“–He bullied my younger brother. He deserved it…”
The Class 3-10 classroom was at the end of the second-floor hallway.
As soon as class ended, two little lackeys habitually swarmed around Xu Meng’s desk.
Lining their upper bodies over Xu Meng’s desk, their eyes locked tightly onto the assembled Lego fighter jet as they let out exaggerated gasps of wonder: “This model must cost over ten thousand!”
“It’s an offline limited edition! I walked past it and wanted it last time, but my mom refused to buy it for me no matter what…”
The corners of Xu Meng’s mouth were practically lifting up to the sky, yet he feigned indifference: “What’s so great about this.”
“My dad is a member of management at the Li Group, after all. Scaring you to death with his annual salary is an understatement.”
“Every time he comes to see me, which time does he not spend one hundred thousand or eighty thousand on me? This pocket change isn’t worth mentioning.”
More and more little boys and girls looked over: “Wow, it’s Lego’s newly released oversized fighter jet…”
Right at this moment, someone shouted from the back door: “Xu Meng, Xu Meng, someone’s looking for you.”
Xu Meng and his crowd of little lackeys turned their heads. They saw a tall, thin pole of a kid standing straight there by the back door.
Facing the backlight, everyone couldn’t quite see his expression, but judging by the aura with which he suddenly strode toward the crowd, it was clear he was in a bad temper and somewhat impatient.
The student who shouted anxiously yelled: “Students from other classes aren’t allowed to come in!” He wanted to reach out and stop him, but was a step too slow.
The person had already strode into the crowd in a few steps.
Subconsciously, Xu Meng joined in the shouting: “Whose mouth is so fast? Isn’t it just a fighter jet? How fast did it spread that even other classes…”
Before he could finish saying “already know,” his left cheek suddenly went numb—he was smashed by the “beanstalk” with a punch that sent him staggering, his entire body pitching forward onto the desktop fighter jet model.
“Clatter——”
The fighter jet crashed to the floor at the sound, smashing into smithereens with parts rolling all over the ground.
“Who the fuck are you! Do I know you? Did you hit the wrong person, damn it!” Standing steady while clutching his face, Xu Meng blurted out curses, only to abruptly realize that the fighter jet he had pieced together had already turned into fragments all over the floor. Amidst the collective shocked gasps of everyone covering their mouths, he snapped back to his senses, swung his fist to retaliate, and yelled foully: “You dare hit me?! And you dare smash my fighter jet! You’re dead meat! I’ll make sure you can’t survive in this school!”
Yet the punch Xu Meng threw punched completely empty air, his own momentum dragging him into a few stumbling steps before he fell to the ground in a sorry state.
When Xu Meng scrambled up with his hands braced on the floor, he saw that the beanstalk had actually put in great effort to hug his desk, running two or three meters away.
Xu Meng felt a jolt in his heart, raising his voice to shout at the top of his lungs: “What are you doing! Put it down! Put my desk down!”
Yet the “beanstalk” had already hugged his desk and, with unsteady footsteps, rushed out the back door.
Anxious and furious, Xu Meng roared at the dumbfounded classmates around him: “Are you all idiots?! Stop him! Didn’t you see he’s snatching my desk?!”
The third-grade children had only ever witnessed the biggest “scenes” in school amount to bad students pushing and shoving each other into a few fights; when had they ever seen someone brazenly rush into a classroom to snatch a desk? Every single one of them was scared stupid.
Moreover, Xu Meng usually reigned supreme in the class, and everyone tacitly accepted him as the “boss.” If someone else were bullied, they could still go find him to snitch, but now the one being bullied was none other than himself; everyone was at a loss, and not a single person dared to step forward.
No one dared to stop him.
Instead, a slightly cleverer child quietly slipped out of the crowd and whispered: “I… I’m going to tell the teacher!”
In pursuit of a comfortable experience, the desks at Qinghe Elementary School were built thicker than standard desks in ordinary schools, with desk cavities that were large and deep, which at that moment were stuffed to the brim with various sundries and books by Xu Meng.
Even though Li Xingchuan had plenty of strength, hugging it still exhausted him thoroughly.
Carrying the desk to the hallway railing outside the classroom, he put it down to catch his breath and poked his head out to look downstairs.
——Downstairs was completely empty, coincidentally with no one around.
Then, biting his teeth together and mustering all his strength, he hoisted the heavy desk up and hurled it fiercely over the railing.
“Crash——Thud——!!”
A dull, heavy roar smashed against the ground.
