“She’s not an outsider,” Cheng Yan cut in.

Cheng Zhou stuttered to a stop, his eyes growing wide as saucers.

No way…

Was his uncle truly set on this girl?

If that was the case, then Cheng Zhoumust really drop his investigations, lest his uncle thought he was a rival in love or something.Cheng Zhouwould be in deep trouble if things came to that.

“Okay, okay, I got it. Don’t worry anymore.”

Cheng Zhou spew out a few additional promises, then promptly hung up.

He immediately flipped through his contact list and made a call.

Thankfully, it was answered after just a few rings.

The voice on the other end was almost reverent. “Young Master Cheng. Please give us your orders.”

“Stop looking into Yao Tang,”Cheng Zhousaid urgently.

The other man didn’t seem keen on the idea, and he stammered his protest. “But we—Young Master Cheng, you have no idea… What I mean to say is, we are making significant progress. We’ll get to the bottom of it soon. We just need a little more time.”

“If I tell you to stop, then you should stop. Why are you spouting out all this nonsense?”

Cheng Zhou’s voice had gone uncharacteristically cold, which disconcerted the other man.

“Of course, of course. I apologize, Young Master Cheng. My team and I will cease the operations right away.”

Cheng Zhou ended the call and heaved a weary sigh. He padded over to the French windows in his room and lit a cigarette.

Tendrils of smoke wafted around his face and clouded over his unfathomable eyes.

‘Yao Tang…’

What kind of hold did she have over his Sixth Uncle, that he wouldn’t even think twice about threatening his blood relative?

‘It looks like I’ll have to go to No. 1 High Schooland find out for myself.’

…

At 11:30 the next morning.

The Principal’s Office.

“So you’ve come to visit us, Young Master Cheng. You should have informed us beforehand. We would have made proper preparations to receive you.”

Principal Kong had jumped to his feet the moment Cheng Zhou had entered his office. He was eyeing the young man in fear at the moment, quite shaken by his sudden appearance in the school. Cheng Zhou rarely ever came by, after all.

Could it be that the Cheng familywas somehow satisfied with his performance, and had sent the young master to give him a good beating?

It was a rather plausible scenario.

No. 1 High School was one of the oldest institutions inCity A, with theMeng familybeing its major shareholder by virtue of their contributions to the school’s initial establishment.Even so, theCheng familywielded an almost equal sway over the school, what with them being the most powerful conglomerate in the vicinity.

As such, the position of School Director was always held by the current CEO of the Cheng Group.

In this generation, the person was Cheng Yan.

The young man had also graduated from No. 1 High School, and had even graced a few of the school’s ceremonies with his presence and an occasional speech.

That being the case, Principal Kongwas naturally acquainted withCheng Zhou, the heir presumptive to the entirety of Cheng Group. Compared to him,Cheng Yanwas only the head of the company’s branch here inCity A.

Cheng Zhou was decidedly on a higher rank, at least in terms of power within the family.

Principal Kong squared his shoulders and steeled himself. He would never dare of offending anyone from theCheng family, but he still held the bulk of responsibility as the highest authority in the school.

Cheng Zhou sauntered across the room and plopped on the couch as if he had done it a thousand times before.

“Principal Kong, I sent you an email yesterday expressing my intention to donate a library to your school. I expect you to have started the preliminary arrangements to make it happen.” He poured himself a glass of water from the coffee table and took a sip. “You have read it, right?”

“Email?” Principal Kongrepeated faintly, his brows furrowed.

He had seen a new email yesterday, but he had barely glanced over the sender’s details. He had been too stunned by the first line of the email, which declared that the school would receive millions to fund the construction of a new library. When his shock had finally worn off, the old man dismissed the email as a prank and forgot about it.

Was the Young Master Cheng referring to that very same email?

Principal Kong the acrid taste of regret rise to his tongue. His face contorted into a grimace for a brief second before he managed to compose himself.

“The thing is, Young Master Cheng, I was occupied with research yesterday, so I didn’t really have time to check my emails. If it’s all right with you, can we discuss the matter now?”

Principal Kong told himself that he wasn’t lying, not technically. Yes, he had readCheng Zhou’s email, but he had really been very busy as well!

To his relief, the young man’s smile never wavered.

Cheng Zhou stood and straightened his suit before taking out a stack of papers from his briefcase. He dropped it on the principal’s desk with a loud thud.

“This is the project proposal report that my assistant has put together. You can go over it first, there’s no rush. I’ll gladly wait for your decision.”