Chapter 17
During the half month before school started, Gu Tang and Jiang Huaisheng visited almost all the famous scenic spots in City B.
It was mainly the young master who focused on playing and shopping, while Gu Tang silently carried bags and took photos for him.
In Gu Tang’s initial plan, during this half-month vacation, he would look for a part-time job or internship to save more money for his future.
After all, four years later, after the bone marrow donation surgery, he would go abroad to study. At that time, his mother was very likely to threaten him by cutting off his living expenses.
Or worse, considering the worst-case scenario, Gu Tang might need a lot of money.
He didn’t want to rely on borrowing money to get through difficult times. Even if the borrowed money wasn’t urgent to repay, Gu Tang didn’t want to owe anyone any favors.
Before turning 18, Gu Tang had saved up all the prize money he had won from various competitions. His personal card, which belonged only to him, now had about $100,000 left.
During this time, he would try financial investments, but he couldn’t guarantee the specific returns.
To achieve Gu Tang’s plans and goals, a solid financial foundation was essential.
He also didn’t want to rely solely on participating in various marathons to make money, so finding new sources of income was very important.
Part-time jobs were a good choice for college students like him. With his excellent college entrance exam scores, he could find a well-paying tutoring job.
Hourly rates for music-related jobs were also high. Young Master Jiang mainly learned violin, with piano as a secondary instrument, while Gu Tang learned piano, mostly to accompany the young master.
Gu Tang was a very serious learner; he wanted to be worthy of every penny the Jiang family spent on his education.
In fact, in areas other than sports, Gu Tang might not have the top-tier talent of Jiang Huaisheng, but he could almost always reach an above-average, or even top-tier level.
And because of his good physical strength, abundant energy, lack of procrastination, and strong self-discipline, Gu Tang’s learning efficiency was also very high. He could be said to be a well-rounded individual with almost no weaknesses.
So, basically, no matter what interest class he took, he could achieve results. He had a Grade 10 certificate in piano from the Social Art Level Examination. In addition to the piano certificate, Gu Tang also had a black belt in Taekwondo and an amateur 5-dan certificate in Go…
Go was the only area where he was significantly less skilled than Jiang Huaisheng. This was mainly because the young master had a natural talent for scheming, and also because Jiang Huaisheng had started learning Go at the age of three, while the Gu family didn’t have that kind of family tradition.
It wasn’t difficult for Gu Tang, with his many skills, to find a part-time job. With so many shining certificates, coupled with his excellent appearance, he could easily get an hourly rate of 200 yuan.
Actually, for teaching piano and the like, someone like him with a certificate could earn even more, but because Gu Tang lacked experience and reputation, he couldn’t get a higher rate in the market for now.
He hadn’t planned to deal with Young Master Jiang, but the offer was simply too good.
When Jiang Huaisheng heard that he was looking for a part-time job, he said directly: “Be my companion before school starts. No matter how high the hourly rate of the part-time job you find is, I’ll pay you three times the market rate.”
Gu Tang did some research: “Summer vacation is the peak tourist season, and private tour guides in City B earn 800-1500 yuan per day, usually for 8 hours from morning to evening.”
Tour guides with more skills, or those with a little fame, could earn a salary of over 2,000 yuan.
Hearing this amount, Jiang Huaisheng didn’t even blink: “Then let’s calculate it as 5,000 yuan per day. You don’t need to drive, Uncle Wang is the driver, and I’ll cover your meals and accommodation.”
They had a spacious and safer Siheyuan to live in, so they definitely wouldn’t stay in a hotel.
This meant that just two days of accompanying Jiang Huaisheng could equal Ms. Wen’s monthly living expenses for him.
“What about transportation? The various scenic spots are far from here,” Gu Tang said. “If you’re not willing to take the subway, we might spend more than 4 hours commuting every day.”
Jiang Huaisheng said casually: “I don’t only have this one property in City B. I’ll check the property information for you. If there isn’t one near the scenic spot, we’ll stay in a hotel, according to my standards.”
Gu Tang said: “I haven’t even agreed yet, and you’ve already made arrangements.”
Jiang Huaisheng asked him back: “Don’t you want to make money? At this stage, can you find a higher hourly rate than this, besides me?”
Perhaps doing some shady business could earn such a high hourly rate, but he knew Gu Tang wouldn’t stoop to that level.
Or he could rely on internet traffic, for example, becoming an internet celebrity and selling goods. But Jiang Huaisheng also understood Gu Tang. Although Gu Tang was lively and cheerful as a child and had no problem speaking in public,
Gu Tang didn’t like being in the spotlight and didn’t want to expose his life to be judged by others.
