Lu Yanzhao did not ask any further questions. He simply pulled out a copy of the anti-scam materials and handed it to Chen Yuru before turning to leave the office.
The door clicked softly shut behind him.
Only Yu Xiaxing and Chen Yuru remained in the office.
Chen Yuru looked at the documents in front of her and was just about to open them when Yu Xiaxing suddenly pulled open a drawer, took out a thick stack of papers, and handed those over as well.
Chen Yuru frowned. “What’s this?”
Yu Xiaxing said, “A withdrawal package I prepared for your daughter.”
“These are several international high schools in China. Their paths to higher education are relatively well established, but the academic pressure is much heavier than at Shengde, and their management is extremely strict. The tuition is naturally more expensive too—around five or six hundred thousand yuan a year—but that shouldn’t be a problem for you.”
“These schools specialize in certain subjects and focus on competition-based admissions. They’re also suitable for students like your daughter, whose overall performance isn’t particularly strong but who excel in one specific subject.”
“And these are several schools overseas…”
She pulled out one of the documents.
“This is the school I attended. There are a lot of Chinese students there. If you want to send your daughter, I can write her a recommendation letter.”
Yu Xiaxing had compiled all this while gaming yesterday afternoon.
After all, her grandfather had told her not to slack off. So she had even thought through where the girl could go after withdrawing from school.
No one could find fault with her work now, right?
Chen Yuru’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You have no intention of trying to convince us to stay?”
“I already did,” Yu Xiaxing said. “The teachers and principal said everything they needed to say. I also spent the entire night talking with her, but it didn’t work. There’s no point wasting any more time.”
“Last night was you?” Chen Yuru stared at Yu Xiaxing in shock. “You disguised yourself as a female classmate and took my daughter out of school?”
Yu Xiaxing admitted it outright. “That’s right. It was the way I got her to open up, but it didn’t really help.”
Chen Yuru studied Yu Xiaxing.
She realized that Board Director Yu really was very young. There was a youthful energy about her, something caught between a student and a working adult. She was at an age where she could easily talk with parents without seeming out of place, yet could also chat naturally with students.
No wonder… No wonder her daughter had seemed a little different last night.
In the past, her daughter had always been completely opposed to her.
Whenever the two of them exchanged more than a few words, the girl would start throwing around internet buzzwords: “East Asian mother-daughter dynamics,” “generational trauma,” and so on. She always had a whole string of terms ready.
But last night, her daughter had not acted that way. Several times, she had even tried to initiate a conversation with her mother.
Although each time she had swallowed the rest of her words after only a few awkward sentences, Chen Yuru could still sense that her daughter was beginning to judge people and situations with her own mind.
Chen Yuru went over everything that had happened the night before once more. It did not take long for her to identify the trigger: the betrayal by that female classmate.
And now that she knew the “classmate” had actually been Yu Xiaxing in disguise, everything suddenly made sense.
Yu Xiaxing had deliberately abandoned her daughter, guiding her to think independently before ultimately turning the question back toward the family relationship itself.
She had not blindly sided with the parents, nor had she joined the child in blaming them.
Instead, she had made both sides take a fresh look at themselves.
The thought filled Chen Yuru with genuine admiration.
She had disguised her identity, approached her target, built trust, created an opportunity, and guided her toward awakening.
Yu Xiaxing had done all that without boasting or going on about how hard she had worked to claim credit.
She had calmly admitted that she had failed—and had even prepared alternative paths for her daughter.
What more could Chen Yuru say?
The hostility that had initially filled her eyes was gone.
She began looking at the young woman before her—who was nearly two decades her junior—as someone she could speak with on equal terms.
She carefully flipped through the withdrawal package Yu Xiaxing had prepared for her daughter.
But none of the options were suitable. Chen Yuru had already looked into the domestic schools in detail, and every one of them had its own shortcomings.
Some operated under a fully closed, militarized system of management. Her daughter would never be able to withstand that kind of pressure.
As for the overseas school…
After a moment of silence, Chen Yuru admitted, “It’s not that I can’t afford to send her abroad. But my daughter still hasn’t developed a true sense of self.”
“She hasn’t experienced any real setbacks, and she’s still young. She’s far too easily persuaded and influenced by other people.”
“Right now, in China, all she’s doing is being encouraged to rebel against her mother. If she went abroad, she might start shouting every day about how the air overseas tastes sweeter.”
“How could I feel safe leaving her alone in another country?”
Yu Xiaxing agreed completely. “Since you’re aware that she has this problem, why don’t you help her change?”
“I’ve tried. There’s nothing I can do…” Chen Yuru sighed. “Her father and I don’t see eye to eye when it comes to raising children. Every time I try to discipline her, he secretly comforts her and undermines everything I’ve done.”
Chen Yuru felt that explanation sounded a little abstract, so she searched her memory for a few vivid examples.
“When she was in kindergarten, one of the children told her, ‘Your mother won’t let you eat snacks because she doesn’t love you.’ She actually believed it. She dumped out all the food I had prepared for her, stole money from home to buy snacks, and ended up in the hospital with severe stomach trouble.”
“I disciplined her and forbade her from eating snacks for three months. She was so angry that she said she hated me. Then her father secretly gave her candy behind my back.”
Yu Xiaxing: “…”
Was your husband taught by the same teacher as Ruan Tian’s mother-in-law?
Those two people had absolutely nothing to do with each other, yet they had managed to do nearly the exact same thing.
Apparently, sweet-talking, manipulative parents like this were incredibly common in families.
Yu Xiaxing did not interrupt. She simply waited for Chen Yuru to continue.
“When she was in elementary school, the girl who sat beside her told her that sending her to after-school tutoring was my way of controlling her. She came home crying, saying that I was taking away her childhood. And what did her father do? He secretly took her to an amusement park.”
“But that classmate herself attended three Olympiad-math classes every weekend. She just didn’t want Tinglan competing with her. She was secretly working hard while trying to discourage everyone else from studying. My daughter was completely unable to see through her malicious intentions.”
The more Yu Xiaxing listened, the more clearly she understood.
Jiang’s father was an exceptionally crafty manipulator of the sweet, harmless type…
He made sure his wife took responsibility for being the “bad guy,” while he focused solely on winning the child’s affection.
Chen Yuru continued rambling on about what her daughter had been like as a child.
As she listened, Yu Xiaxing suddenly realized that this mother was not simply a cold-blooded parent who judged her child solely by results.
When her daughter was young, Chen Yuru had devoted nearly her entire self to raising her.
Yu Xiaxing thought again of how Jiang Tinglan had kept reminiscing about life in the small county town the previous night.
And suddenly, she noticed something that didn’t add up…
