After Xie Zhuzhou returned to his room, his dark eyes seemed filled with the light of hope, brimming with eagerness and anticipation. He was so excited that he had to clench his fists before a satisfied smile slowly spread across his lips.
Fantastic!
His villainous image was firmly established!
And coming clean with his brothers about not competing or fighting for anything had felt wonderfully liberating. Now these brothers wouldn't think he posed a threat to their positions, right?!
After hearing the news, he even wanted to give Old Master Ji an award. Whatever moves the old man made, he could handle them all.
Of course, there were also people in wealthy circles with a taste for the unusual.
After hearing that Xie Zhuzhou was such a ruthless character, some people wanted to meet him even more! And so, the next day, the butler received several invitations asking Ji Wuqiu's family to attend.
When Ji Wangyan discovered them, he tossed all the invitations straight into the fireplace. "If you receive any more ill-intentioned invitations like these, take down their names."
The butler said, "Yes."
On the way to school that morning, Chu Yanzhang quietly answered Xie Zhuzhou's questions from the other end, explaining how he lived while blind.
Remembering that he couldn't see, Xie Zhuzhou sent a voice message back too. Putting down his phone, he looked at Xiao Nan in the driver's seat.
"Xiao Nan, I'm going to Chu Yanzhang's place this afternoon."
"But hasn't your leave from the dating show already ended?"
Xie Zhuzhou: ...
If Xiao Nan hadn't mentioned it, he would have forgotten he even had a part-time dating show gig!
"Oh, right, Chu Yanzhang's phone screen is broken. Take it in for repairs for him, then tell him I'll visit another day."
"Yes."
Xie Zhuzhou wasn't a good person, but doing a good deed and accumulating some virtue now and then wasn't out of the question. He wondered whether Chu Yanzhang's eyes could still be treated.
The moment he breathed the school air, Xie Zhuzhou started feeling sleepy. When he returned to the classroom, some of his classmates watched him with complicated looks tinged with fear, as though he were some man-eating beast.
"You really couldn't tell. So that's the sort of person he is..."
"He's handsome and a rich second-generation heir. What couldn't he get away with?"
"I never thought he was like that in private. I heard he beat someone so badly their hand broke!"
They even deliberately discussed it loudly, as though afraid Xie Zhuzhou wouldn't hear. Xie Zhuzhou recalled beating up those two pigs while protecting Chu Yanzhang in passing yesterday. With each retelling, it had escalated into broken hands.
But since there was no evidence and it was only a rumor, those people could only suspect.
Xie Zhuzhou was very satisfied. He had been wondering how to become the school bully whose name alone struck terror, and now the opportunity had fallen right into his lap. His gaze was cold, but he could barely hold back the smile on his lips. After all, he had accomplished most of his goals in a single day.
Once he switched to a god's-eye view and regarded this world as nothing more than a book, the people who didn't matter became NPCs, bundles of data.
Data came in good data, bad data, ordinary data, and important data.
Seeing that Xie Zhuzhou's gaze remained indifferent, the classmates discussing him froze for a moment. Their expressions were complicated, but mostly they felt confused and irritated by his attitude, as though Xie Zhuzhou had ignored them!
They would rather have provoked Xie Zhuzhou, hoping he would look at them with disgust and contempt.
But class was about to start. Feeling regretful, everyone returned to their seats and began whispering to one another again.
Li Yankai arrived rather late. As soon as he sat beside him, he asked why he hadn't checked the dorm group chat or answered his calls.
Xie Zhuzhou took a look, and sure enough, several contacts had sent messages, but their notifications were all muted.
Without the little red dots, he had unconsciously ignored them.
The people whose notifications he muted were all usually very chatty. Xie Zhuzhou couldn't handle it, so he had changed the settings.
Feeling that he owed Li Yankai, he said, "Lunch is on me."
Seeing that he was actually still in the mood to eat, Li Yankai felt a breath catch in his chest, unable to move up or down.
"No, seriously, don't you care that they're saying you bullied people?"
