Huaying Real Estate was one of Shanhai City’s rising real-estate companies. At first, few people noticed its rise, and the major firms paid it even less attention. But after news about Fengxia Mountain spread, Huaying Real Estate gradually became known to the public.
Real estate was a hot industry in Shanhai City. Many new companies had emerged in recent years, but very few managed to claim a real share of the market. Some succeeded, while others naturally failed, and many real-estate firms had gone bankrupt. Because of that, almost no one had high hopes for Huaying Real Estate.
Later, the government publicly announced its support for developing Fengxia Mountain and even finalized the plan. That shocked the industry. The established firms had not caught even a whisper of the news, yet an obscure little company had somehow learned about it in advance and swiftly secured Fengxia Mountain. Clearly, Huaying Real Estate either had connections or powerful backing.
The matter sounded an alarm for some of Shanhai City’s long-established real-estate companies.
As it turned out, Huaying Real Estate was not the only company that had known beforehand. Several firms with deeper resources and stronger foundations had known as well, yet none had managed to beat Huaying Real Estate. Speculation immediately ran wild.
It was not frightening when a rival merely had money. What frightened people was a rival with both money and connections. Showing up in Shanhai City at this particular time clearly meant Huaying Real Estate had its eye on the city’s promising real-estate market. How could the established companies not become wary?
As time passed, even Wang Cheng noticed that something was off.
Whenever he went downstairs to the restaurant for lunch with everyone else, he noticed people watching their group, openly or otherwise. The moment he turned his head, those people looked away. Later, Zhang Yiheng told him this would continue for a while and that he should simply get used to it. Zhang Yiheng did not explain further, but Wang Cheng more or less understood.
An ordinary person might have been curious, but once Wang Cheng remembered he was only working at Huaying Real Estate for the length of one probationary period, he lost all interest in learning what secrets the company might be hiding.
Even so, several people tried to strike up conversations with him, wearing expressions that practically announced, I’m trying to get information out of you. Wang Cheng wondered whether he really looked that easy to fool.
One person who knew about this was Gao Yongfu, who was old enough to be one of Wang Cheng’s elders. Once, he happened to catch someone trying it.
Gao Yongfu was forty-three years old and one of the company’s veteran employees. He did not head a department, but he was Chu Yifeng’s assistant and could almost be called the company’s all-purpose right hand because he participated in nearly every project. Even Zhang Yiheng and Li Yu occasionally sought his opinion. When Chu Yifeng was absent, Gao Yongfu was the highest-ranking person in the company.
Gao Yongfu was the oldest person in the office, though Wang Cheng was about the only one young enough for Gao Yongfu to plausibly be his father. At first, Wang Cheng rarely had opportunities to speak with him. That changed after he heard Gao Yongfu had a son who had also taken the gaokao that year. Every summer, nothing was a hotter topic than the gaokao.
Gao Yongfu’s son, Gao Quan, also attended Shanhai High School, though his grades were nowhere near Wang Ziyu’s. In fact, they were much worse.
Gao Yongfu had worried enough to grow several more white hairs. Later, he hired a private tutor, and Gao Quan’s grades finally improved. When the gaokao results came out, his score was more than twenty points higher than the family had expected and landed exactly on the cutoff for first-tier university admission. The whole family was ecstatic.
Gao Yongfu spent several days looking radiant before Li Yu finally asked what had happened, and only then did he tell everyone. They immediately gathered around to congratulate him. It happened to be lunch break, and with nothing else to do, the group began talking about the gaokao. Somehow, the conversation shifted to the provincial top scorer. This was the first time in seven or eight years that Shanhai City had produced the provincial top scorer, so the story had attracted plenty of attention. Wang Cheng still remembered that because of it, everyone had extorted a free lunch out of him.
“I remember the provincial top scorer is called Wang Ziyu. I heard she’s from the countryside, and because she doesn’t want her life disturbed, her family refused to let their address be made public.”
“Her surname is Wang, same as Wang Cheng. Could she be from his hometown?” Li Yu pushed up the black-framed glasses on her face. The lenses were only mildly corrective; she wore them sometimes when she wanted to look a little more ladylike.
She had only tossed out the comment casually and did not genuinely think Wang Cheng knew the girl. But Wang Cheng suddenly smiled, with a trace of pride at that. Everyone immediately realized Li Yu had probably guessed close to the truth. The actual answer still shocked them: the provincial top scorer was his younger sister.
“Well, look at you, Wang Cheng. You’ve been sitting on huge news like that all this time. I heard provincial top scorers get rewards. Is your sister collecting so much money her hands have gone numb?” Fang Tian nudged him lightly with an elbow a few times.
“Uh, I’m not too clear on the details, but I think the school gives a reward.” Wang Cheng remembered that since he returned to the city, both Wang Ziyu and Mama Wang had called. Mama Wang called to share happy news, while Wang Ziyu called to complain. Being the provincial top scorer meant relatives and neighbors showed up every day to congratulate her, and there had already been several thank-you banquets for her teachers.
“That’s great!” Fang Tian sighed. When he went to university, his family had needed to scrape together loans from relatives to pay for it. Back then, if he had known top scorers received rewards, he might have tried to fight his way to first place too.
Gao Yongfu looked at Wang Cheng with a smile. “If I’d known you earlier, maybe I could’ve asked your sister how she studies and had our Xiao Quan learn from her.”
“Actually, I don’t know how my sister studies either. When she’s home, she helps Mom with chores, and I hardly ever see her studying.” Eldest Brother and his younger sister had both been born for academics. Sometimes Wang Cheng wondered whether the family genes had mutated by the time they reached him. Otherwise, why had he not been born a natural academic genius like the other two?
“That’s what you call a top student!” Fang Tian’s voice was thick with obvious envy.
The truly jealous one was Tang Sisi, standing alone at the reception desk and watching everyone laugh together. Ever since the boss threw her out of the restaurant, everyone had more or less begun ignoring her. Treating a young woman that way might not have been especially nice, but there was not much sympathy to spare for someone constantly chasing unrealistic ideas instead of keeping her mind on the right path.