Chapter 27: Jiang Jinzhong’s Collapse

After collecting the IOU, Jiang Yiyi stood up. Cui Yong said, “The glass cover is ready. I’ll deliver the tricycle to you, too.”

Jiang Yiyi didn’t refuse his kindness. She had come by bicycle and couldn’t ride a tricycle back at the same time.

When they arrived at their rented courtyard, Brother Liu happened to be delivering the frying pans. Cui Yong couldn’t contain his excitement and told him about borrowing the 2,600 yuan for the motorcycle.

“You’re amazing, kid! You borrowed so much money in one night!”

“Sister Jiang helped me borrow it.”

Jiang Yiyi helped him borrow it?

Brother Liu was quite surprised. 1,600 yuan was no small sum, and Jiang Yiyi had actually borrowed it in one night.

But he was only surprised for a moment. Daring to rent such a large courtyard after only selling cold noodles for a few days showed extraordinary determination and connections.

Fifty frying pans were too conspicuous, so Brother Liu didn’t deliver them all at once. He only delivered fifteen.

He went back and forth twice to bring the rest.

With everything prepared, the stove was dry and usable. The only things left to solve were the daily supply of cucumbers and finding someone to make the cold noodles.

Cucumbers were easy to sell; the county town had a morning market. Finding someone to make the cold noodles was harder. They needed to be reliable, hardworking, and not too shrewd.

Cold noodles were simple to make and could be learned quickly. If the person hired was too shrewd, they might learn the recipe and start their own business, taking away Jiang Yiyi’s advantage.

“Brother, sister-in-law, do you know anyone who is reliable and hardworking? It’s okay if they’re a bit older.”

“There’s a widow in our village. She only has one daughter, who’s already married. She’s a hard worker and not too old, just in her early forties,”

Zhou Fen said.

“Brother, go back and have Mother ask her if she’s willing to come and work. We’ll provide food and housing, and pay her thirty yuan a month. Also, ask Father and Mother to help find more people, and hire a few more.”

Jiang Jinfeng immediately rode his bicycle back. Jiang Yiyi went to the supply and marketing cooperative and bought twenty kilograms of chili peppers, returning to make chili oil. She also bought vegetables and meat to make a noodle soup for lunch.

Gu Yunchi hadn’t returned yet, probably selling cold noodles. She had made extra today, specifically for Gu Yunchi to sell after he finished his deliveries.

Near noon, Jiang Jinfeng brought Widow Zhou back. Widow Zhou was carrying a bundle of clothes and bedding, and she looked clean and efficient.

Jiang Yiyi was very satisfied. “I only have one request: you cannot reveal the cold noodle recipe. I’ll write a contract later. If you reveal it after signing, you’ll be sent to the police station.”

Widow Zhou wasn’t a gossipy person, so this request wasn’t a problem for her. After reading the contract, she readily signed it.

Jiang Yiyi let her choose her own room.

Widow Zhou chose the room on the edge, put her bundle and bedding inside, and came out to help with the cooking.

The noodles were freshly rolled; they ate as much as they wanted. Jiang Yiyi had a small appetite and finished quickly. She put the leftovers in an enamel mug and went to deliver it to Jiang Jinzhong.

“Little sister, I’ll go.”

Jiang Jinfeng said, shoveling the last few bites of noodles into his mouth. He had a large appetite and usually ate three or four bowls; he had only eaten one now.

“Brother, eat your fill. I’ll go. I have something to say to Little Brother.”

Hearing that she had something to say to her younger brother, Jiang Jinfeng didn’t rush to go. “You tell Little Brother that starting tomorrow, your sister-in-law will deliver his meals.”

Jiang Yiyi responded, put the enamel mug in a net bag, hung it on the front handlebars of her bicycle, and went to the gate of County No. 1 Middle School. She waited for more than ten minutes before Jiang Jinzhong came out. He seemed to be in a bad state.

“Sister.”

“Were you bullied?”

Jiang Jinzhong shook his head, his eyes slowly reddening. “I didn’t do well on my exam.”

He had worked very hard, studying all day except for meals, sleeping only four or five hours a night, but he still didn’t do well. He didn’t know how to face his older sister and family.

“Which subject?”

“Math. I only got sixty.”

Jiang Jinzhong hung his head low. People say that if you master math, physics, and chemistry, you can conquer the world, but he was particularly bad at math.

