Zhou Kang was completely beyond caring about decorum, his eyes wide as he stared at Su Ming as if looking at a monster.

“Eldest… Eldest Brother, you… what did you say? Top scorer? Him?”

He pointed at Su Ming, his finger trembling.

This country bumpkin, how old was he?

“Ahem!” Zhao Chunlan was also choking, her face flushed red as she coughed while looking at Su Ming with disbelief.

Zhou Wenhai’s face darkened.

“Such undignified behavior, what kind of spectacle is this!”

The icy voice made Zhou Kang shiver, and he finally realized his impropriety. He hurriedly picked up a napkin to wipe his mouth, but those bloodshot eyes of his remained fixed on Su Ming, filled with shock, jealousy, and a trace of… fear.

Zhou Kang suddenly understood.

Eldest Brother was making an investment!

A fourteen-year-old County School top scorer, his future prospects were simply limitless!

At this moment, all his previous contempt, mockery, and disdain transformed into resounding slaps, striking his own face with brutal force.

The sting was searing.

Seeing this, Lady Liu quickly tried to smooth things over: “Oh my, look how excited Second Uncle is. This is a joyous occasion too. For Su Ming to achieve the top score brings glory to our Zhou family. Come, Su Ming, your teacher’s wife toasts you with this cup.”

She raised the fruit wine in her hand, smiling warmly.

Su Ming hastily stood up, picking up his own cup: “This student dares not accept such praise. It is entirely due to the guidance and support of my teacher and Professor Liu.”

He drained the wine in his cup in one go, his posture kept extremely humble.

His calmness and modesty formed a stark contrast to Zhou Kang’s loss of composure.

The look of satisfaction in Zhou Wenhai’s eyes grew even deeper.

This meal, for Su Ming, tasted like chewing wax.

Although the dishes on the table were the most exquisite he had ever seen in his life, those few gazes that felt almost tangible made him feel as if sitting on pins and needles.

He finally waited until the dinner ended and immediately stood up to take his leave.

Zhou Wenhai nodded: “Yulin, escort your junior brother back.”

“Yes, Father.”

Zhou Yulin led Su Ming out of the dining hall, passing through the lantern-lit corridor.

The evening breeze dispersed the lingering smell of alcohol and the oppressive atmosphere from the dinner table, allowing Su Ming’s taut nerves to relax.

“Junior Brother Su, please don’t mind it, my second uncle… he’s just like that,” Zhou Yulin said with some apology.

“Senior Brother, you are too serious,” Su Ming shook his head.

“From today onward, you are my father’s student, and also my, Zhou Yulin’s, junior brother,” Zhou Yulin’s tone became solemn. “In Qingshi Town, should any matter arise, you can always come to me.”

He stopped walking and looked at Su Ming: “After the County School releases the results tomorrow, you can go and complete the enrollment paperwork. The County School has dedicated student dormitories. Though they are somewhat simple, they offer the advantage of quietness, and it will spare you from staying at the inn.”

“Thank you for the arrangements, Senior Brother,” Su Ming felt a warmth in his heart.

After seeing Su Ming to the main gate of the Zhou Residence and watching his figure disappear into the night, Zhou Yulin turned and went back inside.

He had just reached his room’s doorway when a servant stopped him.

“Young Master, the Master asks you to come in.”

Zhou Yulin understood and headed towards the study.

Zhou Wenhai was standing by the window, hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the night sky outside.

“Father.”

“Yulin, why do you think I accepted Su Ming as my student today?” Zhou Wenhai did not turn around, his voice calm.

Zhou Yulin thought for a moment and replied: “Because his talent is outstanding. His policy discussion essay astonished everyone, and he is this year’s top scorer, with a promising future. Father appreciates talent and is also forging a favorable connection for our Zhou family in advance.”

“You are only half right,” Zhou Wenhai turned around, his gaze profound.

“What I value is not his talent, nor that title of top scorer.”

Zhou Yulin was stunned.

“What I value are the words he spoke when presenting the paper-making technique,” Zhou Wenhai paced slowly. “He came to seek my protection. He clearly knows what he possesses, and he clearly knows what I need.”

“He packaged a goose that lays golden eggs as a ‘enrich the village and benefit the people’ political achievement. He tied his own life and property to my, Zhou Wenhai’s, official reputation and future prospects.”

A strange light flickered in Zhou Wenhai’s eyes: “This level of intellect, this strategic vision, this courage… these are not something an ordinary fourteen-year-old boy could possess. He is like a piece of uncut jade. He seems unremarkable now, but with a little polishing, he can reveal earth-shattering brilliance.”

“What about the paper-making workshop…” Zhou Yulin was still somewhat puzzled.

“The workshop?” Zhou Wenhai laughed. “That bit of profit is beneath my notice. What I want is Su Ming’s debt of gratitude! Today, I protect him under the name of teacher and student. If he soars to great heights in the future, this bond of goodwill will be the most precious asset of our Zhou family.”

“Your second uncle only sees the petty profits before his eyes, so he will forever be stuck managing trivial matters within the inner household. You must learn to see the landscape ten, even twenty years from now.”

“This Su Ming, you can develop a deep friendship with him, but do not try to control him. He is no ordinary creature confined to a pond. Having him as a friend is far better than having him as an enemy.”

Zhou Yulin’s heart was profoundly shaken. He bowed in acceptance of the teaching: “Your son… understands.”

Meanwhile, Su Ming was walking back to the inn.

The night was deep, the streets sparsely populated, with only the lanterns of a few shops swaying in the wind.

Lin Yu’s tone was full of anguish and frustration, “Disciple! Top scorer plus the Director’s student! You are now like a firefly in the pitch-black night, impossible to hide! This seriously violates the core tenets of our ‘Way of Survival’!”

“‘Surviving’ is not about hiding blindly,” Su Ming’s gaze seemed particularly bright in the night. “Sometimes, the greatest danger comes from the weakest position. We must first reach a relatively safe height before we can even talk about ‘surviving’. Zhou Wenhai, this big tree, is our best protective talisman at this stage.”

“You… you brat, now you’re lecturing your master?” Lin Yu was speechless with anger, but then sighed, “Forget it, forget it. Being high-profile now is for the sake of longer-lasting low-profile later. This deal is risky, but the returns are indeed enormous.”

“From now on, with Zhou Wenhai’s protection, at least within this small territory of Qingshi County, no one will dare to move against you lightly. That Young Master Wei, and that Zhou Kang, will have to think twice.”

“Disciple, remember, starting today, your new task is to be a good ‘genius student’. Put all your energy on the surface, into studying. As for our own affairs, like cultivation, like the core technology of the workshop, hide them deeper, more secretly!”

“I understand, Master.”

Su Ming pushed open the inn’s creaky wooden door. A smell mixed with cheap lamp oil and damp wood assaulted his senses.

Zhao Rui was pacing anxiously in the room. As soon as he saw Su Ming, he immediately rushed over.

“How did it go? Why did Director Zhou want to see you? Did you meet my uncle? Did he scold me because I messed up the exam?”

He fired questions like a machine gun, his face written with anxiety.

Su Ming took off his outer garment and hung it on the back of the chair, his movements unhurried.

“Director Zhou wanted to chat with me about my essay, and because we talked well, he accepted me as his student. Your uncle didn’t say anything,” he poured a cup of water. “The results are posted tomorrow. Rest early.”

Zhao Rui looked at Su Ming’s calm face, his heart even more unsettled. This guy, how does he seem like nothing happened?

Su Ming ignored Zhao Rui’s questioning and began meditating on his own.

The Aura Concealment Art slowly circulated, smoothing out the last ripple of emotion in his heart.

The next day, as dawn was just breaking, the long street in front of the County School was already packed with people.

Beneath the red wall where the results would be posted, candidates and their families craned their necks, the noise almost enough to lift the roofs off the entire street.

Zhao Rui was so nervous his palms were sweating. He kept standing on tiptoe to look inside, muttering under his breath, “Heaven bless, ancestors bless, I must make the list, I must make the list…”

Su Ming stood on the outskirts of the crowd, his expression serene.

The Aura Concealment Art naturally isolated him from the surrounding anxiety, as if he were an onlooker detached from the affair.

“It’s out! It’s out!”

Someone shouted, and the crowd instantly erupted.

A huge red list was pasted onto the wall by two academic supervisors working together. The two bold, flowing black characters at the very top were particularly eye-catching.

Top Scorer!

“Top scorer… Su Ming!” a literate candidate read out loud, his voice full of shock. “Place of origin, Qingzhou, Qingshi Town, Su Family Village!”

“Su Ming? Who’s that? Never heard of him!”

“Su Family Village? Isn’t that the poorest mountain gully south of the town?”

Discussions erupted. Countless gazes filled with surprise, doubt, jealousy, and curiosity began searching through the crowd.

Zhao Rui froze completely. He stared dumbly at the name at the very top of the red list, then turned his head to look at the calm Su Ming beside him, his mouth agape enough to fit an egg.

“You… you…” He stammered for a long time, unable to get a word out.

“Look! The last name!” someone in the crowd shouted again.

Zhao Rui jolted, forgetting about Su Ming for the moment, desperately craning his neck to look at the bottom of the list. At the very end of the densely packed names, he finally found those two familiar characters.

Zhao Rui.

“I made it! I made it!”

An immense wave of ecstasy surged to the top of his head. Zhao Rui was so excited he almost jumped. He grabbed Su Ming’s arm and shook it vigorously, “Su Ming! We both made it! I made it! Hahahaha!”

The people around them cast strange looks, some envious, some disdainful.

“Let’s go,” Su Ming patted his hand, turned, and squeezed his way out of the crowd.

Zhao Rui’s excitement hadn’t subsided. His face flushed, he followed behind, chattering nonstop: “Let’s go, let’s go! We must celebrate! Let’s go to a restaurant! Order the most expensive wine and dishes! My treat today!”

“A bowl of Yangchun noodles,” Su Ming’s reply was simple and direct.

“What?” Zhao Rui’s voice rose in pitch. “The top scorer eats Yangchun noodles? Aren’t you afraid of being laughed at if word gets out?”

“Peace of mind is enough. Why care about the opinions of others?” Su Ming kept walking without stopping. “After eating, I still need to pay a visit to Professor Liu.”

Zhao Rui was left speechless. Looking at Su Ming’s back, he finally deflated and grumbled, “Fine, fine, you call the shots.”

In the end, the two found a clean noodle stall by the roadside.

After the steaming hot noodles went down, Zhao Rui’s heart, which had been floating in mid-air, finally settled. He looked at Su Ming, who was eating his noodles unhurriedly across from him, his expression complex.

There was a time when this silent, rustic village boy who followed behind him had already reached a height he needed to look up to.

After finishing their noodles, as soon as they reached the entrance of Fu An Inn, they saw several figures waiting anxiously in front of the door.

At the front was Village Chief Zhao Dequan. Beside him stood Su Ming’s father, Su Shan, and his second brother, Su Yang. Their coarse cloth clothes were covered in dust, their faces bearing the weariness of a long journey and an awkwardness that seemed out of place in this town.

The inn’s shop assistant was leaning against the doorframe, waving his hand impatiently.

“I already said no rooms! You country bumpkins, hurry up and leave. Don’t block our business!”

Su Shan’s lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but he lowered his head again under the assistant’s disdainful gaze. Su Yang clenched his fists tightly, shielding his father behind him, his dark face full of anger.

Zhao Dequan was putting on an apologetic smile, about to slip a few more copper coins over.

“Dad! Second Brother!” Su Ming hurried over.

“Xiao Ming!” Su Yang saw him, his eyes lighting up, his tense body instantly relaxing.

Su Shan also looked up, a trace of relief showing in his cloudy eyes.

Zhao Dequan, seeing Su Ming return with his own son, quickly stepped forward: “You’re finally back!”

The shop assistant, seeing Su Ming and Zhao Rui, softened his expression slightly but still curled his lip: “So they’re your relatives? Should have said so earlier. But there are still no rooms. Figure it out yourselves.”

Zhao Rui, already feeling high-spirited from passing the exam, now seeing his father and Su Ming’s family treated with such contempt, felt a surge of anger rush to his head.

He stepped forward, straightened his back, and lifted his chin high.

“Say ‘no rooms’ one more time?” He pointed at the assistant’s nose, his voice sharp and loud. “Open your dog eyes and see clearly! My father is the Village Chief! My uncle is the County School Director Zhou’s own brother! I, Zhao Rui, am a newly admitted student of this year’s County School!”

The assistant was stunned for a moment, then sneered: “A student? The one at the bottom of the list? What’s so great about that?”

“You!” Zhao Rui’s face flushed red with anger.

He took a deep breath, suddenly grabbed Su Ming from behind him, and shouted with all his might: “He’s great! See him? Su Ming! Su Ming from Su Family Village! The top scorer of this year’s County School grand examination! Director Zhou Wenhai himself personally accepted him as a disciple! Now tell me, do you have a room or not?!”

This shout was like a thunderclap from a clear sky.

The entire alley seemed to fall silent for an instant.

The mockery on the inn assistant’s face instantly froze, his gaze shifting from disdain, to shock, to terror.

Top scorer?

Director Zhou’s disciple?

He felt his calves trembling.

But even more shocked than him was Zhao Dequan.

He stared dumbly at Su Ming, his mind buzzing, almost thinking he had misheard.

After receiving the letter, he had rushed over overnight, pondering all the way. The strategies Su Ming wrote about in the letter were too bold, too risky. Giving away dry shares, proactively showing weakness—it was practically putting one’s neck under the enemy’s blade.

He had planned to come and properly advise this overambitious young man after arriving, to make him behave properly and not indulge in wishful thinking.

But now…

Top scorer?

The weight of this word crashed down on his heart like a mountain, smashing all his doubts, contempt, and calculations to dust.

A fourteen-year-old top scorer!

What this meant, he understood better than anyone!

It meant Su Ming was no longer a junior who needed his protection, but a towering tree that Su Family Village, and even their entire Zhao family, would need to rely on!

Zhao Dequan’s back, without him even realizing it, bent slightly.

When he looked at Su Ming again, the look in his eyes had completely changed. It was a complex light mixed with awe, excitement, and a trace of obsequiousness.

“Good… good! Good!” Zhao Dequan was so excited his lips trembled. He grabbed Su Ming’s hand, “Su Ming, you… you truly are the prodigy of our Su Family Village!”

Su Yang and Su Shan also snapped out of their immense shock.

Su Yang’s eyes instantly reddened. He slapped Su Ming’s shoulder hard, too excited to speak, just repeating over and over, “Good lad! Good lad!”

Su Shan turned his back, using his rough, bark-like hand to secretly wipe the corner of his eye. He had spent his whole life facing the soil with his back to the sky, never imagining his son could achieve such distinction.

“We have rooms! We have rooms! Honored guests, please come inside!” The assistant finally reacted, his face blooming with a chrysanthemum-like smile as he bowed and scraped, ushering them in. “There happen to be two upper rooms available upstairs! This humble one will tidy them up for you gentlemen right away!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep