"""
The sky, fresh from a drizzle, was as blue as a polished gemstone, with the air tinged with the crisp scent of greenery.
At the alley entrance, several middle-aged women were waving palm fans, animatedly sharing the latest gossip.
Suddenly, two black sedans parked sequentially at the alley's mouth, and two men in business suits stepped out, exchanged sharp glances, and a tense undercurrent surged between them.
Without hesitation, they hurriedly strode into the alley, neck and neck.
"Ma'am, could you please tell me which building Shen You'an's family lives in?" Li Shan adjusted his glasses and politely inquired.
"You must be high school recruiters. Goodness, how many batches have been here today already?" A warm-hearted woman kindly added, "Y'all came late—there's already someone from some... uh, Wende High offering thirty grand to snag An'an. Thirty grand! My heavens..."
The sound of collective gasps filled the air.
Li Shan gritted his teeth and cursed, "Wende High School is truly shameless, always resorting to throwing money around."
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a stocky figure briskly moving away. Li Shan's expression hardened as he quickly gave chase. "Zhao Wenchang! Stop right there!"
Zhao Wenchang, while walking briskly, turned his head to laugh. "Old Li, your intelligence work is clearly slipping. You storm in without even finding out which building Shen is living in? No wonder your Experimental High has been trailing behind us First High year after year in recruitment."
Li Shan had long grown numb to Zhao Wenchang's relentless mockery all these years, so he simply followed close on Zhao's heels. "We'll let past grudges slide for now, but this student is different. Let's see who comes out on top this time."
Zhao Wenchang scoffed, "Getting ahead of yourself."
The neighborhood was an old district—run-down tube-shaped buildings, walls weathered with decay, entryways clogged with motley piles of bicycles and electric scooters. In two words: messy and dilapidated. That said, it was still reasonably clean.
Zhao Wenchang liked doing his homework before making a move; he had already gathered every detail about this student's family situation.
Shen You'an, female, 14 years old. Her mother died from childbirth complications when she was three, and her firefighter father heroically lost his life saving others during a mission when she was five. Afterward, she was taken in by her uncle, Zhang Jian. Zhang Jian worked as a bank lobby manager—a diligent employee with excellent performance, poised for a promotion. Her aunt Zhou Qin co-founded a nail salon with her cousin, and her favorite pastime was playing mahjong. The couple had one son, Zhang Tianci, aged 12, a sixth-grader at City Primary School. As for his grades... compared to his exceedingly brilliant cousin, they were quite underwhelming.
Why was Shen You'an such a magnet for every high school recruiter willing to come knocking at the Zhang family's door again and again? There was only one reason: academic excellence.
Exceptional to the point of unparalleled.
Unlike the holistic education embraced by private schools, Lanya School practiced elite education. Its students were invariably wealthy or distinguished, groomed from young with one-to-one tutoring by 'gold-star' teachers, and enrolled in a myriad of extracurricular classes. Forget those fictional depictions in novels about aristocratic schools filled with spoiled, lazy trust fund kids—bull! Real-life heirs received top-notch educational resources and bore immense family expectations. Fall behind, and the competition would devour them. Exceptionally rotten apples were, of course, not uncommon but merely a minority. Overall, Lanya High School still ranked as one of the province's finest schools.
Shen You'an enrolled in Lanya Primary School at age five, gradually revealing her extraordinary gift for mathematics. At age seven, she won the top prize in the Children's Division of the Mathematical Olympiad Cup. At age eight, she competed in the Hua Cup—a highly prestigious and demanding national mathematics competition—and claimed the championship medal, breaking the record for the youngest gold medalist in domestic history. After that, she practically swept the gold medals in every major national mathematics competition. Yet, Shen You'an herself remained extremely low-key, with multiple domestic media outlets attempting interviews that she invariably declined.
After advancing into Lanya Middle School, she became even more reserved, reducing competition participation – presumably due to academic pressures which left little time for extracurriculars. However, she stunned everyone again during the high school entrance exams.
