"Yes, yes, Director Chen is absolutely right. This was a mistake in my work. Tomorrow—tomorrow I'll have the bureau prioritize reviewing Teacher Zheng's application for first-level professional title!"
As soon as Director Chen finished speaking, Victor Deng felt a jolt of panic and hurried to respond, afraid of leaving a bad impression.
"That's how it should be. In education, mistakes happen, but when it comes to building our teaching staff, we absolutely cannot let excellent teachers lose heart. If someone is capable and has achievements, we have to make sure their professional title is awarded!"
Director Chen chuckled warmly.
"That's right, Director Chen is absolutely right!"
"Director Chen always thinks of everything."
Several people from the Education Bureau quickly chimed in, trying to smooth things over.
Director Chen looked over at Joy Zheng again, his face gentle. "Teacher Zheng, if you ever need anything else—any reasonable request—the Education Bureau will do its best to accommodate you."
"Thank you, thank you, Director Chen." Joy Zheng nodded, her face lit up with joy.
She had spent years preparing all sorts of materials to move from second-level to first-level professional title, but every time she was blocked at the final step and rejected. After so many years, she was finally seeing some hope.
"You really have raised an excellent child!"
In the end, Director Chen couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
If it were just winning the National Math Olympiad, Director Chen wouldn’t be so moved. What really made an impact was Professor Gordon Gu’s words after the results came out.
Evan Lin sat in his seat, feeling all the eyes on him. His expression was calm, completely unmoved, as he ate his food without looking around.
To the others, this scene looked a bit off-putting. Evan Lin seemed aloof—anyone else would at least say a few polite words or thank Director Chen at a time like this.
But Evan Lin acted as if he hadn’t even heard Director Chen. He just kept eating and drinking as he pleased, making a lot of people from the Education Bureau feel awkward. Still, Director Chen didn’t seem to mind and wasn’t angry at all.
On the other side, Ivy Deng’s throat felt dry. She looked at Evan Lin with a more complicated expression, but that was as far as it went.
In Ivy Deng’s mind, her impression of Evan Lin was still stuck on the scrawny kid who used to follow Joy Zheng around—someone who seemed honest at best, never the type you’d associate with words like ‘handsome’ or ‘smart.’
She never expected that Evan Lin could actually win first prize in the National Math Olympiad—and be singled out for praise by the world-famous Professor Gordon Gu.
All those feelings clashed in Ivy Deng’s mind, but after glancing at Evan Lin again, she shook her head and threw all those messy thoughts aside.
But what did any of this really have to do with her?
Ivy Deng figured her grades weren’t bad—she’d probably get into a 985 or 211 university after the college entrance exam. Even if Evan Lin was amazing and ended up in Professor Gordon Gu’s math department at Huaqing National University, becoming that pride-of-the-nation type student…
He’d still need ten years or more to climb out of the poverty he was born into.
It’s a long road—winning or losing isn’t decided in a single day, and the path ahead is full of thorns. It’s not as simple as it looks.
So, seeing Evan Lin quietly eating, looking like he didn’t care about anyone else, Ivy’s mood gradually calmed down. She felt less of that unbalanced, unfair feeling she’d had because of Director Chen and Evan’s Olympiad results.
Meanwhile, Flora Huang’s face was ugly. She’d thought her words would embarrass Joy Zheng and Evan Lin, but instead she’d shot herself in the foot and ended up giving them all the glory.
Flora Huang was just thinking about how to say something to smooth over her earlier blunder when she saw Victor Deng shoot her a fierce glare. She could only force a weak smile and shut her mouth, feeling extremely frustrated inside.
By the time the meal was over, it was already after one in the afternoon.
Joy Zheng still had two tutoring sessions that afternoon. After learning Evan Lin had won first prize in the Olympiad, she seemed to glow with happiness, smiling as she reminded Evan to be careful on his way home and watch out for traffic.
Watching Joy Zheng ride off on her battered old bicycle to Flora Huang’s basement classroom, Evan Lin considered persuading her to stop running the tutoring class—it was just too exhausting.
But after thinking it over, he decided not to say anything.
He figured he’d have to wait until this batch of tutoring students finished before bringing it up. Otherwise, with Joy Zheng’s sense of responsibility, it’d be pointless—she wouldn’t listen.
Once Joy Zheng’s figure disappeared at the end of the street, Evan Lin sensed something and turned to see Ivy Deng standing behind him.
Ivy Deng glanced at Evan Lin, then quickly looked away. Her face was calm as she walked straight to her little electric scooter and left.
Evan Lin shook his head. He’d never had much to do with Ivy Deng, and he wasn’t about to overthink things. He definitely wasn’t narcissistic enough to believe Director Chen’s words would make her see him in a new light.
Not a chance.
Girls at this age might look up to academic legends, but Ivy Deng was a top student herself—and Evan Lin’s old reputation as a hopeless slacker was way too strong.
After standing there for a moment, Evan Lin called out Hank Chu and Ken to join him at the internet café for some gaming.
"Xiao Yi, want to go out to the reservoir tomorrow? They’ve built a lakeside area there—the scenery’s pretty nice. We can’t just sit in the café playing games every day, right? It’s way too boring. And not to be rude, Xiao Yi, but you really need more exercise."
In the internet café, Ken looked very serious as he tried to convince Evan.
He didn’t notice Hank Chu’s strange expression when he heard Ken say Evan needed to work out more.
After all, he’d seen Evan Lin personally crush Jason Jiang’s whole crew on the basketball court.
Speaking of which, Hank Chu realized he hadn’t seen Jason Jiang—or his weird two guys and one girl crew—at all these past few days.