Zhu Xiaobei Was Bullied

Chapter 30: Zhu Xiaobei Was Bullied

Wang Yue's honeymoon was over. He mailed the gifts for his family back home, and then the two of them returned to school.

Back in class, they handed out the wedding candies they'd prepared to every classmate and several teachers in their department. They also hosted everyone for a meal one weekend.

At the banquet that day, Wang Yue played an abridged version of his and Guan Guan's wedding on a projector, making all the girls in the class terribly envious.

The professors in their department were even more impressed. They said weddings should be like this: Three Matchmakers, Six Engagements, Three Letters, Six Gifts—that was the proper ceremony for marrying a Mistress of the Household.

Before long, word of Wang Yue and Ruan Wan's spectacular wedding had spread throughout the school.

The junior students were heartbroken. Such a beautiful senior had already married. But the fact that she'd married a Great God from their own department made them feel a little better. At least one of their own had won her over. If one of the few beauties at their school had married someone from outside, that would have been truly painful.

The younger female students were all envious of the wedding. Few of them seemed to feel they'd lost a chance with their future husband. After all, even though Wang Yue was known as a Great God, he wasn't handsome!

In this looks-conscious age, Wang Yue's sharply defined features didn't attract that many girls. Good looks were everything, especially with pretty, delicate young men all the rage these days.

But that was also because Wang Yue was busy and kept a low profile. He was rarely seen and hardly ever took part in school activities. Many of the younger female students had only heard of him and had never even seen him.

The studio had become quite well established by now. Wang Yue actually paid everyone almost as much as a business partner would, and over the past two years, their pockets had grown considerably fuller. Everyone had gained a great deal from their work, and each of them had grown in their own way.

Now they were in their senior year, and everyone had their own plans. Wang Yue and Ruan Wan were preparing to pursue graduate studies, Xiaobei wanted to study abroad, Xu Kaiyang planned to return home and inherit the family business, and Zheng Wei was still undecided.

Everyone else planned to stay and work at Wang Yue's studio. Wang Yue figured that once they graduated, they could turn the studio into a company.

This year, the studio had already begun recruiting other students from the school, as well as promising younger students, to train as future employees.

Time flew by. When the applications for study-abroad spots opened, neither Wang Yue nor Ruan Wan applied. The students competing for the spots breathed a sigh of relief. After all, if Wang Yue had applied, he would almost certainly have been accepted. Several professors thought highly of him.

One day, Wang Yue and Ruan Wan were studying in the library when his phone suddenly vibrated. He answered a call from a classmate and learned that Zhu Xiaobei had trashed the school supermarket.

The two of them quickly packed up and rushed over. By the time they arrived, the supermarket was already a complete mess, and Zhu Xiaobei was crying inside.

Wang Yue pieced together what had happened from the students who'd gathered around. He was at a loss and had no idea what to do, so he quickly called a lawyer friend to ask how they should handle it.

His friend told him to make peace with the supermarket's owner as soon as possible, then contact any school administrators he was on good terms with and see if they could keep the matter as quiet as possible.

Wang Yue quickly contacted the department chair he knew well. Skipping the pleasantries, he explained what had happened and said he hoped they could do what they could to keep Zhu Xiaobei in school. Then he asked for the supermarket owner's phone number.

After hearing what had happened, the department chair said Zhu Xiaobei was one of the department's well-regarded students and promised to do everything he could.

Wang Yue contacted the supermarket owner, but things hit a snag. The owner said he wouldn't accept a settlement. That was rather unusual.

Wang Yue frowned, sensing something was wrong. He'd offered to pay double, yet the owner was still refusing to let it go. That wasn't how a businessman usually behaved.

Wang Yue was at a loss. There had to be some special reason. Looking through the shattered window at Zhu Xiaobei sobbing inside, he wondered what had made her so furious. Had this really been an accident?

Whatever the case, after this incident, Zhu Xiaobei's American Dream was already shattered.

Wang Yue figured it was best to ask a lawyer, since they dealt with situations like this all the time. So he called his lawyer friend again and explained what was going on.

When his friend learned that the owner had refused to settle even after being offered double compensation, he said there was usually some bigger interest at stake in cases like this, and warned Wang Yue to be careful.

Wang Yue decided to take his advice. He told the lawyer that he had only one goal: to make sure Xiaobei wasn't expelled. He didn't care how much compensation they had to pay and would follow the lawyer's advice.

This unexpected incident made Wang Yue realize how powerless he still was. He'd been unable to handle something like this, and it left him deeply frustrated. He had to find a way to vent his anger.

He turned and went back into the supermarket. He told Ruan Wan to take Zhu Xiaobei back to the studio while he handled what remained. Inside the little supermarket, Wang Yue found a relatively clean table and set his laptop on it. He dragged over a box, sat down, and got to work.

First, he found and saved a backup of the supermarket's security camera footage. Then he accessed the school's public security cameras and retrieved every clip of the confrontation between the guard and the students.

Finally, he looked into the supermarket owner's background and checked the transaction records for all his bank cards. He did find something suspicious: the owner had been doing business with a large supermarket, buying goods from them at prices far below the normal rate. Considering that this little supermarket often stocked expired food, it wasn't hard to guess what was going on.

Wang Yue sighed. Once he'd organized the evidence, he called the supermarket owner again. The moment the call connected, he heard the owner brusquely refuse.

Wang Yue cut him off and said, "You'd better come over. If you're not here in twenty minutes, I'll hand these account records between you and a certain supermarket chain over to the Market Regulation Administration."

The supermarket owner showed up in less than ten minutes. When he saw the spreadsheet Wang Yue had put together, he practically fell to his knees. Before long, he agreed to a settlement.

To be safe, Wang Yue still arranged for the owner and the lawyer to sign a settlement agreement together.

Seeing that Wang Yue only wanted to resolve the problem and wasn't targeting him personally, the supermarket owner reluctantly signed.

Wang Yue then deleted the evidence he'd just obtained right in front of him with a single click.

Seeing how readily Wang Yue deleted it, the owner understood that Wang Yue could get another copy whenever he wanted. So he did Wang Yue a favor in return.

It turned out that the guard was related to the head of campus security. Wang Yue only needed to get the head of security on board to resolve the matter.

Wang Yue was speechless, but he still played the evidence against the guard that he'd just found for the owner. The owner stared at the screen, dumbfounded.

After the owner left, Wang Yue took his laptop to the head of campus security's office. Half an hour later, the matter was settled.

All that remained was to see how the school would handle it. After all, the school took a parental approach, so there was plenty of flexibility in its punishments.

The next day, the school announced its decision. Since the supermarket admitted that it shared some responsibility, and Zhu Xiaobei had already paid for the damages, it wouldn't pursue any further responsibility on her part.

The head of campus security also said that the guard was partly at fault and that he'd already disciplined him. With the department chair explaining the situation on Zhu Xiaobei's behalf, the matter was quickly resolved before it could have any worse consequences. Zhu Xiaobei received a serious warning.

Unfortunately, because of the disciplinary record, her application to study abroad was rejected. The domestic graduate-school entrance exams for that year had already ended, so Zhu Xiaobei had no choice but to either study abroad at her own expense or wait until next year to take the exams.