260: Chapter 260 The Threshold of Top-Tier Kindergartens

Early the next morning.

Ivy International Bilingual Kindergarten, Chaoyang District, Imperial Capital.

Chen Fan wore a gray sweatshirt with a pilling collar and a pair of ordinary jeans. Su Wanqing also took off her high-end designer suit and wore a plain, unbranded coat.

The three little ones, who were almost three years old—the eldest Chen Xingyu, the second Chen Xingyue, and the third Chen Xingchen—each carried a small cartoon-branded backpack and stood in a line in front of the admissions office desk.

The spacious office was luxuriously decorated.

The interviewer was a woman in her thirties named Li Yan. She wore heavy makeup and a branded professional suit.

Li Yan picked up the registration form on the table and scanned it twice.

Her fingers, painted with red nail polish, tapped twice on the 'Parent's Occupation' column.

"Freelancer?" Li Yan looked up, sizing up Chen Fan's attire. "No fixed workplace?"

"Correct," Chen Fan spoke. "I usually stay at home and occasionally take on some odd jobs."

This wasn't exactly a lie; Chen Muyang was now in charge of everything at the Huihuang Group, so he really was idling at home.

Li Yan pushed the registration form forward.

"Mr. Chen, is it? Our Ivy is a top-tier bilingual elite kindergarten in the Imperial Capital." Li Yan leaned back in her chair. "The annual tuition is three hundred thousand. Since you don't have a fixed workplace, according to the school's rules, you must first pay a one-million-yuan school construction sponsorship fee before an interview can be arranged."

Su Wanqing held Chen Xingchen's small hand.

"The admissions brochure didn't mention anything about a sponsorship fee," Su Wanqing spoke up in rebuttal.

Li Yan let out a snort of laughter.

"The brochure is for people with connections." Li Yan's gaze swept over Su Wanqing's coat. "Looking at your outfits, you don't look like a family that can produce a million yuan. It's common to go borrow some money to pull it together for the sake of the child's future."

This was blatant harassment.

Chen Fan pulled over a chair and sat down.

"We haven't prepared a sponsorship fee." Chen Fan looked at Li Yan. "Follow the normal process. As long as the children qualify, they must be enrolled."

Li Yan tossed the ballpoint pen in her hand onto the table.

"Fine, let's follow the normal process." Li Yan opened a drawer and took out a stack of English literacy cards.

She slammed the cards heavily onto the tabletop.

"Ivy emphasizes an immersive foreign language environment. The first stage of the interview is to test vocabulary and pronunciation." Li Yan pulled out a card with an apple on it and held it in front of the three children.

"A-po." Li Yan read a word with an extremely stiff accent. "Follow the teacher, then spell it out. If you can't pronounce it correctly, just turn right out the door."

The office fell silent for two seconds.

The youngest, Chen Xingchen, took a small step forward.

Wearing a small yellow down jacket, he looked up at Li Yan.

"Auntie, your pronunciation just now was wrong," Chen Xingchen said in a milky voice.

Li Yan was stunned for a moment, just about to open her mouth to scold him.

Chen Xingchen opened his mouth, and a string of fluent sentences poured out.

First was standard, accent-less Received Pronunciation English. Immediately after, his tone shifted to pure Russian with rolled Rs. Before Li Yan could react, he seamlessly switched to French, German, and Spanish.

In a total of eight languages, Chen Xingchen used different tongues to recite the pronunciation, spelling, and etymological roots of the word 'apple' in each country in great detail.

The grammar was perfect. The pronunciation was more standard than a professional simultaneous interpreter.

When Chen Xingchen was in the Courtyard House, the people teaching him literacy were all top linguistics professors hired by the Huihuang Academy of Sciences from across the globe with high salaries.

"Auntie, which of these eight pronunciations do you want to learn from me?" Chen Xingchen asked, looking at Li Yan.

Li Yan sat frozen in her chair.

With her half-baked English, she hadn't even fully understood Xingchen's first sentence.

Two seconds later, she flew into a rage out of humiliation.

Li Yan stood up and pointed at Chen Xingchen, shouting.

"Where did you learn this gibberish! Are you performing a cross-talk routine here?" Li Yan swept the cards onto the floor. "How did the parents teach him? Coming to our Ivy to cause trouble! Security! Kick these people out!"

Chen Fan didn't bother arguing with a preschool teacher.

He pulled his phone out of his pants pocket and pressed a number.

"One minute," Chen Fan said only one sentence into the phone. "Find out all the information on the Ivy Kindergarten in Chaoyang District."

The call ended.

Li Yan pointed at Chen Fan and mocked him.

"Putting on an act! Calling to check information?" Li Yan walked around the desk in her high heels. "I've seen plenty of families like yours who slap their own faces to look fat! Even if you called the District Chief today, you wouldn't be able to attend this school!"

Before her voice could fade.

A flurry of disorganized footsteps came from the hallway outside.

The kindergarten principal, Zhang Jianguo, clutching a briefcase and running until he was drenched in sweat, burst through the door of the admissions office.

Zhang Jianguo gasped for breath, unable to even catch it properly.

"Principal, why did you come over personally?" Li Yan switched to a smiling face and went to meet him. "There are a few troublemaking parents here; I'm just calling security to kick them out."

"Kick out your mother!"

Zhang Jianguo cursed loudly, swung his arm, and slapped Li Yan across the face.

There was a crisp 'slap'.

Li Yan was knocked back two steps, clutching her face, unable to recover for a long time.

"Pack your things and get out immediately!" Zhang Jianguo pointed at the door. "You're fired! Blacklisted across the industry! From now on, no one in the entire education sector of the Imperial Capital will dare to hire you!"

Li Yan's mouth hung open; she didn't even dare to say a word in rebuttal as she scrambled out of the office.

Zhang Jianguo wiped the sweat from his forehead, turned around, bent his waist ninety degrees, and gave Chen Fan a deep bow.

Su Wanqing couldn't help but laugh out loud at this scene.

She reached out and pinched Chen Fan's face.

"You, even if you change into tattered clothes, you can't keep a low profile anywhere you go," Su Wanqing grumbled softly.

Chen Fan tucked his phone back into his pocket.

Zhang Jianguo walked quickly to the side and pushed open a concealed solid wood door.

"Chairman Chen, your arrival is my oversight. There are many eyes and ears out here; please, you and the Madam, come inside." Zhang Jianguo made a gesture of invitation.

Chen Fan led Chen Xingchen, and the family of five walked into the VIP reception room.

The door closed.

Zhang Jianguo took out a document stamped with a red seal and handed it to Chen Fan with both hands.

"Chairman Chen, I only confirmed it after receiving a call from above just now." Zhang Jianguo swallowed hard. "Actually, the wholly-owned controlling party behind our Ivy Kindergarten—that is, the major shareholder—was just acquired by the education fund under the Huihuang Group last night."

The flood had truly hit the Dragon King's temple.

This kindergarten now had the surname Chen.

Chen Fan flipped open the document and scanned it.

"Chairman Chen, having the three young masters come here to experience life is absolutely no problem. The procedures will be done in five minutes." Zhang Jianguo kept wiping his sweat. "However, there's a situation in the class; for the safety of the young masters, I must report to you in advance..."