I was reborn without dreams

Chapter 129 Core Business, Three Perfect Scores

As soon as the college entrance examination ended, both Shazhou City and Mazhou City contacted Zhang Da'an to hold meetings, mainly to seize the time for publicity and enrollment. It's similar to how the government expands production after attracting investment and generating profits.

Jianggao City is not in such a hurry because things are already settled. The Jianggao campus is only missing some sports-related buildings and facilities this year, and the rest are already ready for use.

Because of the large volume of air conditioner purchases by Xindongwei Port Middle School, all three of the top air conditioner manufacturers in China have sales outlets on "Zhuangyuan Street" in the Mazhou campus.

This isn't a one-off deal; we need to leverage the popularity of Xindongwei Port Middle School for marketing and advertising.

Many white goods companies are unaware of the existence of the "top class," which represents a significant gap in quality between them and the top three companies.

You can't really ride the wave of popularity through normal means, but you can achieve your goal by giving bonuses to the top scorers in the district's college entrance examination.

Take Wang Lidong from the "top student class" as an example. He is from Jichuan City and his estimated score is 696. If Zhang Da'an is removed, it is not impossible for him to compete for the top science score in Jiangkou Province.

In fact, Wang Lidong was only three points behind the second-highest scorer in the science stream of this year's college entrance examination in Jiangkou Province.

This achievement is more than enough to make him the top science student in Jichuan City's college entrance examination. For the manufacturer that sells air conditioners to "Zhang An Education," giving Wang Lidong a bonus would not only make him a sponsor of the top science student in the county-level city on the spot, but also allow him to naturally ride on the coattails of Xindongweigang Middle School's popularity.

If Wang Lidong were even luckier and became the top science student in Yangtai City, that would be even better; his advertisements could cover the entire streets of Yangtai City without any problem.

Tong Kejie, who enjoys playing with "Teacher Xiaobai," also has a chance to become the county's top scorer, but it depends on the performance of the top students in his hometown county.

Basically, a score of 650 or 660 is considered to be on par with the top scorers in districts and counties. Although there may seem to be a difference of 30 or 40 points in total score between you and the top 50, the top 50 are usually the top scorers in prefecture-level cities.

So unless you're an idiot, if you open a store at any of the campuses of Xindongweigang Middle School for a semester, you'll know the score ranges and market conditions inside and out. And the reference system isn't that complicated; just focus on the internal rankings of Xindongweigang Middle School.

As the management unit, the Education Bureau of Mazhou City is obviously much more professional than the air conditioner seller. The official results will be released in early or mid-July this year, but because of the presence of the Mazhou campus of Xindongwei Port Middle School, a meeting was held in June. Then, based on the internal evaluation of "Zhang An Education", Liu Jingbo, the vice mayor in charge of education, used this evaluation to maximize the interests of various high schools in Mazhou City.

Shazhou City did just that last year, giving each high school ample time to prepare, allowing them to assess their students' test-taking abilities in advance, and then make more professional decisions regarding college applications and major selection.

Paying Zhang Da'an is a long wait; the neighboring city of Shanghu organized a group of high school students' parents to collectively register for Zhang Da'an's professional application lecture.

Originally, the price was 180,000 yuan, but Qiu Jianmin said he would give him face because the person in charge from Shanghu City was his "old regimental commander," so he gave him a discount and charged him 120,000 yuan, cutting 60,000 yuan off.

Zhang Da'an wondered, "Why does this old man Qiu have so many 'old regimental commanders'?"

Already satisfied, Mr. Qiu truthfully informed them that it was the group from the next door.

Because of the halo effect, and because the group already included parents of students from Xindongwei Port Middle School, there were significantly more parents from Shanghu City who listened to the advice.

In the past, many high school graduates in Jiangkou Province would rather not go to other provinces to study for a bachelor's degree than go to a distant place. They would directly choose a junior college nearby. There were also many cases of students who went from key universities to first-tier universities, and from first-tier universities to second-tier universities.

This is also closely related to the long-standing tradition of "sitting merchants," who don't like to venture out into the world.

Marrying across cities within the same province is already considered "leaving one's hometown"; getting married across districts within the same city is what Jiangkou Province considers "marrying far away".

The underlying logic is similar, but if someone helps them open their minds, they'll listen to their advice.

Last year, many middle schools in Shazhou City followed the example of Xindongwei Port Middle School and "picked up the scraps." Some chose forestry and then applied to universities in Northeast China, directly getting a top-tier major. Others came from families that contracted farmland and chose the ground mechanics major at a university in the western regions, which allowed them to jump directly to equipment companies of state-owned farms in the coastal areas of Jiangkou Province. They had guaranteed positions, connections, and could also bring honor to their schools...

Therefore, last year, the number of students from Shazhou City going to other provinces was three to four times higher than in previous years, and this year will undoubtedly be the same, along with students from Mazhou City and Shanghu City.

