Chapter 11 - Collecting The First Pot Of Gold (1)

"Your skin is exquisite, so using this toner will be extremely effective for you. Although it"s only from a second-tier brand, this girl"s set of skin care products are really good."

"Jiaojiao, how come you know so much?"

"Uhh...I have a friend who likes this type of stuff."

"Jiaojiao, quickly help me and have a look; does this dress suit me?"

"It would suit your Mum, but it doesn"t suit you. Sister Aiyan, come, try this dress instead."

"A little black dress? But I"ve never worn something like this before."

"You won"t know you don"t like it until you give it a try."

Xu Qi, who was initially a boyfriend and a cousin, was now reduced to a porter as he was left to carry all the shopping bags as he bitterly followed behind the two girls. His heart had an ominous premonition. He felt that his years of savings would quickly dwindle in the hands of these two girls.

During this time, Xu Qi developed a new understanding of Xu Jiaojiao. His previously dull cousin had now become more cunning, as all it took was a simple phrase "I"m so envious; I"ve never received a gift from cousin before", and Zhang Aiyan would ask him to buy a gift for her. Being the boyfriend that he was, how could he bear to let his girlfriend pay. Consequently, after buying the first "gift", it then moved onto a second item, and then the third item. From skin care products to clothes, as well as shoes; Xu Jiaojiao received something new from head to toe.

"Jiaojiao, let"s have fun together again next time."

Zhang Aiyan shouted to Sheng Jiaoyang, as her and Xu Qi dropped Xu Jiaojiao of at the subway station.

"That little girl, after buying her so many things, she didn"t even say goodbye!" Xu Qi said as he ground his teeth together.

Zhang Aiyan hugged Xu Qi"s arm and laughed, "Your cousin is quite interesting! Her taste and knowledge regarding international brands is so extensive; as if she"d experienced them all before. I could tell that she"s exerted a lot of effort in this area, and the most amazing part is that she was also admitted to one of the most prestigious universities. She"s truly awesome!"

Which part of her was awesome?! She was clearly a child prodigy!

Xu Qi, who"d been pushed to the edge and had so extravagantly spent his savings till nearly half of it was gone, felt an extreme amount of heartache. He"d initially been intending to buy a car worth one million dollars, but now that his pockets had shrunk so severely, he could only push back his plans.

If his cousin hadn"t been filled with so many ideas, then that would"ve been fine. But when she did, she executed it with deadly precision.

By the time Sheng Jiaoyang returned home, the sun had already set.

As soon as she entered the house, she was so terrified that her heart almost burst from her chest. The inside of the house was dusky due to the lack of sunlight, and all she could make out was a figure sitting at the dining table and directly facing the door. With her myopia, she had a limited range of sight which made her think that she could see a ghostly shadow.

Sheng Jiaoyang stretched out her hand and turned on the light to see it was just Xu Qing, causing her heart to feel relieved. As soon as she had enough money, the first thing that she"d do was to have her eyesight corrected! Even if this body was currently healthy, if it was often shocked like this, sooner or later it would suffer from heart failure.

Xu Qing was also startled. She saw her daughter entering the room while carrying multiple shopping bags, and nervously asked, "Jiaojiao, how did you buy so many things?"

"These are gifts that cousin gave me as a graduation gift."

"Qiqi?" Xu Qing was very surprised, as even though Xu Jiaojiao and Xu Qi were cousins, they weren"t particularly close.

"Did you borrow the money?" Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t want Xu Qing to know too many details and purposely changed the topic.

Xu Qing"s expression once again collapsed into despair.

With one look, Sheng Jiaoyang knew the answer and patiently consoled Xu Qing by murmuring a few comforting words. Then, she gave Xu Qing the skin care product that she"d just bought and gave her a facial. During the facial, she used a ma.s.sage technique that she"d learnt from her Grandfather"s expert ma.s.seuse to help Xu Qing relax.

That night, Xu Qing slept deeply.

This was naturally what Sheng Jiaoyang had wanted. Firstly, she didn"t want to be frightened awake again in the middle of the night. And secondly, since she"d become Xu Jiaojiao, she was going to a.s.sume all of Xu Jiaojiao"s responsibilities and execute them to the best of her abilities.

After enjoying her daughter"s rare display of care, the next morning when Xu Qing woke up, she was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with a mood as bright as suns.h.i.+ne. So, the first thing she did once she"d made breakfast, was to go out to find a job.

Regarding the matter of Xu Qing finding a job, Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t have a problem with it. In fact, she even encouraged her. She didn"t have much time to accompany Xu Qing, and rather than let this soft-natured woman wallow in self-pity alone; it was better that she cheered herself up by looking for a new job.

Once she"d finished eating the poached eggs made by Xu Qing, Sheng Jiaoyang prepared to leave.

She couldn"t just be idle all day while hoping for the best; she had to take necessary steps to ensure that the results of the modelling compet.i.tion would be in her favour.

In fact, last night after she"d encouraged Xu Qing to find a job, she"d thought a lot about what her next moves should be. Previously, she"d been wealthy, so she"d easily accomplished whatever it was that she wanted to do. As Sheng Jiaoyang, she and Mei Niu had formed a partners.h.i.+p and established a brand name. She"d also put together an exhibition of her art, and then used the proceeds from selling her paintings to start a dream granting foundation. She"d done many things that other people couldn"t achieve, even if they tried their whole life, but all of those things had relied on the help that she"d received from her Grandpa. If it wasn"t for her Grandfather helping her, she might"ve had no money to invest in a partners.h.i.+p. She wouldn"t have had any connections to use when she"d had her art exhibition, and her paintings might"ve been seen as worthless. If that had happened, she then wouldn"t have been able to help others through the funding of her foundation. And all this was because, at that time, she was just a pitiful person whose Mother had pa.s.sed away early, whose Father didn"t care about her, whose paternal Grandparents weren"t didn"t fond of her, and whose Stepmother bullied her.

Now that Sheng Jiaoyang had nothing, she could only rely on her abilities to obtain the materials that she required. She could no longer just open her mouth to ask for it and merely hold out her hand.

After coming to terms with the helplessness that she"d felt at the beginning, she was now starting to think "so this is what"s known as depending on one"s abilities to crawl to the top from nothing". Just thinking about it made her blood race with antic.i.p.ation.