Chapter 273 – Lu Chen – Age 18

“Lu Chen, carry those boxes inside the storage. Then check all the items that needs to be restocked in the aisles before refilling all of it.” The convenience store manager instructed before he got off work.

“Yes, manager.” Lu Chen, aged 18, replied. He was left all alone in the store and seeing that there’s still no one around, he started transferring all the boxes and crossed off all the to-do on his list. He worked earnestly for the next four hours.

The teenage Lu Chen wiped the sweat on his forehead after changing out of his work clothes. Using a slightly worn-out bike, he pedalled back to Tsinghua University dorms. His roommates were already on their beds, playing with games on their phones. He could hear them screaming and cursing from time to time even while he was in the shower.

“Finishing the report this early?” Roommate A casually said to him. He was the one lying on the bed behind Lu Chen’s desk.

“I need to leave early for the restaurant shift tomorrow.” Lu Chen simply replied.

“Oh. Aren’t you going to attend Professor Zhang’s school-wide lecture tomorrow?” Roommate B said who was on the upper bunker at the opposite side.

“What? You’re gonna go?” Roommate C who was on the lower bunk kicked the upper bunker divider making a loud sound. “Who goes to Prof. Zhang’s scary quarterly lectures?”

“You shit! Look at what you did! You made me miss a minion ah!” Roommate B roared in anger. “I was just casually asking ah. Our top student here usually attends lectures like this for credits.”

“I attend those since I didn’t join any clubs.” Lu Chen commented without looking up from his laptop.

“Eiiii, why can’t they just allow accelerated students to skip those things ah.” Roommate A said on the side. “Hey, don’t start the teamfight yet! Wait for me to level up!!”

The banters within their room continued while Lu Chen finished smoothing down his report. An hour later, the other three were still energetic and continued playing with their phone. On the other hand, Lu Chen didn’t waste any time and climbed onto his bed to rest. It had been another busy and difficult day for him, and more similar days like this were waiting ahead for him.

Lu Chen was currently the youngest student to be ever admitted in Tsinghua. At age 18, he graduated high school after being accelerated a few times and earned the highest score in the National Exam earning him a scholarship in Tsinghua.

His uncle and aunt reluctantly sent him off, worried that he would have difficulty living so far away from after staying in their family for a long time. But Lu Chen wasn’t worried, rather, he didn’t have time to feel sad at all because his cousin who were ahead of him by a few years were also studying in a key university just nearby his university.

But Lu Chen knowing how expensive it is to stay in the city didn’t want to depend on his relatives for money. So he saved his allowance, and worked multiple part-time jobs during his freetime. After discussing it with the school, he was allowed to not participate in any clubs. But in exchange, he has to find a different way to fill in those credits so Lu Chen usually attends different lectures within the university no matter if it was related to his course or not.

Lu Chen didn’t exactly have the best looks at school. But he was still considered quite handsome and popular, especially the fact that he was a genius who enrolled in such a prestigious university at such a young age. He still made a lot of girls turn their heads to him and was very popular in the university.

But he wasn’t concerned about that. Aside from prioritizing his studies, he balanced his time in working and studying flawlessly. The money he earned from working everyday was divided for his savings, daily expenses and some was sent to his aunt and uncle who took him in for the past years.

His cousin would often come by to pull him for a meal, and he would always scold him for pushing himself so hard in working and to stop sending money at home passing on his aunt’s words.

Of course he was stubborn. The moment he lost his parents so early, his uncle’s family took him in without any hesitation and loved him like their real son. He was always grateful for their kindness and at such an early age, this was the only way he could think of to repay them for all those years.

It was his own way of repaying the grace he received.

Halfway through his freshman year, a mysterious man suddenly appeared before him. He was stunned and he could sense that the vibe the man was giving off was dangerous so he wanted to run away but he was stopped and pulled into some kind of private room inside a high-end restaurant.

There, the man introduced himself as Old Yang. He said he was a friend of his parents, and he have a lifesaving grace to his late parents but since they already passed, then he would repay it to their orphaned son instead.

Lu Chen learned that he was going to be this man’s heir. He turned him down, but Old Yang insisted that he listen to him first and give him sometime to see and convince him to accept his proposal.

“Why me?” Lu Chen asked in a serious tone. He was like a cat, cautiously looking at this stranger who appeared before him declaring that he would repay his parents’ kindness through him.

Old Yang saw the cautiousness in his eyes and laughed. He thought that this guy will have a long journey ahead of him.

“Because I know you can do it.” Old Yang replied mysteriously that Lu Chen couldn’t understand his words.

Later on, he understood his words.

Before he could explain his side, various rumors popped out like he was taking drugs, slept with his professor and cheated his way through the university.

Back then, Lu Chen was just a normal, powerless student. His only capability was his genius brain and physical labor. He dug through the forums to find the source and found out that the person who did it was the rival student that would often provoke him in front of the class.

He submitted this data to the school administration, hoping to clear the allegations that was accused to him but because this rival student has some connections to an official, his findings were suppressed and the scandal about him continued.

Lu Chen was a busy person who didn’t have time to mingle and communicate with other students. So the moment the issue spread like wildfire within the campus, the students who didn’t know his personality believed in the rumors and from gazing at him with admiration, they now looked at him with disgust.

Only the professors he often interacted with and his roommates believed in his innocence. But that wasn’t enough to clear his conscience. Lu Chen kept this issue from being found out by his cousin.

For the second time in his life, Lu Chen realized how little he was and how powerless he is. Just because the other side has connections with an official, he was being forced into a corner, and even his scholarship was on the verge of being taken away.

The first time he felt this way was the day when he stood in front of his parents’ lifeless bodies. He felt so alone and everything in his future seemed dark that he was lost on what he can do in the future.

Lu Chen didn’t give up and attempted multiple times to report to the police and the school but it was to no avail.

Then Old Yang suddenly came in his school. Dragging him to the chairman’s office, Old Yang sat and had a chat with the chairman along with Old Yang’s legal adviser.

The conversation he heard there was truly an eye-opener. He didn’t say a word throughout the whole discussion but what he heard was enough to shock him to the bones.

Old Yang’s legal adviser showed multiple photos of the chairman, all with different woman. Lu Chen saw it as well and he blushed seeing the pictures.

It was a very daring photos.

The chairman was kissing with a woman, some pictures where the chairman was on top of a woman and looked like he was f.u.c.k.i.n.g her, the other images were him with multiple woman on the bed and many more photos that he wished he didn’t see at all.