บท 41: Capitalist Xu Mang
บรรณาธิการ: EndlessFantasy Translation
Xu Mang, who had been newly crowned as the champion, encountered a problem. The bet organizer had disappeared because he couldn't afford to pay for the 10 boxes that Yang Xiaoman had placed her bet on. The odds of 1:500 he had made had, in the end, backfired on the organizer.
2,272 boxes.
This was the number of Wahaha AD Calcium Milk that had been won by Xu Mang, and they were placed in the warehouse of the school's shop. They needed to pay 20 bucks a day for the storage facilities, and the amount was 50% less than the 5,000 boxes that he should have gotten, but that amount was still considered to be a lot.
Naturally, as Yang Xiaoman was an unreasonable woman, she simply wrestled one-fifth of the prize from Xu Mang, a whole four hundred boxes. From that time onward, Yang Xiaoman and Wahaha seemed to be inseparable.
Knock knock!
"Come in!"
"Hehehe…"
Xu Mang opened the door and came in, pulling a cart of Wahaha AD Calcium Milk behind him into the teacher's lounge. There wasn't any specific reason that he had come for, it was obviously just a bribe to make the teachers happy.
Happy teachers would mean happier days in the future.
"Then..Mr. Lin, these five boxes are for you, please sign here."
"Ms. Wang, this is your five boxes, please sign here."
"Mr. Liang, here…"
"Mr. Huang…"
Xu Mang distributed the Wahaha personally to each teacher and took out a piece of paper for them to sign each time.
"Eh?"
"Isn't this the report card?" Lin Yishan was the one who finally noticed that the paper held by Xu Mang was a bit strange. Judging from the content, this was clearly the transcript that was sent to each student before the semester ended.
However, this transcript was different, and there were A+'s on all the subjects which included comments of various teachers praising Xu Mang.
"Are you amazed? Surprised?" Xu Mang said, grinning widely. "This is a transcript I made based on the previous ones, it also includes the evaluation that I wrote myself. Mr. Lin, don't I have the potential to be a teacher?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
Everyone present was about to go crazy from this guy's antics.
Lin Yishan signed as he rubbed his forehead tiredly with his free hand, and said, "What are you up to this time, you brat? Falsifying transcripts is not something to joke about."
"Of course not, but my father promised that as long as I got A+ for all my grades this semester, he would buy me a million-dollar car." Xu Mang laughed as he said, "Mr. Lin, you don't need me to say anything, right? You already drank the Wahaha I gave you."
"Get out!"
"What?"
"I'm letting you off this time!" Lin Yishan warned, a dark look on his face as he continued, "Can you just walk on the proper path for once?"
"But…"
"Xu Mang, Mr. Lin is correct. You have to stop scheming and going down all these dark and crooked paths, a person should take the brighter, better road. That way, you don't need to worry about anyone stabbing you in the back." Ms. Wang said as she sipped on the milk that Xu Mang had given her, giving him a serious lecture.
"Wait a minute!" Xu Mang said hurriedly, wasn't the saying 'He who receives a gift, sells his liberty'? The teachers had taken the gifts and already drank it, but when it came to the act, they all had all sorts of excuses.
"Teacher? Don't be like that...you drank what was mine, took what was mine, but finally, when it comes to doing the act, you start to pass the ball around." Xu Mang said with a helpless face. "Can you show me some respect? I'm still a human being with feelings, I still have some dignity."
"You're being a nuisance. If you have time to spare to be with us here, why not make better use of the time to brush up on your studies." Lin Yishan said, sending a glare his way. "Remember to close the door on your way out."
***
Xu Mang returned to the classroom in a huff. That was a waste of boxes of his Wahaha. If he continued to use them up like that, at this rate, there wouldn't be much left.
"Xu Mang, I want to buy a row of AD milk."
"Fifteen!"
"Eh? Isn't the suggested retail price on the bottle 2 bucks? One row, which is 5 bottles, should be 10 bucks!"
"I don't accept that suggestion."
The student was helpless in this situation because, at present, the school's Wahaha had been monopolized by Xu Mang. Simply put, those who wanted to drink Wahaha had to go through Xu Mang unless you were able to climb the walls and get out to buy it.
Of course, if you were caught, you would be expelled without any consideration.
To risk expulsion for the sake of drinking Wahaha, it was just not worth it.
"Fine, how bout 2 rows, then?"
"Thirty-five!"
"...you're too much! Why is there a hike of 5 bucks for no reason!?"
Xu Mang glanced at his classmate, and pointed at his face, a blank expression as he said, "Do you see this face? That's right...it's the ugly face of capitalism."
What could you do?
Just give in, then!
After making the payment, the student took the bottles and returned to his seat in defeat and anger.
At this time, Yang Xiaoman was angry, extremely irritated at Xu Mang's behavior. She turned to him and said, "What kind of person are you!? You're even cheating your own classmates?"
Xu Mang was startled for a moment at the accusation that was thrown in his face, and he said carefully, "Aren't you guilty of doing the same to me, taking away four hundred boxes of Wahaha?"
"...you're so annoying!" Yang Xiaoman retorted in retaliation, her face flushed at the blatant point that was thrown back at her. "You're lucky I didn't take the entire thing away, those two thousand boxes should have belonged to me anyway!"
What…
Wow, so frustrating!
He really couldn't defeat this woman.
Xu Mang didn't feel like debating about this topic with Yang Xiaoman as he knew that trying to reason with women was like throwing a stone to determine which direction to go on a path. The correct thing to do at this time would be to just admit your wrongs.
"I was wrong."
"Hmph!" Yang Xiaoman raised her head proudly, saying haughtily, "If you know you're wrong, then do better to change it. I can see that you're still salvageable."
***
As the days passed by, the price of Wahaha continued to change. The students in the entire school were all pissed beyond belief. The ones brought by the boarding students were not enough to tide them over, and so, most of them had to be bought from Xu Mang.
There were some who had requested the boss of the shop to bring in a bigger shipment, however...these students didn't know that Xu Mang had reached a shoddy agreement with the boss of the shop earlier on.
Monopoly was what reaped profits, and Xu Mang had monopolized the Wahaha market in school. If the shop owner brought in a huge shipment at this time, it would tilt the balance in the market and have a huge impact on it. This would lead to declined profits for both parties.
In order to avoid this, Xu Mang agreed to pay 10% of the price for each box he sold to the shop owner. The shop owner obviously readily agreed in order to reach the greatest win-win situation for both. The boss had even bought off the security guards at the gate at his own expense to ensure that the boarding students didn't carry an overload amount of goods into school. This was all to avoid causing any turmoil in the Wahaha market.
Xu Mang realized that although he was a slacker, he had the genes of profiteers in his bones.
He was the king at this time, until the day the principal came looking for him…
"Xu Mang. I hear you've been going around the school causing problems and profiting from it." Principal Mu said as he sipped his tea, and he continued, "Look for yourself, how many complaint letters you've received from the student body."
Bam!
A large stack of letters were thrown on the table.
"Adjust the price back immediately. Causing mischief every day...you're here to study, not to exploit your classmates!" Principal Mu said, leveling a stern gaze at him. "Do you understand me?"
"Oh!"
Walking out of the principal's office, Xu Mang heaved a big sigh. The sky was filled with grey clouds today, cloudy, just like his mood.
Sigh...
A generation of predatory capitalism, fallen just like that.
It wasn't that it was a failure, but rather, it had fallen to power and authority!
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