Chapter 23

Author's Note:

Weng Shao handed the prepared documents to the sales office manager.

The manager, dressed in a suit and tie, accepted the papers and looked at Weng Shao with open envy. "People really do need to study more!"

Take Weng Shao, for example. When he first arrived at the sales office, he had been a pitiful little thing who scrimped and saved, desperately poor, with nowhere to live except the Pei Real Estate employee dormitory. Even his university tuition had needed funding from Pei Group. Yet after a single National College Entrance Examination, he had not only earned several million in scholarships and advertising fees, but also received an apartment at Lakeside Garden for free. Just like that, he had stepped into the middle class.

"That's not something we can compare ourselves to," said a saleswoman touching up her makeup with a grin. "He's the provincial top scorer in the National College Entrance Examination. There aren't many like him even across the whole country. If this were ancient times, he'd be the Star of Literature descended to earth."

"That's why he deserves to make this money. We can't even bring ourselves to envy him."

"Anyway, I don't have that kind of ability in this life. When I get married and have kids, maybe I can see whether I can raise the next generation right."

"If you really managed to raise a provincial top scorer, your ancestors' graves would be smoking."

"That's why I say Sister Yu is the lucky one."

Yu Huixin, who was mopping the floor in a corner of the lobby, smiled at that. Her face glowed with contented happiness.

Someone else asked Weng Shao curiously, "After your biological parents found out about your National College Entrance Examination results, they never contacted you? They really don't regret it?"

Honestly, the onlookers truly could not understand what the chairman of Weng Group was thinking. If they had such an accomplished child in their own family, they would support them even if it meant selling everything they owned. The Weng family was so wealthy that even a tiny bit slipping through their fingers would have been enough to support Weng Shao from university through a doctorate. Why had Chairman Weng not only refused to pay for Weng Shao's education, but repeatedly sabotaged his chances to make something of himself?

How was that any different from seeing smoke rise from your ancestral graves, then dumping a basin of water over them and putting it out?

It was not just the onlookers who could not understand. Even Weng Shao himself could not make sense of it no matter how hard he thought.

But he had already spent most of his previous life being tormented by this nonsense. In this life, he could not be bothered to think about what kind of madness Weng Yingjie and his family were up to.

Soldiers came, generals blocked them; water came, earth dammed it. If Weng Yingjie dared lay a hand on him, he would dare break the hands of everyone in the Weng family.

At the thought of the Weng family's filthy people and filthy affairs, the warmth on Weng Shao's face involuntarily cooled.

The sales consultants, who were best at reading the room, exchanged knowing looks and were just about to change the subject when a crisp ringtone suddenly rang out—

The sales consultants instinctively checked their phones, afraid it might be a client calling, only to see Weng Shao answer his phone and walk toward a corner.

It was Editor-in-Chief Wang from the publishing house. "...The sample copies are ready. Where are you? I'll bring them over now."

Weng Shao was heading to Jinghai City Television Station tomorrow to record a program. As a newcomer recording his first show, he planned to prepare a gift for every staff member on the production team. And no gift could be more meaningful than the Top Scholar Notes he had written himself.

After all, Weng Shao was only a high school graduate who had not yet started university. It would not be appropriate for him to prepare gifts that were too expensive. More importantly, his original purpose in recording the program was to clear his own name and make trouble for the Weng family. So a set of Top Scholar Notes that had been proven in practice to improve the grades of countless senior students at City No. 1 High School perfectly suited his identity as a helpful provincial top scorer.

"I'm at the Lakeside Garden Sales Office." Weng Shao glanced outside through the lobby's floor-to-ceiling windows.

At some point, the rain had stopped. A ray of sunlight shone from behind the gloomy clouds, bathing the entire city in unusual brightness.

Weng Shao's mood gradually improved as well. He arranged to meet Editor-in-Chief Wang at a coffee shop outside the sales office at noon.

Editor-in-Chief Wang had prepared fifty sets of Top Scholar Notes for him.

Three hundred beautifully bound, richly illustrated study guides were far too heavy, so Editor-in-Chief Wang brought two interns with him to help carry them when he came to meet Weng Shao.

"With so many sets, how are you going to get them to Jinghai by yourself?" Editor-in-Chief Wang said with a frown. "Why don't we mail them to you instead?"

Weng Shao shook his head. It would take more than a day to mail them from this city to Jinghai, and he needed to personally hand the Top Scholar Notes he had compiled to every person when he attended the program!

This had been a planned segment in the script from the very beginning!

"I'll find a way." Weng Shao smiled. "Don't worry. Someone will help me."

"How did you know I'd definitely help you?" Lu Qingyang looked at Pei Xingze with blatant curiosity and asked, "Fine, I'll help you—but first tell me, what exactly is your relationship with that Weng Shao?"

"Business partners." Sitting behind his desk, Pei Xingze took an unhurried sip of coffee. As if something had occurred to him, he suddenly chuckled. "Partners in crime."

