Chapter 161: Chapter 119: Everyone Bringing Money Is Welcome!

Seeing this scene, Shen Yixiao immediately knew that his grandpa, Lin Moxuan, must be here on official business today.

But that one call of “Grandpa” from him left everyone from the Education Bureau dumbfounded. The group exchanged glances, each face showing shock and confusion.

In the crowd, Wang Guangqing and Xu Decai shared a look; the two had heard about the connection between Lin Xiamo and the siblings, Shen Yanran and Shen Yixiao, but couldn’t be sure of the truth.

But Shen Yixiao addressing him as “Grandpa” more or less confirmed the rumor they’d heard!

Xu Decai was even secretly relieved that he hadn’t gone overboard when handling Shen Yixiao’s “puppy love” incident; if he really had tried to force a withdrawal, he’d have to kiss his job as head of discipline goodbye.

After all, the Education Bureau had clear regulations: schools couldn’t push students out just to boost their admission rates. Though all schools had shady practices in private, such things could never see the light.

If Lin Moxuan found out his grandson had been pushed out by Xu Decai, there was no way he could handle the aftermath!

“Dad, what brings you here?”

Hearing Shen Yixiao’s shout, Shen Qiushan hurried to the door.

“I’m here on official business today.”

“And to congratulate you, our top scorer!”

Lin Moxuan didn’t bother concealing their relationship—his son-in-law was the top scorer in the college entrance exam, a matter of pride no matter how you looked at it.

The Education Bureau folks were even more dumbfounded now.

Lin Xiamo transferred from the Education Bureau and had worked there for several years; everyone knew she was Lin Moxuan’s daughter.

But it turned out that Shen Qiushan, the top liberal arts scorer in Sanjiang Province, was Director Lin’s son-in-law!

In other words, the new top scorer was actually Lin Xiamo’s husband.

But none of them had ever heard that the leader’s precious daughter was married!

In fact, there’d always been people in the bureau chasing after Lin Xiamo.

Shock aside, everyone’s expressions grew suspicious.

“Director Lin, your bureau’s work efficiency really is something!”

As soon as Lin Moxuan entered, Liu Hongyu put on a smile and greeted him warmly.

“Principal Liu, Sanjiang University moves fast too!”

The two were old acquaintances from the Sanjiang education circle.

In theory, they were about the same rank: Sanjiang was a sub-provincial city, and Lin Moxuan, as head of the Education Bureau, held a deputy department-level position.

Sanjiang University was directly overseen by the Ministry of Education, so it counted as a vice-ministerial university—the party secretary and principal were vice-ministerial, while the other vice principals were at the department level. Liu Hongyu, as a regular vice principal, was deputy department-level.

But even though the ranks looked the same, the Education Bureau and the university were two separate systems.

Lin Moxuan was a civil servant; his deputy department-level power carried a lot more weight than Liu Hongyu’s!

So, from their attitudes you could tell Liu Hongyu was obviously flattering Lin Moxuan, even though there was no direct reporting relationship.

From the perspective of personal connections, getting on good terms with Lin Moxuan was definitely useful for Liu Hongyu.

“Qiushan, the Education Bureau is planning to reward you with a 100,000 yuan scholarship.”

“Let’s go through the process.”

Since the top scorer was his own son-in-law, Lin Moxuan skipped the formalities and got straight to the point after sitting down.

“There’s a scholarship too!”

“Thank you, Dad…”

“Uh, thank you, Director Lin, thank you to the Education Bureau, thank you to all the leaders!”

Shen Qiushan was elated; whether it was the Education Bureau or anyone else, he welcomed anyone who came to deliver money.

No one thinks they have too much money!

“Old Shen, our school is rewarding you with 30,000!”

Wang Guangqing seized the moment to add his part.

Although Shen Qiushan was only an auditing student at Sanjiang High School, the fact that a student like Shen Qiushan—an older transfer—could become the top scorer in the whole province after enrolling at their school…

The publicity this would bring was explosive!

It was a great honor for Sanjiang High School as well.

Before coming, Wang Guangqing had specially called Lin Xiamo to discuss how much scholarship to give Shen Qiushan.

Initially, he and Xu Decai set it at twenty thousand. Lin Xiamo thought it was too little and suggested adding another ten thousand.

That’s how they ended up at thirty thousand.

“Thank you, Principal Wang!”

“Thanks to the school!”

Shen Qiushan thanked everyone repeatedly; again, anyone giving money was welcome.

Afterwards, they started going through the award procedures.

On camera, Lin Moxuan handed Shen Qiushan an oversized check.

This oversized check was a veteran “actor”—every time the bureau awarded money to a top scorer, they used it.

After receiving the Education Bureau’s reward,

it was time for the school’s reward!

Wang Guangqing tactfully let Lin Xiamo handle this part. Especially with her father present at the time.

Even if he weren’t, Wang Guangqing had no intention of hogging the spotlight for himself!

After all, he was the principal of Sanjiang High, so he’d get credit anyway.

As for being in the limelight, it was better left to the “Saintess” of the Sanjiang education system.

Wang Guangqing hadn’t prepared any props—he simply stuffed the money in a big red envelope.

