Of course, Su Ning never received this apology.
If she had known, she would have generously said she didn't mind, and enthusiastically asked the system to record it from start to finish—
Never mind Guan Jixing and Mu Wan, but add Chen Lingling and Antonio to the mix.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
She couldn't imagine how spectacular this grand drama would be.
Of course.
Even completely in the dark, Su Ning was in a pretty good mood on the day of the school anniversary. If you're going to put on a show, you have to go all out. Seeing that her travel entourage was significantly reduced compared to usual, an unknown number of people breathed a sigh of relief.
They finally arrived at the destination.
Just as she stepped out of the car.
People arranged by the school immediately came up to greet her. Being intellectuals after all, they weren't overly fawning, but it still made some student parents from out of town turn their heads repeatedly.
Being low-key is relative.
At the very least, first came three luxury cars imposing an aggressive presence, followed quickly by seven or eight men in black, tight-fitting outfits stepping out. Moving with well-trained precision, they tightly surrounded the middle car.
That must be where the owner was.
But even as she entered the main gate, onlookers could only make out through the gaps that it was a woman, a young woman, without being able to see her face at all.
"Such a huge entourage, and even the school sent people specifically to receive her... Who is she?"
Someone asked curiously.
It wasn't that there hadn't been comparable entourages earlier, but those people had just gone in on their own with no one to welcome them.
"You must be from out of town, right?"
"How did you know?" The person was shocked, then turned wary, wondering if he had been targeted. A second later, he was stunned.
"To not even recognize Miss Su, you can only be a country bumpkin from out of town."
"Hey, watch how you speak."
The entrance became so noisy that a fight almost broke out. It was the perfect opportunity to fish in troubled waters, and someone couldn't help but sigh that heaven was truly helping them.
…………
The school was actually having a headache over Su Ning's arrival.
One could easily guess how much trouble and how many troublesome people this person would attract just by showing up. Looking at all the places she had appeared, she had more or less stirred up a storm of blood and gore.
Those who chased after fame and fortune might be happy.
Happy that Su Ning had chosen this place.
Unfortunately, they were a university, an ivory tower, a sacred place for cultivating students. There were people chasing fame and fortune, but they were far from the mainstream!
Someone suggested refusing to let her come.
"No way."
A school leader sighed. "The school anniversary inherently welcomes student parents to visit. We can't refuse her. Also, don't forget what she is most famous for..."
Egocentric, vengeful, ruthless, and unreasonable.
Take your pick.
Everyone fell silent.
"Forget it, let's just be careful and properly serve this giant Buddha until she leaves."
The school leader encouraged everyone:
"It's just a one-day thing. Besides, she is so wealthy, and I hear she highly values her few remaining relatives. If we mention the school's current difficulties more often, maybe she'll even donate some funds."
Sure enough, everyone's attitude became a bit more positive.
There was no other way.
Money gives a man courage. They relied on government funding to pay their salaries, and one could easily imagine how badly those were in arrears. After discussing for a while, they publicly nominated Professor Wang to be the receptionist.
For no other reason than he had a bit of a bitter-looking face.
Usually, when the school leaders went to the government to demand their unpaid wages, they would take him along.
The school leaders were responsible for slamming tables and playing the bad cop.
He was responsible for playing the good cop.
Taking off his glasses, paired with that face that looked pitiful no matter what expression he made, when he started crying about being poor and acting miserable, anyone who saw it couldn't help but wipe away a bitter tear of sympathy.
He had come full of confidence.
But upon actually meeting her, Professor Wang felt helpless. At first, when Su Ning said she wanted to stroll around the campus, he was happy inside and quietly led her toward the dilapidated areas.
Peeling plaques, weed-infested teaching buildings, watery soup in the cafeteria, all the way to the low, leaky dormitories—the person in front of him had no reaction at all.
Wait, that was wrong. She did have one.
To the plaque.
"Quite distinctive. Preserve it well, and it might become a historical monument in the future."
As for the weed-infested teaching building.
