The Reborn Sidekick Rejected The Male Lead
Chapter 136 - 134: The New Environment

Chapter 136: Chapter 134: The New Environment

When she arrived, Luo Xinyue had just gotten there as well.

He Yu said, "You’re finally here. We’ve been so bored these past couple of days."

Lu Jingqiu replied, "Didn’t you two go out for a walk?"

Chen Qingru laughed, "We did. We ran around the department store, visited the nearby supply and marketing co-operative, watched a movie, and even took a complete tour around the school."

Luo Xinyue raised an eyebrow and said, "And you call that boring? That’s incredibly exciting if you ask me."

Everyone laughed heartily.

Having made friends at school, the four of them ate together and chatted late into the night.

Early the next day, they each went to their respective classes, and Lu Jingqiu and Luo Xinyue found seats and sat down together.

The class had over fifty students, evenly balanced between males and females.

While they were talking with the student next to them, their class teacher arrived, a middle-aged man in his forties.

Lu Jingqiu’s eyes lit up. Wasn’t this the old professor she met in the park in her previous life?

Except now he was decades younger.

"Hello students, I am your class teacher, Shi Weili. I will be in charge of your specialty skills course. Let’s begin with roll call. Please respond when I call your name."

"Zhang Guomin."

"Present."

"Xu Yu"

"Present"

"Lu Jingqiu"

"Present"

Shi Weili was also taken aback when he saw Lu Jingqiu. He enjoyed reading newspapers, especially those related to his field. He had greatly admired the Twenty-Four Solar Terms illustrations and had not expected to find the artist in his class. He was silently pleased, recognizing a promising talent.

On the first day of school, they received new books and met teachers from various subjects.

At noon, she and Luo Xinyue ate with two other classmates from their class, but they couldn’t find He Yu and Chen Qingru.

Today, Lu Jingqiu had also gotten to know a few female classmates, including Xu Yu and Mi Qiaomai.

Xu Yu was from Capital City, had been a sent-down youth in Hei Province at the age of twenty-eight, was married with a daughter, and had left her child with her parents at home because of school. Her husband was also studying here, though not in the same school. Mi Qiaomai was from Hei Province, and Xu Yu had been sent down to her village, and she was twenty-one this year.

The two of them sat next to her and Luo Xinyue and were also dorm mates.

The cafeteria food was decent, at least in generous portions.

After eating with their classmates, the two returned to the dormitory, followed by the gradual return of He Yu and Chen Qingru.

They all chatted away about their respective classes, their teachers, and their classmates.

Lu Jingqiu leaned on her bed, listening while taking out her drawing board, and Luo Xinyue did the same.

Seeing them drawing on their beds, Chen Qingru teased, "You two are working too hard. It’s the first day of school and instead of taking a nap, you’re already drawing."

He Yu heard this and looked up from her bed to glance at them.

Luo Xinyue smiled and turned to Lu Jingqiu, asking, "Jingqiu, do you have a new assignment?"

"No, an editor from the People’s Liberation Army Daily reached out to me for a submission."

"Nobody’s approached me for a piece, but getting selected by the daily news has boosted my confidence a lot. I’m currently working on their latest illustration collection call for entries."

"I’ve been too busy recently to have a look."

He Yu interjected, "Hey, hey, you two, come clean."

With a smile, Luo Xinyue handed over the newspaper she held to the two of them and said, "I’m working on an illustration collection called for in the newspaper. I plan to submit."

Lu Jingqiu chimed in, "Me too. I was commissioned by an editor in advance. The deadline is tight, so I had no choice but to bring it to school to work on."

Chen Qingru gaped, "You two are so impressive."

Although He Yu enjoyed art, she had never submitted any work.

Chen Qingru hadn’t considered this either.

Luo Xinyue said, "We’re not that impressive. We also submit, and there are plenty of times we get rejected. You two should give it a try."

He Yu shook her head. "I haven’t done that before." She had only drawn sketches, portraits, and realistic buildings.

Chen Qingru frowned, "I like to paint New Year’s pictures and comic strip books. Would that work? I used to copy comic strips I liked."

Lu Jingqiu replied, "That’s definitely possible. Right now, comic strips are in high demand, and there aren’t many people who can draw them. One of our previous colleagues used to take on that kind of work. You could look out for newspapers and magazines that call for submissions."

He Yu asked, "How much do they pay for one illustration?"

Luo Xinyue replied, "The last one I submitted paid two yuan."

Chen Qingru said, "Two yuan, that’s not little. If you could get one or two drawings accepted a month, that would be enough pocket money."

Chen Qingru felt tempted; with plenty of time at school, she might as well give it a shot.

Lu Jingqiu added, "Here in West City, we have the West City Daily News and the Literary Newspaper. And it’s not limited to our city. You could collect from other provinces and cities as well. Look out for story meetings and subscriptions to magazines and newspapers, especially those related to illustrations and community reports."

He Yu said, "We have plenty of newspapers and magazines back home. I’ll write to my mom to mail a few over sometime. It’s just that they are so far away, it takes time."

Lu Jingqiu said, "Exactly because it takes time, that’s why they call for submissions one or two months in advance."

Although it was time for a break, the students were all too excited to sleep at this moment.

A week’s worth of classes came to an end, and on Friday afternoon, Lu Jingqiu and Luo Xinyue packed up their things and went home.

