The moment Xu Yuan finished speaking, everyone turned astonished eyes on him.
Perhaps those dozen or so ordinary students had grown used to being bullied; for a moment, they actually seemed at a loss.
"Brother Yuan, you're just messing with them, right?"
Several seconds passed before Sun Hao suddenly asked with a grin.
As a scumbag himself, that was the only possibility he could think of.
"No, I'm serious."
Xu Yuan's expression was solemn. "From today onward, I won't do this kind of thing anymore. As for you two, decide for yourselves."
To maintain his persona, he ought to have imitated his predecessor and joined Sun Hao and Luo Han in bullying these people.
And it wasn't as though he had never done anything rotten himself.
Back when he first set up his game-boosting studio, he had cut a rival's internet cable, hidden stinking socks beneath the sofa in their studio, and poured boiling water on their money tree...
He had done all those things.
To put it bluntly, he was no gentleman, and his bottom line wasn't particularly high.
But however low it was, it didn't extend to casually bullying the innocent and weak.
"Brother Yuan, you're serious?"
Watching Xu Yuan's expression, Sun Hao's smile gradually stiffened.
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
"No."
"Then there you go."
Xu Yuan looked at the dozen or so ordinary students. "What are you standing around for? Get going."
They exchanged looks and tentatively headed outside.
When they saw that the three really weren't stopping them, they immediately quickened their steps.
Thank him?
There was no way they would thank him. Would you thank someone who had bullied you for two years just because he suddenly stopped?
Watching everyone leave for good, Sun Hao's heart began to bleed, and his expression turned ugly. "Why? Why turn down free money? They wouldn't dare report us!"
"You wouldn't understand if I told you now. You'll understand later."
Xu Yuan brushed him off, shoved his hands into his pockets, and turned to leave.
He wasn't in the habit of persuading others to be good, unlike some guys who even lectured the young masseuses about life while getting a foot massage.
Whether Sun Hao and Luo Han turned over a new leaf or continued being scum was their own business.
As long as he didn't catch them doing evil, it had nothing to do with him.
"Fatty, did getting stabbed really turn Xu Yuan stupid?"
Watching Xu Yuan walk away, Sun Hao asked with a deep frown.
"I don't think so. He just seems different from before." Fatty scratched his head uncertainly.
"Forget it. Leave him alone. It's even better if he doesn't want those wimps' money. From now on, we'll split it between us. Forty percent for you, sixty for me!"
"Uh... if Brother Yuan doesn't want it, then I guess I don't either."
"What did you say?" Sun Hao's expression chilled.
Fatty kept scratching his head. "Actually, I always thought bullying people like this was wrong, but I didn't dare say it. I was afraid you guys wouldn't hang out with me anymore."
Many people were like that before they matured.
Even when they knew certain things were wrong, they would still go along with others to fit in, becoming accomplices.
"Heh, fine. You're so great, so noble. Then we'll go our separate ways from now on. I'll collect that fucking money myself!"
Feeling betrayed, Sun Hao turned and stormed off!
Luo Han opened his mouth, looked left and right, then headed in the direction Xu Yuan had gone.
The residential complex where Xu Yuan lived wasn't far from Third High School. It was called Prosperous Age Grand View, which sounded pretty badass, but it was actually old, shabby, and cramped.
As he stepped through the complex's gates and looked at its aging buildings, memories of "home" surfaced in Xu Yuan's mind.
His predecessor had been a brute not only outside, but at home as well.
He had frequently cursed at the mother who had endured untold hardship to raise him, and whenever anything displeased him, he would take it out on his young sister.
As for Xu Yuan's father, he had passed away five years ago.
Without the loss of his father's discipline, Xu Yuan might not have become a brute.
"Well, well, how did you get yourself bloodied today, kid? Did you do something rotten and kick an iron plate?"
An old man sat on a bench in the complex, a pipe between his lips, eyeing Xu Yuan's bloodstained school uniform with amusement.
Xu Yuan's reputation as scum was common knowledge throughout the complex too.
Just like his ordinary classmates, the neighbors avoided him as though he were a venomous snake or scorpion.
This old man was an exception, however, because he was one of the complex's security guards.
Unlike the sort of security guards who spent all day matching wits with delivery drivers, these guards were all Divine Martial Artists at the Bone Forging Realm or above!
Not only did they not have to stand at the gates saluting and greeting residents, the residents had to put the guards on a pedestal instead!
Because even now, incidents of Weird Beasts-mutated animals-eating people still occurred from time to time.
And the security guards were the complex's guardian deities, protecting it from Weird Beast attacks!
"Pretty good guess, Elder Lu. I really did almost get stabbed to death today," Xu Yuan said, his eyes turning.
"Oh? Have you turned over a new leaf, kid? You actually called me Elder Lu?" Old Man Lu looked astonished.
The old Xu Yuan hadn't known the meaning of manners. Whenever the old man teased him, he would simply walk away in silence, then curse him behind his back as an undying old bastard.
Honestly, if Old Man Lu hadn't grown old and lost his former viciousness, the grass on Xu Yuan's grave would probably have been a meter high by now.
"Don't laugh, Elder Lu. I took a trip to the gates of hell and suddenly understood a lot of things. I've resolved to mend my ways," Xu Yuan said with a deeply reflective expression.
He really balked at pretending to be scum like his predecessor.
He might as well give everyone a plausible reason, then act according to his own heart.
After all, there was no concept of body possession on Earth Star.
"Huh? You really are a little different."
Old Man Lu puffed on his pipe, looking amazed. "Tell me, whose blade was so powerful it could actually purify scum?"
The corner of Xu Yuan's mouth twitched. "Was that tongue of yours dipped in poison, Elder Lu?"
"So whose blade was it?"
"...Liu Huaqiang's watermelon knife."
"What the hell watermelon knife?" Old Man Lu looked utterly baffled, but Xu Yuan was already heading toward Building Seven.
Arriving at Apartment 305, Unit Two, Building Seven, Xu Yuan took out his key and opened his front door.
A cramped little living room immediately came into view.
All the furniture was very old, with chipped paint and peeling surfaces everywhere.
Yet the room didn't make Xu Yuan feel the slightest discomfort.
Because everything inside had been tidied until it was spotless, without a speck of dust.
At that moment, his mother, Zhang Yaying, was sitting on a small stool, using a wooden club as thick as an adult's arm to beat a brown beast hide spread on the floor before her.
It was a Weird Beast hide, which had a wide range of uses on Earth Star.
However, Weird Beast hides contained a harmful material called Weird Substance, and prolonged contact was bad for the body. Before they could be made into other things, they needed to undergo processes such as beating and soaking in a special medicinal solution to remove the Weird Substance.
Zhang Yaying supported her two children by doing this work.
She earned five hundred for each hide she processed.
But processing Weird Beast hides took time and effort. She could only handle seven or eight a month at most, earning no more than four thousand.
And that scumbag predecessor had taken two thousand every month under the pretext of buying body-tempering liquid, spending it on eating, drinking, and having fun, heaping snow onto the frost of an already struggling household.
"You're home, Yuan?"
Seeing Xu Yuan home so early, Zhang Yaying was initially surprised, then quickly rolled up the hide on the floor.
She knew her son despised her for being incapable and didn't like seeing her do "low-class work" like processing hides.
"Mm."
Xu Yuan gave a stiff reply. An orphan in his previous life, he didn't know how to interact with family.
"Oh, Xu Yuan, what's with all that blood? Did karma catch up with you?"
Just then, a childish voice dripping with mockery came from beside him.
A pretty little girl with exquisitely sculpted features and a ponytail was staring at the blood on Xu Yuan's school uniform with a cold sneer.
Xu Kexin, Xu Yuan's biological younger sister, was seven this year and in first grade.
Unlike her gentle, weak-willed mother, Xu Kexin was an extraordinarily fierce little girl!
Even though Xu Yuan beat her often, she had never been afraid of him.
On the contrary, she frequently provoked him, shouting that he should beat her to death if he had the guts.
When asked why, she said that if Xu Yuan beat her to death, the Martial Suppression Department would execute him, and then Mom wouldn't have to live such a hard life.
But she probably didn't understand that if that really happened, it would be an unbearable blow to Zhang Yaying.
"Kexin! Don't talk nonsense!"
At her daughter's words, Zhang Yaying's face went white. She hurriedly scolded her, dropped the hide, and stepped between them.
"Y-Yuan, Kexin didn't mean it. Please don't hit her, okay?"
Her panic left Xu Yuan silent for a moment.
If the underworld and reincarnation really existed, it would be a dereliction of duty on the King of Hell's part if that bastard predecessor didn't end up in the animal realm.
"Mom, don't stop him. I'm not afraid of him!"
Xu Kexin stepped forward, tipped up her little face, and glared at Xu Yuan, utterly defiant!
Zhang Yaying was nearly frantic enough to cry when she heard Xu Yuan say, "Mom, you don't need to do this. I won't hit my little sister anymore."
As soon as he finished, Xu Yuan himself froze.
Hadn't that "Mom" rolled off his tongue a little too easily?