Children who do not wish to advance cannot be managed even by assigning eight people to watch them; they can still pull little tricks right under their parents’ noses.
Children who do wish to advance will study diligently regardless of whether the family has money or not, and whether there is a “jailer” supervising them or not.
Such matters mainly depend on whether the child themselves is clear-headed. For those whose brains are clogged with shit, no amount of parental nagging will make a difference!
Mrs Peng firmly believed she had given birth to a clever son.
Going to Rong City to accompany him in studies for a year would not allow constant vigilance; who knew if her husband might turn into another Xie Jinghu?
If an affair produced an illegitimate child, the losses for her and her son would be immense. Forget getting into a domestic 211 university; even admission to Harvard or Cambridge would be a net loss for Peng Guoqing!
President Peng was utterly exhausted by Mrs Peng’s inscrutable line of thinking. His brain completely lost the shrewdness he wielded in business deals and was unwittingly led astray by her. He even began seriously considering the possibility of his son Peng Guoqing moving in with Xie Qian’s family.
How could this be arranged?
He could not openly declare support for Xie Qian and his mother.
If Xie Jinghu grew wary, President Peng’s support would yield half the results with double the effort. Only a silent ambush could achieve twice the results with half the effort at the critical moment!
Fathers the world over, aside from the rare extreme cases like Xie Jinghu, were mostly normal like Wang Jun and President Peng, willing to pay any price for their children’s success. President Peng, who had steadfastly refused to take sides or lend a hand until now, was, under the stimulus of the news that Peng Guoqing aimed for a 211 university, already pondering how to assist Xie Qian in ambushing Xie Jinghu…
Peng Guoqing’s plight was on par with Wang Shuang’s.
Wang Shuang had painfully lost his new car and was about to become a mortgage slave.
Peng Guoqing had merely called Teacher Liang to inquire about his chances of entering a 211 university. Somehow, as the words passed along, it morphed into him certainly being able to get in. Even friends like Tai Wu called specifically to confirm with Peng Guoqing.
Peng Guoqing, ever eager to save face, boasted to Tai Wu and the others while inwardly his scalp tingled.
What was this called?
This was what they meant by being stuck on the tiger’s back, unable to dismount. If he did not get into a 211 university now, not only would Wang Shuang mock him for a moment, but Tai Wu and the rest would ridicule him for life!
Peng Guoqing steeled himself and asked Xie Qian, “Tell me the truth. What do you think are my chances of getting into the same 211 university as Wang Shuang?”
Xie Qian, true to form, spoke plainly. “Stop dreaming. Be more down-to-earth in life. Though dreams have everything, even the sweetest ones must end upon waking.”
“…”
Boo hoo hoo, Xie Qian was so cruel and heartless~
“Is there truly none? There must be at least a 1% chance, right?”
Peng Guoqing persisted, and Xie Qian reluctantly nodded. “There is a 1% chance, but you must understand that in probability terms, 1% is roughly equivalent to zero.”
“Enough, say no more. I do not want to hear the rest.”
Peng Guoqing muttered to himself, “Though you have only 1% confidence in me, Teacher Liang has 99% trust. Added together, that makes 100% odds!”
Teacher Liang thought Peng Guoqing had a 99% chance of getting into a 211 university?
Xie Qian dearly wanted to ask how Peng Guoqing had arrived at that conclusion, for based on his understanding of Teacher Liang, the teacher would never say such a thing!
There must be some misunderstanding here.
Yet in the end, Xie Qian chose not to burst Peng Guoqing’s bubble.
For some reason, Xie Qian’s tolerance for fools like Peng Guoqing had greatly increased of late. His once cold, black-and-white inner world was now splashed with vibrant colours, softening him.
Wen Ying had buried her head in furious cramming for several days and finally finished her summer homework the day before school started.
Having completed her homework, Wen Ying felt particularly confident upon seeing Xie Qian again.
Seeing him with her own eyes in Class 16’s classroom, Wen Ying’s eyes curved into smiles.
