Jiang Xinian stood at the center of the crowd, his eyes meeting hers eyes shimmering with a thin veil of anger, astonishingly bright.
Like the brightest star he had looked up at countless times in his childhood, huddled beside the garbage cans outside his own home.
All the clamor around them faded into a blurred background hum.
A flicker of viciousness crossed Jiang Gaofei’s eyes. Suddenly he lunged, shoving off the people holding him back, and in a few quick strides cut off Cen Wan, who was hurrying toward Jiang Xinian.
He seized Cen Wan’s hands and clasped them to his chest, shouting loudly:
“Cen Wan, you’re here! I have to thank you for helping me flush out this unfilial son!” His tone was thick with familiarity, as if he and Cen Wan were close acquaintances.
Cen Wan flung his hands off almost by reflex, leaving a gray-red mark on her snow-white wrist.
“I don’t know scum like you.”
Cen Wan’s brows knitted tightly as she planted herself in front of Jiang Xinian, refusing to yield a single step.
Her words spat out like bullets loaded into a chamber, striking the air until it hummed:
“Your so-called ‘being good to your son’? You mean how you drove his mother to her death when he was five, and made him wash your clothes and cook for you from the age of six! How you beat him black and blue and threw him out of the house as a little child, leaving him with nowhere to sleep but beside the garbage cans! How you forced him to work and support himself in his teens, saving for tuition, while a piece of trash like you leeched off him, squeezing out his hard-earned money to fund your drinking and gambling! Now that he’s finally made something of himself and heaven has smiled on him Saint Rhode’s teachers, recognizing his talent, admitted him on the spot you beast actually want to cling to him and bleed him dry for the rest of his life?”
Cen Wan’s voice rose sharply, every word forged in ice-cold fury, her gaze nailed like a spike onto Jiang Gaofei’s repulsive face:
“What do you even think you are? You call yourself a father? A stray dog groveling on the roadside understands parental love better than you! Let me tell you there’s nothing in this world more disgusting than trash like you!”
“You’d better get lost right now!”
Every word bled with hatred, as if she utterly despised the maggot before her, the parasite feeding off her own child.
That deep, bone-deep hatred had gone almost beyond normal bounds; clearly it shouldn’t have been for a classmate she barely knew.
It was as if, through Jiang Gaofei, she was cursing the same kind of person on behalf of someone else.
The crowd erupted in murmurs. Jiang Gaofei’s face turned the color of liver, veins bulging on his neck.
“Bullshit!” Having his sordid deeds stripped bare before all these eyes, laid out in public for everyone to judge, instantly detonated what little warped, twisted shred of shame Jiang Gaofei had left. His eyes bulged with rage; he looked ready to lunge forward and tear Cen Wan’s mouth apart.
“Well said!”
A vigorous, powerful voice, carrying unquestionable authority, cut through the noise and chaos like bedrock, instantly silencing everything.
Everyone turned to look. An elderly man in a dark gray Zhongshan suit, his silver hair combed immaculately, was walking slowly toward them, flanked by several stern-faced, powerfully built bodyguards.
His face was lean, his eyes sharp as a hawk’s it was Professor Li Mingde of Saint Rhode Academy, renowned for his rigorous scholarship and moral standing.
Li Mingde walked up to Cen Wan and Jiang Xinian, first giving Cen Wan an approving look, his eyes full of affirmation. Then he glanced at his prized student with a trace of heartache.
His sharp gaze then stabbed straight at the furious Jiang Gaofei.
“Every word classmate Cen Wan said is true! With everything you’ve done, Jiang Gaofei, how do you deserve to be called a father?” Li Mingde’s voice wasn’t loud,
yet every word carried the weight of a thousand pounds, ringing clearly in everyone’s ears.
“Exploiting and abusing your own flesh and blood you’re worse than a beast! Saint Rhode Academy is a hall of learning and the pursuit of truth, not a den of filth where scum like you can run wild!”
