My Queen, My Rules - Extra Chapter 1

Extra Chapter - Jiang Chun (1)

When we were in elementary school, our teachers would ask us during class meetings what we dreamed of becoming when we grew up. Jiang Chun thought that was likely the moment scientists had the highest sense of presence outside of winning a Nobel Prize.

Children are always so pure. As we grew a little older, everyone realized that scientists don't make much money; they can't afford luxury cars or live in villas. They can only spend day after day in a laboratory doing great but tedious work, and there is a 99.9% chance that this greatness will never be understood by others.

So, by the time the middle school class meeting rolled around, there were suddenly many "future richest people" who didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth.

Compared to these "richest people," Jiang Chun still felt a little proud. She felt she was a very pure person; from elementary school on, she had been singularly focused on the dream of becoming a landlady, someone who could carry a burlap sack door-to-door every month to collect rent.

Perhaps the heavens were moved by her purity and unwavering resolve. In her second year of middle school, her dream came true. It wasn't anything fancy—she just had good fate and a father who fought hard for the family.

In the early days, when the one-hundred-and-eightieth-tier fishing village where the Jiang family lived was being relocated for development, her father, Jiang Hongtao, showed great foresight. Out of the two options—a massive compensation payout plus one apartment, or partial compensation plus several buildings—he chose the latter.

At that time, the real estate industry was incomparable to what it is today, and the buildings he was compensated with were in the suburbs—the kind of suburbs so far out that even ghosts wouldn't want to rent there.

No one expected that those suburbs would later transform into land worth its weight in gold, and no one expected that Jiang Chun would logically evolve from a "white-rich-beautiful" girl in a fishing village into the daughter of a Shen City tycoon.

Jiang Chun, the young heiress, once thought she had reached the pinnacle of her life. Yet, what was even more unexpected was that her father was excessively capable. In less than ten years, relying on his initial capital, he single-handedly created a catering kingdom. He then ambitiously uprooted the whole family to the Imperial Capital, using cash to rudely and bluntly smash through the iron walls of the city's prestigious and noble families.

And Jiang Chun, as a matter of course, leveled up again to become a new socialite of the Imperial Capital.

However, because her pedigree and etiquette were lacking in many aspects, few of the "true" socialites—who prided themselves on their nobility and elegance—looked kindly upon her in private.

This directly led to her being very unhappy during her first few years in the Imperial Capital, despite holding a pile of money, and she was even silly enough to be egged on into making a fool of herself many times.

The biggest joke among them was likely when she caught her fiancé, Yan Yu, cheating with a little "white lotus" actress, and Yan Yu turned against her on the spot to defend the woman.

I have to admit, that was probably the most humiliating moment of her life, one she would never want to look back on.

She had always thought Yan Yu was different from everyone else in this circle. He was gentle, considerate, sunny, cheerful, and very understanding. Most importantly, he never looked down on her.

But later she found out that the Yan family was in decline. Yan Yu had only reluctantly agreed to engage her to get her father's massive assets. In reality, he found her so repulsive that he didn't even want to sleep with her. She had been foolishly wishing for no premarital sex, thinking it was a sign of Yan Yu's respect for her.

After experiencing such an unparalleled "scumbag" as Yan Yu, Jiang Chun briefly lost faith in love and poured her limited energy into maintaining her new friendships.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise; the scene where she caught Yan Yu cheating was witnessed by Ji Mingchu, a core figure in the Imperial Capital's socialite circle. Ji Mingchu stood up for her, the two connected, and they quickly became best friends.

Actually, she had disliked Ji Mingchu in the past. Apart from others whispering in her ear, it was also because Ji Mingchu always held a condescending, arrogant posture, capable of saying things that would make people lose their appetite for three meals a day.

But after becoming best friends, she put a "bestie filter" on everything Ji Mingchu did. She sincerely felt that Ji Mingchu was the most beautiful, lovely, and kind-hearted girl in the world, and that all men were nothing but "stinky pig trotters."

Until the appearance of Tang Zhizhou.

Tang Zhizhou was the new blind date candidate arranged by her father, Jiang Hongtao. Jiang Hongtao hyped up the Tang family to the skies, saying they were a scholarly and medical family famous in Shanghai since the Republic of China era, having produced a whole group of illustrious and talented figures.

The current generation was also incredible: Tang Zhizhou’s grandfather was a titan in the medical field, his father was a leader in the Education Bureau, his uncle was an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, his younger uncle was a leader in domestic logical reasoning fiction, and his mother was the vice-chair of the Writers Association and a well-known female literary author…

The most "unpromising" person in their family was probably his young cousin who dropped out of school in rebellion—and he was now the founder of a web novel website.

As for Tang Zhizhou himself, he was a graduate of the USTC Gifted Young Program, had finished his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Stanford at a young age, and was now the youngest professor in the School of Computer Science at a "985" university. He was also the head of the university's AI laboratory, focusing on artificial intelligence, with a future that was limitless.

After listening to this background, which was filled with highly educated elites, Jiang Chun was stunned for about half a minute before she finally asked, "Is he bald?"

