After an hour of playing CF at the internet café with Zhou Yuan, Cheng Xing returned home after receiving a message from Cheng Wen, saying she had managed to arrange everything.
"Dad, Mom, have you met her? How is she?" Cheng Xing asked as he entered the house.
"She's pretty good, very competent," Cheng Chuan replied.
"Wenwen found a real gem. She was the top scorer in our city's high school entrance exam, and according to your sister, she's still at the top of her class at No. 1 High School," Deng Ying added. "You have to study hard. It's fine that you didn't study well before, but now that we've got a brilliant tutor to help you, if your grades don't improve, your old mom will have no face to see anyone."
"She's incredibly smart, but what really sets her apart is her humble character," Cheng Chuan said with a smile. "Even though she doesn't have much, she sticks to her principles, even when offered more money. It's amazing that someone so young can be so honest."
"This girl is going to be an extraordinary individual in the future," Cheng Chuan added with conviction.
"Your mom's right. You've really found a treasure this time. You should thank your sister Wenwen properly," Cheng Chuan laughed.
Cheng Chuan was originally a self-made man. Seeing Jiang Luxi turn down a much higher offer to tutor their son because of her principles—despite being so young—was something not many people could do. Business required experience and smoothness, but it was even more important to be honest.
"What's going on? What happened just now that made Dad sigh like that?" Cheng Xing asked as he sat down next to his mother, taking a banana from the fruit bowl.
"The tutor we hired for you is really something," Deng Ying began. "Originally, we wanted to give her a hundred yuan an hour. She has such good grades and was the top scorer in the high school entrance exam. In my generation, she could have been paraded through the streets. I thought a hundred yuans was fair, but she insisted on charging only twenty yuan per hour. She wouldn't take more, saying it was her standard rate. So, we ended up paying her twenty yuan an hour."
"Speaking of this, I'm a bit angry. This girl is really stubborn!" Deng Ying muttered.
"That's not being stubborn; that's called integrity," Cheng Chuan retorted, smiling.
At first, he hadn't wanted to hire a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl to be Cheng Xing's tutor, even though Cheng Wen had helped find her, and both Deng Ying and Cheng Xing were satisfied. But Jiang Luxi's subsequent actions had made him change his mind.
"You know, a hundred is five times twenty," Cheng Chuan continued. "If she had chosen a hundred, her monthly tutoring fee would not be 1,280, but a full 6,400. A monthly tutoring fee of 6,400 yuan would be a considerable income for Jiang Luxi, who is still in high school. This is even more than the income of many college students."
"Ah?" Cheng Xing was stunned when he heard this.
What a fool!
He had gone to such great lengths to plan this, wanting to help her when she was at her poorest, so that he could repay her past kindness and help himself with his studies.
As a result, this fool had directly changed the one hundred yuan an hour to twenty yuan an hour.
Let alone helping her, at this price, she was losing money by tutoring him.
Who would have a provincial top scorer tutor someone for only twenty yuan an hour?
That's right—in the previous life, Jiang Luxi topped 2011's provincial college entrance exam. At that time, there were red banners everywhere in school, and news about her was on everyone's lips.
This high school period was the only time Cheng Xing could repay her kindness. After graduating from high school next year, she would directly become a top student. She would receive scholarships and be the center of attention at any school she attended.
At that time, Cheng Xing would have no chance to repay her kindness. Now was the best opportunity to repay her kindness and to truly help her.
It turned out that not only had he not repaid the debt from his previous life, but with her academic performance, Cheng Xing was actually receiving even more benefits from her.
"What's wrong? You don't seem very happy with your new tutor," Cheng Chuan asked.
"It's not that I'm unhappy; it's just that…" Cheng Xing paused, then took a big bite of his banana. He felt a bit down.
"Hey, let me tell you this. You better not bully her. She'll teach you diligently, and you'd better focus during the tutoring sessions. Don't try to mess with her. You know her background. She's going to take the college entrance exam next year, and her whole future depends on it. Don't even think about dating her and disrupting her studies, or I, your cousin, won't let you off easy," Cheng Wen warned.
"I know, Sister, don't worry," Cheng Xing replied. He just wanted to be friends with her—how could he bully her?
"That's good. I've helped you settle this matter. Have you thought about how you're going to repay me for doing you this favor?" Cheng Wen asked with a sly grin.
"Not yet," Cheng Xing shook his head.
"You're asking for a beating!" Cheng Wen said angrily.
"Didn't I ask you yesterday to start coming home earlier? Why are you so late?" Jiang Luxi's grandmother asked angrily as she saw her granddaughter pushing her bike in.
It was already past six o'clock, and it was getting dark. Although she worried about Jiang Luxi walking home alone at night, many kids in Pinghu went to school in the city, especially for middle school. Some of them came back in groups, so it wouldn't take as long as two hours.
If it only took an hour, she would worry less, but Jiang Luxi had to go to the city to find odd jobs, and it took her two hours to return. Her grandmother was really worried about her.
"You promised to come home early today," her grandmother scolded, her eyes darting toward the clock.
"Grandma, don't worry," Jiang Luxi said, parking her bike with a wide smile. "I got a great job today. A family wants me to tutor their child for eight hours every Saturday and Sunday. That's 1,280 yuan a month."
Her grandmother's eyes widened in surprise. "Really? You weren't being scammed, were you?" she asked, disbelief clear in her voice.
"Yes, Grandma," Jiang Luxi assured her. "We signed a contract, and I read it carefully. There's nothing suspicious. They even offered to pay more, but I told them I'm just a student, not a full-time tutor. Twenty yuan an hour is more than enough."
"Back when I was a girl," her grandmother began, her voice laced with nostalgia, "I used to hear those bookworm kids at school spouting things like, 'Knowledge is power' and 'Books are treasure troves.' I never really believed them, but now I see they were right."
A knowing smile spread across her face as she realized her granddaughter hadn't been fooled by the offer.
"We used to work tirelessly in the fields all year, our backs aching, barely scraping by. Now, people can earn a good living without breaking their backs, just by using their brains."
"That's right, Grandma," Jiang Luxi nodded, smiling brightly. "With an extra thousand yuan a month, our life won't be so hard. Grandma, you don't have to feel sorry about taking your medicine anymore. You have to take it on time every day so it can be effective. When I finish my college entrance exam next year, if I get a good score, it will be much easier to find tutoring jobs, and I can even raise the price to thirty yuan an hour."
The little girl looked forward to the future, her eyes filled with hope and longing.
Seeing her granddaughter's hopeful and expectant smile, Jiang Luxi's grandmother also smiled. Life was indeed getting better day by day.