Chapter 48: Haggling
Translator: Oneshotwonder Editor: Tehrn
"Wouldn’t it be inconvenient… considering that I am a male student?"
"As long as you keep your hands to yourself. It would be easier for the school to make the case if you accept the offer. Besides, the school would give you a reasonable amount of pay. Trust me; you don't want to move into the unfinished new dormitory, the noise of the construction alone will drive you crazy." A faint smile flashed across Samantha's face; she had gotten him.
Wang Tong knew that he had to take the job one way or another, "But there has to be a catch," he thought. Wang Tong pondered on it for a while, dragging out the silence and then asked, "You said that the School would pay me?"
Being born into wealth and privilege, Samantha was bemused by Wang Tong's question."Yes, of course. Our school doesn't run a sweatshop."
"It is my honor to serve our school! How much a month, if I may ask?"
Samantha was caught off guard and was irritated by Wang Tong's sublunary question. "What a money-grubbing worm!" Samantha cursed inside of her mind. Her finger felt the spin of a thick book on her desk, and she could barely resist the urge to smash the book into Wang Tong's face.
"Three thousand," she answered as she furrowed her eyebrows.
"That's very kind of you and all, but you know… it's an awkward situation to throw me in, I can already see my classmates' judgmental stares… I... I am... not sure..."
"Six thousand!" Wang Tong's terrible acting had started to churn her stomach. She didn't care much about the money and might as well end this haggling nonsense quickly.
"Deal!" Wang Tong was ecstatic, beaming from ear to ear.
"Excellent! That would be all for now." Samantha snickered in her mind as she watched Wang Tong set off for the classroom. "You little fool. It is just the beginning. I hope you don't choke on your money!"
Samantha understood well that Wang Tong's cooperation was vital in winning the tournament, and because of that, she just had found one more reason to lure him under her thumb. The shrewd principal had also recognized that none of her conventional methods would work on Wang Tong. Instead, the situation called for rather different measures in which patience and subtlety were of the essences.
"Any good news from the principal?" Hu Yangxuan asked Wang Tong as soon as the latter walked into the classroom. Ever since the weekend, the two of them seemed to get along much better, and they even started to consider each other as friends.
Wang Tong puffed out his chest, arms akimbo and then announced, "From now on, I am Caretaker Wang."
From the corner of Hu Yangxuan's eyes, he registered a hardly audible giggle surfaced on Ma Xiaoru's face; he immediately understood that Samantha's real intention in doing so was not entirely without questioning motives. Although he could not yet grasp the reason behind it, he decided to play along anyways.
"You might have your work cut out for you. Be careful, girls are not as easy going as you think."
Wang Tong shrugged and cracked a smile, “Worry not, Brother Hu. I happen to know a thing or two about girls."
"Really? Do you mind sharing it with us?" Ma Xiaoru slanted one of her eyebrows, carrying an edge in her voice.
"Maybe later..." Wang Tong shriveled as his eyes met Ma Xiaoru's.
Instinct had told Wang Tong that something was lurking behind Samantha's proposal. He could not yet tell exactly what it was, but he had always believed that he could accomplish anything as long as he put his mind into it. It was a belief that deeply-rooted itself in Wang Tong's mind thanks to Old Fart; whenever Old Fart could not afford Wang Tong's pocket money, he would reiterate those exact words to encourage his son to earn money on his own.
The results of the monthly test were out before the morning classes were over. With tears and joys in the first year students' eyes, they came to terms with the changes that were about to come. They said that competition was the mother of advancement; despite the pervasive opposition, this monthly test had indeed shaken things up in Ayrlarng.
Ma Xiaoru and Hu Yangxuan had scored the first and second places in the monthly test, leaving a huge gap behind them with the third place, and they entered the A-class as anticipated. It was part of Samantha's plan to show the other students their gap with the top students of the S-class Academy; she hoped that it would be a wake-up call to them. She had always believed in student's potentials, and with Bernabeu hot on her heels, she could find more than one reason to help the students unlock their hidden talent so that they could help her in the coming tournament. So far, the only hidden gem that she had discovered was Wang Tong. Thanks to his experience on Norton, he had excelled in the classes on virtually anything about Zergs, from directions to theories. Another one of his subjects that stood out was METAL combat; Wang Tong's score was even higher than Ma Xiaoru. After experiencing the event of the weekend, Samantha was not surprised at all.
However, the scores of Wang Tong's other classes were pathetic; as a matter of fact, they were so miserable that they had downgraded Wang Tong's average rating to be barely above the passing grade of F-class. Samantha heaved a sigh, she had hoped to transfer him into the A-class, but with this embarrassingly low rating, her hands were tied, at least for now.
"As long as he is still in Ayrlarng, I can make him improve, one way or another!" Samantha thought. She reckoned that Wang Tong had already fallen into her honey trap as his increasingly docile behavior had suggested.
Samantha straightened her eyeglasses as her mind drifted to the more pressing matters of the tournament. Her opponent's strategy was clear: they would let Ma Xiaoru and Hu Yangxuan fight their weaker players, and perhaps would let them win, and then, they would dump all they got in the remaining eight fights. Wang Tong should be able to win one round or even two, as long as he was willing to try his best, but winning three consecutive games was something even Wang Tong couldn't accomplish by a long chalk. Ayrlarng would need one more competent fighter to secure a total victory. Samantha yearned for that last piece of thread to weave his plan into reality. She understood that it would be a high stake gamble: the damage done from losing the game would be unrecoverable, but the prize in case of success was just as irresistible. Losing Ma Xiaoru and Hu Yangxuan to Bernabeu meant that she would lose everything. It was a price that she was not willing to pay, so she had to set boundaries as to how far she would go. She decided that in the case of failing to seek out one more candidate who would be able to win one round for certain, she would pull out of this dangerous game.