Chapter 19
The common herb seeds cost below two hundred, sometimes even as cheap as one hundred per kilogram. Jing Yunzhao tried to buy less of the expensive ones so that she could buy a wider range of herb seeds. She had a limited budget so she could only buy around twenty types of herb seeds even after trying to budget.
Both Physician Gan and the shop owner couldn’t help but smile when they saw Jing Yunzhao looking at the seeds that she couldn’t buy longingly.
Having her own principles, she refused Physician Gan’s kind gesture of buying her those seeds. She might not have enough money for all the seeds now, but she was confident that she could get enough to buy all of them on her own one day.
While finding a proper herb shop that sold herb seeds was tricky, finding a shop that sold herbs was relatively easy. In fact, the biggest traditional Chinese medicine clinic in this town was known for collecting herbs, and the seeds that she just bought would soon be harvested into herbs that she could sell at a good price.
Jing Yunzhao felt relieved after resolving her main concern. She parted with Physician Gan and went straight to school after sending the seeds into her secret space. She remembered Ms. Kim promising her that the school authority would lodge a police report regarding the gangsters who were bugging her earlier, and there should be already a reply from the police by now.
The atmosphere in the school was completely different after the exam season. The tension had subsided, though people still looked at her strangely whenever she walked past.
“Your father came to the school and made a big fuss, Jing Yunzhao! He was yelling about taking you home so you could reflect on yourself since you don’t know how to behave,” said one of the students mockingly.
Although he wasn’t her biological father, Qiao Weimin was still considered Jing Yunzhao’s guardian and people believed it must have been something that Jing Yunzhao had done to trigger it.
Jing Yunzhao was not only smart but also beautiful, and that was enough to stir up jealousy in the school. Jing Yunzhao also used to be a quiet girl who always had her head stuck in her book, making others think she was insecure and thus an easy target for bullying.
Jing Yunzhao stopped walking and turned around to ask icily, “What did you say?”
Her demeanor was so cold that it frightened the students who heard her.
“I was just telling the truth, your father really did make a scene at the front gate of the school a few minutes ago. He was yelling that you were shameless to be sleeping with those gangsters at such a young age, and actually it was a lot worse than what I just said…” The student mumbled, intimidated by Jing Yunzhao’s attitude.
The student really was telling the truth; Qiao Weimin had wanted to barge into the school without registering with the security guard and was stopped before he could enter.
Being stopped by the security guard had not calmed Qiao Weimin down and he even started insulting Ms. Kim, saying that ‘a fish rots from the head down’ and that Ms. Kim shouldn’t be teaching anymore if she doesn’t know how to.
The commotion quickly drew the principal and Ms. Kim’s attention and they had quickly taken Qiao Weimin to the office about a minute ago. Jing Yunzhao was certain she could make it in time to meet them before her school withdrawal procedure was completed if she went to the office immediately.
Jing Yunzhao clenched her fists, her features twisting in anger. It was the first time she had shown such an expression in front of her schoolmates. She had always been a famous student in the school. With her outstanding results, rumors about her had been everywhere although only half a semester had passed.
In fact, the rumors started as early as Jing Yunzhao’s first day at school. For some reason, someone said that Jing Yunzhao had cheated in her exams to become the top student, and some even accused her of stealing. There were even rumors about her misbehaving and flirting with boys back in secondary school.
With all those negative rumors circling, everyone began to avoid Jing Yunzhao.
Then again, Jing Yunzhao never did care about the others. She had always been on her own and had managed not to offend anyone at all. In fact, she usually kept quiet and never said anything when anyone insulted her.
But today, she had reacted very differently.