Xie Min meant well, but good intentions often ended up causing trouble.
Li Yuan was not a broad-minded person to begin with, and Fan Xiwen was even less likely to apologize to him.
The moment the two met, Li Yuan was bound to bare his teeth and grimace, and Fan Xiwen naturally would not indulge him.
“Of course we’re going to watch the performance, but I only booked two seats. If you want to watch it, you’ll have to figure something out yourself.”
Now that they had completely fallen out, Li Yuan would certainly no longer care what Xie Min thought of him. In fact, from the moment he saw Fan Xiwen, Li Yuan had already been thrown into complete disarray, resorting to one foolish move after another. Xie Min’s opinion of him no longer mattered over such a trivial matter.
Li Yuan looked at Fan Xiwen smugly. “The seats here have already been driven up to nearly three thousand yuan each. If you’re capable, why don’t you get one and show me?”
Three thousand yuan for a seat was an astronomical price in a place like Dragon City. The average wage in Dragon City had not even reached that amount.
Therefore, Li Yuan concluded that the student before him could not possibly afford a seat.
“Besides, judging by his clothes, he doesn’t look like he’s wearing anything expensive. Forget three thousand yuan—even three hundred might be more than he can produce. I’ll make sure to humiliate him properly later.”
Li Yuan thought to himself.
“Three thousand yuan for one seat? That’s almost as much as my monthly salary.”
Xie Min said in astonishment from the side, making Li Yuan even more pleased with himself.
“How about we don’t go after all? Three thousand yuan for a seat, and we’d still have to spend extra money on drinks.”
At this point, Xie Min could only back down. Although she did not know where Fan Xiwen had acquired his abilities, she had taught him for some time and therefore understood his circumstances to a certain extent. Three thousand yuan was no small amount.
“It doesn’t matter. Isn’t money meant to be spent? As long as we’re happy.”
Li Yuan put on the air of a rich man spending recklessly, but his eyes remained fixed on Fan Xiwen. He had clearly decided to use money to crush him.
In fact, if this had been his previous life, at this point after something had happened to his family’s orchard, Fan Xiwen would have had to think carefully even before taking out thirty yuan to buy something, let alone three hundred. But now that Fan Xiwen had returned through Rebirth, money was merely a string of numbers to him. A mere three thousand yuan was not worth his attention at all.
The problem was that Fan Xiwen was not interested in some celebrity performance.
Moreover, Fan Xiwen was the Chu Emperor. Someone like Li Yuan could not rouse even the slightest desire in him to toy with him.
Even if Fan Xiwen wanted to show off and humiliate someone, his target would not be a nobody like Li Yuan. That would be far too beneath his dignity.
“I just remembered that I still have something to buy. Fan Xiwen, come help me.”
Although Fan Xiwen was uninterested, Xie Min knew nothing about the circumstances. Seeing Li Yuan press them at every turn, she became annoyed as well. To keep Fan Xiwen from losing face, Xie Min found an excuse and intended to forcefully take him away.
“Don’t, Teacher Xie. Since we’re already here, we should definitely take a look before leaving. If Classmate Fan Xiwen doesn’t have the money, I can actually lend him some. It’s just that although the seats are selling for three thousand yuan each, whether he can actually buy one will depend on his own ability.”
“That’s right. He doesn’t even hold me, his teacher, in his eyes, so I imagine his abilities must be considerable.”
Li Yuan practically spat out the final sentence through clenched teeth.
Xie Min could no longer be bothered with Li Yuan. He was simply an idiot. Did he really have to offend Fan Xiwen completely? Did he not know that making him embarrass himself in public would take no more than a thought from Fan Xiwen?
“We’re leaving.”
Xie Min pulled Fan Xiwen along to leave, but Fan Xiwen frowned.
“Teacher Xie, since we’re already here, we might as well go inside and take a look together.”
Fan Xiwen spoke calmly, but his tone left no room for objection.
Xie Min could not help freezing, but Fan Xiwen did not explain much to her.
Because many unexpected things had happened.
A group of students arrived at the bar entrance. When they saw Fan Xiwen, one male and one female among them cried out in unison.
“You?”
After their exclamation, they noticed Xie Min and Li Yuan, whose faces were as dark as iron cauldrons. The girl immediately felt her scalp go numb.
The two who had cried out were naturally acquaintances of Fan Xiwen. The girl wore a ponytail and radiated youthful energy. After changing out of her school uniform and casually putting on a long dress, she looked tall and graceful. At this moment, however, her adorable little face was filled with panic.
As for Li Yuan, ever since entering the Political and Educational Affairs Office, he had always loved making his presence known. Whenever he had nothing else to do, he would run to different classes to inspect them, even more diligently than the class teachers. Anyone who paid the slightest attention would recognize him.
As for Xie Min, unfortunately, she had recently begun teaching the girl’s class.
The girl’s surname was Tang, and her given name was Qingrou.
The top student was actually a day student. Every evening, after finishing evening self-study, she could return home to rest. However, evening self-study at school had not yet ended, and she had appeared here instead. She had even been caught red-handed by two teachers, which was rather awkward.
Naturally, along with the awkwardness came some surprise.
