Chapter 31: What I’m Good At ①
Many people believe the saying that jade nourishes a person. If one wears jade, over time, it will bring peace and safety to the owner. Nie Qiu still believed in everything she had encountered.
No matter how strange this matter was, Nie Qiu, who had been reborn into another body, could still accept it calmly when facing the rabbit jade spirit. After all, being reborn was more difficult to accept than encountering a jade spirit. Having experienced a greater shock, she wouldn’t be as surprised by strange events. Therefore… Nie Qiu chose to believe.
She looked up at the blue sky, “Then… how can I help you?”
“Look at this place, isn’t it beautiful?” a childish voice echoed in the empty space, carrying a hint of nostalgic memory.
Hearing the words, Nie Qiu smiled and said, “Yes! It’s beautiful!” She was also a person who liked to travel and had seen many rivers and mountains, but she had never seen such a beautiful place. Perhaps it was because too many people visited the scenic areas, and in the original scenery, people became a stain within the scenic area.
This place was very beautiful, without any modern atmosphere. Everything was the most primitive: green grass, blue sky, trees, waterfalls, and water flow. Everything was so perfect.
“Look carefully, listen carefully, and seriously feel everything around you, then tell me, what do you feel?”
Although Nie Qiu was confused, she still followed the words and began to look around, feeling it seriously.
The sky ahead was clear of clouds for miles. The entire azure sky was as if washed clean, revealing a vast expanse of deep blue. That sky looked deep and distant. Looking at it made one feel as if their soul had been emptied, appearing peaceful and serene. The air was dry and felt very clear.
The surrounding woods were quieter than ever. The treetops stretched straight towards the sky, and each tree looked tall and elegant. The stream in front also flowed quietly, making Nie Qiu can’t help but smile slightly. She liked this kind of scenery, beautiful, peaceful, and everything was natural and beautiful.
After smiling a few times, the smile froze on Nie Qiu’s face.
No, this is too wrong! Logically, such a place should have many animals, whether flying in the sky, running on the ground, or swimming in the water. Besides the little white rabbit dozing beside her, there was no other living thing. In her mind, she tried to explain it with the jade spirit’s body, but the more she looked, the more she felt… this was wrong.
“You’ve figured it out, haven’t you?”
Nie Qiu nodded. This… was too strange!
“This jade is my dwelling place. Because it was divided into countless pieces, my spiritual energy was damaged, and I couldn’t nurture life on this land, so it became like this. But fortunately, the waterfall and spiritual spring are intact, and my physical body is not destroyed. Nie Qiu, I need your help. What you need to do is to increase the spiritual energy within this place until I return to my physical body.”
The voice was childish, but the speech was clear. Nie Qiu knew that this jade spirit had lived longer than she had. Nie Qiu stood up, patted her butt, “Spiritual energy?”
“The air in here is spiritual energy.”
Nie Qiu listened and took a deep breath. The scent that entered her nose was a refreshing coolness of early morning, very clean. Nie Qiu couldn’t help but smile, “It’s really clear!”
“Nie Qiu, will you help me?”
Nie Qiu thought for a moment, then looked up and said, “Dà, can you… let me think about it?”
“Okay,” Dà said softly. “Nie Qiu, I can help you, and you can help me. Just as you humans say, jade nourishes people, and jade can bring peace and safety. The better the jade, the more spiritual energy it has. You can plant vegetables in this space, and you can also raise chickens and ducks here to fill it with life. Of course, after raising these animals, you can take them out to sell, because I know…” Dà paused, “Because I know, Nie Qiu, you need money.”
Nie Qiu paused, closed her eyes, and thought about the appearance of her necklace in her heart. When she opened her eyes, she found herself standing on her bed. She shook her head and chuckled. She looked at the alarm clock on her bedside table. It was 5:40 AM, still twenty minutes before 6:00 AM, but Nie Qiu found she had no sleepiness at all.
She got out of bed, changed into her school uniform, and walked out of the room. She saw Nie Aifang sitting by the table sewing plastic flowers. She walked over with some heartache, took the needle and thread from Nie Aifang’s hand, then stood behind Nie Aifang and placed her hands on Nie Aifang’s temples and under her eyes, gently massaging them. “Mom, don’t get plastic flowers from the factory… You slept so late last night, and you still have to get up so early to sew plastic flowers. Your eyes can’t take it.”
Nie Aifang closed her eyes, enjoying her daughter’s massage, and said, “If I sew for three hours a day, I can earn enough living expenses for our mother and daughter for the day. The money I earn from setting up a stall, I want to save to pay your tuition fee for next semester.”
Tuition fee? Nie Qiu didn’t know the current tuition fee for A City High School, because the nanny always handled her registration. However, looking at the students of A City High School, Nie Qiu knew that without a lot of money, one couldn’t get into this school, especially since Nie Qiu’s previous grades weren’t good.
Money, yes, money. Nie Qiu looked around at the rental room, which was bare. Their family needed money so badly. She really didn’t want Nie Aifang to be so tired, coming home after midnight every night, tidying things up, washing up, and then going to bed after 1 AM, only to be back home by 5 or 6 AM.
Looking at Nie Aifang, Nie Qiu thought about her own appearance at thirty-eight years old. This person was the same age as her, yet looked more than ten years older than her.
She wanted to make money! She really wanted to!
She thought of the university student who wanted to pass CET-4. She took a deep breath. As long as that person came to find her, she would agree to teach her! No matter what her purpose for studying was, because… she needed money.
Today was the last day of the week. As soon as the teacher entered the classroom, he happily placed the exam papers on the lectern and said with a smile, “Let’s have another pop quiz today! It’s English today. The English class representative and the group leaders come up to distribute the papers. Oh, right, I have Nie Qiu’s exam paper fee. Nie Qiu’s paper also needs to be distributed.”
Amidst the classmates’ complaints, the English class representative went up to get the papers, distributed them to the group leaders, and then handed them out to the classmates in the class.
Seeing that the papers had been distributed, the teacher smiled at Nie Qiu and said, “Nie Qiu, come to the office after class.”
Nie Qiu stood up, nodded, and then sat down.
Li Kai was a little curious, “Nie Qiu, why did the teacher call you?”
Nie Qiu shook her head, indicating she didn’t know. Li Kai, finding no further interest, touched his nose and turned to look at the exam paper distributed by the group leader in his hand.
Nie Qiu took the exam paper, looked it over carefully, and after writing her class number and name, she began to answer with a smile. She had been reviewing junior high school knowledge these days. Although many parts of the textbooks had changed, the knowledge categories were largely similar. As long as she looked at them a little, she would know what she had learned before.
