Mu Zong's company was initially focused on online games, but Gu Xiqiao knew that as technology progressed, the market would need much more than just purely online games. In her plans, she detailed several core services and plans for the future such as website creation, the development of the market in the future, e-commerce, and software development.

Together with these were management strategies and sales plans, and even countermeasures for any future management risks.

There weren't any loopholes or flaws in her plans, and most of the plans that she detailed were daring and avant-garde, and it was at this moment that Mu Zong confirmed his hunch that this young lady in front of him was the most gifted in finance among all of the people that he had ever met.

He flipped the pages again and again, reading every word and sentence in detail as a new road to a bright future seemed to open up in front of him, clearing the haze that he was stuck in.

Gu Xiqiao took out her phone to check on the stocks as well as the time, before speaking up, "Mr. Mu, you can bring this home, you know."

Mu Zong came back to his senses, still bewildered that such an incredible plan had been created by Gu Xiqiao, and sighed softly.

Even though he was greatly motivated and wanted to prove himself, but he still returned the documents to Gu Xiqiao, smiling bitterly. "Ms. Gu, you can completely create a company for yourself and get many sponsors and stockholders, so I can't take advantage of you. As you know, my company is just an empty shell that won't even be able to get granted a loan from the bank, so"

He knew the situation that he was in, and he knew how precious the stack of papers in front of him was, so he was satisfied with only looking it over. If his company was still at its peak, he might have chosen to risk it all, but as it was now, he would only cause trouble to Gu Xiqiao and waste this incredible plan.

Gu Xiqiao pushed the documents back to Mu Zong calmly. "Mr. Mu, I am not short of money."

As if she wanted to prove her statement, Gu Xiqiao brought him to a nearby bank, and after the accountant checked the balance of her bank card, they were immediately brought to the VIP reception room where the manager of the bank received them himself.

Mu Zong was quite shocked by this, but he still followed behind Gu Xiqiao with a poker face.

How much money would she have had to be able to get this to happen?

Gu Xiqiao immediately transferred half of her money to him. "It's not a lot, but it should be enough for the time being."

"Ms. Gu, don't you think that I would run away with this money?" Mu Zong was quite stunned at how straightforward Gu Xiqiao was.

Was she brave, or did she have nothing to lose?

Hearing this, Gu Xiqiao raised an eyebrow at him as she carried her backpack. "Money is just a number for me, and I believe in my intuition. Now if you excuse me, I have classes to attend to, my class teacher is going to chew me out!"

Even if he ran off with her money, he wouldn't be able to run out of the palm of her hand!

"Don't wait for the bus, let me send you to school." Mu Zong only felt the weight of the trust on his shoulders, but he was quite moved by Gu Xiqiao's actions. "I'm your subordinate from now on, Ms. Gu, so don't call me Mr. Mu anymore, call me Old Mu!"

"I'll call you Uncle Mu, then." Gu Xiqiao chuckled softly.

"Of course!" Mu Zong smiled as he looked at Gu Xiqiao, having almost forgotten that she was just a young lady that hadn't even stepped into society yet. "It's a suitable way to call me for your age, anyway."

After sending Gu Xiqiao to First City High and seeing her off, he looked down at the bank card in his hand, his eyes glinting with hope after such a long time, finally finding the silver lining in the darkness.

He straightened his back, before calling a number on his phone and leaving.

Back at school, the class was already in session, and Old Ban glanced at Gu Xiqiao that was waiting for permission to enter the class with a hum. "Where did you go to?"

Gu Xiqiao bowed in apology. "I'm sorry, Teacher."

Seeing this, Old Ban sighed softly and gestured for her to come in. "Come in. The national finals are right around the corner, so stop being so half-hearted!"

The edge of Gu Xiqiao's lips twitched as she returned to her seat, not daring to sleep anymore and paying close attention to the remaining classes.

Meanwhile, Xiao Yun felt great pressure from having such a smart deskmate. She had gotten 101[1] marks on her Chinese this time around, which was a great improvement from her sixty marks from before, and was a decent score even when compared with the entire class.

Of course, that was on the condition that she wasn't comparing with Gu Xiqiao.

She took out Gu Xiqiao's Chinese papers, and the entire test paper was filled in neatly with beautiful handwriting that made the teacher hesitate to even deduct marks and only deducted a few on the essay section because no student in First City High had even gotten full marks.

Gu Xiqiao took out her phone, before glancing at Xiao Yun and speaking, "Recite the A'fang Court Prose for me."

Xiao Yun only managed to recite a few sentences before she got stuck, flushing slightly as she looked at Gu Xiqiao sheepishly.

"I'm proud." Gu Xiqiao snatched her papers back from Xiao Yun, her clear eyes squinted slightly in disdain. "Your handwriting improved a lot, but you didn't even reach the average score of our class. Go jog after school!"

This was a new way that Gu Xiqiao thought of lately to get everyone to study, and even though Xiao Yun wanted to refuse, but all of their classmates that idolized Gu Xiqiao followed all of her directions without any question.

And so, there was a spectacle after school in First City High, where the school fields were taken over by a bunch of students jogging in circles, and judging from the numbers there was a classes' worth of students that were conversing as they jogged in an orderly fashion.

Wu Hongwen who was playing basketball at a side threw the ball over to one of his teammates, before jogging over to Xiao Yun and maintaining the same pace as her. "What are you guys doing?"

"Are you blind?" Xiao Yun glanced at him and rolled her eyes, before speeding up. "Stop bothering me, I'm memorizing!"

Wu Hongwen was about to ask what was the point of jogging while memorizing, but his thoughts burst into a sudden clarity, and his knowledge started to filter and make sense more and more in his head as he ran After spacing out for a while, his eyes flashed with interest as he continued to run with the other students.

Then, he looked around at his surroundings, before all of his attention was snatched.

The girl was sitting on the horizontal bar, one of her hands holding her bag while the other gripped onto the bar. Her delicate chin was raised slightly, and under the twilight, she seemed even more ethereal, like an immortal fairy that didn't belong to this world. Even though she was expressionless, once Wu Hongwen looked at her, he found that he wasn't able to look away.

[1] the maximum score should be 150 in China