Chapter 1256: Chapter 838: Co-renting_2
Early August, work had already begun.
Lan Lan hitched a ride on the Universiade wave and got a batch of students she was managing accepted into some pretty good universities.
The psychological counseling room had also conveniently turned into a studio. And she’d added two big characters: Lan Lan.
"What are you doing back here?"
"Came over to take a look." Jiang Nian swept his gaze around; a few student helpers nearby all turned to look at him.
"Don’t just stand there, let’s go inside and talk."
Lan Lan: "..."
"Listen to you, talking like this is your turf." She rolled her eyes, but still went in.
"What do you want to drink?"
"Coffee."
"Go make it yourself." Lan Lan crossed her long legs and leaned back on the lounge sofa. "And get me a cup while you’re at it."
"Coffee?" Jiang Nian asked.
"Boiled water."
Thud!!
A cup of ninety-degree hot water was placed in front of Lan Lan. Her brow twitched, anger flaring up.
"You’re the type who never comes to the temple without something to ask for."
"Spit it out, what do you want?"
"Nothing much, just asking where Zhou Haifei went." Jiang Nian didn’t hide it and got straight to the point.
"She said she was doing a summer job. You recommended it, didn’t you, Teacher?"
"Yeah." Lan Lan was a bit speechless. "I told her to stay away from you, in case she got splattered with blood."
Hearing that, Jiang Nian also felt it made sense.
"Fair enough."
He got up, picked up his coffee, and was ready to go. He’d just dropped by to ask casually and to see Lan Lan.
"Almost forgot, Teacher, you’ve got money."
Lan Lan neither confirmed nor denied it. There were so many students at school; even if she wanted to help, she couldn’t help them all.
But once she’d seen it, she couldn’t just stand by and watch.
Back then, it was Jiang Nian who’d pushed Zhou Haifei in front of Lan Lan. After that, of course she’d help if she could.
However, when it came to what Jiang Nian said, she couldn’t fully agree. Some things couldn’t be solved with money.
It was just that there was no need to say it now.
"Stop buttering me up." Lan Lan said, "This kind of thing, I’m still willing to do."
"Mm."
By the time he left school, it was completely dark.
Jiang Nian drove all the way home, parked, and went upstairs. He hadn’t had dinner, but he didn’t want to go home to eat.
Parents are like that—look at you long enough and they start picking at you.
He called Song Xiyun to ask if they’d eaten. Compared to Xu Qianqian, Xiao Song didn’t talk back.
Sometimes, just to save time, he’d simply call Xiao Song.
"Not yet, we’re just about to go downstairs." Xiao Song said, "Qianqian asked why you were missing all day."
"Went out to hang with a classmate."
"Oh, oh."
"You guys head downstairs, let’s eat together." Jiang Nian looked up at the lit window on the third floor.
"I’m right downstairs, didn’t eat either."
"Okay."
No need to drive in Zhen Nan. Jiang Nian pulled out the keys to his little e-scooter, took out his phone, and waited.
Ten minutes, fifteen minutes.
He couldn’t hold it in anymore and called Xu Qianqian directly. "What are you two doing up there, grinding tofu?"
"Putting on makeup!!" Xu Qianqian snapped. "Stop meddling in girl stuff. We’ll be right down."
Jiang Nian: "..."
Fuck!
He just squatted by the sun-dried gutter, opened an app, and started checking his shop data.
Essentially, "Direct Train" is spending money to buy traffic and then leveraging platform traffic.
Great conversion plus constant money-burning brings in organic traffic, blowing up certain keywords.
Like when users type in a search, the second they hit the first letter, xxx pops up. Click it, and it’s the best-selling item.
As long as conversion is good, Taobao will madly feed you traffic.
That’s exactly how Jiang Nian’s store was now—riding on one chiffon xx, his numbers instantly tripled; he was eating till he burst.
The two hundred pieces he’d stocked were almost all sold.
After a while, there was finally movement at the stairwell. The two girls walked over slowly, shoving each other.
"You go."
"You go first."
Jiang Nian put his phone away, confused.
"What are you two doing?"
The light downstairs was dim. Only when they came up to him did he see that both girls had put on makeup.
It was just that their technique... was really nothing to brag about.
Xu Qianqian had slapped some blush on. She was already pretty enough bare-faced, and that blush just looked weird.
