The sky, freshly washed by rain, was a brilliant azure, and the air was filled with the fresh fragrance of grass and trees.
At the entrance of the alley, several middle-aged women swayed their palm-leaf fans, spit flying as they exchanged the latest gossip.
Suddenly, two black sedans pulled up one after the other at the alley’s mouth. Two men dressed in formal suits stepped out, exchanging a glance that simmered with hidden murderous intent.
Then, they hurried into the alley, each trying to outpace the other.
“Auntie, excuse me, which building does student Shen Youan live in?” Li Shan adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose and asked politely.
“You must be high school admissions teachers. I lose track of how many waves have come today.” An auntie kindly warned him, “You’re too late. Some school called Wende High School offered three hundred thousand to poach An An. Three hundred thousand! My goodness…”
A chorus of sharp gasps followed.
Li Shan gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath, “Wende High School is truly despicable, only knowing how to throw money at people.”
Catching a glimpse of a portly figure hurrying away out of the corner of his eye, Li Shan’s expression tightened as he quickly gave chase. “Zhao Wenchang, you stop right there!”
Zhao Wenchang laughed as he looked back while walking briskly. “Old Li, your intelligence work isn’t up to par. You dared to come without even investigating which building Student Shen lives in. No wonder your Experimental High School lags behind our City First High School in admissions every year.”
Li Shan had long grown numb to Zhao Wenchang’s years of consistent sarcasm. He followed closely behind him. “Forget our past grievances, but this student is different. Let’s wait and see.”
Zhao Wenchang snorted. “Overestimating yourself.”
This was an old city district with dilapidated tube-shaped apartment buildings and weathered, mottled walls. Bicycles and electric scooters were piled haphazardly at the entrance of the stairwells. In short, it was both shabby and messy, though fortunately, it was relatively clean.
Zhao Wenchang liked to come prepared. He had already thoroughly investigated this student’s family situation.
Shen Youan, female, fourteen years old. Her mother died from complications during childbirth when she was three. When she was five, her father died heroically while saving someone during a firefighting mission. Afterward, she was taken in by her uncle, Zhang Jian. Zhang Jian was a lobby manager at a bank, a hardworking man with excellent performance who was hopeful for a promotion. Her aunt, Zhou Qin, co-owned a nail salon with a cousin; her greatest hobby was playing mahjong. The couple had a son, Zhang Tianci, who was twelve years old and in the sixth grade at the city’s first primary school. His grades, compared to his brilliant cousin, were rather unsatisfactory.
Why did a student like Shen Youan merit the persistent pursuit of so many high school admissions teachers? There was only one reason: her academic performance.
And it was an excellence that was unparalleled.
Unlike the quality-oriented education of private schools, Lan Ya implemented an elite education. The students enrolled were either wealthy or influential. From a young age, they attended various cram schools and competition classes with one-on-one guidance from gold-medal teachers. Unlike the descriptions in novels or idol dramas where aristocratic schools are full of useless rich kids waiting for their inheritance, the reality was that these second-generation elites received the best educational resources from childhood. Their families placed high expectations on them; if they dared to slack off, they would be overtaken. The competition was extremely brutal. Of course, there were degenerates everywhere, but they were the minority. Generally speaking, Lan Ya was one of the top-tier key high schools in the province.
Shen Youan entered Lan Ya Elementary School at the age of five and gradually revealed an extraordinary talent for mathematics. At seven, she won the youth championship in the Zou Mei Cup. At eight, she participated in the Hua Cup Competition—the most formal and difficult mathematics competition in the country—and took home the gold medal, breaking the national record for the youngest gold medalist. After that, she swept almost all the gold medals in domestic mathematics competitions. However, Shen Youan was very low-profile; many domestic media outlets wanted to interview her, but all returned empty-handed.
After being promoted to Lan Ya’s middle school division, she became much more low-profile for a time. She participated in fewer competitions, perhaps because her coursework was too heavy to spare much energy for them. However, she once again stunned everyone during the high school entrance exam.
The title of top student of the province and city made her famous once again. The competition gold medals she had won in elementary school were enough to get her recommended for admission into any key high school. Originally, she was supposed to continue to Lan Ya’s high school division, but no key high school wanted to let go of such a promising talent. As soon as the results were released, the threshold of the Zhang family was about to be trampled down.
Zhao Wenchang’s mind raced. Although City First High School was a key high school, it wasn’t as wealthy as Wende High School or Lan Ya. An offer of hundreds of thousands of yuan was hard for an ordinary family to resist.
In that case, he could only resort to an unconventional strategy.
The Zhang family lived on the fourth floor. The two men climbed up one after the other, arriving just in time to see Director Li from Wende High School’s admissions office coming out of the Zhang home, his face beaming with satisfaction.
Alarm bells rang in their hearts; they knew this was bad.
Director Li saw them and gave a merry laugh, his eyes crinkling until they were barely visible. “Little Li, Little Zhao, we meet again.”
After a few brief pleasantries, Director Li walked away triumphantly with his hands behind his back.
The two men looked at each other, their brows furrowed.
“And you two are…?”
A middle-aged man stood at the door, wearing an old-fashioned gray checkered short-sleeved shirt. A few strands of gray-white hair were mixed into his thick black hair. He had a balanced face and bright eyes, appearing vibrant and high-spirited.
Before Li Shan could speak, Zhao Wenchang had already rushed forward enthusiastically to shake the man’s hand, acting as warm as an old classmate who hadn’t seen him in decades. “Mr. Zhang, I have long heard of your great name. I am Zhao Wenchang, the head of the admissions office for City First High School. You can just call me Xiao Zhao. I’ve finally met you in person today. To be able to raise a student as excellent as Shen Youan, you must be very outstanding yourself.”
Li Shan secretly rolled his eyes. What a flatterer.
“Hello, Mr. Zhang. I am Li Shan, an admissions specialist from Experimental High School. I’d like to have a good talk with you regarding Student Shen’s high school enrollment.”
Over the past few days, the people Zhang Jian had seen most were admissions teachers from various high schools; he recognized almost all of them by now. He immediately smiled and stepped aside, revealing the entrance. “Please come in, teachers.”
The two sat down on the sofa while Zhang Jian busied himself pouring tea. Zhao Wenchang’s small eyes darted around, and in the blink of an eye, he had already sized up the Zhang family’s financial status.
Li Shan took the teacup with both hands, glanced at the dregs floating on the surface of the water, and set it down inconspicuously. He asked, “Is Student Shen not at home?”
“An An went to the library to return some books. She should be back any moment.”
“Still so hardworking even during the holidays. No wonder Student Shen’s grades are so excellent,” Zhao Wenchang complimented at just the right moment.
Zhang Jian sat on the opposite sofa and sighed. “An An has never made me worry since she was a child. She is very self-disciplined and diligent. She’s been a boarding student since elementary school. Such a small child having to take care of herself—it breaks my heart just thinking about it. Every weekend when she comes home, she studies until midnight. Everyone outside says she’s a child prodigy, a genius, but only I know how much effort she has put in behind the scenes, effort that ordinary people can’t even imagine.”
Li Shan and Zhao Wenchang exchanged a look. They hadn’t expected this, though the old saying that noble children come from humble families was indeed true.
Zhao Wenchang cleared his throat, intending to get down to business, when a bedroom door opened. A slightly plump middle-aged woman with a perm of socialite curls walked out.
Seeing the two men in the living room, the woman’s upturned eyes, adorned with exquisite makeup, arched high. She looked mean and difficult to deal with. “Two more? This girl is quite the hot commodity.”