Chapter 140: Jiang Qin Tops the Poll!

The beginning of winter had arrived, and a sudden cold wave swept through Linchuan.

In the northern regions, temperatures plummeted, and a simple jacket wasn’t enough to brave the weather. For the sake of his budding romance, Old Cao continued working all hours, but updated his wardrobe with a thick woolen overcoat, matching the one Ding Xue wore.

“How do I look? Handsome, right? Jiang Qin, you and Feng Nanshu should buy a pair too.”

“Heh heh.”

Jiang Qin just coldly brushed off Cao Guangyu.

Meanwhile, the beauty pageant at the University of Science and Technology was nearing its climax, with the voting atmosphere intensifying.

Cui Yan held the top spot, virtually securing her position as the number one beauty if she maintained her lead.

Pang Duo from Chemical Engineering came in second, but wasn’t satisfied.

Her fan club had been rallying hard to garner votes, constantly closing in on Cui Yan’s lead.

Jiang Qin admired Pang Duo’s refusal to settle for second place.

Their rivalry drove a surge in new Zhihu forum registrations, with daily activity exceeding even the peak during the pageant’s initial promotion.

At this stage, no further promotion was needed; everything would unfold naturally. Hence, the Linchuan University team had already withdrawn, leaving only part-time staff from the University of Science and Technology stationed in Room 502.

Additionally, Tan Qing had secured letters of intent from twenty-eight merchants for free entry onto the platform.

Wei Lanlan had also signed up enough advertisers, with promotion fees steadily flowing into Room 208’s account.

Su Nai’s team had completed the final testing phase for the website, which would be integrated with the forum next week.

Meanwhile, Jiang Qin visited the University of Science and Technology to study the commercial landscape inside and outside the campus and scout locations for a potential Xitian branch.

All operations progressed smoothly, including the Scholar Star competition.

“Xiao Jin, how are the backend numbers?”

“The situation looks great!”

“Teacher Li, how many participants have we got for our competition?”

“The situation looks great!”

Watching the dwindling customer flow, Jiang Zhihua had a vague sense that something was amiss.

Yet Teacher Li insisted the situation was excellent, claiming the top contestant had over three thousand votes, indicating the event’s significant impact.

Reassured, Jiang Zhihua continued distributing flyers at the school’s entrances.

However, as time passed and the customer flow kept declining, even dense Jiang Zhihua realized something was seriously wrong. This couldn’t be called an “excellent situation”!

“Xiao Liu, I’m not good with computers. Log into the Linchuan Campus Forum and check our competition status for me.”

“Oh, okay, boss.”

The part-time university student at the campus supermarket logged into the Scholar Star competition page.

Shortly after, Niu Shangtian from Tonghang Driving School received a call from Jiang Zhihua, asking him to come to the supermarket.

Niu Shangtian had just returned from customer service training at the headquarters a few days ago. Today, his secretary handed him this month’s list of driving school applicants, leaving him feeling dispirited.

From the competition’s start until now, only one student had signed up, but even they had asked for a refund, citing the incoming cold weather as the reason for postponing until spring.

Upon receiving the call, Niu Shangtian rushed to the campus supermarket without delay.

“Boss Jiang, you said the situation was great? How is it great?”

“Great? Heh heh, it’s gone stellar!”

Jiang Zhihua turned the computer screen towards him, her eyes icy cold and expression as if she wanted to bite someone.

Unaware of what had transpired, Niu Shangtian glanced at the screen, leaving him dizzy and slack-jawed.

First Place: Jiang Qin

Second Place: Yang Shuai

Third Place: Wen Jinrui

…

From first to eleventh place, every contestant’s introduction welcomed using the Zhihu forum, proclaimed as the best campus forum in all of Linchuan.

“What’s going on? How did Jiang Qin get first place?” Niu Shangtian’s eyes were about to bulge out.

Jiang Zhihua gritted her teeth and pointed at the screen, “Look at the vote counts!”

Niu Shangtian examined closer, realizing that aside from the top eleven contestants with over a thousand votes each, the rest from twelfth place down had only single-digit counts, some even zero. “Damn, the top ones must have rigged the votes!”

“We’ve been tricked! No one actually participated in this competition. The top few are Jiang Qin’s people, they rigged the votes to get those positions!”

“Then what do we do? I’ve already paid the sponsorship fee!”

Jiang Zhihua took out her phone, barely suppressing her rage as she called Teacher Li. The response on the other end remained the same – the situation looked great.

This response pushed Jiang Zhihua over the edge, demanding to know why Jiang Qin was in first place and why, aside from the top eleven, the rest had only single-digit or zero votes!

“Boss Jiang, I have a meeting now. Let me get back to you later with the details.”

“?”

Before Jiang Zhihua could say anything further, the call ended.

Simultaneously, the part-time student operating operating the computer’s expression changed, “Boss, our competition seems to have ended.”

“What?”

“Look here.”

