Yu Xiaxing turned around and saw Lu Yanzhao walking over from the arts-exam center, a stack of documents in his hand.
He looked pleasantly surprised. “Board Director Yu, what brings you to school on a Saturday?”
Yu Xiaxing replied expressionlessly, “I was just passing by.”
Lu Yanzhao automatically translated that into: She cares deeply about this project, but she’s worried about putting pressure on the teachers, so she’s pretending she just happened to be passing by.
Yu Xiaxing suddenly remembered the matter at hand and asked, “How are the applications going?”
Lu Yanzhao said, “Registration and payment won’t officially open until Monday. These two days are only for trial classes and preliminary sign-ups.”
A sliver of hope reignited in Yu Xiaxing. So registration hadn’t even begun yet.
Once everyone finished the trial classes and calmed down, there was still a chance they might decide not to sign up.
Yu Xiaxing continued spending money. “I just found out that special-needs students also need specialized textbooks. There’s still more than a million yuan left in the account, right? Use it to purchase specialized textbooks for every subject and customize special courses. Spend all of it.”
“Understood. But those textbooks won’t cost that much. We probably won’t be able to spend it all.”
“Spend as much as you can… Also, there’s a child named Ruan Ying who might sign up for Ms. Liang’s class. If Ms. Liang accepts her, apply for a care scholarship on her behalf. If she doesn’t, then forget it. I’m not exactly a philanthropist.”
Lu Yanzhao nodded mechanically. “Understood.”
“And don’t use the special-needs children for publicity. Don’t edit their hardships into our advertisements…” Yu Xiaxing paused. “No, don’t use any students as advertising material!”
This absolutely could not be publicized.
If the media slapped labels like “positive energy” or “social responsibility” on her again, she wouldn’t know where to go to argue her case!
After Yu Xiaxing finished giving her instructions, Lu Yanzhao didn’t respond for quite a while.
Huh? He was always like Doubao, responding to every sentence.
Puzzled, she raised her head.
She saw Lu Yanzhao reaching toward her. His long fingers stopped more than ten centimeters above her head, as if he were touching something with the back of his hand…
The afternoon sunlight happened to filter through the leaves, dancing between his fingertips and the ends of her hair and outlining them with fine, scattered flecks of gold.
He was staring intently at the top of her head. Who knew what he was looking at?
“Lu Doubao? Did your connection freeze?” Yu Xiaxing frowned.
Doubao?
That was acceptable. Very acceptable.
Lu Yanzhao quickly withdrew his hand and immediately answered her in the most direct, straightforward way possible. “There seemed to be a flying insect just now… It’s fine now. I chased it away.”
“I’ve made a note of it: no student may be used for marketing in any form. Their privacy and dignity must be protected. I’ll immediately improve the relevant regulations and communicate them to the publicity department.”
He had returned to his impeccably professional state.
His answer was smooth and natural, as if the system had rebooted.
Yu Xiaxing gave an “oh” and thought nothing more of it, assuming either that she had imagined what she saw or that he really had been swatting away an insect for her.
But that wasn’t actually what Lu Yanzhao had been doing…
When she said they mustn’t edit people’s suffering into advertisements, he couldn’t help thinking of his own past.
His parents had both died from occupational illnesses. The other party had deliberately delayed compensation until after his parents were dead simply to pay less.
Yet they had continued using his family’s tragedy in their publicity for years.
They had used his parents’ lives to promote themselves, exploiting his family’s suffering.
They claimed that their company had an exemplary sense of social responsibility, and had even used it to obtain a great deal of social welfare support.
So when Lu Yanzhao heard Yu Xiaxing say that other people’s suffering must not be exploited, he felt as though a sacred light had appeared around her.
For one instant, before reason could take control, he had actually reached out, longing to touch that holy light he revered with all his heart.
Lu Yanzhao had only taken a few steps when his phone suddenly vibrated.
He glanced down at it… then returned to Yu Xiaxing’s side. “Director Yu…”
Yu Xiaxing looked up and eyed him warily. “Why are you back again?”
Lu Yanzhao said, “Fourth Miss Yu’s side wants to return the contractual compensation for Teacher Shen Zhi.”
Yu Xiaxing frowned. “Why?”
Lu Yanzhao explained, “When Teacher Shen Zhi terminated her contract with the original production team, we immediately paid the penalty stipulated in the agreement.”
“Later, Teacher Shen Zhi went back to help Fourth Miss Yu finish filming.”
“Fourth Miss Yu’s side said that since Teacher Shen Zhi ultimately completed the project, she shouldn’t continue keeping the compensation.”
Yu Xiaxing’s expression changed instantly. “No, no! Absolutely not!”
Yu Xiaxing hugged Diandian tightly, already roaring inwardly.
Return it? No way!
That was money she had worked so hard to spend!
Although it wasn’t a particularly large sum in the school’s accounts, even a mosquito’s leg was still meat!
Besides, the money had been recorded as the cost of hiring a teacher. It was an entirely reasonable expense!
There was no way she was letting them return it!
Yu Xiaxing immediately said solemnly, “You’re still too naive. You don’t understand the viciousness of infighting in a wealthy family! My Fourth Sister is only trying to use those eight hundred thousand yuan to curry favor with me, so I’ll go easy on her later! Tell her to stop dreaming. There’s no way I’m going to hold back against her!”
Lu Yanzhao: “…”
“Go take care of it! I’m heading home too.”
With that, she left, holding Diandian in her arms.
Lu Yanzhao began considering how to relay her message to Yu Lingyi’s side.
The sisters clearly cared deeply about each other, so why did he have to pass hurtful words between them?
Even if he was only a Doubao in Yu Xiaxing’s eyes, he still had to be a high-EQ Doubao.
After pondering for a long time, he came up with a reason, refused the repayment, and sent a message to Yu Lingyi’s finance department.
Lu Yanzhao: “When Teacher Shen Zhi terminated her contract, Saint De, as the new employer, was responsible for the resulting contractual costs. Teacher Shen Zhi’s later return to complete filming was a personal favor she did for Fourth Miss Yu out of their friendship. Fourth Miss Yu can repay her separately in the future. That does not affect the school’s original obligation to pay the compensation.”
—
Elsewhere.
At the entertainment company.
Yu Lingyi was working overtime as well.
A pile of post-production reports lay spread across the desk: editing, color grading, dubbing, publicity… Together, they added up to another several hundred thousand yuan.
Sitting behind the desk, Yu Lingyi raised a hand and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
As the Fourth Miss of the Yu family, she had been helping her parents handle corporate public relations for years and had therefore earned a great deal of money. Her personal account was quite substantial.
Moreover, much of the money Su Hao had previously defrauded from her had already been recovered.
However, the rules of the inheritance competition were clear: personal funds could not be casually injected into a project’s public account.
The recovered money also had to go through an auditing process, so it couldn’t all be returned to the project immediately.
At present, the only money she could freely access was the company’s on-the-books funds.
And unfortunately, the production had already been dragged through the mud by Su Hao and Qiao Tang.
Too much had been wasted during the early stages, leaving the post-production budget rather tight.
Her assistant watched her from the side, knowing exactly what was giving her a headache.
The assistant sighed. “We really shouldn’t have returned Seventh Miss’s money. Things are too tight for us right now. Seventh Miss has already taken operating funds for two consecutive rounds. She probably doesn’t need that money anyway…”