Xie Qian had not transferred after all. That was wonderful; it meant she had altered yet another pivotal turning point in his fate!
Even more astonishing to Wen Ying was that in the few days she had secluded herself, a bombshell had exploded in their friend circle: Peng Guoqing had publicly declared his intent to enter a 211 university.
“Who gave him that confidence?”
Wen Ying muttered.
Xie Qian, ever perceptive and clear-sighted, replied, “Probably borrowed from the heavens on credit.”
Learning that Xie Qian had already agreed to let Peng Guoqing join the weekend tutoring group, Wen Ying felt exhausted on his behalf.
He had barely sent off one underachiever in Wang Shuang, only for Peng Guoqing to fill the vacancy.
Tutoring underachievers was no big deal, but they needed to have a realistic sense of their own abilities. Peng Guoqing blurted out 211 university without a thought to how poor his academic foundation truly was.
Wen Ying was blissfully unaware that in Teacher Liang’s eyes, she was scarcely any stronger than Peng Guoqing…
During the break, Wen Ying received a call from Mrs Wang.
Mrs Wang was accompanying Wang Shuang to register at school in Modu. After looking around upon arrival, she called to ask Wen Ying if she had any ideas. “If you want to buy, I can check things out for you while I am here!”
Wen Ying certainly wanted to buy. She wanted to tell Mrs Wang about her dream of a riverside flat in Modu… but that riverside flat dream had turned into shares in Tianjiao, and the dream was on hold for now.
“Auntie Dong, I want to buy, but I have no money on hand right now.”
Mrs Wang was surprised. “How could you have no money? I remember you settled royalties for August, did you not?”
From 1 May to 31 July was the fourth quarter of sales for “Teenage Idol”. The book had sold nearly 1.7 million copies in the first three quarters, and by the fourth, buoyed by the popularity of the “Starry River and You” TV drama, total sales for “Teenage Idol” successfully broke through the 2 million mark. Zou Weijun’s final task before leaving had been to urge the publisher to settle the fourth quarter royalties for Wen Ying.
So Wen Ying could not say she had no money at all; she did have money. How was over a million yuan not money?
Having missed the low point of Modu housing prices at the end of 2005, over a million yuan could no longer buy Wen Ying’s dream flat. Lately, her focus had not been on property at all.
Wen Ying felt she had elevated herself, transcending the pursuit of houses for higher spiritual goals. Yet after tactfully expressing this, she was met with a barrage from Mrs Wang. “You still want to have your cake and eat it too? Buy a house in one go and be done with it?”
Mrs Wang needed to learn from Wen Ying on public relations and selecting promising adaptation projects.
But when it came to acquiring real estate, Mrs Wang had ample practical experience.
When Mrs Wang and her husband Wang Jun had first married, they did not even have a house. Later, when Wang Jun started his business and earned money, wanting to expand further, Mrs Wang firmly insisted on spending it on a house.
The couple had upgraded from their initial flat to their current villa, with houses growing ever better, without hindering Wang Jun from scaling his business larger.
Earn 100,000 and match it with a 100,000 yuan home; earn a million or ten million, and the scene changes entirely.
Wen Ying already held shares in Tianjiao, and with over a million in cash in hand, it was better to buy property than let it sit idle!
Mrs Wang said she was getting a mortgaged flat for her son Wang Shuang, and Wen Ying’s heart stirred. “If it is a mortgage, then I could try.”
Wen Ying was not yet 18 and could not secure a loan, nor was it convenient for her to buy independently.
Over a million could not buy her dream flat, but as Mrs Wang said, few people acquired property in one perfect step.
With only a million, she could buy a million-yuan house, or use that million as leverage to unlock a better one. Others worried about repaying mortgages; Wen Ying did not believe she could not manage even a mortgage.
This time, Wen Ying did not plan to keep it from her parents.
She wanted to buy in her mother Chen Ru’s name!
Mrs Wang instantly swallowed ten lemons whole.
