Could she get into a university with that? It seems she really needed to study art seriously and take the art college entrance exam.
The girl wasn’t dumb; she had been really working hard in these two months of high school, but why couldn’t she improve?
“Now that you’re in high school, the three years before the college entrance exam will decide your fate. You must work hard on your own.”
“Dad isn’t very capable, so the future is all up to you,” her father sighed.
Being a father is hard. Whenever he saw other people’s children living carefree lives adorned with gold and silver, he felt pain for his daughter.
He always felt he had shortchanged her, unable to give her better, which made his heart sour.
Now looking back, he hadn’t interfered much in her upbringing or helped much with her studies, yet she had turned out quite well.
In her past life, Hua Jie would have felt heartache upon hearing this, but now she didn’t feel any bitterness.
She firmly held her father’s somewhat rough carpenter’s hand and said softly:
“No! Dad, you can do it!”
She still wanted to cling onto this dream of being financially supported by her parents!
“?” Her father was stunned as his daughter gripped his hand.
“?” Her mother was just about to get up to serve her daughter some buns when she heard this, and turned around in confusion.
The girl looked around for her down jacket, found it on the back of her mom’s chair, and quickly grabbed it. Her expression was both excited and sly as she reached into her jacket and pulled out a stack of money, slapping it onto the table with a smack.
It was a grand gesture!
If it were a package of gold bars, it could smash through the dining table.
“?” Her mother was dumbfounded.
“!!!” Her father’s eyes bulged.
“Where did you get this money?” Her father sat up straight, his earlier middle-aged dejection completely vanished, and his scalp tingled a bit.
“It’s money we earned!” Hua Jie pushed the money towards him.
She had already deducted the 400 she had previously paid to her dad, which was her own private savings.
“…” Her father glanced at his daughter, grabbed the money to count it, and then pressed, “Where did you earn it from?”
“From the furniture you made and I designed, which sold for 1400 yuan. After the shop owner’s commission of 100, it’s 1300, and with the 400 already paid, that leaves 900.” She carefully explained the calculations to her dad.
“Why is there 2700 here then?” Her father quickly asked.
“That includes another two sets of furniture ordered by customers, with a deposit of 1800 total, making it 2700,” Hua Jie proudly said.
It wasn’t just her parents who were eagerly waiting to offer her treasures; she also had a bunch of cash to surprise her parents with.
“!!!” Her father was speechless, lost for words.
Hua Jie then pulled out three new furniture designs from her backpack, “Dad, these two sets are custom orders. This one is my own design that I’m planning to continue consigning to Fuyun Furniture.”
“Is furniture really selling this well now? And for such high prices…” Her mother grabbed the money and counted it again.
“These three sets will take about a month to make. The beds are easy, mainly the headboards need carving, and the frames are straightforward, I can get some materials directly from your Uncle Dashun… Your new design needs leather, right? That might be a bit more work, but your dad has friends who can handle it.” Her father grabbed the money back and counted it again.
“My dad is really amazing!” Hua Jie slapped the back of her father’s hand, genuinely praising him.
“How much can one set of this new furniture sell for?” her father asked.
“I’m asking for 4000,” Hua Jie boldly declared.
This set is targeted at high-income, upscale families. Nowadays, there should be many families in Jinsong City who can afford it. Plus, with the Western styles blowing over from Shanghai, the furniture she designed is absolutely unique—something not even available in other major cities nearby. Rarity adds value, so there’s no worry about it not selling!
“…” Her father was somewhat worried. “Will it really sell? When you said 400 for that one set before, I thought that was reasonable.”
“Now there are more wealthy people, Dad. Look, Old Wang’s family across from us is hiring a renovation team, and they bought their furniture from downtown,” Hua Jie withdrew her hand. “There are more rich people, those involved in business, those in high-ranking positions.”
“…” Her father pursed his lips, lost in thought.
“Right, didn’t we talk about 400 before?” Her mother took the money back and counted it again.
Seeing her parents nearly wearing out the bills from counting so much, Hua Jie quickly covered the money with her hand and said with a laugh:
“Auntie Yao adjusts her prices according to the market, right? Since she sells it for more in her shop, she’ll definitely compensate us. She’s an honest businesswoman.”
“You should go put the money away, save some of it,” her father said after one more glance at the cash. He then picked up a few of Hua Jie’s design sketches, looked at them for a while, put on his cotton jacket, and headed out to prepare the wood and other materials.
“Dad, there’s no rush,” Hua Jie felt a bit distressed.
There’s no need to rush making money, there’s no need to be so tired.
“I’d be idle anyway, you do your thing,” her father said as he left, eager to get to work.
Make money, make money, make money!
Her mother brought over some buns. “Eat a couple.”
“Mmm.” Hua Jie’s face lit up at the sight of the hot, perfectly round, and pleated buns.
She took a bite, the dough was sweet and savory, and the meat was so fresh it nearly made her bite her tongue.
“Delicious!” she exclaimed dramatically, making her mother laugh out loud.
“Mom, buy yourself a coat, the kind that’s super fluffy, cinched at the waist, and knee-length, like what a wealthy lady would wear.”
“And get Dad a black leather jacket with a sheepskin lining and a cashmere collar, it would look really cool on him,” Hua Jie said while eating, her words a bit muffled.
