Xie Ran stood arrogantly, with an expression that seemed naturally proud, completely lacking the cautious and respectful demeanor ordinary students showed when facing authority.

A light and casual “Is that all?” was filled with an overbearing arrogance, but no one present dared to scold him, much less show him a bad face.

After all, people who could publish papers in Universe truly had the qualifications to question their scholarships with a “Is that all?”

Even without mentioning the academic significance and achievement of publishing in Universe itself, just from the perspective of practical benefits, Xie Ran had enough capital to look down on the entire Qixing.

Currently, major domestic universities and research institutions had corresponding reward policies for publishing papers in Universe. Promotion in position level was the most basic reward, individual bonuses ranged from one hundred thousand to one million yuan per paper, and authors also had priority in applying for various research funds afterwards.

Earlier this year, a certain university eager to improve its overall strength directly offered a reward of two million yuan in cash plus a small two-bedroom apartment for publishing a paper in Universe, causing heated discussion within the industry.

And these were only the rewards from the authors’ own institutions. Besides that, talent recruitment departments in various regions had additional rewards and policy benefits, with countless hidden perks.

In other words, as long as Xie Ran was willing, not to mention scholarships, even houses and cars would be provided by willing organizations.

Originally, Xie Ran had entered Qixing because of his family’s financial difficulties and for the sake of a high scholarship, so Vice Principal Zhou had habitually tried to stabilize Xie Ran with money.

Unexpectedly, Xie Ran was now very different from the shy and introverted student at admission who did not dare to negotiate with the school.

The reality was indeed different. When admitted, Xie Ran was only known for good grades, and many students had good grades. If Qixing could not recruit Xie Ran, there were plenty of other students to choose from. So Xie Ran’s negotiating room was limited, the discounts and scholarship amounts given to him were within Qixing’s special admission standards.

That was why after admitting him, Qixing did not pay enough attention to Xie Ran, because there were many such students. Qixing was wealthy and could easily use high scholarships to aggressively attract quality students.

But students who could publish papers in Universe were extremely rare. Not to mention high school students, even counting all universities and research institutions in the city, they might not publish one paper per year.

Therefore, Qixing had to keep Xie Ran at all costs.

If they kept him, as the city’s first high school to cultivate an author of a Universe paper, Qixing’s reputation would explode, and regional policies would ineVittably offer corresponding favors.

If not kept, Qixing would not only lose these opportunities and resources, but Xie Ran’s future activities would attract the attention of the entire education and academic communities. Known for its wealth, Qixing’s failure to keep Xie Ran would surely invite external criticism.

Qixing had no choice.

Xie Ran occupied an absolute dominant position. No matter what stance he took to negotiate with Qixing, even if he proposed to “ride Vice Principal Zhou’s neck,” Zhou could only immediately obediently “go wash his neck.”

…The only fear was that Xie Ran might not even care about his neck.

Facing Xie Ran’s arrogance, Vice Principal Zhou’s face turned ugly, but he dared not utter a word. He could only smile ingratiatingly and awkwardly say: “This is just our preliminary idea. Whatever reward you want, we can still negotiate.”

Xie Ran said nothing, lazily retorting: “Weren’t you going to expel me?”

“No way!” Vice Principal Zhou was shocked and repeatedly said: “That’s absolutely impossible. Who spread such nonsense?”

He angrily shouted at Wang Siyi: “Siyi, who told you to say that?”

“No no no, it wasn’t me.” Wang Siyi was already sweating coldly. He never expected that Xie Ran had actually published a paper in Universe. What an incredible turn of events!

If this wasn’t said by Vice Principal Zhou himself, he would have thought it was a prank, and a pretty lousy one at that.

It was easy to imagine what kind of status Xie Ran would have at Qixing from now on. Not just Wang Siyi, even the entire school leadership would automatically lower themselves when seeing Xie Ran. Wang Siyi had already started desperately recalling all the times he had made things difficult for Xie Ran, and regretted it more and more.

If the school found out, he would probably have to apologize to Xie Ran, skin peeled for it.

At this moment, when Vice Principal Zhou suddenly asked, Wang Siyi snapped back to reality and quickly denied, then shifted his gaze to Xu Feiyan and tried to pass the blame: “It was Feiyan who said it. I thought there was a new notice from the school.”

