Chapter 22

So he called Weng Yingjie and told him to find a way to help him get his wife and son back. He told Weng Yingjie that he did not need his charity. Yu Huixin was his wife, and Weng Shao was his legal son. It was only natural for a son to support his father in old age.

He, Weng Yingxiong, was no useless piece of trash who lived at someone else's mercy. He was going to be Weng Shao's father!

This was what Weng Yingjie owed him.

A father's debts were paid by his son. That was only natural.

Even if this ended up on television, he was not afraid!

How much was a provincial National College Entrance Examination top scorer worth?

Weng Shao had never paid attention to other people's "market value," but he had personally witnessed what it meant to find gold in books.

Before the National College Entrance Examination scores were released, Weng Shao had already received recruitment calls from major universities. Every teacher spared no effort in promoting the benefits of applying to their school, including but not limited to choosing any major he wanted, tuition waivers, scholarship incentives, personalized training plans tailored to Weng Shao's strengths, top mentors in his field, and even direct admission to a PhD program if Weng Shao wanted to pursue further studies...

Setting the other conditions aside, Jinghai University alone offered a 50,000-yuan freshman scholarship. Other key universities offered scholarships ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 yuan. This did not even include the various scholarships, grants, and subsidies available after enrollment.

In other words, no matter which university Weng Shao chose, he could study without worries throughout college and would not have to fret over making a living.

Hearing this, Weng Shao was briefly dazed. If, in his previous life, he had not placed his hopes of salvation on so-called blood relatives and had instead resolutely chosen to study, perhaps he would not have taken so many detours.

But on second thought, Weng Shao becoming the provincial National College Entrance Examination top scorer had been an accident to begin with. Before the scores came out, even Weng Shao himself had never expected to do so well. How could he use the experience and intelligence of twenty years later to bully his younger self from twenty years ago?

Weng Shao would not blame himself. If anyone was to blame, it was the Weng family for being less than human. Thinking of Weng Yingjie and his wife at the hospital, unable to even keep up their act properly, a chill seeped into Weng Shao's eyes.

He had given the Weng family chances, many chances even. They were the ones who had failed to cherish them. If they became stepping stones for Weng Shao's rise in the future, they would have only themselves to blame.

Perhaps it was his lingering obsession from his previous life, when he had failed to get into Jinghai University. Even though Weng Shao no longer needed a degree to prove himself in this life, and even though other universities offered better benefits, he still chose Jinghai University's finance department without hesitation.

He chose finance because that had also been his major in his previous life. For a reborn man who possessed the developmental trajectory of every industry over the next twenty years, it made no difference what major he chose. Since that was the case, he might as well choose what he already knew.

But what Weng Shao needed to do now was not use his informational advantage to meticulously plan out the next twenty years of his career. It was to reap his first pot of gold from all his hard work.

—In truth, for most reborn people, making money was never difficult. The slightly harder part was probably acquiring that first pot of gold.

In this regard, Weng Shao cleverly chose to monetize his knowledge.

After the National College Entrance Examination scores were released, City No. 1 High School, Weng Shao's alma mater, learned that he had won the provincial top scorer title with an outstanding score of 702 and awarded him a 20,000-yuan scholarship. The district where City No. 1 High School was located awarded Weng Shao 50,000 yuan, the city awarded him 100,000 yuan, the province awarded him 200,000 yuan, and the Pei Group Hope Project Student Aid Fund also awarded him 100,000 yuan.

Those were the scholarships Weng Shao could receive. Adding the 50,000-yuan freshman scholarship for enrolling in Jinghai University's finance department, the total came to 520,000 yuan.

Besides that, some companies had taken a liking to Weng Shao's image and popularity. They proactively approached the freshly minted provincial National College Entrance Examination top scorer, hoping he would endorse their products.

The most generous offer came from Pei Real Estate, which directly gifted Weng Shao an apartment in Lakeside Garden!

It was a 150-square-meter large flat with three bedrooms and two living rooms, open from north to south, with an elevator. Knowing that Weng Shao came from a poor family, Pei Real Estate also included renovation costs with the property, ensuring that Weng Shao could move in with just his luggage and would not have to spend another cent.

When Yu Huixin followed Weng Shao and the sales office manager to view the apartment, her eyes turned red with excitement. No one could have imagined that just one month ago, mother and son had still been worrying over Weng Shao's tuition. One month later, Weng Shao had not only received 520,000 yuan in scholarships, but even acquired a home.

Yet these gains were only the tip of the iceberg when it came to Weng Shao monetizing his knowledge.

Besides the big-spending Pei Real Estate, many brands in categories ranging from educational tablets, athletic shoes, casual clothing, bicycles, snacks, and beverages to brain-boosting health supplements sought Weng Shao out through various channels, hoping he would endorse their products. The promotional fees rose from the initial 50,000 or 100,000 yuan all the way to hundreds of thousands for a single sponsored post. They were determined to sign him at all costs.

