The Big Shot Comes Home

"Both schools are excellent high schools. Which one appeals to you more?"

The two schools offered entirely different paths, and Xie Chengyue had left the choice to Shen Baili and Shen Wan.

Even if Shen Baili had done poorly on the exam, she could enroll in either school without trouble.

Absolute fairness did not exist. Assistant Li knew that well, and honestly, he was a little envious.

He was also curious. What would a girl who had just entered a wealthy family choose?

The Big Shot Comes Home.

Would she choose Haicheng No. 1 High School, with its strong faculty and demanding academic environment, or Nanya International High School, which offered an elite education and prepared students to study abroad?

It was a choice between two options.

Both were top high schools, each with its own strengths and priorities.

After carefully reading both schools' introductions, Shen Wan did not make the decision for her daughter. She looked at Shen Baili instead, leaving the choice to her.

Whatever Shen Baili chose, Shen Wan would support her wholeheartedly.

It was her life. She should be the one to decide.

Shen Baili understood what Shen Wan meant from a single glance. She did not need long to think.

"I'll go to Haicheng No. 1 High School."

There was no need to hesitate. It had been her goal from the start.

Assistant Li was surprised. He had expected her to choose Nanya International High School.

However he compared them, the latter seemed to offer a smooth road straight to a bright future. While studying there, she could meet children from wealthy and powerful families and build connections.

In Assistant Li's view, making connections with the powerful and finding a foothold in their circle were exactly what Shen Wan, who had married into a wealthy family, and Shen Baili, the child she had brought with her, urgently needed.

Those were only Assistant Li's private thoughts. He was not foolish enough to say them aloud. They were hardly close, and speaking up would do him no good.

He simply felt that ordinary people did not see the bigger picture, and that the girl was naively proud.

Shen Baili had considered it for herself. Her admission to Haicheng No. 1 High School proved she could study well. Money and other external things could be lost, but the knowledge and skills she gained would remain hers. No one could take them away.

As for befriending classmates from powerful families—please. How could it be that simple?

Relationships were, at their core, an exchange of value. In the eyes of those rich kids, what did she have to offer besides her status as a Xie Family stepdaughter?

Their upbringing and everything they had seen since childhood would only make them more practical.

Rather than spend her time on that, she would be better off improving herself.

Shen Baili was clearheaded. Her sudden wealth had not dazzled her.

In the original story, "Shen Baili" had failed to get into Haicheng No. 1 High School and gone straight to Nanya International High School. At that elite school, no one bullied her, but no one paid her any attention either. She did not fit in and became the subject of quite a few jokes.

At fifteen, "Shen Baili" was highly sensitive and fiercely proud. She would not tell her mother, who already had more than enough to deal with, anything that might worry her. She endured the entire school's cold shoulder alone. Her already fragile state of mind gradually warped, growing worse as time went on.

In the end, "Shen Baili" did poorly on the National College Entrance Examination. She refused to attend university abroad, so money was used to get her into a private university in China.

Shen Baili had another theory: her deepest unresolved wish was very likely connected to her education.

Over the past few days, she had repeatedly considered what she knew and compared reality with the plot, gaining plenty of insights and forming several theories.

The release of her high school entrance exam results had only lent more weight to her theory.

The system had not awakened by chance. What had woken it?

It could only draw energy from her. Most likely, she had fulfilled some of her unresolved wishes and charged it.

She worked hard to recall her past life, comparing what had happened with the original plot, and found an answer.

Was it because she had changed the original plot by earning a place at Haicheng No. 1 High School on her own?

Or because she had not missed the high school entrance exam and had completed it?

Perhaps it was both.

Once she tested it again, she would know for certain.

Assistant Li was a professional. After going over the details and a few requirements with Shen Wan and Shen Baili, he prepared to leave.

"All right. I'll see that everything is arranged."

Assistant Li had completed his old assignment and received a new one.

Things had gone more smoothly than he had expected today. He could go home early.

The thought put a spring in Assistant Li's step as he left. If only every workday could be this easy.

Then he thought of Assistant Wang next door, who was constantly run ragged handling his boss's messy family affairs, sometimes staying on call for twenty hours at a stretch to clean up the fallout. Assistant Li shuddered.

Please, let there be no drama in the boss's family. He did not want to work overtime. What good was money if the job killed him? He was not built to take the punishment like the burly Assistant Wang next door.

Shen Baili held out the bank card to her mother, but Shen Wan did not take it. "Keep your allowance. Buy whatever you want."

Shen Wan knew her daughter would not spend recklessly.

Both she and her daughter had to adjust to life with the Xie Family. They had a great deal to learn.

Unlike Shen Baili, Shen Wan had known from the beginning that Xie Chengyue was no ordinary man. Her decision to remarry had been carefully considered.

Shen Baili put the bank card away and opened the gift box on the coffee table. Inside was a beautiful white watch, small and elegant. One look told her the team of assistants had picked it out. How thoughtful of them.

"Try it on. You'll need a watch for school." Shen Wan added approvingly, "That was thoughtful of them."

Shen Baili first checked the watch's basic functions. The display was clear and accurate, and she was pleased with it. Then she put it on and turned her wrist. "Does it look good?"

"It does," Shen Wan said. "It makes your wrist look so fair and slender."

"Is it comfortable?"

"The fit is just right, and it's very light," Shen Baili said.

"I'll take good care of it."

Seeing that she liked it, Shen Wan asked, "Want to keep it on?"

"Mm-hmm," Shen Baili said.

She rather liked the watch.