Because it seemed that the student called Fan Xiwen had also slipped out secretly and then been caught by his teacher!
There was no helping it. Anyone could tell from the dark expressions on Li Yuan and Xie Min’s faces that they were extremely unhappy.
If the teachers were this unhappy, then that student called Fan Xiwen must have caused trouble.
Had they run into us while catching Fan Xiwen?
“So I was dragged into this?”
Tang Qingrou stared at Fan Xiwen with wide eyes.
“Hey, what a coincidence. Are you here to watch the performance too?”
Fan Xiwen waved at Tang Qingrou, his eyes filled with amusement. It seemed that the connection between him and Tang Qingrou truly ran deep.
“Mm, mm.”
Tang Qingrou replied hesitantly, not even daring to look at Xie Min.
“Haha, you came at just the right time. I was just about to go inside and book a table.”
Fan Xiwen did not care what everyone was thinking at the moment. He was happy to see Tang Qingrou, and that was enough.
“Book a table?”
The boy standing beside Tang Qingrou, who had also cried out earlier, was the one who had slapped himself for nearly half an hour on the track and field stadium. His name was Chen Gang. He was Tang Qingrou’s devoted pursuer, and the two had also grown up playing together. Tang Qingrou liked the female star Zhou Xin, who had been invited to perform at the bar that evening, so Chen Gang had persuaded Tang Qingrou to skip class and come along. He had not expected, however, that enemies would meet on a narrow road and that they would run into Fan Xiwen here.
Seeing how matter-of-factly Fan Xiwen spoke, Chen Gang immediately laughed.
“Whenever Shuimu Nianhua has a celebrity performance, tables have to be booked three days in advance. Otherwise, you won’t even have a place to stand.”
Country bumpkin, I’ve been looking for you for several days. I never expected you to come here.
Perfect. I’ll settle both the new and old grudges at once.
Chen Gang looked at Fan Xiwen as though his eyes were spitting fire. Like Li Yuan, he belonged to the sort whose dignity had been utterly trampled. He was in a miserable state and hated Fan Xiwen to the bone.
“Exactly. If Brother Gang hadn’t stepped in this time, we wouldn’t have been able to buy a table even if we had the money. And you’re telling us you’ll go book one now? Do you think this bar belongs to your family?”
“Haha, if you want to show off in front of Beautiful Tang, you’d better weigh yourself first and see whether you know your own limits.”
“Brother, Brother Gang booked the Best-positioned table this time. Why don’t you book one for us too?”
Chen Gang had brought along more than just Tang Qingrou. Several of his useless friends had come as well. Naturally, they joined Chen Gang in mocking Fan Xiwen, while some folded their arms and watched the spectacle with gleeful anticipation.
“Classmate Fan Xiwen, I’ve also heard that tables here are difficult to book. If you really want to watch, why don’t you come with us?”
Tang Qingrou shot a glare at Chen Gang’s useless friends, then spoke kindly to Fan Xiwen.
No matter what, they were all classmates. If she could help, she should help, Tang Qingrou thought.
“No need. I’ll make a call and ask.”
Fan Xiwen shook his head, then took the Fruit phone he had just bought that day from his pocket.
The appearance of the Fruit phone surprised Xie Min somewhat.
The others, however, laughed.
The Fruit phone was quite expensive for ordinary people, but the families of everyone who had come with Chen Gang were either wealthy or powerful. Anyone who did not own a Fruit phone would have been too embarrassed to go out and greet people.
“It’s me. Arrange the Best-positioned table at Shuimu Nianhua for me. Yes, three people. Once you’ve handled it, have someone find a teacher named Xie Min.”
Fan Xiwen quickly finished the call, then calmly said to Tang Qingrou, “Done. Let’s go inside.”
..
“Well, one phone call and you can get into Shuimu Nianhua. Looks like we misjudged you earlier.”
“That act was so convincing I almost believed it.”
“Gangzi, your classmate is even more impressive than your father.”
..
Chen Gang’s useless friends continued their sarcastic mockery, while Li Yuan folded his arms and prepared to watch the spectacle.
Li Yuan knew Chen Gang. The quality of education at Longcheng No. 2 High School was quite good, to the point that many students from Shao City also came there to study. Tang Qingrou and Chen Gang were both from Shao City, and their fathers held extremely high positions in Shao City’s political circles. Chen Gang could obtain a table at Shuimu Nianhua naturally because of his father’s status. As a teacher in the Political and Educational Affairs Office, Li Yuan often looked through the students’ files.
Chen Gang and Tang Qingrou were both among Li Yuan’s key subjects of attention...
Fan Xiwen was not among them, which meant that his family background was ordinary.
“Hmph, let’s see how long you can keep pretending.”
Everyone who hated Fan Xiwen waited eagerly for the spectacle. Only Xie Min and Tang Qingrou had complicated feelings.
There was no need to mention Xie Min. Fan Xiwen had helped her achieve Breaking Through the Realm, and that favor was enormous.
Tang Qingrou’s feelings were more complicated. Although this was only their second meeting, it was too soon to speak of liking him.
Still, Tang Qingrou felt that aside from his fondness for bragging, Classmate Fan Xiwen was not a bad person.
Besides, they were all classmates. Treating him this way was not right.