It was the end of spring in March. The scenery was exuberant with lush greeneries and flying nightingales.

  Having gone through two years of life without Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin, Qiao Nan only felt that life was unbelievably peaceful.

  Qiao Zijin had completed her college entrance examination. Her grades were not good and she was only admitted to diploma studies. The problem was that the expenses for diploma studies were not little.

  This was already the second semester of Qiao Zijin’s diploma studies. Qiao Nan was very surprised that Qiao Zijin and Ding Jiayi had refrained from appearing during the Moon Cake Festival and the Spring Festival last year.

  “Qiao Nan, you seem to be in a good mood recently.” Shi Qing nudged Qiao Nan’s shoulder.

  Qiao Nan put away the passbook in her hands. “Of course I’m happy. I’ve already earned most of the tuition fees for my first year of college studies.” Qiao Nan did not expect that she had really managed to save up enough money for her first year of college studies just from relying on her own efforts.

  Shi Qing’s jaws dropped. “So fast?” The college tuition fees were not cheap and Qiao Nan managed to save them up. She was amazing. “It seems that you earned quite a lot when you provided tuition to others during the vacation.”

  It was true. There were times when Qiao Nan rejected those batches of students. She did not see her have any spare time during that period.

  “Yes, and your family also paid for the meal expenses at home. Early this year, we couldn’t even finish the foodstuff given by the parents. This saved us a lot of expenses. Hence, my small gold chest has been accumulating.”

  In short, expenses had reduced and earnings had increased for the Qiao family. Qiao Nan had also saved up all her earnings and Qiao Dongliang’s salaries.

  Having worked hard for one and a half years, of course, the numbers on the passbook had increased.

  Shi Qing was happy for Qiao Nan too. “In this case, you just have to work hard for your examinations to get satisfactory grades and fight for the opportunity to receive various scholarships. You don’t have to bother about other matters anymore.”

  \r \r \r

  Initially, the situation of Qiao Nan’s tuition fees was critical. Besides studying, she still had to worry about the fees. Shi Qing intended to have the Shi family sponsor Qiao Nan for her college education since her family did not lack money.

  If Qiao Nan found it inappropriate, the Shi family could also lend her money for her studies. When Qiao Nan stepped out into society and earned money in the future, she could then pay them back. It would be the same.

  Furthermore, in Shi Qing’s views, even if Qiao Nan did not ask the Shi family for money, Zhai Sheng would not sit and do nothing, letting Qiao Nan, who was so good in her studies, lose the opportunity to study because of money.

  Besides the Shi family and the Zhai family, the one that would be most willing to help Qiao Nan was her master, Lin Yuankang.

  However, Qiao Nan expressed subsequently that help should be rendered in times of urgency and not poverty. Moreover, she felt that she would be able to save up the college tuition fees if she and her father were to try hard enough.

  If it was still insufficient, she would not decline others’ help. Nevertheless, prior to that, she had to give it a try with her own efforts.

  “Yes, cheers! Work hard! During the last winter vacation, I’ve already told my students’ parents clearly that I’m not taking in any students during the May Day holiday.” Qiao Nan was also in a difficult position when she faced those enthusiastic parents.

  When Qiao Nan was giving the students’ tuition, everyone’s performance was average during the tuition period. Besides not skipping classes and not feeling annoyed about attending tuition classes during vacation, most parents did not feel that there was much difference.

  Nevertheless, examinations were often a very good channel to test the learning and effort put in by the students during a certain period.

  Since Qiao Nan had provided tuition for these children last summer, those who had attended her classes improved tremendously in their grades.

  It might be a coincidence if there were just a couple of cases. With three or four cases, almost everyone who had attended Qiao Nan’s classes showed improvements in their grades. Hence, ‘coincidence’ was certainly not the word to describe this situation.

  In particular, during the final term examination last winter, one of the students who had attended Qiao Nan’s classes came in top in the class and eighth in the cohort in that examination.

  One must know that this student’s best results thus far were top eight in the class and top hundred in the cohort.

  The student’s parents had never dared to imagine their child getting into the high ranks of top in the class and eighth in the cohort.

  The thing was that his grades had been skyrocketing since he started learning from Qiao Nan.

  This student was a third-year junior high school student. Qiao Nan was going to take the college entrance examination and he was going to take the middle school examination. The grades in his third year were thus very critical to this male student.

  The son had achieved such groundbreaking grades. During the Lunar New Year, his family had celebrated with the lighting up of many firecrackers.

  Besides setting off firecrackers, the other thing that they did was to gift a lot of stuff to the Qiao family. Qiao Dongliang wanted to decline but the parents simply ran off after leaving the stuff behind.

  It was not only the parents of this student. Those of a few other students whose studies had improved significantly also did the same.

  It was also a coincidence that those few batches of students that Qiao Nan taught were all students who were about to take the middle school examination. The students could improve their grades in such a critical year. This was something that could not be achieved even with lots of money.

  Looking at their children improving gradually each time, as parents, the happiness they felt was indescribable.

  The parents who had signed up for Qiao Nan’s classes were very glad. They were very certain that the decision they had made one year ago was absolutely right. Their money was well spent.

  How much money could the tuition fees be?

  However, if the child were to flunk the examination and miss one or two marks from the admission score, the money that was needed to admit the child to a better high school could even buy a house.

  Those who were admitted to a good school were happy while those who did not would be furious.

  Until now, Qiao Nan’s reputation as a tutor had risen. Even the colleagues and friends from Qiao Dongliang’s factory pleaded with him to persuade Qiao Nan to take in another child, saying that it was a child of their relatives who were in their third year of junior high school. Hence, their studies could not be neglected.

  Each time this happened, Qiao Dongliang was both proud and troubled. So what if the child was in their third year of junior high school? His Nan Nan was in her third year of senior high school and had to participate in the college entrance examination this year. Would he ruin Nan Nan’s studies for the sake of this meager sum of money?

  Regarding this, Qiao Dongliang balanced it very well. It was useless to plead with him. They could seek Qiao Nan’s agreement and if Qiao Nan did not agree, he would never plead for them on their behalf.

  Nevertheless, occasionally, Qiao Nan would also give Qiao Dongliang some face. Based on Qiao Dongliang’s information, Qiao Nan would pick one or two children to join her class midway as ‘new students’.

  It could be said that most of the tuition fees for Qiao Nan’s entire first year in college were earned by her alone.

  “Hahaha. Are these parents going to tear down the house of your Qiao family?” At the thought of the crowd at the entrance of the house of the Qiao family during each vacation, Shi Qing felt so amused.

  The most exaggerated time was when Qiao Nan hid at the house of the Shi family as she could not go home.