After Transmigrating for the Third Time, the Real Young Master Decides to Slouch - Chapter 3

A lightly spoken sentence, yet it was no less than throwing a stone into water. The other two were both splashed straight in the face.

Jiang Tong had not even swallowed his cake before he asked in surprise, “Brother, you’re not taking the exam anymore?”

“Mm.” Jiang Zao nodded. “I don’t want to take it anymore.”

“Why?” Jiang Tong could not understand. “You’ve already put in so much effort. Isn’t it too much of a waste to just say you’re not taking it anymore? Brother, are you under too much pressure? Let me tell you, don’t feel pressured. Brother, you’re so outstanding, and you’ve always been so good at studying. A mere national civil service exam is nothing to you. You mustn’t—”

Mother Jiang tugged his arm and shook her head, signaling for him to stop talking. She looked at Jiang Zao and said, “Xiao Zao, Mom hasn’t read many books, so I don’t understand the matters of you scholars, but I know that if you’ve made this decision, you must have your own reasons. Mom believes you’ll definitely handle it well.”

“Mm.” Jiang Zao smiled. “Thank you, Mom.”

Jiang Tong swallowed all the words filling his stomach and changed the topic. “Then what are you going to do after this, Brother?”

“Find a job,” Jiang Zao said indifferently. “I graduated quite a while ago. If I don’t find a job to support myself, am I supposed to keep living off my parents?”

“But wasn’t taking the civil service exam also for work…” Jiang Tong muttered. Feeling his mother’s reproachful gaze, he quickly changed his words. “Brother, you’ll definitely find a good job. You’re a graduate student from A University!”

“Yeah.” Though Jiang Zao said this aloud, that was not what he thought in his heart. Although he was indeed a graduate student from the top-tier prestigious A University, finding employment with a literature major was not easy at all—this original owner really had been dead set on taking exams to the very end. Even his major left people with no way out.

This topic came to an end. While eating cake, Jiang Zao asked Jiang Tong, “Tongtong, you’ll be starting your second year of high school when school begins, right? How are your grades?”

Jiang Tong looked troubled and forced a smile. “They’re okay, I guess.”

Mother Jiang sighed. “What do you mean okay? In this final exam, you almost slipped down to the three hundreds. If this keeps going, I don’t think he’ll even be able to get into university.”

“Mm?” Jiang Zao raised a brow. He remembered that this younger brother’s grades had been pretty good. In middle school, he had always been in the top ten of his grade. How had he fallen so badly after entering high school?

Jiang Tong’s eyes wandered. “I just got lazy for a while. I’ll work hard from now on.”

Jiang Zao did not say much. He nodded. “Do your best. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can come ask me.”

“Really?” Jiang Tong was overjoyed. “Thank you, Brother!”

Mother Jiang was also very happy. “That’s wonderful, Tongtong. When Xiao Zao was in high school, he was always first in his grade. With him teaching you, your grades will definitely improve.”

“Yes!” Jiang Tong’s face and eyes were full of worship. “My brother is the best!”

Jiang Zao looked at the mother and son in front of him, who were about to praise him to the heavens, and the corners of his lips curved.

After returning to his rented room, although he had already mentally prepared himself, Jiang Zao still could not help feeling a headache when he saw that the entire room was filled with tutoring books and exercise workbooks.

So many books. Dealing with them would be troublesome.

Jiang Zao sat down at the desk. On the desk were civil service exam materials, each book thicker than the last. He casually flipped through them: The Thirty-Day Guide to Passing the Exam, 8,000 Administrative Aptitude Test Questions, How Essay Writing Is Forged. After glancing at them a few times, he closed the books and tossed them aside.

Looking at them too much would not exactly make him have nightmares at night, but since he had already decided not to take the exam anymore, there was no need to let this useless knowledge occupy his brain.

After contacting a scrap recycling station online and arranging for them to come collect the waste tomorrow, Jiang Zao downloaded a job-hunting app on his phone.

He had never applied for jobs before. After all, he had gone straight from studying to graduate school to staying at the university for work. There had been no need for him to take the initiative. But now, he had no choice but to experience what countless graduates went through.

After filling in his information simply, Jiang Zao began matching with positions. As expected, jobs suited to literature graduates were the same old topics. He had no interest in them at all, so he simply stopped matching and casually browsed on his own.

Ten minutes later, Jiang Zao put down his phone and rubbed his forehead. He was beginning to doubt life.

What was wrong with this world? When looking for a job, it was either some heartless 996 sweatshop that ignored labor laws, or a tiny workshop with outrageously low pay. Of course, aside from those two types, there were also companies that were not heartless sweatshops and had high pay, but Jiang Zao ruled them out with one glance, because most of them were related enterprises under the Rong Group.

If it had anything to do with Rong Jingcheng, Jiang Zao did not want to get involved. That guy was super troublesome.

He flipped through a little more, but still did not find a position he liked. Jiang Zao temporarily gave up. It was too late. He would wait until he woke up tomorrow.

After seeing off the scrap collector, Jiang Zao looked at the few dozen yuan he had earned from selling his exam materials and shook his head with emotion. These days, knowledge really was not worth much.

But it was enough for him to eat lunch and buy some daily necessities.

Putting the money away, Jiang Zao leisurely went out.

At the end of August, the weather at noon was unbearably hot. The cicadas in the roadside trees screamed with all their might, making people feel even more drained. After eating lunch, Jiang Zao carried a bag of daily necessities and walked back.

Downstairs, a lengthened luxury car was parked. Beside the car stood a man dressed in casual clothes and trousers, his long hair tied behind his head, his head lowered as he lazily played on his phone.

Without looking sideways, Jiang Zao walked right past the man.

Just as he was about to enter the stairwell, the man’s aggrieved voice chased after him. “Xiao Zao, how cruel. You clearly saw me, but you actually pretended you didn’t.”

