88: Chapter 88 Chen Muyang's "Cinderella"

The north wind cut across the asphalt road of Yunzhou University like a knife, whipping up fallen leaves and scrap paper from the ground.

"How many times do I have to say it! This is the main school gate; you aren't allowed to hand out this kind of garbage flyer! Can't you understand human language?"

The fat security guard, wrapped in a thick military overcoat, cursed with a face full of flab. He lifted his heavy leather-shoed foot and kicked hard at the pile of A4 papers on the ground that hadn't been handed out yet.

With a rustle.

The flyers scattered everywhere, some blown by the wind into muddy puddles, instantly turning a large patch dirty.

Lin Wanqiu, wearing a washed-out school uniform, shivered in the cold wind with her thin frame. She didn't talk back, just silently crouched down, her red, swollen, frostbitten fingers scraping the papers off the icy concrete ground.

"Still picking them up? Get lost!" The security guard, perhaps feeling this girl was an easy target, or maybe needing to vent the anger from being scolded by his captain earlier, raised his foot again to kick Lin Wanqiu's hand.

Just then, two piercing beams of headlights cut through the darkness like sharp swords, shining directly onto the security guard's face.

The security guard instinctively raised his hand to block his eyes, his mouth just about to curse at whoever was parking blindly, when his peripheral vision caught that unique double-M hood ornament.

A maybach.

And it was a maybach with a "Yun A · 88888" bomb license plate.

The security guard's foot, which had just been raised, froze stiffly in mid-air, nearly throwing out his back. He had stood guard at the school gate for three years; he had no other skills, but he had practiced the ability to recognize license plates. The owner of this car could be counted on one hand in all of Yunzhou.

The car door opened.

A long, slender leg stepped out, the black dress trousers crisp, the leather shoe stepping onto the dead leaves with a slight, crisp sound.

Chen Muyang got out of the car, casually buttoning his suit jacket. He didn't look at the security guard, just stood quietly behind Lin Wanqiu, his tall figure blocking most of the wind for her.

"Pick them up."

Chen Muyang's voice was flat, revealing neither joy nor anger.

The security guard was stunned for a moment, thinking this Young Master was talking to the girl. He immediately put on a fawning smile, bowing and scraping as he leaned in: "Boss, you're right! This student is too ignorant, affecting the city's appearance; I'll chase her away right now..."

"I'm talking to you." Chen Muyang turned his head, his gaze landing on the security guard's greasy face, "Pick up the flyers you kicked and scattered just now, one by one."

The security guard's smile froze on his face like a cheap mask. He opened his mouth, looked at Chen Muyang's expensive high-end custom suit, and then looked at the driver, Old Zhang, in the car behind, who looked like someone not to be trifled with.

The survival instinct of someone who had long been at the bottom told him that he couldn't afford to offend the young man in front of him.

"Yes... yes..."

The security guard trembled as he crouched down, clumsily grabbing the flyers on the ground, not even caring that the mud and water were dirtying his cuffs.

Lin Wanqiu stopped what she was doing. She looked up, and by the light of the streetlamp, she saw the man behind her clearly.

Is it him?

The boy who helped her straighten the bookshelf in the library a few days ago?

"Get in the car." Chen Muyang ignored the security guard who was still sticking his butt in the air picking up trash, looking down at Lin Wanqiu, "Parking isn't allowed here for too long."

Lin Wanqiu hugged the few remaining clean flyers tightly to her chest, warily taking half a step back: "I don't know you. And... I have hands and feet; I don't need charity."

Her voice was crisp; although she was trembling, that stubbornness was as hard as stone.

Chen Muyang raised an eyebrow.

Interesting.

If it were any other girl, seeing this car and seeing his face, she probably would have thrown herself at him long ago.

"Who said I wanted to give you charity?" Chen Muyang took out his phone and pulled up a class schedule, the screen lighting up in the dark, "I'm Chen Muyang from the freshman Economics and Management department. I've had some family matters recently and missed half a month of classes. There's a midterm exam for Advanced Mathematics next week, and I need a Tutor who can help me catch up on the key points within three days."

He pointed to the flyers in Lin Wanqiu's arms: "I just saw it written on there that you got a perfect score in Advanced Mathematics?"

Lin Wanqiu was stunned. She looked down at the flyer; it did indeed have her grade summary on it, which she had specially printed to find a part-time Tutor job.

"Five hundred an hour, including pick-up and drop-off." Chen Muyang threw out his offer, his tone business-like, "I don't like owing favors, and I don't like wasting time. If you feel you don't have the ability to teach me, just pretend I didn't say anything."

Five hundred?

