Chapter 36: Swindler! Refund! Refund!

"Damn it! What bad luck, to be in line with this cursed family."

"And they call it mathematical probability! They couldn't even touch a ball..."

Those standing behind Lin Yan's family muttered complaints, resigned themselves to bad luck, and left.

Lin Qi, however, was unwilling to give up. He pulled his father’s hand and cried, "Dad! I want a ticket. I want to attend the lecture by the Peking University top student!"

"This... Yan! What do we do now? Hurry up and find a way to get a ticket for your brother!" Lin Songsheng was at a loss, only able to tug at Lin Yan, who was sitting on the ground.

"What can I do? The only way now is... to buy a scalped ticket," Lin Yan said weakly after taking a long time to recover.

...

There were plenty of students and parents like them who had waited in line for ages without getting a ticket.

Xue Ergou’s side, on the other hand, had over fifty people, and they had miraculously drawn thirteen red balls, allowing them to buy thirteen tickets at face value.

Moreover, because there were fifteen hundred tickets in total—unlike the previous two days where tickets were hard to come by—the price of scalped tickets hadn't skyrocketed to an absurd degree. They were generally between 2,500 and 3,500.

"Three thousand a ticket! Only these last two left. Whoever wants them, hurry!"

The tickets in Xue Ergou’s hands were selling fast because he knew when to quit and didn't drive the price up too high.

"I want them! Give them to me quickly. I'll take both!" Lin Yan hurriedly pulled out 6,000 yuan and exchanged it for two tickets from Xue Ergou, both for the first lecture at 2:00 PM tomorrow.

When she had originally seen someone selling them for 2,500, she wanted to wait and see if there would be cheaper ones. Little did she know that as more and more people failed to get tickets, the price of 2,500 suddenly jumped to 3,500, or even 4,000.

Lin Yan didn't dare wait any longer. Finally finding someone selling them for 3,000, she gritted her teeth and took out all 6,000 yuan her parents had given her.

"Three thousand for a ticket? That's too expensive! Yan! Why did you buy two? Little Qi only needs one!" Lin Songsheng looked at the two tickets and complained with immense heartache.

"Dad! What do you know! Three thousand is cheap for us. Huo Qitai definitely didn't get a ticket either. When we find him later, we'll sell it to him for 4,000... no! 5,000 each. That way, we’ll at least make back 2,000, and Little Qi's ticket will basically have been bought at face value."

So, that was Lin Yan's plan.

Just then, seeing Huo Qitai walking toward them in a hurry, she immediately stepped forward, took out the ticket, and feigned kindness: "Huo Qitai, did you go home to get money? I happen to have an extra ticket. For the sake of being relatives, I'll sell it to you for 5,000. How about it?"

"Five thousand? Have you lost your mind?" Blocked by Lin Yan, Huo Qitai shook his head and tried to walk around her.

"Tickets on the black market were 15,000 each before! Huo Qitai, you don't know how hard it is to get these tickets; you have to rely on luck to draw the balls..." Lin Yan still wanted to hoodwink him, hoping to sell it to him quickly before he realized the real market rate.

But Huo Qitai saw right through her intentions. Seeing her still trying to swindle him, he stopped being polite. He let out a mischievous grin, borrowed a megaphone from a nearby security assistant, and began to shout:

"Everyone, stop buying high-priced tickets! One ticket allows two people to enter. If parents aren't going in to listen, two people can split one ticket to enter!"

Crash!

Once Huo Qitai pulled this move, everyone knew that one ticket could admit two people. The value of the scalped tickets immediately plummeted. Several scalpers who had been shouting 4,000 or 5,000 a second ago immediately changed their tune to 2,500 or 3,000. Even so, the parents who really needed tickets had become smarter. They didn't rush to buy at high prices and instead picked up their phones to find someone to split a ticket with.

The price of scalped tickets crashed; some were already calling out 1,500 per ticket. Lin Yan watched helplessly as, within a few minutes, the two tickets she had just spent 6,000 on had depreciated by 3,000.

"I'm selling a ticket for 1,400! Anyone want it?" Fearing it would drop further, Lin Yan hurriedly sold the extra ticket she held. Clutching the remaining one, she felt like dying; it was equivalent to buying one ticket for 4,600.

"What kind of bird-brained schooling is this! Wasting so much money."

"It's a sin! Yan, you dead girl, how can you be so wasteful!" Her parents kept scolding her all the way, heartbroken over their hard-earned money.

...

The shout Huo Qitai had just made was something he would have had others spread regardless of whether Lin Yan had stopped him or not. His goal was to hit the scalpers after the tickets were sold out so they wouldn't dare sell at high prices, or else the tickets would be stuck in their hands. He also wanted more high school seniors in the city to be able to come and hear his lecture.

Fifteen hundred tickets were snapped up in just over two hours.

"Over 1.3 million! It's incredible! Brother Tai, you really did it. In just a few days, you've made 1.3 million." That night at the hotel restaurant, Xue Xiaoshan was already bowing down in admiration to Huo Qitai.

