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Usually, Jiang Se would have lashed out if Du Honghong had mocked and ridiculed her in this manner. However, she did not make any sound this time although Du Honghong had a go at her. Instead, she returned to her room silently.

Jiang Se seemed to have changed recently. However, probably because of Du Honghong’s age, she could not quite tell exactly what had changed in Jiang Se.

It was highly probable that nobody in the Du family noticed any change in Jiang Se. Du Honghong’s eyes gleamed with malice. ‘Is she brokenhearted?’

Jiang Se switched the lamp on and took the money out of her pocket. It was the money that she had earned yesterday.

The original Jiang Se had saved $24, half of which she spent on the bus trip yesterday. It had been very late when they returned from Shen Villa yesterday. Fortunately, the city subway operated until 11 p.m. during festivals or holidays. She made it onto the last train and spent another $2 for the bus ride home, so the original Jiang Se’s $24 savings was whittled down to $10.

She had earned $370 yesterday but had spent $100 for the night at the inn. She was now left with $280.

This amount of money would have been like a strand of hair among nine oxen1 to her former self as Fang Nan. However, for the current Jiang Se, this was a huge sum. She was extremely poor!

Some 20 years ago, she did not even know what it felt like to be poor. However, she was currently having a headache over this meager sum.

Jiang Se sighed and stashed the cash in the notebook under her pillow. She had just placed the notebook back under her pillow when Zhou Hui opened her door. She frowned slightly, but Zhou Hui did not notice her slight change of expression. She was merely looking at the light in the room.

“Why are you using the light during the day? If your Uncle Du comes back, you’re sure to receive a good scolding.”

Zhou Hui had never worked a day in her life ever since she married Du Changqun. She had been managing the house every day over the course of more than a decade.

Jiang Se did not have to make any effort to find out anything about this. Du Changqun’s mother would unfailingly remind everyone of this fact at the dining table every single day by mocking and ridiculing them.

She would say that Zhou Hui had brought a child from a previous marriage into the family in hopes of living a good life. Zhou Hui’s face frequently reddened at these words, but she dared not talk back to her mother-in-law.

The Du family was strict with what Jiang Se used, ate, or wore. The monthly household expenditure fell under Du Changqun’s mother’s jurisdiction. If the water or electricity bills were too high for that month, Jiang Se would receive a scolding from Du Changqun.

The original Jiang Se was young, so she could not help but argue with Zhou Hui when she was told off.

Jiang Se’s room was partitioned off another room. It was no bigger than three square meters and there were no windows. Even if she left her door open during the day, it would still be pitch black inside the room.

When Zhou Hui said that, Jiang Se made a move to switch the light off. When Zhou Hui caught her movement, she suddenly said, “Wait.”

She glanced behind her, went into the room, and closed the door behind herself. “Where did you go last night?”

She raised her hand in preparation to hit Jiang Se. “Where did you go last night? I see you haven’t forgotten about coming back in the morning.”

As Jiang Se moved backward and dodged Zhou Hui’s swipe, her fingertips brushed Jiang Se’s shoulder instead. Zhou Hui had an angry expression on her face.

“I was with my classmate at the library yesterday.” She used the excuse Lu Baobao came up with yesterday as she glanced nervously at Zhou Hui and did not tell the truth.

“I knocked when I came back last night, but nobody answered the door, so I went to sleep over at my friend’s place.”

“Did you know that you Uncle Du wanted to bring you out last night to meet a friend of his? Did you know that he wanted to give you a job opportunity?” When she said this, she gave her daughter another glare. “Who knew that you wouldn’t even bother to come back at all last night? It was a waste of your Uncle Du’s goodwill.”

When Jiang Se heard this, she chuckled softly. “I have no intentions on giving up on my studies and going to work.”

Zhou Hui clearly did not expect this from her. She wore a surprised expression. “What?”

She had talked about this with Jiang Se before. She had expressed how she wanted Jiang Se to start working after graduating high school. The former Jiang Se did not object to this. In fact, she had seemed to agree with it. She had said that she planned to enter the entertainment industry and wanted people to see her on television as she wanted the citizens of Huaxia to know who she was.

Zhou Hui had had the same conversation with her daughter a few days ago as well. Jiang Se made no , hence Zhou Hui had taken it as her agreement to this arrangement. She did not expect this from Jiang Se today though.

The older woman seemed flustered. “What’re you trying to do? What are you trying to do, huh?”

She sat on Jiang Se’s bed, making the steel frame of the bed sway and creak.

“Your results are a clear sign that it’ll be a waste of time for you to continue studying.” Zhou Hui could barely resist the urge to pinch her daughter. “Gaining admittance into a university isn’t even a certainty for you. Even if you do, how would you pay for the tuition fees?”

Jiang Se had anticipated that she would have to face this problem if she wanted to further her studies. “I’ll find a job during the summer holidays.”

“Earning money isn’t as easy as you think. Just look at your Uncle Du. He’s busy every single day and doesn’t even dare take a day off for an entire month. Yet, he’s only paid $3,000. You’re so young. What can you do?” Zhou Hui questioned disappointedly.

Her words hinted at her fear of the outside world. For some reason, Jiang Se had the urge to look at her mother. When she looked up, she saw the cowering expression on Zhou Hui’s face.

She could tell that Zhou Hui had been pretty when she was younger. Otherwise, Du Changqun would not have married her, knowing that she had been married before and had a daughter.

However, life had worn the beauty from her face. Like a dove wasted by Du Changqun’s keeping, she was afraid of the outside world.

Jiang Se was unwillingly reminded of herself.

If she had not been reborn, she would have gotten into contact with the Jianghua Group heir just as the Feng family had planned for her. It would have been highly possible for their relationship to progress to marriage. Then, she would move in with the Zhaos and be stuck there as a man’s accessory.

The only difference between Zhou Hui and her was that Du Changqun wore his dissatisfaction and scorn on his sleeve. Nevertheless, it was highly possible that her future husband would have expressed his derision in another way.

“In any case, we won’t know unless we give it a try.” Jiang Se wanted to say something else to her, but when she saw the impatient look on Zhou Hui’s face, she naturally kept her reply short.

“If that’s what you want.” Zhou Hui was slightly disappointed. “I don’t mind if you refuse to listen to me, but if you insist on studying, we don’t have the money to waste on you.” When she finished, she got to her feet and went out of the room, switching the light off on her way out.

There were four more days to the National College Entrance Examination. On Monday, Lu Baobao was lying on her desk listlessly. When she saw Jiang Se, her eyes teared up.

“I received the scolding of my life when I got back the other day. They even confiscated my phone.”

She was known as an internet addict who would even scroll though her phone while class was in session. It was no wonder that Jiang Se did not find her looking at her phone at that moment.

“Do you know what happened to me these two days?” Lu Baobao hugged Jiang Se’s arm.

“I got sunburnt and the skin peeled off my face. I was still sore all over after being bound the other day. When my parents found out that I went to Shen Villa, they confiscated my $40 as well. They even forced me to study as early as six in the morning and memorize those cursed vocabularies.”

Jiang Se extended her free hand and gently pushed Lu Baobao’s face, which her friend had been rubbing against the back of her hand, away. Lu Baobao, however, hugged her arm even tighter.

“I’m broke now. I can’t sleep at night and I can’t wake up in the morning. My dad said that if I don’t get good results for my National College Entrance Examination, he’ll have my skin.”