Jiang Zao did not stop. He kept walking.

His shoulder was caught by a slender hand, and he immediately could not move forward anymore. He turned back and met a pair of deep eyes brimming with laughter.

“Xiao Zao.” The man’s voice was sweet enough to be cloying, yet it also seemed to hide the sharpest blade, one that could easily cut through a person’s defenses and invade.

He smiled, radiant and dazzling. “Caught you.”

Jiang Zao pushed his hand off his shoulder, sighed, and greeted him. “Senior, long time no see.”

Rong Jingcheng smiled. “Mm. Nine years.”

Jiang Zao slowly nodded. “Nine years since we last met… So, Senior, what brings you here to see me this time?”

“How heartless.” Rong Jingcheng’s smile faded, and he complained aggrievedly, “We haven’t seen each other in so long, yet the first thing you ask is why I’m here. You won’t even reminisce with me or ask whether I’ve been doing well.”

The man’s appearance could be called bewitchingly gorgeous, but making such a little expression did not look out of place in the slightest. Instead, it added a bit more vividness, a bit more human warmth.

Jiang Zao thought, sure enough, he had still gotten entangled with trouble. But looking at this face, which was almost no different from the one in his memories, many emotions suddenly arose in him. He lowered his eyes slightly and said, “As the dignified head of the Rong family, how could you possibly be doing badly?”

“Oh?” Rong Jingcheng raised his eyes. “You know all about my matters.”

“I’m not deaf or blind. How could I not know about such a major matter?” After saying this, Jiang Zao asked, “What exactly do you want? Don’t tell me you just came here out of boredom to find some amusement.”

Rong Jingcheng tilted his head. “Do I look like that kind of person?”

“You do.”

Rong Jingcheng laughed despite himself. “Xiao Zao’s mouth is still so merciless. But I like you exactly like this.”

“I came today,” Rong Jingcheng said, catching Jiang Zao’s hand, “to give you a gift.”

He pried open Jiang Zao’s lightly clenched hand and spread it flat, his fingers squeezing into the spaces between Jiang Zao’s fingers.

“Yesterday was your birthday, and I didn’t give you a gift, so today—”

Rong Jingcheng lifted his head and smiled at Jiang Zao. He raised their interlocked hands in front of him and gave them a little shake. “I specially came to make up for that gift.”

Jiang Zao pulled his hand back. “Can I refuse it?”

“No.” Rong Jingcheng tightly caught the hand he had pulled halfway out and locked their fingers together again.

Jiang Zao tried to move. He could not. He secretly sighed and held out the hand carrying the bag. “Fine. Give it to me, then.”

Rong Jingcheng smiled and said, “Don’t you want to hear what the gift is first?”

Jiang Zao clicked his tongue. “So troublesome—what is it?”

Rong Jingcheng held Jiang Zao’s hand and led him toward the car. “Has Xiao Zao started looking for work?”

Jiang Zao glanced at him and gave a sound of agreement.

“Is work hard to find?”

“It’s all right.”

“You actually said ‘it’s all right.’ That makes it hard for me to continue,” Rong Jingcheng protested.

Jiang Zao rolled his eyes and said with a fake smile, “It’s very hard to find.”

Rong Jingcheng looked as if Jiang Zao had won the jackpot and smiled. “So then, my gift is—”

He opened the car door. A black hardbound booklet lay quietly on the back seat.

Rong Jingcheng picked up the booklet and handed it over. “This.”

Jiang Zao shook the hand Rong Jingcheng was still holding and said, “Can you let go first? I can’t look at it like this.”

Rong Jingcheng smiled at him and did not let go.

Jiang Zao conceded. “Let’s get in the car. It’s so hot outside.”

After they got into the car and the doors were locked, Jiang Zao was finally released. He took the black booklet with gold edging. Printed on it in elaborate script were two words: Letter of Appointment.

Jiang Zao opened the hard cover. Inside, there was only one sheet of paper, stating that Jiang Zao was being hired as a Chinese language teacher at Jiayin High School.

Everything else was printed. Only Jiang Zao’s name was handwritten. Jiang Zao stared at those two characters. It was Rong Jingcheng’s handwriting: the strokes were free and elegant, with a bit of flashy, impractical showmanship.

Jiang Zao closed the letter of appointment and raised his brows. “You want me to be a teacher?” The original owner had indeed taken the teacher qualification certificate.

Rong Jingcheng smiled and nodded. “That’s right. The benefits are excellent.”

“How excellent? Let’s hear it.” Jiang Zao lazily leaned back.

Rong Jingcheng counted them off on his fingers. “A monthly salary of one hundred thousand after tax, a bonus every semester, food and housing included, a single apartment, holiday benefits, employee trips, and occasional social events.”

“How about it? Are you tempted?” Rong Jingcheng asked with a smile.

Jiang Zao pinched his chin. “Mm, I am pretty tempted, but…”

“Mm?”

Jiang Zao shrugged. “Being a teacher is exhausting. And students these days are hard to manage. It feels like it’ll be very troublesome.”

Rong Jingcheng enlightened him. “As long as people are alive, they’ll be entangled by all kinds of trouble.”

Jiang Zao glanced at him. “I really wish you had a little more self-awareness when saying that.”

But after saying this, he pressed his index finger to his forehead and thought for a moment. “It’s not impossible, but I have one condition.”

Rong Jingcheng smiled at him.

“Transfer Jiang Tong into my class.”

“Done.”

Jiang Zao held out his hand. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

Rong Jingcheng caught his hand, smiled, and shook his head. Then he lowered his head, and his cold lips touched the back of Jiang Zao’s hand.

“Xiao Zao, happy twenty-fifth birthday.”

Author’s Note:

They finally met!