Chapter 37: Heaven and Earth Net

Bang.

As the door closed, only Zhou Chechen and Lan Ling remained in the office.

Lan Ling, while continuing to practice with the dumbbell in his hand, said, "President, that Zhang Yu is a bit greedy."

Zhou Chechen reclined on the sofa and said with a light laugh, "Well, he's a poor man. It's normal to be arrogant when you finally achieve something and you're young."

"If I'd raised my score by seventy points in one month like him, I'd be just as arrogant."

"Let's give him another month to think it over."

Lan Ling said coldly, "President, are you really going to increase his contract terms again?"

Zhou Chechen said calmly, "Lan Ling, you've seen too few poor people, so you still don't understand them."

"Limited by family education, life experience, and living standards, poor people's horizons are often very narrow."

"In a situation like just now, nine out of ten would have signed the contract with us on the spot."

"But Zhang Yu managed to stay calm and said he wanted to go back and think about it. That actually made me think a little more highly of him."

"If he can improve his grades again in the monthly exam a month from now, what's wrong with giving him a raise in treatment level?"

Lan Ling frowned and said, "I'm just afraid that people like him are insatiably greedy."

Zhou Chechen laughed heartily and said, "Alright, Big Lan, you have to be more generous in life. Don't bother competing with the people below."

"Zhang Yu and we are not on the same path, and he won't come to compete for our positions. They are never in a competitive relationship with us."

"On the contrary, the better he does, the more progress he makes, the more we earn, and the more worth it is for us to invest..."

As he spoke, Zhou Chechen had already put a spirit realm mask over his head.

"I'll be making up classes in the spirit realm all afternoon, so don't come looking for me if there's nothing urgent."

In the cafeteria.

As soon as he stepped out of the student council office, Zhang Yu rushed over to Bai Zhenzhen.

Seeing that she was still eating calmly, Zhang Yu said urgently, "Zhen, you'd better give me a damn good reason."

"Do you know how much willpower it took for me not to sign just now?"

"You have no idea how much they appreciate my talent..."

Bai Zhenzhen said calmly, "Did he rush over and grab your hand the moment you walked in, not even bothering to put on his shoes?"

Zhang Yu was taken aback and stopped speaking.

Bai Zhenzhen continued, "It's the same every time. Zhou Chechen entertains everyone he wants to sign a contract with."

"Ah?" Zhang Yu was surprised.

So he was pulling the 'welcome a worthy guest without even putting on his shoes' act on me?

Zhang Yu then said, "But he also cleared my debts."

Bai Zhenzhen snorted and asked, "Did he really clear them?"

"I suppose he became your creditor, didn't he?"

"Didn't he also tell you there's no interest, no rush to repay, and you can slowly pay it back after you graduate from college and find a job?"

Zhang Yu was startled again: "Did he say the same thing to you?"

Bai Zhenzhen said, "He probably says that to everyone he plans to sign a contract with."

"But don't think for a second that this is a good thing."

"The so-called 'no need to repay' is just talk."

"If you stop repaying the debt and it falls overdue, the decision-making power will all be in his hands."

"If he truly doesn't care, then there's nothing to worry about."

"But once he applies for compulsory enforcement, the money in your account will immediately be taken to pay off the debt."

"If you don't have enough money, then you'll have to use assets to offset it."

"Think about it, what's your most valuable asset?"

Zhang Yu's eyes flickered slightly. He really didn't have any assets on hand. Worst case, he could just be a deadbeat if they enforced it.

Bai Zhenzhen gave a cold snort and said, "The most valuable thing on you is your cultivation, your tempered flesh and blood, and your diligently cultivated dantian."

Zhang Yu's gaze sharpened. "You mean they would...?"

Bai Zhenzhen nodded. "Enforcement: if you have money, you pay; if not, your assets are auctioned. After all external possessions are sold off, naturally they'll sell your organs, your flesh and blood, your dantian..."

Although he had long stopped expecting any bottom line from Kunxu, hearing these words from Bai Zhenzhen still made Zhang Yu's heart sink.

Bai Zhenzhen continued her explanation, "Don't think about running either. This contract isn't just a piece of paper."

"Remember the Legal Affairs Division among the Eight Ministries of the True Gods?"

"When this contract is signed, the student council will use talismans to respectfully invite the Great God of Heavenly Contracts of the Legal Affairs Division to witness. Then enforcement will also be carried out by the Eight Ministries of the True Gods."

Good heavens, what a Zhou Chechen. The more Zhang Yu heard, the more shocked he became. "Brother opens his heart to you, and you play mind games with brother? You're trying to send brother into the campus?"

Across from Zhang Yu, Bai Zhenzhen continued, "However, if you fully comply with the contract and your grade improvement meets their expectations, then they might not do anything to you."

"But there's another key point—another part of the contract concerning the choice of university and major when applying to college, and the compensation for violating related clauses."

"In other words, after signing the contract, which university and which major you apply to will be entirely up to them."

"Plus all kinds of other rules—once violated, they come with astronomical penalty fees..."

Seeing Zhang Yu's bewildered expression, Bai Zhenzhen said testily, "Didn't you read this part of the contract?" Zhang Yu replied righteously, "I was so overwhelmed by all the benefits listed earlier that I was afraid if I read any further, I wouldn't be able to resist signing. So I quickly refused Zhou Chechen and ran to the cafeteria to find you."

