Bei Jiao is indeed like that; money-making is all he cares about, considering everything else inferior.
If he had a tail, it would be wagging right now. His eyes were fixed intently on Jiang Ran, phone placed in front of her, waiting for her to scan the code. His expression seemed to say: If you know what’s good for you, you should at least give me a hundred for the referral.
Jiang Ran exchanged glances with the girl at the door for a few seconds, their silent conversation going something like this—
High Ponytail: What’s up with this guy? Is he your boyfriend?
Jiang Ran: No, he’s just plain crazy.
High Ponytail: Actually, I’m not that interested in learning carving after all.
Jiang Ran: Okay, okay.
High Ponytail: Goodbye (friendly).
Jiang Ran: Goodbye (friendly).
This exchange took about ten seconds. As their eye contact broke, right on cue, Bei Jiao’s phone screen, untouched for too long, automatically turned off with a “click.”
He noticed, leaned forward to check the locked screen, muttered at Jiang Ran, “What are you spacing out for?” and turned to hand the phone back to the girl with the high ponytail, originally intending for her to unlock it again…
But after taking the phone, the girl smiled at him, then turned and walked out of the ski shop.
At first, Bei Jiao didn’t understand what was going on. It wasn’t until Jiang Ran had packed all the items she bought for him and shoved them into his arms that he, carrying the heavy bags, wobbled behind her—
Along with Song Die and Lao Yan, they were almost at Jiang Ran’s car in the underground garage when he finally slowly asked, “Was that girl actually trying to add my WeChat just now?”
Song Die looked at him in disbelief, thinking he had done it on purpose, even gaining a bit of respect for him…
Lao Yan was already laughing heartily.
Jiang Ran climbed into the driver’s seat, shutting the door, and in a calm voice said to the amused teenagers, “His realizing it already exceeded my expectations.”
This harmonious and knowing atmosphere made Bei Jiao somewhat unhappy, feeling as if they were all ganging up on him (a misunderstanding). Frowning slightly, he said, “Stop laughing.”
His voice was low, like a growling beast warning from deep in its throat.
Song Die and Lao Yan reflexively stopped laughing. The former, regaining his composure, lightly scoffed, saying he was too sensitive, while Jiang Ran simply ignored him.
She reached out to lower the passenger window, not even glancing at the sullen teenager standing outside the passenger seat, let alone being intimidated or threatened by him. She just raised her hand and slapped the empty passenger seat twice.
Bei Jiao hesitated for three seconds, then looked back at the two uninvited guests waiting behind him for a ride. Finally, he pulled open the passenger door and got in.
Buckling his seatbelt, he tried to save face by saying to Jiang Ran, “I just didn’t see the point of her adding me on WeChat. I can’t even ski.”
“She thought you could.”
“I can learn to teach later,” Bei Jiao nodded, completely missing the point, “How long does it take before you can teach students independently?”
At this, Jiang Ran finally gave him a glance from head to toe since getting into the car: “Usually, you wouldn’t dare teach unless you’ve skied for four or five years. Now… with 300 million people getting involved in winter sports, there must be dozens or even hundreds of shameless frauds among them—many instructors who just learned how to carve and started teaching.”
Bei Jiao caught the disdain in her tone but didn’t think it was aimed at him or anything. He lazily played with his phone and said, “That is indeed a scam.”
“It’s a scam.”
“I don’t make money like that.”
He said firmly.
Jiang Ran nodded in satisfaction.
Thinking the moral education was over, the person in the back seat didn’t want to miss the topic.
“Once Bei Ge can teach independently in a couple of years, his business should do well,” Lao Yan said. “Then he can charge 1,200 yuan per hour. Not to mention, his face alone is worth 600 yuan.”
In today’s society, where can an ordinary person find a job paying 1,200 yuan per hour? It sounds like a fantasy.
But Lao Yan spoke with such sincerity that Bei Jiao finally started to believe it…
He wasn’t interested in anything else.
But when it came to money, he perked up.
He asked Jiang Ran, “So, do you really charge over a thousand yuan per hour for lessons?”
Previously, she often said, “I earn thousands within minutes,” but he always thought she was just bragging. Now, Lao Yan casually mentioned the same figure.
Before she could answer, he impatiently turned to ask Song Die in the back seat—Song was almost hugging the seat back, the evening light outside the car window highlighting his dark eyes, which gleamed like those of a nocturnal canine.
Song had never been looked at with such enthusiasm by Bei Jiao before. As a response, he discarded his usual refined and good-tempered image as a rich young man and gave him a cold stare.
Jiang Ran paused briefly, then took over the conversation with a particularly kind tone: “Yes, I really do charge that much.”
