Benjamin Knox's Rise to Riches

Chapter 11

Director James Thorpe felt his heart racing furiously as he stared down at the content on his phone screen. He kept reading it over and over again, ignoring the surrounding noises. “Could it really be him?” He felt stupid for even asking this question, as Benjamin's name was evident on the generated receipt. None of this made any sense to him. This same young man had been called out for being extremely poor yesterday, so why does he suddenly have a black card under his name?

Director Thorpe turned to find Benjamin staring at him with a victorious but annoying smirk, and he felt his blood boil. “Here! Give me that card. I want to see something.”

Benjamin realised what must have happened, so he gladly gave the director his black card.

Once Andrew, Alexa, Max, and Mrs. Knox saw this, they felt something had changed. It was even more obvious in the director's body language that something had happened.

Director Thorpe compared the card details with the ones on the receipt. “They match.” He whispered these words with shock, struggling to believe this.

“Director, what exactly is going on?” Andrew asked while holding a handkerchief over his bloody nose.

Director Thorpe nervously glanced around before speaking. “The payment was approved. The university has just received a donation of $10 million.”

There was a brief moment of silence before the crowd erupted with shock.

“Wait, did I hear right? That guy really donated $10 million?”

“Damn! He really proved himself! I would have never expected things to turn out this way.”

Andrew did not like what they were hearing at all. As for Alexa, she was too busy staring at Benjamin in a daze, while wondering if she was in some sort of nightmare.

“I don't believe this!” Andrew raised his hand while limping a couple of steps forward. “How can that lowlife scum suddenly have a black card?!”

Director Thorpe wasn't looking too confident, as he avoided Andrew's gaze. “I don't know, Mr. Tyrone, but his name was on the receipt.”

“What?!” Alexa couldn't help it. “That is impossible! I dat….”

She quickly halted her words as she realised she was about to reveal that she had actually dated Benjamin in the past, which would have been a contrast to what she publicly said yesterday. “I know this guy! There's no way he's rich! His grandmother standing right there has always been a cleaner! So how did he suddenly have $100 million?!”

At this moment, Andrew's eyes widened as a realisation crossed his mind. “It must be a fake alert!” He glared condescendingly at Benjamin. “You actually had the audacity to send a fake alert to the director?! I knew you'd eventually reveal yourself to the world as the fraudster you truly are.”

Benjamin sneered with a raised eyebrow. “Perhaps if you'd stop tapping so much, and use your brain a bit more, you'd realise that it's better to confirm if that alert is fake or not before opening that garbage hole you have for a mouth.” He then pointed at him again while glaring at the director. “Now, it's time to keep your end of the bargain. Director Thorpe, Andrew has to be expelled today.”

Andrew rushed over to the director while shaking his head furiously. “Sir, you…you can't expel me. Please! You know my family very well! You can't just expel me!”

Benjamin sneered. He knew that Andrew would go back on his word， but he wouldn’t mind playing the game with him. That would be much more interesting. “You don’t want to be expelled? Well,I have an alternative punishment for you, Andrew. Serve the exact punishment you wanted me to serve. Strip completely naked and run around the whole school, allowing anyone to record the whole thing. They're also allowed to post those videos wherever they want.”

The crowd gasped and some even began snickering as they tried to hold in their laughter. Andrew was a Tyrone after all, so none of them were daring enough to openly laugh at him.

Andrew's eyes widened in horror but his heart raced with fury. He hated Benjamin so much right now. He had never been so humiliated in his life.

At the time Director Thorpe had received the payment notification, someone else had been alerted as well.

In a grand office, someone was seated at the large desk with the label ‘Principal’ on it. This is, of course, the principal of the university.

“What is this?” The principal retrieved his phone at the notification buzz to find that someone had donated $10 million to the school.

This wasn't what shocked him the most though.

“Huh? This account details, why do the last few digits look familiar?” He then turned his attention to his laptop. He quickly found what he was looking for, which left him stunned. “My goodness! This is one of the Whiteridge family's exclusive bank cards!”

The principal was left in awe.

“As far as I've known, this family likes to keep a low profile. Both the initial funding and the donations they've made are always with great discretion. So why are they donating in such a public manner?” He shook his head. “It couldn't have been Mr. Hunter himself. So who made this donation?”

At this moment, he heard some commotion passing by his door. Curious, he got up and slightly opened the door to find it was some gossiping students.

“I heard the fight at the school gate has gotten even worse. The director had to be called in to interfere!”

“Yeah, though I wish we could be there, but we'll be having class pretty soon. If we leave now, we won't make it back in time.”

“What about the live stream? Someone is live streaming the entire incident right now. Let's watch.”

Taking advantage of this, the principal walked out of his office. “And may I know what live stream this is?”

The students gossiping were scared to be caught by the principal, of all people, but the older man promised to let them off with a warning if they give him access to the light be stream.

Soon, the principal was back alone in his office, watching the live stream. Watching the interactions and listening to the conversations, he quickly grasped the situation unfolding. He suddenly stood up with a brooding expression. “That fool!” He immediately left the office with agile steps despite his age. He was on his way to the school gate.

Back at the school gate,

“Director, I don't care what anyone says. There's no way Benjamin has that much amount.” Andrew angrily turned a pointed finger at Benjamin. “You! You're already a lot of terrible things, don't be a sore loser as well! You better strip completely naked right now and serve the punishment!”

Alexa nodded her head. “There's no one who can convince us that you truly made that payment.” She gave Benjamin a severely dirty look. “Just gently serve your punishment already.”

The crowd were back to murmuring and laughing at Benjamin, believing that he must have scammed the director into believing that he truly made the donation.

Suddenly, the excitement in the crowd died down.

“Holy shit! The principal is coming.”

Everyone heard this and they all turned their attention to find the older man in a fitting suit walking forward with his shoulder squared.

The director quickly showed respect to his superior. “Principal, you're here. You didn't have to….”

The principal didn't waste time at all as he got close to the director. He slapped James Thorpe hard across the face, sending the crowd into a shocked silence.