To be an internet celebrity, you couldn’t be your true self, and the more famous you became, every word you said would be infinitely magnified. Even if it was very profitable, Gu Tang would definitely not do it.
After thinking it over, Gu Tang still didn’t refuse the part-time job of being a companion, after all, the young master’s offer was too good. Anyway, this was the only graduation trip after the college entrance exam, and he could meet many people during the trip, which could also achieve his purpose of observing society.
“Click, click…”
As Gu Tang was taking pictures of Jiang Huaisheng with his camera, a bold tourist came up to him and asked: “Little brother, your photography skills look great, can you take a picture for us too?”
Before Gu Tang could refuse, Jiang Huaisheng spoke first: “No, he’s my private photographer.”
How could he allow Gu Tang to take free private jobs when he had already paid for Gu Tang’s private time?
Gu Tang politely refused the person who approached him, and of course also refused all invitations for photos together.
Later, they didn’t encounter this situation again because the housekeeper promptly changed their strategy, asking the bodyguards and driver to create a barrier and prevent people from approaching and disturbing the two young masters.
While accompanying Jiang Huaisheng, Gu Tang didn’t feel embarrassed about taking this money at all.
Although he didn’t have a tour guide license, he had a good sense of direction and had stayed up late to do a lot of research, not much worse than a local tour guide. And he also spoke the languages that those tour guides spoke.
Although he couldn’t get the exam certificate at the age of 18, he had no problem communicating with people from those countries.
Not only that, Gu Tang was also good at photography and had won a national silver medal in a photography competition during his school days.
“Let me see how the photos turned out.” After taking the pictures, Jiang Huaisheng came over to look at his face in the camera and selected some with good composition. “Have these printed later.”
“Don’t delete the rest, keep the electronic copies for now.”
“Okay.”
It was worth mentioning that when Gu Tang won the silver medal, Young Master Jiang won the gold medal in that competition. The judges at the time said that his photography skills were strong, but not as inspired as Young Master Jiang’s, so he could only win the silver medal.
However, Gu Tang felt that the gold medal also involved a bit of financial influence. Many subjective art awards weren’t just about excellence, there were many other factors, such as the contestant’s background, the judges’ preferences, and even luck.
There were two gold medals that year, and the other winner, tied with Young Master Jiang, was the vice president of the National Photography Association.
So sometimes Gu Tang hated this. He had lived in a simple and innocent environment for the first eight years of his life, a world belonging to children. Being forced into this materialistic world, he was forced to recognize the ugly side of the adult world very early on.
No matter how outstanding or hardworking you were, there would always be some terrible people with terrible works defeating you. In this respect, Jiang Huaisheng was much better than that vice president, at least he was truly outstanding.
Gu Tang’s phone vibrated. He took it out and glanced at it.
“Did your mother send you a message?”
Gu Tang shook his head: “It’s the qualification review notification for the tour guide certificate. I passed, the exam is in November.”
After agreeing to be a tour guide and researching the market, he checked the application time for the tour guide certificate. The deadline happened to be in two days, so he applied and received the self-review and official review approval message before school started.
Judging from his and Jiang Huaisheng’s travel experience, as long as there were no accidents, Gu Tang would be able to get the tour guide certificate after passing the exam.
“If you need a tour guide companion in the future, I’ll raise the price after I get the certificate, and we’ll have to sign a contract.”
Gu Tang was a law-abiding citizen, and he was willing to pay taxes to the country according to the law when conditions allowed.
Jiang Huaisheng muttered: “Black-hearted tour guide.”
Regular customers usually got discounts, but Gu Tang was actually raising the price for him.
Gu Tang asked him: “What?”
Jiang Huaisheng said: “Nothing, I’m saying let’s go get the photos printed, print all the ones we took today.”
The golden sunlight shone on Gu Tang, the halo like a pair of golden wings, as if he would flap his wings and fly away at any moment.
Jiang Huaisheng suddenly realized that the little boy who would secretly cry because he was ignored by his mother had really grown up, and was trying to break free from the heavy shackles of emotions.
He could certainly use more vicious methods to trap Gu Tang, if Gu Tang hadn’t proposed that absurd contract.
But now their relationship was different. Jiang Huaisheng thought he could use gentler methods.
Like now, he was buying all of Gu Tang’s private time at a high price. As long as Gu Tang was willing to sell, even if the price increased tenfold or a hundredfold, he was willing to buy.