“Feiyan?” Vice Principal Zhou then noticed Xu Feiyan was also present, a bit puzzled, and his face showed displeasure.

In just over a week since school started, Xu Feiyan had already brought many bad influences to Qixing. First, he was soundly beaten by Xie Ran in equestrian class, causing a major embarrassment and damaging Qixing’s equestrian reputation. Then he was caught by the discipline teacher playing pornographic videos on the playground, which spread across the whole school.

But these could at most be considered Xu Feiyan’s incompetence and bad luck for Qixing. Ultimately, he wasn’t fully to blame.

But Xu Feiyan threatening to expel a student who just published a paper in Universe behind the school’s back was different.

Vice Principal Zhou’s face immediately darkened and he scolded Xu Feiyan: “Feiyan, how could you act recklessly like this?”

Xu Feiyan was completely stunned. He had originally planned to use some means to prevent Xie Ran from attending school and to ask for help, just like in his previous life.

Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, the situation reversed, and the entire Qixing had to beg Xie Ran not to transfer.

As for his plan to prevent Xie Ran from studying, that was a huge joke. Now, not to mention high school, as long as Xie Ran was willing, he could easily get into the nation’s top universities without taking the entrance exam. International prestigious schools would be no problem either.

Xu Feiyan’s mind was in a mess. After being rebuked by the principal, he suddenly sobered up and immediately turned pale.

Vice Principal Zhou was different from Wang Siyi. He was also one of the school’s board members and held shares in Qixing. If he reported Xu Feiyan’s behavior to the management, Xu Feiyan would be in big trouble.

Especially since Xu Feiyan had just caused some trouble for the Xu family and had been explaining and reflecting at home over the weekend.

Xu Feiyan was in a dilemma and could only awkwardly smile and say: “Uncle Zhou, I was just joking with him.”

“Nonsense! Is this something to joke about?!” Vice Principal Zhou scolded loudly. But since Xu Feiyan’s identity was special, Zhou still had to give him some face, so he could only helplessly ask Xie Ran for forgiveness: “Xie Ran, this is a complete misunderstanding. Feiyan didn’t understand and joked without knowing the seriousness. We will have him apologize sincerely to you. Please don’t take it to heart…”

When Xu Feiyan heard that he had to apologize to Xie Ran, his face immediately changed, but in this situation, he had no room to argue and had to remain silent.

Vice Principal Zhou explained at length with an ingratiating tone, but Xie Ran remained unmoved, expressionless, not responding, just looking uninterested, making it hard to guess what he was thinking.

But this casual attitude strangely made Vice Principal Zhou feel oppressed, as if he was being looked down on. He had only ever felt this in formal business meetings against the strongest opponents.

Though the other party was still a half-grown student, Zhou felt alarmed and somewhat at a loss. Just when he was helpless, he suddenly spotted Wang Siyi beside him and quickly pulled him aside: “Siyi, you’re Xie Ran’s homeroom teacher and should know him best. Go talk to him.”

Wang Siy was suddenly called out and immediately felt anxious. He had often targeted Xie Ran before. Now that Xie Ran had turned the tables, Wang Siyi was very uneasy, fearing Xie Ran would bring up past grievances.

Vice Principal Zhou didn’t know this and still asked Wang Siyi to do some work for Xie Ran.

Wang Siy felt stuck but thought of a way to shift the blame and approached with a forced smile: “Xie Ran, I heard you might have some conflicts with students from other classes. Are you worried about that? Don’t worry, we will talk to those students and make sure to create a good learning environment for you.”

Wang Siyi always knew about the bullying Xie Ran had suffered, but he didn’t care about Xie Ran, and those bullying him were either wealthy or powerful, so Wang Siyi was too lazy to get involved.

Though Xie Ran said nothing, Wang Siyi assumed he must be wary about the bullying. Now that Xie Ran was a different person, probably the entire Qixing would have to pamper him.

So Wang Siyi thought he might as well do this favor first.

He spoke tactfully, neither mentioning bullying directly nor implicating Xu Feiyan, just vaguely referring to some conflicts, pretending not to know the details but still willing to solve problems for Xie Ran.

