Extra Story 1 - Jiang Chun
In elementary school, during class meetings, teachers would ask what everyone dreamed of becoming when they grew up. Jiang Chun thought that was probably the moment when scientists had the highest visibility aside from winning the Nobel Prize.
Children are always so pure. As they grow older, everyone realizes scientists don’t make much money, can’t afford luxury cars or villas, and can only stay in the lab day after day doing great but tedious work—and there’s a 99.9% chance this greatness will never be understood by anyone.
So by middle school class meetings, there were many more “richest people” who dreamed of dominating their fields, though they had no idea how lofty that ambition was.
Compared to these “richest people,” Jiang Chun felt a little proud because she thought she was a very pure person. Since elementary school, she had consistently dreamed of becoming a landlady, going door-to-door every month with a sack to collect rent.
Perhaps heaven was moved by her purity and unwavering determination, because in her second year of middle school, her dream came true. It wasn’t anything special—just good luck and a father who worked hard.
Earlier, when the small fishing village where the Jiang family lived was undergoing redevelopment, her father, Jiang Hongtao, was faced with two choices: a huge compensation payout plus one apartment, or a smaller payout plus several buildings. With remarkable foresight, he chose the latter.
At the time, the real estate industry was nothing like it is today, and the buildings they received as compensation were in the most remote suburbs, so desolate that even ghosts wouldn’t want to rent there.
No one expected that suburb to later transform into prime real estate worth every inch of its land, nor did anyone expect Jiang Chun to go from being a wealthy beauty in a fishing village to the daughter of a tycoon in Shencheng.
For a while, Jiang Chun thought she had reached the peak of her life. But what was even more unexpected was that her father was too ambitious. In less than ten years, he used his sudden wealth as seed capital to build a catering empire. He even ambitiously moved the whole family to the imperial capital, bluntly using money to break through the impenetrable walls of the city’s elite families.
And so, Jiang Chun naturally leveled up again, becoming a new socialite in the imperial capital.
However, because she lacked refinement in almost every aspect, the self-proclaimed elegant and noble socialites privately looked down on her.
This directly led to her being very unhappy during her first few years in the imperial capital, despite having plenty of money. She was even foolish enough to be manipulated into making many jokes.
And the biggest joke of all was probably when she caught her fiancé, Yan Yu, cheating with a white lotus actress. To protect the white lotus, Yan Yu immediately turned against her on the spot.
It must be admitted that was likely the most humiliating moment of her life—one she never wanted to look back on.
She had always thought Yan Yu was different from others in this circle. He was gentle, considerate, sunny, cheerful, and very understanding. Most importantly, he never looked down on her.
But she later learned that the Yan family was gradually declining, and Yan Yu had only agreed to the engagement to get his hands on her father’s vast wealth. In reality, he looked down on her so much that he didn’t even want to sleep with her. Yet she had naively believed that not having sex before marriage was Yan Yu’s way of respecting her.After experiencing a scumbag of unprecedented proportions like Yan Yu, Jiang Chun briefly lost faith in love and poured all her limited energy into maintaining new friendships.
In a way, misfortune turned into blessing—the scene of catching Yan Yu cheating was witnessed by Ji Mingshu, a core figure in Beijing's socialite circle. Ji Mingshu stood up for her, and from that encounter, the two quickly became good friends.
Actually, she used to dislike Ji Mingshu quite a bit. Aside from others' instigation, it was also because Ji Mingshu always carried an aloof, disdainful attitude, casually saying things that could leave one too upset to eat for days.
But after becoming good friends, she viewed all of Ji Mingshu's unchanged behaviors through a bestie filter, genuinely believing that Ji Mingshu was the most beautiful, lovable, and kind-hearted girl in the world, while men were all worthless pigs.
That was until Tang Zhizhou appeared.
Tang Zhizhou was the new blind date candidate arranged for Jiang Chun by her father, Jiang Hongtao. Jiang Hongtao praised the Tang family to the skies, claiming they were a prestigious scholarly and medical family renowned in Shanghai since the Republican era, having produced a host of illustrious figures.
This generation was no less impressive. Tang Zhizhou's grandfather was a medical giant, his father a leader in the education bureau, his uncle an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, his younger uncle a pioneer of domestic orthodox mystery fiction, and his mother the vice-chair of the Writers' Association and a renowned female literary writer...
The least accomplished in the family was probably a rebellious cousin who dropped out of school young—now the founder of a certain online literature website.
As for Tang Zhizhou himself, he was a prodigy from the University of Science and Technology of China's gifted youth program, having earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford at a young age. He was now the youngest professor in the Computer Science School at a top-tier university and head of its AI laboratory, focusing on artificial intelligence with a limitless future.
After hearing this background of an entire family of high achievers, Jiang Chun was stunned for about half a minute before belatedly asking, "Is he bald?"
