Page 31

Li Rongxiu's words left them standing there, stunned. The hesitant lackeys immediately looked at Shen Zongming on the ground. One of the quicker-thinking ones hurried over to help Shen Zongming up and eagerly brushed the dust from his clothes. Shen Zongming, humiliated and enraged, shoved him away. Pointing at Li Rongxiu without regard for his image, he said like a madman, "Get him! Don't be afraid. The Shen family has your backs. As long as you don't cripple him, the Shen family will take responsibility."

The lackeys behind Shen Zongming rolled their eyes without any concern for their image. Please, who would dare start a fight under the school cameras? Diwan's rules had always been strict. If they really laid a hand on Li Rongxiu, forget Shen Zongming—even if his uncle, the Shen family patriarch, showed up, he would not be able to plead their case before Principal Zhang. Such an open violation of school rules could not be smoothed over by donating a few libraries and classroom buildings.

Besides, there was still the Li family outside school. Given how fiercely the Lis protected their own, if they touched even a finger of Li Rongxiu's, their family businesses would be frantically targeted in the marketplace by the entire Li family and all of the Li family's friends and associates before the next day arrived.

These lackeys usually hung around Shen Zongming only because he was generous with money. Besides, though the Shen family was a dying centipede that still had plenty of legs, and its influence in the business world was no longer what it had once been, the connections and network it had built up over the years were still worth cultivating for small families like theirs. But that goodwill only extended to icing on the cake. When facing a newly risen family like the Li family, with even greater wealth and influence... they could only choose the wise course and adapt to the times.

Li Rongxiu could clearly see the awkward silence on the lackeys' faces. Some even visibly took several steps back, making it clear that they were cutting ties with Shen Zongming. Li Rongxiu curled his lips in pleasure. Even Zhao Qijun stopped holding himself so tensely, lowered his arms, and carried his KFC back behind Li Rongxiu.

His orders had actually been ignored. Seeing the mocking smile at Li Rongxiu's lips again, Shen Zongming's humiliation and fury flared up. Heat surged from his heart and rushed straight to his head. Without thinking, he charged forward and swung his fist at Li Rongxiu's excessively delicate face.

Prepared for this, Li Rongxiu immediately raised his left hand in front of him, ready to catch Shen Zongming's fist. Before his movement was fully in place, however, he felt a gust of wind sweep past his side, and a shadow blocked his view. The next second, Shen Zongming's increasingly shrill scream rang in his ears. When Li Rongxiu leisurely stepped two paces aside to get around the tall figure before him, he saw Shen Zongming lying miserably three meters away. The surrounding lackeys, Zhao Qijun included, were all staring in shock and fear at the person standing in front of Li Rongxiu... Shen Yujun?

Li Rongxiu blinked and gauged the distance between Shen Yujun and Shen Zongming. Somewhat hesitantly, he asked, "Was that... you? You kicked him three meters away?"

Shen Yujun turned around with a dark expression and said dully to Li Rongxiu, "Sorry... I caused you trouble."

Faced with Shen Yujun's reaction, like a child who had done something wrong and was apologizing to a parent, Li Rongxiu abruptly felt thrown out of the moment. He blinked strangely. He calculated the force needed to kick a young man around six feet tall three meters away, then clicked his tongue inwardly and said, "Looks like you're not as bad at fighting as I thought! Then why is it that every time I see you, you're getting beaten up?"

Shen Yujun's incomparably handsome face immediately turned livid. He forcibly suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and snapped, "Maybe I just like getting beaten up!"

Li Rongxiu shrugged, about to speak, when a group of patrol guards in Diwan security uniforms hurried over. Looking at the mess before him, the captain frowned and said, "The school security office received a call from the A-zone dormitory building saying there was some disturbance here. Is anyone hurt?"

At those words, the students present immediately looked toward Shen Zongming, lying three meters away and already apparently unconscious. The captain's thick brows furrowed even more deeply. He picked up his walkie-talkie and told the school clinic to bring a stretcher as quickly as possible—Shen Zongming looked too miserable, and the captain could not determine whether he had internal injuries, so he did not dare move him carelessly. As for everyone else, the captain showed no such courtesy. He escorted them all to the security office, then notified the principal and each class's homeroom teacher to come collect their students. Calling the parents, of course, was the homeroom teachers' job.

An hour later, the parents of the students had gathered in the VIP reception room of Diwan High School. This was Li Rongxiu's second visit there that day. The first time had represented honor, but this time... well, it had nothing to do with honor ╮(╯_╰)╭.

Eldest brother Li Rongyu was the fastest-arriving parent of them all. The instant he saw Li Rongxiu, he dragged his younger brother into the men's restroom beside the security office without a word, locked the door, and, ignoring Li Rongxiu's fierce objections, insisted on stripping him and checking him thoroughly from head to toe, inside and out. Even after that, Li Rongyu was still not reassured and had the Diwan school clinic give his precious brother a full-body examination. By the time Li Rongyu had finished all this with an expressionless face, their mother Zhuang Meiru and the other students' parents had arrived as well.

The Shen family had sent Shen Zongming's mother, Zhou Linyin, and his aunt by marriage, Sun Minqiu. Because of Shen Manyao, the Shen family had always lacked confidence when facing the Li family. Especially after the Shen family withdrew from T Country's infrastructure project and expelled Shen Manyao from the family, whenever the two families met in public, they wished they could avoid each other entirely, like kings who could not share the same realm.

But this time, because Shen Zongming had been beaten, the Shen women finally felt they had seized the moral high ground. Seated at the conference table in the VIP reception room, Zhou Linyin and Sun Minqiu took turns needling Zhuang Meiru with sharper and sharper words, practically trying to accuse Li Rongxiu of murder.

