After Transmigrating for the Third Time, the Real Young Master Decides to Slouch - Chapter 12

Song Jintong squeezed to the very front of the notice board, held up her phone, and snapped a whole series of photos of the ranking chart before finally stepping aside in satisfaction to choose the best ones.

Fang Han passed by in front of her, and she smiled as she said, “Young Master Fang, this time you’re pressing down on everyone’s heads. You have to treat everyone to a meal.”

The others heard it too and immediately joined in the teasing. “Young Master Fang, with such a huge happy occasion, it wouldn’t make sense if you didn’t treat us.”

Fang Han agreed very readily. “Sure. It just so happens today is Friday. Tonight, I’ll arrange a full package for everyone—food, drinks, and fun.”

“Young Master Fang is straightforward!”

“That’s what I admire about Young Master Fang, so generous!”

“Still calling him Young Master Fang? Call him President Fang!”

“Right, right, President Fang!”

Fang Han smiled, then turned and bent down toward Dai Chu in front of him. “School Beauty Dai, I’m treating the whole class tonight. Will you do me the honor?”

“I’m going home.” Dai Chu refused without lifting her head.

“Don’t be so cold.” Fang Han refused to give up. “You’re my deskmate. You should at least give me this much face. Otherwise, how could you live up to the bond between us?”

The words “the bond between us” instantly ignited the gossiping souls of the onlookers. Some jeered, some whistled, and the way they looked at the two of them was full of ambiguity.

Fang Han looked at Dai Chu, his eyes full of teasing.

Turning a deaf ear to the commotion around her, Dai Chu still gave the same four words. “I’m going home.”

Fang Han did not continue insisting. He straightened, shrugged, and looked regretful. “Fine.”

Song Jintong covered her mouth and laughed. “Young Master Fang, our School Beauty Dai has high standards. She doesn’t fancy you.”

“Yeah.” Fang Han spread his hands.

Dai Chu gave no reaction.

The jeering over there was far too unrestrained. Jiang Tong’s train of thought while solving problems was interrupted by the noise, and he frowned as he lifted his head to look toward the door. A group of people had gathered around Dai Chu. Although they called her “School Beauty Dai” with every breath, it was clearly not admiration, but malice.

Before he could withdraw his gaze, Song Jintong caught sight of him. Smiling brightly, she invited him, “Class monitor, study committee member, Young Master Fang is treating tonight. Why don’t you two come too?”

“Ah, I…” Jiang Tong instinctively wanted to refuse. His first thought was that none of these people were easy to deal with, so it would be better to keep his distance from them. But then he thought again. Wasn’t this the perfect chance to infiltrate their inner circle? He could take the opportunity to gather some information for his brother. It might come in handy later.

So the words turned around at his lips and became, “Sure, I’ll come.”

Song Jintong looked at Lu She. “What about you, study committee member?”

Lu She glanced at Jiang Tong and nodded. “Mm.”

Song Jintong smiled and said to Fang Han, “Young Master Fang, I invited two heavyweight guests for you.”

Fang Han crossed his arms, withdrew his assessing gaze from the two of them, and shrugged. “Looks like I should thank you.”

“You’re welcome. It’s what I should do.” Song Jintong smiled cheerfully.

Only then did Jiang Tong come back from his daze. He grabbed Lu She’s clothes and asked in a low voice, “No, why are you going?”

Lu She’s tone was faint as he asked back, “Aren’t you going too?”

“I…”

Jiang Tong was stuck for a moment. Only after a long while did he scratch his face and say embarrassedly, “No, it’s not that I want to go myself… I just want to help my brother gather information…”

“I know,” Lu She said.

“Huh?” Jiang Tong was shocked. He knew?

Lu She smiled faintly. “You won’t be able to handle them by yourself. I’ll help you.”

Jiang Tong stared at him blankly. Only after quite a while did he come back to himself and reveal a brilliant smile. “Mm. Thank you, Lu She.”

“Mm.” Lu She pushed the draft paper in front of him and withdrew his smile. “Keep doing the questions.”

