Chapter 124: Elder Xu’s Successor
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Lu Zhaoying was not particularly clear about the internal affairs of OST.
However, he knew that their team members belonged to the Yunguang Consortium. The Yunguang Consortium was affluent and never used the OST team for profits.
As a result, fans that wanted their merchandise had to make their own imitations.
If they wanted to see them, they had to attend compet.i.tions.
Lizi Channel’s variety show used to invite them after they won the champions.h.i.+p and gained a wave of popularity, mainly because they wanted to invite the captain Yang Fei. However, they were all rejected.
Arguably, their fans were the most pitiful in history.
There were not many tickets for the exhibition match. Only close to a thousand were available, but hundreds of thousands of people wanted to grab these thousand tickets like how millions of troops wanted to cross the Dumu Bridge.
They also did not engage in scalpers. If someone wanted tickets, they had to rely on hand and internet speed.
This time, there were four matches that the OST team was involved in. Lu Zhaoying knew that he would not be able to s.n.a.t.c.h the tickets, so he found an insider relation and finally managed to snag three tickets.
He did not even manage to get a ticket that included a meet and greet chance.
The fact that he gave one ticket to Qin Ran was as if he cut himself for her.
Cheng Mu knew how difficult the process was and wanted Qin Ran to accept them.
Qin Ran expressionlessly reached out to press down her baseball cap to prevent Lu Zhaoying from taking it.
“Ok, I won’t touch it.” Lu Zhaoying withdrew his hand. “A high-quality imitation cap is so precious, and you tell me that you aren’t a fan. Seriously.”
He stuffed the tickets into Qin Ran’s hand.
Qin Ran looked down at the tickets, thought for a while, and slowly put them in her pocket.
Lu Zhaoying told her to lock them up once she got home to prevent others from seeing them.
**
Cheng Juan and Hao Dui told her the same thing.
“There’s still something missing in the information.” Cheng Juan reached out for the computer on the table. He tilted his head, looked at Qin Ran, and tapped the table. Slowly, he said, “When you are done, ask Qian Dui to bring it over.”
As Qin Ran had tests, Cheng Juan did not bother her about these things for a few days.
Qin Ran sat beside the computer and started working.
Her slender fingers pressed on the black keyboard keys very distinctly.
Only the sound of the keyboard typing was heard in the school doctor’s office.
Her side view looked extremely serious.
Hao Dui stood behind Qin Ran and looked at her.
In reality, he still had not come to his senses yet. The Qin Ran in front of him was very different from the impression he had of her in his mind. He could not help but feel a little distant.
At this time, Cheng Mu’s phone rang.
He glanced at it. It was Cheng Jin. He went out and answered it.
Cheng Jin had a pile of resource books beside him as he slowly said, “Should I send over the resource books that Master Juan wanted now?”
Cheng Mu paused.
In the past, he would definitely say that he would send them over immediately, but now…
He glanced at the gla.s.s door in front of him quietly. After a moment, he said, “Wait for a while. Let me ask Master Juan.”
Qin Ran was still sifting through the data. Cheng Juan half-leaned on the table with drooping eyes.
After some thought, Cheng Mu walked to his side and said in a low voice. “Master Juan, Cheng Jin is on the phone asking about the resource books…”
“Send them over.” Leaning against the table, Cheng Juan answered clearly without batting an eyelash.
Cheng Mu nodded. He took his phone out again and said to Cheng Jin on the phone, “Master Juan wants you to send them over.”
“Ok, but there’s so many of them. Will you be able to finish them?” Cheng Jin glanced at the pile of resource books by his feet and thought of what Cheng Mu said to him. He slowly said again, “Even if you copy the answers, it will be hard.”
“It’s fine. Miss Qin can finish them,” Cheng Mu said a little tiredly.
“These days, you’ve gotten used to calling her Miss Qin. It seems that she’s not bad?” Cheng Jin questioned. Although Cheng Mu had been calling her Miss Qin recently, his tone today was quite different.
Cheng Mu replied, “Well, you will know why tomorrow.”
**
At night.
Everyone from the Ninth Cla.s.s attended the evening self-study.
Usually, there were no lessons during the evening self-study period, but the physics teacher came over tonight carrying a thermos flask.
He presented two multiple choice questions to the Ninth Cla.s.s.
The calculations filled up the entire blackboard.
In the process, the physics teacher praised Lin Siran, followed by Xu Yaoguang.
He emphasized on Lin Siran. “Lin Siran, you’re improving exceptionally fast. I have high hopes for you.”
The entire Ninth Cla.s.s were all numb after hearing the teachers praise Lin Siran for the entire day.
After cla.s.s, he strolled over to Qin Ran’s desk, knocked it, and coughed. “Qin Ran, come to my office for a while.”
Today was a little cold as usual, and it was quite windy.
Qin Ran was hearing a grey sweater. Acknowledging him, she raised her head and casually threw her extracurricular books under her desk.
