Ruan Tian: “Sorry, I have something to take care of tomorrow, so I might not be able to go.”
Yu Xiaxing was about to refuse as well, and take the opportunity to drag Fourth Sister into the grind with them.
Yu Xiaxing: “I’m not going either. I still have to work overtime on my career over the weekend. I’m an insanely driven person—I even dream about school operation plans. Fourth Sister, you’re still going to the spa? With how relaxed and lazy you are, how are you ever going to beat me?”
Yu Lingyi: “Fine, then I’ll work overtime tomorrow too. I have to hurry up and finish post-production on my one and only show.”
Yes! Everyone, get to work!
Yu Xiaxing: “Fourth Sister, why don’t you just give us the money you were going to spend treating us?”
Yu Lingyi immediately sent them both designated transfers.
Ten thousand yuan each.
Fourth Sister’s private stash was truly bottomless. Her parents were rich too, and they gave her spending money every month.
Yu Xiaxing’s parents, on the other hand, were Doctors Without Borders, so their salaries were pitifully low.
The dividends her parents received from the Yu Group were given to her and Yu Zheng, but there wasn’t much of that money either.
She and Yu Zheng were the two poorest people in the entire Yu family.
Yu Xiaxing accepted Fourth Sister’s money without hesitation.
Her private savings had grown by another sum.
Ruan Tian, however, still hadn’t accepted the money.
After a while, Ruan Tian sent a message.
Ruan Tian: “Miss Yu, I can’t accept this money.”
Yu Xiaxing: “?”
Ruan Tian, who loved money more than life itself and had the strongest professional ethics in the entire world, was refusing money?
Ruan Tian: “You two are the best employers I’ve ever worked with. I’ve already earned so much money from you. So I really can’t take this.”
Yu Xiaxing fell silent.
Ever since last night, when she had asked Ruan Tian to buy medicine and told her not to seek reimbursement, Ruan Tian had become very strange. She was nothing like her former self.
When a character suddenly underwent such a drastic change in personality, Yu Xiaxing could think of only one possibility.
Perhaps the world they lived in was actually a novel, and Ruan Tian had been possessed by someone who had transmigrated into the book.
But that thought only passed through Yu Xiaxing’s mind once before she shook it away.
Ruan Tian had only ever been a business partner to her.
There was no need to care about her too much.
She practiced yoga for a while longer.
Finally, midnight passed.
A bright-red internal announcement from the group popped up.
[The First Monthly Ranking of the Yu Family Heir Competition Has Been Released]
Yu Xiaxing covered the rankings with her hand and slowly revealed the results from the bottom upward.
This was her last bit of wishful thinking: hoping that her name wouldn’t appear too high on the list.
Seventh place: Yu Suisui, 87.9 points.
(Score breakdown: Business performance: 25.7; Customer satisfaction: 17.3; Long-term infrastructure development: 17.0; Team management and stability: 13.2; Brand influence and public-opinion performance: 9.7; Risk control and compliance: 5.0.)
Sixth place: Yu Yuanchen, 88.6 points.
(Details omitted…)
Fifth place: Yu Lingyi, 89.8 points.
Fourth place: Yu Guan, 90.4 points.
Third place: Yu Zheng, 91.9 points.
Second place: Yu Zhining, 92.0 points.
First place: Yu Xiaxing, 92.4 points.
There was another line below, highlighted in bold.
[Reward for First Place in the First Monthly Ranking: One million yuan in cash; proxy rights to the group’s shares. (These rights will officially take effect after the competition ends.)]
Yu Xiaxing tossed her phone aside, lay down on the yoga mat, and stared blankly at the ceiling.
The monthly ranking’s reward wasn’t for school operations. It was awarded to the individual.
But the prerequisite for accepting it was that she had to wait until the competition ended.
By then, the true heiress would be back… What was the point of inheriting anything then?
Fourth Sister’s saying was right: “Almost getting something is the most painful thing of all.” She was truly in agony right now.
Suddenly, another message appeared in the group chat.
Grandpa: “Not bad. Everyone performed well. Xingxing, keep it up.”
Yu Xiaxing swallowed her pain and replied: “Okay, Grandpa. I’ll work even harder next month.”
