Chapter 14

Jiang Muti, still feeling the effects of her earlier choking, was struck with another blow.

Ji Feishi looked at her with a somewhat serious expression and said, “Thank you for your kindness. You’re a great person, but you’re not my type.”

For a moment, Jiang Muti really felt a wave of bitter sweetness rising in her throat.

“Why does sitting here automatically hand me a ‘good person’ card? Is this like handing out flyers on the highway?”

At this moment, she could truly understand how Zhou Lu must have felt every time he encountered these two—always getting worked up to the point of internal injuries.

One was a clueless fool, and the other was a narcissistic maniac. They could really drive someone crazy in just a minute.

Calling Yun Cheng a fool was truly fitting. Seeing Jiang Muti looking irritated, he assumed she was still heartbroken over being rejected and hadn’t gotten over the emotional hurdle.

He hurriedly patted her head, trying to comfort her: “I know it’s tough to be rejected, but Feishi is like that. He doesn’t want to give people false hope.”

“Think about it—if you had secretly liked him for four or five years before finally realizing the truth and then regretting that you two could never be together, how tragic would that be?”

Ji Feishi nodded in agreement: “Of course, four or five years is a conservative estimate. The real time might be even longer. Don’t you think that’s quite alarming? So it’s better to keep a clear head from the start.”

Jiang Muti felt a headache coming on. She turned to Yun Cheng, who was about to say something else, and snapped, “Shut up! You idiot, the only thing sinful here is your brain.”

Then, she turned to Ji Feishi and said, “Four or five years? A conservative estimate? You really believe in yourself. I’m guessing you’ve never had a real conversation with him, right? Just with that mouth of yours, it’s hard to say if it could even hold someone’s attention for four or five hours.”

To her surprise, Ji Feishi wasn’t offended at all. Instead, he looked at her with a knowing expression and nodded.

Jiang Muti understood. His look meant, “Good luck! If you can do it, then great.”

Jiang Muti was left speechless. She realized that with this guy’s narcissism, no matter what she said, ^[1]“hitting a pillow” in this context is used metaphorically to describe an action that feels pointless or ineffective. It’s similar to the idea of hitting something soft or yielding, … Continue readingit would be like hitting a pillow.

The key issue was that he truly had the charm to back up that narcissism, and that was what made it so frustrating.

Before she could say anything else, the car had already arrived at their house. Jiang Muti got out, looking exhausted, and mechanically said goodbye to Ji Feishi as Yun Cheng did the same.

Watching the tail of their car disappear in front of her, Yun Cheng saw how dispirited she looked and pulled her in for a comforting hug. “That goal is indeed a bit difficult. I don’t want you to come back empty-handed. Next time you like someone, tell me, and I’ll help you.”

Jiang Muti didn’t argue this time, instead, she gave the guy a long look. “How do you know I’d end up empty-handed?”

As soon as she spoke, she found herself amused. Hadn’t she already experienced enough of these ambiguous, prideful quarrels in her past life?

She had died once, so shouldn’t she have matured a bit?

She shook her head and walked inside with Yun Cheng.

She didn’t head straight to the main house but instead went with Yun Cheng to the dormitory area. Sure enough, Yun Duo, who had returned early, was sulking.

When she saw Jiang Muti, she snorted coldly. “Back already? Didn’t stay to hang out with them for a while longer?”

Yun Cheng, hearing this, felt a little sour. “Why do I feel like you’re being possessive? If you want to hang out with Muti, just go with her.”

Yun Duo, also feeling the same frustration Jiang Muti had earlier in the car, threw a pillow at her brother. “What does it have to do with you? There’s still food in the pot, go eat it yourself.”

Yun Cheng shrugged, signaling that he wasn’t about to get involved in a girl’s quarrel.

At this point, Jiang Muti took a few pieces of paper out of her pocket and placed them in front of Yun Duo. “Here! Take a look at this, it might help cool your temper.”

Yun Duo opened the papers skeptically. When she saw the contents—several neatly organized IOUs—she immediately understood Jiang Muti’s intention at that moment.

She smiled in delight. “I thought you didn’t care when someone like them took advantage of you, but it turns out you’ve remembered everything.”

In fact, when it came to the Yun family, they could definitely be considered wealthy in the general sense.

Old Yun, as a senior manager in a wealthy family, had an annual salary, bonuses, and employee stock dividends. His income wasn’t any less than that of executives at large nationwide companies. The two siblings had never struggled financially since they could remember.

But no matter how much they earned, it was all a result of their father’s hard work and dedication. Jiang Muti felt the same way—she understood the value of hard-earned money.

The family’s business was global, and their son was busy with work. If those friends were truly sincere, that would be one thing. But constantly taking advantage of others and acting as if no one would want to be Jiang Muti’s friend without them—now that was another.

Yun Duo had tried to advise her before, but Jiang Muti didn’t listen and thought Yun Duo was just being malicious towards her friends. After a few fruitless attempts, Yun Duo gradually stopped caring.