The crowd at the doorway of Class 3-10, previously chaotic yet deathly quiet, seemed as though they had been hit by a pause button, collectively freezing for a full second. Immediately, cries of alarm and heated discussions exploded into the air.
Following closely behind, students passing by on the first floor and crowds drawn by the loud crash to watch the commotion also instantly erupted.
Su Tang’s class was on a different floor from Li Xingchuan’s.
He had just finished visiting the restroom accompanied by his new deskmate.
The two little fellows looked at each other, then, like all children who had just made friends, they smiled both happily and a little shyly.
Su Tang said softly: “Thank you for taking me to the restroom.”
Li Qian hurriedly waved his hands: “You’re welcome! Helping a new classmate is what I should do!”
Su Tang nervously pinched the corner of his clothes: “Hehe…”
Li Qian also excitedly grabbed his trouser leg: “Hehe-he…”
“Hey, wait, why are there so many people gathered over there?”
Su Tang looked toward that direction: “Should we go over and take a look?”
Li Qian hurriedly pulled him back: “Don’t, don’t, don’t! Nothing good ever comes from rubbernecking at Qinghe.”
Su Tang: “Why is that?”
Li Qian: “There are too many people with real family power here at Qinghe; some of them didn’t come here to study… they always love stirring up trouble. Running over makes it easy to get tangled up in trouble.” Li Qian lowered his voice, “For example, there’s a guy in the third grade named Xu Meng who is a notorious little tyrant. Relying on his family’s money, he always bullies the lower-graders… Lots of people hate him. Let’s hurry and go, make sure we don’t run into him!”
Su Tang lowered his head in a hurry, speeding up his pace.
——Oh heavens, Xu Meng, let’s definitely not run into him.
The two little fellows lowered their heads, walking quickly back to their own classroom. On the way, they occasionally stole glances at each other, letting out nervous and excited “hehe” laughs on their own.
Yet at this moment, neither Li Xingchuan nor Xu Meng could manage a laugh.
The two of them were hauled by their respective teachers into the third-grade teachers’ office.
The class bell had rung, and the other teachers had all gone to teach. The head teachers of Class 1 and Class 10 originally had classes too, but at that moment they had no choice but to close the doors and handle this student conflict on an emergency basis.
“Li Xingchuan, you ran into someone else’s classroom to beat people up, and even threw their desk downstairs. Causing such a huge commotion right after transferring here, how are you so capable?”
Class 1’s head teacher handed him a phone, “Call your family, tell them to come over right now!”
Xu Meng’s head teacher also reprimanded Xu Meng in a low voice: “What is wrong with you again? Haven’t you caused enough trouble running off to other classes to fight normally? Now look at this, you drew someone right into your own classroom to get beaten up. Call your family over too.”
With a dark face, Li Xingchuan didn’t budge an inch.
Xu Meng hurriedly begged for forgiveness: “I’m sorry, Teacher, my family can’t come… My dad is too busy, and my mom’s ligament strain hasn’t fully healed yet… This really isn’t my fault, if you don’t believe me, ask the other classmates!” Turning toward Li Xingchuan, he was both furious and bewildered: “He’s just a lunatic! I don’t know him at all!”
At this moment, the office door was suddenly knocked on.
The dean of students arrived in a rush, steadying himself by the doorframe to catch his breath. Taking a deep look at Li Xingchuan, he turned his gaze toward Xu Meng, and then said to the two head teachers: “This matter shouldn’t be made public and blown out of proportion; it sets a bad impact. You guys still have classes, right? Go ahead and teach first, leave this to me. Let me question these two kids.”
As head teachers, dealing with student disputes was what gave them the biggest headache.
Not only was it easy to create a rift with the students, but it also always ended up offending parents.
Especially in a school like Qinghe, many parents had quite a bit of backing behind them. Although the teachers spoke sternly, unless it was an absolute last resort, they actually didn’t want to alarm them lightly.
The two teachers reprimanded their respective students, telling them to “stand straight and take their beatings when they make mistakes,” and after reporting their own students’ names to the dean, they exchanged low words and hurried off to their classes.
The dean of students asked Li Xingchuan: “Why did you throw Student Xu’s desk?”
“He deserved it,” Li Xingchuan said.
The dean rubbed the space between his eyebrows and turned to Xu Meng: “Student Xu, did you and Student Xingchuan have any conflicts before this?”
With a face full of indignation, Xu Meng said: “I don’t even know him!”
The dean turned back to Li Xingchuan, softening his tone: “Student Li, can you tell me why Student Xu ‘deserved’ it?”
