DM Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Dancing on the Edge of a Cliff

The dormitory manager led Jiang Xiaoyuan upstairs, chatting as they walked: “Teacher Jiang is really generous, huh? She just let you overdraw more than a month’s salary in one go.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan absentmindedly replied at first, but then after a moment, she realized something was off. Didn’t Jiang say her monthly salary was more than 3,000? How did 2,000 turn into “more than a month’s salary?

“I recently changed jobs, and money’s a bit tight. Teacher Jiang is a nice person,” Jiang Xiaoyuan said slyly, trying to sound things out. “Big Sis, the salaries at our school must be pretty high, right?”

The dormitory manager straightened up and said righteously, “Salaries are confidential; it’s not appropriate to discuss them behind others’ backs.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan rolled her eyes: “Oh…”

The dormitory manager’s righteousness lasted only five seconds. After five seconds, she gave up any pretense, lowered her voice, and said to Jiang Xiaoyuan, “I heard the school rarely hires teaching assistants like you. The spots are few and far between, and many people can’t even get their relatives in. Once hired, they only pay you 1,600 a month.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “…”

The dormitory manager:”Don’t tell anyone!”

Jiang Xiaoyuan quickly assured her that she was discreet and praised the manager for being well-informed, all while anxiously climbing to the third floor.

It was supposed to be a six-person dorm room, but it wasn’t fully occupied. Besides Jiang Xiaoyuan, only three students lived there.

Holding her key card and keys, Jiang Xiaoyuan was about to knock when the dormitory manager casually took out a key and opened the door without asking. The three girls inside all raised their heads and looked toward the entrance.

At the sight, Jiang Xiaoyuan was startled, thinking she had accidentally entered the lair of spider demons.

One girl was covered in seaweed face masks, looking like a green Hulk. Another had her face painted in a black gothic style, with her hair unkempt and hanging down like Sadako from a horror movie. Her lipstick was only half-applied, and when she turned her head, she perfectly embodied the phrase “a ghost with a grim face.”

The third girl, sitting in the back, looked relatively normal except for her overly white foundation. However, when she turned her head, she gave Jiang Xiaoyuan another fright. Around her neck was a fake, gory wound that looked like someone had chopped her with an axe, leaving her head barely attached.

The dormitory manager, long accustomed to bizarre sights, remained unfazed. She called out, “Who’s the room leader?”

The girl with the axe wound tilted her head with difficulty. “My blood hasn’t dried yet. Auntie, what do you need?”

“This is a new employee at the school who will be staying here temporarily—not for long, right, Teacher Jiang?” The dormitory manager turned to Jiang Xiaoyuan. “There are three beds left. Pick any one you like. If you need anything, come find me downstairs. We get along well.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “…”

She felt honored, in a bewildered sort of way.

The dormitory manager quickly gave her instructions, stuffed the heavy bedding into Jiang Xiaoyuan’s hands, grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds from the Hulk’s table, and left while munching.

Under the pressure of being addressed as “teacher,” Jiang Xiaoyuan forced a friendly smile and greeted her future roommates. “Hi, everyone…”

The room leader, with her fake axe wound, wobbled to her feet and politely said, “Hello, Teacher.”

Only then did Jiang Xiaoyuan realize that the terrifying wound on the girl’s neck was just makeup, though it was so realistic it was hard to tell.

Noticing her gaze, the room leader explained, “Oh, this is part of our winter break assignment. We had to pick a film character to recreate, and tonight we’re being graded at the school’s opening ceremony. It even counts toward our credits. Every year, the top three get letters of recommendation to enter the August stylist competition. Everyone wants to earn extra points—by the way, Teacher, what subject do you teach?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan glanced at the realistic axe wound, suddenly too afraid to claim she was a teacher. She awkwardly laughed, “I don’t teach anything. No need to be so polite. You don’t need to call me ‘teacher.’ I’m just an assistant who helps your teachers carry their bags and drive them around.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan used to be quite confident in her skills. Though she wasn’t formally trained, she believed she had progressed further than most. Otherwise, why had Teacher Jiang chosen her out of all the students?

Clearly, she didn’t know the real reason Jiang Bo had hired her.

She always thought what she lacked were opportunities and marketing skills, until the students’ work utterly shattered her self-confidence.

Jiang Xiaoyuan’s heart, which was higher than the sky, fell to the ground with a “bang”. She realized that her previous show-offs in front of Jiang Bo were probably laughed at by the experts.

It was utterly humiliating…

Jiang Xiaoyuan was ashamed and didn’t know how to accept this reality for a while.

Unfortunately, Jiang Bo wasted no time putting her to work. Since she had accidentally been hired as an assistant, she would be put to good use immediately—without any transition period. Jiang Xiaoyuan soon found herself running around non-stop.

This makeup academy was extremely professional, the only one of its kind in the province, not some fly-by-night operation. Each year, top-tier studios signed students from here. Empress Dowager Jiang took her teaching here very seriously, preparing every lesson meticulously with PowerPoint slides in advance. Now that she had an assistant, these preparations became Jiang Xiaoyuan’s responsibility.

