Chapter 117: Evaluation

A ridiculous misunderstanding left Zhao Fan and Yang Yuqing utterly helpless. Once they returned to class, Zhao Fan went straight to the lectern and rapped his knuckles against the desk.

“Tell me, who started the rumor that Yang Yuqing and I are dating?”

The classroom fell silent, followed by a flurry of questions and denials.

Zhao Fan swept his gaze across the room, then suddenly stopped.

“Chen Tianyu, why are you looking down?”

While everyone else was questioning one another and denying any involvement, Chen Tianyu alone had lowered his head. That clearly meant something was wrong.

Chen Tianyu gave two awkward coughs, his face filled with guilt.

“Well, I didn’t do it on purpose. Some people from Class One came over and asked me, and I just casually said something. I really didn’t expect them to spread it around.”

Zhao Fan: “...”

So Class One was behind it again.

Before Zhao Fan could say anything, the rest of the class exploded.

“Why is Class One always targeting the top student in our grade?”

“Shameless!”

“Exactly...”

“...”

As the chorus of agreement grew, Zhao Fan sighed. Student life was, after all, a competition of grades.

Before he had dropped out, he had been the top student in the entire grade. Class One had disliked him immensely because Chen Sicheng had always come in second.

After Zhao Fan left school, Chen Sicheng had become the top student. Class One had probably celebrated for quite some time.

Now that he had fallen in the rankings again, it would have been strange if Class One had not caused trouble.

It was truly bizarre. Class One was no match for them academically, yet whenever it came to stirring up trouble, they were inexplicably united. It was enough to leave anyone speechless.

“All right, Class Seven isn’t so easy to bully either. We’ll ignore this sort of nonsense. At the next monthly exam, we’ll crush them with our grades.”

“Right! We’ll crush them with our grades!”

“...”

Zhao Fan stepped down from the lectern, thoroughly satisfied. Wasn’t this one of the advantages of being the top student?

Under the influence of the incident, Class Seven soon developed an exceptionally intense atmosphere of study.

At the same time, He Yongshan also found out what had caused the whole affair. Furious, he went straight to speak with the head teacher of Class One. Their argument escalated until the two men came to blows.

They were around the same age and both male, and by the time He Yongshan and the head teacher of Class One had finished fighting, both had suffered injuries.

He Yongshan had dislocated his arm, while blood was streaming from the other teacher’s face.

By the time Zhao Fan heard about it, He Yongshan had already gone to the hospital, had his arm set, and returned to school.

The students of Class Seven swarmed around him, surrounding him completely.

“Old He, we heard you beat up the head teacher of Class One! Why didn’t you call us? We would’ve backed you up.”

“Exactly! We would’ve backed you up.”

He Yongshan responded with an eye roll, then herded them back toward the classroom.

“If you’re capable, back me up by crushing them in your studies. What good is this? Get moving. Go review your lessons.”

Watching from the side, Zhao Fan suddenly smiled.

In his previous life, he had never experienced anything like this. The cruelty of society and the innocence of school were complete opposites.

Looking back now, returning to school had been a good thing for him. At the very least, it had allowed him to make up for some of the regrets of his former life.

The days of studying passed in the blink of an eye. At some point, the words “College Entrance Examination Countdown” appeared on the blackboard, placing a heavy shackle over the already restless students.

Zhao Fan was caught up in it all. Even with the experience he had gained in society during his previous life, he could not help feeling anxious as he was swept along by the pressure of the moment.

More importantly, trouble was brewing outside the school as well.

The shopping mall being built by the Yang family suddenly collapsed one night, only half a month after construction had begun, wiping out all of the family’s preparations at once.

Yang Yuqing found Zhao Fan.

“The warning you gave me before... You were talking about this, weren’t you?”

Zhao Fan: “...”

After several minutes of silence, Zhao Fan sighed.

“That’s right.”

Yang Yuqing opened her mouth, wanting to question him, yet unable to find the words.

Seeing her like this, Zhao Fan could not help saying, “That design blueprint was stolen by the Bai family.”

“What do you mean, stolen by the Bai family?”

After suffering a series of heavy blows, the Bai family still retained its place among high society, but its influence was nowhere near what it had once been.

Because of that, Yang Tiancheng’s previous plan to arrange a marriage had been suppressed, allowing Yang Yuqing to study at school in peace.

Now, upon hearing Zhao Fan mention the Bai family, Yang Yuqing’s expression grew somewhat dazed, as though her entanglement with them had happened a very long time ago.

“You know that I made a wager with the Bai family. They were unwilling to accept losing that parcel of land, so they kept targeting me. The two sides fought back and forth, and then...”

If it had been anyone else, Zhao Fan would never have offered such a detailed explanation. But this was Yang Yuqing.

The Yang family had been dragged into the matter, so he felt that giving her a little explanation would not hurt.

Of course, the main reason he dared bring it up was that Yang Yuqing detested the Bai family.

Otherwise...

Yang Yuqing drew a deep breath.

“In other words, the Bai family knew that the blueprint would...”

“I don’t know what the Bai family was planning, nor do I know why the blueprint appeared at the Yang family’s construction site. But I can guarantee that I never intended to target the Yang family.”

Yang Yuqing’s expression shifted repeatedly. After a while, she turned around and left without saying a word.

Zhao Fan watched her retreating figure. In the end, he said nothing.

“Bzzz...”

His phone began to vibrate. He took it out and saw that the caller was Jiang Ying.

Staring at those two words, Zhao Fan vaguely remembered that he had forgotten something. What was it?

The call connected, and Jiang Ying’s languid voice came through.

“Hello, General Manager Zhao. It’s been almost two months. How’s your review of my project going?”

The mobile phone project!

Zhao Fan slapped a hand against his forehead.

“It’s still being evaluated.”

“Don’t tell me you forgot about it, General Manager Zhao.”

“No.” Zhao Fan’s tone remained calm. “I’m just considering whether to increase the investment. The amount of money involved is considerable, so I’ve been examining it more carefully.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Don’t worry. You’ll have a result within three days at most.”

“All right. I’ll take your word for it this time, General Manager Zhao. I’ll contact you in three days.”

“Good.”

After hanging up, Zhao Fan specifically instructed the people at the company to work overtime that afternoon. Once school was over, he rummaged through everything at home before finally finding the materials Jiang Ying had given him.

“Take a look. What do you think of this project as a direction for our future development?”

The people in the meeting room accepted the documents. After reading them carefully, they performed a series of calculations.

“It’s viable.”

“Judging from the current pace of development, this project is excellent. However, the initial investment will also be substantial.”

“That’s right. None of the equipment and resources involved will come cheaply. To reach the point where it can turn a profit, we’ll need to invest at least one hundred million.”

“...”

After a lengthy discussion, most of them approved of the project. Those who objected did so mainly because the required investment was simply too large.

“General Manager Zhao, our company’s game is still in development. If we also enter mobile phone research and development at this point, our funds may not be able to keep circulating.”

Zhao Fan waved his hand.

“That isn’t a problem. We don’t have to invest everything at once. We can provide the funding in installments.”

Mobile phones were the future. Who would not have one in their hands someday? There was no way he could let an opportunity to make money pass him by.