Chapter 10

Chi Ning didn't want to take on extra work. The "payment for becoming a disciple" they had discussed before hadn't included this.

Qin Heng would get paid, but he wouldn't.

Chi Ning wasn't very willing. Before he could refuse, his lips had already puckered into a pout.

Mo Yuanzhou laughed. This student really wore everything on his face.

He said softly to Chi Ning, "I'll pay more."

Chapter 10

More money?

If there was more money, then it wasn't impossible.

Just as Chi Ning was about to agree, Mo Yuanzhou added, "Since it's a two-person shoot, there'll inevitably be some interaction and physical contact during filming."

Chi Ning shut his mouth again.

Physical contact? What kind of contact?

He still hadn't gotten over it and didn't really know how to interact with Qin Heng.

Reason told him that he should separate this lifetime's Qin Heng from the one in his previous life, but emotionally, he couldn't do it.

Mo Yuanzhou rested his chin on his hand as he studied Chi Ning's expression, then held up eight fingers. "1,600 for a day. Eight hundred each."

"I'll do it," Chi Ning said without hesitation.

The most commonly used consumables in the experiments he wanted to conduct were reagents that cost eight hundred yuan per box. Supporting papers and patents required a huge amount of data, and reagent kits alone would consume a pile of money.

Physical contact was physical contact. It wasn't like he'd lose a piece of flesh.

Chi Ning's eyes sparkled, filled with longing for money. "When are we shooting?"

Qin Heng froze, inevitably thinking of the way Chi Ning had smiled while gently stroking the bottom of that bottle at noon.

Everyone said Chi Ning was a nerd who usually liked to keep a straight face, but after knowing him for so many days, Qin Heng had seen him smile far more often than that.

"This weekend." Mo Yuanzhou rested his chin on his hand and nodded toward the pool tables. "You two play for a while first and get familiar with each other. Don't be as stiff as unfamiliar persimmons when you're on camera."

Thinking of the eight hundred yuan, Chi Ning found the little liar slightly more pleasing to the eye. "Snooker or American pool?"

"Pool." Qin Heng carried a cue over to the smaller table.

Chi Ning remembered that Qin Heng would soon be competing and didn't refuse.

Qin Heng raised his cue and broke. With a bang, the white cue ball crashed into the clustered balls. The balls arranged in a triangle scattered like heavenly maidens tossing flowers, and even the ones that moved the least rolled at least eight meters across the table.

Chi Ning looked at the veins on Qin Heng's forearm and sighed. What strength.

No wonder he could knock out someone's teeth.

As Qin Heng played, he kept glancing at Chi Ning from the corner of his eye, his thoughts wandering.

There were many places in Yangcheng suitable for students looking for work. He could have worked somewhere else, then spent money practicing at a cheap pool hall. With his ability, he might even have saved a little extra money.

He had chosen Brother Xu because this pool hall catered to the middle and upper classes. The people who came here to play were all of high quality. They were either small business owners or important company figures; there were even underworld bosses. Xu Jiahao himself wasn't bad either.

He could gain many opportunities here.

Xu Jiahao was an opportunity. Mo Yuanzhou was one too. Chi Ning could be one as well.

But for some reason, he didn't want to measure Chi Ning as an opportunity.

Qin Heng bent down to strike the ball before him. The white cue ball faced a colored ball directly, beyond it was the dark pocket, and behind that was Chi Ning's eager expression.

His mind suddenly went blank, and he abruptly imagined himself handing Chi Ning a gold bar.

Bang.

The shot went crooked.

Qin Heng straightened up, his expression inscrutable.

Never mind that he didn't have the money to buy such a large gold bar. Even if he did, there was no way he would give it to someone else.

How could an iron rooster pluck out feathers?

What a terrifying hallucination.

Qin Heng said to Chi Ning with a stern face, "Your turn."

Chi Ning curled his lips.

He had only missed the third ball. Was that enough to make him angry?

Cheapskate.

He circled the table, planning his route while speaking to Qin Heng. "I heard you got into a fight with someone these past two days?"

Qin Heng gave a hum. "What about it?"

"Why did you fight? Were you collecting a debt?"

Chi Ning asked exactly what he was thinking. "Did you really get involved with loan sharks?"

Although Qin Heng had deceived him in his previous life, the kindness he had shown him had been real. Chi Ning still wanted to persuade Qin Heng not to go down the wrong path, at least not to do anything illegal.

Qin Heng asked in confusion, "Where did you hear that?"

Chi Ning answered vaguely, "Someone said it. I also heard you knocked out someone's teeth."

"He deserved it." Qin Heng's tone carried an arrogant, overbearing air. "If he dared try to extort me, he should bear the consequences."

Chi Ning fell silent. Distractedly, he poked at the table. He had nearly cleared it in one run, only to hit the ball crooked at the last moment.

Qin Heng hadn't denied being involved in the "loan shark" business. Chi Ning wanted to persuade him to turn over a new leaf, but he had no standing to do so.

Chi Ning didn't say anything more. The two took turns playing for half an hour, giving Mo Yuanzhou a headache just watching them.