As soon as she got home, she couldn’t wait to check on Hua Hua and the kittens.

After not being back for a week, all the kittens had opened their eyes. It had only been five days since she left, but they had changed so much. They were fluffy and extremely cute.

Lu Jingqiu picked up one, then another, absolutely entranced,

She looked in the food bowl, flour noodles, steamed buns, and even some eggs. Lu Jingqiu also spotted a few pieces of meat.

"Wow, Hua Hua, you’ve been living it up, such delicious food. Is it tough bearing children, have you missed me these past few days?"

"Meow, meow."

Looking at the little rascals scampering around the room, she picked up Hua Hua.

At that moment, she heard Xiao Shun and Xiao Yin’s voices outside in the yard.

"Sister Xiao Qiu, you’re back. Look, I caught a mouse for Hua Hua."

"Ah. Xiao Shun, where did you get that from?"

Lu Jingqiu looked at the cage in Xiao Shun’s hands, the mouse was still alive.

Xiao Yin giggled, "We caught it from Grandma Zhang’s house. Ah Fu has been helping Grandma Zhang with the mice these past few days; we purposely left one alive just for this."

Lu Jingqiu said, "Ah Fu can understand human speech now?"

Xiao Shun said, "Sister Xiao Qiu, Hua Hua is his wife after all. It’s his duty to find food for his wife and children.

These past few days, my mom prepared steamed buns for Hua Hua, Lanqin’s Grandma brought some meat over, and Grandpa Lu even made noodles for her yesterday. See, she hardly eats them. I fed her a mouse, and she could go two days on that."

"You fed her a mouse yesterday?"

"Yeah, Grandma Zhang’s house has been overrun with mice, Ah Fu has even gotten fatter recently."

All right, although it’s disgusting to watch, mice are like a gourmet feast for cats.

Lu Jingqiu put Hua Hua down on the floor, Xiao Shun opened the cage next to her, and the mouse had no chance of escape.

Lu Jingqiu turned a blind eye and played with the fourth kitten on the side.

Xiao Yin looked at the little ones with delight. She had been arguing with her mother these past days because she wanted to adopt another kitten, and she had her eyes set on Xiao Hua, the eldest.

"Sister Xiao Qiu, can you help us convince my mom? I really like Xiao Hua."

Lu Jingqiu was powerless; not everyone loved cats and dogs.

After Hua Hua was fed, she began to nurse the kittens again.

Xiao Shun and Xiao Yin had homework to do, so they could only wistfully make their way back home.

Lu Jingqiu checked the time, went to get dinner, made a dish of scrambled eggs, took her boxed meal, and waited for Jiang Nanzhou at the cafeteria entrance.

She also saw her dad, who had already prepared their meals.

"Dad, have you been eating at the cafeteria every day this week while I was not here?"

"Eating at the cafeteria is quite good, the food is varied." He wasn’t incapable of cooking, but with only himself at home, it was better to eat at the cafeteria.

Lu Jingqiu took out the scrambled eggs she cooked and grabbed two meat buns for them, "These meat buns are bought from the state-owned restaurant."

Jiang Nanzhou insisted she eat them, but Lu Jingqiu wouldn’t have it and shoved them into his mouth.

Watching her resolute stance, he accepted them helplessly, "Are you adjusting well at school?"

"I’m adapting, the people in the dorm are all quite nice."

"By the way, that ginseng, I had an old doctor make it into pills. You guys can use them later. I have a friend who wants some of the pills, so I’m asking you."

Jiang Nanzhou said, "You can decide for yourself."

Lu Xianrun added, "Why make them into pills, what a pity."

"It’s not a pity, the pills that the old doctor made can save lives at crucial moments. When you guys go out on missions, bring a few pills with you, just in case."

Upon hearing that his daughter had prepared them for them, his heart was touched.

Jiang Nanzhou felt the same way; that feeling of being remembered by someone was truly wonderful.

Lu Xianrun said, "It’s up to you. I’m tough; I don’t get injured that easily."

Lu Jingqiu lowered her head, pursed her lips, remembering that in her previous life, it was because of an injury from a mission that her father was badly hurt, bleeding so much without timely treatment, nearly losing his life, and his health never recovered after returning.

If not for that, he wouldn’t have passed away so early.

She wasn’t able to save her mother back then; she couldn’t let her dad leave her too.

Without Jiang Nanzhou’s ginseng, she was planning to get some medicine from the hospital. Hemostatics, anti-inflammatory drugs; these were all life-saving medications.

This time, when she goes, she will ask Master Chen if there are any fast-acting hemostatics available.

She didn’t know when her dad would be sent on a mission, whether this year or the next, but she had to be prepared.

Lu Xianrun continued, "We’ll have a training camp soon, so I might be busier and come home less. If it’s too late, I’ll just stay in the dormitory. Same goes for Nanzhou."

Recently, there’s been some tension on the borders, and the situation was becoming urgent; units everywhere are being put on alert.

"Okay, it’s getting cold, make sure you both take extra clothes. I haven’t finished knitting the sweaters I’m making for you." Lu Jingqiu was used to this; things like this happened often.

Lu Xianrun said, "I have mine, just knit for Nanzhou." The one he’s wearing is the one his wife knitted for him last year. His wife, sigh.

Jiang Nanzhou was really looking forward to it, but didn’t want Lu Jingqiu to neglect her studies for it, "Don’t rush. I have enough clothes, too."