Not to mention that, besides the 1.3 million earned, he had also helped Chang Lu handle hundreds of social favors!

But Chang Lu, sitting nearby, wore a worried expression and asked cautiously, "Then for the three consecutive days of lectures starting tomorrow, Qitai, are you... confident?"

"Lulu, don't worry. Just wait and see tomorrow." Huo Qitai knew what Chang Lu was worried about, but he couldn't explain it now. The key was that it was impossible to explain how his score of 579 was admitted to Peking University.

...

That same night, not only did the Jian'an City news report the grand spectacle of the ticket rush, but even television stations in surrounding county-level cities followed suit. Parents and students who had bought tickets were full of anticipation for tomorrow's Peking University top student lecture.

Except for Lin Yan's family, who were feeling utterly miserable. Her father told her to find someone to split the ticket with so they could at least make back a few hundred. But Lin Yan didn't go. She felt so bitter that she wanted to see for herself what kind of top student lecture could justify her spending 4,600.

...

The next day was a very ordinary Monday. Huo Qitai had chosen a handsome casual outfit for himself, but just as he stepped out, he was stopped by Lu Xiqing, who had rushed over.

"Brother Tai, you absolutely cannot go to the Wealth and Prosperity Hotel today!" Lu Xiqing gasped for air. "Zhang Ting and the others are going to expose you in public, and they've even dragged the principal of our No. 1 High School along."

"Oh? What are they going to expose me for?" Huo Qitai was somewhat surprised that the vice monitor, Lu Xiqing, would come to tip him off.

"For that Peking University top student lecture you set up! Zhang Ting says you're using Liu Rumeng’s reputation to swindle money, and she even intentionally called Liu Rumeng to tell her..." Lu Xiqing spilled everything he knew.

Huo Qitai thanked him, but didn't take it to heart. Instead, he hailed a taxi and asked, "Do you want to come to the Wealth and Prosperity Hotel with me?"

"Zhang Ting and the others are bringing the principal to expose you on the spot, how can you still dare to go?" Lu Xiqing got into the car, but all the way there, he kept wondering: had Liu Rumeng really rushed back to support Huo Qitai?

When they arrived at the hotel, the promotional materials Huo Qitai had written were displayed from the main entrance all the way to the grand conference hall.

[Do you want to master high school English grammar in three days?]
[Do you believe you can conquer high school math in just five days?]
[A seven-day crash course for high school physics, chemistry, and biology is not a dream!]

...

"Huo Qitai, are the methods advertised here really true?" Seeing this, Lu Xiqing, who was following Huo Qitai, felt a little moved and wished he could master these methods to repeat a year and get into Tsinghua or Peking University.

"If they were true, would you repeat a year?" Huo Qitai asked in return, leaving Lu Xiqing speechless.

The hotel staff were all busily coordinating the "Peking University Top Student Lecture." Even the hotel restaurant’s business had become brisk. Many parents simply came early, bringing their children to eat in the restaurant, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Peking University top student.

By 1:30 PM, the area outside the hotel lobby was a sea of people. Five hundred tickets had been sold for the first session, two hundred and fifty had been given away, and since each ticket admitted two people, there were at least fifteen hundred people there.

When it was time for ticket checking, just as Huo Qitai had said the day before, many students were splitting one ticket to get in. Only a few students were accompanied by their parents. Huo Qitai had already instructed the manager, Wu Liangxing, on the order and procedures, while he himself stayed behind the stage for a final check and preparation.

In the first row under the stage, Hu Xiuqing and her friends sat with smirking faces, waiting to see a good show.

In the fourth row on the left, Zhang Ting sat with several girls; she had gotten the two tickets from the office of her father, who was a deputy bureau chief.

"Tingting, do you think the principal will really come? With so many people here, if we really expose Huo Qitai in public, won't he be too embarrassed?" one girl asked, looking at the dense crowd, a bit worried.

"If he's afraid of being embarrassed, he shouldn't be pulling such immoral and deceptive stunts! I have to help Mengmeng get back at him," Zhang Ting said firmly. She couldn't wait to expose Huo Qitai's scam in front of everyone.

On the fifth row to the right, two girls wearing baseball caps and sunglasses had just sat down, drawing glances from the boys nearby.

"Mengmeng! Didn't you say you were done with Huo Qitai? Why did you rush back overnight, buy high-priced tickets, and sneak in? Are you here to help him out of a tight spot?" Huang Weiwei asked with a playful tone.

Liu Ruyu frowned and said helplessly, "If I had known, I wouldn't have signed that 'lover agreement' with him. Who would have thought this Huo Qitai would take it seriously and now, to make money, is being so unscrupulous."

Originally, Liu Ruyu didn't want to get involved. She thought that even if Huo Qitai held a lecture under the guise of a "Peking University top student," few people would come to see it, it would have no influence, and it would just end in a messy failure. But while she was playing in the surrounding county-level cities, she saw the unprecedented crowds rushing for tickets on the local TV station. Knowing the situation had blown up, she had no choice but to drag Vivienne back overnight.