Lin Wanqiu's heart jumped violently. She worked at KFC serving trays, and it was only eighteen yuan an hour. Five hundred yuan—that was her living expenses for half a month, her mother's medicine money for half a month.

"I... I have the ability." Lin Wanqiu bit her lip, half of her original defenses crumbling, "But I only charge the market rate, one hundred and fifty an hour. Also, I won't ride in your car; I'll go back to school on my own."

"It's minus three degrees outside. By the time you walk back to your dorm, your hands will be frozen stiff. What will you use to write on the blackboard?"

Chen Muyang didn't give her a chance to refuse, directly opening the car door and making a "please" gesture, his movements as elegant as if he were inviting a princess, not a down-and-out Cinderella.

"Also, my time is very expensive. The half-hour you save on the road is worth far more to me than those few hundred yuan in car fare. Get in; this counts as work time."

Lin Wanqiu looked at the warm beige interior of the car, then looked at Chen Muyang's eyes, which held no disdain, only openness.

She took a deep breath, hugged the flyers, and ducked into the car.

The car door closed, shutting out the cold wind outside and the security guard who was still picking up papers on the ground.

The car cabin was very warm, with a faint scent of leather and cedarwood. Lin Wanqiu huddled in the corner, feeling awkward, trying her best not to let her dirty school uniform rub against the leather seats.

"Old Zhang, turn up the temperature." Chen Muyang gave the order, then took a bottle of Evian from the car refrigerator, unscrewed the cap, and handed it over, "Drink some water. I don't like my employees having low efficiency because they're thirsty while working."

Lin Wanqiu took the water; the bottle wasn't cold, clearly at room temperature.

"Thank you," she said softly.

At this moment, the deep-seated impression in her heart that "all rich second-generation kids are arrogant and domineering" cracked open.

Someone like Wang Hao would only throw money in her face and tell her to get lost. But the man in front of her, who was clearly ten thousand times richer than Wang Hao, had used the most decent way to protect her meager self-esteem.

"This is my note outline." Chen Muyang handed her a tablet computer, "You take a look first at which difficult points we need to tackle over these few days."

Lin Wanqiu took the tablet and quickly got into the zone. When it came to studying, the timidity in her eyes disappeared, replaced by a confident glow.

"These few formulas are the foundation; if you didn't listen to the previous parts, you definitely won't understand the later ones. We need to start from limit theory..."

Chen Muyang leaned back against the seat, listening quietly. He didn't actually need tutoring; the system had already poured that knowledge into his brain. But he needed a reason, a reason that could make this stubborn girl accept help.

Moreover, watching her seriously explaining the problems, his heart, which had become somewhat numb from the fighting in the business world, unexpectedly calmed down for a rare moment.

Just at this moment, a burst of urgent ringing broke the silence inside the car.

Chen Muyang glanced at the screen; it was his mom, Su Wanqing.

He made a gesture to signal Lin Wanqiu to pause, picked up the phone, and his tone instantly became gentle: "Mom, what's wrong? Dad and I just parted not long ago..."

"Muyang! Wuwuwu..."

What came from the other end of the phone wasn't his mother's gentle nagging, but heart-wrenching sobbing, with the noisy, characteristic sounds of a hospital in the background.

The gentleness on Chen Muyang's face instantly vanished, replaced by a suffocating chill.

"Mom, don't cry, what happened?"

"Your grandfather... your grandfather's physical examination report just came out..." Su Wanqing cried until she was out of breath, "The doctor said... said that three of his main heart vessels are completely blocked! He could have a heart attack at any time! He must have surgery immediately! But... but the surgery costs five hundred thousand! When your grandfather heard it would cost so much money, he pulled out his IV and wanted to leave, saying he wouldn't get treated, that he'd go home and wait for death... Muyang, what should Mom do!"

Thud.

Chen Muyang's heart sank abruptly.

Five hundred thousand. For the current Chen family, it was nothing more than the cost of a meal.

But for Su Guohua, who had always thought that Chen Fan was just a "small boss with an annual income of one million," this was a huge sum of money sufficient to crush the whole family, and even more so, a debt he absolutely did not want his daughter and son-in-law to shoulder.

Chen Muyang's fingers gripping the phone turned white with force.

"Mom, hold onto Grandpa, don't let him move."

Chen Muyang's voice was terrifyingly calm, revealing an unquestionable power.

"Tell the doctor to use the best medicine and hire the best specialists. As for the money, I will take care of it."

Hanging up the phone, Chen Muyang took a deep breath, turned his head, and said to Old Zhang, who was looking astonished in the front:

"Turn around. Go to Yunzhou International Hospital."

"Full speed."