"I see."
"Uh, no, bro, you don’t think I’m collecting protection money, do you?"
The next morning, Tan Wenbin didn’t wait for Li Zhiyuan, he skipped breakfast and hurriedly cycled to the print shop outside the school gates, and after so haggling with the shop owner, confird the printing price.
After the first batch was bound into books, he returned to the school just as the morning self-study ended, so he didn’t actually skip class.
Once in the classroom, he didn’t rush to distribute them, but placed the booklets under his feet. While the teacher wasn’t looking, he opened one of the booklets and slipped a talisman paper inside.
Li Zhiyuan recognized the talisman paper—it was his own work.
It was supposed to detect certain effects but was otherwise useless. At first, he thought he had drawn them poorly, so he practiced drawing quite a few of them.
"Bro, when you create problems for in the future, try to control the frequency a bit, there’s no need to cover every aspect. Just focus on one point at a ti or categorize them by difficulty—elentary, interdiate, advanced—and pair them like that.
As you know, once these are sold, there will definitely be people who will copy and covertly photocopy them. We must increase the frequency of publishing new sets to ensure sustained revenue."
"So you’re putting in the talisman paper..."
"This is a peace charm you personally drew, ensuring success in exams. It’s only available with our official textbooks."
"Brother Binbin, you’ve really thought of everything."
"That’s right, we can’t let you do all this work for nothing."
The problem sets for his class sold out quickly, and he sold the remaining sets for the other class in the afternoon, but he didn’t sell them himself, letting classmates do it for him.
In the evening after school, he pushed his bicycle back to the print shop to restock. After delivering the goods to those "distributor" students, he went ho with Li Zhiyuan.
The first volu of the problem set sold very well. Although Tan Wenbin had enough of Li Zhiyuan’s problem sets to publish four or five volus, he didn’t rush to release the second volu, planning to let the first batch be digested before issuing the second one.
The teachers also knew about it, because the first volu was math, and Tan Wenbin personally delivered a copy to each math teacher in the grade group.
When Li Zhiyuan went to the school office to rest again, Principal Wu brought up the scholarship topic and repeatedly reviewed it as a lack of consideration by the school, failing to pay attention to the students’ family situations.
But soon, the calm school life was disrupted.
During English class, the horoom teacher Sun Qing went to the door and called out Zheng Haiyang.
Li Zhiyuan, sitting at the door, could see the scene of the conversation between the teacher and student.
He saw Sun Qing’s hand resting on Zheng Haiyang’s shoulder, and after a while, Zheng Haiyang burst into tears.
Li Zhiyuan silently bowed his head, what was coming had finally arrived.
Zheng Haiyang’s father had an accident at sea, and not even his remains were found.
The accident happened quite so ti ago, around when Zheng Haiyang fell ill, but there was a delay in receiving the news.
Even without the remains, the funeral must be held. Zheng Haiyang’s grandparents were so devastated by the news that they had no energy to handle the arrangents, and Zheng Haiyang suddenly had to be strong despite having no experience in such matters, so in the end, it was Tan Wenbin who asked Mr. Li to help with the funeral arrangents.
The funeral was on the weekend.
Li Zhiyuan arrived at the funeral site and saw two elderly people sitting in front of the spirit hall, already crying numbly.
Zheng Haiyang, under Mr. Li’s guidance, went through the rituals one by one, while Mr. Li continuously greeted the condoling guests: "The filial son is young, please excuse any shortcomings."
"Where is his mother?" Li Zhiyuan asked.
Tan Wenbin scratched his head: "His mom’s alright, but she couldn’t make it back in ti for the funeral."
Li Zhiyuan curiously asked, "Is there such a thing as not being able to make it on ti for an empty coffin burial?"
"Mr. Li asked the sa thing, but his grandparents said so—they said there’s no need to wait and to go ahead with it quickly."
"So is his mom coming back in the end?"
Tan Wenbin shrugged his shoulders: "If she ca back, she would have attended the funeral."
Tan Yunlong had also arrived; he happened to have a day off today, there was nothing pressing at the station, and since Zheng Haiyang had once had dinner at his ho, he ca to see if there was anything he could help with.
As it turned out, not only could he not offer much help, but when it ca ti to give a funeral donation, he was inford by those recording the donations: Tan Yunlong had already given his gift earlier.
Moreover, even the pack of cigarettes that was usually given out with donations had been taken.
After the midday al, Tan Wenbin was called outside by Tan Yunlong.
"Where did you get the money from?"
"I’ve been helping Xiao Yuan sell problem sets lately, and I’ve made quite a bit."
"I sent you to school so you could..." Tan Yunlong’s tone started to rise, only to see his son had already bowed his head, which made him soften his voice and ask, "Is Xiao Yuan really short of money?"
"Xiao Yuan likes to play with models and do crafts, and that costs quite a bit."
"Oh, then help him out more, but don’t let it affect his studies and rest."
"I will."
"You also have to keep up your own academic performance."
"How can I just keep it up? I have to keep moving forward, I want to go to Haihe University with Xiao Yuan."
"Your grandfather wants you to apply for the police academy."
"Dad..."
"I told him you don’t have to go to the police academy to beco a police officer later."
"You sure know how to talk to my grandpa."
"Heh."
Tan Wenbin took out the packet of cigarettes from his pocket and put them in his father’s pocket.
"Go keep your classmate company; stay with him more."
"Alright."
After Tan Wenbin left, Tan Yunlong walked towards the distant Li Zhiyuan.
"Xiao Yuan, Binbin has been causing you trouble. Uncle thanks you."
"It’s Brother Binbin who has been taking care of ."
"Heh, in any case, if there’s anything in the future, just co to Uncle, and I will definitely..."
"Uncle Tan, did Zheng Haiyang’s mother really not co back?"
Tan Yunlong swallowed and asked, "Who told you, his grandparents?"
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