Achieving top provincial and municipal marks in the exams brought her fame once more. Her solid track record of elementary competition golds alone could guarantee admission into any prestigious high school. Initially, she was supposed to continue at Lanya High School, but her remarkable credentials caught the voracious attention of every top high school. With her grades in hand, the Zhang family's doorstep had almost become a speed-bump for recruiters.
Zhao Wenchang pondered deeply. City First High may be a renowned school, but compared to Wende High or Lanya High, it wasn't flush with cash to drop tens of thousands at the drop of a hat—a temptation few regular families could resist.
Since that was the case, he'd have to take a more unconventional approach.
The Zhang family lived on the fourth floor. The two recruiters climbed up one after the other, just in time to see Director Li from Wende High's Admissions Office exiting the Zhang family home, grinning from ear to ear.
Both recruiters' alarm bells went off instantly, and they inwardly cursed their bad luck.
Director Li caught sight of them and chuckled, his eyes almost disappearing into crescents. "Little Li, Little Zhao, fancy meeting you again."
After exchanging pleasantries, Director Li, emanating an air of smug satisfaction, clasped his hands behind his back and strode away.
The two recruiters exchanged furrowed glances, concern written plainly across their faces.
"And who might you two gentlemen be…?"
A middle-aged man stood at the doorway, dressed in an old-fashioned gray plaid short-sleeved shirt. His full head of black hair was flecked with a few strands of gray, his face was square and upright, and his gaze was spirited, radiating a cheerful and vigorous aura.
Before Li Shan could speak, Zhao Wenchang leaped forward enthusiastically, grasping the man's hand as if reuniting with a long-lost friend. "Mr. Zhang, it's an absolute pleasure to finally meet you! I'm Zhao Wenchang, head of admissions for City First High—you can just call me Little Zhao. Finally getting to meet the man behind such an outstanding student like Shen is a privilege. You're clearly an exceptional person yourself!"
Li Shan subtly rolled his eyes—what a shameless bootlicker.
"Hello, Mr. Zhang. I'm Li Shan, a recruitment specialist from Experimental High. I'd love to discuss Shen's high school academic plans with you in detail."
These past few days, Zhang Jian had been hosting endless waves of high school recruiters. At this point, he had practically memorized their faces. He smiled and stepped aside to reveal the door behind him. "Come in, teachers, please."
The two recruiters seated themselves on the sofa, while Zhang Jian busied himself boiling tea for them. Meanwhile, Zhao Wenchang's darting eyes had swiftly assessed every detail of the Zhang family's modest home.
Li Shan took the tea cup offered to him, briefly catching sight of some floating debris on the surface. Without giving himself away, he quietly set it down and asked, "Is Shen not home at the moment?"
"An'an went to the library—she said she had to return some books. She should be back any moment now."
"Even during summer break, she's still so dedicated to her studies. No wonder Shen achieves such outstanding results." Zhao Wenchang threw in a perfectly timed compliment.
Zhang Jian sat down on the sofa opposite them and sighed. "An'an has always been worry-free since she was young. She's incredibly disciplined and hardworking—when she started primary school, she boarded even at such a young age. She had to look after herself, and thinking about it just breaks my heart. Every weekend when she comes home, the poor child studies until midnight. Everyone on the outside calls her a prodigy, a genius, but only I know how much effort she's put in behind the scenes—far beyond what most people could imagine."
Li Shan and Zhao Wenchang exchanged a glance. Such are the unyielding truths behind the saying: 'a bright future often comes from humble roots.'
Clearing his throat, Zhao Wenchang prepared to broach the topic of discussion when the bedroom door swung open. A slightly plump middle-aged woman, her hair styled in voluminous waves typical of wealthier circles, stepped out.
Spotting the pair in the living room, her exquisitely framed eyes, sharpened by stiletto eyeliner, arched coldly into a haughty expression. There was a bitter edge to her demeanor, making her seem formidable and difficult to approach. "Two more visitors? Huh. That girl sure is in demand."
"""