He paused, his gaze sweeping across the crowd with a natural, convincing authority: “Classmate Jiang Xinian possesses exceptional talent and unyielding character he is a precious student whom Saint Rhode admitted on special merit out of our cherishing for talent. His past is one of unbreakable resilience forged in blood and tears. How could we allow a vile creature like you to sully it again, to bleed him dry!”
Li Mingde no longer looked at Jiang Gaofei’s face, twisted and contorted with rage and shame, as if one more glance would dirty his eyes.
He tilted his head slightly and gave a low-voiced order to the bodyguards beside him: “Escort this degenerate who disturbs campus order and insults decency out of here! He is not to set foot within a hundred meters of Saint Rhode again. If he dares come back to harass classmate Jiang Xinian, call the police immediately and charge him with harassment and intimidation!”
“Yes, sir!” Several bodyguards answered in unison, moving swiftly and decisively, clamping down like iron pincers on Jiang Gaofei, who was still cursing and struggling.
“Let go of me! What gives you the right? I’m his father! It’s my right to discipline my own son.” Jiang Gaofei roared in futility.
“What gives us the right is that you’re a heartless animal! And that I, Li Mingde, as a specially appointed professor of Saint Rhode, will personally vouch for Jiang Xinian’s character!” Li Mingde coldly delivered his final words.
The bodyguards gave Jiang Gaofei no further chance to make a scene. Like dragging a bag of reeking garbage, they unceremoniously hauled his disgraceful figure away from the center of the crowd. His impotent roars and curses soon faded into the distance, leaving behind only silence and the crowd’s gazes toward Cen Wan and Jiang Xinian, filled with complicated emotions: admiration, sympathy, and above all, awe at Li Mingde’s thunderous display of authority.
Jiang Xinian’s taut body swayed almost imperceptibly after Jiang Gaofei was dragged away.
Only then did Li Mingde turn to Jiang Xinian, his stern gaze softening with rare gentleness and compassion: “Xinian, the academy is your home. With us here, you need only focus on your studies. Your talent should not be buried by trash like that.”
Yet the tense atmosphere did not immediately ease. The crowd still lingered, whispers flowing like undercurrents beneath the water’s surface, their complicated gazes fixed on the three of them.
Professor Li Mingde took it all in. His stern gaze swept across the scene, and like an invisible command, it instantly silenced all the murmuring and speculation. His voice returned to its usual steadiness, still carrying an unquestionable force:
“Everyone, disperse.”
“Saint Rhode is pure ground for learning and inquiry, not a marketplace for spectators.”
“Back to your places. Return to class.”
His words were concise and forceful, leaving no room for negotiation, carrying the certainty of someone long accustomed to authority. The crowd snapped out of their daze, exchanged glances for a moment, and under Li Mingde’s calm yet deeply imposing gaze, began to move away one by one.
Though the whispers hadn’t completely stopped, they had quieted considerably, and the awed, curious gazes gradually drifted away. Soon, the once-packed central area emptied out.
Li Mingde turned his gaze to Cen Wan, undisguised approval in his eyes: “Cen Wan, what you did today speaking up for what’s right very good! Saint Rode needs people with that kind of backbone!”
Finally, he looked at Jiang Xinian once more, his tone regaining some of a professor’s authority, yet carrying an even deeper sense of protection and expectation: “Come to my office. You need to rest. Don’t worry the sky isn’t falling. At Saint Rode, the skies are always clear for those who strive.”
With that, he turned sideways and gave them a look of farewell. Several bodyguards tacitly fell back a few steps, forming a protective barrier. Li Mingde strode off first, his steps steady, heading toward his office, his back straight as a mountain.
Cen Wan’s eyes were somewhat dazed; even after Li Mingde had gone far, he kept staring at that mountain-like figure.
“You… why ” Jiang Xinian began hoarsely, but Cen Wan cut him off:
“To repay you for stopping in front of me that time in the library.”
“The information was from Professor Li Mingde anyway.”
“And it wasn’t entirely to help you, so don’t read too much into it.”
Cen Wan’s eyes were lowered, his expression unreadable, his aura so cold it was completely at odds with the blushing, stammering boy of the past.
Yet Jiang Xinian felt an unfamiliar, surging emotion rise within him, impossible to suppress.
