However, the story did not end there.
"Hello."
On the day military training ended, the moment Ji Ruochu turned on her phone, a strange number called her.
It was even before Ling Chujin's call.
Of course, even so, Ji Ruochu still chose to answer her father's call first.
"Hey, daughter, your military training is over, right? Your mom and I are at the school gate. Let's go home for dinner today, dad will cook something delicious for you!" As soon as the call was answered, her father's eager voice came through.
"Okay." Ji Ruochu tilted her head to hold the phone in place, while putting her books into her bag. "Then wait for me, I'll head over after packing up."
"Sure, take your time, we have plenty of time to wait for you," Ling Chujin, who was listening quietly beside him, hastily added.
...
Five minutes later, Ji Ruochu, with a backpack full of books she had read, walked towards the school gate with her two younger sisters.
Peking University covers a large area, so it takes a 15-minute campus shuttle ride from the girls' dormitory to the school gate.
Along the way, Ji Ruochu thought about it and decided to call back the strange number that she had previously hung up on.
Although she usually receives telemarketing calls from strange numbers, this one felt different, as if it was deliberately timed to call her.
After all, as of now, the only ones who would urgently call her like that were her parents, and even then, they would hastily express their concern and then find an excuse to hang up, afraid of interrupting her.
If it weren't for their lengthy hang-up routines every time, she would have thought they were just making a routine call to check in.
Ring—
The call was answered after just one ring, followed by a somewhat mature voice.
"Hello, Ji Ruochu."
"..." Ji Ruochu paused, then asked tentatively, "Director Shang?"
...
Fifteen minutes later.
Ji Mochen and his wife successfully picked up their long-awaited daughter... along with her heavy backpack full of books.
"Daughter, have you read all these books?" her father marveled, weighing the bag.
"No," Ji Ruochu truthfully answered as she got into the car and started eating her "mom's" small cookies.
The couple breathed a sigh of relief, thinking military training must have been so tiring that there was no time to read all those books—
"I only read halfway through one of them, so I brought it to finish reading."
Ji Mochen and his wife: ...
Great, another day of being outperformed by their daughter.
"Do you want any other books? Dad can get them for you." After all, it seemed their daughter had read through their home library.
"No need, uncle said he has a lot of good original books, we can get them from him in a couple of days."
"Okay."
...
The scenery outside flashed by in reverse as the couple quietly watched their daughter happily munching on cookies. For a while, the only sound was the whistling of the wind.
Ji Ruochu never liked closing the car windows, unless it was scorching hot—she enjoyed the feeling of the wind brushing past her ears.
Gradually, the couple developed this habit too. At first, Ling Chujin would try to style her hair, but later on... forget it, the wind would just mess it up anyway.
As for Ji Mochen, he didn't care about his appearance at all when he wasn't working.
At the moment, it was the same—Ji Ruochu took a bite of a cookie, the sweet strawberry milk flavor spreading in her mouth, while feeling the wind blowing in from outside. It was utterly blissful.
[A flower secretly bloomed: Darlings, the book title test results are out, and our Ruochu is getting a new book title and cover!
The original title was: 'Oh no! I was reborn as the top genius's hated daughter'
The most popular title from the test is: 'A Genius? No no no, I just reincarnated!'
Does anyone want to see the other book titles and covers? I can share them in the fan group!]
