Who Would Fall in Love After Being Reborn?

Chapter 140: The Top Spot Goes to Jiang Qin!

TL: Etude

In the blink of an eye, the season changed to early winter, and a sudden wave of cold air swept through Linchuan.

The temperatures in the northern regions plummeted, making it impossible to get by just with hoodies. Old Cao, in pursuit of romance, still ventured out early and returned late, but he had revamped his wardrobe, now donning a thick woolen coat, matching with Ding Xue’s couple’s edition.

“How do I look, handsome or not? Old Jiang, you and Feng Nanshu should also get a pair.”

“Heh.”

Jiang Qin, with a cool demeanor, swiftly dismissed Cao Guangyu.

Meanwhile, the campus beauty contest at the University of Science and Technology was nearing its climax, with the voting fervor intensifying.

Cui Yan remained firmly at the top of the leaderboard, and as long as she maintained her vote count, she was set to be the top beauty.

Pang Duo from the Department of Chemical Engineering ranked second but was not content with it.

Her fan club was diligently rallying for votes, striving to overtake Cui Yan in first place.

Jiang Qin greatly admired Pang Duo’s unwillingness to settle for second best.

Due to the rivalry between her and Cui Yan, the registration on Zhihu forum skyrocketed, with daily active users surpassing the numbers from the early days of the contest.

By this stage of the competition, there was no longer a need for additional hype; everything was falling into place naturally. Therefore, the team from Linchuan University had already withdrawn, leaving only part-time students from the University of Science and Technology to oversee room 502.

In other developments, Tan Qing had successfully negotiated with fifty percent of the merchants, securing twenty-eight letters of intent for free entry.

Wei Lalan had also secured enough advertisers, with promotional fees steadily flowing into account 208.

Under Su Nai’s leadership, the team’s website entered the final testing phase and was set to be integrated with the forum next week.

Jiang Qin, during this time, had made several trips to the Teachers College to understand the commercial layout around the Polytechnic University and to scout locations for the new Xi Tian branch.

All initiatives were progressing smoothly, and so was the Star of Learning competition.

“Xiao Jin, how’s the backend data?”

“Looking great!”

“Teacher Li, how many participants do we have in the contest now?”

“Looking great!”

Jiang Zhihua, noticing the dwindling customer flow in the store, had a nagging feeling that something was amiss.

But Teacher Li confidently asserted that everything was going well, mentioning that the first place had already received over three thousand votes, indicating significant impact of the event.

Thus, Jiang Zhihua was somewhat reassured and continued to lead the team in distributing flyers at various school entrances.

However, as time passed and the customer flow decreased instead of increasing, even the slow-witted Jiang Zhihua began to sense that something was seriously wrong. Was this what they called ‘looking great’?

“Liu, I’m not good with computers. Can you log into the Linchuan Campus Forum for me? I want to check the status of our competition.”

“Okay, boss.”

The part-time college student at the College Supermarket logged into the Star of Learning contest page.

Subsequently, Niu Shangtian from Tongxing Driving School received a call from Jiang Zhihua, urging him to come to the College Supermarket immediately.

Having just returned from a smile service training at the headquarters two days ago, Niu Shangtian’s secretary presented him with this month’s registration list for driving lessons. The list, unfortunately, didn’t bring much of a smile to his face.

Since the start of the contest, only one student had signed up, and that student eventually asked for a refund, reasoning that it was getting too cold and it would be better to wait until spring.

Thus, upon receiving the call, Niu Shangtian hurried to the College Supermarket.

“Boss Jiang, didn’t you say everything was going great? Where exactly is it going great?”

“Great, heh, it’s so great it’s gone up to the heavens!”

Jiang Zhihua turned the computer screen towards Niu Shangtian, her eyes cold and her expression fierce, as if she was about to bite someone.

Niu Shangtian, unaware of what had happened, glanced at the screen and immediately felt dizzy, his mouth almost dropping to his ears in shock.

First place: Jiang Qin

Second place: Yang Shuai

Third place: Wen Jinrui

…

From first to eleventh place, each participant’s campaign slogan was an invitation to use Zhihu forum, touted as the best campus forum in Linchuan.

“What’s going on? How is Jiang Qin in first place?” Niu Shangtian’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

Jiang Zhihua, gritting her teeth, pointed at the screen: “Look at the vote count!”

Niu Shangtian took a closer look and realized that aside from the top eleven, who had votes in the thousands, the rest had votes in single digits: “Damn, the first few must have rigged the votes!”

“We’ve been played. No one’s really participating in this contest. The top spots are all Jiang Qin’s people, they must have manipulated the votes!”

“What should we do? I’ve already paid the sponsorship fee!”

Jiang Zhihua, struggling to contain her anger, called Teacher Li, only to receive the same overly optimistic response.

Unable to hold back, Jiang Zhihua demanded to know why Jiang Qin was in first place and why, aside from the top eleven, all the other vote counts were in single digits, some even zero!

“Mr. Jiang, I have a meeting to attend to. Let’s talk about this in detail later.”

“?”

Before Jiang Zhihua could respond, the call was abruptly ended.