Jiang Hongtao, still immersed in his daydreams about his future son-in-law, glanced at her, "What are you rambling about?"

Jiang Chun: "Then is he ugly?"

"What ugly? He’s a tall guy at one meter eighty-five, neat and clean, and he looks incredibly talented and handsome! I think this young Tang is very good!" Jiang Hongtao gestured to show his height as he spoke.

Jiang Chun was silent for a moment. "Dad, tell me the truth. I can accept it depending on the situation."

"?"

"Does he have a divorce history, sexual dysfunction, a history of domestic violence, a drug problem, or is he just not into women at all?"

Jiang Hongtao was stunned. When he came back to his senses, he couldn't help but poke her forehead and lecture her, "What are you thinking about all day long instead of doing something proper? I only have one daughter, would I throw you into a fire pit?!"

"It’s not that, but if their family conditions are so good, why would they want to go on a blind date with me? There are so many socialites for them to pick from," Jiang Chun muttered while dodging and rubbing the spot on her head that had been poked.

Jiang Hongtao stood up and put his hands on his hips for a while, then finally laughed out of anger, "I never realized you had such good self-awareness."

Jiang Chun sat to the side, looking at her nose and heart, acting composed. "When you have nothing but money, you have to have a bit of self-awareness, don't you?"

Jiang Hongtao pointed at her for a long time, and only after a good while did he manage to add, "You're ungrateful even with all that money, you little brat!"

Jiang Chun rolled her eyes, not giving him any face. She thought that if Ji Mingchu and her father sat down to chat, they would definitely have a lot to talk about, because they were both loyal supporters of the theory: "There is nothing that money can't solve; if there is, it's because you don't have enough money."

However, her father really didn't lie to her this time. Tang Zhizhou was a top-tier man born into a scholarly family, handsome, wealthy, with high EQ and IQ, unmarried, with no children, and absolutely no bad habits.

As for why the Tang family was willing to go on a blind date with their "nouveau riche" family, it traced back to many years ago when Elder Tang received help from her father in Shen City.

Coincidentally, the charity organization her father had been donating to anonymously for years was headed by the Tang family. Elder Tang felt that her father was a man of integrity and good character, and by extension, he believed his daughter must also be of high character, so he took the initiative to arrange this blind date.

On the day of the date, Tang Zhizhou wore a light gray striped casual shirt and a simple platinum watch on his wrist.

He had fair skin, smooth and clean facial contours, and a sharp, well-defined appearance. Just sitting in the living room, he was already very eye-catching.

Especially those clear, ink-black eyes, paired with his slightly upturned thin lips, seemingly smiling or not—when he looked over, it felt as if he could see through one's heart.

Jiang Chun murmured to herself, feeling that he didn't look like someone who worked in artificial intelligence, but rather someone in psychology.

The blind date started with a family dinner, and after the meal, the elders encouraged her and Tang Zhizhou to go out shopping.

Throughout the entire time, Tang Zhizhou behaved very politely and with great upbringing. He took her for coffee, took her to the supermarket, and finally exchanged WeChat accounts with her. In short, everything was perfectly appropriate.

But after the date, Jiang Chun felt very depressed.

Someone that handsome and capable surely wasn't lacking for a girlfriend; perhaps he was just showing his face to satisfy his grandfather's wishes. She felt that the chances of things working out for her were likely slim.

And later, after she recounted the details of the date to Ji Mingchu, she realized that the "perfect" date she thought she had was actually a major disaster involving her trying to act sophisticated without knowing she had crashed and burned.

When Tang Zhizhou asked her whose paintings she liked, she offhandedly said she really liked the works of Bada Shanren and others. Because she had heard from Ji Mingchu that her husband had auctioned a painting by Bada Shanren, so they must be a very impressive group of artists.

When they were walking through the supermarket, to show her "high-end" taste, she had also said she couldn't find the kind of "strawberry" pears she liked to eat here, leading to a second, unwitting catastrophe of trying too hard.

Recalling that scene of awkwardness that went to the core of the earth while she remained completely oblivious, it was hard for Tang Zhizhou to refrain from laughing out loud. She felt as if her heart was ashes and sent a WeChat message to Tang Zhizhou to admit her mistake.

Jiang Chun: [Was it very hard for you to hold back your laughter today...]

Jiang Chun: [I'm sorry, I made a fool of myself, so sorry TvT]

She had originally planned to wait for Tang Zhizhou to give a polite "It's fine" so they could delete each other and never meet again, but she didn't expect Tang Zhizhou to reply: [I think you're very cute. It feels like I've never met a girl like you before.]

Jiang Chun highly suspected that what he really wanted to express was: "I've never met a girl as stupid as you."

Jiang Chun: [Finally let you see one today...]

Tang Zhizhou: [Hmm, it's an honor.]

Fine, the business of mutually praising each other ends here.

Jiang Chun flopped back onto her bed, and her phone unexpectedly chimed twice. Tang Zhizhou had sent a voice message: "I have an open lecture tomorrow morning. Would you like to come and listen?"

His voice in the recording sounded deep, mellow, and gentle, carrying a trace of imperceptible temptation.