Jianghu News Agency

On campus.

On the rooftop of a teaching building sat three boys and a girl. They sat cross-legged in a circle, with lunch boxes, drinks, and snacks casually laid out before them.

"Brother Fan, what do we do?"

The speaker was a girl with a bowl cut. She was rather plump and short, not pretty exactly—at most, somewhat cute. Setting down the chocolate cake she had bitten into, she asked worriedly.

The Brother Fan she referred to was a boy. Ordinary looks, ordinary height, ordinary hairstyle. If there was anything distinctive about him, it was that his features were somewhat delicate, giving him an extremely innocent air, as though he would blush in embarrassment if you merely teased him.

"Damn his mother hen."

Yet this delicate-looking boy, who seemed as if he would blush at any moment, was wolfing down food while cursing. "What rotten luck. How did we end up provoking that mad dog?"

"Brother Fan, how about we find someone to talk it over?" one freckled boy suggested.

"Right, let Brother Xiao mediate. Last time, we tipped him off in time and helped him escape disaster. He owes us a favor, and he's on good terms with Ji Yu. If he puts in a word, maybe this will all blow over," the bowl-cut girl hurriedly agreed.

Yang Fan did not respond to his companions' suggestions. He set down his lunch box, having lost his appetite.

After school at noon, he had gone to the back mountain on an errand and happened to see Yage talking with Lin Feng. Seeing that something was off with their expressions, he reacted instinctively. He immediately fused with his demon spirit and used the Sound-Seeking Beast's innate ability, combined with lip-reading techniques, to learn that the two had broken up.

Such explosive news naturally gave no sense of achievement if enjoyed alone. In the spirit of sharing joy with others rather than keeping it to himself, Yang Fan had "accidentally" let it slip while chatting with his classmates.

To him, it was merely an extremely explosive piece of gossip, no different from the hundreds of rumors he spread every year.

He could predict the sensation this gossip would cause. After all, this time, the female lead was the biggest name of all.

Although he was passionate about the gossip trade, Yang Fan was also a smart person. He knew exactly which people he could not afford to provoke.

He never provoked those with greater power than himself. In his view, Lin Feng and Yage did not fall into that category.

Although Lin Feng was stronger than him, there was no need to worry. As classmates, based on what he knew of Lin Feng, even if Lin Feng was displeased, he would not lay a hand on him.

As for Yage, who had been dumped, although she had joined Juxing Club and seemed poised to soar into the sky in one leap, she had only just joined. He would graduate soon enough—who would even remember whom by then? It was not as though she would bear a grudge for so long. It was hardly some blood feud.

Yet after calculating every possibility, he still could not have calculated that he would provoke Ji Yu.

Yang Fan felt as though he had stepped in shit.

Although he and Ji Yu were not in the same class, they sometimes greeted each other when they met.

For several years in a row, his father had even taken him to Ji Yu's home for New Year visits. In his eyes, though he and Ji Yu were not brothers, they could at least be considered friends.

But he had never imagined that Ji Yu, who had absolutely nothing to do with this matter, would, out of jealousy—or perhaps it did not even count as jealousy, merely to show off in front of Yage—actually declare that he would tear Yang Fan's mouth apart.

"It's useless. Even if Brother Xiao is willing to help, Ji Yu won't give him any face. Brother Xiao doesn't dare offend Ji Yu either. Since Ji Yu has already said it, he'll definitely make a move." Yang Fan directly rejected their suggestion.

He understood Ji Yu better than anyone. That guy was an idiot.

He looked refined, but he was refined scum—or, more accurately, a beast.

Over the years, how many female students had dropped out because of him? How many people had been bullied by him for all kinds of bizarre reasons?

A single look, even the way someone walked, could displease him enough that he would break their legs.

"How about... we let our families step in?" another boy suggested.

"No."

Yang Fan refused directly, without the slightest hesitation.

His father ran a company with assets exceeding a billion, giving them a modest reputation in River City, but they could not compare with Ji Yu's Yunhai Group. In fact, many of their businesses relied on Yunhai Group's support.

That was why his father took him to Ji Yu's home every year for New Year visits. To put it bluntly, his father needed to curry favor with Ji Yu's family. The two sides were not equal at all.

Moreover, the students had an unspoken rule: when there was a conflict, adults could not be brought in.

Even if adults intervened in this matter and Ji Yu held back out of concern, perhaps temporarily ceasing to trouble him, the retaliation afterward could be even worse. To an idiot like that, face was the most important thing.

Beyond that reason, what mattered even more was that Yang Fan did not want to ask his father for help.

His martial arts aptitude was terrible. Even with the support of resources, he had only reached the Body Cultivation Fifth Stage.

Although he had become a Demon Spirit Master yesterday, in everyone's eyes, the second-rank Sound-Seeking Beast was a useless demon spirit. Few martial artists would refine such a support-type demon spirit.

His talent was poor, the worst among his siblings, and he had been cursed as trash since childhood.

Because of that, his father did not think much of him either, and the relationship between father and son was not good. He did not want to seek out his father over this matter.

That would only bring disappointment and prove that he truly was trash.

In his first year of high school, he had established his own club. He used the allowance he saved to pay salaries to its three members, frequently organized gatherings, and maintained the informants beneath them day after day. He did all this so that after graduation, he could make something of himself, earn his father's recognition, and prove that even if he was no good at martial arts, he was absolutely no worse than anyone else.

"How about we use those things..."

The bowl-cut girl spoke softly, but did not finish.

Yang Fan understood what she meant. His expression hesitated, but he quickly shook his head at the three of them.

The three people before him were not only his companions, but also members of his Jianghu News Agency.

Jianghu News Agency was a club he had founded in his first year of high school.

Where there were people, there was jianghu; where there was jianghu, there was news. That was the origin of the Jianghu News Agency's name.

Since middle school, Yang Fan had known that his aptitude was poor, but proud as he was, he did not believe he was inferior to anyone.

Even without talent, he would carve out a world of his own.

And Jianghu News Agency was the starting point for realizing his ambitions.

At Jiangxin First High School, no one knew about this club. Including Yang Fan, it had only four members.

Aside from him, the three people before him were all talents he had selected from Jiangxin Middle School, one out of ten thousand. Though their martial arts talent was ordinary, Yang Fan believed their futures might lead to achievements unlike any other.

Including himself, Jianghu News Agency had only four core members, but each of them had more than ten informants under them. Few things that happened at Jiangxin First High School could escape their eyes and ears.

That idiot Ji Yu had done far too much filthy business, and they knew it all. If this evidence were posted online, it would not only get Ji Yu expelled—it could even send him to prison. Even Ji Yu's father's Yunhai Group might be affected.

"Don't entertain that kind of thought. That's courting death!"

Yang Fan warned them with a stern gaze.

If his family held a higher position than Yunhai Group, he might have chosen to act, nipping the danger in the bud at the first opportunity.

But unfortunately, that was not the case.

If Ji Yu's scandals were exposed now, no investigation would be needed. Many people would know that he was behind it. A few scandals could not bring down Yunhai Group, and when the time came, not only would he be unable to protect himself, he would also drag his family down with him.

As the president of Jianghu News Agency, although he was only in his final year of high school and had not truly entered society, Yang Fan had seen too much darkness.

He deeply understood one principle: never truly touch the reverse scale of a major corporation, or they would bare their fangs in an instant and devour you.

"Then what do we do?"

The bowl-cut girl lay down on the ground and asked helplessly.

"When soldiers come, generals block them; when water comes, earth dams it. I'm leaving."

Yang Fan rose to his feet, dusted off his butt, and left. The other three exchanged helpless glances before following in his footsteps.