After saying goodbye to Maruzensky, Su Luo headed straight back to Hokkaido.
Before leaving the Central, though, he still had a few loose ends to tie up over here.
Kitahara had told him that the plan was to have Oguri Cap run two GⅡ races afterward to maintain her competitive condition, and then prepare for the Tenno Sho (Autumn) in October.
When Su Luo heard that, he felt his whole world collapse.
Two GⅡ races… at this point there was really nothing left to say.
If Oguri Cap went, she'd almost certainly take both wins…
Aarghhh!
Damn it!
I can't accept this!
Why are you winning again?!
People's joys and sorrows are never truly shared.
Right now, Su Luo felt like he was about to develop some kind of mental breakdown syndrome, but he really couldn't bring himself to talk Oguri Cap or Kitahara out of it.
He couldn't just run up to the two of them and block their way, telling them they weren't allowed to win.
That would make him a complete lunatic.
Tenno Sho (Autumn)...
Su Luo even went out of his way to look up the prize money for the race…
150 million yen…
If he'd known, he never would've checked.
Just seeing that number made his heart twitch painfully.
Even if it was a bit less than the 200 million from the Japanese Derby, it was still absolutely a colossal sum!
If Oguri Cap won that race as well…
Uuuuugh…
The road ahead was nothing but darkness.
C'mon, Central horse girls, can you please stand up for yourselves?!
Cut Oguri Cap down in the Tenno Sho (Autumn)!
Damn!
Absolutely damn it!
Su Luo ground his teeth inwardly, but in the end he could only accept reality.
Very soon, though, he pulled himself together again.
Su Luo finally realized the true source of his suffering.
It was all because he wasn't losing money fast enough! That was why he was so stressed about the prize money Oguri Cap was earning!
This won't do!
He needed to roll out a new money-losing plan immediately!
He had to burn cash faster than Oguri Cap and the others could earn it!
As an investor, this was the one thing he absolutely could not compromise on!
"You just focus on running your races. I'll cover everything on the back end!"
Su Luo said that to Kitahara and Oguri Cap.
Damn it.
When two paths clash, the bold one wins!
I refuse to believe I can't lose money faster than you can make it!
After he was done arranging things on Oguri Cap's side, Su Luo's phone buzzed with a new message.
He glanced down—turns out it was Tamamo Cross, wanting to discuss her upcoming race schedule.
By now, he had rebuilt his resolve; he would never regret what he'd done.
So Su Luo picked up his phone, didn't even bother to see what Tamamo Cross had typed afterward, and directly replied:
"Tamamo, just do whatever you think is right. I'll always support you!"
Perfect.
Very imposing.
He'd ride that momentum back to Hokkaido and launch a brand-new money-losing venture.
With that thought in mind, Su Luo slipped his phone into his pocket and boarded the plane back to Hokkaido.
What he didn't know was that, on the other end of the line at that very moment, Tamamo Cross was looking at the words on her screen, the corners of her mouth slowly curling upward.
"Do whatever I think is right, huh? And you'll always support me…"
"Heh…"
"In that case, I'll have to do it properly, won't I~"
Tamamo Cross lifted her gaze to the schedule board on the wall with the four big characters "Takarazuka Kinen" written on it, her expression turning subtle and meaningful.
——
Once he returned to Jinnai Academy in Hokkaido, Su Luo immediately devoted himself to a single question:
How could he invest even more money into this academy and make it all disappear?
Upgrade the cafeteria menu—switch everything over to high-end ingredients…
The already-nice student dorms got another round of renovations…
He hired a whole bunch of professional trainers who just looked expensive and impressive to work at the academy…
All kinds of expenses were rapidly chewing through Su Luo's assets, but his mood had never been better.
The money Oguri Cap had earned from the Derby was, thanks to his painstaking schemes, more than half spent in just a short span of time!
A mere 100 million yen? I'll show you how fast I can blow that!
Riding that wave of momentum, Su Luo successfully achieved his goal of bringing his savings all the way down to zero by mid-June!
Just as he was about to pop a bottle of champagne to celebrate…
His bank account notification sounded again.
"Deposit received: 75 million yen."
"?"
Su Luo's eyes trembled as he tapped into his account, staring at the newly increased numbers on the screen. His expression froze solid.
Th-this…
This is impossible!
Didn't I just spend all that money?!
Why?
Why is there more money now!?
Who was it?!
Who went and made money again!!
Right at that moment, the loudspeakers at Jinnai Academy crackled to life.
"Congratulations to our Jinnai Academy graduate Tamamo Cross for winning the Takarazuka Kinen——!!"
?
Ahhh…
The Takarazuka Kinen!
A 150-million-yen purse, a GⅠ race just like the Tenno Sho (Autumn) for central horse girls…
So that's what you wanted to discuss with me in your message before? That you were planning to enter this race?
Ughhh…
If I'd just looked at that message properly and told you not to run, would we have avoided earning this money right now?
Su Luo felt like he was one step away from a heart attack.
No, I can still fight back!
There has to be a way to burn through this extra 75 million!
He paced back and forth in his office, his mind racing through various "reasonable" ways to evaporate that sudden windfall, when someone knocked on the door.
"Come in."
The person who stepped in was the principal of Jinnai Academy, a middle-aged man who was always impeccably dressed in a pressed suit, with hair combed so neatly it looked like it had been measured with a ruler.
His usual respectful expression was still there, but his eyes were shining with a kind of barely contained excitement.
"Mr. Su Luo,"
The principal bowed slightly, his voice thick with suppressed enthusiasm.
"Sorry to disturb you. However, there is a matter concerning the academy's future development that I must report to you immediately."
Su Luo's heart gave a heavy thump. His instincts told him that whatever this "matter" was, it definitely had something to do with money.