The moment the dismissal bell rang at exactly five o’clock, Jiang Zao slowly finished the last mouthful of water, shut down his computer, tidied his desk, then got up, clocked out, and left the office.

Off work. Go home.

At that moment, the campus became lively. People surged toward the school gate in dense crowds. Jiang Zao felt a headache coming on. He had already moved this slowly, so why were there still so many people?

If it were not for the fact that he had to clock out on time, he would have slipped away long ago.

Following the flow of people to the school gate, Jiang Zao found the various luxury cars parked outside very familiar. The school gate of Jiayin after dismissal was always like this. Even after more than ten years, it had not changed.

Just as he finished sighing emotionally and was about to leave, Jiang Zao caught sight of a figure from the corner of his eye. Dai Chu, carrying her schoolbag, got into a black sedan parked by the road.

Jiang Zao raised a brow. He knew Fang Han was treating the class tonight. She was not going?

But it had nothing to do with him. There was no need for a teacher to interfere with students’ social activities. Speaking of which… Jiang Tong seemed to be going too, right?

Jiang Zao restrained the urge to call and remind him. If Lu She was going as well, it should be fine. That child was very reliable.

Before stuffing his phone back into his pocket, Jiang Zao glanced at the screen. No calls, no messages. The interface quietly stayed on standby. He put his phone away and continued walking forward. The apartment was a five-minute walk from the school. After walking a certain distance, there were clearly fewer cars parked by the road.

“Beep beep—”

A car parked by the roadside suddenly honked. The window rolled down, and Rong Jingcheng smiled from inside. “Xiao Zao.”

Jiang Zao turned his head, then continued walking forward.

The car followed him at a slow speed.

“Is Xiao Zao unhappy to see me?” Rong Jingcheng asked, pretending to be hurt.

Jiang Zao walked straight ahead without looking sideways. “I told you, didn’t I? Don’t come to school to find me.”

Rong Jingcheng defended himself. “But this isn’t school. It’s outside the school.”

Jiang Zao turned his head now and lifted his eyes. “Was my wording inaccurate?”

Rong Jingcheng admitted his mistake. “All right, all right. I was wrong. There won’t be a next time—Xiao Zao, hurry and get in. Let’s go eat dinner.”

One second ago, he had still been downcast; the next, he was smiling brightly again. Jiang Zao deeply admired his face-changing skills and pretended not to hear his summons.

The car continued following Jiang Zao. Seeing that they were almost downstairs from the apartment, Rong Jingcheng leaned by the car window and asked with a smile, “Xiao Zao, do you want me to get out and invite you in?”

Jiang Zao’s steps paused. He turned and got into the car.

The car stopped steadily in the garage. The woman serving as driver turned her head and said, “Xiao Chu, we’re home.”

Dai Chu took off her earphones and put them away. After getting out of the car, she did not enter the house directly through the small door in the garage. Instead, she went into the small room beside it.

After locking the door, Dai Chu began changing clothes. She took off the skirt-style school uniform and took a simple set of clothes and pants from the cabinet to change into. After changing, she picked up a comb and hair tie, tying up her loose hair. Once everything was done, she looked at herself in the mirror.

The clothes were somewhat oversized on her, completely concealing the features of her figure. After her hair was tied up, some of that pure, charming beauty was gone. What appeared instead was earthiness and stiffness.

She then took out a pair of black-framed glasses and put them on. Her entire person was simply worlds apart from the radiant school beauty she had been earlier.

Dai Chu came out of the small room. The waiting driver immediately opened the small door leading to the main house for her and handed her schoolbag over.

Dai Chu accepted the bag, thanked her, and went inside.

Behind her, the driver gently shook her head.

Dai Chu walked into the main hall of the main house. A dazzling, charming woman was coming downstairs. Seeing her, the woman’s smile bloomed. “Chuchu, you’re back.”

She stepped forward and hugged Dai Chu, then looked her daughter up and down. Satisfied, she nodded. “You look very good like this. Girls your age don’t need all that excessive dressing up. This kind of natural appearance is the best. Chuchu, you must remember this. The prettier you are, the more trouble you’ll have. You can’t be like Mom, understand?”

“Mm, I know.” Dai Chu forced out a smile.

