“Mrs. He Jia, that’s not how it is, please let me explain…”

Gripping the pencil case tightly, Xia Ziyu had endured far worse things – this current situation was nothing but a minor scene.

He Jia could be considered the best student they could recruit for the tutoring class. Starting ninth grade in September, she attended one of the top schools in Beijing with excellent teaching quality. He Jia’s grades were average at school, which made her family anxious, so they enrolled her in tutoring classes for the summer vacation, specifically in the elite class. The summer tutoring program Xia Ziyu organized differed from the weekend classes, charging monthly fees. Based on class sizes, the fees were set at 50 yuan/month or 20 yuan/month – the 50 yuan/month being the elite class with only 8 students, where teachers could provide more individual attention.

The 20 yuan/month classes had 20-25 students, and while they received the same tutoring, teachers couldn’t pay as much attention to each student.

The He family could afford the 50 yuan monthly tutoring fee – after all, He Jia’s mother’s monthly salary could easily cover two months of tutoring. He Jia’s mother had only one concern: these “teachers” were still students from the Normal College, weren’t they? They seemed enthusiastic enough, but their teaching quality remained unproven.

He Jia’s mother didn’t mind spending money on her daughter’s tutoring, but she objected to these student “teachers” using the students for practice while charging such high fees.

Fifty yuan per month would be acceptable if they could first show some results!

He Jia’s mother’s difficult nature gave Xia Ziyu a headache. If she had been in Beijing at the time, she would never have accepted He Jia… He Jia had attended classes for over ten days without paying a single yuan in tutoring fees. Xia Ziyu didn’t want to admit that her recruited classmates were so naive, but He Jia’s mother was quite articulate and had managed to confuse Xia Ziyu’s colleagues completely.

He Jia’s mother had made it sound so reasonable – even when buying eggs at the market, you get to choose them, so for a new tutoring center, shouldn’t they allow students to try the classes first?

“If the trial classes are good, I’ll help promote your center!”

It was with this silver tongue that He Jia’s mother had the college students running in circles. By the time Xia Ziyu returned from Shangdu and another week had passed, He Jia remained the only student attending without paying!

If it were just this, Xia Ziyu could have tolerated it.

But word seemed to have gotten out to other students that He Jia was attending without payment, creating undercurrents in the tutoring center, with some students testing whether they could get refunds.

Refunds?

Impossible!

Xia Ziyu had initially thought the business would be simple – gather a few classmates, find a venue, and start a tutoring center.

Only after beginning preparations did she realize how difficult this seemingly simple money-making plan was. Wang Jianhua charged 5 yuan per tutoring session, and while it wasn’t certain if Normal College students could find such good part-time work, the pay standard had to match Wang Jianhua’s. The weekend tutoring program was manageable – they worked two days a week, earning 20 yuan per person for six classes.

But the summer tutoring program ran all month, six days a week with one day off. With each student paying 20 yuan/month and classes limited to 25 students, Xia Ziyu’s total income was only 400-500 yuan. Paying these “teachers” 10 yuan/day would cost over 200 yuan per class, not counting venue costs. Making such little money for all this effort wasn’t worth it to Xia Ziyu!

Finding just any venue wouldn’t work.

The location couldn’t be too far since students came from all directions – it needed to be convenient for most.

Parents wouldn’t trust a tutoring center run by residential houses, so Xia Ziyu had to rent classrooms from a middle school. Since the school was closed for summer vacation, the classrooms were empty, so Xia Ziyu rented them… But empty classrooms couldn’t be used for free when needed. Opening several classrooms raised questions about who would be responsible if students had safety issues. During summer vacation, school staff were also on break, so using classrooms required arranging staff supervision and campus maintenance – a simple rental fee wouldn’t cover all these issues.

Xia Ziyu spent considerable money on gifts to secure the classrooms.

To date, she had six tutoring classes – four regular classes and two elite classes. The first month’s tutoring fees totaled 2,460 yuan, while she needed to pay nearly 1,000 yuan to twelve “teachers.” Xia Ziyu didn’t want to hire so many college students, but these tutoring classes were like regular school classes – while a single teacher might have sufficient knowledge to teach all subjects, they lacked the energy to do so effectively.

Between necessary wages, initial advertising, and venue rental investments, Xia Ziyu was losing money in the first month.

Profits would come later – advertising and venue rental were one-time investments with long-term benefits. If she could recruit more classes in the second month, she would naturally start making money. Xia Ziyu wanted to establish a large-scale tutoring institution with multiple branches, where she would oversee general operations and wait for profits… Making money seemed easy when others did it, but when Xia Ziyu tried it herself, she discovered how difficult it was.

Those Normal College students – where else could they find such part-time work if she didn’t hire them?

Now they were complaining about low pay and didn’t want to work!

Thinking about this, Xia Ziyu’s face darkened. If she hadn’t arranged the school venue herself, these people might have pushed her out during her absence from Beijing!

Though angry inside, her expression grew increasingly gentle:

“Mrs. He Jia, He Jia’s grades aren’t bad at all. In the pre-tutoring assessment test, she ranked among the top students across all six classes. Even if you were willing to pay 50 yuan per month, we wouldn’t have placed He Jia in the elite class without good reason. The effectiveness of tutoring will naturally show when school starts… If He Jia’s grades don’t improve, we can refund you then, alright? You seem like a respectable person, and our main purpose in running this tutoring center is to help students who want to improve. If He Jia’s delayed payment is due to family financial conditions, we can accept that given her excellent performance, but you see-“

Xia Ziyu had rendered He Jia’s mother speechless – refusing to pay would be admitting to poor family circumstances.

What face would He Jia have left at the tutoring center?

He Jia’s mother’s troublemaking was just a minor annoyance for Xia Ziyu. Because the tutoring center’s “teachers” were too young to maintain authority – with everyone being teenagers, the boundaries that existed at school seemed to disappear at the tutoring center.

Xia Ziyu was unaware of the bigger trouble brewing at the tutoring center.

She hadn’t seen Wang Jianhua for a week, but he said there was finally some progress regarding his parents’ return to the city!

Xia Ziyu felt she might be seeing a turning point. If Wang Jianhua’s father could return to his position in the city, what would a college entrance exam champion matter? To rural farmers, a Tsinghua University student might seem untouchable, but Xia Ziyu knew that a university student’s worth depended on the comparison!