On the very first day of school last September, Zheng Qing and his companions got into a fight with Arthur Ness of Alpha Academy on Beta Town's Pedestrian Street.
Afterward, they received a "red notice" from the school and had no choice but to accept six months of compulsory labor as punishment.
More than half the trouble Zheng Qing had gotten into over the past year could ultimately be traced back to that punishment. So he was especially sensitive about it. To be honest, he felt that his conflict with Arthur Ness had, at most, blocked traffic a little. They had barely even torn any clothes. Compared with the scenes caused by Lei Zhe or Augustus, it had truly been nothing.
So after hearing Fatty Xin's analysis, the young publicly funded student immediately recalled what had happened to him last year and felt indignant. "Why is it that when they fight, Beta Town handles it, but when we fight, the school handles it?"
"Because they're the leaders of the Blood Kin Society and Sacred Will," the fat man said with a curl of his lip, his voice seeming to come out through his nose. "There's nothing new under the sun. People with power and influence always get more preferential treatment than ordinary people... Maybe that's just life."
He sounded rather wistful when he said that last sentence.
But that did nothing to soothe the young publicly funded student's wounded heart.
Dr. Xiao's analysis, grounded in reason and reality, was far more convincing.
"This sort of thing was inherently ambiguous. The school had the discretion to decide," Xiao Xiao said, offering his opinion from a highly practical perspective.
"When we were punished last year, we were freshmen. We caused an incident before we had even entered the school gates. If the