"Take a picture." At Su Ning's command, click, click, click—at least a whole roll of film was used. The dilapidated dormitories and cafeteria were photographed even more frantically.
The clicking sound didn't stop the whole way.
"Sigh, Miss Su grew up abroad since childhood. The universities there must be luxurious and brand new. Seeing such a dilapidated place, you probably can't believe it's a university. Actually, we carefully repaired it for the anniversary, but even the cleverest housewife can't cook a meal without rice. Despite our careful budgeting everywhere, we could only patch it up to look like this."
Professor Wang wore a sorrowful expression.
"To tell you the truth, the government has been intermittently withholding funding for five months now. Everyone is holding on, but we don't know when we won't be able to hold on anymore."
"That's why we discussed holding a proper school anniversary."
"Maybe."
"Maybe this will be the last time our university holds a school anniversary."
Listen to that. How bitter, how heartbreaking.
Su Ning finally spoke.
"It won't be the last time."
"?"
Professor Wang was taken aback.
"There will be many, many more school anniversaries, and they will become grander and grander." Grand enough to trend on hot searches. Looking at the shabby and worn-out surroundings before her, her eyes seemed to overlap with another clean, tidy, and beautiful campus.
So this is what it looked like during the Republic of China era.
Truly incredible.
Wait, was that the point? Professor Wang realized what happened and his face turned green.
As soon as a scholar's aloof pride flared up.
He immediately wanted to flick his sleeves and walk away... and then he saw the patch sewn on the inside of his sleeve, and remembered his colleague who was treated as a thief for trying to catch fish to eat in the middle of the night.
"I'll borrow Miss Su's auspicious words."
"By the way, for this anniversary, student Su Zhenzhu will be speaking as the student representative." If one plan fails, try another. Sure enough, Su Ning looked over with interest. Professor Wang doubled his efforts, exaggerating how difficult it was to become the freshman representative.
"...In the previous few years, male students were elected, but student Zhenzhu not only has excellent academic grades, but her popularity is also extremely good."
"In terms of grades, she is on par with another student, Chen, so a voting method was adopted later for selection, and student Zhenzhu was elected with a high score."
There were some inside details he didn't mention.
For example, conventionally in this situation, Chen Qi would generally be chosen directly—
It was widely believed that males were more suitable for "showing their faces in public."
But the other party's surname was Su.
Her name was Su Zhenzhu.
So an extra vote was added. Everyone thought the winner would be Chen Qi, who was closer to his classmates and interacted with them more, rather than the detached Su Zhenzhu.
The result, however, made everyone's jaws drop.
"Yes, Zhenzhu is very capable."
Su Ning said sincerely.
Rationally utilizing her own resources to seize benefits, and keeping it a secret until now—of course she was capable.
"Yes, we definitely want to properly cultivate such an excellent student. It's a pity that our hardware conditions here aren't good. For the science subjects that student Zhenzhu excels in, the necessary experimental equipment is incomplete. Also, the professors have families to feed, and with salaries unpaid, they can't teach wholeheartedly... Sigh, it really breaks my heart just looking at it."
As Professor Wang spoke, tears moistened the corners of his eyes, and he lowered his head to awkwardly fish out a handkerchief.
"I apologize, I lost my composure."
Watching this performance, Su Ning almost wanted to applaud. If she hadn't known that Zhenzhu had only been attending for less than a semester, she really would have believed it.
But it did remind her.
Besides physical industries, funding scientific research was an even bigger bottomless pit for spending money!
She chuckled softly.
Her gaze fell upon Professor Wang, who was wiping his tears, indicating that this wouldn't do. No matter how poor they were, they couldn't be poor in education. Wasn't it just money? The thing she lacked the least was money.
Professor Wang looked up in sheer ecstasy.
He just wondered how much money she was willing to donate... Her behavior was notoriously unpredictable. When she felt generous, she could throw away a fortune without batting an eye, but when she was feeling stingy, she would wring every last penny out of a refugee.
She would give at least two hundred thousand, right?
No, even one hundred thousand would do. At the very least, it would be enough to pay out a portion of their salaries for now.
