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Chapter 79: The Deposit

Lu Li grabbed Chu Zining’s arm and asked in confusion, “What do you mean by this?”

Pinching the check between his fingers, Lu Li felt utterly puzzled.

She was a penniless kid, carrying barely 200 yuan in her pocket; why on earth would she hand all her money to him?

Chu Zining had planned to turn around and flee, but Lu Li moved faster and caught her on the spot.

Right now she was so embarrassed that she wished she could crawl into a hole.

“A-a deposit,” Chu Zining murmured, her voice as faint as a mosquito’s.

“A deposit?” Lu Li frowned.

Chu Zining whispered, “Worth a hundred million… this is one-ten-thousandth of the deposit.”

After a pause she added, “It’s the deposit to keep you.”

Lu Li burst out laughing; had she actually taken that joke seriously?

“You really want to keep me?” Lu Li asked, looking at her with amused eyes.

Nervous, Chu Zining’s peach-blossom eyes fluttered like a frightened fawn lost deep in the forest, “I-is that not allowed?”

“Of course it is,” Lu Li replied curiously, “but do you think you can really earn 100 million?”

Even Lu Li himself, with the cheat of the dating game, had never imagined making as much as 100 million.

That was a hefty little goal; if it were all in 1-yuan coins, their weight would exceed that of the school’s 5,000 students and teachers combined!

Clenching her small fists, Chu Zining said, “I-I’ll work hard!”

“Then what if you fail? I can’t wait for you forever, can I?” Lu Li asked, watching the earnest girl with interest.

“Fail…” Chu Zining drooped like a punctured ball, bit her lip, and said, “T-then you can date another girl for now; once I succeed, I’ll come back for you!”

Lu Li laughed aloud, “All right, deal.”

“Mhm!” Chu Zining nodded vigorously, joy sparkling in her eyes.

Lu Li pulled out his phone and waved it in front of her, “I still haven’t added you as a friend; how do I contact you?”

“I-I don’t have a phone,” Chu Zining answered awkwardly.

“Oh.” Lu Li slapped his forehead; come to think of it, with that mother of hers, how could Chu Zining possibly have a phone?

Lu Li cleared his throat, “Tomorrow at 10 a.m., let’s meet at West Street Station on the pedestrian street; my sister needs a phone too, so we’ll buy them together.”

“B-but I don’t have any money,” Chu Zining said, flustered.

“Isn’t this 10,000 yuan yours?” Lu Li said, shaking the check in his hand.

Chu Zining tilted her head, “That’s the deposit for keeping you; it already belongs to you.”

Lu Li chuckled, “Just use it for now; it’s fine.”

“I can’t,” Chu Zining insisted, “We’ve made an agreement; that deposit is yours, I can’t spend it.”

Lu Li rubbed his temple, “Think of it as me lending it to you, all right?”

“No…”

Lu Li hurriedly cut her off, “Don’t be so quick to refuse; if you succeed yet can’t reach me because you don’t have a phone, won’t all your effort be wasted?

Besides, in this day and age you can’t make money without a phone; without a payment code, how will you get rich?”

After thinking for a while, Chu Zining nodded, “Then… fine, I’ll treat it as a temporary loan from you. Remember, I’m not touching the deposit, I’m borrowing it, and I’ll pay it back soon, so you can’t say I broke our deal.”

Seeing how determined she was, Lu Li could only nod, “Fine, fine, so tomorrow’s plan?”

“Ten o’clock, pedestrian street, West Street Station,” Chu Zining recited, counting on her fingers.

“Good girl, you remember it well,” Lu Li said, patting her head.

Chu Zining stole a glance at Lu Li, her peach-blossom eyes sparkling.

“C-class is starting; I’ll go first,” she blurted as the warning bell rang.

After leaving that timid sentence, Chu Zining bolted with her head down, crashed into Class 1’s room, and a muffled “Ouch” followed.

She seemed to have bumped into someone.

“What a silly girl…” Lu Li rubbed his forehead; how could a fool like that ever earn such a huge sum?

He sighed softly and turned into Class 4.

The classmates glanced at Lu Li twice when they saw him, feelings hard to describe welling up inside them.

Unknowingly, Lu Li had become someone they could only look up to.

He had earned a Yongning University professor’s recognition, become the hero who received a Courageous Act bonus, and been publicly confessed to by the campus goddess!

Of course, what made them the most jealous was still that public confession from the campus goddess!

They were all suffering seniors, so how had he landed such a stunning girlfriend!

It was infuriating!

The only one who didn’t envy Lu Li was actually Shen Tan; he suddenly felt that his past hostility toward Lu Li had been foolish.

Since Chu Zining had confessed to Lu Li, didn’t that mean Lu Li and Shao Linlin would make no progress?

So doesn’t that give me a chance?

Shen Tan looked at Shao Linlin’s seat; she was slumped over her desk in a gloomy, listless posture and hadn’t even lifted her head when Lu Li came in earlier.

It seems Linlin has already given up on Lu Li… Shen Tan thought gleefully.

The afternoon classes flew by, and soon it was time to leave school.

Lu Li stretched his limbs and exhaled a long breath.

With an Intelligence of 8 points, he could handle high-school material easily; instead of listening to the lectures, he skimmed through several textbooks.

He had already mastered the logic-heavy subjects like math, physics, and chemistry.

In contrast, he was somewhat weaker in English and Chinese.

The hard part of English lay in the listening section, which relied on familiarity and couldn’t be solved by high IQ alone.

As for Chinese… in reading comprehension he always thought too deeply while the question setters thought too little, so his answers routinely exceeded the allotted space…

“The special-admission exam for Yongning University is in one month; there’s still time, so no rush,” he thought.

Lu Li let out a breath; a month would be enough for him to sort out the hard parts of the language subjects.

He looked toward Shao Linlin’s seat; since his bike was gone, he had intended to go to Martial Arts Club with her, yet to his surprise…

Shao Linlin was not at her seat.

“Has she already gone home?”

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