As the school’s representative, Lin Xiamo first shook hands with Shen Qiushan—a formal procedure.

But as their hands touched, Lin Xiamo instinctively drew back a little.

She thought she could manage a perfectly official handshake, but for some reason, a sense of gender difference surfaced out of nowhere.

After handing over the red envelope, they took a commemorative photo together as was customary.

“Principal Wang, Director Xu, Teacher Chen, let’s all take a group photo!”

Having worked within the system for years, Lin Xiamo knew the ropes—even though Wang Guangqing had given her the spotlight.

But Lin Xiamo wasn’t clueless about social graces. It was fine for her to award the prize on behalf of the school, but she had to consider Wang Guangqing and Xu Decai’s feelings too.

The five posed for a group photo.

Shen Qiushan, as the main character, naturally took the center spot, with Lin Xiamo and Wang Guangqing at his sides.

Chen Xiangyu stood next to Lin Xiamo.

One a beautiful teacher, the other a beautiful principal,

a true case of “twin flowers blooming together”!

Still, Lin Xiamo was bound to outshine the rest.

With the award ceremony over,

next came the interview session focused on the top scorer, Shen Qiushan.

Apart from Zhou Ruolin and Xu Fang, Lin Moxuan had also brought along reporters from Sanjiang Education Channel.

The three took turns with questions.

But the questions were nothing new—

basically, Shen Qiushan’s feelings about being the top scorer, and which university he wanted to apply for.

Once the interview with Shen Qiushan was done, the principal, Lin Xiamo, and the homeroom teacher, Chen Xiangyu, also accepted interviews.

At the same time,

inside a cold drink shop,

After being busy for quite a while, Xu Pipa finally got a breather.

She pulled her phone out of her apron pocket; it was almost one o’clock.

“Pipa, you took the college entrance exam too, right?”

The manager, Sun Xue, came over grinning, “I just saw Yanran post on WeChat—she scored 648!”

“Amazing!”

“No wonder she took the day off today.”

Shen Yanran had kept her promise from before to work at this cold drink shop with Xu Pipa.

It was just that today, Shen Yanran had taken the day off.

Xu Pipa hadn’t had a chance to check her phone earlier; actually, Shen Yanran had already sent her a message on WeChat.

“Pipa, aren’t you going to check your scores too?”

Sun Xue asked.

“Yeah!”

Xu Pipa nodded as she opened the webpage on her phone.

After practicing for a while, she was already very proficient with her phone.

The peak time for checking scores had passed, so she got straight to the results page.

Out of curiosity,

Sun Xue kept her eyes glued to Xu Pipa’s phone screen.

She couldn’t help but read out Xu Pipa’s scores aloud.

Chinese: 141

Math: 150

English: 146

Physics: 93

Chemistry: 92

Biology: 89

Total score: 711

“Wow!!”

“Pipa, you’re amazing!”

“You actually scored 711!”

Sun Xue’s face was full of shock. She’d always thought the quiet, reserved Xu Pipa was just an average student.

Never in a million years did she expect this not-so-talkative girl to be a top student!

She already thought Shen Yanran’s 648 was super impressive.

But Xu Pipa had actually scored 711!

“Pipa, with a score like that, aren’t you the top scorer?”

“Could you be this year’s provincial top scorer?!”

Sun Xue blurted out in disbelief.

“Still a bit short!”

Xu Pipa gently shook her head—she was a sciences student.

was a high score,

but still more than ten points from the top!

Last year, Sanjiang Province’s science top scorer had 726.

This year, the top science score was 725!

Of course, Xu Pipa still didn’t know this year’s top science score for Sanjiang Province.

Even though this year’s exam was supposed to be tougher, the top student’s score wouldn’t change much.

The increased difficulty mainly affected students scoring between 600 and 680.

“Already amazing!”

“You’re the first person I actually know who scored over 700 in the exam!”

Sun Xue’s eyes shone with admiration. She’d graduated from a junior college and knew the struggles of a low education level well.

Especially now, when higher education was devalued so much—sometimes even a junior college education wasn’t as good as a high school diploma in the past.

Getting into a good university didn’t guarantee success in life,

but there was no denying that graduates from good schools have a higher floor after graduation.

“Pipa, with your score you could go to Qingbei, right?”

“I can’t believe the summer hire I recruited could go to Qingbei!”

“Don’t you ever forget your big sis in the future—you’ll be my only contact at Qingbei!”

Sun Xue laughed as she patted Xu Pipa’s little mushroom haircut. She’d always had a great impression of Xu Pipa. The kid was well-behaved, hardworking, and very reliable!

Now, though, she admired Xu Pipa even more!

Just as she’d said—Xu Pipa was her only connection at Qingbei!

“I’m not going to Qingbei.”

To Sun Xue’s surprise, Xu Pipa gently shook her head.

“Huh?”

“Not going to Qingbei?”

“Your score isn’t high enough?”

Sun Xue looked at Xu Pipa with disbelief. With a score like that, shouldn’t she be going to Qingbei?

“Should be enough, but the majors I can pick are limited.”

Xu Pipa lifted her head, looking through the big glass window at the endless stream of people outside. She said determinedly, “But, I want to go to Sanjiang University!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep