CH 4
Lu Rong and Yan Gou went back to class for a meeting after eating the subpar meal in the cafeteria.
There were 12 classes in the entire grade: classes 1-4 were on the first floor, classes 5-8 were on the second floor, and classes 9-12 were on the third floor. The layout was the same on each floor, with classes connected by a corridor in an ‘E’ shape..
The third floor was the largest. There were 6 classes on this floor with two empty ones among them. Liang Wendao joined the biology simulation class every Wednesday night and was also the student in charge of the simulation class. The head teacher for the grade gave him the key to the empty class; usually, The Evil Team held meetings there.
When Lu Rong and Yan Gou arrived, Liang Wendao and Li Nanbian were already waiting there.
“This morning I got a new order, it was a private customization service! That sister was hesitating at first so I asked Yan Gou to call me to reel her in!” Li Nanbian showed off in front of Liang Wendao.
Liang Wendao applauded him sincerely. “Thanks a lot, Bro Li.”
“Nothing much! I swindled her in, we’ll rely on you down the road, jiayou[1].”
Liang Wendao calmly and confidently pushed his beer bottle-thick glasses. “No problem.”
Li Nanbian excitedly sat on the back of the chair and raised his head smugly. “This one is worth 5999. If we get 10 orders, we would earn sixty thousand this semester!”
Both were excited; when their eyes met, they foolishly gave out a crooked smile.
Lu Rong entered at this time. Li Nanbian, full of joy, smugly waved his hand at him. “Rong Rong~”
Liang Wendao stood up. “Bro Lu!”
“Sit.”
This empty classroom had just held an event, the tables and chairs were all pushed to four sides. Liang Wendao and Li Nanbian arrived first and moved four chairs. Lu Rong sat in the middle, on his left was Li Nanbian, his right side was Liang Wendao. Yan Gou sat beside Li Nanbian and took out his phone to make meeting minutes.
“As everyone knows, Nanbian took on a large order this morning. This order got us 5999 yuan in income. In addition to two orders he got before, comrade Li Nanbian’s new order generated 18000 in half a semester. Dutiful minister.[2]” Lu Rong smiled slightly, taking initiative to praise Li Nanbian.
Li Nanbian scratched his head. “Why make it so formal…” but his expression grew conceited, his eyes gleamed.
“Long story short, this is not the first private customization order, just do it accordingly. Yan Gou gathers data, Liang Wendao is in charge of tutoring.”
Liang Wendao, “Got it.”
Liang Wendao didn’t know Lu Rong prior to being robbed by the boss. His grades were great but he was short, his family condition average. He was often mocked as a nerd with an unsociable, eccentric and sensitive disposition.
After meeting Lu Rong, Liang Wendao’s life trajectory was overturned—he was not the nerd mocked by others anymore, but a pearl in the palm of the school tyrant!
No one dared to bully him anymore; whoever bullied him, Boss would lead some brothers to force him to kneel in front of Liang Wendao!
After a few years’ training, Liang Wendao had a large improvement, mentally and physically. He grew taller, unlike the shorty from that year; he was more confident, he was not just a nerd, and his knowledge was money. Moreover, he was not alone, he had a group of friends. Their Evil Team was the tyrant behind Chengnan High.
The Liang Wendao right now, his whole body gave off a calm and composed manner. He was The Evil Team’s Zhuge.[3]
This year, the team introduced the “Royal Supreme VIP private customization service”, he was the leader as usual. It was just checking the weaknesses and making up for them, giving more classic questions, marking a few more questions. For Liang Wendao who had an off-the-chart learning ability and was ranked first in the entire grade, it was a small issue. The two people he tutored before got pretty good results. Yan Gou even asked him to help with language privately.
Unexpectedly, Lu Rong said, “This private customization service, don’t promote it afterwards. This semester, we will only accept three.”
Lu Rong’s words were intended for Li Nanbian, but the one with the immense reaction was Liang Wendao. “Why?!”
Division of benefits in the team was fair, Lu Rong divided it by the contribution of each person and even planned out the evaluation system for themselves. Although this private customization service was introduced to others by Li Nanbian, the core supplier was Liang Wendao. Tutoring one person was worth a few thousands, the impoverished scholar Liang Wendao depended on this to earn money.
Lu Rong firmly looked at him. “Upon further consideration, this is a loss in business.”
Liang Wendao, “How can…”
Lu Rong, “This may be a large amount of money, but the time and effort you have to put on is for a whole semester.”
Liang Wendao, “It just means that I have to put more attention on the paper, it doesn’t need me to show up, it can’t spend that much of my time.”
Li Nanbian agreed, “That’s right, I am responsible for corresponding. If anything happens, I will be the one caught, it won’t harm Old Liang[4]!”
Lu Rong, “It seems simple now, but what if the result isn’t good? We have to be responsible for the money we take. Before, we strictly let others copy homework, now we have to be responsible for the result. If their results do not improve, doesn’t Old Liang need to show up for tutoring?”
Lu Rong’s calm and composed eyes were so bright and piercing, Liang Wendao and Li Nanbian couldn’t say anything for a while.
Lu Rong continued, “Copying homework didn’t have a cost. As long as one of them was done, it could be mass produced, at most we just needed to count their score. Yan Gou, Old Li and I helped with these things. But tutoring is an education industry, we need to invest a huge amount of manpower. Tutoring one means diverting one part of your attention; tutoring two, diverting two. Old Liang needs to study and do the entire grade’s homework every week, add on tutoring three people. How many brains does he need? Breaking reputation is no small issue. If Old Liang is affected, who will be held responsible?”
Lu Rong’s voice was not loud, but when his eyes swept over, Yan Gou and Li Nanbian both lowered their heads. Liang Wendao’s eyes twinkled, and his heart was warmed. Big Bro always said that money needed to be earned but we still had to take care of ourselves first; Big Bro was distressed over him.
“Finish the one from this semester first. Next semester, annul this programme.” Lu Rong spoke eloquently.
Everyone was listless.
Lu Rong comforted, “There are many ways to earn money, why look for the most arduous and fruitless one.”
Li Nanbian and Liang Wendao immediately gathered up their spirit. “Yes!”
Yan Gou also entered four words on his phone. “We obey your order.”
While they talked about this matter, Deng Te entered while carrying his bag. His fringe hid his left eye, his right eye serenely looked at them. Seeing that they were about to go, Deng Te was stupefied. Standing in front of the door, he didn’t know whether to enter or not.
Lu Rong asked the others to go first and then went to Deng Te. “Accompany me for a walk—how are you these days?”
Deng Te, who didn’t talk a lot, coldly spat out two words, “Practicing boxing.”
Deng Te was the one left by the previous boss, his policy was to use his fist to settle things. Thus, Li Nanbian called him “Chuang Wang”.[5]
Lu Rong didn’t fight. Under his regime, Chengnan High had basically retreated; no matter what disputes other bosses had, he didn’t care. It didn’t matter who was more capable as long as it didn’t disrupt him earning money. But Lu Rong was exceedingly good to Deng Te.
Lu Rong grunted after hearing him say this. Two people walked to the class door. Lu Rong asked him to wait, walked to his desk and took out a box. “Here.”
Deng Te looked at the box, then looked at Lu Rong. He opened the box, inside was a pair of new boxing gloves. Lu Rong was well informed and last weekend, he went to a sporting equipment store to buy seven to eight hundred yuan boxing gloves.
Deng Te was stupefied, his face revealed an unreadable expression.
Since Lu Rong became the boss, he became one of The Evil Team members but never did anything. Every meeting, while they discussed how to increase income and reduce expenditures, Deng Te just sat there dazedly. Later on, he became disinclined to join; most of the times were like today, coming late and returning early.
Lu Rong didn’t need him, Deng Te understood that. He was stubborn at first, but Lu Rong was always pleasant and genial and always sent things to him. Deng Te was embarrassed to accept, he should not take undeserved gifts after all.
“Your birthday is around the corner, this is your birthday gift,” said Lu Rong.