Vivienne, who loved to watch chaos, laughed and said, "Since you're so annoyed with him, I'll teach you a good way to get revenge. In a moment, in front of all these spectators, rush up and kiss him hard, kiss him until he's dizzy..."

"Go away! Vivienne, I've noticed you've picked up bad habits since returning to the country!" Liu Ruyu retorted. Vivienne just arched her eyebrows playfully and laughed, "That's what they call 'nearing vermilion makes you red, nearing ink makes you black.'"

...

A few rows behind Liu Ruyu and Vivienne, Lin Yan and Lin Qi had also just sat down after entering.

"Sister, you've already finished the college entrance exam, why are you here to listen? You should have sold it to my classmate for five hundred," Lin Qi grumbled with dissatisfaction.

Lin Yan tapped his head and said angrily, "If it weren't for me, would you have a ticket to get in?"

"But you spent so much wasted money! Huo Qitai didn't even buy a high-priced ticket; maybe he bought a cheap one later!" When Lin Qi mentioned Huo Qitai, Lin Yan grew extremely annoyed and curled her lip, saying, "With his family's stupidity, even if he got a top student's learning method, he wouldn't be able to get into a good school."

However, no sooner had Lin Yan finished speaking than the stage in front of the grand conference hall lit up. As the entrance music in the broadcast stopped, the previously noisy buzzing of conversations died down. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the stage, waiting to see just how talented the Peking University top student they had spent so much money to see really was.

Click!

The spotlight hit Huo Qitai, and he walked out, smiling, with a microphone in his hand.

"Dear parents and students, welcome to our Peking University top student lecture. My name is Huo Qitai, and I am a high school senior graduating from the city's No. 1 High School this year. Today, I will explain to you the ways of thinking and methods that top students who get into Peking University usually use. As long as you master these, it will definitely help you further grasp the key points of high school subjects. At the same time, it will significantly improve your learning efficiency and boost your exam scores..."

Whoa!

Good grief!

As soon as Huo Qitai appeared, the previously heated venue suddenly went cold.

"Huo Qitai? Is there anyone by that name among the top students in this year's No. 1 High School?"

"I heard that the No. 1 High School has a student in the top ten for science this year who is guaranteed to get into Peking University. But I clearly remember it was a girl!"

"Could it be that this lecture titled 'Peking University Top Student Lecture' isn't being given by a top student admitted to Peking University, but rather by this Huo Qitai, who is here to tell us the methods he collected from Peking University top students?"

...

The fifteen hundred spectators below erupted instantly, all feeling deceived and played for fools.

Zhang Ting saw this and was overjoyed. Everything was going as she had expected, only Huo Qitai's acting was so clumsy that she didn't even need to intervene; the audience had already seen through his true colors. But she wouldn't miss the chance to "beat a dog in the water." She immediately stood up and shouted:

"Everyone, don't be fooled by him! I am a classmate of this Huo Qitai. He only scored 579 on this year's college entrance exam, not even as good as me! What right does he have to make so many people scramble for tickets and spend money to listen to him talk about learning methods?"

As she spoke, Zhang Ting nudged the classmate next to her, signaling her to stand up and testify.

"That's right! I'm also Huo Qitai's classmate. Before his senior year, his grades were at the bottom of the school! How can someone like this hold a top student lecture and mislead others?"

"I can also testify. And we reported Huo Qitai's scam to the principal of No. 1 High School yesterday. Our principal should be here today..."

...

It wasn't just Zhang Ting and the girls; among those who came today, there were quite a few current high school seniors from No. 1 High School. They had just heard the gossip about Huo Qitai and Liu Rumeng a few days ago, and now, seeing that the top student lecture they had been looking forward to was actually organized by Huo Qitai, they stood up one after another and began to curse.

"Haha! So this Peking University top student lecture is just a scam Huo Qitai organized to cheat people out of money! Serves him right! Serves him right! Now that he's been exposed, he can't go on with the show, can he?"

Lin Yan, who had been confused when she first saw Huo Qitai on stage, finally understood the situation. Until the classmates from No. 1 High School stood up one by one to reveal Huo Qitai's true face, the frustration she had been holding in for two days was finally released.

But thinking about how she had waited in line so hard and spent 4,600 on tickets, she immediately stood up, waved her fist, and demanded, "Scammer! Refund! Refund!"

Immediately, almost everyone responded to Lin Yan's call, chanting in unison for a refund.

"Hahaha... Now, not only is Huo Qitai in trouble, that little girl Chang Lu can't escape either. Even my old Chang will probably be implicated!" Chang Lu's stepmother, Hu Xiuqing, watched all this with schadenfreude.

However, facing the surging, roaring crowd shouting "scam" and "refund," Huo Qitai pressed his hand downward...

Just as he was about to speak, a cold, elegant figure quickly walked up from the side of the stage.