But Jiang Xiaoyuan had no clue how to do it.

First of all, Teacher Jiang’s lesson plans were like a foreign language to her. Jiang Bo’s lesson plan was so chaotic and illogical; he wrote whatever he thought of, mixed with many unheard-of abbreviations and nicknames.

Jiang Xiaoyuan had hoped to impress her new boss, but the gap between her ideals and reality was as vast as the Mariana Trench. After reading the lesson plan three times, she was still dizzy. Finally, she cautiously went to ask Jiang Bo, “Teacher Jiang, what exactly do you teach?”

Empress Dowager Jiang was applying a face mask at the time, and apparently not in a good mood. Upon hearing this, she immediately lashed out. “You’re an assistant and you don’t even know what I teach? What are you good for? I can’t believe I hired someone even dumber than the last one!”

Ever since being shattered by the students’ work, Jiang Xiaoyuan’s self-esteem and confidence had sunk to the bottom of the lake, and she couldn’t float up for a while. She deeply realized that she was a small shrimp and a layman. In front of Empress Dowager Jiang, she was terrified and dared not speak a word.

Once Jiang Bo finished venting, Jiang Xiaoyuan finally pieced together that Teacher Jiang was a visiting lecturer, offering professional guidance for the advanced makeup artist certification exam.

“Advanced makeup artist certification”? What on earth was that? Jiang Xiaoyuan’s eyes went dark when she heard it – but she weighed the Emperor Dowager’s temper and didn’t dare to ask.

As she was leaving, she nervously brought up another question. “Teacher Jiang, I heard that the school only pays teaching assistants a monthly salary of—”

Jiang Bo cut her off, “Yeah, the rest is from my own pocket. What? You’re not happy with extra pay?”

The topic clearly annoyed Jiang Bo. In reality, he had no idea what the school paid assistants. When he had called Jiang Xiaoyuan, he had made up a number on the spot, and later, after sobering up, realized his mistake. Since the words were already out, he couldn’t take them back and had to make up the difference himself.

Though he didn’t lack the money, it still irked him.

“I’m paying you extra, but it’s not for fun. You’re on a one-month trial.” said Empress Dowager Jiang. “If you don’t shape up, you’re out. I don’t keep freeloaders here.”

Such a “high” salary…

Jiang Xiaoyuan thought back to her old job, where she earned a few hundred more than this just by being the office mascot. Ah, how painful it was to recall the past.

She retreated from Empress Dowager Jiang’s office in a daze.

Jiang Xiaoyuan’s first task was to prepare Jiang Bo’s PowerPoint, but she didn’t have a computer. She had to borrow a USB stick from Empress Dowager Jiang and, after getting lost three times, finally found the school’s computer lab. There, on one of the slowest computers on earth, she painstakingly Baidu-ed[mfn]Baidu is China’s version of Google.[/mfn] all the unfamiliar terms and slowly gathered materials.

Empress Dowager only had one class a week, so Jiang Xiaoyuan had a full week to prepare the PowerPoint. It seemed like plenty of time, but for her, the task was overwhelming. Not only did she lack the professional knowledge, but she also wasn’t proficient in Microsoft Office software.

The basic skills she had learned in middle school had long since evaporated, and in college, she had always hired someone to do her assignments. To this day, the only PowerPoint feature she was truly skilled at was “play.”

She spent an afternoon in the computer room in a depressed mood. The dry and hot environment almost steamed her into a red-skinned and yellow-fleshed hairy crab. Yet her PowerPoint remained a blank template—she had no idea what content to include or how to organize it.

Four hours passed, and before she could escape her frustration, Boss Jiang called again, ordering her to pack up and prepare for a trip the next day.

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “…”

A bolt from the blue, one after another, as if one strike wasn’t enough, she would get hit again for free.

Jiang Xiaoyuan weakly asked, “So when are we coming back? I don’t have a computer, I’ll need to use the school’s computer lab to make your courseware.”

Jiang Bo: “We’ll make it back before class—use my laptop. Hurry and pack your things, don’t dawdle.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan put down the phone and gasped for breath in terror, not knowing what to do.

What should she do?

Work on the Powerpoint while Baidu-ing technical terms under Empress Dowager Jiang’s watchful eye?

Would she become the first assistant to be fired within just three days?

Is it still possible to shamelessly go back and cling to Chen Fangzhou’s thigh for help?

That’s not important!

What if Empress Dowager Jiang, in a fit of anger, left her stranded somewhere? She wouldn’t even be able to afford the return ticket! Even if she wanted to cling to Chen Fangzhou, it would be too far to reach!

Jiang Xiaoyuan was practically losing her mind. She slammed the table in the computer lab heavily, drawing the side-eye of the teacher on duty.

She hurriedly scrambled into the bathroom, locked the door behind her, and let out a scream of indescribable despair.

What should she do?

Oh heavens!