Deng Te shook his head. “I can’t accept.”
Lu Rong took out a buttercream cake. “Happy birthday.”
A blush emerged on Deng Te’s cold face, showing the expression of being unable to bear temptation but forcefully enduring it. “I am practising boxing, can’t eat such high calorie food.”
Lu Rong, “I know.”
Deng Te forcefully averted his sight from the cake and looked at other places. “If this was known by my coach, I will be scolded and punished to plank for an hour.”
Lu Rong, “I know.”
Deng Te vigilantly looked around. “…my coach’s son and I are in the same class.”
Lu Rong, “I know. Here, we can go back after eating this.”
Lu Rong looked at the class eight door to hint at him, let’s eat the cake in there.
Finally, Deng Te, who couldn’t resist the temptation of trans fats, received the cake gratefully and quietly walked into class 8. Under Lu Rong’s encouragement, he sat on the platform.
Students of class 8, “…”
Student A, ”Isn’t this the boxing champion from class 1, why did he come to class 8?! Boxing?!”
Student B, “His eyes are scary…”
Student C, “They said he covered his left eye with a fringe because of a knife scar.”
Student D, “He has a very good relationship with the previous school tyrant, is he here to collect protection money?”
Students of class 8, “Scary!”
Deng Te sat on the platform, his eyes swept over the crowd; after that, he took out a cake, opened it and slowly ate it bite by bite.
Students of class 8, “…”
Student A, “…Hey, why did he have to eat cake on our platform? Is he trying to say that we are unable to protect our own platform?! I’ll fight him!”
Student B, “Don’t go!!! Are you tired of living?!”
Student C, “That’s right, listen to Student B! His left eye was slightly blinded, they say his right eye is better than the other, your movement is seen in slow motion, it is impossible to win against him!”
Student D, “If he asked for protection fees, how much is appropriate ?”
The students of class 8 were lost in thought, like a group of people pondering about how much should be given when invited to the wedding of someone you are not close with.
At this time, the one sitting in front of Lu Rong—a fujoshi—passed by, saw Deng Te who was eating cake slowly on the platform, and suddenly stepped forward to raise his fringe.
Deng Te, “…”
Students of class 8, “…”
Student A, “Annoying! He ate cake on our platform, yet he wants our girl to help him with his fringe!”
Student B had lost his dream. “There wasn’t any knife scar on his left eye.”
Student C, “…I bet that girl will die[6].”
Student D, “If a girl of our class dates Deng Te, aren’t we free from protection fees?”
The uproar under the platform became louder. On the platform, Deng Te bit his spoon and glared at the girl.
The girl looked him up and down carefully. “You look pretty good.”
Deng Te looked down at her coldly.
The girl wiped the cream off his hair, took out a hairpin from her pocket, and helped him pin up his fringe. “The cream won’t get on your hair like this.”
Deng Te looked at the pink hairpin, and with cream-stained thin lips, he coldly spat out two words, “Thank you.”
Student A, “…unbelievable…”
Student B, “…impossible…”
Student C, “…it’s too far fetched…”
Student D, “Is he not here to take protection fees, but to date?”
Everyone suddenly felt inspired to do something- to eat cake on the platform.
Students of class 8, “The boxing champion of class 1 is too scary!”
That girl went back to her chair, took out a book, and smiled evilly to Deng Te who was eating his cake wholeheartedly on the platform. “From now on, you are my son’s gong.”
Lu Rong, “…”
The girl sluggishly knocked on Lu Rong’s desk. “Friend, what do you think?”
Lu Rong silently lowered his head to write homework, pretending to not hear anything.
[1] it is a way to cheer someone on, it literally means add oil.
[2] A dutiful minister is one who had contributed a lot to the country.
[3] Zhuge as in Zhuge Liang, a famous strategist during the three kingdom era.
[4] Most Chinese like to use the word old + surname to call someone they are familiar with, in the case where the one they call is younger they use small…
[5] Chuang Wang is a title given to a rebel leader Li Zicheng by himself.
