Yu Xiaxing’s heart jolted in alarm.
But then Grandpa tagged the person he was criticizing.
Grandpa: “If you keep spending every day eating, drinking, and having fun, then when you’re eliminated, don’t expect even a cent in severance pay! You can go out and beg for food! @Yu Yuanchen”
Yu Yuanchen: “Grandpa, I’m innocent! There’s a purpose behind all my eating, drinking, and having fun… It’ll pay off very soon!”
Yu Xiaxing breathed a sigh of relief. So he was talking about her uncle’s son.
See? She knew it. Every gimmick she came up with was carefully thought out and perfectly respectable. No one would ever see her true intentions.
Before long, she received the specific tasks Shengde needed her to handle in order to renew its partnerships.
She had to win back one partner institution and one student.
[1] “Qizhi” Future Education Laboratory.
This was a high-end off-campus science-practice base that the school had signed a contract with several years ago. It provided the school with essential equipment and technical guidance for competitions and innovation projects.
But Shengde’s students… might have been a little too busy looking after themselves. They already had trouble devoting enough energy to their studies, so who had the time to participate in extracurricular activities?
As a result, they had skipped the laboratory’s activities several times. The base now planned to terminate its partnership with the school, citing Shengde’s lack of regard for them.
They knew there was no future in working with Shengde. They planned to switch to other schools at a lower price and didn’t want to waste any more time on Shengde.
After reading it, Yu Xiaxing thought that was fairly reasonable…
She continued to the second task, curious to see which student was important enough to require her personal intervention.
Yu Xiaxing opened the student’s file.
[Retain the Grade 11, Class 2 student Jiang Tinglan and fulfill the demands of her mother, Ms. Chen Yuru, COO of Zhaohua Technology.
Jiang Tinglan officially submitted her withdrawal application three days ago. Her stated reason was: “I can no longer endure my mother’s excessive control. I don’t want to keep following the path she arranged for me. I want to fight back against my family of origin.”
Her emotional state is extremely unstable. She refuses to communicate with her mother and is highly resistant to any persuasion from the school.
Ms. Chen Yuru has strongly demanded that the school prevent her child from withdrawing.
She has made it clear that if Jiang Tinglan ultimately leaves the school, she will immediately terminate all funding and cooperation with Shengde High School.
The assessment committee emphasizes:
Ms. Chen Yuru is one of the representatives of Shengde High School’s parent committee. For two consecutive years, she has introduced 3 million yuan worth of special funding projects to the school to support student science competitions.
If that funding is withdrawn, several high-quality courses will be forced to suspend operations due to a lack of funds.
Ms. Chen Yuru is not only an entrepreneur but also a well-known media influencer in the area.
Her personal social media accounts have several million followers. During Shengde’s major reforms last month, Ms. Chen repeatedly spoke out in support of Shengde High School.
If Ms. Chen’s daughter withdraws, Ms. Chen will certainly launch a counterattack against the school online, and all her support from the previous month will come back to haunt Shengde!
Contestants are urged to treat this matter with the utmost caution!
Retain Jiang Tinglan!]
…
Yu Xiaxing skimmed through the whole thing, and the smile on her face grew wider and wider.
At last, she’d been given an easy task!
As for the laboratory that wanted to terminate its contract, she could just let it go… Though she had to be careful with her attitude and absolutely couldn’t tell them to “get lost.”
Otherwise, if she was eliminated and Grandpa thought she hadn’t simply failed despite trying, but had refused to put in any effort at all, wouldn’t he get so angry that he’d deny her severance pay?
As for the girl who wanted to withdraw, the assessment committee had written such a long report about her. It seemed this Ms. Chen Yuru really was a formidable woman—she had scared the committee half to death.
Then Yu Xiaxing would have to think carefully about how to let things proceed naturally toward failure while still making everyone believe she had worked hard…
Wouldn’t that guarantee her a yellow card?
She tossed her phone onto the sofa, leaned back, folded her hands over her stomach, and wore an expression of blissful contentment.
“Finally…”
At last, she was going to see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Yu Zheng had finished reading his own tasks as well. He asked, “Finally what?”
Yu Xiaxing naturally wasn’t going to tell him the truth. Instead, she provoked him. “I finally got an easy task. Mine is super simple. You’d better work hard, or I’ll beat you again.”
Yu Zheng asked, “What’s your task?”
Yu Xiaxing glanced at him. “Of course I’m not telling you. We’re competitors.”
Yu Zheng did look rather solemn. He lowered his head and stared at his phone. “All right… My first task is manageable, but the second one is a little difficult.”
Yu Xiaxing sat up on the sofa and leaned over. “Let me see.”
Yu Zheng handed her his task page.
Yu Zheng’s key renewal target: Heng’an Community Lifestyle Services Company.
The property management at his residential complex outsourced a number of basic services. This company handled security, landscaping, routine facility repairs, central air-conditioning cleaning, fire-safety inspections…
The list went on and on.
They were demanding a pay raise. Otherwise, they would terminate the contract and redirect most of their manpower to high-end residential communities and commercial districts.
The more Yu Zheng thought about it, the more difficult it seemed. “Actually, their demand for a raise isn’t unreasonable. But there isn’t much money in the company account right now. We can’t afford to renew the contract at a higher rate.”
As Yu Xiaxing read, however, she discovered a brand-new way to spend money.
She had originally thought she wouldn’t be able to recruit even a single student for the arts-track program.
But the few students she had poached from Su Hao and Qiao Tang had all enrolled, and they had paid the market-rate tuition. That had already brought in a sum of money.
Although she had asked Lu Yanzhao to purchase specialized teaching materials yesterday, the materials were a one-time expense. There wouldn’t be much more to spend on them afterward, and the total cost hadn’t been high to begin with.
The comprehensive maintenance company Yu Zheng used was incredibly capable. It could handle practically anything.
As for her arts-track program, it had plenty of equipment that required upkeep. The professional pianos needed specialized maintenance; imported art supplies needed to be stored at a constant temperature and protected from moisture; the theater required inspections of its lighting, fire-safety systems, and stage security…
The school’s existing maintenance department was nowhere near capable of meeting such specialized needs.
Wasn’t Yu Zheng’s company perfect for the job?
The more Yu Xiaxing thought about it, the more excited she became. She slapped the armrest of the sofa.
“Brother!”
Yu Zheng: “Hmm?”
Yu Xiaxing: “Introduce Heng’an to Shengde. We’ll sign a bundled contract!”
“Our arts-track program already has expensive equipment that needs professional maintenance, upkeep, and safety supervision.”
“And if the program becomes popular and more people start coming, I’ll definitely need to improve the landscaping too.”
“We’ll replace that withered tree at the school gate and make the whole campus look beautiful… Otherwise, how am I supposed to save face? How am I supposed to build a premium program?”
“So tell Heng’an that the school is willing to purchase a package deal. We’ll take their most expensive services. I have plenty of money, after all!”
“But they have to renew their contract with you at the original price. If they refuse to renew with you, I won’t sign with them either.”
Yu Zheng stared at his sister in silence for a long while before asking, “Aren’t we competitors? Why are you helping me again?”
She was even willing to use a project—and funding—from her own school to help him solve his problem.