Bai Zhenzhen nodded. "Alright, I guess you have extraordinary willpower, Yu."

Then she changed the subject and started talking about something else. "Yu, have you noticed that those filthy rich kids in our school rarely get into conflicts with us poor folks?"

"Haven't they always been gentle, kind, and polite, rarely bullying others with their power?"

Zhang Yu thought back a little and nodded. "Seems like it."

Bai Zhenzhen said, "Because the rich and the poor aren't even competing on the same track. They never saw us as competitors from start to finish, which is why they appear human."

Zhang Yu frowned slightly upon hearing this. "We all take the college entrance exam together—what do you mean not on the same track? Can they get into college by doing aerobics?"

Bai Zhenzhen continued, "Because the poor aim for ordinary universities, while those filthy rich kids aim for the top ten prestigious universities."

"For them, with their wealth, they have plenty of opportunities to get into ordinary universities, so they never see the poor as competitors."

"Only the top universities—even they have to go all out to compete with other rich kids."

"!"

Zhang Yu couldn't help asking, "So can't poor people apply to top universities?"

Bai Zhenzhen said, "The admission quotas for the top ten universities are limited, and the allocation to each city is even smaller."

"For example, in Songyang City, the total annual admission from all ten universities... is only a few dozen people."

"These quotas have long been monopolized by them through various means."

"For instance, the A-level contract is one such method—signing with talented, high-scoring poor kids and directly deciding which universities they apply to."

"Of course... after signing this contract, although you can't apply to the top ten, you become their investment project. They will still be polite and friendly to you, your good classmates."

"But if you don't sign the contract, or even show any intention of applying to the top ten, then you truly become their competitor."

"Waiting for you will be a brutally fierce competition. You'll witness their truly inhumane methods, and the pressure surging at you from all sides."

"The admission quotas for the top ten elite schools are something their circle collectively protects, absolutely forbidding any poor person from getting a share."

"On this point, even the student councils of all key high schools share a common rise and fall."

"Don't expect the school to interfere too much. When the social influence of the students' parents far exceeds that of the school, even the principal often can't control the student council."

Hearing these words from Bai Zhenzhen, Zhang Yu immediately understood—the rich kids of Songyang were in cahoots to push out the stinking poor.

At that moment, he felt as if he saw an invisible net, covering the sky and earth, hanging over all students, suffocatingly oppressive.

Zhang Yu couldn't help but exclaim, "Is the gap between the top ten elite schools and ordinary universities really that huge? That they're so afraid?"

Bai Zhenzhen rolled her eyes and said, "What else would it be?"

"The Ten Great Sects are something people can never escape from birth to death—they are the force that determines the direction of Kunxu."

"And only by entering the Ten Top Elite Schools can you have a chance to join the Ten Great Sects."

"As for graduates of ordinary universities? The Ten Great Sects won't accept them as disciples; at best, they can only become employees of some corporation under the Ten Great Sects."

Zhang Yu sighed inwardly upon hearing this—so even after graduating from university, you can't escape degree discrimination. Graduating from an ordinary university means you'll be an outsourced disciple for life.

Bai Zhenzhen continued, "Of course, there's another very important point: only the Ten Great Sects... can allow one to become an immortal."

There was even a hint of longing in her tone now.

Becoming an immortal—the ultimate pursuit in the hearts of countless cultivators. Could there be a single cultivator who set foot on the path of immortality and never thought of this?

Hearing this, Zhang Yu also remembered: immortals only exist within the Ten Great Sects.

Bai Zhenzhen said, "In short, that's how it is."

"If you want to get into the Ten Top Elite Schools, you have to face an overwhelming slaughter."

"Yu Zi, now that you know all this... what do you plan to do?"

Under Bai Zhenzhen's gaze, Zhang Yu looked extremely hesitant.

"Should I sign? If I sign, I can study and take exams safely. With the Yu Shu, even if I go to an ordinary university and work for a sect corporation, I should be able to do pretty well, right?"

"But... the Ten Great Sects..."

At this moment, Zhang Yu thought of the Immortal Spirit Roots that only sect disciples could implant, the Immortal-level techniques that only sect disciples could use, and the fact that only sect disciples could become immortals...

All kinds of countless chasms—both known and unknown to him—lay between the paths of the Ten Top Elite Universities and ordinary universities.

Just as Zhang Yu was feeling hesitant, a chill surged from his heart, and as the countdown appeared, it also reminded him of something.

"Ha... study hard, work hard, get into university, join a great sect, then earn money and buy all the antiques in my shopping cart."

"To join a great sect, I have to get into the Top Ten..."

"Damn... actually, I never had a choice."

Seeing Zhang Yu's constipated expression, Bai Zhenzhen patted him on the shoulder and said, "Take your time thinking. This choice really isn't easy to make."

"They should have given you a month to think it over."

Watching Bai Zhenzhen stand up as if to leave, Zhang Yu suddenly asked, "What about you? A-Zhen, what do you plan to do?"

Bai Zhenzhen paused slightly, then said with unwavering determination, "I'm not signing."

"I'm going for the Top Ten."

And Zhang Yu, feeling the slowly fading chill inside him, seemed to see his own choice directly.

He smiled and said, "Then let's do it together."