Dragon Raja: Dragon Slaying Begins with System Hosting

Page 155

“Yes, I’ll refuse his request to be a lab assistant on the grounds of confidentiality, and then arrange for that girl to work as a receptionist.” Xia Mi nodded.

"Is there anything else on the project?" the system asked.

"At the moment, there are no other problems in my purview," Xia Mi said, patting her chest. "You can rest assured, boss, that I can handle things!"

The system glanced at Xia Mi, who looked confident, nodded slightly, and then asked, "Do you have any friends or relatives who can help you arrange jobs? There are some insignificant and cushy positions that anyone can take. If someone asks you for a favor, you can use them to curry favor."

"After all, you bought a big house, so people around you must think you've made a fortune. They might even come to you for jobs."

Lu Mingfei had never experienced anything like this, but he had lived in his uncle's old neighborhood before and inevitably heard some rumors from the neighbors... Many good jobs are basically based on connections. Unless you are really capable and can build your own career, the most comfortable job is still one introduced by family connections, and so on.

“No, not at all.” Xia Mi shook her head: “After my parents died, I basically cut off all ties with those relatives. I haven’t contacted them, and they don’t know anything about my situation.”

"Ah."

After the Qingming Festival holiday, the students returned to the classroom, and Xia Mi fulfilled Old Tang's request.

The high-paid lab assistant was reduced to an ordinary receptionist. Although Xia Mi added some other titles to this receptionist and increased her salary considerably, Lao Tang was still quite uneasy.

After all, as far as he knew, these massage therapists were not short of money. In an era where the monthly salary was 2000, their wages were basically 1 or more.

He thought for a moment and then told her about the job's stability and ease.

Old Tang was quite concerned about this girl's situation. He knew her boss was worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and she could work for him while also studying to get an adult bachelor's degree and then try to apply for a master's degree. When she expressed her desire to become a highly educated person, he specifically asked Xia Mi how to proceed with her education and successfully learned about this whole process of improving her academic qualifications.

Xia Mi even suggested something simpler: just go abroad and enroll in an affiliated college of a prestigious university. You can buy a degree from these diploma mills with money, and then go back to China to take the postgraduate entrance exam... For example, the women's college affiliated with Columbia University. It looks glamorous, but people in the industry are laughing their heads off.

Old Tang, a native-born American, found this whole thing absurd: "Are degrees from these diploma mills really recognized in China?"

In the US, wouldn't this look obviously fake? People who graduated from schools like this would be laughed at if they dared to mention Columbia University.

Xia Mi said with a matter-of-fact look, "It's not the same as recognition, but it can be done behind the scenes, as if we didn't see the affiliated college at the end, since the diploma really does start with Columbia University."

"All right……"

So it involved some underhanded dealings, huh? Old Tang understood. He wondered how they could be so easily fooled...

Upon hearing what Lao Tang said, the girl immediately agreed, saying, "I understand. Thank you, Brother Tang, for finding me this job. I'll pack my things and head over tomorrow to start work."

"Oh? You're coming to report for duty tomorrow? I thought you'd come here first to take a look before making a decision."

She agreed so easily? Old Tang himself felt like he was lying to her; how could she have believed him so readily…

"I believe you're not that kind of person, Brother Tang!"

……

That evening, Lao Tang said to Lu Mingfei, who came to the lab, "Thank you, Boss Lu."

"Hmm? What are you thanking me for?" the system asked, somewhat puzzled.

"It's about helping to arrange for people to come in and work..."

"That's Xia Mi's responsibility."

"But you, boss, will definitely know about such an important place as the lab I mentioned at the beginning. In the end, it still requires your approval." Old Tang felt that he had become smarter again.

"Oh, this is nothing. Some positions are easy and need people to do them anyway. If we don't assign them to our own people, we'll have to pay someone else to do them. So why not give them to our own people?"

The system casually remarked, then, without giving Old Tang a chance to continue the discussion, said, "How's the experiment progressing? The plan you set up before seems to be going a little too smoothly."

Old Tang's plan was indeed meticulous, but in actual work, it's impossible for everything to go according to plan, and unexpected changes can easily occur.

When the topic turned to work, Lao Tang perked up and said confidently, "We're still proceeding according to plan, and there haven't been any difficulties hindering the plan."

