Su Chen lay on the hospital bed.
He patiently listened to a long string of apologies, compensations, and rewards from the person before him—tax reductions, improved private military structures for the Su family, and more. A stack of oil contract documents was laid nearby.
“Since time was tight, this is the temporary compensation plan. What do you think? If you have any other requests, feel free to speak up. We’re willing to negotiate with Miss Su directly to make sure everything is settled.”
The middle-aged man spoke earnestly.
As he spoke, he kept glancing at Su Chen. Apart from looking a bit pale, Su Chen seemed like a perfectly normal, healthy person.
There was no sign that he’d had one foot—well, both feet—in the gates of death just a while ago.
That penicillin.
It really was a miracle drug!
Thinking about it, the middle-aged man’s gaze at Su Chen grew even more intense. Going directly to Su Ning would probably end in rejection, so he had chosen a different path, deciding to win over Su Chen first—after all, he was the real victim here!
“There’s really no need to be so polite. It was all just a misunderstanding. Let’s show mercy where we can… Ah, I wonder where Director Zhao has gone.”
Probably to report for duty at the gates of hell, the middle-aged man thought.
Lose one, replace him with another.
“As for seeing your cousin…”
The man perked up, already imagining himself persuading Su Ning with silver-tongued charm, getting a promotion and raise, and stepping onto the pinnacle of his career.
“Didn’t my cousin tell you? She’s going to enjoy the beauty of our motherland, and she left yesterday.”
The middle-aged man was speechless…
She had mentioned it, but everyone assumed it was just a flimsy excuse. What “beauty of the motherland”? Did she have to go sightseeing at a time like this?
Outside the hospital room door.
“Alright, hurry up and tell me. What’s so important at school?”
Su Zhenzhu sounded impatient.
After the last school anniversary, Su Ning’s donation had been quickly transferred to the school’s account. Still, Su Zhenzhu held control over all the basic accounts and project approvals, and no one dared to question it.
After all.
Su Ning had donated all that money for her own cousin. It was only natural to let Su Zhenzhu gain some experience in the process, too.
Managing finances really was good training.
Su Zhenzhu had never imagined there were so many imaginative ways to ask for money. Scholarships, bursaries, repairing teaching buildings—she reluctantly approved those.
They counted as talent investments, after all. That Wang Hao, the one stuck eating sand in Yumen, was pretty useful.
But!
The projects with fancy, high-sounding names and a pile of reports and justifications promising they’d change the world if they succeeded? Those were different.
If she didn’t keep a tight grip on them,
Money would just be thrown into the water. Su Zhenzhu was worried that during her absence from school, someone might squander the funds misappropriate them. That was why she agreed to meet Chen Qi privately, away from others.
As for the danger?
Su Zhenzhu gave a dismissive smirk. There were guards stationed every few steps around here, all around.
She was the last person who needed to worry.
Chen Qi glanced at her deliberately, then quickly looked away, lowering his head and saying blandly, “The school paper we started together has gotten great responses. Students from other universities love it too. We want to increase the print run. The most popular section is…”
“Wait.”
The girl interrupted him displeasedly, sneering, “Giving yourself credit again, huh?”
“What do you mean, ‘we’ started it together? The money for the school paper came from me, the staff was organized by me, the articles were commissioned by me. At best, you’re just a courier, and you dare to put yourself on the same level as me? Your face has got some nerve.”
Chen Qi stiffened.
His pride was shattered. Instinctively, he clenched his fists.
“You’ve misunderstood me. Actually, I just worried about you—really.”
He seemed to have made up his mind.
With heartfelt emotion, he went on about how worried he had been these past few days, how he wanted to come and comfort her but didn’t dare, until he couldn’t bear it anymore and invited some other classmates along.
“Seeing you safe really makes me happy. I know, all that’s happened lately has been too much pressure for a girl like you. You can vent in front of me—I won’t tell anyone. And I can give you some advice, too.”
The surroundings fell into a deathly silence.
A few nearby guards couldn’t help it. Though they didn’t move, they desperately rolled their eyes toward the scene—What kind of idiot... no, brave idiot is this?
Chen Qi kept talking.
“Your cousin might have offended the government, but judging by today, it seems they don’t want to cause a big fuss because of the penicillin. You should advise your cousin to quit while she’s ahead, take this chance to donate the penicillin preparation method. With that as a buffer, not only will she avoid retaliation, but she’ll be able to sleep easy afterward with that merit to her name.”
Su Zhenzhu stared at him steadily.
Noticing her gaze, Chen Qi did his best to suppress the smile that was tugging at his lips.
“Why are you staring at me?”
“I’m trying to figure out if the Imperial aura under the city walls is so strong it’s made pigs evolve into human beings,” Su Zhenzhu said. Then she frowned in annoyance. Her cousin had once said pigs were actually fairly intelligent. Maybe she shouldn’t insult pigs like this.
“What did you say?!”
Chen Qi’s face flushed with anger. He stepped closer, gritting his teeth as if to say something.
But just as he opened his mouth—
SMACK!
A crisp slap landed on his face.
It was fierce and heavy, with no reservation. It left a slender red handprint on Chen Qi’s cheek, which quickly swelled. His head was ringing, and he stood there stunned, not reacting.
A shriek rang out from a distance.
Probably from one of the classmates—or more than one. Whatever.
Su Zhenzhu shook her hand. It was a little numb from the force. First, she remembered that her cousin never did things herself. Then, Newton’s third law was running through her head.
“If your mouth doesn’t know how to talk, I’ll kindly fix it for you.”
She smiled beautifully.
“But, don’t let this happen again, okay? Otherwise, I’ll have to cut out your tongue.”
Chen Qi’s face went deathly pale.
...
“Poor Zhenzhu—having to put up with that,” Su Ning said. She wasn’t lying; she really had left Beijing already. But someone had already told her what happened.
After listening, she let out a long sigh.
System: …
Poor? For working too hard on the slap so her hand hurt?
“Great, Sys. Finally, after all this time, our teamwork is getting better. I’m so happy.” Su Ning wiped away a fake tear easily and continued lightly, “But don’t get cocky. Still need to work on it. That reason is just one part of it. That Chen Qi is a whetstone I gave Zhenzhu, and she did a great job. But I didn’t realize in time that this whetstone was already worn out completely.”
She hadn’t told her to stop, so Zhenzhu had naturally kept him around.
What did this teach?
She was holding back her cousin’s growth!
Even though he felt speechless, the System wasn’t going to argue with its host about the first part—otherwise, it would lead to another long fight. It focused on the next part instead.
“How could he be useless? I remember Chen Qi still has great grades at school; he’s a well-known figure, really.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
Su Ning said softly. Before, she had told Zhenzhu she felt lucky Zhenzhu met someone who envied and resented her.
But now, it’s different.
Clearly, Chen Qi had developed some kind of misunderstanding. But if you got down to the root of it—
It’s that he was afraid.
He realized he couldn’t beat her, and he understood the importance of background and family power. Instinctively, he wanted to back off, to “win” against Su Zhenzhu in some other way.
What use is such a whetstone anymore.
It’s worse than useless scrap stone.
Good thing it exposed itself early — if it had ruined the pearl, what then? Su Ning thought; she would have been heartbroken and blamed herself, right?
At this point, the System finally understood.
It asked casually,
“Then what do we do?”
Su Ning smiled. When something’s broken, of course you throw it away as quickly as possible.