[Wanwan, that was amazing!! You’ve stunned me again!] 0813’s rowdy voice rang out. Cen Wan pinched the bridge of his nose,
the barrier around him fading away inch by inch, his expression turning soft again as he smiled at Jiang Xinian:
“Now we’re even.”
[EXPLODING][The Demon Lord actually shows favoritism?! What’s the deal with the new special-admission student?]
1F [Holy crap… my hands are still shaking. I’m not dreaming, right? Was that deadbeat-dad takedown at the East Gate for real?]
2F [I was there! OP, I feel you! My jaw is still on the floor.. The Demon Lord makes my legs go weak just from glancing at us normally, but that aura today… holy crap, I thought he was going to physically exorcise that deadbeat dad!]
3F [So that stubborn, abrasive rock actually knows how to compliment people, I’m seriously starting to question which direction the sun rose from today.]
4F [Last time I accidentally broke some small instrument in the lab building and hid from the Demon Lord for an entire semester.. I was terrified he’d crush me with a single look.]
5F [Yes yes yes! And here’s the most shocking part! The Demon Lord had his bodyguards drag that deadbeat dad off like garbage! And then! He comforted the special-admission student so gently, saying, “Xinian, it’s over now.”
HOLY CRAP! Xinian??? He called him “Xinian”??? That intimate??? When has the Demon Lord EVER called a student that?! Isn’t he always coldly saying, full name and all: so-and-so, your homework is garbage.]
7F [I can confirm! I was close! I saw it crystal clear! That look in Li Mingde’s eyes my god, I’ve never seen him so… gentle? Full of sorrow? And even kind of paternal??]
8L 【Didn’t people say before that Jiang Xinian was only admitted because the Demon Lord personally vouched for him and pushed him through against everyone else’s objections? Back then I thought it was some special-admission kid bragging to save face. My face hurts so much right now】
13L 【Personally vouched?! The Demon Lord?! That demon whose standards are so insanely twisted wait, so insanely twisted he fails 99% of his students?! He’d personally vouch for a student?】
14L 【I think I get it now… an academic maniac like the Demon Lord only cares about real talent. Jiang Xinian must actually have something going for him.】
16L 【That’s not quite it, though. There was a student he really admired before, but when it came out that the guy was harassing women and bullying people, the Demon Lord righteously turned on his own favorite and made him repeat the year. It was a huge scandal at the time.】
18L 【Who’s going to dare mess with Jiang Xinian from now on? He’s the Demon Lord’s personally certified, personally vouched-for treasure. As long as Jiang Xinian doesn’t go too far, those people will all have to give the Demon Lord some face, right?】
20L 【Are you all just jealous that he’s got the Demon Lord protecting him? Is no one going to pay attention to that gorgeous, badass little chili pepper.】
21L 【Finally someone said it, Watching CW cuss out that scumbag did something to me 〔blushing〕】
22L 【Wifey, can you come reward me with a couple of words? Little bro is getting hard.】
23L 【Love at first sight, I apologize for previously saying Cen Wan’s photos were just okay. Does anyone have CW’s contact info? Will pay top dollar.】
24L 【So jealous of Jiang Xinian damn, having my beautiful wife shield me behind her back you’d wake up smiling from your dreams at night, huh 〔smile〕】
25L 【Sharing HD footage of Cen Wan’s sizzling five-minute showdown at the school gate. Price attached, come get it.】
26L 【Holy crap, how is someone already running a business over this? We were just kidding around surely no one’s actually buying, right?】
27L 【First 200 buyers limited edition: comes with a free set of breathtaking cold-faced looks-over-the-shoulder shots.】
28L 【Holy crap, save a set for me!】
29L 【Go die, someone’s actually secretly filming people and selling it? Who would buy that and get ripped off like a sucker… lmao】
30L 【Poster above, delete that thread on your profile where you’re flexing the free bonus photos you grabbed】
31L 【AHHHH you bastards, how did you snatch them all up so fast, I can’t take it. Buying bonus photos at double price, DM me if interested】