Chapter 25

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Volume 1 + Chapter 25: Midterm Exam

“Yuxuan, you’ve been handling company affairs more and more skillfully lately, so I plan to entrust you with the Xijiang Boiler Co., Ltd. project.”

Although Bai Yuxuan had already returned to her apartment by now, that sentence from her father still lingered in her mind. Although it was merely a tactful compliment on her ability to manage company affairs, it was also the most positive evaluation she had ever received from her father since she was a child.

“I’ve always thought that my father only saw me as a tool to maintain his dominance within the family. But maybe I misunderstood him. Since he’s finally acknowledging me for once, I can’t let him down.”

So as soon as she entered the room, she eagerly opened the handover documents about the boiler factory that her father had given her.

Since she had already been assisting her father in managing some companies, she quickly grasped the general situation of the boiler factory. At this point, the profit and cost figures caught her attention.

“This cost and profit…!” She immediately began verifying the profits and costs.

“As expected of Father, the returns are incredibly high.” Because the document had been forged in advance by her father, and because it was the first time in her life being praised by him, Bai Yuxuan, whose mind was now somewhat clouded by joy, didn’t notice anything suspicious right away—she just felt a vague sense of unease.

“Forget it, I’d better get ready for tomorrow’s midterm exams. In four days, it’ll be my birthday. If I can completely defeat Ouyang Qianxue by then, and manage the boiler factory in an orderly manner, Father will surely be overjoyed and give me a heartfelt birthday wish.”

With that, Bai Yuxuan put down the document and began reviewing each subject for the next day’s exams.

The next day, Bai Yuxuan arrived at the exam hall early. Since the seating order for the second exam was based on the results of the previous monthly test, Ouyang Qianxue was sitting right behind her.

At that moment, Ouyang Qianxue was staring blankly at the desk, murmuring to himself. It looked like he was reciting something, doing his final pre-exam review.

“I suggest you stop wasting your efforts and think more about how to please me this time,” Bai Yuxuan whispered to Ouyang Qianxue, turning around while the teacher hadn’t yet handed out the test.

“Hmph, such arrogance. Acting like you’ve already won. You’d better get ready for me to slap you in the face. When that time comes, I’ll repay all the humiliation you gave me—double!”

“Haha, I’m so scared. If you can do it, go ahead and try!” After saying that, Bai Yuxuan turned back and got ready for the exam.

With the sound of the exam bell, the midterm officially began.

“What’s going on? These questions are clearly simple, so why do I feel a vague sense of unease in my heart?” After finishing the first subject, Bai Yuxuan washed her face at the hallway faucet. She thought that a splash of cold water would clear her head and wash away the unease.

However, as the exams continued, that feeling didn’t fade—it only grew stronger. By the second-to-last subject, Bai Yuxuan found herself deep in thought after finishing her paper.

“What exactly is making me feel so uneasy? If I think about what’s felt off these past few days, it can only be…” At that moment, the documents her father had given her surfaced in her mind.

“Could it be…!” A sudden wave of tension gripped her. She began carefully recalling every detail from the day before, first, her normally cold father suddenly warmed up to her, then, entrusting such an important project to her.

“Wait a minute! With how cautious he is, would he really hand over such a major project so easily?” Bai Yuxuan began to suspect her father, but that thought was quickly dismissed.

“I’m still his heir after all. Even if he doesn’t see me as his daughter, I’m at least an important chess piece for maintaining his family status. He has no reason to harm me.” So Bai Yuxuan pulled her thoughts back to the exam.

By the time the last subject, chemistry, began, it was already the afternoon of the next day. That familiar sense of unease once again surged in Bai Yuxuan’s heart—and this time, it was even stronger.

“What’s going on?”

Even though she wasn’t in the best mental state, this high school-level material was still easy for Bai Yuxuan, who had already started self-studying university-level courses. She breezed through it and reached the last question almost effortlessly.

But when she got to the final question, she suddenly froze.

Because the last question happened to be about exhaust gas treatment at a boiler factory! That question was like a gust of wind that blew away the fog clouding her mind. At that moment, she finally understood where that sense of wrongness had been coming from.

“There are so many types of exhaust gases just mentioned in this question, yet in that document the budget for exhaust gas treatment was completely insufficient!” Bai Yuxuan immediately stood up, and under the shocked gazes of the teacher and students, she rushed out of the exam room.

“Hello? Xiao Liu?” The moment she left the exam hall, she ran straight to the student council office, locked the door, picked up her phone, and dialed a number.

“What’s wrong, young master? You sound panicked.”

“Xiao Liu, answer me this first, are you loyal to the Bai family, or to me?”

“Of course I’m loyal to you, young master. If you hadn’t pleaded with the chairman on my behalf back then, I’d have been fired already—maybe even starving to death on the streets by now. I only follow your orders.”

“Good. Now is the time for you to repay me. I want you to bypass my father’s surveillance and investigate Xijiang Boiler Co., Ltd. for me, especially regarding exhaust gas treatment and pollution issues. The faster, the better!”

“Yes, I’ll get on it right away.”

After hanging up, Bai Yuxuan fell into deep thought.

Could this really be a conspiracy? But why would her father want to harm her? These questions left Bai Yuxuan completely puzzled.

“Damn it!” Suddenly, Bai Yuxuan remembered—she hadn’t written down the answer to that final chemistry question before running out of the room.

“But even if I lose a few points, I should still score higher than her, right? I refuse to believe she can still score that high in the midterm.” Though she said this to herself, a trace of anxiety lingered in her heart. But at this point, compared to the boiler factory issue, Ouyang Qianxue’s exam results no longer mattered much.

“Looks like I really do need to go in person tomorrow.” In fact, Bai Yuxuan wanted to rush over immediately—but the factory would already be closed by now, and she wouldn’t be able to assess the production situation.

At that moment, near the boiler factory, several professional inspectors were using specialized instruments to evaluate the air quality around the facility.

“The sulfur content and smoke particles in the air are seriously exceeding the limits. Based on the evidence we’ve collected on-site, it’s enough to confirm that this pollution is coming from that boiler factory.”

“Very good. Now that the facts are clear, we can’t let this company—one that endangers the health and lives of the public—continue to go unpunished.”