He felt like he was an alchemist in his past life. Once he started researching it, he couldn't stop, and there was no resistance at all. It was as easy as a college student doing elementary school problems!

The questions for junior high and high school students are not good enough; they probably really don't know the answers.

Upon hearing this, the system immediately reached out and patted him on the shoulder: "Well, not encountering any difficulties proves that you are very capable. Even if you did encounter difficulties, you successfully overcame them. Keep up the good work, I won't let you down."

Chapter 186 Xia Mi's Suspicion of Old Tang

"The atmosphere at school seems to have changed a bit lately. Could it be that their families have all lost money?"

Xia Mi stretched and yawned as she said to Lu Mingfei, "After all, Shilan Middle School is different from ordinary middle schools. Ordinary middle schools have more students from ordinary families, so things like stock speculation and economic crises don't have a big impact on them. Most families at Shilan Middle School are quite wealthy, and the wealthier they are, the greater the impact."

There's definitely more talk about the financial crisis at school than usual. After all, we're all just high school students. Who used to discuss this stuff?

The financial crisis did not affect students in schools, but it could affect their families, so discussions about the financial crisis began to circulate in schools.

There were even rumors that a student's family lost a lot of money in the financial crisis, and the father went to the rooftop.

"That's right. The financial crisis is terrifying. Luckily, I made money from it," Lu Mingfei said.

"Boss Lu, what you said is outrageous." Xia Mi rubbed her eyes. "Old Tang said he would treat me to a meal to thank me when he had time. How did he get into this bad habit of social niceties?"

Old Tang's emotional intelligence doesn't seem to be very high, especially since he's been so engrossed in the lab lately... Lu Mingfei thought for a moment and said, "I guess he asked the girl who helped him find a job to have dinner with him, and he just copied her and thanked you by treating you to dinner."

"Did he invite you to dinner, boss?" Xia Mi asked.

Lu Mingfei said in a serious tone, "His greatest gratitude to me was for his hard work in developing the alchemical equipment I needed."

“So that’s it, Le. Boss Lu, you’re paying him a salary and he’s looking down on you.” Xia Mi immediately laughed.

“No, that’s not true. He said so. I told him I don’t need this meal and that he should save the money to get married in the future.”

"Tsk tsk." Xia Mi said, "You might say something like that to a man with an average income, but Old Tang earns millions of dollars a year now. With that much money, what kind of wife can't he marry?"

The two chatted for a while until they arrived at the school. They got out of the car and entered the campus.

After Lu Mingfei became wealthy, his old Golf was ruthlessly replaced with a low-key Audi A6, which was indeed much more comfortable to ride in than the previous hot hatch.

As for President Xia, he has a car and a driver, but sometimes the two of them come out of the room at the same time and get into the same car to go to school.

This scene shocked some people who witnessed it.

Liu Miaomiao, who got off the bus later and watched the two of them get off together, was very curious. After entering the classroom, she asked Lu Mingfei, "Lu Mingfei, do you and Xia Mi live very close to each other?"

Lu Mingfei's transformation from a small car to an Audi after the Chinese New Year has sparked some discussion, with some discussing how much money his parents have and others discussing how much money he has earned from his novels.

His book, which is serialized on the Chinese website Qidian, has a roughly quantifiable income. Some people have calculated that it reaches an astonishing monthly income of over 200,000 yuan.

However, the students at the school were unaware of this; they only knew that he earned a high income from writing books, so it was reasonable for him to switch careers and ride in an Audi.

"Yeah, it's quite a coincidence, we're nearby," Lu Mingfei said. "Sometimes we bump into each other on our way to school and then we ride together."

"Oh, where do you live?"

"Over there at Liju."

"Hmm?" Liu Miaomiao was puzzled. She knew about the newly opened community and had heard about it, but there were no villas or large apartments in that community, only normal residential buildings.

"what happened?"

Lu Mingfei found it strange to hear her somewhat puzzled voice. Couldn't someone living in a regular house have a driver or something?

"Nothing, I was just wondering if Xia Mi has made a fortune recently."

Xia Mi has always been a highly talked-about figure, and her classmates have made pretty much the right guesses about her family background. After all, rich people can be frugal, but they can't be so frugal as to mend their bleached clothes, right?

Moreover, Xia Mi's expenses were not high when she lived in the school dormitory, and she did not look like a rich person at all.

Recently, however, she seems to have stopped pretending. I don't know if her wealthy parents have found their daughter or what, but she is driven to and from school in a Mercedes every day.

"Xia Mi has indeed made a fortune. If you want to know, you can ask her."

Lu Mingfei didn't elaborate on why Xia Mi became rich. He told Xia Mi to ask her directly if she had any questions. He added that his money was earned honestly and could withstand gossip.

"Forget it, it's not like people aren't allowed to get rich." Liu Miaomiao chuckled lightly and said, "I've heard that the stock market is in a very bad downturn lately, and many people who invested money in the stock market have lost money. After you got rich, did you invest money in the stock market?"

It's common knowledge that Lu Mingfei has made a fortune, and it's even more common knowledge that you can make a lot of money in the stock market.

“You have to be 18 to open a stock market account, and I’m only 17…” Lu Mingfei muttered to himself, “I don’t even have the means to lose money.”

"Really? I didn't know you had to be 18 to open a stock market account. I've never paid attention to these things before. My parents don't trade stocks either. I only started paying a little attention recently because I saw people at school discussing it."

"You still have to practice piano, so it's normal that you don't have much time to pay attention to other things."

"Don't you also write novels? How come you know that you have to be 18 to open a stock market account? Luckily you're not 18 yet, otherwise you would have lost money during this economic crisis."

"I won't lose much money. I've already spent a lot of money on buying a house and a car."

"..."

After chatting for a while, the class bell rang. Liu Miaomiao immediately returned to her seat, and Lu Mingfei, finally able to have some peace and quiet, switched to his system account and began studying on his own.

Seeing Lu Mingfei immediately immerse himself in his studies after chatting with Liu Miaomiao, Zhao Menghua sighed inwardly.

Because of his position, he overheard some of their conversation.

His company is preparing for an IPO, and he knows about the stock market. He knows that the stock market can make people money, but it can also make people lose money. This economic crisis is meant to make most people lose money... Judging from Lu Mingfei's words, he must have paid attention to the stock market before, but unfortunately, because he was too young, he escaped a big loss.

"Lu Mingfei, come up here and answer this question."

The teacher suddenly called on Lu Mingfei and asked him to explain a rather difficult problem to the students.

"Okay, teacher." The system immediately broke free from its focused self-study, went up to the podium, and began writing the answer to the problem on the blackboard.

After he put down his pen, the teacher nodded in satisfaction and led the applause for Lu Mingfei: "Lu Mingfei wrote very well, full marks!"

A round of enthusiastic applause immediately erupted in the classroom. Amidst the applause, the system calmly returned to its seat and continued studying.

Zhao Menghua watched as Lu Mingfei began to study on his own, ignoring the teacher, and secretly gritted his teeth.

As a former top student in his grade, he had also fallen behind the teacher's pace to some extent, but not as completely as Lu Mingfei, who was now leading the way.

After Lu Mingfei's sudden rise to prominence, he realized that things were going badly and tried his best to regain the top spot in the grade.

But he found that he really couldn't catch up.

Lu Mingfei went to Japan for a trip during winter break, while Lu Mingfei secretly studied for extra lessons, vowing to regain his top spot in the grade... However, the results of the first monthly exam after the start of the new semester dealt him a heavy blow, and the gap between their scores widened even further!

Previously, the gap between them was an insurmountable 20 or 30 points, but in the new semester, it has widened to 40 points, almost a perfect score in all subjects. Zhao Menghua, once the top student in the grade, naturally knew the difference between them... but he was unwilling to accept it...

If either he or Lu Mingfei were in another class instead of always being in this one, it would be fine, since there would be some distance between them, and there wouldn't be as much discussion.

But the top two students in the grade ended up together. The current second-place student was the same one who was previously the top student, with a lead of about 300 points. As a result, he was overtaken in less than a semester.

He was a hot topic, and the discussions in the class were endless. Every time there was a discussion about grades, he would be dragged out and criticized.

His previous nickname, Xiao Chu Zihang, started to become Xiao Lu Mingfei... This nickname almost made him vomit blood.

However, the students in the class who didn't like Zhao Menghua didn't care much about this or that, especially the girls, who were all staunch supporters of Lu Mingfei.

After class, a girl immediately came over to Lu Mingfei with her test paper to ask for help.