[6] it doesn’t mean she was dying but it was more like she will have trouble with Deng Te.
There were 12 classes in the entire grade: classes 1-4 were on the first floor, classes 5-8 were on the second floor, and classes 9-12 were on the third floor. The layout was the same on each floor, with classes connected by a corridor in an ‘E’ shape..
The third floor was the largest. There were 6 classes on this floor with two empty ones among them. Liang Wendao joined the biology simulation class every Wednesday night and was also the student in charge of the simulation class. The head teacher for the grade gave him the key to the empty class; usually, The Evil Team held meetings there.
When Lu Rong and Yan Gou arrived, Liang Wendao and Li Nanbian were already waiting there.
“This morning I got a new order, it was a private customization service! That sister was hesitating at first so I asked Yan Gou to call me to reel her in!” Li Nanbian showed off in front of Liang Wendao.
Liang Wendao applauded him sincerely. “Thanks a lot, Bro Li.”
“Nothing much! I swindled her in, we’ll rely on you down the road, jiayou[1].”
Liang Wendao calmly and confidently pushed his beer bottle-thick glasses. “No problem.”
Li Nanbian excitedly sat on the back of the chair and raised his head smugly. “This one is worth 5999. If we get 10 orders, we would earn sixty thousand this semester!”
Both were excited; when their eyes met, they foolishly gave out a crooked smile.
Lu Rong entered at this time. Li Nanbian, full of joy, smugly waved his hand at him. “Rong Rong~”
Liang Wendao stood up. “Bro Lu!”
“Sit.”
This empty classroom had just held an event, the tables and chairs were all pushed to four sides. Liang Wendao and Li Nanbian arrived first and moved four chairs. Lu Rong sat in the middle, on his left was Li Nanbian, his right side was Liang Wendao. Yan Gou sat beside Li Nanbian and took out his phone to make meeting minutes.
“As everyone knows, Nanbian took on a large order this morning. This order got us 5999 yuan in income. In addition to two orders he got before, comrade Li Nanbian’s new order generated 18000 in half a semester. Dutiful minister.[2]” Lu Rong smiled slightly, taking initiative to praise Li Nanbian.
Li Nanbian scratched his head. “Why make it so formal…” but his expression grew conceited, his eyes gleamed.
“Long story short, this is not the first private customization order, just do it accordingly. Yan Gou gathers data, Liang Wendao is in charge of tutoring.”
Liang Wendao, “Got it.”
Liang Wendao didn’t know Lu Rong prior to being robbed by the boss. His grades were great but he was short, his family condition average. He was often mocked as a nerd with an unsociable, eccentric and sensitive disposition.
After meeting Lu Rong, Liang Wendao’s life trajectory was overturned—he was not the nerd mocked by others anymore, but a pearl in the palm of the school tyrant!
No one dared to bully him anymore; whoever bullied him, Boss would lead some brothers to force him to kneel in front of Liang Wendao!
After a few years’ training, Liang Wendao had a large improvement, mentally and physically. He grew taller, unlike the shorty from that year; he was more confident, he was not just a nerd, and his knowledge was money. Moreover, he was not alone, he had a group of friends. Their Evil Team was the tyrant behind Chengnan High.
The Liang Wendao right now, his whole body gave off a calm and composed manner. He was The Evil Team’s Zhuge.[3]
This year, the team introduced the “Royal Supreme VIP private customization service”, he was the leader as usual. It was just checking the weaknesses and making up for them, giving more classic questions, marking a few more questions. For Liang Wendao who had an off-the-chart learning ability and was ranked first in the entire grade, it was a small issue. The two people he tutored before got pretty good results. Yan Gou even asked him to help with language privately.
Unexpectedly, Lu Rong said, “This private customization service, don’t promote it afterwards. This semester, we will only accept three.”
Lu Rong’s words were intended for Li Nanbian, but the one with the immense reaction was Liang Wendao. “Why?!”
Division of benefits in the team was fair, Lu Rong divided it by the contribution of each person and even planned out the evaluation system for themselves. Although this private customization service was introduced to others by Li Nanbian, the core supplier was Liang Wendao. Tutoring one person was worth a few thousands, the impoverished scholar Liang Wendao depended on this to earn money.
