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What this duo had been most celebrated for before was their good luck—they had won a five-million grand prize; their dancing—they had taken the national championship on Dance Miracle; their songwriting—one song, The Matchmaker, had directly become this year's most popular pop song and successfully created a new genre called Huaguo Style; and their business sense—they had opened a company called Shi Shang Feng Heng and earned over three million in just a few short months...

And now, news broke that a member of the Sugar Juice Duo was also writing novels online. While leaving all the viewers dumbfounded, it also made them feel that the Sugar Juice Duo was simply too capable of stirring things up. Thinking about it carefully, the two of them were only sixteen, at the age when they should have been in high school. After all that running around, could their grades possibly still be good?

However the public might speculate, Tang Shi, as one of the people involved, undoubtedly became popular again, returning to the public eye through another unconventional route. And equally popular was a certain section of Green Website that had signed an author's contract with Tang Shi.

Because of the Sugar Juice Duo's current sky-high popularity and the massive army of diehard fans behind them, once reporters exposed the news and produced solid evidence proving that Tang Shi was the author of the hottest historical transmigration novel online, Prosperous Tang Strategy, countless curious passersby and fans supporting their idol all clicked into that section of Green Website. Not only did this cause the site's traffic to surge, surpassing Terminus Station Website and making it the number-one literary site in terms of clicks, it also directly caused the site's old, fragile servers to twitch and crash again. And aside from rolling around cutely on Pink Forum, soothing the site's readers and authors, asking them to wait patiently, and patching up the servers here and there, a certain shameless, bottomless administrator and vice president... still refused to spend money replacing the servers.

That was understandable, though, because Green Website had only just begun implementing its VIP paid-reading system that year. Its profits were small and its capital thin; it was not yet wealthy enough to replace its servers whenever it pleased. Though, considering that Green Website still had not replaced its servers more than ten years later...

Under those circumstances, authors who were already lazier than those on other sites directly used the site's glitches as an excuse to go on strike. This continued on and off for more than half a month, only improving after the fans' enthusiasm gradually faded or they migrated to cleaner, faster pirated-novel sites.

Tang Shi, meanwhile, was inspired by the incident and began contacting the senior management of Green Website and Terminus Station Website, waving money around as he prepared to acquire these two sites, which had only just begun but would have an enormous influence on the development of online literature in later generations. After careful and thorough negotiations between both sides, it was ultimately decided that the Sugar Juice Duo would invest five million and two million respectively to successfully acquire 69% of Terminus Station Website's shares and 49% of Green Website's shares.

At the same time, the Sugar Juice Duo also stipulated in the contract that after injecting the funds, they would not participate in the sites' operational management. However, in light of past lessons, Tang Shi still clearly wrote the profit distribution arrangements into the contract.

What Tang Shi valued most, in fact, was the film and television adaptation rights for online novels. Whenever he thought of the craze for adapting popular novels into films and dramas more than ten years later, then thought of all the novel adaptation rights he was clutching tightly in his hands, Tang Shi could not help laughing himself awake at night.

But that was a matter for later, so let us leave it there for now.

The midterm results came out three days later. Although Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi had not returned to school to study during the past half semester, Old Yu's tireless nightly video lessons, the recorded lectures they could watch and study repeatedly, and the thick stacks of after-class practice papers they had to finish every day gave them a solid grasp of the first-semester material for their second year of high school. In the first midterm exam of their second year, they scored 621.5 and 657 respectively, placing them both among the top one hundred students in the school.

Tang Shi landed exactly in one hundredth place, while Lu Hengzhi, having scored thirty-seven points more than Tang Shi, directly made it into the top fifty at forty-seventh place.

Those results could absolutely be called outstanding. After the scores came out, Old Yu called Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi into his office and earnestly lectured them for quite a while. As long as they could maintain those scores, then by the college entrance examination standards of any year, aside from a few elite universities with truly fierce competition, they would have more than enough points to apply for any other first-tier university.

The main purpose of Old Yu's talk was still to openly and subtly persuade the two boys. "You're young. Don't let the extravagance and temptation outside blind you. You need to know that anyone who chooses the path of a star is living off their youth. Look at all those stars acting and singing now—how many have remained active from twenty or thirty years ago until today? In the end, nobody can make a living off their face forever. You still need a good education. Only then can you advance when the time is right and retreat when necessary, without being controlled by others."

"...Besides, studying helps people understand reason. No matter what profession you enter, aren't people ultimately more willing to work with those who are knowledgeable, widely experienced, and thoughtful? Even if you want to sing and act for the rest of your lives, look at so-and-so and what's-his-name. When they played Qin Shi Huang and Tang Taizong, they practically wore out books on Qin history and Tang history before finally creating such classic roles. And then look at that whatever handsome-boy group. They were so popular not long ago. Every day, all I heard was you elementary school kids going on and on about them. And now? Who still remembers who they are..."

In short, he went on in circles for quite a while, all because he wanted Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi to settle down and study.

In his wording, he made extensive use of examples and comparisons, doing his utmost to instill his ideas in them without provoking the boys' rebelliousness.

That was why Old Yu, though old-fashioned and conservative, was still loved by all his students—he had his own principles and never forced them on others. But he would absolutely do everything possible to influence and change you with his own views, thereby achieving his goal.

As the saying went, give a stick and then a sweet date. After passionately talking for a long while about the disadvantages of the entertainment industry, Old Yu stated very clearly, "Some people can act themselves, but that doesn't mean they can teach others to act. Others may never have played a memorable role in their entire lives, yet they have taught many students who became huge stars... I have an old classmate who used to be a professor in the acting department at Capital Film University. After he retired, he wanted some peace and quiet, so he returned to X City with his wife to spend his old age."

