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  Chapter 140: The Top Spot Goes to Jiang Qin!

  TL: Etude

  In the blink of ahe season ged to early winter, and a sudden wave of cold air swept through Lin.

  The temperatures in the northern regions plummeted, making it impossible to get by just with hoodies. Old Cao, in pursuit of romaill ventured out early aure, but he had revamped his wardrobe, now donning a thick woolen coat, matg with Ding Xue’s couple’s edition.

  “How do I look, handsome or not? Old Jiang, you and Feng Nanshu should also get a pair.”

  “Heh.”

  Jiang Qin, with a cool demeanor, swiftly dismissed Cao Guangyu.

  Meanwhile, the campus beauty test at the Uy of Sd Teology was nearing its climax, with the voting fervor intensifying.

  Cui Yan remained firmly at the top of the leaderboard, and as long as she maintained her vote t, she was set to be the top beauty.

  Pang Duo from the Department of Chemical Engineering ranked sed but was not tent with it.

  Her fan club was diligently rallying for votes, striving to overtake Cui Yan in first pce.

  Jiang Qily admired Pang Duo’s unwillio settle for sed best.

  Due to the rivalry between her and Cui Yan, the registration on Zhihu forum skyrocketed, with daily active users surpassing the numbers from the early days of the test.

  By this stage of the petition, there was no longer a need for additional hype; everything was falling into paturally. Therefore, the team from Lin Uy had already withdrawn, leaving only part-time students from the Uy of Sd Teology to oversee room 502.

  In other developments, Tan Qing had successfully iated with fifty pert of the merts, seg twe letters of i for free entry.

  Wei Lan had also secured enough advertisers, with promotional fees steadily flowing into at 208.

  Under Su Nai’s leadership, the team’s website ehe final testing phase and was set to be ied with the forum week.

  Jiang Qin, during this time, had made several trips to the Teachers College to uand the ercial yout around the Polyteiiversity and to scout locations for the new Xi Tian branch.

  All initiatives were progressing smoothly, and so was the Star of Learning petition.

  “Xiao Jin, how’s the bad data?”

  “Looking great!”

  “Teacher Li, hoartits do we have in the test now?”

  “Looking great!”

  Jiang Zhihua, notig the dwindling er flow iore, had a nagging feeling that something was amiss.

  But Teacher Li fidently asserted that everything was going well, mentioning that the first pce had already received over three thousand votes, indig signifit impact of the event.

  Thus, Jiang Zhihua was somewhat reassured and tio lead the team in distributing flyers at various school entrances.

  However, as time passed and the er flow decreased instead of increasing, even the slow-witted Jiang Zhihua began to sehat something was seriously wrong. Was this what they called ‘looking great’?

  “Liu, I’m not good with puters. you log into the Lin Campus Forum for me? I want to check the status of our petition.”

  “Okay, boss.”

  The part-time college student at the College Supermarket logged into the Star of Learning test page.

  Subsequently, Niu Shangtian from Tongxing Driving School received a call from Jiang Zhihua, urging him to e to the College Supermarket immediately.

  Having just returned from a smile service training at the headquarters two days ago, Niu Shangtian’s secretary presented him with this month’s registration list for driving lessons. The list, unfortunately, didn’t bring much of a smile to his face.

  Sihe start of the test, only oudent had signed up, and that studeually asked for a refund, reasoning that it was getting too cold and it would be better to wait until spring.

  Thus, upon receiving the call, Niu Shangtian hurried to the College Supermarket.

  “Boss Jiang, didn’t you say everything was going great? Where exactly is it going great?”

  “Great, heh, it’s so great it’s gone up to the heavens!”

  Jiang Zhihua turhe puter s towards Niu Shangtian, her eyes cold and her expression fierce, as if she was about to bite someone.

  Niu Shangtian, unaware of what had happened, g the s and immediately felt dizzy, his mouth almost dropping to his ears in shock.

  First pce: Jiang QinSed pce: Yang ShuaiThird pce: Wen Jinrui

  …

  From first to eleventh pce, each partit’s campaign slogan was an invitation to use Zhihu forum, touted as the best campus forum in Lin.

  “What’s going on? How is Jiang Qin in first pce?” Niu Shangtian’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

  Jiang Zhihua, grittieeth, poi the s: “Look at the vote t!”

  Niu Shangtian took a closer look and realized that aside from the top eleven, who had votes ihousands, the rest had votes in single digits: “Damn, the first few must have rigged the votes!”

  “We’ve been pyed. No one’s really participating in this test. The top spots are all Jiang Qin’s people, they must have maniputed the votes!”

  “What should we do? I’ve already paid the sponsorship fee!”

  Jiang Zhihua, struggling to tain her anger, called Teacher Li, only to receive the same overly optimistic response.

  Uo hold back, Jiang Zhihua demao know why Jiang Qin was in first pd why, aside from the top eleven, all the other vote ts were in single digits, some even zero!

  “Mr. Jiang, I have a meeting to attend to. Let’s talk about this iail ter.”

  “?”

  Before Jiang Zhihua could respond, the call tly ended.