Lu Rong firmly looked at him. “Upon further consideration, this is a loss in business.”
Liang Wendao, “How can…”
Lu Rong, “This may be a large amount of money, but the time and effort you have to put on is for a whole semester.”
Liang Wendao, “It just means that I have to put more attention on the paper, it doesn’t need me to show up, it can’t spend that much of my time.”
Li Nanbian agreed, “That’s right, I am responsible for corresponding. If anything happens, I will be the one caught, it won’t harm Old Liang[4]!”
Lu Rong, “It seems simple now, but what if the result isn’t good? We have to be responsible for the money we take. Before, we strictly let others copy homework, now we have to be responsible for the result. If their results do not improve, doesn’t Old Liang need to show up for tutoring?”
Lu Rong’s calm and composed eyes were so bright and piercing, Liang Wendao and Li Nanbian couldn’t say anything for a while.
Lu Rong continued, “Copying homework didn’t have a cost. As long as one of them was done, it could be mass produced, at most we just needed to count their score. Yan Gou, Old Li and I helped with these things. But tutoring is an education industry, we need to invest a huge amount of manpower. Tutoring one means diverting one part of your attention; tutoring two, diverting two. Old Liang needs to study and do the entire grade’s homework every week, add on tutoring three people. How many brains does he need? Breaking reputation is no small issue. If Old Liang is affected, who will be held responsible?”
Lu Rong’s voice was not loud, but when his eyes swept over, Yan Gou and Li Nanbian both lowered their heads. Liang Wendao’s eyes twinkled, and his heart was warmed. Big Bro always said that money needed to be earned but we still had to take care of ourselves first; Big Bro was distressed over him.
“Finish the one from this semester first. Next semester, annul this programme.” Lu Rong spoke eloquently.
Everyone was listless.
Lu Rong comforted, “There are many ways to earn money, why look for the most arduous and fruitless one.”
Li Nanbian and Liang Wendao immediately gathered up their spirit. “Yes!”
Yan Gou also entered four words on his phone. “We obey your order.”
While they talked about this matter, Deng Te entered while carrying his bag. His fringe hid his left eye, his right eye serenely looked at them. Seeing that they were about to go, Deng Te was stupefied. Standing in front of the door, he didn’t know whether to enter or not.
Lu Rong asked the others to go first and then went to Deng Te. “Accompany me for a walk—how are you these days?”
Deng Te, who didn’t talk a lot, coldly spat out two words, “Practicing boxing.”
Deng Te was the one left by the previous boss, his policy was to use his fist to settle things. Thus, Li Nanbian called him “Chuang Wang”.[5]
Lu Rong didn’t fight. Under his regime, Chengnan High had basically retreated; no matter what disputes other bosses had, he didn’t care. It didn’t matter who was more capable as long as it didn’t disrupt him earning money. But Lu Rong was exceedingly good to Deng Te.
Lu Rong grunted after hearing him say this. Two people walked to the class door. Lu Rong asked him to wait, walked to his desk and took out a box. “Here.”
Deng Te looked at the box, then looked at Lu Rong. He opened the box, inside was a pair of new boxing gloves. Lu Rong was well informed and last weekend, he went to a sporting equipment store to buy seven to eight hundred yuan boxing gloves.
Deng Te was stupefied, his face revealed an unreadable expression.
Since Lu Rong became the boss, he became one of The Evil Team members but never did anything. Every meeting, while they discussed how to increase income and reduce expenditures, Deng Te just sat there dazedly. Later on, he became disinclined to join; most of the times were like today, coming late and returning early.
Lu Rong didn’t need him, Deng Te understood that. He was stubborn at first, but Lu Rong was always pleasant and genial and always sent things to him. Deng Te was embarrassed to accept, he should not take undeserved gifts after all.
“Your birthday is around the corner, this is your birthday gift,” said Lu Rong.
Deng Te shook his head. “I can’t accept.”