They couldn't even hold a proper conversation. How could he expect them to have any chemistry during the photo shoot?

And here he had thought Qin Heng was Chi Ning's boyfriend.

Teenagers really were hard to understand. Even he could misjudge people sometimes.

"Come here, Chi Ning. Play with your teacher." Mo Yuanzhou beckoned, and Chi Ning immediately turned and jogged over to him.

He didn't want to sit in silence with Qin Heng anymore either. He was practically suffocating.

Mo Yuanzhou was witty and humorous when he played, never taking winning or losing too seriously. Being around him felt like a spring breeze. Before Chi Ning realized it, three or four hours had passed, and it was already nine thirty at night.

He took a taxi home. He didn't do his homework either. After washing up, he flopped onto his bed and began calculating his current assets.

The prize money from competitions in middle school hadn't been much, while the high school competitions paid a little more. Altogether, he should have somewhere between one and two hundred thousand yuan, enough to set up a simple personal laboratory.

Unfortunately, housing in Yangcheng was too expensive. Even a fifty-square-meter pigeonhole apartment cost over a million yuan. He couldn't buy a house and could only rent.

Chi Ning called the bank and followed the automated voice prompts to check his card balance.

The electronic female voice announced each word distinctly. "The balance in your account is one million, two hundred and thirty thousand yuan. To continue your inquiry, please press 1..."

Chi Ning hung up in a daze.

Why didn't he remember being this rich? Where had all this money come from? Had his father been transferring money into his card every month?

"Ningzai." Chi Yang pushed open the door and froze when he saw Chi Ning sitting on the bed in a daze. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Brother, what is it?"

"The combat coach Dad found for you has been selected. He asked me to bring you the information so you could choose." Chi Yang placed a stack of A4 papers in Chi Ning's hands.

Chi Ning flipped through them. The coaches had either served in the military or won awards in combat competitions.

There were more than a dozen candidates, with everything from photographs to resumes laid out clearly.

After looking through them for a long time, Chi Ning chose a retired serviceman. "This one."

"Alright." Chi Yang sat on the edge of the bed. "Learning some self-defense skills is a good thing. People like us are easily kidnapped. You're fine, but our parents brought me to banquets from a young age, so everyone knew me. I've been kidnapped three times."

These were all things he had never heard about in his previous life.

Chi Ning hugged his legs, resting his cheek on his knees as he turned to look at his older brother's face.

Chi Yang didn't want to say more. He reached out and ruffled his younger brother's hair. "Do you have enough spending money?"

Chi Ning thought of the money he had barely touched. "Enough, enough."

He had been obsessed with studying in the past and had nowhere to spend money, so he had never had much concept of it. He hadn't expected himself to be this rich.

Chi Ning stared into Chi Yang's eyes and suddenly felt that his parents and older brother spoiled him even more than he had imagined.

"Brother, can I do experiments in the company laboratory? I'll work on my own and won't affect anyone else."

Chi Yang sucked in a breath. "I'm afraid not."

Chi Ning's expression darkened. The company had a better experimental environment and more professional equipment. More importantly, he wouldn't have to figure out how to spend his own money.

Chi Yang couldn't stand seeing his younger brother look so wilted. "I know you aren't trying to stir up some kind of conflict between brothers, but the company is a mess right now, and the environment isn't good. There may even be spies from our competitors in the laboratory. Many things in there are prohibited items if taken outside. If some petty person harmed you and something happened at this critical moment, we'd be heartbroken."

"Once we've recovered the shares and reorganized the company, you can go play there for as long as you want."

Chi Ning was stunned for a long while. "Having an older brother is really nice."

He didn't have to shoulder everything by himself. Being protected by someone really did feel good.

Chi Yang blushed at that. It was the first time his younger brother had praised him.

His younger brother was so adorable after opening up.

Feeling light as air, he left Chi Ning's room to handle the task their father had assigned him.

The next day.

Chi Ning lazily went to school. While he lay sprawled on his desk during morning reading, he calculated the timing and suddenly remembered his scholarship.

The scholarship at No. 1 High School was for outstanding students with both good character and excellent grades, usually awarded to the top student in the grade at the end of the term.

He could definitely still rank first in the grade, and the school would certainly give him the money again, but he truly didn't deserve it.

After all, only his grades were still presentable now. His attitude toward studying had become lazy to the extreme.

If he went to speak to the homeroom teacher about it, the news would quickly spread everywhere. That wouldn't be good for him or for the student who received the scholarship afterward, as if he had simply given it away out of charity.

It wasn't that he hadn't considered deliberately doing poorly or handing in blank papers, but if some busybody reported him to the school that was supposed to admit him without an entrance exam, he might lose his recommendation spot.

He needed to find a foolproof way to give the money to the student who would place second in the grade.

Chi Ning thought about it for an entire week.

He thought about it during class and after class. He thought about it while playing pool at night.

He was absent-minded no matter what he did.

The mind that usually spun so quickly during research seemed to have gotten stuck, creaking as it tried to turn.

A week passed. By the time he met them at Mo Yuanzhou's brand studio, he looked like a wilted little cabbage—listless and full of worry.