When they arrived at the staff room, the physics teacher put down his lesson plan. “Qin Ran, are you very dissatisfied with me?
“Why didn’t you do a single physics question?”
He pointed to the very obvious zero in the last row of the results list.
Qin Ran lowered her head rather obediently. Calmly, she said, “I want to let you know that I don’t know how to do any of them.”
The physics teacher was speechless.
He actually believed it.
**
As the students in the cla.s.s watched her leave, they came together to discuss it.
“I just knew that the physics teacher would definitely look for her.” Qiao Sheng looked up, leaned back, and raised his eyebrows.
After some thought, he poked Xu Yaoguang’s back. “Young Master Xu, why do you think Qin Ran did not answer a single question for physics? Is it because she doesn’t know how to do them or because she’s trying to cause a scene?”
Xu Yaoguang looked at the direction of the cla.s.sroom door and coldly shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Seriously.
Qiao Sheng could not understand why, so he stopped asking.
“Ah, Qiao Sheng, look at this post. It’s time for you to pray to the G.o.d of Study. Wait, I’ll upload Sister Ran’s math paper.” Qiao Sheng’s table mate went to look for Lin Siran to get Qin Ran’s paper.
As the few of them continued their banter, suddenly, someone at the back remembered something. “I heard that someone is going to transfer to our cla.s.s.”
“How did you find out?” Qiao Sheng curiously asked since they were already in Grade 3.
Their cla.s.s was particularly popular this year.
“Last night during dinner, my uncle told me.” He Wen was Director Ding’s relative and was temporarily living in Director Ding’s house. “He told my aunt that the student was supposed to be in the First Cla.s.s, but because of Monster Li, the student was placed in our cla.s.s. She’s a girl.”
Qiao Sheng’s legs fidgeted, not curious anymore. He only looked at his phone and said, “Anyone able to grab the OST tickets?”
After he spoke, more than half the cla.s.s sighed.
**
Qin Ran returned to cla.s.s after eating.
In the school doctor’s office, Lu Zhaoying had just finished his meal. He leaned on the sofa and started drinking tea. Suddenly, he remembered something.
He stood up in a jiffy, turned on his phone, and looked for First Middle School’s forum. His fingers quickly scrolled down and finally found the commentary he was looking for.
He pressed on the commentary and was deeply engrossed for some time.
“Young Master Lu, are you ok?” Cheng Mu was currently talking to Hao Dui and the two of them looked at his direction.
“I’m looking at First Middle School’s forum. Qin Ran is the only one who scored full marks and scored better than Xu Yaoguang.” Only then did Lu Zhaoying realize what had happened.
Cheng Mu nodded. “Yes, that’s what we heard some time ago. It’s really surprising.”
“She got 150 while Xu Yaoguang got 141.” Lu Zhaoying was in disbelief. “These questions are Olympiad questions set by Hou Delong. Does that mean that her mathematical reasoning is much better than Xu Yaoguang’s?”
Cheng Juan was currently playing with his human model.
He paused when he heard what Lu Zhaoying said.
“It can’t be, right?” Cheng Mu and Hao Dui looked at each other.
They did not understand why Lu Zhaoying had such a delayed yet huge reaction.
Lu Zhaoying did not explain anything to both of them. He was not shocked that Qin Ran scored better than Xu Yaoguang but because of something else.
“Elder Xu has not managed to find a successor in years and even left the capital to be a princ.i.p.al here.” Lu Zhaoying recomposed himself and looked at the two of them. “Do you think that Elder Xu is here at Yun Cheng because he wants Qin Ran to be his successor?”
Princ.i.p.al Xu told them that he was looking for a successor a long time ago.
Initially, he and Cheng Juan doubted whether what Princ.i.p.al Xu said was true. Besides, the two of them had searched the entire Yun Cheng and failed to find a potential candidate for Elder Xu.
Until he had an epiphany today.
In reality, nothing was impossible. How did Princ.i.p.al Xu even know Qin Ran?
When Qin Ran’s hand was hurt, Princ.i.p.al Xu was extremely worried and came to the school doctor’s office almost every day to check on her hand.
Lu Zhaoying sat on the sofa, poured a gla.s.s of cold water for himself, and tried to calm down.
“It can’t be, right?” Hao Dui looked at Lu Zhaoying and shook his head. “He did not approve of so many people in the city. Besides, there are so many people who are better at math than her. The A Inst.i.tute of Mathematics has a bunch of mathematics fanatics and the successor isn’t just judged based on mathematical reasoning.”
COMMENT
Many people in the capital were eyeing the position of Elder Xu’s successor. If it was taken by an inconspicuous girl, what would that mean for the people in the inst.i.tute?
“Furthermore, let’s consider Elder Xu’s ident.i.ty and his expectations for his successor. She’s only an ordinary person. How can she compare with those people in the capital that were rejected? If Elder Xu really had this intention, she would have been sent to the capital a long time ago. Why would she still be in Yun Cheng?”