See you at Lingnan!

When Chen Zhu got home after hot pot, his parents were still awake. They both knew he had gone out with Huang Bohan that afternoon.

Judging by the strong smell of hot pot on him, he had probably skipped evening study hall too.

Neither Chen Peisong nor Mao Xiaoqin said anything. The couple had long since agreed that with the Gaokao approaching, the exam came first, and little things were not worth making a fuss over-especially now that Chen Zhu's grades were so consistent.

They had initially thought luck played a part in his score of 654 on the First Mock Exam. But the Second Mock Exam, the Third Mock Exam, and countless smaller tests in between had shown that their son was now consistently scoring around 650. Even his teachers found his progress incredible.

When the family had discussed his university choices a while back, even Tsinghua and Peking Universities had become options they could briefly entertain.

In the end, considering consistency and Chen Zhu's own wishes, among other factors, they had settled on Lingnan College at SYSU. Still, that was already enough to make Mao Xiaoqin very happy.

After all, in the eyes of many people in Eastern Guangdong, SYSU was their own "little Tsinghua."

"Take a shower and get to bed early. I put your clothes on your bed."

With that reminder, Mao Xiaoqin was about to return to her bedroom.

"Mom."

Chen Zhu suddenly called after her. "There's something I'd like to discuss with you two."

"Hmm?"

Mao Xiaoqin turned around. Seeing how serious her son looked, a thought stirred in her mind:

Is he finally going to come clean about having a girlfriend?

Although Chen Zhu had already said that Yu Xian was a friend and Song Shiwei was just a classmate, both girls were so exceptionally attractive that Mao Xiaoqin felt she could accept it if feelings really did develop.

While Mao Xiaoqin was busy speculating, Chen Zhu suddenly asked, "After I get into university, are we going to throw an admission celebration banquet?"

Mao Xiaoqin paused, then replied instinctively, "Probably. Your dad and I have given out plenty of cash gifts ourselves, after all."

"Then... could I have the cash gifts from the banquet?"

Chen Zhu finally revealed what he was after.

Well, well!

Only then did Empress Dowager Mao realize that her son's solemn expression had nothing to do with romance. It was all about money.

But those cash gifts would probably add up to tens of thousands of yuan, and Chen Zhu was still a child. Keeping her expression neutral, Mao Xiaoqin asked, "What do you plan to do with the money?"

"Trade stocks!"

Chen Zhu answered without hesitation.

It was not that he did not want to keep it secret, but one requirement for opening a brokerage account was being an adult, and he would not turn eighteen until November.

By November, the market would already be close to its peak and would soon start falling. Only an idiot would enter the stock market then.

So if he wanted to catch this wave of Olympic gains immediately after the Gaokao, he would have to use a parent's ID card. He might as well tell them the truth now.

"Trade stocks?"

Mao Xiaoqin's eyes widened.

She was not opposed to stock trading. Although she and Chen Peisong never touched it, plenty of her colleagues at the hospital traded stocks. Apparently, the market had been doing quite well lately, and quite a few had made a small profit.

What surprised Mao Xiaoqin was why Chen Zhu wanted to trade stocks too.

Could he even understand market trends and candlestick charts?

Had he seen some advertisement and decided the capital market was easy?

Still, with the Gaokao approaching, even if Mao Xiaoqin disagreed, she would not say so outright. Instead, she took the approach of "no agreement, no refusal, no position, and no initiative."

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to learn about stock trading. I've been a little interested myself lately."

Mao Xiaoqin smiled. "My colleague, your Auntie Guan, is very good at it. Once your exams are over, we can ask her for some pointers together."

Had Chen Zhu really been an ordinary high school student, his mother's smooth words might have fooled him.

It sounded as though she had agreed, but she had actually promised nothing.

"Mom~"

Chen Zhu stayed where he was, lowering his head and picking at the corner of the table. "If you don't agree, I won't feel like answering the English paper in the Gaokao. I don't like English anyway."

"What? Say that again!"

Mao Xiaoqin's temper had mellowed considerably, but that did not mean she had never had one.

Hearing her normally well-behaved son dare to threaten her, she would genuinely have pulled down his pants and given him a beating if the Gaokao had not been only a month away.

As mother and son faced off, Chen Peisong once again stepped in as the firefighter. He signaled for Chen Zhu to go take a shower while steering his wife back into their bedroom and asking what had happened.

"He wants the cash gifts from the admission banquet..." Mao Xiaoqin began quietly. Only after Chen Zhu went to shower and the sound of running water came from the bathroom did Empress Dowager Mao raise her voice:

"If he doesn't want to take the exam, then fine! As if he's going to university for my sake..."

"Tomorrow, find him a job as a security guard, or have him come work as a nursing aide at our hospital. None of those jobs need much education..."

"I'm absolutely furious! I raised that boy for eighteen years, and now he talks back to me. I'd have been better off giving birth to a piece of roast pork..."

Chen Zhu showered quickly and finished in just a few minutes. The moment she heard the bathroom door creak open, Mao Xiaoqin lowered her voice again:

"Chen Peisong, look at what your son's become. He hasn't even got a wife yet!"

Watching his wife tiptoe so carefully around anything that might upset Chen Zhu before the exam, Chen Peisong felt both sympathy and amusement. After considering it for a while, he said, "Maybe we need to adjust how we look at him too. Our son is growing up. You can feel that, can't you?"

"Mm."

Mao Xiaoqin gave a sulky grunt. It was not as though she had failed to notice the changes in her son.

But she considered them a good thing. Chen Zhu used to be so withdrawn that she had once worried about it.

"And another thing..." Chen Peisong continued. "Since Chen Zhu volunteered to tell us he wants to use the money to trade stocks, that means he still respects us."

"It's tens of thousands of yuan. He's just a child. What if he loses it?"

Mao Xiaoqin still thought the idea was dubious.

Chen Peisong suddenly gave a knowing smile. "Have you thought about what Song Shiwei's father does?"

"CITIC Securities..." Realization dawned on Mao Xiaoqin. "You mean Chairman Song will guide him?"

Chen Peisong shook his head. "I don't know. But like you said, why would a high school student suddenly want to trade stocks? Surely there's a reason?"

"Exactly!"

Mao Xiaoqin wholeheartedly agreed with her husband's analysis. "We'll keep an eye on things then too. At worst, I'll trade alongside him. If we really lose money..."

Empress Dowager Mao slapped her thigh. "We'll just count it as an advance on Weiwei's betrothal gift!"

Chen Peisong hurriedly waved his hands. "Don't say things like that. If we lose money, it'll be lost to the capital market. Weiwei won't get any of it. CITIC is only a platform."

Chen Peisong and Mao Xiaoqin ventured ever further down their path of "ridiculous yet plausible" reasoning. The next morning, they even agreed that Chen Zhu could have the banquet's cash gifts, provided he used them under his mother's supervision.

As long as Chen Zhu got the money to trade stocks, the arrangement did not matter.

Two days later, it was time to submit their university preferences. The senior classes entered the computer room one after another and opened the admissions website to fill in their choices.

Their homeroom teacher, Yin Yanqiu, kept stressing:

"Make absolutely sure you enter the correct website address!"

"Check your ID number over and over!"

"Make sure you've selected both your first and second choices before clicking confirm!"

The computer room was noisy too. Some students, afraid they might forget, had copied the universities and majors their families had agreed on onto little slips of paper;

Some practically pressed their heads against the monitors while checking their entries. This was one of the most important decisions of their lives, after all. They could not afford a mistake;

Others whispered among themselves or even got up and walked around to see which universities their friends had chosen;

And those who had finished and clicked "confirm" let out long breaths, as though a weight had been lifted from their shoulders.

Chen Zhu was not that nervous. He calmly opened the admissions website, checked his personal information, then went straight to "01 SYSU-0201 Economics □" and put a check mark in the box.

After checking it once more and finding no problems, he clicked the mouse to confirm his submission.

"So you really did choose Lingnan College at SYSU too."

Suddenly, a voice came from behind him.

Chen Zhu turned around. Mou Jiawen was standing behind him.

Chen Zhu thought for a moment. Mou Jiawen's grades made even SYSU a stretch, let alone one of its flagship colleges. So he asked, "Did Song Shiwei choose Lingnan too?"

If Song Shiwei went to SYSU, only Lingnan College or the medical school would do her score justice.

"Yes!"

Sure enough, Mou Jiawen confirmed it. "But Weiwei chose finance at Lingnan."

"Well, there you go~"

Sounding rather moved, Mou Jiawen said, "You finally got what you wanted. After putting in so much effort, you'll get to spend four years with Weiwei at last."

Chen Zhu smiled.

Ever since he had first stood up for Song Shiwei because he could not stand Li Jianming, there had always been people who assumed he liked the school beauty;

In reality, much of it really was a misunderstanding.

Song Shiwei probably saw him no differently from any other boy.

Even his wish not to let something beautiful slip out of his life had really been nothing more than his own one-sided desire.

Yet now, by another twist of fate, they would be attending the same university-and even the same college.

How should he put it...

Once the whole class had finished submitting their preferences and was leaving the computer room, Chen Zhu passed Song Shiwei. After a moment's thought, he suddenly greeted her.

"See you at Lingnan."

That was what Chen Zhu said.

Song Shiwei paused, then understood. Chen Zhu had probably applied to Lingnan College at SYSU too. This was his way of wishing them both success in the Gaokao.

"See you at Lingnan~"

(There'll be another chapter at eight tonight. Please vote, please vote~ Thank you, everyone.)

(End of chapter)