Meanwhile, the part-time college student operating the computer announced, “Boss, our competition seems to have ended.”

“What?”

“Look.”

Liu pointed at the computer screen. The voting page, which was previously active, had now been disabled. A notice soon appeared on the homepage, announcing the termination of the Star of Learning contest and the official end of voting.

Jiang Zhihua felt dizzy and stood unsteadily, her face turning darker by the minute.

So this was the ‘great’ situation?

Frustrated and furious, Jiang Zhihua, accompanied by Niu Shangtian, stormed off to the office responsible for the forum’s operation.

Teacher Li, having already given up on the contest, didn’t hide anything when they arrived. He showed them a post from a few days ago.

“They made a post online claiming that the winner of our contest would be guaranteed a research position and a scholarship. I can’t be associated with such promises. If something goes wrong, who’s going to take responsibility?”

“Who posted this?” Jiang Zhihua asked, her eyes dazed.

Teacher Li pondered for a moment: “Couldn’t trace the specific IP, but the network was accessed from the Entrepreneurship Center, definitely Jiang Qin’s group.”

Niu Shangtian was speechless: “Ms. Jiang, I told you before, if we’re holding a contest, just hold a contest. Don’t provoke Jiang Qin. You insisted on mocking him in front of others, and that kid is no easy opponent!”

“You mocked him too?” Teacher Li’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Yes, Ms. Jiang even invited him to see how well we were running our event.”

Teacher Li’s mouth twitched: “No wonder! I was wondering who would think this contest could guarantee a research position. Turns out it was them setting a trap all along!”

Jiang Zhihua’s face grew even grimmer: “I didn’t mean to, he’s just an eighteen-year-old student, what could he do?”

“Well, now you know what he can do, right? One post and he’s outwitted us all.”

“What should we do now?”

“Just end the event as it is, distribute the awards that need to be distributed, let those who want to learn driving continue with it. The best course of action would be to resolve this quietly without making a fuss.”

Jiang Zhihua was fuming with anger: “Teacher Li, we’ve already paid for the operating expenses, and until now, there hasn’t been any promotional effect at all!”

Teacher Li was indifferent to her concerns: “Our agreement clearly states that we are only responsible for organizing the contest. The actual promotion and lead generation were supposed to be handled by you offline.”

“But…”

“Don’t ‘but’ me. The contest was going well; it’s your fault for provoking Jiang Qin. He’s just an eighteen-year-old student, huh? You underestimated him and he tricked you. This is all a result of cause and effect.”

“Teacher Li, if you don’t handle this, I’ll call my cousin-in-law!”

Jiang Zhihua pulled out her phone, ready to make a call.

Most people who do business in schools, other than entrepreneurial students, have some kind of connections — either relatives of leaders, friends of leaders, or relatives of the leaders’ friends. Jiang Zhihua, for example, had a distant cousin-in-law who was the director of the academic affairs office at Linchuan University. She felt this matter couldn’t just end like this; otherwise, she’d be furious, and thus considered using her connections.

However, before she could make the call, Director Li stopped her.josei

“Give it up, Boss Jiang. All the materials we used were copied from them. Do you think your cousin-in-law can afford to lose face over this? Besides, Jiang Qin has been interviewed by the Linchuan Youth Daily and is now promoting a work-study program. It’d be better for you to cause less trouble and save your cousin-in-law the headache.”

“…”

After hesitating for a while, Jiang Zhihua put down her phone: “Fine, I’ll take the loss, but the top few who rigged the votes can’t get the awards!”

Niu Shangtian agreed: “The half-price driving lessons should also be canceled!”

“What? You might not care about your reputation, but I do!”

Teacher Li looked at them: “The Linchuan Campus Forum’s first contest, and in the end, we give nothing? If this gets out, I’ll be the laughingstock!”

“Then just disqualify the top eleven. There are others behind them, right? Just move them up.”

“The twelfth place has only six votes. A Star of Learning? That’s even more ridiculous than canceling the whole thing!”

Jiang Zhihua, grinding her teeth: “I don’t care, I can’t let Jiang Qin become the permanent face of our milk tea shop!”

Teacher Li sighed: “Now you see how cunning that kid is. If you really don’t give him the prize, he might stir up more trouble. Boss Jiang, you’ve been in business long enough to know the principle of not offending the petty people.”

Hearing this, Jiang Zhihua’s mind buzzed as she recalled the words Jiang Qin had said when he drove by the other day.

“Please make the trophy grand and imposing…”

“Grand and imposing…”

“Imposing…”

Niu Shangtian, after some thought, began to lean towards Teacher Li’s approach.

Jiang Qin was indeed no easy opponent — outwardly smiling but cunning inside.

It was just a few mocking words in person, and he managed to turn the entire contest upside down. If they don’t let him win the prize smoothly, he probably has more tricks up his sleeve.

“Let’s learn from this mistake.” Niu Shangtian also started to persuade Jiang Zhihua.

Teacher Li nodded in agreement: “Old Niu is right. It’s okay to suffer a small loss. Just remember this lesson for the future.”

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