A Quiet Homecoming

After the school doctor sent him away, Cheng Xingzhou didn't stay in the infirmary. Since Fu Liangxia wasn't seriously hurt and wouldn't need him afterward, he went back to handle the unfinished business.

And those two culprits.

At that thought, Cheng Xingzhou couldn't help but recall Fu Liangxia lying on the sickbed—her pale face, her frail figure.

...Fragile enough to make his heart skip a beat.

Cheng Xingzhou walked with swift steps, the frost in his gaze almost tangible.

"Tap, tap, tap—"

Rapid footsteps sounded from behind, followed by Xue Changgui's breathless voice: "President, everything's been handled as you instructed."

Xue Changgui studied the president's expression. He'd sensed something unusual in the president's attitude toward that girl, but he never expected the president to resort to such harsh punishment.

Heavier than anything before.

Xue Changgui walked alongside him, pondering the relationship between the two, when the president suddenly halted mid-step, his face darkening as he veered off toward the boxing gym.

What... what was going on now?

Xue Changgui was baffled, scratching his head in confusion, when a voice came from ahead: "Bring those two here."

?!

No way, President—this would actually kill someone!

Xue Changgui was startled by the implication, and the thought that flashed through his mind was—

The president's relationship with that girl was anything but ordinary.

A man known for self-restraint losing control to this extent...

Xue Changgui sighed and sent someone to fetch Kang Jin and Li Yuanfan.

Meanwhile, Kang Jin and Li Yuanfan had just received their expulsion notices and were in utter despair when two burly students wearing Student Council badges suddenly stood before them.

"Is... is the president changing his mind?" They were anxious, yet clinging to a secret hope. Hope that the president would show leniency and let them off the hook.

After all, similar incidents had happened before—even worse ones. If not for that, the special-admission students at the school wouldn't be so terrified of them.

But no one had ever received a punishment as severe as expulsion. At most, they'd write a self-criticism, have their parents called in, or at worst, be suspended for reflection.

Being expelled from Saintland... didn't just mean losing access to Saintland's top-tier educational resources and the connections within the school, or being shut out from high society.

More importantly, no domestic school would accept a student expelled from Saintland. Their only option was to find a way to pay for high school abroad and then attend university there.

That wasn't hard for Kang Jin, but for Li Yuanfan, who came from a poor family, it was like a dead end.

And even if they could study abroad, what about after graduation? They'd have to come back eventually. They'd grown up here; their families' connections were all here. If they didn't return to the country, they'd have to start from scratch overseas—something neither of them had the ability to do.

So they'd have to come home.

But their expulsion records from Saintland would follow them for life. Any conglomerate with ties to Saintland would refuse to accept such a graduate or take them on as a partner.

Whether working for someone else or taking over the family business, their paths were essentially sealed off. All that remained was an unsolvable dead end.

Kang Jin still harbored a shred of fantasy. He quietly thought that President Cheng, though seemingly cold and aloof, was the most rule-abiding person. If the rules dictated a certain punishment, he wouldn't overstep.

Maybe he'd suddenly realized the punishment was too severe and wanted to retract it—that was why he'd called them back.

But Li Yuanfan wasn't as optimistic. He'd noticed the look in Cheng Xingzhou's eyes when he glanced at Fu Liangxia... that look made his heart tremble.

A vague realization crept over him: Cheng Xingzhou was not going to let them off.

That look in his eyes—it was anything but innocent.

But was Li Yuanfan about to accept his fate? Not a chance. He was already a man rotten to the core, dragged through the gutter. A few more stains on his record didn't bother him.

It was just that he didn't want to rot alone in that gutter. He needed someone to drag down with him.

Beside him, Kang Jin was still cautiously testing the waters: "Will the president retract our expulsion? I... I can accept suspension. Even a year of suspension. Or repeating a grade. Just please don't expel me..."

Like a beggar.

Li Yuanfan never expected Kang Jin—who always looked down on him—to grovel so pathetically. Watching coldly from the sidelines, he felt a bitter, twisted satisfaction.

So even the wealthy could stoop as low as they did, their pride shattered and fed to the dogs.

—In front of those with even more power and influence.

"Don't know." The Student Council member escorting them was expressionless. "The president just said to bring you over."

Torn between hope and dread, Kang Jin and Li Yuanfan were led before Cheng Xingzhou.

At first, Kang Jin clung to unrealistic fantasies. But as they walked deeper and deeper, until they were brought into the boxing gym, a vague sense of wrongness began to dawn on him.

A strong, ominous premonition surged over him.

Then Kang Jin saw the boy standing on the raised platform.

Cheng Xingzhou stood there silently, looking down at him from above. The thin-rimmed glasses he usually wore had been removed at some point, revealing a pair of eyes so striking they were almost mesmerizing.

He fixed those eyes on him, backlit against the light, an inexplicable pressure enveloping his entire body, nearly driving Kang Jin to his knees.

The next moment, Kang Jin heard him say: "Come up."

"Thud!"