Grandpa: “Lingyi, the successful completion of your show prevented a great deal of hidden losses and turned the tide at a critical moment. You’ve surprised me very much.”
Yu Lingyi: “Everyone helped me, especially Xingxing. Without her, I absolutely wouldn’t have been able to finish this project.”
Grandpa: “Mm, not bad.”
Grandpa: “Suisui, don’t be discouraged either. You’re not far behind first place. Most of the points you lost were in management. Next month, properly reorganize those sales associates who’ve received a lot of complaints. The difference is so small that any major task could send you straight to first place.”
Yu Suisui: “[Crying][Crying][Crying]”
Grandpa comforted only his three granddaughters. As for the remaining four boys, he left them to regulate their own emotions.
Yu Xiaxing had been feeling rather miserable.
But when she saw Grandpa say that the difference in points was so small…
She finally realized that even first place and last place weren’t that far apart!
She hurriedly opened everyone’s detailed scores to see where her strengths and weaknesses lay.
Next month, she could suppress her strengths and develop her weaknesses!
She had received the highest score in the entire competition in two categories: team management and stability, and brand influence and public-opinion performance.
Damn it, those two would be hard to manipulate.
The school was already very stable. Teachers rarely resigned of their own accord, and students rarely transferred out.
As for public-opinion performance, that had been purely a matter of luck. She’d just happened to pull off several last-minute reversals.
She also had the lowest score in one category: business performance!
Even Yu Suisui’s business performance was better than hers!
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! She knew the money she’d spent would pay off!
Of everyone, the person with the highest business-performance score was Yu Zhining.
Yu Xiaxing immediately felt a deep sense of respect. Third Brother was so good at making money! Now that was what a true heir should look like!
Next month, if Third Brother simply got a few wealthy old men and women to renew their memberships, his senior-care center would remain firmly in first place!
The brothers and sisters in the group chat once again began exchanging polite congratulations, all of them congratulating her on taking first place.
Yu Xiaxing returned the courtesy and congratulated them all in turn.
But she soon noticed a problem.
The Third Brother she admired most still hadn’t said a word.
He hadn’t even responded to Grandpa’s messages.
Could it be that Third Brother was planning to completely fall out with her because she had edged him out?
At the thought, she was actually a little happy.
Unfortunately, she had celebrated too soon.
Yu Lingyi suddenly sent her a private message.
Yu Lingyi: “Xingxing, my brother still hasn’t come out to congratulate you. Don’t overthink it. He isn’t bitter about you taking first place.”
Yu Xiaxing: “Then why?”
Yu Lingyi: “The woman he could never forget has returned to the country. He went to pick her up late at night.”
Huo Mian was back?
Yu Xiaxing immediately scooped Diandian into her arms, and her mood darkened as well.
The women of the Yu family didn’t marry or enter into arranged marriages for the sake of alliances, but the men could. Third Brother had a childhood betrothal with the woman he could never forget—Huo Mian.
After Huo Mian’s father passed away, she was even taken in by the Yu family for a time.
When they were children, Yu Xiaxing and Huo Mian had developed a major conflict that could never be reconciled. Even now, Yu Xiaxing wished Huo Mian would drop dead…
That time, the two of them had fought until they were covered in blood. In the end, their uncle had no choice but to send them both away.
On the day they left, Third Brother posted a picture of an airplane flying across the sky on social media. After that, he had closed his heart to love.
In her previous life, because she hated Huo Mian, she had hated Third Brother as well. She had no idea what happened to him afterward.
All she knew was that after her Third Brother was committed to a mental hospital, the woman he could never forget still promised the media that their engagement would remain valid forever. No matter whether he lived, grew old, fell ill, or died, she would stay by his side.
Now that was true love.
She just didn’t know why her Third Brother had suddenly lost his mind.
Yu Xiaxing decided to investigate the two of them and see if she could spot any warning signs in advance.
That way, her strongest rival—who was only 0.4 points ahead of her—wouldn’t mysteriously disappear again.
Yu Xiaxing opened Ruan Tian’s chat window and typed, “Help me look into my Third Brother’s woman he could never forget. Same rate as usual.”