Soon, there was an urgent knock on the bathroom stall door. A girl asked, “Is someone in there? Are you okay?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan replied miserably, “I’m fine…”

The girl outside, seemingly imagining something alarming, nervously asked, “Are you alone in there? Should I call a teacher or security?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “…No thanks, I’m just having menstrual cramps.”

The girl hesitated for a moment, hearing the silence from inside. After a while, she left, mumbling to herself: “Cramps so bad you scream like that? I thought someone stabbed you.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan buried her face in her hands and despairingly thought, “How am I going to survive this?”

She shuffled out of the computer lab decadently like a zombie, walking back to her dorm in a daze. Lost in her thoughts, she suddenly jolted upright and dashed off—she had forgotten Jiang’s USB drive in the computer lab!

By the time Jiang Xiaoyuan, panting and out of breath, ran back to the lab, she was met with despair—it was already closed.

When you’re unlucky, even drinking cold water can chip your teeth.

With hands on her knees, wheezing like a broken bellows, she kept running. After frantically contacting the lab manager, she learned he had already left, but after some begging and pleading, he agreed to wait for her.

Jiang Xiaoyuan ran over a kilometer along the road, passing countless onlookers with curious expressions, until she finally caught up with the manager at the subway station. After a good earful of complaints, she finally got the life-saving key and rushed back without stopping.

It was the beginning of spring, but it was still colder than winter. The northwest wind cut across her face and throat like little knives, and as it did, Jiang Xiaoyuan began to cry.

A person who could barely run 800 meters in seven minutes had just sprinted three kilometers back and forth, wringing out every last bit of energy from her body. The wind against her face felt like an impenetrable wall she had to break through, one after another.

Weren’t you supposed to be capable?

Weren’t you supposed to be good at technology?

Weren’t you supposed to create an international brand?

Weren’t you supposed to live a life worth living?

So many people in the world live like dogs—you’re powerless and talentless. What right do you have to make grand claims about living a meaningful life?

Her tears washed off the face cream she’d applied, and once dry, the cold wind stung her face like fire.

Jiang Xiaoyuan cried as she ran back to the computer lab, finally retrieving Empress Dowager Jiang’s USB drive. She collapsed on the ground, her legs feeling nonexistent.

But Empress Dowager Jiang’s call, like a haunting command, came before she could even mourn her misfortune. Jiang Xiaoyuan hadn’t even regained the ability to walk upright when the phone rang again.

“Are you ready?” Jiang Bo asked lazily. “If you’re ready, you should head out. First, grab my toolbox from my office, and then take the subway to the airport by yourself. Don’t expect me to come pick you up again.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “…Okay.”

Jiang Bo: “What was that sound you made? Why do you sound like you’ve just been ** by someone?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “The cold wind got to me.”

“Ugh, you’re really a lady with a servant’s fate,” Jiang Bo said. “Alright, no more dawdling.”

After hanging up, Jiang Xiaoyuan took a deep breath, ready to cry her heart out, but one glance at the time told her she didn’t have the luxury. She swallowed her tears, gathered her two good-for-nothing long legs, and limped toward Jiang’s office like a poisoned stray dog.

She wasn’t familiar with the campus yet, and it took her forever to find Jiang Bo’s office. Realizing she couldn’t make it to the subway in time, she gritted her teeth, stomped her foot, and hailed a taxi.

As soon as Jiang Xiaoyuan left, Qi Lian arrived at her school. He parked his car at the entrance, looked around the campus, and pulled out his phone to call Jiang Xiaoyuan. “I’m at your school… Mm, Chen Fangzhou told me. Where are you?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan paused, fighting to suppress the growing sense of injustice inside her.

“I can’t cry anymore,” she thought. “If I start, I won’t be able to stop.”

Besides, she had realized by now—crying solves nothing. All it does is embarrass her and make her feel even worse, creating a vicious cycle.

Clearing the hair stuck to her tear-streaked face, Jiang Xiaoyuan forced herself to speak in the cheeriest voice she could muster. “I’m on my way to the airport, heading off on a business trip with my boss.”

Qi Lian chuckled, “Why does switching jobs make you so happy?”

Even though it was just a phone call and no one could see her face, Jiang Xiaoyuan instinctively smiled. “Of course, I finally found a job I like. Life suddenly has a purpose, so I’m really happy.”

After saying that, it was as if she had managed to fool herself. That forced smile came out a few more times, and surprisingly, it lightened her mood a bit, allowing her to think more clearly.

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “But me leaving like this… did I cause you any trouble?”

She thought to herself, if she were Qi Lian, she wouldn’t want someone like her running around. The more she stirred things up, the more likely something would go wrong. If anything happened to her, it could ruin their whole virus containment plan.

Troublesome? Of course it was.

Qi Lian paused for a moment, then laughed.

He realized that the people the virus targeted all had similar traits—like Xu Jingyang, and every other person who followed after, even Jiang Xiaoyuan, who initially seemed different. At their core, they were the same. They were dreamers with strong drive and wild, innocent ambitions. They danced on the edge of a cliff; if they couldn’t climb up, they’d fall and break to pieces.

“No, you can come to me for help with anything,” Qi Lian said. “Anything at all.”