"...Don't assume that just because he's old, he's as old-fashioned as I am. Let me tell you, quite a few of the students he trained became big stars. For example, An Weiwei and Shen Yue, and even that Cloud Heavenly King you like so much studied acting in his class back then... If you can maintain these grades in the next monthly exam, I'll introduce you to him and let you study acting under him."

Old Yu's words made Tang Shi's and Lu Hengzhi's eyes light up sharply. They looked at Old Yu so eagerly that they resembled rabbits spotting carrots.

Old Yu found it amusing, but his expression remained calm and unreadable as he waved his hand, signaling that the two could go home.

Tang Shi returned home filled with excitement after being fired up by Old Yu. When he handed his report card to Mother Tang, who was anxiously but deliberately calmly cooking in the kitchen, she saw Tang Shi's unprecedentedly good grades. Since Father Tang's death, Mother Tang had never cried. Even when Tang Shi won the five-million grand prize and took the national finals championship of Dance Miracle, she had not shown much emotion. But now, she hugged Tang Shi and burst into loud sobs.

Only then did Mother Tang truly feel that Tang Shi had grown sensible, that he could distinguish what mattered most, and that his parents no longer needed to worry about him.

Afterward, to reward Tang Shi, she cooked an entire table full of dishes. Tang Shi was so stuffed that he could not sleep that night and could only pace around his room like a lunatic. Fortunately, the house was fairly spacious, so he had enough room to walk around.

At Saturday's parent-teacher meeting, Mother Tang and Grandma Lu entered the classroom together with their heads held high. The parents who had received the report cards early naturally gathered around Mother Tang and Grandma Lu as though they were stars surrounded by the moon. They chatted, flattered them, and celebrated how the two children were not only talented and able to make money, but also did not make their families worry about their studies. They kept asking, "How did you raise such obedient children?"

As for Mother Tang and Grandma Lu, surrounded by everyone, speaking humbly while looking immensely pleased—their many contradictory performances need not be described in detail.

Old Qiao also meaningfully selected Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi as student representatives and had them go up to the podium to talk about their study methods.

Since they had been away from school for so long, Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi naturally attributed their improved exam results to Old Yu's meticulous teaching and the videos they could watch repeatedly. Just as Tang Shi expected, this made many parents focus their attention on Yu Miao's recordings.

However, the recordings in Yu Miao's possession differed somewhat from the ones Tang Shi had. Tang Shi's videos had undergone post-production and editing, making them refined versions containing the essentials. Naturally, they were clearer and easier to understand than Yu Miao's recordings. Thus, many parents expressed greater interest in the video lessons Tang Shi had.

But then a problem arose. Tang Shi had those videos before because he had been competing on Dance Miracle at Apple TV Station. To avoid delaying his studies, Old Yu had Yu Miao record lessons every day and send them to Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi. When Tang Shi had free time, he wrote out many formulas and other materials based on the recordings, then asked Apple TV Station's behind-the-scenes staff to help process and produce them, creating the video lessons now before the parents' eyes.

But now that Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi had returned to school, there was naturally no need for Yu Miao to keep recording. Besides, even if Yu Miao could record them, there was no one good at post-production to help create them.

So while everyone was agonizing over the issue, Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi started causing trouble again—this time, they set their sights on education and training.

Thus, under Old Yu's escort, the two went to find the principal of X City No. 1 High School to discuss developing a video-teaching project.

As a provincial key high school, X City No. 1 High School's educational resources and teaching staff naturally went without saying—they were certainly excellent. And as newly rich upstarts who seemed to have more money than sense, the Sugar Juice Duo naturally had not only money but also post-production staff capable of video editing. One side was a school and the other was students; one sought reputation and the other profit. They naturally hit it off immediately. In the end, after the school submitted a report to the Ministry of Education and received approval, it decided to cooperate with the Sugar Juice Duo to establish this video-teaching website.

The school would provide the manpower to explain classroom lessons and prepare teaching plans, learning outlines, and other software-related materials. The Sugar Juice Duo would provide the money and take responsibility for filming, recording, post-production, editing, creating the website and discs, applying for patents, and other hardware-related matters. Of course, since the Sugar Juice Duo funded the project, ownership of all patents would naturally belong to Shi Shang Feng Heng Training Education under the Sugar Juice Duo. (To clarify, Li Mei and the Sugar Juice Duo had jointly established Shi Shang Feng Heng Publishing House before; this was Shi Shang Feng Heng Training Education.)

The profits generated by the project would ultimately be divided seventy-thirty between the school and the business side—that was, the Sugar Juice Duo. Naturally, one convenience for students of X City No. 1 High School was that they could watch all kinds of teaching videos for free using their student registration and student ID numbers...

One percent of the profits earned by the video website and educational discs would also be donated to society to support the development of education...

After news of this collaboration broke, both the Sugar Juice Duo and X City No. 1 High School made the Headline of X City Daily's social and public affairs section. When the neighboring entertainment news sections of X City and the rest of the country saw the report, they were once again dumbfounded and could not help sighing, "As expected of the Sugar Juice Duo. They can never stay quiet, and no matter what circle they enter, they always thrive!"

Old Yu remained noncommittal about the school and his students' "profit-driven" behavior. However, when he heard that Tang Shi and Lu Hengzhi were willing to put part of their earnings toward supporting the nation's educational cause, the perpetually stern expression on Old Yu's dark face finally softened.