“You’re not just bragging?”
His tone was clearly “Don’t make me laugh.”
Jiang Ran was clearly challenged: “Do you think I’m just another rich second-generation kid in her twenties, still living off her dad, only interested in eating, drinking, and having fun?”
“Yes.”
“…”
She really wanted to punch him.
“I can ski, not only can I ski, but in terms of carving, if you can find three people in the country better than me, I’ll call you Dad.” Jiang Ran tilted her chin up, expressionless. “My lessons require advance booking. In summer, I charge 700 yuan per hour for indoor skiing at Sunac. In winter, I usually go to Jilin ski resorts, occasionally to Chongli or Xinjiang, where I charge 1,200 yuan per hour. With this year’s good market, I might consider raising the price.”
After rattling off her explanation, she looked challengingly at her Cinderella’s little brother—
Only to find that when it came to money, this guy had no resistance at all. At this moment, he was looking at her with unprecedented friendliness, as if she was no longer the fragrant, soft woman (qualities that meant nothing to Bei Jiao), but a walking gold brick.
“So that 1,200 yuan is purely for technical skill,” Jiang Ran emphasized, “nothing to do with looks.”
“Add looks and you should charge 2,000, right?”
Jiang Ran, holding the steering wheel, looked at his reflexive response. She smiled at the red light stop, reached out to pat his hand resting on the passenger seat back, and gently countered, “So you think my face is worth 800 yuan?”
Bei Jiao hesitated.
The next second, he quickly pulled his hand back—
The darkness inside the car well concealed his subtle emotional changes, so the others could only feel his tense breathing and brief silence.
“It’s not like that.”
A few seconds later, his calm voice came from the darkness.
“You’re thinking too much.”
As he spoke, he had already sat properly in his seat, looking straight ahead with a blank expression, completely different from the person he was just a second ago.
“That’s exactly what you meant.” Jiang Ran’s hand still hung in the air where his hand had been. “Now you’re denying it, which makes you look even more guilty.”
Bei Jiao didn’t speak, clearly at a loss for words, so he simply became silent again.
Unlike his refusal to speak and offer any nice words, Song Die in the back casually crossed his legs, leaned back, and lightly laughed, saying, “I’m more than happy to pay. It really has nothing to do with her looks. Isn’t she a great skier?”
Lao Yan thought to himself, who is this kid, but he sure knows how to flatter Jiang Ran.
Sure enough, he saw Jiang Ran cast an approving and comfortable glance from the rearview mirror.
“Flattery,” Bei Jiao broke his silence, scoffing.
“She’s good to me,” Song Die smiled cheerfully, completely different from when he argued with Bei Jiao. “Have you seen many instructors who care about their students’ condition during lessons, notice what they need, and even prepare equipment for them? She bought me a face mask, and she bought you one too, right?”
It made him seem so understanding and reasonable.
Bei Jiao vaguely felt like he had practically handed Song Die a ladder himself. Just at the ski resort earlier, he had clearly been indifferent to the face mask—
Now he was pretending to be so grateful.
“One face mask made you so happy.”
“Contentment brings lasting happiness.”
“I also got shoes and a helmet. Should I be so happy I jump out the window now?”
“You jump,” Song Die smiled. “If I were you, I would.”
Bei Jiao thought for a moment, then turned to stare at Jiang Ran: “I’m hungry.”
Jiang Ran found it strange how suddenly he changed the topic.
But she patiently said, “If you’re hungry, order takeout on your phone. Order whatever you want. I’ll reimburse you when we get home.”
Everyone in the back seat knew Bei Jiao was now living at Jiang Ran’s place, and no one showed any surprise… Lao Yan especially knew the truth. To trick this wolf cub into coming home, Jiang Ran had even brought out her acting skills that had been buried for eight hundred years.
To this day, there were still legends of “Wu Wo” having “Ran Jie and the Twelve Seasons of Monet’s Garden.”
Bei Jiao looked down at the in-car navigation.
After a while, he asked, “Which neighborhood is this?”
Jiang Ran: “Song Die’s house.”
Bei Jiao: “We still have to go so far out of our way to go back.”
Jiang Ran: “We have to drop them off.”
Bei Jiao: “Why can’t they just take the subway back?”
It turned out his saying he was hungry was just setting this up.
After a brief silence, no one in the car spoke. Lao Yan broke the silence: “I thought I’ve been pretty well-behaved since we got in the car. So why am I being punished too?”
Bei Jiao’s gaze returned from the navigation, and he glanced at him indifferently, asking, “Didn’t you laugh just now?”