Lu Qingyang leaned back in tactical disbelief. "Oh, oh, oh, oh!"

"Business partners are business partners! But partners in crime?" Lu Qingyang narrowed his eyes at Pei Xingze, whose smile looked altogether too lovestruck. No matter how he looked at him, Pei Xingze seemed utterly hopeless. "Tell me, then. How exactly are you two partners in crime?"

"You saw it all yourself." Pei Xingze cast Lu Qingyang a light glance. "Are you doing it or not? Give me a straight answer."

"Sure! Of course! Who would dare say no to an order from Young Master Pei?" Lu Qingyang clicked his tongue and shook his head as he called his assistant. "...Count the employees in the group whose children are in high school. Give each of them a set of the Top Scholar Notes written by Weng Shao. Treat it as a company benefit for employees!"

On the other end of the line, Lu Qingyang's assistant let out a baffled "Huh?" and asked uncertainly, "Top Scholar Notes? Is that a high school study guide? You want to give employees study guides as benefits?"

And only employees with children in high school would receive them?

"I'm sure." Right in front of Pei Xingze, Lu Qingyang issued a clear instruction. "Go do it. Right now."

After hanging up, Lu Qingyang bowed and asked with a smile, "President Pei, are you satisfied with my service?"

Pei Xingze gave an extremely perfunctory hum, then began calling other people in his contacts.

Lu Qingyang watched helplessly as Pei Xingze harassed every single one of his fair-weather friends, all so they would purchase the Top Scholar Notes written by Weng Shao in the name of their respective companies. Unable to hold it in any longer, he asked, "I'm saying, since you two are partners in crime, you only need to join forces and wreck the Weng family. Isn't it a little unnecessary for you to do all this behind his back?"

Pei Xingze's hand paused over the phone. He thought quietly for a moment before saying, "Not at all."

Pei Xingze looked up at Lu Qingyang, who was clearly waiting to watch a good show, and said with utter conviction, "This is my promise to him, and the sincerity of a business partner."

Lu Qingyang clicked his tongue and shook his head. "I really misjudged you."

At first, he had thought Weng Shao was just a pitiful little thing being used by someone else. Who would have thought he was Jiang Taigong—well, Jiang Taiweng—fishing, with only the willing taking the bait?

—And Pei Xingze was the big fish that had voluntarily bitten the hook!

"I really want to meet this person now." Lu Qingyang looked at Pei Xingze with a grin and probed subtly, "Will you introduce him to us?"

"He's coming to Jinghai tomorrow to record a program." Pei Xingze tapped his phone. "I'll ask what he thinks... He'll be studying and starting a business in Jinghai in the future, too."

Lu Qingyang could not bear to look at Pei Xingze, who had been hooked into becoming a fool without even realizing it. Giving money and houses was one thing, but he was going out of his way to notify every one of them to buy Weng Shao's books. Now he even wanted to introduce an outsider to them, painstakingly help pave his way, and first ask for the man's opinion...

Lu Qingyang whistled inwardly. His eagerness to watch the show was already unbearable.

Author's Note:

The plane sliced through the sky and slowly descended to the ground.

Following the bustling crowd toward the exit, Weng Shao spotted Pei Xingze at once. Young Master Pei stood out from the crowd, a pair of sunglasses resting on his nose and concealing most of his handsome features, leaving only lips curved in an ambiguous smile and a sharply defined jawline visible.

Passengers passed by him one after another, unable to stop their gazes from lingering on him, yet he paid them no heed. His eyes behind the sunglasses rested casually on the exit corridor, and so he spotted Weng Shao in the crowd at once as well.

"You didn't say you were coming to pick me up." Weng Shao walked up to Pei Xingze, looking to be in an excellent mood.

Pei Xingze removed his sunglasses and answered with a smile, "I thought we had that kind of understanding."

How could he not come pick him up? This was Weng Shao's first time in Jinghai.

Assistant Meng, standing nearby, took the initiative to speak. "Student Weng, you and the boss should get in the car first. I'll collect the checked luggage."

Only then did Weng Shao notice Meng Hao'an standing beside Pei Xingze.

The attentive and considerate Assistant Meng tactfully went to collect the luggage, leaving space for the two people reunited after a brief separation.

Pei Xingze seemed to think of something. Looking at Assistant Meng's retreating back, he smiled mischievously and remarked, "For some reason, the light around us seems to have suddenly grown a little dimmer."

The dutiful, considerate Assistant Meng clearly did not know that although he had already tactfully excused himself, his boss still regarded his presence as that of a third wheel.

Weng Shao had obviously understood Pei Xingze's teasing, but he merely looked at him with smiling eyes and made no move to respond.

As their gazes met, a tacit, ambiguous warmth seeped from the corners of their smiling eyes and brows. Clusters of flame ignited deep within their dark pupils, crackling as sparks flew through the soundless air.

Then, neither knew who looked away first. The sparks in the air finally burned out, leaving only a wisp of smoke curling upward, softening Weng Shao's originally sharp features with a touch of lingering tenderness.