Lu Rong took out a buttercream cake. “Happy birthday.”
A blush emerged on Deng Te’s cold face, showing the expression of being unable to bear temptation but forcefully enduring it. “I am practising boxing, can’t eat such high calorie food.”
Lu Rong, “I know.”
Deng Te forcefully averted his sight from the cake and looked at other places. “If this was known by my coach, I will be scolded and punished to plank for an hour.”
Lu Rong, “I know.”
Deng Te vigilantly looked around. “…my coach’s son and I are in the same class.”
Lu Rong, “I know. Here, we can go back after eating this.”
Lu Rong looked at the class eight door to hint at him, let’s eat the cake in there.
Finally, Deng Te, who couldn’t resist the temptation of trans fats, received the cake gratefully and quietly walked into class 8. Under Lu Rong’s encouragement, he sat on the platform.
Students of class 8, “…”
Student A, ”Isn’t this the boxing champion from class 1, why did he come to class 8?! Boxing?!”
Student B, “His eyes are scary…”
Student C, “They said he covered his left eye with a fringe because of a knife scar.”
Student D, “He has a very good relationship with the previous school tyrant, is he here to collect protection money?”
Students of class 8, “Scary!”
Deng Te sat on the platform, his eyes swept over the crowd; after that, he took out a cake, opened it and slowly ate it bite by bite.
Students of class 8, “…”
Student A, “…Hey, why did he have to eat cake on our platform? Is he trying to say that we are unable to protect our own platform?! I’ll fight him!”
Student B, “Don’t go!!! Are you tired of living?!”
Student C, “That’s right, listen to Student B! His left eye was slightly blinded, they say his right eye is better than the other, your movement is seen in slow motion, it is impossible to win against him!”
Student D, “If he asked for protection fees, how much is appropriate ?”
The students of class 8 were lost in thought, like a group of people pondering about how much should be given when invited to the wedding of someone you are not close with.
At this time, the one sitting in front of Lu Rong—a fujoshi—passed by, saw Deng Te who was eating cake slowly on the platform, and suddenly stepped forward to raise his fringe.
Deng Te, “…”
Students of class 8, “…”
Student A, “Annoying! He ate cake on our platform, yet he wants our girl to help him with his fringe!”
Student B had lost his dream. “There wasn’t any knife scar on his left eye.”
Student C, “…I bet that girl will die[6].”
Student D, “If a girl of our class dates Deng Te, aren’t we free from protection fees?”
The uproar under the platform became louder. On the platform, Deng Te bit his spoon and glared at the girl.
The girl looked him up and down carefully. “You look pretty good.”
Deng Te looked down at her coldly.
The girl wiped the cream off his hair, took out a hairpin from her pocket, and helped him pin up his fringe. “The cream won’t get on your hair like this.”
Deng Te looked at the pink hairpin, and with cream-stained thin lips, he coldly spat out two words, “Thank you.”
Student A, “…unbelievable…”
Student B, “…impossible…”
Student C, “…it’s too far fetched…”
Student D, “Is he not here to take protection fees, but to date?”
Everyone suddenly felt inspired to do something- to eat cake on the platform.
Students of class 8, “The boxing champion of class 1 is too scary!”
That girl went back to her chair, took out a book, and smiled evilly to Deng Te who was eating his cake wholeheartedly on the platform. “From now on, you are my son’s gong.”
Lu Rong, “…”
The girl sluggishly knocked on Lu Rong’s desk. “Friend, what do you think?”
Lu Rong silently lowered his head to write homework, pretending to not hear anything.
[1] it is a way to cheer someone on, it literally means add oil.
[2] A dutiful minister is one who had contributed a lot to the country.
[3] Zhuge as in Zhuge Liang, a famous strategist during the three kingdom era.
[4] Most Chinese like to use the word old + surname to call someone they are familiar with, in the case where the one they call is younger they use small…
[5] Chuang Wang is a title given to a rebel leader Li Zicheng by himself.
[6] it doesn’t mean she was dying but it was more like she will have trouble with Deng Te.
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