Upon learning of this, the well-informed sister unit immediately contacted Zhang Da'an while organizing the local middle school entrance examination.

Unfortunately, we now have to queue up. Starting from June 15th when some prefecture-level cities began organizing the high school entrance examination, there will be four briefing sessions and consultation sessions every day until July 10th.

A normal person would never work this hard, but Zhang Da'an is not a normal person.

Moreover, he earns over 700,000 yuan a day, every single day. If he doesn't make this money... wouldn't that be a waste?
Another advantage is that it can also record internal video materials, which can be published.

In just 25 days, they raked in over 18 million yuan. If they seize the opportunity to publish audio-visual products during this year's enrollment period, based on the previous year's initial sales volume of various types of audio-visual products, which was around 100,000 to 300,000 units, they can still earn 2 to 3 million yuan.

Some people think two or three million is not enough, but the education bureaus of Shazhou City, Mazhou City, Jiyang City, and Jianggao City are very happy with it.

Of course, I'm a little unhappy this year, since after the provincial inspection, more than a dozen other companies came to share the profits.

However, total revenue did not decrease; on the contrary, it increased significantly. The reason is simple: places where we used to have to be mindful of others when it came to stocking up can now be filled with goods at will.

Just like Zhang Da'an is holding consultation meetings now, he couldn't get approval for them in Waisha City, Chongzhou, even though there were locals who made a living doing this.

Now things are different. It's true that Shazhou Education Investment Company still has only a handful of employees, but its level has been raised again and again. After being directly managed by the province for a period of time, it can now sit back and wait for the approval from Beijing.

If the approval is granted, Qiu Jianmin would die right now without regret.

He served in the army for so many years and then returned to civilian life. He had never been a regimental commander in his life, but now, he is no less capable than a regimental commander.

Therefore, Qiu Jianmin would never cause trouble. Even if relatives tried to pull strings, he would stick to his guns and not budge. In places like Jiangning, Wudu, Taihu, Zhongwu, and Chongzhou, there were many of his old comrades and superiors. He could offer some benefits, but getting an office... was absolutely out of the question.

He is not stupid.

However, what made Zhang Da'an a little nervous this year was the performance of the middle school retake class at the Mazhou campus. He had seriously recruited several "top students" who had been interviewed, and it wouldn't be a problem for them to produce the top scorer in the middle school entrance examination in Mazhou City. This was because in the past year, Zhang Da'an had people secretly follow up on the monthly, mid-term, final, and mock exam results of all junior high schools in Mazhou City.

The two best junior high schools in Mazhou City will likely still dominate a large portion of the top scores in the high school entrance examination. However, the top students in the "Top Scorer Accompaniment Class" at the Mazhou campus of Xindongweigang Middle School will generally have a higher average score than the top students in each school.

Whether they can compete for first place depends on their performance, but in terms of the proportion of students, the middle school retake classes at the Mazhou campus are still stronger.

The only suspense is whether we can become the top scorer in the middle school entrance examination in Yangzhou and Taizhou. This is extremely prestigious. If we can become the top scorer in the middle school entrance examination in Yangzhou and Taizhou, then the middle school review classes can be fully launched in the other ten prefecture-level cities in the province.

Ultimately, it's because the middle school entrance exam and the college entrance exam have different formats. The twelve prefecture-level cities have twelve different exam questions, unlike the college entrance exam which is more uniform within a province.

"Zhang An Education" already has a top scorer in the middle school entrance exam from Wudu City. If they can get another top scorer from Yangtai City, it proves that this path is replicable. This will completely break down the psychological barriers of many potential customers. Previously, they might have thought that the total scores for the middle school entrance exams are different in different places, and the exam papers are completely different. If they wanted to find a reliable tutoring center, they would definitely choose a local one.

Now, the mere appearance of a top scorer in the high school entrance exam from a district or county outside of Wudu City is enough to excite them, and if it's a top scorer from a major city, there's a very high probability they'll come directly to inquire.

After June 27th, Zhang Da'an used some connections, mainly Liu Jingbo, who was in charge of education, to get a preliminary understanding of the middle school entrance examination situation in Mazhou City in 1946 and 1998. He felt that the students in Mazhou campus were in better condition.

In July, the scores were released one after another, with Chinese, Mathematics, and English scores coming out first. After comparing them, Zhang Da'an was basically relieved.

Just like the "top scorer tutoring class" that left many junior high schools in Shazhou City far behind, there are two important data points. One is that all students are in the high score range, and none of them are below the provincial key high school cutoff line. However, there are also differences between provincial key high schools, but even the worst students are still in the high score range.

On July 9th, Zhang Da'an went to Jiangning, both to check on the second phase of the "Zhang'an Health" project and to inquire about when the college entrance examination score lines for this year would be announced.