Xiao Liu pointed to the computer screen, where the previously open voting page now displayed a voting prohibition notice, followed by an announcement on the homepage declaring the Scholar Star competition closed and voting concluded.

Jiang Zhihua felt dizzy, struggling to stand steady. After a while, her face darkened.

So this was the so-called “great situation”?

%^&*@!

Jiang Zhihua caught her breath, then summoned Niu Shangtian as they angrily headed to the General Office responsible for the forum’s operations.

Teacher Li had already given up, making no attempt to hide the truth when they confronted him, directly showing them the previous posts.

“They made a post online claiming that the winner of our competition could be directly admitted to graduate studies and receive a scholarship. I can’t take responsibility if something happens due to that claim.”

“Who posted that?” Jiang Zhihua’s expression grew dazed.

After a moment’s contemplation, Teacher Li replied, “Couldn’t trace the specific IP, but the network connection was from the Entrepreneurship Base, so it must have been Jiang Qin’s crew.”

Niu Shangtian was rendered speechless, “BossBoss Jiang, I told you from the start not to provoke Jiang Qin. But you just had to mock him to his face. That kid’s no pushover!”

“You mocked him too?” Teacher Li’s eyes widened.

“Yes, Boss Jiang even called him over to see how well our event was organized.”

Teacher Li’s mouth twitched, “No wonder then! I was wondering why anyone would think this competition could lead to direct graduate admission. Turns out they were digging a trap behind our backs!”

Jiang Zhihua’s expression grew increasingly sour, “I didn’t mean it. He’s just an eighteen-year-old student, what could he do?”

“Well, now you know what he can do! One post and he’s undermined all of us.”

“So what do we do now?”

“Let’s just end the event here. Give out whatever prizes we need to, let those who want to learn driving do so. It’s best if we can quietly resolve this without causing a stir.”

Jiang Zhihua gritted her teeth in anger, “But Teacher Li, we’ve paid the operating fees, and so far there’s been zero promotional effect!”

Teacher Li didn’t care, “Our operating agreement clearly states that we’re only responsible for hosting the competition. The offline promotion and traffic were your responsibility.”

“But…”

“No buts. The competition was organized properly. Who asked you to provoke Jiang Qin? An eighteen-year-old student, heh heh. You looked down on him, so he undermined you. It’s all cause and effect.”

“Teacher Li, if you’re not going to handle this, I’ll call my cousin-in-law!”

Jiang Zhihua took out her phone and opened her contacts list.

Aside from entrepreneurial students, anyone doing business on campus typically had some behind-the-scenes connections, either relatives of leaders, friends of leaders, or relatives of leaders’ friends.

For instance, Jiang Zhihua’s distant cousin-in-law was the dean of Linchuan University’s Academic Affairs Office. Feeling this matter couldn’t be left unresolved lest she explode from anger, she planned to leverage her connections.

But before she could make the call, Teacher Li stopped her.

“Forget it, Boss Jiang. All the materials we used were plagiarized from them. Do you think your cousin-in-law would dare offend Jiang Qin? Besides, Jiang Qin was interviewed by the Linchuan Youth Daily and is now promoting a work-study program. You’re better off avoiding more trouble, unless you want your cousin-in-law to have a headache.”

“…”

After hesitating, Jiang Zhihua lowered her phone, “I can accept the loss, but the top few winners rigged the votes. Those prizes can’t be given!”

Niu Shangtian agreed, “The half-price driving lessons should be canceled too!”

“What? You guys have no shame, but I still have some!”

Teacher Li glanced at them, “This is the Linchuan Campus Forum’s first competition. And in the end, you’re not giving any prizes? If word gets out, I’ll be a laughingstock!”

“Then just disqualify the top eleven. Aren’t there still others after that?? Move them up.”

“The twelfth place only has six votes. You really want to give a ‘Scholar Star’ prize for that? We might as well just cancel the whole thing!”

Jiang Zhihua gritted her teeth, “I don’t care, but I can’t let Jiang Qin become the permanent packaging for our milk tea shop!”

Teacher Li sighed, “Now you see how cunning that kid is. If you really don’t give him the prize, he’ll just cause another ruckus, you believe me? Boss Jiang, you’ve been in business for so long, you should know the saying ‘don’t provoke petty people.'”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhihua’s mind went blank, suddenly recalling what Jiang Qin had said when driving past that day.

“Please make the trophy look grand…”

“Grand…”

“Grand…”

Niu Shangtian pondered for a while, gradually leaning towards Teacher Li’s proposed solution.

That Jiang Qin was no pushover. He appeared all smiles on the surface but was as crafty as an old fox.

Just a couple mocking remarks at their meeting, and he completely sabotaged the entire competition. If they didn’t let him take the prize smoothly, he probably had more tricks up his sleeve.

“We’ve learned our lesson. That kid’s barefoot, he doesn’t’t fear us shod folks at all.” Niu Shangtian also began persuading Jiang Zhihua.

Teacher Li nodded in agreement, “Old Niu is right. Swallow this small loss, just remember the lesson for next time.”