…If Xie Ran brought up some problems later, Wang Siyi could easily distance himself.

Most importantly, he could first shift Xie Ran’s focus to those bullying students and help solve a long-standing problem. Given Xie Ran’s personality, he probably wouldn’t hold grudges against Wang Siyi afterward.

Wang Siyi calculated well, but Xie Ran’s way of thinking was completely different.

Xie Ran had not really paid attention to Wang Siy’s little matters, as he was listening to Meng Feixuan drafting conditions for him. But when Wang Siyi spoke, Xie Ran noticed something else.

Xie Ran slightly reined in his expression and his gaze suddenly became sharp: “You heard about it? When did you hear it? Who told you?”

He spoke evenly and deliberately, each question like a knife stabbing Wang Siyi’s chest. Wang Siyi never expected that Xie Ran’s focus was totally different from what he had imagined.

Especially the last question left him speechless and unable to answer.

Xie Ran said: “…Since you heard about it, why didn’t you ask about it before? Or do students who haven’t published in Universe not deserve your attention?”

Compared to bullying between students, Xie Ran believed that teachers who knew about bullying but chose to ignore it needed more handling than the students themselves.

In his company, such employees were absolutely not allowed.

Wang Siyi was completely speechless. Vice Principal Zhou was furious, both for the matter itself and to make a show of force for Xie Ran.

But Xie Ran was no longer interested in the subsequent drama. His purpose was achieved. He withdrew his gaze indifferently and turned to Vice Principal Zhou, saying in a flat voice: “I will send you a list of conditions by email. If you agree, draft the contract. If not, just proceed with the transfer or withdrawal.”

Without waiting for Vice Principal Zhou’s answer, he walked away, leaving all the teachers in the office looking at each other in confusion.

If they heard correctly, Xie Ran just said “send a list”? How many conditions had he prepared?

And he gave Qixing no room to negotiate.

Either agree, or lose him.

The most frustrating thing was that he had this confidence.

Qixing student chat group:

[“Holy sh*t!!! Did you guys hear? Xie Ran published a paper in Universe!!!”]

[Universe? What’s that??]

[????? Universe? The one I know? Or just the same name?]

[It’s the same Universe!! My dad has connections at the city government!!! He just told me Xie Ran really published in Universe! And it’s the city’s first paper in quantum mechanics on there! People in charge of research culture have gone crazy and are studying reward and policy bias!]

[What the heck? I just searched that journal online. Isn’t it super prestigious, only scientists can publish there? Xie Ran?? Our classmate Xie Ran? We’re really high school students, right?]

[You don’t have to be a scientist to publish there, but those who can are very close to being scientists. I just checked my school badge, yes, we’re high school students.]

[Breaking news!!! Top universities got the news and started calling the education bureau and our school to poach him!]

[??? Xie Ran doesn’t need to take the college entrance exam? So good?]

[Forget the exam. I think Xie Ran might skip undergrad, get a degree, and go straight for master’s and doctorate. Universities will consider that.]

[Wait, I’m confused. Didn’t they say Xie Ran’s grades dropped because of gaming addiction and the school planned to cancel his scholarship?]

[What grades drop? He was just focusing on his paper, not on exams. The fact is he doesn’t even need exams.]

[Also heard the school is desperately begging Xie Ran to stay now.]

[Pfft]

[And a rumor says their homeroom teacher Wang got fired.]

[Really fired? Good news.jpg. Teacher Wang’s morals were bad, looked down on the poor special admissions and even despised Xie Ran. Didn’t expect Xie Ran to be a real big shot.]

[Shh.jpg, Xu Feiyan was also punished, apparently the vice principal reported to the higher-ups personally.

[Wow!! He’s a royal relative!]

[Alternate account: What royal relative? Just trash!! Irredeemable… (500 words of censored profanity omitted)]

Private chat:

[Sweat, alternate account is at it again.]

[Amazing, where does he get so many swear words? No repeats!]

[What’s wrong with Guan Heng? Quality dropped off a cliff since this semester.]

Author’s note:

Mark: huh, Guan Heng’s manners are terrible.

Boss Xie: …Hmm.

At graduation, classmates patted Guan Heng, wanting to say something but hesitating.

Guan Heng: ???