"I also heard that the cut-off scores might not be released until July 27th, at the latest it won't be delayed past this month."

Fang Daqiao, who was also extremely busy, was the director, but he knew that the boss's core business was only one thing, which was the middle and high school entrance examination retake program of "Zhang An Education". So after making inquiries from various sources, he managed to get some information from the Jiangkou Provincial Admissions Committee.

Some of the information was genuinely obtained through careful investigation, while others were deliberately released by the admissions committee to gauge public opinion.

"July 27th...that's pretty fast. Okay, that's settled. Hey, wait a minute, Lao Fang, can you find out when the second batch of college application deadlines are for this year?"

"Okay, I'll go ask."

However, Fang Daqiao was also curious, "Boss, I heard that both of your campuses are undergraduate programs, so why are you concerned about vocational college applications? And it's the second batch of vocational college applications, which is basically a supplementary admission batch."

“There is a local junior college undergoing restructuring. I plan to bid for the qualification, use it as a temporary measure, and then start recruiting students for junior college.”

"Holy crap! Didn't we say we were talking about vocational school?"

"We're going to run vocational schools and we're also in talks about private colleges that offer second-tier local degrees. We'll give it a try. This is a rare opportunity. Right now, we have all the right timing, location, and people. If they tighten their control over private undergraduate or junior college programs in two years, then it will be too late to regret it."

"..."

Fang Daqiao was astonished to learn that Zhang Da'an's core business was education.

If this reaches a certain scale, can it continue to operate?

It would be strange if they didn't dismantle it.

But we don't need to think about these things now. As the boss himself said, now is the time, the place, and the people are all in harmony.

Last year it was hard to say, but this year, because of the continuous reports about "Zhang An Hope Primary School", Zhang Da'an's bad image of arguing with people on the Internet has suddenly become unapproachable.

If a serial killer helps an old lady cross the street, some people will think that there must be a reason for his previous murders, and that he must not be a bad person at heart; but if a great philanthropist spits out a wad of phlegm, he must be torn to pieces...

The saying "Put down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha on the spot" is pure nonsense.

Zhang Da'an spews nonsense online, completely lacking in manners, and there's no trace of him engaging in any public welfare or charity marketing. Suddenly, someone exposed that he did this heinous job, and even the Jade Emperor would be moved to tears.

The province used to find it inconvenient to praise him, but now it's not a problem. They've already drafted a title: "Top Scorer in Both Arts and Sciences, His Love is in the Countryside."

Go to hell.

I don't know what's in the countryside, but I'm very familiar with pan-frying.

The reason there has been no news about this for so long is simply because everyone is waiting for the total scores to be released. Previously, a school had already reported a high score of 699. During the reporting process, people in Shazhou City thought it was Zhang Da'an, but after checking, it turned out that there was a person named Wang Lidong with a score of 697, which was only one point different from the estimated score.

As for Zhang Da'an's score, it took an extra week to get the news. The reason was simple: he had an amazing performance on the essay and got a perfect score.

If the essay gets full marks, then naturally all of them will get full marks.

750 points is not my upper limit, it's just that the total score is 750.

Mazhou City was the first to issue a congratulatory message, followed by Shazhou City, then Yangtai City, and finally several major newspapers in the province reported on it.

Uncle Zhang, who was busy working on the construction site in the sweltering summer heat, was really something else that day. While he was leading the kids to pick small oyster mushrooms during their summer vacation, he slammed a newspaper onto the cafeteria table.

"See that?! The top scorer with a perfect score of 750! That's my nephew! Isn't that amazing?!"

"Wow--"

"Daddy Zhang, Daddy Zhang, which one is Brother Zhang An?"

"..."

The newspaper's photography was as bad as ever, making Zhang Da'an look like the security manager of a construction company that his fellow villagers used to spar with.

He doesn't feel like a top scholar at all.

The little kids were still in the simple stage of thinking "Brother Zhang An" was very strong, but the villagers and coworkers were completely different. They teased and laughed, asking Director Zhang to treat them to beer.

It's a coincidence that the temperature is ridiculously high today, and the construction site has stopped working. Uncle Zhang is also resting and enjoying the air conditioning and exhaust fan. Even the laborers are not allowed to go to get water. Everyone is looking for a place to rest. Rows and rows of benches are lying on the long tables in the canteen, which looks like a super-large "morgue".

In a good mood, Uncle Zhang immediately waved his newspaper and shouted, "Drink as much as you want! Today's expenses are on me!"

Zhang Zhengdong patted his chest, beaming with pride. He couldn't stop smiling, occasionally glancing down at his newspaper and reminiscing: "Seven hundred and fifty... a perfect score, the top scorer in the college entrance examination for three consecutive years, oh my, this 'literary star'... his surname is Zhang!"

(End of this chapter)