C9 New Hope 

"Honestly, your talent has brought me great surprises."

Zhou Meng looked at Qin Chuan with admiration. It had been a long time since he laughed so heartily. He was reminded of the feeling he had when they won the war all those years ago. There was nothing in the world that made him as happy as winning the war.

"Well, if it makes you happy." Qin Chuan looked at Zhou Meng with a weird expression. He felt that something was not right. Zhou Meng treated him just like he would his own son. It was really strange, because that was very different from the black faced god that he knew.

Seemingly seeing through Qin Chuan's puzzled mind, Zhou Meng chuckled and said, "I know you find my attitude towards you weird. Very different from the usual version you are used to, right?

Qin Chuan nodded honestly. If he didn't figure out what was going on, he was afraid that he may no be able to sleep again until he found out.

Zhou Meng sighed, and said to Qin Chuan in an emotional tone, "I did some research on your background, you are an orphan raised in a poor family. A few decades ago, before I joined the army, I was also an orphan from the slums like you."

When he heard that, Qin Chuan couldn't help but open his eyes wide in surprise. He didn't expect Zhou Meng, the Black Faced God, to have been an orphan from the slums!

If Zhou Meng was telling him the truth, then that probably why he treated him in such a friendly manner. If he was in Zhou Meng's shoes, he would have also treated people who were from the same origin as him like family. With that thought, Qin Chuan subconsciously let his guard down towards Zhou Meng and he now looked at him in a different light like a relative.

"My origin is not a secret, you can ask around. It's not a big deal, so I won't lie to you about it. I am very delighted to see another genius rise from our slums. " Zhou Meng looked at him with sincerity and said, "I hope you can stay on the right path and never give up!"

A genius with a high level of Brain Domain development may not have earned Zhou Meng building expectations around him, but a genius with a high level of Brain Domain development who had also activated his Innate Runes, and most importantly was a mere commoner, that was completely different.

In the present time, resources were controlled by Wealthy aristocrats. If commoners did not depend on the support of powerful families, They may never be able to rise to power one day. Zhou Meng, who had been a director in Education for more than ten years, had seen too many genius commoners become lapdogs for those aristocrats due to lack of cultivation resources. For long, he had really hoped that there would be someone among the common people who would stand up and turn things around. Although it was very far fetched, so much that Zhou Meng almost gave up, fortunately, Qin Chuan had showed up at the nick of time, and revived his hope once again!

There was nothing that happened in the school that Zhou Meng didn't know about. He knew why Ma Zhen went after Qin Chuan, and he also knew that there was no initial feud between Qin Chuan and Liu Cheng. It was all because of a girl, Wang Wenxue. He was sure that there was going to be a big battle between them!

One was a proud son from an aristocratic family, the other was a poor kid who came from the slum and both of them possessed exceptional talent. He was looking forward to seeing some sparks fly when they both clash.

If Qin Chuan could successfully defeat Liu Cheng in this battle, he was prepared to give him a very valuable treasure!

However, it was still too early to talk about it. Everything still depended on Qin Chuan's performance in the future. If his performance was only average then it would be difficult to him to stand against Liu Cheng's skill. That could only mean that Qin Chuan wasn't the person he was looking forward to.

He wasn't a cold-blooded person, he was just a man who didn't like to waste time. Anybody that Liu Cheng could defeat wasn't worth his attention, and was not worth him him supporting the the person with his time and resources.

It seemed cruel, but it was reality.

Qin Chuan didn't know the countless things that had gone through Zhou Meng's mind in such a short period of time. He also didn't know that Zhou Meng reckoned that he would be the kingpin that could potentially shake up the wealthy and powerful families in the future. Considering the encouragements and expectations, he nodded solemnly and said, "I will not let you down!"

He wasn't a person who liked to bow or bend to anyone. That was why he went ahead to provoke the infamous Ma Zhen when they met at the school entrance.

"Very good."

Zhou Meng patted Qin Chuan's shoulder and said, "From now on, you have my permission to come and train here every Sunday, no one will stop you. You can use any equipment you find and don't worry if anything gets damaged. Alright, it's getting late. You should be on your way home now."

"About that …" Qin Chuan didn't leave immediately. He scratched his head in embarrassment and said, "Uhm, I was late for the delivery."

According to the rules, if Qin Chuan was late in delivering any item, he wouldn't get paid for the errand. But since he was now on such good terms with Zhou Meng, He was hoping the older man wouldn't report it to his boss.

When Zhou Meng heard that, he laughed and said, "Don't worry, I won't report. In fact, I will give you a 5-star review!"

"Thank you, Director!" Qin Chuan's eyes lit up when he heard that. A 5-star rating was enough to earn him 150% of the errand fee, so he had made good profits this time!

After sending off the happy Qin Chuan, Zhou Meng took out his phone and looked at the number in the address book that he had not dialed for a long time. After a long silence, he finally dialed.

The phone rang for a long time before someone finally answered it. A very deep voice came from the other side.

"It's me."

He had barely uttered few words, yet his eyes became red. Tears welled up in his eyes.

"Captain, it's Zhou Meng."

The other end of the line went silent for a long time, then the other person responded, "I'm no longer your captain. Don't call me that."

On hearing these depressing words, Zhou took a deep breath and said: "Captain, I found a genius from the slums. He has great potential, and also very …"

"That's enough." Without waiting for Zhou Meng to finish, the person on the other end of the line interrupted him, "I have told you before, I've given up. I don't want to hear anything about this anymore."

After saying that, without waiting for Zhou Meng to speak, that person hung up the phone. When Zhou Meng tried to call back, he had already been blocked.

He looked at the number on the phone for a while, Zhou Meng clenched his fist and said while clenching his teeth: "Captain, We will not fail this time!"