Yu Xiaxing took Lu Yanzhao with her to discuss terminating the contract, while Yu Zheng stayed with the students.
In the past, Director Shao had always communicated with Yu Xiaxing by phone.
Now that she had appeared in his office in person, he finally realized that Yu Xiaxing had infiltrated the student body long ago and had been observing them in secret!
Fortunately, he had reined himself in afterward and hadn’t done anything…
Director Shao poured her a cup of tea with a polite smile. “Board Director Yu, you really do have an eye for talent. It turns out that the average students you selected for the program are all specialists in their own ways—each of them is exceptionally strong in at least one subject!”
“Especially Little Jiang. Her chemistry skills are more than good enough for her to compete!”
“If we successfully renew the contract, we can begin drawing up a targeted training plan for her right away!”
The moment Yu Xiaxing heard that, alarm bells went off in her head.
No way, no way. Don’t tell me they’re actually going to reach an agreement again?
Beside her, Lu Yanzhao listened with a pleased smile in his eyes.
Fate rewards those with great compassion. Successfully renewing the contract was exactly what Boss Yu deserved!
Director Shao smiled as he took out a document. “We discussed this internally, and from now on, we won’t interfere with which students you send over.”
“Even if you send us the students ranked at the very bottom of the entire school, we’ll still treat them seriously. We have the utmost respect for your school’s educational philosophy of providing equal opportunities to all.”
“This is the new contract. If you have no objections after reviewing it, we can renew the agreement today.”
Yu Xiaxing immediately opened it, and Lu Yanzhao lowered his head to read it as well.
After only a few lines, the smile disappeared from Lu Yanzhao’s face.
And transferred to Yu Xiaxing’s.
The contract did indeed state that they respected Board Director Yu’s philosophy of “providing equal opportunities to all” and would no longer discriminate in their student selection.
However, since other schools only provided resources to top students while St. De gave resources to every student, the students’ foundations varied greatly, making it more likely that their students would damage the equipment.
Therefore, St. De would have to pay a deposit against equipment damage.
In addition, if there were scheduling conflicts like this time, they would give priority to elite schools.
Director Shao continued smiling as he looked at Yu Xiaxing. “Board Director Yu, are you satisfied with this contract? We’ve taken a step back to accommodate your educational philosophy, so we hope you can take a step back and cooperate with these newly added conditions.”
If they had asked her to pay for something else, Yu Xiaxing would have been delighted.
But Enlightened Wisdom was clearly treating them like second-class citizens.
How could she put up with that?
Still, this gave her the perfect reason to terminate the contract.
If they had been especially polite and reasonable, and she had proposed not renewing the agreement, the assessment committee would definitely investigate and accuse her of deliberately shirking her responsibilities.
But now that they had produced a document so insulting to the school’s dignity, refusing to renew was entirely justified!
Yu Xiaxing placed the proposal on the table.
“We’re not renewing! Terminate it! Terminate it right now!”
Director Shao’s smile did not falter. “Board Director Yu, there’s no need to be so impulsive. Although Enlightened Wisdom isn’t the only high-school student expansion base in the country, it’s the closest one to St. De, and its conditions are better than those of the alternatives. I approached you a day and a half in advance precisely to give you time to consider it.”
Yu Xiaxing slapped the table and stood up. “You want me to pay money to buy humiliation? Dream on!”
Director Shao studied her expression and asked tentatively, “Do you truly not want to continue cooperating with us?”
Yu Xiaxing’s inner thoughts: I don’t want to cooperate! I absolutely don’t want to cooperate!
Although Lu Yanzhao was worried about her inheritance competition, he also knew that someone who genuinely cared about her students could never sign such an unequal contract just for the sake of a competition.
He fully supported her decision. It was just that she would definitely receive another yellow card this time.
“…” Director Shao fell silent for several seconds before sighing. “All right, then we’ll begin the contract termination process.”
Yu Xiaxing sat down excitedly. After dragging things out for so long, she was finally going to fail at something for once!
Director Shao felt somewhat regretful, but as the seasoned office fox he was, he remained perfectly courteous.
“I hope we’ll have the opportunity to work together again in the future.”
“All you need to do now is return to your school and issue a formal written termination notice, along with the equipment usage records and project settlement statement from the cooperation period…”
“Once we receive the materials, we’ll review them within fifteen working days. After the review is approved, we’ll arrange for both parties to meet and sign the official termination agreement.”
Yu Xiaxing: “…”
At last, she had run into one of those old-fashioned organizations where even the smallest matter required repeated trips and endless stamps.
A simple contract termination had to be made so complicated!
Yu Xiaxing asked, “It’s the modern era. Don’t you have an online office system?”
Director Shao looked apologetic. “We’re terribly sorry. Enlightened Wisdom is a nonprofit educational institution for student development, and most of the fees we collect go toward maintaining the experimental equipment. We simply don’t have the money to build other things, such as the office system you mentioned.”
“We’re also extremely cautious about the equipment, which is why we need the usage records to be personally verified by the highest authority at your school—in other words, by you, Board Director Yu—so that responsibility can be clearly assigned.”
This was such a hassle. It was wasting her time and preventing her from stirring up some new trouble.
Couldn’t they just approve it online?
Actually, Yu Xiaxing found online approval troublesome too!
Who had the time to prepare so many documents every day and then keep expending energy supervising the process afterward?
Yu Xiaxing asked, “What if I don’t submit the materials? Are you going to force me to renew the contract?”
Director Shao smiled. “Naturally not. It’s just that your students have already completed quite a few courses and experiments here, haven’t they?”
“We’ll issue official certificates of completion for them.”
“And those certificates are one of the required documents for participating in innovation competitions at the provincial level or above.”
“If you don’t provide us with the materials, then we won’t issue your students their certificates of completion either.”
The atmosphere in the office instantly turned icy.
Yu Xiaxing remained silent for a long while.
Then, without hurry, she pulled out her phone, tapped the screen, and said, “Good thing I recorded this entire conversation when I came here to negotiate with you today! I’m posting it online right now!”
“Enlightened Wisdom is threatening students’ certificates of completion to force a school into signing a contract! Let’s see which school will dare send its students here after this!”
Director Shao’s expression changed dramatically. “Wait, wait, wait! Don’t post it! Don’t post it! I was wrong, I was wrong, I was wrong… Actually, there is another way. We can complete the termination today!”
Yu Xiaxing leaned back in her chair. “Tell me.”
Director Shao sighed helplessly. “I really wasn’t just trying to stall you. It’s just that the certificate of completion requires Professor Zhong’s signature and seal. He’s essentially the principal of our organization.”
“If he signs it for you, we can skip all those tedious procedures.”
“But he’s currently taking part in a life-healing retreat in the southern part of the city. He could be gone for ten days or half a month, and no one knows when he’ll return. He isn’t in contact with the outside world at all. If you’re in a hurry, you can go there and ask him to sign it himself.”
Yu Xiaxing asked, “Is it far?”
“Not at all, not at all. There’s an elegant, old-fashioned place called Jade Springs Manor in the southern part of the city.” Director Shao gave her the exact address. “That’s where the event is being held. It’s about an hour’s drive from here.”
