Fighting Back

Their classmates who were curious at first quickly understood the situation when Jiang Xia said it out loud. 

"I don't see how you are helping me. I am not Qiao Hongye and being slick like her is not what I want. You make yourself sound so selfless and helpful. Those who know you might think that you are kind, but those who don't might think that you are Qiao Weimin's son," Jing Yunzhao said slowly to Jiang Xia as she closed her book and turned to him. 

"Why would you say that, Jing Yunzhao? Jiang Xia was just being nice," the student sitting in front of Jing Yunzhao turned to look at her and said. 

She was Ye Qing, a pretty girl with the second highest results in class. She and Jiang Xia were rumored to be a couple, but neither of them had responded to that rumor. 

"You say he was just being nice, but what does that have to do with me?" Jing Yunzhao asked bluntly, "who do you think you are to be minding others' business without trying to understand the truth? My relationship with the Qiao Family is my problem. Who are you to tell me to apologize to them?" 

She wanted to have a good reputation, but that didn't mean she could be manipulated. 

She would earn her reputation eventually, but she didn't want to earn it by playing up to anyone. 

Jing Yunzhao with her cold aura could be rather intimidating when she was annoyed. 

"All I said was that the Qiao Family took good care of you, and you won't have money if you don't go home," said Jiang Xia unhappily, trying unsuccessfully to hold in his temper. 

He had made those suggestions for Jing Yunzhao's own good but she did not appreciate them at all. It was no wonder that she was so unpopular, she certainly deserved it! 

Jing Yunzhao smiled cynically when she heard what Jiang Xia said. 

Everyone seemed to think that she owed the Qiao Family a great favour. Did she really? She didn't think so.

"You were born with a silver spoon, Jiang Xia, so there is no way you would understand how I survived until now. I don't mind telling you that I learned all sorts of household chores before I even started going to school. You go to school to build a bright future, but I go to school for scholarships. I did not spend a single cent of the Qiao Family's money to go to school, and I worked for all the expenses I spent. Do you still think that the Qiao Family took good care of me? It seems quite unfair to say so." 

Jing Yunzhao remembered clearly how she had lived her life for the past fifteen years. 

When she was too young to earn money, she used to sign up for all sorts of competitions, especially the ones with cash prizes. While all the other kids always had their parents with them at those competitions, Jing Yunzhao was always alone. 

Her expenses increased when she started to go to secondary school, so she worked part time jobs during the weekends. She always had to try extra hard to get a job given her age back then, and the pay was always pathetically little. 

Jing Yunzhao used to think that that was just tough love from Ye Qin and Qiao Weimin until she realized that her so-called parents had never intended to spend a single cent on her. So even if she really did owe the Qiao Family, her debts had been paid off during her previous life. 

Not expecting Jing Yunzhao to reveal such things, Jiang Xia just stared at her, stunned. 

Jing Yunzhao had not spent a single cent of the Qiao Family's money to go to school? She even earned and paid for her own living expenses? That couldn't be true!

"I don't care if you are genuinely being kind or have some ulterior motive, I just don't want anyone trying to convince me to go home like a saint. I will let it go this time but it had better not happen again!"