Jiang Yiyi wanted to tutor him. She had been a top student when she was in school, but the body she had transmigrated into had dropped out of high school in her second year and couldn’t teach Jiang Jinzhong.

“Has it always been bad?”

Jiang Jinzhong hung his head even lower, his voice tinged with tears. “Before, I could score eighty or ninety.”

“One bad exam doesn’t mean anything. Adjust your mood, review the wrong questions, see where you went wrong, and ask the teacher if you don’t understand.”

Jiang Jinzhong nodded, sniffing.

Jiang Yiyi handed him the enamel mug. “Eat first, then go back to the dorm and have a good sleep. If you still can’t adjust your mood in the afternoon, come to the rented house at night. Brother and Sister-in-law are staying there, and I’ll have Brother pick you up after school.”

“No need.”

If it weren’t for his older sister delivering his meal, he wouldn’t want to face her. He felt too guilty towards his family. His parents and brother worked hard in the fields to support his studies, and his older sister even got married to help pay for his tuition, yet he hadn’t done well in his studies.

Jiang Jinzhong couldn’t eat, barely finishing the food. He gave the enamel mug back to Jiang Yiyi and turned back to the dormitory.

Seeing his slumped shoulders, Jiang Yiyi worried that Jiang Jinzhong was under too much pressure and couldn’t adjust, affecting his college entrance exam. She didn’t want her transmigration to change Jiang Jinzhong’s fate.

She walked into the gatekeeper’s room. “Grandpa, does our school have any good math teachers? For the third year of high school?”

The gatekeeper had received a lot of food from Jiang Yiyi, so he naturally answered. “Yes, Teacher Zhang Xiang from Class 9 of the third year is a national outstanding teacher.”

“Thank you, Grandpa.”

Leaving the school gate, Jiang Yiyi bought a watermelon and went to the teacher’s dormitory. At that time, teachers still lived in single-story houses. After finding out where Teacher Zhang Xiang lived, she parked her bicycle and went to knock on the door with the watermelon.

“Who is it?”

A voice came from inside the yard, and the door opened. It was Zhang Xiang’s wife, also a teacher, but she taught junior high school. Seeing a young girl at the door, she looked at her a few more times.

“I’m looking for Teacher Zhang Xiang.”

“Lao Zhang, someone’s looking for you.”

Zhang Xiang came out from the house. He was forty-five or six, wearing glasses.

“I’m Jiang Jinzhong’s older sister from Class 7 of the third year of high school. I came to ask you for something, something very important.”

He was the head teacher of Class 9. Even if a student from Class 7 had something to do, they should find the head teacher of Class 7, but they came to him. Could it be that they had a conflict with a student from his Class 9? Zhang Xiang frowned. “Come in.”

Jiang Yiyi went in and put the watermelon on the coffee table, getting straight to the point. “It’s like this. I want you to tutor my brother in math. He didn’t do well on his recent exam, only scoring sixty-plus.”

It wasn’t a conflict between students. Zhang Xiang’s eyebrows relaxed. There was still more than a month until the college entrance exam, and conflicts at this time would greatly affect the students’ mood.

He was about to refuse when he heard Jiang Yiyi say, “I won’t ask you to do it for free. I’ll pay you, by the day, one yuan a day. You only need to tutor him for two hours in the evening.”

Zhang Xiang’s refusal was stuck in his throat. One yuan a day, until the college entrance exam, he could earn almost fifty yuan, more than his monthly salary.

But he was a national outstanding teacher after all. If the student didn’t do well in the end, it might affect his reputation. Money was important, but reputation was even more important.

“My brother usually scores eighty or ninety. He probably had too much pressure, which is why he didn’t do well this time. I also want you to guide him while tutoring him, so he won’t have so much pressure.”

Eighty or ninety points, he could consider it, but he didn’t know if the girl was telling the truth.

Zhang Xiang pondered for a while and said, “I’ll go and find out in the afternoon. If it’s really as you say, let your brother come over tomorrow night after evening self-study.”

“Okay.”

Jiang Yiyi stood up. Zhang Xiang gestured to his wife to give the watermelon to Jiang Yiyi, but his wife didn’t say anything. Having been a teacher for many years, she could tell that Jiang Yiyi wasn’t lying. Since tutoring would start tomorrow, it was fine to keep the watermelon. It wasn’t that she coveted a watermelon, but it would be bad if the neighbors heard them haggling.