Chapter 39

"The kind who'd beat anyone within an inch of their life."

Before the young man with the rasping voice could grasp what Xu Qingran meant, someone suddenly clamped a hand on his shoulder. Xu Qingran seized his other hand, smiled at him, then yanked his arm viciously toward himself.

The others heard what sounded like a joint popping out of its socket. Then Xu Qingran hurled their rasping-voiced companion over his shoulder and slammed him to the ground. The heavy impact, followed by the man's cries as he clutched his arm, made everyone's scalps tingle as though they could feel his pain.

But Xu Qingran wasn't done with him. He stepped forward and drove another vicious kick into his stomach.

The kick sent him flying several meters.

Then Xu Qingran walked over to his other, uninjured arm, raised his foot, and placed it on his wrist.

Xu Qingran looked down at him, his gaze cold. "You knew I had a bad temper and a nasty personality, yet you still came to provoke me?"

"If you want to die, just say so. I can grant that wish."

As soon as he finished speaking, he pressed down with his foot. To the onlookers, it didn't seem like much force, but only the man underfoot knew how powerful the impact of the Mental Power surging into his body was. His muscles and bones were damaged, nearly shattered.

The pain was so intense that he could only gape and shed tears, every sound caught in his throat.

The others stared in horror and astonishment.

...Was this the Xu Qingran whose Mental Power was so poor it barely qualified for an F grade, the one who was so terribly frail?!

Alarmed, they saw Xu Qingran turn and walk toward them, and all stepped back in unison.

One of the bolder ones warned him in shocked anger, "Xu Qingran, the medical college already rejected you, and now you dare hit people at school!"

"Aren't you afraid of being blacklisted, so no university in the entire empire will dare accept you?!"

Xu Qingran raised an eyebrow, snatched the coffee from the speaker's hand, and poured it straight over his head. "Thanks for your concern. The university I'm going to would only wish I'd hit them harder."

The person drenched in coffee was a young heir from a wealthy family. He brushed at his hair in humiliation and anger and cursed, "Xu Qingran, how dare you treat me like this?!"

"Why can't I? Is your body studded with diamonds?" Xu Qingran sneered, then landed a hook on his face.

With his other hand, he grabbed the man's collar and asked coldly, "To thank you for touching up my work, I'll give you a proper makeover as a work of art today, too."

With that, he kicked the man hard in the kneecap, forcing him to his knees in front of him.

Xu Qingran grabbed his hair and forced him to look up and meet his eyes. A frightening viciousness seemed to flicker in their icy depths. "Listen carefully. The one you're kneeling to today is your grandpa, Xu Qingran."

He then shoved his hand down hard and raised his foot, pressing the man's head to the ground in a full prostration.

The one he was kneeling to was Xu Qingran.

He turned to the few remaining people, who were trembling, and asked mildly, "Why aren't you laughing? Is my artwork not charming enough?"

Some of the more timid ones, who knew full well they had no ability to fight back, immediately dropped to their knees and begged for mercy. "X-Xu Qingran, please forgive our moment of ignorance. We... we were egged on by them. They said they wanted to get even for Xu Qing'an..."

"Can an apology restore those things?" Xu Qingran asked.

Their silence was deafening.

"But if I break a few of your bones and give you some internal injuries, you can recover with a little rest."

Xu Qingran chuckled, his beautiful, peach blossom-shaped eyes curving slightly.

"Don't worry, I have money. I can afford your medical bills."

When Shen Tingyu arrived in front of the main building at the Grandis Secondary School branch campus, he was met with an extremely chaotic scene.

In one corner of the open front courtyard, a group of young men lay sprawled in disarray. Their arms and legs all appeared to be visibly broken, and some had bruised faces as well. Their injuries were so severe that they couldn't look after themselves.

Meanwhile, the person he had been waiting so long for stood with one hand in his pocket, looking down at them indifferently, like an artist admiring his own masterpiece.

Shen Tingyu paused, his gaze lingering on Xu Qingran for a few extra seconds without his realizing it.

Several people who looked like teachers hurried out of the classroom building and stopped Xu Qingran just as he was about to raise his leg for another kick. "Xu Qingran, this is a school! How can you hit your classmates?!"

"If you keep this up, I'm calling the police!"

Xu Qingran recognized her as one of the teachers from the academic affairs office and calmly asked her, "There's something I'd like to ask."

"As a teacher, why didn't you stop them when they destroyed my work and certificates?"

The female teacher exchanged a glance with the male teacher beside her, unable to hide the guilt and embarrassment in her eyes. "The academic affairs office is so big, and the teachers are so busy. Our eyesight isn't very good, so we didn't notice at the time. Xu Qingran, even so, you shouldn't have hit anyone!"

"I think I should have," Xu Qingran replied. "You'll never know the pain until the knife stabs you."

"Would you teachers like to try it too?"

Seeing the faces of those supposed teachers flush red, he added, "Since everyone in the academic affairs office has such poor eyesight, I trust you can't see what happened today either."

As he spoke, Xu Qingran turned his gaze back to the rasping-voiced man who had shouted the loudest at the start. He had now been beaten black and blue, with barely a spot on his body left unscathed. Xu Qingran was just about to pick an uninjured spot and continue when a hand suddenly came to rest on his shoulder.

Xu Qingran pressed his lips together and turned around with a fierce, cold look. But after seeing who it was, he silently lowered the fist he had been about to swing.

...Fuck, I can't beat him yet.

And I still owe him a favor.

He asked Shen Tingyu, "Are you here to stop me too?"

If he is, I'll accept it today.

But Shen Tingyu replied, "No. I wanted to ask when you'd be finished."

In the light, his blue eyes were as clear as a calm, gentle sea, a faint smile in them. "Don't forget we have other places to go."