Zheng Wenhao was cursing loudly, his voice echoing through the empty corridor.
Lu Yanzhao’s gaze turned cold, and he was about to speak.
But Yu Xiaxing raised a hand and gently tugged at his sleeve, shaking her head to signal that he shouldn’t get involved.
Lu Yanzhao understood at once and said nothing.
Yu Xiaxing looked at Zheng Wenhao with a hint of curiosity on her face. “Classmate, what do you need the school board director for?”
Her voice was clear, gentle, and pleasant to hear.
There was no way Zheng Wenhao would suspect that she was Board Director Yu.
He looked her up and down. She really was beautiful…
He always liked showing off in front of pretty girls, so he deliberately said, “I’m going to teach her a lesson! I’ll slap her silly!”
Yu Xiaxing looked shocked. “Oh my gosh, she’s the school board director! Aren’t you afraid of getting expelled? And she’s a member of the Yu family—she’s powerful and well-connected. If you really anger her, no school will accept you in the future.”
Zheng Wenhao’s rebellious streak was provoked. He let out a derisive laugh. “Expelled? She wouldn’t dare! So what if she’s from the Yu family? I’ve got people backing me too! It’s just some lousy high school diploma. I don’t care about it!”
Yu Xiaxing asked with a smile, “Who do you have backing you?”
Wanting to show off in front of the beautiful girl, Zheng Wenhao could barely hide the smugness in his voice.
“My Uncle Su is a famous director and producer! He personally promised me that whenever I want, he can train me to become a huge star! Who cares about this school’s lousy diploma?”
Yu Xiaxing asked again, “Can you act? You have no experience at all, and you already plan to become a celebrity?”
“That’s easy,” Zheng Wenhao said. “My mom runs an arts-exam training center. She even offers one-on-one acting instruction from professional stars. She said she’ll train me herself!”
“Just because you attend a training program doesn’t mean you’ll pass the entrance exams, does it?”
Seeing that the beautiful older girl seemed interested, Zheng Wenhao guessed that she must also be attracted to the glamour of the entertainment industry. Maybe they could even develop a relationship…
So he told her everything.
“My mom has connections at film schools! Hey, do you know how the arts exams work? There’s no way to fake the written cultural-subject scores, but the school auditions are graded by the teachers. Sometimes, we can even get the exam questions in advance…”
Yu Xiaxing nodded silently.
She had read plenty of news about cheating in arts examinations.
For example, some art students secretly left marks on their paintings. Their work might have been mediocre, but during the exam, they could suddenly outperform genuinely talented students and get high enough scores to enter a fine-arts academy.
Some dance students had to prepare on the spot after drawing an unfamiliar question. Those with connections, however, knew the questions in advance and had already practiced them for a long time. Naturally, they passed with high scores.
She looked at Zheng Wenhao.
So your mother is in this business.
Yu Xiaxing continued pretending. “Wow, you’re amazing. Tell me more—I don’t know anything about this industry.”
Zheng Wenhao became completely carried away.
He went on about how exclusive the training center jointly established by his mother and Uncle Su was, and how many special channels they had…
Yu Xiaxing listened quietly, maintaining an expression of admiration.
Every now and then, she would ask softly, “Really?” or “What’s the name of that training center?” or “Where are the classes held?”
She guided Zheng Wenhao into revealing more and more.
Standing to the side, Lu Yanzhao had already thoughtfully started recording.
But toward the end, something Qiao Tang had complained about at home suddenly flashed through Zheng Wenhao’s mind.
She had said that if Yu Xiaxing exposed her relationship with Su Hao, then he would lose everything.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. His words suddenly changed direction, and he returned to his original purpose.
He had come here to slap Yu Xiaxing!
Since Yu Xiaxing wasn’t there, he viciously cursed her anyway. “That bitch Yu Xiaxing made me lose face in front of the entire school! Someone as sinister and vicious as her has no business being the school board director! Bah! Didn’t her mother ever teach her how to—”
“Bang!”
