The Scum Gong Begs Me to Get Back Together, but I Just Want to Get Rich

ious quarrel.
The knight-errant, which once attracted countless eyes, had been washed away, and hardly the slightest shadow could be seen.

Ye YingYing shared a desk with Jiang Xiao and had drawn it for free, but others had to pay.
Custom designs cost anywhere from a few jiao1 to a few yuan.
These days in small counties, prices weren’t high.
A small grilled sausage sold outside the school entrance cost 50 fen2, and a breakfast bowl of hot noodles was just one yuan.
Ten yuan could buy a lot of things.
Junior high school students had limited pocket money, so Ye YingYing’s business was average, but he could earn a little money.

Today he took a small job.
Though Jiang Xiao was reading seriously, his deskmate was so close that he still noticed what he was doing.

Ye YingYing had a more detailed job today.
First, he drew a sample on white paper.
During the break he ran to show it to his customer in the next class.
After receiving approval he began to draw on the school uniform jacket.

According to the size of the school uniform jacket it probably belonged to a girl.
She didn’t dare to draw a large design on the back.
That would be too ostentatious, so she asked him to draw a thin circle on the uniform jacket and cuffs.
You had to look carefully to see it.
Jiang Xiao glanced at it and saw the circle was actually a woven bracelet with flowers and butterflies and a few small characters written next to it.
It was quite ornate.

Jiang Xiao looked at the style of the bracelet and thought it was a little familiar, but he didn’t care too much about it so he returned to studying.

Who knew that after Ye YingYing finished this drawing and got the affirmation of his little customer, he received several related orders.
All of them requested similar bracelets.
He used different colors to add variety, but the look was all the same.
He painted all afternoon and evening, and for two self-study sessions at night he didn’t skip class to go out to the game hall.
It could be said that he was very conscientious.

Ye YingYing earned about ten yuan for his art, so he was very pleased.
In fact, his family gave him a lot of pocket money, but the money he earned himself was different.
The next day at noon he spent two yuan to invite Jiang Xiao to eat fried dumplings in front of school.

Jiang Xiao asked a casual question on the way home, “Why did they all want the same thing?”

“You don’t know? It’s the hottest costume drama on TV right now.
It’s called The World of Mortals.
My mom watches it too.” Ye YingYing ate fried dumplings as he explained, “The heroine wears a bracelet just like that.
The girls are really into it.”

Jiang Xiao’s family didn’t watch many TV dramas, but he had the impression that TV was still the primary information vector in underdeveloped small counties in central China at this time.

Jiang Xiao lowered his head as an idea came to him.
He thought about it a little more, but when he turned his head to look at Ye YingYing, he saw him finish the fried dumplings with a silly smile of satisfaction.
Jiang Xiao looked at him a little helplessly, like an elder watching a child.

Ye YingYing painted several school uniforms and Jiang Xiao had seen them—he was really quite gifted, with a rare talent.
Ye YingYing had never gotten systematic training.
He began drawing on textbooks and later painted school uniforms.
He was entirely self-taught.

“Well, think about what I said before,” Jiang Xiao said to him.

“”

“What?”

“If you don’t like reading you don’t have to force yourself, but you can still learn painting and art,” Jiang Xiao said.
“You can go to a good university if you know how to draw.
You don’t want your father to yell at you every day if you don’t go to school in the future, do you?”

Ye YingYing had never even thought about college.
He was still young, and he thought muddling along from day to day was good enough.
When Jiang Xiao talked about learning art and painting, he pictured the kind of person who appeared in TV dramas wearing a beret and small round glasses.
Anyway, it was far away from him.

Jiang Xiao took one look at Ye YingYing’s face and knew he hadn’t listened.

The power of words was limited.
Jiang Xiao shook his head, then he thought of something and said to Ye YingYing, “After the National Day3 holiday I’ll give you a present.”

When Ye YingYing heard he was getting a present he was delighted.
“Okay! Do you want some more fried dumplings? I’ll go buy another three yuan!”

“No,” Jiang Xiao said, “you should eat less at street stalls.
It’s not good for your health, and your family’s waiting at home.”

“Xiao Ge, you need to stop talking like my dad.” Ye YingYing looked at him with mixed feelings.
“It’s like you changed as soon as the semester started.”

Studying again was one thing, but Jiang Xiao was suddenly acting like a pompous old man.

Jiang Xiao smiled and didn’t say anything else.
He watched Ye YingYing run wildly back to buy more fried dumplings, and the hedgehog hair looked silly.
He told himself it was good to be young.

Now the self-important old man inside him was going to start planning something else.

At lunch, it just so happened that Xia WanWan turned on the TV.
Jiang Xiao discovered she was watching that costume drama too.
It seemed really popular.
The bracelet that earned Ye YingYing a tiny fortune was an important prop for the heroine.
It was a memorable part of the show.

Jiang Xiao had a plan in mind, so he watched a bit more.
When the episode was over, the station broadcast the local city’s weather forecast, and the iconic skyline of Liujiang City was on the screen.

It was going to rain in Liujiang tomorrow.

He froze for a moment, then he lowered his head.
His expression didn’t change, but he was reminded of the past.
Of course, he and Lin ChengYu lived in Liujiang for a long time.
It was normal to associate it with him.

After his rebirth, Jiang Xiao seemed to have completely forgotten the man who was engraved in his heart in his previous life.
Now, because of this image, he remembered everything again.
He’d been reborn for a few days, and he’d already settled into his current life.
His past life was gradually becoming like a dream.
The memory was still there, but the emotions were blurred.

Maybe having died once made everything different.
No matter how deeply that person was carved into his bones, it could all be washed away and polished clean by disappointment.
Maybe it wasn’t possible to start over if the past was fresh in your mind.
Jiang Xiao’s attention was totally absorbed.
He had no time for anything else.

But this life’s trajectory would be completely different.
He and Lin ChengYu would never intersect… he hoped.

When he saw Liujiang City again, he really had important plans to make.

TL Notes:
The World of Mortals – from 天下红尘 – red dust under heaven – “red dust” is a Buddhist term for human society/the mortal world
popular, hot – 红 – red
engraved in his heart, carved into his bones – 刻骨铭心 – imprint the bones and inscribe on the memory, heartfelt, engraved in the bones and printed on the heart, gratitude for a kindness impossible to forget, inscribed on one’s mind, engraved on one’s soul

Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:
Ms Xia – 夏女 – Xià Nǚshì – MC’s mom

Footnotes

jiao – A jiao is 1/10 of a yuan fen – A fen is 1/100 of a yuan National Day – A public holiday in China celebrated on 1 October, commemorating the establishment of the PRC on that date in 1949.
The public holiday is observed for seven consecutive days, also known as Golden Week.