Chapter 599: Hah Hope Primary School

‘Ah, whatever. The name might be lame, but this lab was built with a ton of money. Plus, Li Yan and Zhu Xiang are capable Top Students, so they’re sure to accomplish something great. As for whether they can win any awards… since they aren’t worried, why should I be?’

“Come on, Lv, tell Mr. Shen about the revisions we summarized earlier.” Li Yan pulled a young man over. “Oh, this is some top talent Old Zhu and I poached from Jingcheng University. His name is Lv Qiu Jian. Don’t let his age fool you; he has two doctorates. In a few years, he’ll be the one holding up this research institute.”

‘It seems this Lv fellow is well-liked by Li Yan and Zhu Xiang. They probably want to use this chance to give him some face time with me, which should make future dealings a bit smoother.’

“Wow, a double doctorate? Compared to you, I feel like I’ve completely wasted my life!” Shen Yibin was genuinely humbled and quickly reached out to shake Lv Qiu Jian’s hand.

It was a good thing Carmen wasn’t there. If he had been, he would have certainly protested Shen Yibin’s remark. Did Shen Yibin possess *his* uncanny ability to find the most convenient path anywhere and then immediately get himself stuck?

“You’re too modest, Mr. Shen…” Lv Qiu Jian, however, didn’t have the arrogance of a Top Student, nor was he as socially awkward as Li Yan and Zhu Xiang. He took out a notebook and began detailing the necessary improvements for Shen Yibin. Shen Yibin listened attentively. They were all minor details, really; nothing that required a major overhaul.

“Okay, I understand. Since you all feel it needs to be changed, let’s have the design firm draw up a proposal.” ‘This is a small matter, no need to trouble Wen Yuan. Any junior designer could handle it.’

“The building will be finished in a little over a month. The remaining interior decoration and equipment installation will take about two more months. That means in four months, at most, we can officially move in!” Dong updated Shen Yibin on the current construction progress. Thanks to Shen Yibin’s robust financial backing, everything was proceeding very smoothly.

“Keep up the great work. When it’s built, I’ll see if I can get Mayor Wang to come for the ribbon-cutting. And while I’m at it, I’ll hit up the municipal government for some alms—see if we can secure a little more support.” As soon as he said it, Shen Yibin again felt the institute’s name was exceptionally awkward. ‘Mayor Wang is the leader of the whole city, after all. There are even rumors he might be promoted to the top spot soon and join the Provincial Standing Committee on the back of Yunzhong City’s economic growth. Asking such a big shot to cut the ribbon for a zoo’s subsidiary research institute… it feels a bit hard to bring up.’

However, this wasn’t the only thing that made Shen Yibin feel awkward because of a name. After he finished inspecting the institute and returned home with Hah’Er and Xiaoliu, he was greeted by a familiar face.

The owner of the New Year painting shop looked like he had been waiting at the manor gate for quite some time. Shen Yibin quickly welcomed him into the living room. “I’m so sorry, I had to step out for something today. You should have called! I would have come back earlier.”

“It’s no problem. My business is really only busy for the month before the New Year, so I’m free now. I had nothing else to do, so I thought I’d just come over and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Yunshui River.” The owner was a smooth talker, dispelling Shen Yibin’s guilt in just a few words.

Then, he pulled a stack of documents from his briefcase. “Mr. Shen, I’ve already sorted out the accounts from before the New Year. I’ve listed the sales figures and profits for the paintings here. Also, I’ve taken care of the Hope Primary School matter. It just so happens that a suburb of Yunzhong City is undergoing resettlement, and they need to build a new primary school. I checked it out—the school isn’t very large, and it won’t cost too much, so I went ahead and covered the entire expense. The documents are right here!”

‘This man is true to his word. Back then, I just mentioned it casually; we never even signed a contract. If he had decided to go back on his word, there would have been nothing I could do. But not only did he do as I asked, he did an exceptionally fine job of it.’

Shen Yibin flipped through the documents. “Whoa, I never expected little New Year paintings to be so profitable. You earned this much in just a few days?”

“Mr. Shen, you shouldn’t underestimate it. With New Year paintings, the more you print, the lower the cost per sheet, but the selling price doesn’t drop at all. To put it bluntly, the profit margin can be even higher than in the arms trade. We’re talking profits of several, even ten times the cost.” The shop owner gave him the inside scoop. “I printed a huge quantity this time, and the wholesale price I gave the distributors wasn’t low either. You could say we made a killing!”

“Whoa, it really is that profitable!” Shen Yibin had just reached the ledger section, where the costs, quantities, and profits were all listed. Just as the shop owner had said, the final total profit left Shen Yibin speechless.

“Haha, it’s nothing compared to you, Mr. Shen.” The shop owner gave a modest laugh. He was thinking that just shouting one extra sentence at the market had brought him so much profit. The more he considered it, the more brilliant he thought his past self had been.

“But isn’t this too much money to donate to the Hope Primary School?” Shen Yibin hadn’t specified a donation percentage, but judging from the ledger and the school documents, the shop owner had actually given away half of the profits. ‘That’s a level of resolve not just anyone could have.’

“It’s only right, it’s only right. Even after donating so much, I still earned a lot more this Spring Festival than ever before!” The shop owner was quite philosophical about it. Then again, perhaps he was doing it because he hoped to continue cooperating with Shen Yibin next Spring Festival.

‘But even if he did have selfish motives, the students were the ones who genuinely benefited. As the saying goes: “Judge a good deed by its outcome, not its intention; judge by intention, and there are no good people in this world.” Whatever the shop owner’s thoughts were, his actions had already benefited many people, and that was enough.’

“The new Hope Primary School is having its groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow. The leaders involved have insisted that I invite you to the ribbon-cutting. I was wondering if you might be free tomorrow?” Seeing that Shen Yibin seemed to be in a good mood, the shop owner finally stated the purpose of his visit.

“Sure, I’ll definitely support something like this.” Shen Yibin agreed without hesitation. ‘I was planning to buy a new pet tomorrow, but since this came up, I’ll just postpone it by a day!’ “I’ll also go and see if the school is lacking anything else. I’d be happy to make another contribution! Oh, right, what’s the name of this Hope Primary School?”

“I helped come up with the name. It’s on the next page of the document you’re looking at. You’ll see it if you just flip it over.” The shop owner didn’t say it directly.

“Still trying to be mysterious!” Shen Yibin chuckled and quickly flipped to the next page. The moment he saw the name, he did a spit-take. “What the— Hah Hope Primary School?”