“You’re about to spend all the money you just made, huh? You haven’t even finished spending the 400 yuan from the other day. Let’s save this money. You’ll need a lot when you go to university,” her mother said as she packed the money into a small bag.
“By then, we’ll have made even more money. Mom, keep 1000, don’t save all of it. Let’s go shopping this weekend,” Hua Jie insisted.
“Your dad and I don’t need new clothes. I also bought big bones and ribs today; we’ll stew them this weekend,” her mother said, smiling and patting her head.
“No, I want mom and dad to buy me a coat, please, mom. I put a lot of effort into my designs, so I should have some say in this, right? Buy a coat, buy a coat, buy a coat~” Hua Jie clamored while rhythmically tapping a bun in her hand.
“I’ll talk it over with your dad,” her mother replied with a laugh, her face radiating happiness.
“Great. Oh, by the way, the furniture shop owner invited us for a meal on Saturday. I’ll ask dad about it.” Hua Jie stuffed the bun into her mouth in two bites, then draped her down jacket over herself and scurried out of the yard.
After tidying up the dishes, Hua’s mother peered through the small window towards the yard.
Father and daughter were talking in the yard, the daughter’s joyous laughter making the scene particularly festive. Occasionally, her husband would pause his work to exchange a few words with her.
The dim yard light cast a glow on their faces, large and small, as sporadic snowflakes floated down. It was unclear if the wind had dispersed the snow accumulated on the roof or if it had started snowing again.
Leaning against the window, Hua’s mother’s smile deepened.
Since their child started high school, it seemed she had grown up overnight.
Sometimes, she even felt that she and her husband were the ones being pampered.
How wonderful, their little cotton-padded jacket.
She tapped on the window glass, the warm air inside mingling with a sense of happiness.
It was somewhat sweet, with a lingering scent of pork buns.
…
The next day, Hua Jie, carrying her new backpack and wearing a new hair tie, braved the blustery northwest wind to school.
Her face nearly chapped by the wind, she finally reached the school gate.
Many classmates noticed the unique touch of pink.
You see, after starting high school, the girls, in a bid to show they were no longer little kids nor middle schoolers, even if they loved pink, would forsake it for black, white, gray, and the like, to showcase their maturity and distinctiveness.
In such a context, a girl dressed in a pink down jacket, sparkling hair ties, and carrying a pink rabbit-ear backpack was quite indifferent to others’ stares!
So tender pink, so defiantly unique, who could it be?
Ah!
Is it the girl who leads the school exercises?
Or the one who paints on the walls?
Is this the Hua Jie who led a dozen distant cousins to beat up thugs from a robbery gang?
Is this the fearsome Hua Jie who drove away a bully classmate?
No wonder it’s her!
She’s the tough one who declares, “I’ll wear whatever backpack I want” and “I’ll wear whatever color coat I want.”
Thus, with her parents’ and good classmates’ annoying tastes, Hua Jie once again became the brightest star of the school.
…
That day, the English teacher was nearing the end of grading papers.
When she finished grading Hua Jie’s paper, her eyebrows furrowed deeply.
Hmm?
She went back to check other high-scoring papers, comparing them.
Unable to help herself, she looked up at Liang Ping, the homeroom teacher of Class 1-7, opened her mouth to say something, then suddenly flipped through their class’s papers for a while, finally finding Shen Mo’s paper.
149 points, only 1 point deducted.
It wasn’t surprising for Shen Mo to score a perfect mark; after all, as the teachers finished grading, he had already scored the highest in multiple subjects these past few days.
But… Hua Jie…
How did she also score 149 points?
Tied for the highest score with Shen Mo?
The key point is, they didn’t get the same question wrong, and it’s said that their seats during the exam were far apart, so cheating was unlikely.
This…
“Teacher Liang, your student Hua Jie… this kid… it’s strange,” the English teacher said, tapping the papers and clicking her tongue at Liang Ping.
“Hua Jie? Oh, yes! During the entrance test, her physics score was so low it was as if she licked it off the paper.”
“But this time she scored 92,” Physics teacher Xu Jie also chimed in.
“Is that so?” Liang Ping reached for the math scores compiled by the math class representative, “She scored 139 in math.”
“Wow, that’s not low at all!” The Chinese language teacher leaned in, asking the class representative who was helping her tally scores at her desk, “How many points did Hua Jie from Class 1-7 score in Chinese?”
“Teacher, 140.5 points,” replied the class representative from Class 1-8.
“Wow!” Liang Ping stood up, blinking, “Has she been studying on a plane these past two months?”
“Hahaha, the kid even painted a mural on the school wall and made quite a bit of pocket money drawing for classmates during breaks,” the chemistry teacher said with a laugh, standing up with a teacup in hand, clearly enjoying the conversation.
The Chinese teacher searched her mind for the right words to sum up the situation with Hua Jie and suddenly exclaimed:
“A master of time management!”
“Yes, yes, she should share how she planned it,” said the physics teacher while cleaning his glasses.
“…” The class representatives and student leaders sitting in the office, helping the teachers transcribe the scores from the papers onto the score sheets, listened to the teachers’ discussion about Hua Jie.
Their pens didn’t stop moving, but their ears were perked up, ready to gossip with their classmates about the news concerning the time management master as soon as they got back to class.
It’s hard to say what ranking a person discussed so enthusiastically by the teachers could achieve.