Of course, Zhuang Meiru had never been someone easy to deal with. Though she had not yet watched the footage from outside the dormitory building, she had already learned most of the truth from Zhao Qijun and Shen Zongming's lackeys. Her blade turned directly on the Shen family's upbringing, declaring that Shen Zongming had brought this upon himself. "If he hadn't gathered a bunch of people to cause trouble for our Xiu Xiu, he wouldn't have been kicked unconscious. I think your Shen family should count yourselves lucky that your delinquent was the one who passed out today, not our precious Xiu Xiu. If Xiu Xiu was frightened in the slightest because of this, I absolutely will not let the Shen family off!"

When it came to her child, the naturally protective Zhuang Meiru immediately cast aside every trace of elegance and gentleness. Like a lioness, she would never allow anyone to bare their fangs at her son on her territory.

As for the other students' parents, the teachers, and the school staff involved in the matter, they could only remain silent before these three formidable women. Then they turned hopeful eyes toward Principal Zhang, who sat at the head of the table with his head lowered over the documents, saying nothing, hoping he would speak and break the deadlock.

Li Rongyu told his younger brother to wait outside the reception room and not run around. Then he pushed open the reception room's mahogany doors and walked in with a calm expression.

Watching the two doors close tightly again, Li Rongxiu walked over to the silent Shen Yujun and asked worriedly, "You hit Shen Zongming. The Shen family won't make things difficult for you, will they?"

Shen Yujun curled his lips unconcernedly. Leaning against the wall with both hands in his uniform trouser pockets, his left foot resting over his right, he said in a relaxed tone, "It's fine... No matter how difficult they make things, haven't I endured it for seventeen years? Besides, even if they have always disliked me, I won't be the one who ends up suffering. Repaying grievance with justice—you don't actually think I only know how to take a beating and never fight back, do you?"

Li Rongxiu's eyes immediately widened in surprise. He looked Shen Yujun up and down for a long while before hesitantly asking, "You just said you're... how old?"

"Seventeen?" Shen Yujun looked at Li Rongxiu's incredulous expression in confusion and raised a brow. "What's wrong?"

"I thought you were at least twenty-three or twenty-four. You really look..." Li Rongxiu paused, searching for the right word. "Mature."

Shen Yujun looked at Li Rongxiu expressionlessly, his bright gaze so heated that Li Rongxiu unconsciously turned his head away to avoid it.

Shen Yujun took a deep breath helplessly, then said with feigned composure, "Probably because I'm mixed-race, so my bone structure and facial contours are more pronounced than those of ordinary East Asians..."

Shen Yujun thought for a long time but could not find the words. In the end, Li Rongxiu "thoughtfully" added, "You developed early." Yet it still did not sound particularly pleasant to Shen Yujun.

Li Rongxiu gave an awkward cough and changed the subject. "If you don't want to go back to the Shen family tonight, you can come home with me. My family has so many rooms anyway. One more person won't make a difference."

Shen Yujun turned his head and stared steadily into Li Rongxiu's eyes. "Wouldn't that be inappropriate?"

For an instant, Li Rongxiu suddenly felt as if he had been targeted by a fox. Then he shook his head with an amused smile. It seemed Shen Yujun always gave him impressions that were somehow connected to animals.

After that brief distraction, Li Rongxiu said to Shen Yujun, "It won't be. My family is very welcoming. Besides, if you hadn't helped me today, you wouldn't have ended up in a direct conflict with Shen Zongming."

Shen Yujun listened as Li Rongxiu went on and on about how "welcoming" his family was, comparing those words with the memories in his mind. He suddenly realized there was a reason he always found communicating with Li Rongxiu so exhausting—they definitely had a generation gap in their ways of thinking.

Or rather, Li Rongxiu had a generation gap with every other normal person.

While they were talking, the doors of Diwan's VIP reception room suddenly opened. All the waiting students immediately straightened and watched as Principal Zhang and the parents filed out. Zhang Yaolin looked at the students expressionlessly and signaled for the dean of academic affairs to announce the disciplinary decisions regarding the fight.

Other than Zhao Qijun, who had remained passive throughout and had never raised a hand, all the lackeys Shen Zongming had summoned—including one student who had once followed Shen Yujun—received written warnings. Li Rongxiu received a written warning for excessive self-defense, having not only thrown Shen Zongming to the ground but also kicked him afterward. Shen Zongming received a major demerit for violating school rules by privately forming an improper organization and repeatedly organizing violent acts to bully fellow students. Shen Yujun received a written warning for excessive self-defense. All students present were publicly criticized. In addition, Shen Zongming had to deliver a self-criticism at next week's school assembly...

After hearing the dean's announcement, all the students unconsciously let out sighs of relief, their faces relaxing. Being publicly criticized was embarrassing, but warnings would not be entered into their records. In other words, this little incident would have no impact at all on their future university applications—except for Shen Zongming, who was still unconscious.

At that thought, the students immediately turned their gazes toward the two Shen women. Zhou Linyin and Sun Minqiu's faces were utterly livid, clearly showing their deep dissatisfaction with the school's decision. Yet before the mountain of irrefutable evidence, they had no way to change Principal Zhang Yaolin's ruling.

Seeing the situation develop against Shen Zongming, Zhou Linyin and Sun Minqiu promptly decided to end this "parent-teacher conference." But they had not expected that although Li Rongyu looked quiet and unassuming, he was the sort of dog that bit without barking. Somehow, he had obtained videos and photographs of Shen Zongming bullying Shen Yujun and other students outside school. Right in front of Principal Zhang Yaolin, he said bluntly, "If the school cannot handle this incident fairly, I will send this evidence to newspapers and the media. I believe the public can see the truth clearly."