Chapter 82: What Kind of Person Do You Take Me For?

After finishing, the dean shook his head with some regret. “Student Chen Meng has done so much, yet remains so low-profile, unwilling to accept the school’s publicity. This is truly a great loss for our school.”

Chen Meng nodded. “Well, not everyone is like me, after all. If the school publicizes it and someone tries to follow my example but ends up in trouble, I can’t take responsibility for that. Right now, the main task for students is to study hard. After we graduate from university, then we can focus on serving the country.”

The dean couldn’t help feeling that something was off about these words, but still nodded. “Yes, what you say is absolutely right, Chen Meng.”

Chen Meng decided it was time to get down to business. “Director, because of my recent good performance, my uncle happens to need some help from me. You probably know who he is—Han Hao, the mayor of East District, the one who presented me the award last time. So I’d like to request a leave of absence for a while, possibly all the way until the college entrance exams. But you’ve seen my grades; getting into Jiangdu University shouldn’t be a problem. And even if I’m not at school, I’ll continue to study hard at home.”

The director was confused. After all that, he was just here to ask for leave?

Chen Meng looked at him with a hint of suspicion. “You’re not going to refuse, are you?”

The director quickly came to his senses and blurted out, “How could I refuse? If even the mayor wants you to take leave, how could the school possibly stand in your way? Besides, with your results, the school has nothing to worry about.”

Chen Meng then looked over at his homeroom teacher, who could only nod helplessly.

Watching Chen Meng walk away, the homeroom teacher gritted his teeth. “Why didn’t you stop him? With his grades, he has a real shot at being the city’s top scorer this year, maybe even the province’s. Our school hasn’t produced a city champion in ten years!”

The dean was exasperated. “Me, stop him? Would I dare? That kid talks about killing cultists like he’s wringing a chicken’s neck. Even just hearing him speak gives me the chills now. Stop him? Stop, my foot!”

The homeroom teacher was dumbfounded. Wasn’t this dean always the tough one? When did he become so timid?

Leaving the teachers’ office, Chen Meng truly felt free at last. Now he would have more time to do things his own way.

He wasn’t in a rush to go back. At the very least, he wanted to grab a meal at the cafeteria first.

But as he exited the teaching building, he saw a crowd gathered around the school’s central bulletin board. Normally, he wouldn’t have paid much attention, but as he passed by, he heard talk of a three hundred thousand yuan reward. That instantly piqued his interest.

He couldn’t help it—money was all he cared about right now.

He squeezed in for a look and discovered that it was the school’s new college entrance exam rewards policy. In his previous life, there had been something similar, but never so brazenly posted.

After a lot of perfunctory official statements, the rewards were laid out clearly.

Provincial top scorer: one million yuan.

City top scorer: three hundred thousand yuan.

Admission to a top university: ten thousand yuan.

That was it—simple and straightforward.

Chen Meng couldn’t help but salivate. One million for provincial top scorer—did he have a shot at that?

If he could master all the academic subjects, he’d have at least a fifty percent chance. And it shouldn’t take more than three thousand knowledge points to do so, since he already had a good grasp of the material. Surely one knowledge point would turn more than one page.

“It’s worth a try. It’s like an investment—if it succeeds, the returns are more than double.”

Muttering to himself, Chen Meng headed straight for the college building.

But to gain that many knowledge points, he’d still need a lot of money to spend.

In the cafeteria, Chen Meng was eating when someone sat down across from him. Seeing who it was, he was dumbfounded.

“What are you doing here?”

As soon as he said it, he regretted it.

Sure enough, Tang Wenjing across from him snorted. “What do you think? You took my money and promised to bring me meals from the cafeteria every day. I let it go when you were on leave, but now you’re back and you’re not even going to bring me food?”

Chen Meng scratched his head, knowing he was in the wrong.

But refund her money? That was out of the question—he didn’t have the money to give back.

“I scored 621 on the last exam. With that, getting into Jiangdu University isn’t a sure thing. My worst subject was runes—I only got 97.” Tang Wenjing said calmly. “My mother hired a private tutor for runes, but it didn’t help much. Actually, the problems you explained to me before stuck in my mind. There was a similar question on this test, and I got it right this time—otherwise, I’d have only scored 93.”

Chen Meng was taken aback. What did that mean?

But as long as she didn’t bring up money, anything else was fine. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Could you tutor me a bit more in the future?” Tang Wenjing hesitated, but finally asked.

So it was about tutoring. Chen Meng realized he had taken her money, so he couldn’t just do nothing in return.

“Let me think about it,” Chen Meng said, calculating in his mind. After some thought, he decided he could only move his shooting range training from weekends to weekdays. After all, Tang Wenjing was only free on Saturdays and Sundays, and he needed his weeknights for his own tutoring.

“Sunday. I can tutor you for a morning. No—two hours,” Chen Meng said after considering. There weren’t many weeks left before the exams, but if he tutored for a whole morning, what he’d earned from her so far wouldn’t be worth it.

“One full day of tutoring, and I’ll pay extra—one thousand a day,” Tang Wenjing offered.

“I’m not someone who only cares about money,” Chen Meng replied with a grin. “You think you can buy me off? No way.”

“Two thousand,” Tang Wenjing said calmly.

“What do you take me for?” Chen Meng shot back indignantly. He could earn several thousand a day as a part-time coach at the shooting range.

“Three thousand,” Tang Wenjing said, unfazed, as if she hadn’t heard his protests.

Chen Meng was stunned. What was this? Was she determined to have him tutor her, no matter what? Did all rich people act like this?

Did they really think money could buy everything?

He snorted in disdain. “Don’t insult me with your money. Frankly, I work as a part-time coach at a shooting range and make at least five or six thousand a day.”

Tang Wenjing, thinking he was still dissatisfied, said in a deep voice, “Eight thousand!”

Chen Meng’s face darkened. Even after that, she still wouldn’t give up. Did she want him to tutor her that badly?

She was using money to trample on his dignity.

He, Chen Meng, was not the kind of person she thought he was. She was mistaken, this little miss.

Then Tang Wenjing said slowly, “Ten thousand. But you’ll have to come to my house to tutor me, so I can sleep in a bit longer in the mornings.”

“Ten thousand?”

Chen Meng gritted his teeth. That was ruthless. Looking at Tang Wenjing’s calm face, he suddenly broke into a kindly smile. “Money isn’t important. Tutoring classmates and helping them improve is my honor.”

He hurriedly added, “Ten thousand a day, as promised. How about both Saturday and Sunday?”

Tang Wenjing looked at him as if she had expected nothing less. She didn’t seem the least bit surprised.