What surprised her was that once Jiang Muti finally understood, she had cleared everything up in her heart.

Then she suddenly felt a little embarrassed and awkward, realizing that she hadn’t trusted her to handle these things on her own before.

She blushed and cleared her throat. “You… you could have taken me along. If they dared not to write, I could help you hold them down.”

Yun Duo had grown up doing physical training with her brother, and her strength was not something an average girl could compare to. If it came to a fight, a few regular girls wouldn’t be her match.

Jiang Muti patted her on the head. “I thought with your moral standards, you wouldn’t tolerate these things. But since you’ve adapted well, alright then, from now on you’ll officially join me in my activities.”

She continued, a bit regretfully, “It’s a pity you’re bad with words, so you probably won’t be of much help in a quarrel. But you can pull the other person’s hair when I’m cursing them out.”

“Oh, and remember one rule. You can eat anything, but never let yourself be taken advantage of, understand?”

Yun Duo was confused. Not having ever been involved in forming groups, she wasn’t sure what exactly these words meant. It felt a bit off, but after thinking about it, she decided that if Jiang Muti was being bullied, she would definitely help, so she nodded in a daze.

Yun Cheng leaned against the kitchen door, holding a bowl, and while scooping rice, he said, “I feel like I’m witnessing the process of a school bully recruiting lackeys. Are you upset because of the rejection?”

“What rejected?” Yun Duo quickly turned around, and saw a pillow fall in the same direction as her gaze, landing on her brother.

Jiang Muti scolded, “You’re so nosy. Let me tell you, if you dare bring up this topic again, I’ll expose how you fed snacks to the dog and make sure you three brothers never see each other again.”

Yun Cheng froze for a moment, holding his bowl. “Since you’re alive, why aren’t you doing something useful?”

“Heh! If you’re human, why do you keep speaking like a Husky?” Jiang Muti shot back.

Yun Duo was utterly confused by their banter. “You two—”

Jiang Muti told her, “Ignore him. Right now, he’s not your brother, he’s the triplet brother of two dogs.”

After some playful teasing, Jiang Muti stayed for a while before heading back. As soon as she entered the dining room, she was surprised to see her eldest brother hadn’t started eating yet and was waiting for her.

Seeing this, Jiang Muti’s heart stirred. “You can eat first. You’ve been busy with work. Don’t delay your meal just to accommodate me.”

Jiang Yunjuan replied, “There’s no reason for a family to stagger meal times. Was it fun over there with Ah Cheng? Didn’t even come back for a meal.”

Jiang Muti secretly laughed to herself. So it turned out that he was lonely and jealous that everyone else had gone to the other side without him.

This kind of sulky, and proud attitude is actually quite easy to please. While Jiang Muti was eating, she diligently served her eldest brother, putting food on his plate, ladling soup for him, and peeling several large prawns for him. By the time the meal was over, her eldest brother was content, and she stopped trying to pick fights.

However, she had promised Qiao Yuqi that she would follow through, and now that she was only halfway through her weight loss, she didn’t want to return to the social scene in this state, so she directly entrusted the task to her eldest brother.

When Jiang Yunjuan heard this, his brows furrowed so much they could crush a mosquito. “You’re going through all this trouble for that guy. What did he say to you?”

Jiang Muti was about to explain, but she saw the dangerous look in Jiang Yunjuan’s eyes. It seemed that if he confirmed his suspicion, the guy who dared to have any designs on his sister would be facing a very bad end.

She realized he probably thought she had been deceived by a few sweet words from some campus idol, and now, foolishly, she was letting herself be a stepping stone for his wild ambitions.

She smiled and gave up on explaining things in detail. “I should say, I’m offering him something, hoping to gain something in return.”

Jiang Yunjuan, being sharp as ever, immediately picked up on her subtle tone and leaned back, waiting for her to elaborate.

“Brother, your connections and resources aren’t all inherited from the family, right? We started out with a higher advantage than most people, and many people struggle to even get started, but we can easily pull them up.”

“Of course, this kind of investment isn’t always successful, but at least it creates good karma. Brother, I want to manage my own network and relationships in the future, so I need to test my judgment. Could you help me with that?”

Her straightforward explanation about the purely transactional nature of her involvement actually calmed Jiang Yunjuan’s concerns. However, deep down, he didn’t want his sister to become too close to that guy.

But at the same time, he was very curious about how things would develop based on what she had said.

So he said, “You didn’t really need to ask me for help on this because you’ll be meeting the relevant person soon. Just go and talk to him yourself. If you want to do this for me to see, why not give it a try yourself?”

“Hmm?” Jiang Muti raised her eyes, not planning on participating in socializing in this way.

Jiang Yunjuan, however, said, “I just got a call from Mom and Dad. They’ll be coming back next week, and there’s a banquet. They specifically asked you to go too.”

Ah! Jiang Muti slumped her shoulders. She almost forgot that her parents were still alive and well.