"Hahaha, mama monkey." Jiang Nian couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing like a jerk. "What about Xiao Song, what did you do?"
"Get lost!!" Xu Qianqian was shaking with anger and smacked him twice. "You’re the mama monkey!"
Jiang Nian grinned and didn’t take it to heart.
"What about Xiao Song?"
"I didn’t..." Song Xiyun covered her face, totally giving off a "nothing to see here" vibe.
Jiang Nian pried her hand away and saw she’d filled in her brows.
"Not bad, not bad."
The two girls stared at him together, looking displeased.
"We’re not eating."
"Let’s go."
"Don’t, don’t, don’t!!" Jiang Nian dropped the goofy act and dragged them back, coaxing and cajoling as he pulled them away.
"Get on."
Xu Qianqian: "..."
Song Xiyun: "..."
The two of them were more and more speechless at this guy. They glanced at each other, then still got on the little e-scooter. They could barely all fit.
The three of them went to a street stall to eat. Xu Qianqian didn’t look at Jiang Nian once the whole time.
"Hmph!"
Jiang Nian grinned and calmly took a sip of his drink. Then he took out two little bottles from his pocket.
"Oh right, do you guys use perfume?"
"What?"
The two girls looked at each other and took one each. Since there was no packaging, they didn’t think of it as a gift.
Just figured he’d grabbed them casually and they could mess around with them.
"What scent is it?"
"No idea, smells different on everyone." Jiang Nian said. "I just grabbed them too. You can try them out."
"Oh, oh, let me smell." Xu Qianqian sprayed it on her hand and was instantly enveloped in a strong fragrance.
"This one’s not bad, smells pretty good."
Song Xiyun wasn’t to be outdone. She sniffed hers and froze for a second.
"It’s... okay."
"Alright then, you guys use them." Jiang Nian said. "It’s useless if I keep them, and it’s way too sweet."
The reason he didn’t give them separately or make a big deal out of giving them together was that he didn’t want to trigger that "lucky guy with multiple girls" keyword.
Most people aren’t that clear-headed; they keep saying "I’ll definitely treat you both well."
Which is basically just bringing something up over and over.
"I’m so damn awesome!!"
"See? I’ve got you both now." Or, "I might not be able to do it, but I plan to enjoy it first."
Forget juggling multiple girls—real-life parents with two kids can’t even guarantee they’re not biased.
There are plenty of issues there.
Life is just problems stacked on problems. Shelving a disagreement doesn’t mean it disappears; it just means you’re not talking about it for now.
So you have to be extra careful with your words and actions.
But that doesn’t mean that if Jiang Nian is single-hearted and treats them both well, he’ll get a perfect ending.
You could say, they’re unrelated.
If you really want to get into it, you could talk theory for a whole day. In simple terms, it’s about finding the right frame of reference.
Or in other words, the anchor point in your life.
Too much to say in one go. Anyway, if they weren’t okay with it, Jiang Nian wouldn’t have had the chance from the start.
All those tricks, slow-burn feelings.
To hell with them.
First you need soil, then you plant the seeds. With careful tending, watering and fertilizing, the harvest comes after.
Xu Qianqian really didn’t think anything was off. She just felt this little thing was pretty nice. "What perfume do you use?"
"Hey, hey, hey, that’s where you’re wrong." He pointed at Xu Qianqian. "I’ve been using Liushen since I was a kid."
"Tch!!" Xu Qianqian muttered a couple of times, but in the end she still kept it. "Xiyun, smell yours."
"Mine seems a bit lighter." Song Xiyun held out her hand for her to smell. "Want to swap?"
"Let’s just use them together." Xu Qianqian thought for a bit and suggested, "On sunny days I’ll use mine, and on cloudy days you use yours."
"Okay." Song Xiyun nodded.
Jiang Nian played dead and quietly ate on the side. In his head, this was the "soil," not that awkward silence.
When they got back, he’d balance things out on both sides.
Now that he’d stripped the packaging and handed them over smoothly, the two girls had sorted it out themselves, and it all felt pretty natural.
Once the girls finished chirping away, Jiang Nian picked his moment, looked up, and chimed in at just the right time.
"Actually, we could rent a place together off campus."
As soon as he said that, both girls went quiet.
