Ever since gaining a clear understanding of the future, Chen An became extraordinarily busy once he entered high school.

First, he joined the school’s Mathematical Olympiad training camp.

He set the goal of winning a gold medal at the National Mathematical Olympiad and securing guaranteed admission to either Tsinghua or Peking University. Ideally, he hoped to accomplish this by the winter camp in his second year of high school. This way, he would be freed from the burden of the college entrance examination and gain enough time to tutor Cheng Lele. Based on his understanding of Cheng Lele, liberal arts subjects would be more advantageous for her. He then needed to master the key points of liberal arts knowledge in the remaining year and a half, and personally teach her. Although Cheng Lele’s intelligence wasn’t great, fortunately she was well-behaved. As long as he assigned homework, she would complete it conscientiously. Just like with the high school entrance examination, given enough time, she would surely be able to get into a decent liberal arts college in the Haidian area.

Second, accumulating sufficient wealth.

Cheng Lele had never lived independently before, and when she got to university, she wouldn’t be suited for dormitory collective life either. So after receiving her admission notice, he would need to buy a house nearby before she started university, making it convenient for him to take care of her. Once their graduation theses were completed, they could pretty much get their marriage certificate. Therefore, over these few years, he needed to save up funds to buy a house. He didn’t want to engage in extensive commercial investments like before. Perhaps having Wang Liting open an account for him and learning to use financial instruments like funds, bonds, and stocks would bring in money faster. This would also require time for trial and error.

Even with Chen An’s intelligence and capability, these two life goals were ambitious enough. So as soon as he entered Tai High School, Chen An’s studies were fully scheduled. Like a principal managing countless daily affairs, he looked nothing like a green first-year student who had just entered the school.

Compared to Chen An who studied with obsessive devotion, Cheng Lele’s days remained carefree, happy, and simple. She served as an announcer for the school radio station, smuggling in her idol’s songs at every opportunity to promote them enthusiastically. However, before long, she was ostracized.

This was because Tai High School students were clearly different from elementary and middle school classmates. They were cool, aloof, noble, and liked to form cliques. Especially that group of authentic county town natives—they always looked down on these students from township schools. A perfectly good class was divided into different tiers. At the very top of the pyramid were the county town students, while students like Cheng Lele from township middle schools belonged to second-class citizens. The main positions at the school radio station were controlled by these “banner children” who had broader horizons. Behind her back, they often whispered at a volume just loud enough for her to hear clearly, complaining that her song selections were tasteless and vulgar.

Cheng Lele thought that criticizing her as vulgar was fine, but criticizing her idol as vulgar was truly hurtful. She wanted to retort, but she wasn’t the type who was good at arguing, so she could only be a coward. Rationally analyzing it, although she couldn’t quite understand the English songs that the county town group chose, they were indeed quite different. She felt that differences in taste could be brought up face-to-face, gong against gong and drum against drum—there was no need to talk about people behind their backs in such an underhanded way.

Originally she wanted to complain to Chen An for a bit, but Chen An had joined the school’s Mathematical Olympiad training camp and had to attend over an hour of additional classes with a tutoring teacher after school every day. So she needed to wait a long time, and during the waiting time, her complaints would settle and subside. When they got home, Chen An still had to write frantically until late at night—Cheng Lele’s room was directly below Chen An’s room. She could see the faint shadow cast by the light from upstairs into the small courtyard.

Big Brother is working too hard, isn’t he? On one hand, Cheng Lele felt the disparities in the world and the pressure of being a top student, while on the other hand she felt a bit hopeless and bored, but she also couldn’t slip away to watch movies. This was because Taixi Theater was undergoing renovation and would reportedly be rebuilt into a privately-owned comprehensive cinema complex. The commercial street around Taixi Theater was also being developed simultaneously. Cheng Dong said that in the future, that would be the liveliest place in all of Taixi.