The major brands could not be blamed for flocking to Weng Shao. His recent exposure and online buzz had simply been too enormous.

Thanks to the tireless promotion of Weng Shao and his family affairs by news outlets and online gossip accounts, practically everyone in the country knew who Weng Shao was, unless they had no internet, electricity, television, newspapers, or magazines and were completely cut off from information.

The nationwide enthusiasm for this gossip reached its peak after it was revealed that Weng Shao would appear on Jinghai City Television Station's flagship interview program, Dialogue of Life, while his adoptive father, Weng Yingxiong, had also accepted an invitation to Jinghai City Television Station's highest-rated public affairs show, Online Mediation.

With Pei Xingze and Weng Yingjie jointly stirring things up, the two shows became popular before filming had even begun. For a time, it seemed as though the whole country's attention was focused on Weng Shao alone. Under such an intense spotlight effect, the major brands became even more eager to work with him. They knew perfectly well how much publicity and exposure a flagship interview program on a major television network could bring to their products.

Weng Shao knew that too.

Because this glorious, overheated spectacle in the gossip field had been something Weng Shao had planned and pushed for all along. Under such circumstances, his plan to present himself as a rare commodity and wait for the highest bidder would naturally make the major brands willingly walk into his trap.

The initiative in negotiations quietly shifted to Weng Shao's side.

Thus, with the help of Pei Group's chief legal team, Weng Shao carefully selected several high-quality, reputable brands in clothing, shoes and hats, snacks, carbonated drinks, walnut milk, educational tablets, and other electronics before going on the show. After several promotional posts, Weng Shao earned another million-plus yuan in endorsement fees.

Overnight, he had escaped poverty, gotten rich, and entered a moderately prosperous life.

While Weng Shao's life was flourishing, Weng Yingjie, who had furiously arranged for Weng Yingxiong to record Online Mediation, belatedly realized that he had been played by Weng Shao again—he had spent money and effort sending Weng Yingxiong onto the program, and had poured considerable promotional fees into getting media outlets to publicize the matter. Originally, he had wanted to use Weng Yingxiong's accusations to show the whole country what a cold-blooded, ungrateful wretch Weng Shao was.

But now, setting aside whether he could achieve that goal, Weng Shao had expertly used this opportunity to gain more bargaining chips when negotiating with brands.

After all his painstaking effort, he had merely made a wedding dress for Weng Shao.

Once he understood that, Weng Yingjie was so furious he nearly laughed. After laughing, all he could do was stand before the spacious floor-to-ceiling window like a gambler who had lost everything, silently gritting his teeth. He would never let Weng Shao go. He would make Weng Shao utterly disgraced!

Outside the window, dark clouds crowded the sky. Heavy, scale-like clouds pressed down as if brewing a torrential storm.

In an instant, a blinding flash of white light streaked past, reflecting Weng Yingjie's sinister face in the glass.

Several bolts of lightning tore through the clouds in the span of a breath, followed by rolling thunder from the horizon. Raindrops the size of soybeans pelted the window with a crackle. In moments, rain poured down in torrents.

Weng Shao took a folding umbrella from his backpack.

Midsummer weather was as changeable as a child's face. When he left home that morning, the sky had been clear and bright. In the blink of an eye, rain was pouring down.

Holding his umbrella, Weng Shao pushed open the doors of Lakeside Garden's sales office through the wind and rain.

It was still early, and there were few visitors in the sales hall. Only sales consultants in suits stood around in small groups, waiting for the morning meeting to begin.

When they saw Weng Shao enter against the wind and rain, everyone greeted him with smiles. "The top scorer is here!"

Someone asked with concern, "I heard your adoptive father is going to sue you for abandoning him. Is that true?"

Naturally, they had heard this from tabloid reporters and online gossip accounts.

Everyone looked at Weng Shao curiously.

Speaking of this new colleague, he truly was a major figure constantly at the center of controversy. Online news about him and his family emerged one after another. Before people had even finished devouring one piece of gossip, another came rushing in. The twists and turns were more exciting than the melodramatic rich-family dramas aired in the evening, and no one knew how many media outlets and gossip accounts he had kept fed.

In any case, they all deeply admired President Pei's foresight. With such a colleague and homeowner stationed at the sales office, Lakeside Garden's popularity and reputation stood head and shoulders above other developments.

Noticing his colleagues' growing enthusiasm for gossip, Weng Shao smiled calmly. "I'm not very sure either."

"Then you—"

"Enough. It's working hours, no gossiping." The sales office manager in a suit cut off the staff's questions, then turned to Weng Shao. "Did you bring all your documents?"

Weng Shao nodded. He had come to the sales office today to handle the transfer procedures. He also intended to ask for leave—tomorrow, he was going to Jinghai City Television Station to record the program.