I was reborn without dreams

Chapter 9 The Top Scholar Accompanying His Students
Zhang Da'an originally wanted to register a company directly, but it was a bit troublesome these days. In particular, although he was over sixteen, he was not yet eighteen. To prove that he made a living entirely through teaching and training, he needed to go through some twists and turns.

So he registered as a sole proprietorship first. If he really wanted to do formal education and training, Zhang Da'an planned to wait two years until he turned eighteen.

Furthermore, although there is a lot of talk about "industrializing education" now, even in the fast-growing Pearl River Delta, to register a legitimate educational institution, you still have to apply for a "Registration Form for Private Education and Training Institutions" from the local education bureau, and you also have to have your academic qualifications verified.

Compared to the hassle of approval, the verification of funds starting from 100,000 yuan is a minor issue.

Therefore, across the country, most of these are "gray area" institutions, with very few actually holding valid licenses, including various childcare, nanny/domestic service, tutoring, and retaking courses.

At this time, in the counties and rural areas of central China, many "experts" have opened chain kindergartens, all of which are operating illegally and without authorization. However, due to the needs of the times, they are mostly ignored.

After all, there simply aren't enough kindergartens to meet the actual needs of the entire population.

Zhang Da'an's decision to rent the site of the former school-run factory of Dongweigang Middle School was ambiguous, because the rent was divided into three parts: one part was for the Education Bureau, one part was for Binjiang Town where the school was located, and the last part was for Dongweigang Middle School.

This is why Zhang Zhengdong, despite being the worst-performing middle school principal, can still manage to make a name for himself.

It can't be said that there were no people at the top. One of the deputy directors in charge of communication with education in Binjiang Town was a company commander from Zhang Zhengdong's old unit.

We may not have met many times before, but who dares to say we're not comrades-in-arms?
Once we get back to our hometown, this relationship needs to be discussed properly.

Zhang Zhengdong is no good at running schools; but when it comes to making money, a few years ago, he was quite capable.

Now that Shazhou City's economy has developed, people look down on those with tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan. But ten years ago, the term "ten-thousand-yuan household" wasn't even common.

Most importantly, Zhang Zhengdong was not greedy; he didn't put a single penny into his own pocket.

The Motorola he was wearing was something he had gotten from the deputy director; it was the only functional prop that could demonstrate his status and position.

In the past two years, due to the development of the education district, Zhang Zhengdong's "backer" in the bureau has reached the age of retirement and will most likely be transferred to a less demanding department to wait for retirement. So even if he wanted to make a move, there's not much hope for him.

However, they still managed to save face a little.

For example, the "Approval and Registration Form for Private Education and Training Institutions" – Zhang Zhengdong would get one for his nephew; it's impossible for him to go through the approval process, which would take three months and require over a hundred stamps.

Nowadays, no one says anything if schools play "gray areas" with the rules. Many schools are trying to generate revenue. National key high schools and provincial key high schools all allow "sponsorship." For students who don't meet the score requirements, it's 25,000 yuan for every point they don't meet. For students who are 5 or 10 points short, if their parents aren't short of money, 100,000 or 200,000 yuan is just a drop in the bucket; 200,000 or 300,000 yuan is nothing to them.

In comparison, if Principal Zhang makes some proper "fries," then he's definitely a "positive figure"!
On an auspicious day, Zhang Da'an set off a string of firecrackers and two rows of firecrackers at the original site of the school-run factory, which marked the official opening.

Those who came to support him were all relatives. People from Zhang Da'an's maternal grandfather's side of the family, as long as they could ride bicycles, came to congratulate him even though they were thirty or forty kilometers away.

The main reason is that the title of top scorer is indeed powerful, and with the recent local news reports almost describing Zhang Da'an as an "atypical orphan," everyone now knows that Dongweigang Middle School, this run-down rural school, actually produced a top scorer with a significantly higher score in the high school entrance exam.

He was not only the top scholar in Shazhou City, but also the top scholar in Wudu City.

That's quite extravagant. This summer, Zhang Da'an mainly focused on "junior high school education and training," advertising it as the "Top Scholar Tutoring Class," which was considered a flagship product of the newly established "Zhang An Education."

A trademark for "Zhang An Education" was also designed, taking the initials Z and A. The diagonal line of Z overlaps with the left diagonal line of A. It looks rather sloppy, but it's good enough as long as it leaves an impression.

Anyway, it was a sloppy design before I was reborn.

Because of its remote location, Zhang Da'an couldn't advertise like he did in the city by handing out flyers. Instead, he bought a tractor full of chicken and duck eggs and went to several villages in Binjiang Town to advertise.

The target audience is not the elderly people who come to line up for free eggs, but the local business owners in Binjiang Town who export small hardware products.

The business opportunity here lies in the fact that the timeline of material civilization construction for these nouveau riche bosses is out of sync with the timeline of spiritual civilization construction for their children.

Making money is something to be had now, but children's growth cannot be delayed until now. In the early years, the children in my family all went to school in the village school. Back then, before we became rich, we naturally didn't have much imagination about education.

Now that they have money, their children's middle school entrance exam results are not ideal, just like Zhang Da'an's cousin Zhang Dasu was three years ago.

So when the top scorer in the Wudu City middle school entrance exam came to this godforsaken place and said he opened a "top scorer tutoring class," it's no wonder that the local business owners were tempted, and even their parents were tempted.

Who doesn't want their grandchildren to succeed in their studies?
Most importantly, the top-scoring student's fees are very cheap; it only costs 30,000 yuan for a year of accompanying the student.

If the student doesn't get into a regular high school, the accompanying fee will be refunded.

This promise is worthless in big cities; it's just a common scam tactic. But in small rural towns, it can be quite effective.

So, with half of the summer vacation over, not only Binjiang Town, but also the local business owners in the timber business of the neighboring Linjiang Town all flocked to Dongweigang Middle School to inquire about the news.

At this time, Zhang Da'an spent more than 80,000 yuan to renovate the original school-run factory building, turning it into a large classroom and six small classrooms. He also renovated the canteen, so it looked quite decent.

The tables, chairs, and benches didn't cost any money. The old man went to the fertilizer factory and packed up the broken items from the old workplace. The family carpenter repaired and repainted them, and they managed to put together seventy or eighty single tables.

"Young man, I heard that you came to teach me personally, is that right?"

"Yes, I personally teach the high school entrance exam class. However, I don't just accept people who come and hand over their money. I need to see the person and conduct an interview."

"An interview is required?!"

"Otherwise, what if he spends all his time in arcades messing around with thugs? Should I take him in and send him to a regular high school? Wouldn't that ruin my reputation?"

"Well...that does make some sense."

The local business owners were initially skeptical, thinking that a top scorer in the high school entrance exam would waste his time.

But now Zhang Da'an's picky tone makes them feel that this is the right way, the reliable way. The top scholar should be this arrogant, preferably with his nostrils pointing to the sky, that would be even better!
(End of this chapter)