Jiang Hongtao, still immersed in visions of a future son-in-law, glanced at her. "What nonsense are you talking about?"
Jiang Chun: "Then is he really ugly?"
"Ugly? He's 1.85 meters tall, refined, clean, and exceptionally handsome! I think this young Tang is quite impressive!" Jiang Hongtao gestured to emphasize his height as he spoke.
Jiang Chun fell silent for a moment. "Dad, tell me the truth. I can accept it depending on the situation."
"?"
"Is he divorced, or does he have sexual dysfunction, or is he abusive, a drug addict, or just not into women at all?"
Jiang Hongtao was stunned by the questions. When he regained his composure, he couldn't help poking her head and scolding, "What on earth goes through your mind all day instead of doing proper things? You're my only daughter—would I push you into a pit of fire?!"
"Then why would someone from such a well-off family want to go on a blind date with me? They could pick from so many socialites," Jiang Chun dodged while rubbing the sore spot, puzzled.
Jiang Hongtao stood up, hands on hips, and finally laughed in exasperation. "I didn't realize you had such self-awareness."
Jiang Chun sat obediently, eyes downcast. "When you have nothing but money, you'd better have some self-awareness."
Jiang Hongtao pointed at her for a long while before finally managing to say, "You little brat, with all that money, you still aren't satisfied!"Jiang Chun rolled her eyes quite ungraciously, thinking to herself that Ji Mingshu and her father would definitely have a lot to talk about if they sat down for a chat, because both of them were staunch adherents of the theory that "there's nothing money can't solve—if there is, it's because you don't have enough."
But this time, her father really hadn't lied to her. Tang Zhizhou was genuinely a top-tier good man—born into a scholarly family, handsome, wealthy, with both intelligence and emotional quotient off the charts, unmarried, childless, and without any bad habits.
As for why the Tang family was willing to set up a blind date with their nouveau riche family, it traced back to the old master of the Tang family receiving help from her father many years ago in Shencheng.
Coincidentally, the charity her father had anonymously donated to over the years was helmed by the Tang family. The old master felt her father was principled in business, had good character, and by extension, assumed his daughter must also be of noble character, so he proactively arranged this blind date.
On the day of the blind date, Tang Zhizhou wore a light gray striped casual shirt with a simple Platinum watch on his wrist.
His skin was fair, his features clean and refined yet sharply defined—a truly handsome appearance. Even sitting simply in the living room, he was quite eye-catching.
Especially those clear, ink-black eyes, paired with his slightly upturned thin lips and a faint, knowing smile, seemed to see right through people with just a glance.
Jiang Chun couldn’t help but wonder—he didn’t seem like someone in artificial intelligence; he seemed more like a psychologist.
The blind date began with a family dinner. After the meal, the elders urged her and Tang Zhizhou to go out shopping.
Tang Zhizhou was polite and well-mannered from start to finish. He took her for coffee, then to the supermarket, and finally exchanged WeChat contacts with her—everything was perfectly proper.
But after the blind date, Jiang Chun felt quite down.
Someone so handsome and considerate probably didn’t lack girlfriends. He likely just showed up to humor his grandfather’s wishes. She figured her chances were pretty much dead.
Later, when she recounted the details of the blind date to Ji Mingshu, she realized that what she thought was a perfect date had actually included a major, cringe-worthy blunder she was completely unaware of.
When Tang Zhizhou asked her whose paintings she liked, she casually said she really liked the Eight Great Masters. She’d heard Ji Mingshu say her husband had bought paintings by them, so she assumed they were a group of impressive artists.
While shopping at the supermarket, trying to appear sophisticated, she mentioned that she couldn’t find the kind of pear called "strawberry" that she liked to eat—thus unknowingly committing a second cringe-worthy blunder.
Recalling that utterly embarrassing scene she was oblivious to at the time, she had to give Tang Zhizhou credit for holding back his laughter. Heartbroken, she sent him a WeChat message admitting her mistakes.
Jiang Chun: 【Were you struggling not to laugh today...】
Jiang Chun: 【Sorry for making a fool of myself, my bad TvT】
She had planned to wait for Tang Zhizhou to politely say "it's fine," then delete each other and never cross paths again. Unexpectedly, Tang Zhizhou replied: 【I think you’re very cute. I’ve never met a girl like you before.】
Jiang Chun strongly suspected he meant "I’ve never met a girl as clueless as you."
Jiang Chun: 【Well, now you have...】
Tang Zhizhou: 【Yes, it’s an honor.】
Alright then, that concludes the polite exchange.Jiang Chun collapsed backward onto the bed, and her phone unexpectedly buzzed twice more. Tang Zhizhou sent a voice message: "I have a public lecture tomorrow morning. Would you like to come listen?"
His voice sounded deep and gentle in the recording, carrying a subtle hint of temptation.
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