Lifting his eyes, Li Xingchuan glanced at the dean, then turned his face away, his gaze falling directly onto Xu Meng: “He bullied my younger brother. He deserved a beating.”
“Was it bullied at school?”
Li Xingchuan shook his head.
Suddenly feeling a wave of unease in his heart, Xu Meng chimed in to ask: “Who the hell is your brother!”
Li Xingchuan stared at him coldly.
Slowly widening his eyes, Xu Meng muttered in a low voice: “It couldn’t be… could it be Su Tang…”
“Don’t interrupt.”
Cutting Xu Meng off, the dean said sternly to Li Xingchuan: “Even if Student Xu really bullied your younger brother, the one who should discipline him is his parents, not you. You used violence to deal with him—what is the fundamental difference between that and your brother being bullied by him?”
Pressing his lips tightly together, Li Xingchuan remained silent.
The dean turned back to Xu Meng: “If his younger brother really provoked you, you should have told his parents instead of bullying people yourself. Now that you’ve been bullied yourself, tell me, when you were being bullied, did it feel good in your heart?”
Hanging his head low as well, Xu Meng didn’t make a sound.
——Never in his wildest dreams had he expected that Su Tang actually had some “cheap older brother” who popped out of nowhere.
Then… could those designer clothes on Su Tang’s body really have been bought for him by this guy?!
What right does that Su Tang have?!
The dean said in a deep voice: “Today’s matter involves responsibility on both sides. Li Xingchuan resorting to physical violence at school and destroying public property is the more severe mistake. I’m penalizing each of you to write a letter of guarantee—no less than three hundred words for Xu Meng, and no less than five hundred words for Li Xingchuan—and hand them to me before dismissal the day after tomorrow.”
Seeming richly experienced in handling student disputes of this sort, his tone softened slightly, yet carried an unnegotiable weight: “If anyone fails to hand it in, that’s fine too.”
“Starting next Monday, every single class break, the school broadcast will name you and criticize you in a loop, lasting for a whole week.”
“You guys in this school must have classmates and friends you care about, right?”
“Classmates, ‘petulance’ is a small matter, but ‘losing face’ is a big deal. Think it over carefully.”
Patting both of their shoulders, he added: “Stop kicking up a fuss. If you make any more fuss and actually get your parents called over, parents are even more naggy than teachers… He bullied your younger brother, and you’ve already vented your anger for your younger brother; let this matter end right here.”
Thumping his own chest like an elder brother, he coaxed: “Just do it to give me some face, alright?”
“Okay? It’s really not easy for me…”
Seeing that the gunpowder atmosphere in the office had dissipated.
The dean patted the two students on the back of their heads with gratification: “Go on, both of you head back to class to study. Seeing as your attitudes are decent, I won’t make you stand in punishment. Go to class.”
As if granted a reprieve from death, Xu Meng secretly glared at Li Xingchuan, only to find that Li Xingchuan was glaring right back at him openly with a fierce gaze.
With a constriction of his pupils, Xu Meng reflexively looked away out of conditioned reflex. Yet once he looked away, feeling unconvinced, he kept tabs on Li Xingchuan using his peripheral vision while cursing Li Xingchuan’s ancestors down to the eighteenth generation in his heart.
The dean of students followed closely at a moderate distance behind them, as if wanting to watch them peaceably walk into their respective classrooms.
Li Xingchuan’s class was closer, and as Li Xingchuan stepped in through the back door, he suddenly looked back at Xu Meng.
Subconsciously, Xu Meng took a step back.
And watched as Li Xingchuan smiled coldly, mouthing a phrase to him—
“Bully him again, and I’ll throw you down too.”
As soon as the dismissal bell for the last class of the morning rang, the little kids in Su Tang’s class exploded like little birds let out of a cage. Growing hungry quickly, they scrambled toward the cafeteria at top speed.
Su Tang, however, didn’t stand up. He sat obediently in his seat, waiting for his older brother.
His deskmate Li Qian gently tugged on his sleeve: “Su Tang, let’s go eat together!”
Lifting his small face, Su Tang smiled softly: “You go ahead first, Li Qian, I’m waiting for my brother.”
Li Qian widened his eyes: “You even have an older brother? Then… then can I eat with you guys?”
Su Tang parted his lips slightly, as if thinking about it seriously.
Li Qian fought hard for it: “I see everyone else doing it—”
“Good friends always go to the restroom together and go eat in the cafeteria together!”