Chapter One Hundred: Soft and Tender

  "Listen, Hua said, your little aunt was only a few years older than you, and when she was young, she followed you around, the feelings were very deep. Later, when she passed away, all of you were very sad!" Ning Qingming heard Du Huajia mention learning to do business with his little aunt, and interjected, "If I didn't look a bit like your little aunt, maybe we wouldn't have met either."

  The adults in our family were always busy and had no time to play with us. My little aunt was lively and clever, a few years older than me, and often took us to play together. After my little aunt passed away, I was indeed heartbroken for a long time.

  Du Hu's family sighed, "My grandfather was originally very healthy, but due to the death of my younger aunt, he was overly grieved and contracted many illnesses. His temperament also became more gentle, now he would care about people, no longer just focusing on family matters like before."

  "It turns out that Grandpa Du's personality wasn't like this before." Ning Qing nodded, the Du family except for Du Huahua were all lukewarm, and it was originally strange how with Grandpa Du's personality, his sons and grandsons' personalities were completely different. It turned out that it was only after his daughter died that he changed. People always have to wait until the person they care about is gone before realizing their importance, but by then it's too late.

  When Ning Qingming returned home, her mother was still awake in the living room waiting for her. Seeing that she had arrived, she seemed to let out a sigh of relief and stood up saying: "Xiao Min, you have to go back to school tomorrow, so get some rest early! I've already helped pack your things."

  "Mom, you go to sleep too!" Ning Min saw her mom walking towards the room and went over to hug her waist from behind, saying: "Mom, I'm grown up now, there are some things that have boundaries, you don't need to worry about me!"

  "Silly child!" Ning's mother pulled Ning Qing's hand, "Mom isn't necessarily opposed to you being with that Du boy, it's just that you're still young and your studies should be your priority, waiting until after graduation to talk about romance isn't too late."

  "Mom!" Ning Qingming didn't respond directly, saying in a spoiled tone: "I don't even have time to fall in love! School has started again and I'm busy with business, where would I have time for other things?"

  "Alright, go take a bath and sleep after that. We have to get up early tomorrow!" Ning's mom said in a low voice, "Fortunately, we have our own car now, so it's more convenient to go anywhere."

  The second son, Sun Wen, drove to send Ning Qingmian to school. When they arrived at the dormitory building, Ning Qingmian took his luggage and urged Sun Wen, "Xiaoyu is alone and might be busy, so I won't invite you up to the dormitory. Hurry back and help her. When I need to go back, I'll call you again to come pick me up."

  Sun drove the car away, and Qingmian finally went up to the dormitory building. As soon as the door was pushed open, a figure rushed over like a flying shadow. Without saying a word, she hugged Ning Qingmian tightly and exclaimed, "I thought I'd die!"

  "Ah! You're going to break my bones!" Ning Min shrieked. Zhou Ling finally let go of her, holding her face and examining it carefully before saying: "What's going on? It's only been one summer vacation. How dare you grow even more beautiful than me?! Auntie Ning must be brewing soup for you every day to nourish that little body of yours, making you look more and more radiant! No way, next time I'm going with you to drink the soup!"

  "We also want to go drink soup together!" Wu Meimei and Mo Xiaohong also rushed over, surrounding Ning Qingmian in the middle. They shouted: "It's so unfair! We all went home for summer vacation and came back dark-skinned. But you haven't changed at all. What's even more hateful is that not only didn't you get darker, but you're still pale and tender-looking. Can we 'black people' live with this?"

  "Alright, alright. Don't be so exaggerated!" Ning Qingmin pushed them hard. "I went to a cosmetics exhibition last time. They gave me a dozen trial sunscreen bottles as gifts. I didn't forget about you guys. I brought two bottles for each of you. Isn't that generous enough?"

  "Get it out quickly!" Wu Meimei took the lead in retreating. She stood with her hands on her hips and said, "It's already September. The sun is still scorching hot. This sunscreen came just in time."

  "Hehe, it's really hot this year. Fortunately, we don't have to do military training anymore. If we had to do military training like freshmen, we'd be sunburned to the point of becoming real 'black people'."

  Mo Xiao Hong took the sunscreen from Ning Qing Mian and looked at the label, exclaiming: "Wow, this sunscreen sells for over a hundred yuan per bottle in stores! It's said not only to prevent sunburn but also has whitening effects!"

  Zhou Ling took it and opened the lid, smelling the scent. He nodded and said: "The smell is okay, in the hot summer, if you apply sunscreen with a bad smell, the sun will shine on it, I'm afraid it can suffocate people to death."

  A few people chatted and then quickly left after tidying up. When they arrived at the classroom, they saw many people already there, discussing Xiao Ye Sheng's rapid rise to fame.

  "If I had to say, the initial popularity was thanks to the lyrics of 'Dong Feng Po' written by Qing Mian. " Sun Dangwen, who shared a dormitory with Xiao Yesheng, felt he had the right to speak and said with a smile: "Later on, Yesheng's roles in TV dramas moved people to tears and earned him popularity. By the time he became the leading actor of a TV drama and released an album, it would have been hard for him not to be popular."