Kang Jin thought he'd actually fallen to his knees from fright, but when he turned his head, he saw that it was Li Yuanfan kneeling diagonally in front of him, sobbing and pleading that he'd been forced into it, that Kang Jin was the mastermind, begging Cheng Xingzhou to let him go.

It was an ugly sight, instantly reminding Kang Jin of how he'd groveled under the fists of Fu Haoyao and the others yesterday.

But Kang Jin didn't despise him. If begging would work, he'd kowtow too. Because this wasn't like the face-saving matter of expulsion—Cheng Xingzhou... he was the provincial champion in his weight class for freestyle boxing!

One punch from him could actually kill!

Kneeling didn't help. Kowtowing didn't help. Kang Jin and Li Yuanfan were forcibly dragged up onto the platform by the burly men.

"Got anything to plead?" Cheng Xingzhou rolled his wrists, his gaze calm, but his tone asked if they had any last words.

"No—"

...

Fu Liangxia knew nothing of what happened at the boxing gym. She slept through the entire morning in the infirmary and only felt her fever recede slightly, leaving her with a mild low-grade fever.

But it was still drizzling outside, and Fu Liangxia didn't feel like moving. She texted Fu Liedong to bring her some food.

"Sis, how'd you end up in the infirmary again?"

"Shut up if you can't say something nice."

As if she'd chosen to be here.

When Fu Liedong came in, Fu Liangxia closed the practice book in her hands. It wasn't that she was this diligent even while sick—the math competition qualifiers mentioned in the novel were fast approaching, and she needed to jog her memory on these concepts as soon as possible.

Luckily, she hadn't been too old when she transmigrated, so her competition knowledge wasn't completely forgotten. A quick refresher on the question types was enough to bring it all back.

It was just that Fu Liedong was a bit too chatty. Sitting at the small table by the sickbed, he shoveled food into his mouth and mumbled: "See what I told you? If you'd just apologized to Brother Su earlier, none of this might've happened today."

Considering she was sick, Fu Liedong had bought her tonkotsu ramen—extremely bland, so bland it killed Fu Liangxia's appetite.

She picked up a couple of noodles with her chopsticks and twirled them around for fun: "So by your logic, I brought all this on myself today?"

"That's not what I meant." Fu Liedong shook his head anxiously. "Those bastards are definitely the ones in the wrong."

He quickly declared his stance before Fu Liangxia could get angry, then lowered his voice: "But you have no idea how crazy Su Xingshu's fan club can be. Their tactics are ten times worse than what you went through today. They even drove someone to attempt suicide before..."

As if recalling something unpleasant, he suddenly stopped, then added: "Anyway, don't underestimate the F4 and their fans' power."

"Got it."

Fu Liangxia thought to herself, Of course I know. The limited-time task for the "Su Xingshu Fan Club" still hasn't progressed at all.

But what could she do? There was no guarding against thieves every single day. She'd just have to cross that bridge when she came to it.

Still, it wasn't entirely a bad thing. If used well, it might even become a golden opportunity to raise Affinity Points.

It was just something that needed careful planning.

That settled the Su Xingshu topic. Fu Liedong knew his sister had a strong will of her own and her own plans, so he switched to another subject.

"Are you going to tutor Fu Haoyao tonight?"

Fu Liangxia took a few listless bites before losing her appetite. Fu Liedong took over the leftovers, and watching him wolf it down with gusto, she felt a twinge of disgust: "Yeah, why?"

"It's about that Su Xingshu thing. Some bad rumors are going around, and they might reach Fu Haoyao's ears."

Fu Liangxia: "What do you mean?"

"Some people on the forum think you deliberately tried to catch Su Xingshu's attention, using him to climb the social ladder and become a trending topic."

Fu Liedong carefully chose his words, sneaking glances at his sister's expression: "Fu Haoyao hates scheming people the most. His previous tutor hooked up with his dad... I'm worried if someone stirs the pot, he'll get a bad impression of you."

So that was the reason. When she'd read the novel, it only mentioned that Fu Haoyao initially rejected Bai Kewei as his tutor, but never elaborated on why.

"But I'm not short on money," Fu Liangxia frowned. "He shouldn't lump me in with those other tutors, right?"

Fu Liedong: "Hard to say. Logically speaking, that should be the case, but Fu Haoyao's a suspicious guy. It's hard to tell if he'll think differently from normal people."

Fu Liedong left after finishing the meal, also helping her request the afternoon off from the teacher.

Fu Liangxia stayed in the infirmary, studying a bit more and reviewing the class recording Fu Liedong had made. His notes were unreadable, but luckily the video quality was clear, and it was no different from sitting in on the lecture. After watching the lesson, drowsiness crept back over her, and she drifted off to sleep again.

What she didn't know was that while she was asleep, Su Xingshu had come by to see her. But since she was sleeping, he stayed only a moment before leaving.

Time quickly passed to evening. Waking from her sleep, Fu Liangxia saw a new message on her phone, sent just three minutes ago.

【Fu Haoyao: Come out. I'm waiting for you at the school gate.】