Lin Jiang vaguely remembered this place. He’d eaten here once before when he came to visit Li Yueting on a trip home. The food was actually pretty good.
"Let’s go."
The three of them got out of the car and entered the grilled fish restaurant.
Since it was lunchtime, there weren’t many students. The restaurant still had empty tables, and most of the customers were teachers.
The task of ordering naturally fell to Li Yueting, who ordered a whole spread of dishes.
"Brother, you’ve gone to so much trouble for us. What if we don’t end up passing?" Li Yueting asked, her voice lacking confidence.
"If you don’t pass, you don’t pass. It’s just grad school," Lin Jiang said nonchalantly.
"If you still want to try, you can take the exam again next year. If not, you can just get a job. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself."
"Hearing you say that is a huge relief," said Li Yueting.
"Worst case, I’ll just come work for you. We’ll be an unstoppable brother-sister duo, ready to grow the business, make it strong, and achieve glory!"
"Stop daydreaming. Snap out of it."
"Brother, don’t you have faith in my abilities? And don’t get the wrong idea. I know I’d be a little overqualified for your company, but what can you do? We’re family."
"What I mean is, don’t come to my company and cause trouble." Lin Jiang placed a piece of food in Li Yueting’s bowl. "Hurry up and eat."
"Thanks, Brother..."
Li Yueting took a bite. "You set me up! This isn’t potato! It’s ginger!"
Xu Yingjun snickered beside them, so Li Yueting turned her sights on her.
"Oh, you’re laughing at me, are you? Just you wait. When we get to Zhonghai, I’m not helping you. You can go compete with all those other girls yourself."
"Don’t say such things."
As they chatted, the grilled fish was served. They didn’t waste any time and quickly finished their lunch.
Halfway through the meal, Xu Yingjun used the excuse of going to the restroom to pay the bill, not giving Lin Jiang the chance.
Lin Jiang didn’t mind such a small thing and got ready to drive them back to Zhonghai.
When they came out, Lin Jiang took out his car keys, only to find a white Honda CRV parked ahead.
"Who parked this thing? It’s blocking the way."
"Why does that look so familiar? It couldn’t be that old perv’s car, could it?" Li Yueting muttered.
"I think it looks like it, too," said Xu Yingjun.
Li Yueting glanced around, and her expression suddenly changed.
"Holy crap, it really is his car."
The words were barely out of her mouth.
Lin Jiang turned to look and saw a middle-aged man in a business jacket and glasses walking toward them.
’How can we run into him even when we’re just out for a meal? Please don’t let him see me.’
Xu Yingjun lowered her head and covered her face, clearly wanting to avoid the middle-aged man.
"Who is that?"
"His name is Dai Yonghui. He’s a graduate advisor in our department. Ever since he found out Junjun is applying for grad school, he’s always finding excuses to talk to her, trying to get her to apply to be one of his students."
Lin Jiang said, "Shouldn’t that be a good thing?"
"It would be, under normal circumstances, but this situation is anything but," said Li Yueting.
"He has a pretty bad reputation. He exclusively picks female students for his program, and he’s known for sending them disgusting messages late at night. I heard one year, a student’s parents even came to confront him. It almost turned into a brawl, and they even had to call the police."
"And they let someone like that stay at the university?"
"He has a relative in the university’s leadership. In the end, nothing came of it; the whole thing was just swept under the rug."
"Has he approached you?" Lin Jiang asked, looking at Li Yueting.
"If he dared to try anything with me, I’d curse his entire family tree back eighteen generations." A warmth spread through Li Yueting’s chest. "Brother, you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be fine."
"That right there tells you something."
The two young women looked at Lin Jiang. Li Yueting asked, "Tells us what?"
"You’re both girls, and your grades are even a little better than Yingjun’s. The fact that he didn’t approach you under those circumstances means he wasn’t interested in you."
Li Yueting said, "Where’s my knife."
Xu Yingjun covered her face as she laughed, completely amused by the exchange.
At that exact moment, Dai Yonghui walked over, smiling at Xu Yingjun and Li Yueting.
"Teacher Dai."
Since he had already approached them, they had to greet him, no matter how unwilling they felt.
Dai Yonghui smiled and nodded, looking at Xu Yingjun. "Student Xu, how’s your studying going? Have you run into any problems with your major-specific courses?"
"Not yet. My studying is going well."
"When you’re done with lunch, stop by my office. I’ll find some more study materials for you and point out some of the key topics," Dai Yonghui said.
"I happen to be free this afternoon, so I can also assess your progress, find your weak areas, and we can work on strengthening them."
Xu Yingjun had a gentler personality. "I’m going to Zhonghai this afternoon, so I don’t think I can make it."
Hang City is very close to Zhonghai, less than 200 kilometers away, so Dai Yonghui wasn’t surprised.
"No rush. You can come find me when you get back. But as you know, many people want to be my graduate student this year, so you’ll have to act fast."
With that, Dai Yonghui turned to Li Yueting.
"Student Li, you’re also applying for grad school, right? My slots are extremely limited, so I won’t be able to take you. However, if you’re really set on it, you can come have a chat with me."
"Thank you, Teacher Dai, but my brother has already made arrangements for me, so I won’t be applying to your program."
Li Yueting already had a strong personality, and now that Lin Jiang was wealthy, she felt even more confident. She wasn’t about to play games with Dai Yonghui.
"What do you mean, ’made arrangements’?"
"My brother wants me to get into the graduate program at Zhonghai Jiaotong University. He’s taking me to Zhonghai to study and has already hired a professor from Jiaoda to tutor me, so your help won’t be necessary."
A look of surprise crossed Dai Yonghui’s face, and he subconsciously glanced at Lin Jiang.
"Hiring a professor from Jiaoda for private tutoring is no easy task," Dai Yonghui said.
"Besides, you know what caliber of university Jiaoda is. That’s a huge leap. You probably won’t be able to get in."
"If she can’t get in, she can’t get in. I can afford to support her," said Lin Jiang.
"As it happens, I have very few slots, so I couldn’t have taken on any more students anyway."
Dai Yonghui pushed up his glasses and looked at Xu Yingjun.
"Student Xu, just come find me when you get back. As long as you do as I say, getting accepted as my student will be no problem at all."
"I signed her up for it too, so don’t even think about it."
Dai Yonghui’s expression froze. He could let Li Yueting go, but he wasn’t willing to give up on Xu Yingjun.
"Thank you for the kind offer, Teacher Dai, but I’m also planning to apply for the graduate program at Jiaoda, so I won’t be able to be your student."
"You’d better think this through. This isn’t a joke," Dai Yonghui’s tone turned serious. "If you don’t find a reliable tutor, your prep will be ineffective, and you’ll have wasted an entire year."
"The person I found is Professor Liu Tieqiang. You think he’s unreliable?"
"Liu Tieqiang?!"
Dai Yonghui looked stunned, and the two young women couldn’t help but gasp.
"You know him too?"
"Of course we do! He’s a huge name in the field of economics. He wrote the textbook for our major!"
"I guess that was a lucky coincidence. It’s a perfect match for your major."
Lin Jiang smiled at Dai Yonghui. "His caliber should be quite a bit higher than yours, don’t you think?"
Li Yueting was absolutely thrilled. Finally, someone was here to put this old perv in his place.
"If you can get Professor Liu to tutor you, that would certainly be for the best." Dai Yonghui pushed up his glasses, trying to hide his embarrassment.
"I have other matters to attend to, so I’ll be going."
"Whose piece of shit car is this? Don’t they know they’re blocking the way?" Lin Jiang said, looking at the white CRV.
Dai Yonghui stopped in his tracks and shot Lin Jiang a displeased look.
"Young man, this CRV is my car. But no matter the situation, you should speak with a bit more civility. That’s basic human decency. And another thing..."
Dai Yonghui paused and glanced at the Cadillac CT5 parked next to it.
"My car isn’t that much worse than yours. Don’t be so arrogant just because you’re young. You still have a long road ahead of you."
"This is a Maybach that costs over three million. And you’re saying our cars are in the same price range? What, is your CRV gold-plated or something?"
"This... This Maybach is yours?"
Dai Yonghui was dumbfounded. He had seen the Maybach earlier, but it had never even crossed his mind that it might belong to them.
He had just assumed the Cadillac was theirs, which seemed more in line with their age.
’If you’re this rich, why are you even making your sister apply for grad school?!’
"Hurry up and move it. Stop blocking the way, or I’m calling a tow truck."
Dai Yonghui didn’t dare say another word. Cursing under his breath, he got into his car.
When the three of them got back in the car, Li Yueting burst out laughing so hard she snorted.
"Brother, you’re absolutely savage. I think he might actually die of anger. From this day forward, I shall call you the Ancient Greek god who presides over face-slapping."

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