A perfect score on the college entrance exam? The Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng has astonis

He said that the seven million yuan prize money was "too much of a hassle to keep pushing and shoving."

He was never overjoyed by what he gained, nor was he devastated by what he lost.

He is like a river, flowing when it should flow, stopping when it should stop, deep when it should be deep, and shallow when it should be shallow.

It won't be held back by the scenery on both sides of the river, nor will it be blocked by the stones in the riverbed.

Principal Wang stood behind his desk, looking at Chen Mo, then at Su Wanci, and suddenly said something.

"What are you two having for dinner tonight? It's on me."

Chen Mo glanced at him.

"Dumplings, pork and cabbage."

Principal Wang was taken aback for a moment.

"You're eating this? You just received a million dollars, and you're eating dumplings?"

"The dumplings were good."

Chen Mo said.

"My mom made it."

Principal Wang opened his mouth, wanting to say, "Isn't your mother back in your hometown?"

But he swallowed the words back down his throat.

He thought, this is Chen Mo.

The million dollars belong to others, but the dumplings are mine.

He can tell the difference.

He turned around, picked up the thermos on the table, took a sip of water, and found the temperature to be just right—neither too hot nor too cold.

The sun had already set outside the window, leaving only a dark red afterglow on the horizon, like a faded ribbon hanging at the edge of the horizon.

The office lights dimmed, and Principal Wang turned them on. The orange light filled the entire room, casting long, long shadows of everyone on the floor, like a series of stretched-out shadow puppet shows.

"Let's go," Chen Mo said, "It's getting dark."

Su Wanci nodded and said goodbye to Principal Wang. The two walked out of the administration building and onto the path beside the playground. The streetlights were already on, their orange glow casting long, overlapping shadows on the red track.

"Chen Mo."

"Um."

"You're a multi-millionaire now."

"Um."

Aren't you upset?

Chen Mo thought for a moment.

"I'm excited, but I'm even more excited about the dumplings your mom made."

Su Wanci paused for a moment, then smiled.

The two walked out of the school gate and into the night.

Principal Wang stood by the window, watching the two shadows, elongated by the streetlights, gradually walk away and disappear into the night.

He turned around, picked up the thermos on the table, and took another sip of water.

The water was already cold, but he felt it was just right.

He put down his cup, walked behind his desk and sat down, tapping his fingers unconsciously on the surface a few times.

Then he picked up his phone, found the number of Teacher Liu from the school's publicity department, and dialed it.

I answered the phone after it rang twice.

"headmaster?"

"Old Liu, are you working overtime today?"

"Yes, Principal. What's up?"

Principal Wang leaned back in his chair, stared at the fluorescent light on the ceiling, and remained silent for a second.

"The video of the Mathematical Sciences Association coming to the office this afternoon was captured on the security camera, right?"

"We got it on camera, Principal. The whole thing is captured on video."

"Cut out the part where Chen Mo refuses the vice president, add subtitles, and post it on the school's official Douyin account."

Principal Wang paused for a moment.

"No editing, no music, no special effects, just the original video, the original sound, the original picture. Let everyone see how our school's students reject the vice president of the Mathematical Science Association."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

Teacher Liu's voice trembled slightly.

"Principal, isn't this... a bit too high-profile?"

Principal Wang smiled.

"High-profile? Chen Mo himself isn't high-profile, but our school can't let him keep a low profile. He did something so significant, the whole internet is talking about him. As his alma mater, shouldn't we give him some support?"

His voice lowered.

"Besides, those who question him, didn't they say he only knows literature and not mathematics? Didn't they say he has a team behind him? Now the president of the Mathematical Sciences Association personally came to invite him to be the vice president, and he refused. Isn't that the best proof?

"Okay. I'll get right away."

The phone hangs up.

Principal Wang put down his phone, picked up his thermos, and took another sip of herbal tea.

He looked out the window at the completely dark sky, and the corners of his mouth slowly, very slowly, curled up.

Chen Mo and Su Wanci walked out of the school gate and headed towards the bus stop along the road they had walked for three years.

The streetlights lit up one by one, their orange glow illuminating the entire street like a golden river.

Su Wanci walked to Chen Mo's right, looking down at her own shadow.

Her shadow was stretched very long by the streetlights, overlapping with Chen Mo's shadow, like two ink strokes blending together in a traditional Chinese ink painting.

She suddenly remembered what had happened in the office earlier.

Chen Mo put the black card and the blue card into his pocket.

So natural, so casual, like putting two bus cards in.

She couldn't help but glance at him again.

Why are you looking at me like that?

Chen Mo felt her gaze.

"I'm thinking,"

Su Wanci put her hands behind her back and quickened her pace.

"Your current net worth is enough for a down payment on an apartment in Beijing. How do you plan to spend it?"

Chen Mo thought for a moment.

"Let me treat you to a meal first."

Su Wanci was stunned for a moment.

"this one?"

"Then let's have another cup of milk tea."

"...Can't you have some class? You're a multi-millionaire now, and this is how you treat people to dinner?"

Chen Mo thought about it seriously.

Then he said something that almost made Su Wanci choke on her own saliva.

"Then I'll treat you to two meals and two cups of milk tea."

Su Wanci glared at him, her cheeks puffed out.

She stared for three seconds, then laughed first.

As she laughed, she suddenly realized that this was Chen Mo.

When someone gets a million dollars, they're probably already thinking about how to invest, manage their finances, and make their money grow.

What he was thinking was—

I'll treat you to a meal and a milk tea, two meals in total.

It's not because he's stingy, it's because he never changes his way of dealing with the world just because the amount of money changes.

He treats a bowl of frozen dumplings the same way he treats a million dollars.

Eat what you want, drink what you want, and put what you need in your pocket.

The two walked to the bus stop.

There was only one old lady sitting on a bench on the platform waiting for the train, carrying a bag of steamed buns in her hand.

Seeing them approaching, he smiled, then turned back to look at the traffic on the road.

Chen Mo and Su Wanci sat side by side on the bench, with a person's distance between them.

It wasn't intentional; the spot was just big enough for one person to sit in.

Getting any closer would seem contrived, while being any further away would seem distant.

They maintained this distance for many years.

"Chen Mo."

"Um."

"You just said, 'I need free time to do what I want'—what do you want to do?"

Chen Mo looked at the row of shops across the street: a barbershop, a fruit shop, a convenience store, and a pharmacy. The lights on their signs were brighter and brighter, red, green, blue, and yellow, illuminating the whole street as if it were daytime.

He looked at the lights and remained silent for a while.

"I don't know, but I want to save the time so that I can do whatever I want whenever I want."

Chapter 73 of this book contains a surprise: Chen Mo remains unchanged throughout. Click here to unlock it now.