Before Zheng Wenhao could finish, Lu Yanzhao kicked him hard. He flew backward and slammed into the corridor wall.
After hitting him, Lu Yanzhao turned around. He was still calm and gentle.
He leaned forward slightly and said to Yu Xiaxing, “Board Director Yu, I believe we’ve extracted all the useful information from him. From here on, I expect he’ll only be venting his emotions. Do you still want to listen?”
Yu Xiaxing thought Lu Yanzhao was hilarious.
What, if she said yes, was he going to pull Zheng Wenhao back up and make him continue?
Zheng Wenhao’s eyes widened. “What?!”
She was Board Director Yu?
He looked at Yu Xiaxing, then at the refined and elegant man beside her. Shock, fury, and fear flashed across his face. “You… How dare you hit me?! I’m going home to tell my dad! I’ll tell Uncle Su!”
Lu Yanzhao said nothing. He merely took one step forward.
Zheng Wenhao shrank back in terror, swallowing the rest of his threats.
Yu Xiaxing remained expressionless as she looked down at him. “The school and I have given you chance after chance, but your values have already taken shape. This is no longer something the school can help you change.”
“You said that if you dropped out, you could go home and become a big star. Fine. I agree. Have your parents come and complete the withdrawal procedures.”
With that, she left.
Lu Yanzhao stayed behind to deal with the aftermath. He took out his phone and notified the principal about the expulsion.
His eyes never left Zheng Wenhao, radiating silent intimidation.
If Zheng Wenhao made another attempt to harm Yu Xiaxing, Lu Yanzhao would still be the first to rush over and kick him flying.
-
Yu Xiaxing went alone to watch the anti-smoking ceremony.
Most of the students selected to go onstage kept their heads lowered. Their movements were stiff, and their expressions awkward.
Below the stage were the eyes of thousands of fellow students.
It was a public humiliation.
Sometimes, changing students’ perceptions required subjecting them to a certain amount of public shame.
In psychology, this was an inverted application of social identity theory.
During adolescence, individuals have an intense desire to fit into groups and gain acceptance from their peers.
Within these small groups, they might consider certain violations of the rules cool.
A public humiliation ceremony forcibly transformed those supposedly “cool and impressive actions” into behavior that invited ridicule.
Of course, this method was crude and high-risk, and it was not effective for everyone.
For students who were impervious to reason and completely lacking in shame, it could even produce the opposite result.
But for most students who simply followed the crowd, it would at least ensure that they would not repeat the offense at school.
-
When she returned to the office, Yu Xiaxing began feeling anxious again as she looked at the glaring ten million yuan in her account.
She still didn’t know what the third-stage mission would be…
But she had to spend this ten million as soon as possible. Just seeing it sitting in her account was frightening.
Thinking about the information Zheng Wenhao had revealed that day regarding arts-exam training, she called Lu Yanzhao over.
“Does our school have any students studying the arts?”
Lu Yanzhao had been familiarizing himself with the school’s records during this time, so he answered immediately. “Yes, and there are quite a lot of them. Around thirty percent of the seniors are arts students. There are also many interested students in the second and first years, and the proportion is increasing every year.”
“Do they all need to enroll in training programs outside the school?” Yu Xiaxing asked.
Lu Yanzhao nodded. “Yes. Almost all of them do. Even those who have studied the arts since childhood still spend money on training programs, because they need to learn test-taking techniques and the standard exam routines.”
Yu Xiaxing considered this. “Are the training fees very high?”
Lu Yanzhao thought for a moment. “Some tuition fees are much higher than ours. But many of those institutions have higher operating costs too. After all, unlike our school, their teachers can’t teach classes of dozens of students at a time. Many of them provide one-on-one instruction. Elite-teacher programs and contract-based programs cost even more.”
As Yu Xiaxing listened, her eyes gradually lit up.
She had an idea for burning money!
