CHAPTER 548: CHAPTER 305: CHARACTER DETERMINES DESTINY

Regarding his classmate Jiang Shasha, Chen Feng’s memory of her is somewhat vague. After all, although they were classmates, they barely interacted face to face, and their contact was very limited.

Chen Feng belongs to the type who is reserved and generally doesn’t take the initiative to talk to classmates, especially female ones.

At that time, besides her excellent academic performance which left a deep impression, Jiang Shasha was an inconspicuous figure in the class; she didn’t care much about her appearance, wore plain clothes, was not tall, and always kept her head down, not daring to look at people, appearing very unconfident.

In class, apart from studying, she was always studying, leaving the deepest impression of her on everyone, which was the silhouette of her bent over seriously studying at the front of the class every day.

After so many years of not seeing her, Chen Feng even can’t recall her exact appearance, but he certainly remembers her as a person.

It must be said, her easily memorable name plays a significant role.

Back in school, although Jiang Shasha had excellent grades, she was quite average in other aspects, and she had a very introverted personality. Without a good name, it would be hard for people to remember her after all these years.

Now suddenly Liu Ying mentioned her with a tone of admiration and envy: "Back in the day, aside from her grades, she didn’t show any outstanding qualities. But it must be said, she has become one of the best among our peers."

Chen Feng felt curious and asked, "Passing the national examination is impressive, but can she really be considered the best of our peers?"

Liu Ying shook her head and explained, "You don’t know her specific situation, so you think so. Once you know, you won’t say that."

Then Liu Ying explained detailed aspects of Jiang Shasha’s background to Chen Feng. Jiang Shasha was born in a small county under Qu State City, a relatively economically backward area in East Sea Province. Her father passed away when she was very young, and she was dependent on her mother, who remarkably never remarried just to raise her.

From a young age, Jiang Shasha was very sensible, continuously working hard in her studies, and although not exceptionally outstanding, she was still more excellent than most of her peers. Naturally, she passed the college entrance exam and got into the provincial Technology University, which is right behind East Sea University as a key institution and part of the 985 project. To be admitted on true merit definitely makes her one in a thousand.

Then, she continued to work hard in university, not only passing the English proficiency level six but also obtaining multiple certifications useful for future employment.

What Liu Ying admired even more was after graduating from university, she directly applied to Beijing’s Political and Legal University, transitioning from a science undergraduate to an arts graduate student, and passed in one go, which is difficult to comprehend unless one has lived through it. After just one year in graduate school, she took the judicial exam and again passed smoothly.

After graduating from graduate school, she took the national examination and once again passed in one attempt, directly being recruited by the provincial High Court.

It can only be said that Jiang Shasha’s journey puts her among the exceptional few of her peers.

No wonder even Liu Ying, right now, admires and envies her without a trace of jealousy. Her current achievements are derived entirely from her real skills and hard work.

Having gone through education and various exams herself, Liu Ying knows the toughness of the study and exam road; although she wouldn’t say it’s impossible for her, achieving such results as Jiang Shasha’s would certainly be very difficult.

After hearing Liu Ying’s explanation, Chen Feng could only express his admiration for Jiang Shasha. When he exceeded expectations in the college entrance exam and got into the Technology University, it seemed he used up all his luck for academic achievements, and his university performance was just mediocre, hovering at the edge of passing or failing courses.

So, after graduating, he didn’t have any plans to continue further studies.

"Listening to what you’ve said, she indeed is quite remarkable, probably the most outstanding in our class, right?"

Chen Feng said with some emotion. Without solely measuring by material wealth and money, someone as self-reliant as Jiang Shasha, and being a woman, is truly respectable; among the thirty or so classmates, she should count as one of the most prominent.

"That’s not the case. Surely you are the most outstanding." Liu Ying smiled slightly, gazing at him with affectionate eyes.

Chen Feng had strong immunity to such looks and smiled, saying, "I meant people who succeeded purely through their own efforts. Besides, public office is very prestigious now. Even if you have lots of money, not everyone will envy it, but if you get a public office, you’ll be an object of envy and respect."

Liu Ying laughed and asked, "Isn’t your current success and wealth also achieved through your own hard efforts?"

Chen Feng shook his head, saying, "Not really. I relied entirely on luck without much effort, and somehow ended up with so much money."

In his youth, he did work hard, being a conscientious employee, but working for others barely earned him tens of thousands a year, and even that was among the better ones.

Liu Ying didn’t believe him, saying, "There’s no luck in success. It may seem easy now because you’re the boss, but before becoming a boss, didn’t you work hard? You said you made money from stocks, but to profit from stocks definitely requires investment of effort, intelligence, wise analysis, and even impressive courage. Otherwise, why would you earn big money when so many stockholders don’t?"

Chen Feng didn’t want to argue or explain further on this topic, so he switched gears and asked: "Regardless of who makes the most money now, or is the wealthiest, do you know who in our class has the highest achievement?"

"Are you referring to achievements like Jiang Shasha’s? If talking about civil and office exams, as far as I know, not many from our class achieved them. Among them, the biggest achievement is definitely Jiang Shasha at the provincial high court, and she’s been an assistant for over two years. An associate who maintains good relations with her mentioned she might go down to serve as a judge locally within this year. Her career achievement is the greatest.

I also know two classmates: one Zhang Fan, who got into their city’s tax bureau in a technical position, and one Wang Xiaojun, who joined a public institution in her county, both fairly decent."

These two classmates weren’t ones Chen Feng had much interaction with, so hearing it didn’t stir much feeling, at most just slight curiosity.

He continued to ask, "What about others? Even if not in public service roles, from other careers, is there anyone quite accomplished?"

Liu Ying responded fluently, "There are various jobs, some started their own business, or opened restaurants, but none as successful as you. The cap might be hundreds of thousands to a million a year at best.

Some are full-time ride-hailing drivers, and naturally, there are programmers too. Among all those in our class, though we studied computer science, there are only about three or four who are now in related fields, and they’re all male. Others mostly work in jobs unrelated to our major."

Although Liu Ying had married abroad for several years, since she returned to China, she quickly got in touch with former classmates and soon got a good grasp of where most of them are now.