I couldn't take it anymore; when I went home for Chinese New Year, the family genealogy book ha

Looking at Er Gou, who was acting nonchalant and had a "I'm a scoundrel, what can you do about it?" expression on his face.

Jiang Chen's smile didn't diminish at all; on the contrary, it became even brighter.

"Hey, isn't this Er Gou?"

Jiang Chen leaned back in the armchair, crossed his legs, and looked him up and down with the same gaze he would give a monkey in a zoo that hadn't fully evolved.

"What a rare guest! What brings you here today to wish my parents a Happy New Year?"

Er Gou felt a little uncomfortable under Jiang Chen's unsettling gaze, but the thought of the 500 yuan red envelope emboldened him again.

"Absolutely!" Er Gou patted his chest and said shamelessly, "My relationship with you, Brother Chen, goes without saying, doesn't it?"

Upon hearing this, the surrounding villagers all showed expressions of disdain.

Who doesn't know how you, Er Gou, used to insult Jiang Chen? Now that he's rich, you're trying to curry favor? You're shameless.

"Oh? Really?" Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow, feigning surprise. "I don't remember being this close to you."

Er Gou's face twitched; he was getting a little embarrassed, and his tone became impatient.

"Hey, Brother Chen, let's not dwell on the past!" He stretched out his hand and pushed it forward a bit more. "Let's get down to business. Look, everyone's taken one, it's my turn now, right? Give me the biggest one!"

He acted with self-righteousness, as if this biggest red envelope was rightfully his.

The surrounding air became completely quiet.

Everyone held their breath, watching Jiang Chen, wanting to see how he would handle this difficult problem.

Give it to him, that's too good for this little bastard, everyone's unhappy about it.

If I don't give it to them, it's the Lunar New Year, and it would seem stingy, which wouldn't sound good if word got out.

Just when everyone thought Jiang Chen would casually give them a fifty-yuan red envelope and send them away like a plague,

Jiang Chen's smile grew even brighter, so bright it was almost eerie.

"Er Gou," Jiang Chen spoke slowly, his voice not loud, but carrying an inexplicable chill, "I heard you've been studying quite diligently lately?"

Er Gou was taken aback.

His heart sank, and he thought to himself, "I'm failing every subject. In class, I either sleep or play on my phone. How am I studying hard?"

But then he thought that Jiang Chen was asking this because he wanted to find a way to back down, praise him a bit, and then give him a big red envelope.

Yes! That must be it!

Thinking of this, Er Gou immediately puffed out his chest and nodded proudly: "Yeah! Needless to say! My teacher has been praising my great progress lately!"

"Is that so?" Jiang Chen's smile deepened.

"That's perfect."

Amidst everyone's astonished gazes, Jiang Chen slowly reached out his hand towards the table.

His hand brushed over the pile of tempting red envelopes.

Then... it took a sharp turn.

It landed steadily on the stack of books on the right that exuded the "fragrance" of knowledge!

He pulled out the bottommost and thickest book, a brick-like one—"Winter Vacation Homework: Math (Full Marks Edition)"!

"Brother, you have an extraordinary physique and a high forehead; you're clearly a math prodigy!"

Jiang Chen stood up, walked over to Er Gou, and without saying a word, shoved the heavy exercise book, thicker than a brick, into Er Gou's stiff hands.

"Money, it's too vulgar!" Jiang Chen said with a pained expression. "It's all external stuff! It easily corrupts the pure soul of a fine young man like you!"

Knowledge is priceless!

"This workbook was specially selected for you by me at the largest Xinhua Bookstore in the county! It's full of the most classic Olympiad math problems. Once you finish it, I guarantee you'll have a breakthrough in everything, and you'll get 100% on every exam from now on!"

As Jiang Chen spoke, he patted Er Gou's shoulder hard, so hard that Er Gou stumbled.

Then, he leaned down and, in a voice only the two of them could hear, whispered menacingly in Er Gou's ear:

"Take it back. Starting today, do ten pages a day."

"No food allowed until you finish your work, and don't even think about touching your phone."

"I'll have your dad take a picture and send it to me for inspection every night at nine o'clock sharp."

"If I find out you're slacking off..."

Jiang Chen paused, his smile as cold as a Siberian chill.

"...I'll let you experience firsthand what it truly means to 'spare the rod and spoil the child'."

Er Gou was completely dumbfounded.

He stared blankly at the math problem set in his hand. The dense array of "X"s and "Y"s seemed to him like spinning, leaping demons.

He felt as if he wasn't holding a book.

It was a death warrant!

"Pfft—!"

I don't know who it was, but the first person couldn't help but laugh.

Immediately afterwards, a deafening burst of laughter erupted from the crowd!

"Hahaha! That's hilarious! They're giving away workbooks!"

"Chen'er's move is too vicious! It's like killing someone by breaking their spirit!"

"Serves him right! He's always so arrogant! Now look what he's done for; he'll be spending the whole year immersed in the ocean of mathematics!"

Amidst the bursts of laughter from the entire village, Er Gou's face flushed red, then turned pale, and finally became a deep liver color.

He felt that he had never been so humiliated in his life!

He wanted to throw the book on the ground, but when he met Jiang Chen's cold gaze, he was so frightened that he withdrew his hand.

In the end, he could only clutch the workbook, which was more important than his life, and slink away from the scene amidst the laughter of the crowd.

With the little incident involving Er Gou resolved, the atmosphere of handing out red envelopes in the yard became even more lively.

The children kowtowed even more enthusiastically, afraid that if they didn't perform well, they would also be rewarded with a copy of "Huanggang Secret Exam Papers".