Lao Yan: “…”
Lao Yan: “Ran Jie ah!”
Please be fair!
Jiang Ran received Zhao Keyan’s hopeful call but didn’t respond. Instead, she raised one hand to hold the steering wheel and used the other to gently grasp the boy’s chin on the passenger seat, turning his slightly averted face back.
Her soft fingers, without a hint of callus, pressed against his chin.
He instinctively followed the force she applied.
“Don’t bully them,” he heard her say softly, “Sit properly.”
…
Finally, after enduring the sulky atmosphere in the front passenger seat, they dropped the two in the back off at their homes.
With the back seat now empty, he became quiet from restless.
Once home, he became completely silent.
Bei Jiao didn’t have to go to the bar tonight. Upon arriving home, he ordered takeout on his own, not anything expensive—just two fried rice dishes and a cold appetizer, not asking for Jiang Ran’s money.
Jiang Ran didn’t bring it up either. After all, she had spent all day teaching him to push up slopes and even helped him put on his shoes. Wasn’t that worth a few servings of fried rice and some cold dishes?
She ate comfortably, watching variety shows while occasionally glancing up from her phone to see the boy across the table eating silently, holding his bowl, eating fast but making no noise.
His table manners were good.
After dinner, he cleaned up the table on his own.
Jiang Ran stood up and walked to the living room to rest. She listened to the sounds from the dining area—clattering footsteps throwing away trash, wiping the table, opening the fridge, tearing off cling film, sealing the cold dishes, and closing the fridge. It felt very fresh.
She had lived alone for many years.
At this moment, with someone else around, it felt like a real home.
Leaning on the living room sofa playing with her phone, suddenly a new WeChat transfer notification popped up… she was a bit puzzled, thinking someone was paying her for lessons. When she opened it, she saw it was Bei Jiao transferring 2,300 yuan.
She raised her eyebrows in confusion and glanced toward the kitchen, only to find that the previously bustling kitchen was now eerily quiet. She had no idea what that little brat was hiding for—
Just to transfer her money?
They were under the same roof.
They could hear each other’s breathing.
Yet he refused to speak, instead frantically tapping her on WeChat.
[Bei Jiao: Money for the helmet, toothbrush, and slippers.]
[Bei Jiao: I’ll give you half for the ski boots soon, maybe the rest next month.]
[Bei Jiao: Or maybe the month after that.]
[Bei Jiao: Next month I need to save up for tuition first.]
[Bei Jiao: But I will pay you back.]
He was still bragging about getting more gifts than Song Die in the car.
Jiang Ran changed her posture, making a slight noise on the sofa, immediately seeing a shadow behind the open kitchen island shift uneasily…
She suspected if she made more noise, he might jump out of the house entirely.
Jiang Ran put down her phone: “Why are you giving me money?”
The kitchen remained silent.
[Bei Jiao: A man shouldn’t spend a woman’s money.]
Three seconds later.
This message was retracted.
Perhaps he realized it sounded unkind and had the wrong kind of macho implications.
[Bei Jiao: I don’t randomly spend other people’s money.]
He was persistent.
So much so that Jiang Ran found herself amused. She raised her hand, just like she had patted the passenger seat earlier, and patted the sofa beside her—
The leather sofa made an even louder sound.
Loud enough that in the kitchen, previously one could barely see the top of the boy’s head, now not even a hair was visible.
She called toward the kitchen: “So you’re planning to chat with me over WeChat within a ten-meter diagonal distance?”
Kitchen side: “…”
After a while, the phone vibrated.
[Bei Jiao: Yes.]
Jiang Ran: “Come out first.”
[Bei Jiao: You take the money, then I’ll come out.]
Jiang Ran: “If you don’t come out, you can just squat under the cabinet all night.”
Her tone was a bit harsh now, feeling that this kid was acting strange, as if he couldn’t be tamed… She had gone through so much trouble to bring him home, yet he was acting like a stray dog afraid of touching anything, as if he might dirty something.
But she had been so good to him. When he was acting out, bullying Song Die and then Lao Yan outside, she had still been on his side, her favoritism almost reaching the United States. Didn’t he feel that?
Did he really have to act like a stray animal, constantly bullying those around him to feel safe? Was he really that insecure?
She sat up a bit, feeling increasingly disappointed.
At the same time, the WeChat side finally went quiet.
After a while, the boy slowly walked out from the kitchen, stopping in the living room, watching her from a distance—
Without the outsiders around, he no longer acted out, just staring silently at the quiet woman, carefully observing… After a while, he called her name in a slightly hoarse voice.
“Jiang Ran, are you angry?”
He paused.
Confused and puzzled.
“Why?”
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage