After watching the sunset, the three of them went into a beef soup restaurant.
Wang Zihao insisted on treating, and of course, Chen Yansen and Meng Jie didn't argue with him. Ever since the kid started making money, his desire to pay for everything had skyrocketed. He practically wanted to cover all of Chen Yansen's daily meals.
After dinner, Wang Zihao headed off toward West City alone. Chen Yansen was walking Meng Jie home, so the two of them strolled at a leisurely pace in the direction of her house.
"I prepared this for you. I was starting to think I wouldn't get a chance to give it to you."
Chen Yansen said, pulling a red envelope from his pocket with a teasing smile.
"For me?"
Meng Jie froze for a second, but then she immediately understood. This was obviously her payment for helping Chen Yansen sell his merchandise.
"Did you really think I was going to let you work for free?"
Chen Yansen walked ahead with his hands clasped behind his back like an old man, a look of mock disdain on his face.
'The red envelope had been ready for a while, but since Meng Jie hadn't dared to leave her house, it had been sitting in his pocket for four or five days. It probably smelled like sweat by now.'
"Human Dao Fire +0.2!"
A line of semi-transparent text drifted before his eyes. Chen Yansen sucked his teeth and cursed under his breath. 'That's a pitifully small amount.'
"When are you planning to go register at the university?"
Meng Jie suddenly asked.
"Probably the 31st. I have to get there a day early, so I'm afraid I won't be able to go with you."
Chen Yansen replied without hesitation, clearly having planned this out in advance.
"Who said I wanted to go with you? I still haven't decided if I'm going to repeat the year or not."
Meng Jie didn't mean what she said. She was only arguing because his overly confident gaze had sparked her rebellious streak.
"Is that so?"
Chen Yansen just smiled, saying nothing more as he continued to walk.
It wasn't until her own house came into view that Meng Jie realized for the first time how the same stretch of road could feel so completely different depending on who you walked it with.
In a house a dozen or so meters away, Meng Zhen Country pulled his wife over to the living room window, pointing at Chen Yansen. "That's the kid!"
"He's tall and quite handsome. No wonder our Xiaojie doesn't want to repeat the year because of him."
Mother Meng squinted, taking a good look before praising him with a broad smile, very much like a mother-in-law inspecting a potential son-in-law.
"That kid's trouble. He's definitely going to be a player. Xiaojie will end up getting hurt."
Meng Zhen Country slapped his thigh, his eyes filled with worry.
He'd been unimpressed with Chen Yansen from the moment he first saw him. After their brief conversation, he was even more certain: the kid had high emotional intelligence and a cunning mind. His future accomplishments would undoubtedly be impressive.
But his ideal son-in-law was the steadfast, hardworking, and faithful type.
"You're not a fortune-teller. Being handsome makes him unreliable? Don't tell me you want Xiaojie to find some ugly brute?"
Mother Meng scoffed at his opinion. In any case, the more she looked, the more she liked what she saw.
"You two, mother and daughter, have equally terrible taste in men."
Meng Zhen Country stomped his foot and concluded in a huff.
...
...
The trip between Chunshen and Xucheng took about two hours by expressway and three and a half hours by the national highway.
In his past life, Chen Yansen had taken a bus. The bumpy ride lasted a full four hours before he finally reached the West Campus of Xucheng Academy.
Then it was another half-hour transfer by shuttle bus. By the time he got to the registration point, he was completely exhausted.
Chen Yansen had no intention of going through that same ordeal a second time.
He directly asked Huang Boxiang to recommend a reliable car rental company. Including insurance, the daily rate for a Mercedes E300 was only eight hundred yuan.
Conveniently, the company had an office in Xucheng, which saved him the trouble of returning the car.
「August 31st, 8:00 AM.」
After saying goodbye to Lao Chen, Chen Yansen drove an all-black Mercedes E300 to pick up Wang Zihao in West City. He sped along until they got onto the He Xu Expressway, where the previously dense traffic finally started to thin out.
"Brother Sen, we have a total of 1,154 registered sign-ups so far. Also, I did what you said and started a group chat. It's full of second and third-year students looking for part-time work. When they heard we were offering a fifty-yuan commission per card, they all went wild."
Wang Zihao said smugly from the passenger seat.
"We have to secure the dealership rights before the campus agents for the three major carriers catch on. Otherwise, our only option is to delete our QQ accounts and bury this whole affair forever, never speaking of it again."
Chen Yansen nodded, his expression serious.
"Haha, looks like we have no choice but to succeed."
Far from being nervous, Wang Zihao, now with some experience under his belt, looked eager for the challenge.
「Meanwhile.」
「Xucheng Telecom Office.」
Zhao Maolin put down his phone, completely dumbfounded. Just five minutes earlier, Manager Zhang from Unicom and Manager Zhou from Mobile, both in charge of campus card services, had called him one after the other. They'd both been passive-aggressive, accusing him of foul play and using dirty tricks behind their backs.
The standard commission for a sub-agent selling campus phone cards had always been set at thirty yuan. This was to ensure the profits of the secondary agents, campus master agents, and regional dealers, which in turn motivated the college students under them to work hard.
But now, someone was offering fifty yuan. This was clearly an attempt to shatter the unspoken agreement between the three companies and snatch a larger market share.
"But... it wasn't me!"
Zhao Maolin was completely baffled and couldn't help but mutter a curse.
After a moment's thought, he called the regional manager for Xucheng Academy and told him to feel things out. He wanted to know which short-sighted campus master agent was so money-crazed that they would openly break the rules.
「On the other side.」
Chen Yansen drove off the expressway and headed straight down Victory Road toward the downtown telecom office.
He knew perfectly well that as soon as he started contacting the sub-agents on campus, someone would immediately realize something was off.
Every second from now on was crucial!
「Twenty minutes later.」
CLICK!
The car door swung open. Chen Yansen stepped out, with Wang Zihao close behind. Both were dressed in their usual sharp suits as they strode purposefully into the telecom office.
"Hello, I'm the master agent for campus cards at Xucheng Academy. I have a meeting scheduled with Manager Zhao today. Could you please let him know I'm here? Thank you!"
The moment he walked in, Chen Yansen quickly identified his target. He walked right up to a uniformed woman in her twenties and spoke with a smile.
"Campus agent? Wasn't the regional manager in charge of that before?"
The uniformed woman looked up, sizing up Chen Yansen from head to toe. Seeing his tall, handsome, and impeccably dressed figure, topped off with a warm, radiant smile, she couldn't help but feel a measure of trust and goodwill toward him.
"Yes, things are a little different this year."
Chen Yansen gave a faint smile, showing no sign of panic as he casually lied.
"Oh, okay. Please wait a moment."
The uniformed woman nodded, her suspicions not aroused, and turned to walk toward the offices.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK—
"Manager Zhao, there's a campus agent from Xucheng Academy at the door. He says he has a prior appointment with you. Should I show him in?"
Seeing that the office door was open, the uniformed woman asked from the doorway.
"I don't have an appointment with any campus agent."
Zhao Maolin was already annoyed; he didn't have the time to deal with some random agent.
'If any Tom, Dick, or Harry could just walk in here to talk business,' he thought, 'what would be the point of having regional managers?'
The uniformed woman froze on the spot. She couldn't believe it—Chen Yansen was a complete fraud.
'Thank goodness Manager Zhao didn't lose his temper with me!'
At that thought, she spun around, ready to go back and confront Chen Yansen!
"Wait! Bring him in!"
Just as the uniformed woman was turning to leave, a sudden realization struck Zhao Maolin. His expression changed dramatically as he quickly raised his voice.
'Someone showing up out of the blue at a critical time like this... chances are, this is the person causing all the trouble!'
'He was going to see for himself just who was pulling the strings behind his back!'