The Chenrong first prize was 240 yuan, with only 3 spots per department.

The second prize was 100 yuan, with more spots available.

There was also a third prize of 60 yuan.

Room 307 had a third-prize winner too – Lu Yan, the youngest who always wore headphones while memorizing vocabulary.

The scholarship results hit Su Jing pretty hard.

Though the national scholarship hadn’t been announced yet, given that students could receive both scholarships, Su Jing figured she probably wouldn’t get that either. In her first semester, she had indeed been too carefree. After escaping the grueling final year of high school and getting into Huaqing University, Su Jing needed to relax… She joined many clubs too, but they were just for show, unlike Yang Yonghong who joined specifically to earn scholarship points.

Su Jing was certainly smart enough to get into Huaqing, and letting loose a bit elsewhere wasn’t a problem, but at a place like Huaqing full of exceptional people, that relaxation meant falling behind other students.

Lu Yan was the youngest but showed more patience than Su Jing. After failing the English competition, she didn’t relax elsewhere and earned a third prize.

Su Jing didn’t need the 60 yuan – she just felt uncomfortable.

In their eight-person dorm room, four won prizes and four didn’t. Those who didn’t naturally felt embarrassed.

The atmosphere in Room 307 became a bit strange. Xiaolan asked Su Jing:

“The rules we agreed on are still posted on the wall. Do you want to be responsible for cleaning the dorm next semester?”

Su Jing glared at her: “Stop trying to provoke me. I won’t fall for that!”

Won’t fall for it?

Others in the dorm did.

Zhou Limin hadn’t won a prize either, but she took it well:

“You can fool others about how hard you work, but not yourself. You reap what you sow – we didn’t work hard enough. If we want prizes, we need to be more serious this year.”

Getting into Huaqing was excellent, but once there, everyone started from the same point. When everyone was smart and hardworking, standing out meant working even harder than others!

Su Jing might not care about the scholarship money, but she cared about the scholarship itself.

Everyone would graduate from Huaqing, but who would get good job assignments? The school could only judge based on student performance – how many scholarships they’d won, how many times they’d been recognized as outstanding, honors received… Those who checked all these boxes were good students. The best students would naturally be assigned to good work units, and the units would want them.

In the whole dorm, probably only first-prize winner Xiaolan didn’t care about job assignments.

She had clear plans for her future and wouldn’t work at an assigned job for more than two years anyway.

She worked so hard not for scholarships, but because she enjoyed challenges, didn’t want to waste her youth, and hoped to learn more.

But having won the scholarship, Xiaolan wasn’t pretentious enough to refuse it.

Once the dorm’s atmosphere improved, Xiaolan thought about the 240 yuan in her pocket and felt quite good. She would hand this money over – her mother would surely be happy to hear about her scholarship when she returned from Yang City.

Her mother had called after reaching Yang City and successfully meeting up with Li Fengmei. They should be selecting goods now.

…

Liu Fen’s trip to Yang City was indeed quite smooth so far.

On the train, she kept to herself, not engaging when others tried to chat. Liu Fen wasn’t talkative by nature, and she didn’t mind the boredom. As the train slowly chugged along, she read the book she’d brought.

Managing two shops alone, with Xiaolan helping with administration, Liu Fen felt particularly nervous about this purchasing trip.

If she chose clothes poorly, what would she do with 70-80 thousand yuan worth of stock sitting there?

Plus the renovation of two shops totaling over 100,000 yuan – the two shops combined were nearly a 200,000 yuan investment!

When withdrawing from the Commercial City clothing store business, her elder brother and sister-in-law compensated her with over 100,000 yuan, but the remaining money was from Xia Xiaolan’s bank loan. Owing money to the bank meant owing money to the state – Liu Fen couldn’t sleep well at night thinking about possibly not being able to repay it.

People of Liu Fen’s age didn’t even consider the concept of being a “deadbeat debtor” – they just knew they couldn’t owe money to the state, and that this was very wrong behavior. Just because of the bank loan, Liu Fen couldn’t relax. If she didn’t study herself, could she expect the shop assistants to care about the clothing store business?

This was also why Liu Fen had been flustered but not terrified when hearing Tang Hong’en’s “confession.”

Including these days after leaving Yunan Province for the capital, Liu Fen hadn’t thought much about this matter. People’s energy was limited – business occupied most of Liu Fen’s attention, how could she spare time to think about Mayor Tang’s words… But at Yang City station, she had to think about it, because driver Wang was waiting for her on the platform.

Liu Fen hadn’t told the truth in her first phone call to Xiaolan.

What could she say?

After reaching the capital, going out to purchase stock wasn’t as convenient as in Commercial City.

She couldn’t use Chen Wangda’s introduction letter anymore. Tang Hong’en had already considered this issue for mother and daughter, arranging for the Pengcheng Office in Beijing to issue one for Liu Fen. This went without saying – as soon as Liu Fen used this introduction letter to buy tickets, Tang Hong’en’s side would get the news.

Tang Hong’en had timed it perfectly, waiting at Yang City station.

If Tang Hong’en had been on the platform, Liu Fen would have blushed bright red. With young Wang it was slightly better, but only slightly.

“Auntie Liu, the leader is waiting for you in the car.”

Young Wang used all his accumulated wisdom in this moment. While Liu Fen was still dazed, he took her luggage and put it in the car.

He even opened the car door for Liu Fen. She carried some money on her, but her change of clothes and introduction letter were in her luggage bag. Could she just keep standing stupidly on the platform?

The car door moved slightly – Tang Hong’en in the back seemed about to get out. Liu Fen could only steel herself and get in.

“Mr. Tang, hello.”

Beyond this, Liu Fen didn’t know what to say.

Fortunately, Tang Hong’en didn’t say any strange things this time. “I came to Yang City for a meeting. Thinking you might arrive today, I came to try my luck at the station – seems my luck was good. You’ll probably be delayed quite a while purchasing stock in Yang City – do you have a familiar guest house?”

Liu Fen relaxed.

“Xiaolan’s aunt is here too. She arrived before me – I’ll stay with her.”

Tang Hong’en didn’t say more, telling Wang to drive to the address Liu Fen provided.

As the car drove through Yang City’s streets, several cars approached from the opposite direction. Sharp-eyed Wang said quietly: “Leader, it looks like Young Master Du’s convoy.”

Du Zhaohui’s cars?

“Ignore him, just drive past.”

This wasn’t Tang Hong’en’s usual car – Du Zhaohui’s side couldn’t possibly recognize it. As they passed each other, Du indeed didn’t notice.

The young master Du had something on his mind.

This concern was brought by someone surnamed Xia. Xia Ziyu had made a prediction come true, which did somewhat intimidate young Master Du.

But young Master Du wasn’t an ordinary person – it was impossible to make him eagerly seek out Xia Ziyu. As a compromise, he decided to first redeem the Xia family members.