The woman stroked her face with pity. “Chuchu, Mom won’t talk to you anymore. I have to go out—oh right, I won’t be back this weekend. Stay properly at home by yourself. Mom will bring you a gift when I come back.”

“Okay.”

The woman stepped away in satisfaction on her high heels, walking gracefully.

Dai Chu went upstairs, put down her schoolbag, and sat at her desk. Having no interest in studying, she took out her phone. The class group chat was very lively, messages coming one after another. She did not open it and went straight into the official accounts.

The messages from many official accounts were dazzlingly varied, but they all had only one theme—autumn new arrivals selling hot.

Dai Chu scrolled through her phone and became thoughtful. “Tomorrow… she won’t be home…”

When Jiang Zao got up, he sneezed. He thought that the weather really was getting colder. Last night, after eating dinner with Rong Jingcheng, they had taken a walk by the lake. He had only been exposed to the wind for a while, yet he had nearly caught a cold. It seemed he had to buy a few sets of autumn clothes.

After washing up, he called a car and returned to the Jiang family home. Mother Jiang was just preparing to cook. When she saw him return, she was pleasantly surprised and, without another word, picked up her vegetable basket and headed to the market to buy groceries. Jiang Zao could not stop her at all.

Jiang Tong said enviously from the side, “Sure enough, Mom still cares about you the most. When I’m at home, her cooking focuses mainly on getting by. We eat whatever there is. The moment you come back, she hurries off to buy groceries and make you something delicious.”

“What are you jealous for?” Jiang Zao said casually. Seeing Jiang Tong’s complexion clearly, he raised a brow. “What’s wrong with you? You look like you’re about to die.”

Jiang Tong’s face was not exactly ashen, but at the very least, it was pale with a hint of green. He patted his forehead and said, “Last night, I ate and drank with them. I drank too much.”

As he spoke, he felt a chill on his neck. He carefully looked over and saw his brother propping his chin up and looking at him. “Oh? You drank?”

“No, no, no!” Jiang Tong shook his head like a rattle drum. But under the awe-inspiring gaze across from him, he tremblingly raised his index finger and tried to explain, “They insisted on pouring me alcohol. I couldn’t do anything, so I drank some. But I only drank one glass! Really, only one glass. Lu She blocked the rest for me…”

The more he spoke, the quieter his voice became. Clearly, he felt that this explanation was not enough to muddle through. Jiang Zao sighed and said, “I don’t know why you’re blindly fooling around with them.”

Probably because the leftover drunkenness had not yet faded, the moment Jiang Tong heard him say this, he became unhappy and retorted, “I wasn’t blindly fooling around. I had a purpose!”

“Oh?”

Jiang Tong said everything in one breath. “I wanted to take the opportunity to infiltrate their inner circle and extract their information!”

Jiang Zao found this inexplicable. “What do you need their information for?”

Jiang Tong looked proud. “To help you, of course! Brother, don’t worry. I will definitely help you collect lots of information so you can establish yourself firmly in Class 19!”

After saying this, he looked at Jiang Zao, who seemed to be smiling but not quite, and blinked. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

Jiang Zao asked him, “I just want to ask: when did I say I needed their information?”

“Ah?” Jiang Tong froze. “You don’t want it?”

Jiang Zao poured a glass of water and said carelessly, “I have it.”

“Ah?”

Jiang Zao drank his water and did not say anything. Yesterday, after dinner, Rong Jingcheng had given him a USB drive. Inside were the life histories of every single person in the class, detailed down to the smallest matters.

“Are you busy this afternoon?” Jiang Zao suddenly asked.

Jiang Tong had only just come back to himself when this question stumped him. He thought his brother’s topics jumped around too much. He could not keep up at all. But he still answered truthfully. “Originally, I made plans with Lu She to study together, but he drank a lot last night. I was afraid he’d feel unwell, so I canceled it.”

Jiang Zao sighed inwardly. He had only asked whether Jiang Tong was busy in the afternoon. Was there any need to say so much?

“So you’re not busy?” Seeing him nod, Jiang Zao announced, “Perfect. I’ll take you to buy clothes this afternoon.”