Chapter 23: Adapting to Circumstances

For the Student Union of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, today might be the biggest news they have encountered in years.

This competition came about through a series of coincidences.

It was only brought to fruition by the interplay of many factors: the heckling freshmen, Zhou Yang's pride, Yang Tianxing's pressure, and the way words escalated during their verbal sparring; it was unexpected, yet reasonable.

The Student Union is essentially a student organization of the school, but it has been tainted by a great deal of bureaucratic bad habits; the office is small, but the style is very poor, and even among those few simple departments, there is infighting, and it can even be split into several factions.

Zhou Yang is clearly a lackey of Long Fuxin, but the cadres of other departments do not necessarily pay him any mind; they just hold an attitude of "it has nothing to do with me, so I'll just hang back" and watch the fun.

However, the surrounding freshmen are unusually united; where there is oppression, there is resistance—that is truly not wrong at all.

"The merchants that the Humanities Department solicits sponsorships from are all within Hejiaying; I don't think we need to ask every single one, as that wastes energy and time. Let's just randomly assign one merchant to each person and see who can pull in more sponsorship."

Outside of Hejiaying, Long Fuxin, the Vice President of the Humanities and Social Sciences Student Union, is announcing the rules.

Zhou Yang is certainly in agreement; although it is said to be "random," he knows very well in the External Relations Department which merchants are easy to talk to and which ones won't give an opportunity at all, and Long Fuxin will surely have it arranged.

Sure enough, Zhou Yang is assigned to a barbershop that opened not long ago, where the firecracker debris at the entrance hasn't even been swept clean, and the owner is a young man in his 20s; Yang Tianxing is assigned to a stationery store, and the owner is a middle-aged man in his 40s.

Seeing this result, Zhou Yang thinks to himself, what is there to compete for? The person just opened the shop and certainly needs publicity, and the young man is easy to talk to; just a casual chat and he can pull in a few hundred yuan in sponsorship.

As for that stationery store owner, he is rich, but he is also extremely stingy, and he does wholesale business, so he has little interest in retail and doesn't need much publicity.

"Just you wait."

Zhou Yang glances at Yang Tianxing, thinking that the face he just lost can now be won back all at once.

Zhou Yang pushes open the glass door of the barbershop named "Jian Yue" with spirit; the owner originally thought business had arrived and welcomed him very happily, especially since there were many students standing outside, but after hearing Zhou Yang explain his purpose, his expression gradually turned cold.

"We just opened not long ago, and business isn't very good either."

The barbershop owner is very reluctant; Hejiaying is a key focus for the external relations departments of all universities in the Chang'an District University Town, and sometimes there are several waves of students from different universities coming to sponge off them in a single month.

"It is precisely because you just opened that you need publicity. Our department is preparing to hold a freshman gala; if you sponsor a banner and pay the balance, all the freshmen in the department will see it when the time comes. If you sponsor a few small gifts, your shop will become famous in our department."

This kind of sponsorship solicitation has a routine, and it doesn't take much brainpower to copy it, but the effect won't be very good either; you certainly can't pull in big money, but you can get a little bit of small money.

Yang Tianxing is also in the shop; he lights a cigarette without saying a word, quietly watching Zhou Yang negotiate with the barbershop owner.

By the end of the talk, Zhou Yang's tone has become somewhat fawning and servile.

Zhang Wei is standing right next to Yang Tianxing; she shakes her head and sighs, "This is the current state of our External Relations Department. Soliciting sponsorship is just like begging, but it is also quite good for training people. This one is still easy to talk to; the attitude at that stationery store will be very nasty."

Relying on the backing of Vice President Long Fuxin, Zhou Yang doesn't put Department Head Zhang Wei in his eyes at all; a matter like the one at noon was simply Zhou Yang acting on his own, and now the entire External Relations Department has to lose face along with him.

Facing the information revealed by Zhang Wei, Yang Tianxing just smokes silently without speaking.

Half an hour later, the young shop owner finally cannot hold out and gives in, agreeing to sponsor a 200-yuan banner, plus 300 yuan worth of haircut coupons that can be used as prizes at the freshman gala.

"Thank you, thank you."

Zhou Yang, who acts like his tail is in the air at school, bows and thanks him incessantly, but the shop owner's expression is cold and indifferent, without much response.

"It really isn't easy, but at least it counts as having some results."

Zhou Yang lets out a long breath, his expression changing from the fawning look of just a moment ago to smugness, and then he looks at Yang Tianxing provocatively.