  "What's most important is that Ye Sheng has good interpersonal relationships, and even in the entertainment industry, he doesn't have much negative news. He just works hard at his own things and doesn't throw any tantrums like a big star."

  "It's a pity." Jiang Mingzhi said, seeing Zhou Ling and others coming in, smiling and gesturing with his hands, and continued to say: "Unfortunately, Ye Sheng can't come to class now, he can only take time to read the textbook by himself. If he passes the exam, he can get credits. I'm really worried that he won't be able to graduate smoothly and get a graduation certificate."

  "What's the big deal? We've already become stars, what's the point of a graduation certificate?" Another boy disagreed, "For people like us, even with a graduation certificate, it's not guaranteed that we can find a good job. If there's a better opportunity now, who cares about the certificate?"

  "The key is not on the diploma itself, but on the academic qualifications it represents. A star with academic qualifications is certainly better than one without, of course, having academic qualifications does not mean having equal knowledge, however, if they don't become a star in the future and want to further their studies, they can start from the foundation of university graduation, instead of starting from scratch and wasting time." Jiang Mingzhi calmly analyzed, "Ye Sheng struggled so hard to get into this university, he won't give up on his courses and diploma."

  "It makes sense, Ye Sheng can take classes with a private tutor during his spare time from filming, and the curriculum can be made up for. Sun Dangwen nodded and said: "I'm not overpraising our Ye Sheng, but look at him when he walks out, that air of elegance, as if he has poetry and books in his belly, how can someone who doesn't usually read or supplement their knowledge have that?"

  "Right, have you guys watched any Taiwanese variety shows?" Zhou Ling crowded over and said: "Last time I watched a show, it almost made me vomit."

  "What program?"

  "It was like an interview, where the host was interviewing a popular idol who had just debuted, I forgot his name, but I remember that so-called popular idol kept talking about how good he was at farting, even saying that when he went to learn swimming, he would fart underwater. Although that popular idol was only in his teens, he had a nanny, manager and publicist by his side, yet he couldn't think of anything new to talk about, so he just talked about his farts?" Zhou Ling said with indignation: "At the time, I was eating my favorite lychee, but after hearing him talk about farting nonstop, I lost my appetite."

  "Haha……", all the other students burst out laughing, and Ning Min couldn't help but laugh too. When watching TV shows, from time to time they would see some so-called "idols" who spoke like mentally challenged people. Everyone just thought they were entertaining the audience and didn't take it seriously. If a real person acted like that, it would be really disgusting.

  Among the laughter, the class master arrived. Since it was the first day of school, he only let everyone report their names and register. After that, some classmates helped welcome new students.

  "Haha, we've become seniors! A few male classmates excitedly said: "Let's go take a look and see if there are any pretty girls too."

  "There aren't enough pretty girls in our class, and now we have to go check out the freshmen?" Wu Meimei overheard a few male classmates saying this and whispered: "I knew it, they judge people by their looks."

  ”

  "In our class, the pretty girls are either already taken or have thorns. Who would be suitable for us? Of course, we have to look outside the class." Lu Yang glanced at the girls and coughed, saying: "Don't even mention the pretty ones, even the not-so-pretty ones are secretly taken too. Poor me, I'm still a lone wolf!"

  "It's not like you came to university to pair up with someone, what are you sighing about?" Wu Meimei glared at Lu Yang and said: "Hurry up and go, the other classes should have all arrived at the school gate by now. If we're late, all the pretty girls will be welcomed away by others first."

  "Haha......" Zhou Ling and Ning Qingming heard Wu Meimei's words from behind and laughed, "Let's hurry up too!"

  "Just you wait and see that smug look on your face, one of these days I'll let you taste the flavor of a slap in the face!" Duan Shurong watched from behind as Ning Qingming followed Zhou Ling and the others out, saying fiercely: "Just you wait!"

  "In the first semester, Xiao Ye Sheng didn't slap you for her sake, and I thought you wouldn't make a fuss about it since you didn't say anything. Li Xiuzhen saw that classmate Lu Jichu had gone out and said in a low voice: "Didn't you go to the TV station to report? Why isn't there any big movement?"

  "A small newspaper reported the incident, but it was useless." Duan Shurong said fiercely: "Later, my aunt had someone take a photo of her and Xiao Yesen, and also exposed the inside information, preparing to make a big deal out of it. But she had someone backing her up, and they managed to suppress the whole thing. Anyway, in the same class, I just don't believe that we can catch her doing anything wrong. A student, becoming a boss, I really don't believe that she has this ability on her own."

  "Isn't your dad well-connected? Get him to help you investigate Ning Qingmin's business dealings and see if there's anything fishy going on!" Li Xiuzhen had secretly been in love with Xiao Yesen, but seeing him stick up for Ning Qingmin made her unhappy. Moreover, thinking about how Ning Qingmin used to be so awkward when she first entered university, and now she had transformed so quickly, with a smug look on her face, made Li Xiuzhen's teeth itch with annoyance, and she really wanted to find fault with Ning Qingmin.