  Meanwhile, the part-time college student operating the puter announced, “Boss, our petitioo have ended.”

  “What?”

  “Look.”

  Liu poi the puter s. The voting page, which reviously active, had now been disabled. A notice soon appeared on the homepage, announg the termination of the Star of Learning test and the official end of voting.

  Jiang Zhihua felt dizzy and stood unsteadily, her face turning darker by the minute.

  So this was the ‘great’ situation?

  Frustrated and furious, Jiang Zhihua, apanied by Niu Shangtian, stormed off to the office responsible for the forum’s operation.

  Teacher Li, having already given up on the test, didn’t hide anything when they arrived. He showed them a post from a few days ago.

  “They made a post online g that the winner of our test would be guaranteed a research position and a schorship. I ’t be associated with such promises. If something goes wrong, who’s going to take responsibility?”

  “Who posted this?” Jiang Zhihua asked, her eyes dazed.

  Teacher Li pondered for a moment: “Couldn’t trace the specific IP, but the work was accessed from the Entrepreneurship ter, definitely Jiang Qin’s group.”

  Niu Shangtian eechless: “Ms. Jiang, I told you before, if we’re holding a test, just hold a test. Don’t provoke Jiang Qin. You insisted on mog him in front of others, and that kid is no easy oppo!”

  “You mocked him too?” Teacher Li’s eyes widened in disbelief.

  “Yes, Ms. Jiang even invited him to see how well we were running our event.”

  Teacher Li’s mouth twitched: “No wonder! I was w who would think this test could guarantee a research position. Turns out it was them setting a trap all along!”

  Jiang Zhihua’s face grew even grimmer: “I didn’t mean to, he’s just aeen-year-old student, what could he do?”

  “Well, now you know what he dht? One post and he’s outwitted us all.”

  “What should we do now?”

  “Just end the event as it is, distribute the awards that o be distributed, let those who want to learn driving tih it. The best course of a would be to resolve this quietly without making a fuss.”

  Jiang Zhihua was fuming with anger: “Teacher Li, we’ve already paid for the operating expenses, and until now, there hasn’t been any promotional effect at all!”

  Teacher Li was indifferent to her s: “reement clearly states that we are only responsible fanizing the test. The actual promotion and lead geion were supposed to be handled by you offline.”

  “But…”

  “Don’t ‘but’ me. The test was going well; it’s your fault for provoking Jiang Qin. He’s just aeen-year-old student, huh? You uimated him aricked you. This is all a result of cause and effect.”

  “Teacher Li, if you don’t hahis, I’ll call my cousin-in-w!”

  Jiang Zhihua pulled out her phone, ready to make a call.

  Most people who do business in schools, other tharepreneurial students, have some kind of es — either retives of leaders, friends of leaders, or retives of the leaders’ friends. Jiang Zhihua, for example, had a distant cousin-in-as the director of the academic affairs office at Lin Uy. She felt this matter couldn’t just end like this; otherwise, she’d be furious, and thus sidered using her es.

  However, before she could make the call, Director Li stopped her.

  “Give it up, Boss Jiang. All the materials we used were copied from them. Do you think your cousin-in-w afford to lose face over this? Besides, Jiang Qin has been interviewed by the Lin Youth Daily and is now promoting a work-study program. It’d be better for you to cause less trouble and save your cousin-in-w the headache.”

  “…”

  After hesitating for a while, Jiang Zhihua put down her phone: “Fine, I’ll take the loss, but the top few whed the votes ’t get the awards!”

  Niu Shangtian agreed: “The half-price driving lessons should also be celed!”

  “What? You might not care about your reputation, but I do!”

  Teacher Li looked at them: “The Lin Campus Forum’s first test, and in the end, we give nothing? If this gets out, I’ll be the ughingstock!”

  “Then just disqualify the top eleven. There are others behind them, right? Just move them up.”

  “The twelfth pce has only six votes. A Star of Learning? That’s even more ridiculous than g the whole thing!”

  Jiang Zhihua, grindieeth: “I don’t care, I ’t let Jiang Qin bee the perma face of our milk tea shop!”

  Teacher Li sighed: “Now you see how ing that kid is. If you really don’t give him the prize, he might stir up more trouble. Boss Jiang, you’ve been in business long enough to know the principle of not offending the petty people.”

  Hearing this, Jiang Zhihua’s mind buzzed as she recalled the words Jiang Qin had said when he drove by the other day.

  “Please make the trophy grand and imposing…”

  “Grand and imposing…”

  “Imposing…”

  Niu Shangtian, after some thought, began to lean towards Teacher Li’s approach.

  Jiang Qin was indeed no easy oppo — outwardly smiling but ing inside.

  It was just a few mog words in person, and he mao turire test upside down. If they don’t let him win the prize smoothly, he probably has more tricks up his sleeve.

  “Let’s learn from this mistake.” Niu Shangtian also started to persuade Jiang Zhihua.

  Teacher Li nodded in agreement: “Old Niu is right. It’s okay to suffer a small loss. Just remember this lesson for the future.”

  EtudeTranstions