Yang Tianxing stubs out his cigarette and walks directly toward the stationery store, but he didn't expect an accident to occur right at the start.

The stationery store owner was originally talking to a neighbor nearby, but after seeing Long Fuxin and Zhang Wei clearly, he walked into the shop and closed the glass door without saying a word.

Having been given the cold shoulder, Zhang Wei looks somewhat embarrassed and also somewhat indignant; Long Fuxin deliberately chose this kind of merchant for Yang Tianxing, clearly just to bully him.

Zhou Yang couldn't be happier, only regretting that he isn't the owner of the stationery store; otherwise, he would really make Yang Tianxing kneel and call him daddy.

"I'll go help you make an opening, the rest is up to you."

Zhang Wei drops this sentence and takes the initiative to walk over and push open the glass door, saying, "Hello, Boss Cai, sorry to bother you again."

"If you really feel like you're bothering me, then don't come."

The owner of this stationery store is named Cai Qiang; he is in his 40s, a bit bald, wears glasses, and has prominent cheekbones; his appearance belongs to the type of person who is difficult to deal with.

Hearing Cai Qiang's mockery, Zhang Wei says with an embarrassed face, "Our department is going to hold a freshman gala, and we would like to ask you to sponsor..."

"Bang!" A sound rings out.

Cai Qiang directly takes a thick ledger and slams it onto the counter, and the sound of Zhang Wei's voice comes to an abrupt end.

"It's not that I'm unwilling to support, but I also have many external debts that haven't been collected; I don't have the money to sponsor you," Cai Qiang says while flipping through the ledger and taking out IOUs.

In the crowd, a Student Union cadre complains, "It's this routine again. Every time we ask for sponsorship, she takes out these IOUs to mock us."

Standing from a businessman's perspective, Yang Tianxing can actually understand it quite well; after all, no one's money is blown in by the wind, so since it has no use, why bother sponsoring?

But from the perspective of today's competition, Yang Tianxing thinks to himself that this son-of-a-bitch Long Fuxin really knows how to set a trap; people like Cai Qiang basically belong to the category of those who won't shell out money.

"I'll say it again: you college students are all capable people. Whoever can help me collect my external debts, the money collected will count as the sponsorship."

After Cai Qiang finishes speaking, he stares at this group of Finance Institute college students; they have no social experience, and when the routine of soliciting sponsorship doesn't work, they can only be at a loss.

Here, Zhou Yang is the happiest, signaling Long Fuxin to hurry up and announce the end of the competition; he can no longer restrain himself and is ready to strike at Yang Tianxing from 360 degrees without dead angles, all day long.

Seeing Zhou Yang's excited expression, Yang Tianxing walks up and asks, "Boss Cai, are there any merchants nearby who owe you money?"

Cai Qiang is enjoying the awkwardness of the college students, but he is stunned when he hears Yang Tianxing speak; in the past, when he threw out this trump card, the college students would always retreat in the face of difficulty, but today someone actually dares to come and ask.

"You intend to help me collect debts?"

"Nothing too far away; the results have to be out by this afternoon," Yang Tianxing says.

Cai Qiang sizes up Yang Tianxing; he is tall and big, and really not ugly, but there is always an irrepressible roguish air at the corners of his brows; he smiles with a touch of frivolity, yet speaks quite steadily.

"There is one nearby."

The stationery store owner, Cai Qiang, flips through the ledger and looks up, saying, "It's the fruit shop across the street."

"Where is the IOU?" Yang Tianxing asks.

"That's the problem. The IOU was in duplicate at the time, but the copy I kept was lost. After he found out, he directly denied that he had ever borrowed money. Otherwise, if I had the IOU, I would have collected it long ago since it's so close," Cai Qiang says.

Yang Tianxing thinks to himself that this is still a headless account without an IOU, then asks again, "How much money does he owe you?"

"2,500 yuan."

Yang Tianxing nods, ponders for a moment, and says, "Old Fu, Old Song, Liu Lei, do you dare to go collect the debt with me?"

"What's there not to dare?"

"Agreed, let's go, Second Brother."

"Squad Leader, I'm listening to you on this."

Yang Tianxing did not stand on ceremony either, taking these three hoodlums straight to the fruit shop across the way, and the spectating students also "whooshed" and followed along in a crowd, leaving only Zhou Yang standing there foolishly, saying to Long Fuxin, "Shouldn't I have won?"

Long Fuxin had also thought it was a sure thing, but now that a hitch had inexplicably occurred, he cursed impatiently, "You f***ing ask me, who the f*** am I supposed to ask?"