He forced himself to stay calm and gestured for the principal to sit. "Oh? What is it? Go ahead."
"Well, it's like this, Mr. Su Luo."
The principal straightened his back, placing both hands neatly on his knees.
"Thanks to your generous and visionary ongoing investments, the hardware facilities, faculty strength, and even student welfare at Jinnai Academy have all reached an unprecedented level! In such a short time, we've already leapt from a small local academy to a highly regarded racehorse-girl training institution!"
Su Luo's eyelids twitched as he listened, his sense of foreboding growing stronger by the second.
He forced out a smile.
"Ah… is that so? It's all the result of everyone's hard work."
Stop praising. Get to the point. Is this going to cost money or not?!
"Yes, precisely because of that—"
The principal shifted his tone, speaking more quietly, but with even greater fervor.
"I believe the academy has reached a critical turning point in its development. It's time to set our sights on a wider world and roll out that more ambitious 'plan'!"
"Plan?"
Su Luo blinked, completely lost.
Lately, his head had been full of nothing but "how do I lose money," so what ambitious plan?
Why did he have zero memory of this?
"What plan? How… how come I don't know about it?"
The principal didn't seem surprised at all by his "forgetfulness." Instead, he wore a look of "as expected, sir is testing me again," and patiently explained:
"Mr. Su Luo, you have a thousand things to attend to each day. There's no need for you to keep every implementation detail in mind at all times. This 'plan' is based precisely on the 'internationalization' and 'diversification' educational philosophies you strongly advocated earlier."
Internationalization? Diversification?
Su Luo quickly shuffled back through his own brain, recalling all the half-baked "ideas" he'd tossed around just to find new ways to lose money. It did seem like… at some point he'd casually mentioned something like "we should make the academy more international," hadn't he?
At the time, he'd just thought that bringing in foreign stuff might be more expensive…
He didn't dare let his confusion show, so he cautiously probed along the principal's line.
"Mm… the philosophy is sound. But this specific 'plan' you're talking about… what exactly does it involve?"
The principal's eyes lit up. He leaned forward slightly, as if he were unveiling some long-prepared secret project.
"My idea is that Jinnai Academy should formally establish a 'Special International Exchange Class'!"
"An exchange class?" Su Luo echoed.
"Yes, exactly!"
The principal nodded vigorously, his tone brimming with longing for the future.
"A dedicated program to recruit talented racehorse-girl students from overseas! We'll provide the most generous scholarships, the top-tier training environment, and the most comfortable living conditions, to draw elites from all over the world to gather here! This will not only greatly boost our academy's international reputation and influence, but also promote exchanges and fusion of different training philosophies and racing cultures, opening a whole new world for our domestic horse girls! Isn't this exactly the future you envisioned, sir?"
The more he talked, the more excited he became, as if he could already see foreign racehorse girls galloping side by side with Jinnai's students on the academy track.
And Su Luo…
Su Luo, hearing phrases like "most generous scholarships," "top-tier training environment," and "most comfortable living conditions," felt his heart pounding wildly—this time, though, not from the onset of a heart attack.
After a brief moment of mental blankness, his brain started working at full speed.
Recruit foreign racehorse girls?
Provide them with top-level treatment?
This…
Wasn't this a brand-new, perfectly legitimate, and grand-sounding way to burn money?!
He could throw that 75 million—no, even more than that—into this "international class"!
Build a new dorm just for exchange students?
Buy even more expensive imported training equipment?
Hire experts fluent in multiple languages and well-versed in foreign training systems?
And those "most generous scholarships" that already sounded like giant money pits on paper!
Spending money! Spending a ton of money with total justification!
And on top of that, it was a long-term investment that likely wouldn't turn a profit anytime soon!
Holy crap!
Principal, you're a genius!
Though he did faintly feel that "enhancing international reputation" sounded a bit dangerous. What if things went too well and they attracted more investors or an influx of brilliant students…?
But at this moment, this really did look like the perfect way to quickly exhaust his unexpected windfall and open up a brand-new, stable frontline for losing money!
Thinking about how his grand money-losing enterprise had nearly been derailed by Tamamo Cross's victory, Su Luo took a deep breath, his eyes firming up once more.
Meeting the principal's expectant gaze, he slowly stood, planted his hands on the desk, and showed a smile that, in the principal's eyes, meant "far-sighted and just as I imagined."
"Excellent."
Su Luo's voice was decisive, filled with a kind of reckless heroism.
"Principal, your idea aligns perfectly with mine."
"This 'Special International Exchange Class' plan has tremendous potential."
"Start preparing at once! Don't worry about the budget—use the highest standard across the board! Make sure we get the 'international class' name out there as fast as possible!"
"I want every promising racehorse girl in the world to know: if you come to Jinnai Academy, we'll give you the very best!"
The principal was so excited he almost jumped up to bow. "Yes! Mr. Su Luo! I will not let you down—I'll do everything in my power to push this through!"
Watching the principal stride out of the office full of fighting spirit, Su Luo slowly sat back down and wiped away the nonexistent cold sweat from his forehead.
So, the prize money from the Takarazuka Kinen, huh?
Tamamo Cross's "pleasant surprise," huh?
Looks like…
The war between losing money and making money was far from over.
But this time, he seemed to have discovered a brand-new "path."
For some reason, though, when he thought about "talented racehorse girls from all over the world," a chill crept across the back of his neck.
He shook his head, throwing off that ominous feeling.
His top priority now was to take that 75 million—and any unexpected windfalls that might show up in the future—and dump them all into this bottomless pit that looked so full of "promise."
"International class…"
Su Luo muttered under his breath, the corners of his mouth lifting into a smile that was equal parts resolute and uneasy.
"Don't you dare let me down."
....
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