy young lady, she had been treated like one in her village. People always greeted her with a smile, and everyone was polite to her. Her academic performance had always been excellent, too. In junior high school, she had been the best among her peers and a model student in the teachers’ eyes. Although she hadn’t shown it outwardly, she had always felt a deep sense of pride. Even Jiang Ning and Jiang Qinqian, she unconsciously looked down on them.

This sense of superiority lasted until she joined Wuzhong, where it was shattered by Song Peifeng.

There were many outstanding students in Wuzhong, but none had ever made her feel so insignificant and unreachable as Song Peifeng. In every exam, his scores were far ahead of the second-highest student.

Song Peifeng was also very good-looking. His appearance was different from Jiang Bai’s slightly soft features. He stood out from the typical rustic look of their small county. He had the calmness and detachment of someone who had experienced the world outside their small town, someone from the big city.

That was a demeanor completely foreign to their small county town. Jiang Hehua couldn’t help but steal glances at him.

In his presence, Jiang Hehua realized how insignificant her past pride as the brigade secretary’s daughter had been. Many of Wuzhong’s students had far better family backgrounds than hers. The things she once prided herself on were now trivial.

Even her consistently excellent academic performance seemed average among the sea of top students at Wuzhong.

Her long-held sense of superiority was suddenly shattered.

But she was used to being proud, and she couldn’t learn to lower her arrogant head. There was no need for her to lower her head. She just needed to keep working hard and rush to the forefront as before. She was still a center in the eyes of the students and teachers.

But there were many people with excellent grades in Wuzhong. Each of them was just like her. She was a top student in the original middle school. She had studied hard but still couldn’t get into the top ten in her grade. Her best result was only in the top twenty of her grade. Most of the time, she was hovering in the top fifty of her grade, let alone catching up with Song Peifeng, who was far ahead of the second place by many points in every exam.

The name Song Peifeng hung there, like she could never reach the moon hanging high in the sky. Now, someone stood on top of her moon and trampled her moon under her feet.

At this youthful age, although dating was prohibited in Wuzhong, it did not prevent some people who have a good impression of others from hiding their secret love in their hearts. In this high-pressure and boring high school, every time she thought of this person, her heart felt sad. Sweet and sour, with a sweet aftertaste.

Song Peifeng was the youth hidden in Jiang Hehua’s heart.

Seeing that Song Peifeng, who was always far ahead of others, was suddenly pressed down by someone, she felt an indescribable feeling in her heart, bitter and astringent, as if a sharp knife was piercing her heart. She really wanted to put that name away.

She reached out to touch the name through the glass of the bulletin board, but what she touched was cold glass.

“Hehua, Hehua!” Ruan Hong saw Jiang Hehua reaching for the top name with her fingers. When she saw that her surname was Jiang, she thought she knew the girl and asked curiously, “Do you know her?”

Jiang Hehua was startled by the call from her deskmate, and she quickly retracted her hand, but with a calm expression on her face, she shook her head and said, “I don’t know if it’s the Jiang Ning I know.”

“You really know Jiang Ning, don’t you? Isn’t she in No. 1 High School? Please tell me what kind of person she is.” She was almost dying of curiosity.

In fact, none of them had ever heard of that person.

Before going to No. 1 High School for the exam, she also looked at the performance rankings of No. 1 High School, but at that time she only noticed the few people in front of her and didn’t notice Jiang Ning’s name there.

Anyway, she was sure that Jiang Ning was definitely not among the first few. How could they not be curious about a person with such an unknown reputation suddenly standing as a dark horse and ranking first in the county?