"They don't have any evidence."
Besides, such groundless rumors on campus were easy to deal with. So, just after Li Yankai finished speaking, around that very time, the school took the initiative to clarify matters. They also identified the two troublemaking rumor spreaders, gave them major demerits and disciplinary penalties, and nearly expelled them.
After seeing the news on the campus website, Li Yankai looked back at Xie Zhuzhou with an entirely different gaze. "Zhou, you... you, your family must be incredibly powerful, right?"
What kind of speed was this? In the past, the school dragged its feet even on matters that were easy to resolve, but Xie Zhuzhou's case had taken only one night! Not only had the rumors about him been cleared up, but the people spreading the news and slandering him had been caught too.
Watching Li Yankai grin with innocent delight, Xie Zhuzhou thought, It wasn't entirely slander.
Li Yankai's eyes held excitement. This time, he was certain without a shred of hesitation: Xie Zhuzhou definitely had a powerful background!
God, he had such an impressive roommate! He felt a little reflected glory himself!
Xie Zhuzhou knew his life was almost entirely under surveillance. If he slipped out of their sight for even a moment, he would probably be secretly abducted.
In fact, there were far too many dirty methods of coercion. He could already list several himself.
At noon, Xie Zhuzhou and Li Yankai went to the cafeteria for lunch, and everyone's looks toward him changed again and again.
From disdain, contempt, and loathing, they turned to envy, jealousy, and fear.
After this incident, the identities of dating show bully and wealthy-family bully were no longer enough. Now he had acquired another identity: campus bully.
Even though the rumors had been cleared up, there were always people who believed there was no smoke without fire and that flies didn't land on seamless eggs. After all sorts of speculation, they finally concluded that Xie Zhuzhou's backing must be so powerful that he could casually find two scapegoats.
Thinking that way, even fewer people on campus dared provoke him.
Xie Zhuzhou: ...
Fine, then. You could never have too many skills.
Compared with being called a bully or a villain, Xie Zhuzhou disliked being a sickly, cowardly person even more. So having these labels attached to him actually pleased him.
After all, to some extent, this was the result of his own hard work.
By now, probably no one would believe that deep down, he was actually a bit of a coward, and had even suffered from social anxiety when he first entered the working world.
Now, wherever Xie Zhuzhou went on campus, a large space would clear around him.
There was really no need to be so considerate. This was treatment reserved for princes and generals.
He hadn't gone far before someone said, "I was wondering why An Xinian used to let someone like that pester him. Turns out he had no choice and didn't dare resist. After all, the guy has money and power."
"Exactly. Now he's tired of playing with An Xinian, so he just dumped him."
"What a scumbag!"
"Poor campus heartthrob. Sigh..."
Xie Zhuzhou: ...
This seemed impossible to clear up.
Whatever. A scumbag it was, then.
Walking beside him, Li Yankai finally couldn't resist asking, "Bro, you didn't, did you?"
Xie Zhuzhou frowned. "It shouldn't really count as being that much of a scumbag..." At least he hadn't tossed them aside after having his way with them. The original owner hadn't even copped a feel of any of those men.
Li Yankai stared at him in shock. "Bro, you... men really do turn bad once they have money!"
"Nonsense."
But it didn't make much difference. At school, he had merely gone from a simp to a scumbag. Essentially, he was still the center of campus gossip.
He had been condemned before, and he was still being condemned now.
Meanwhile.
An Xinian wasn't faring much better. Everyone at school looked at him like a fallen young man! As though he were a respectable man whom Xie Zhuzhou had forced himself on!
Xie Zhuzhou had toyed with his feelings, yes, but he still didn't want to admit he had been abandoned!
So he went to Xie Zhuzhou's dorm. Xie Zhuzhou had also just returned to take an afternoon nap, and saw An Xinian barge into the room, his eyes filled with anger and irritation.
Then this man who was like a ball of fire grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away.
Everyone's view of An Xinian: a little white flower.
Everyone's view of Xie Zhuzhou: a bully, a mountain bandit.
Xie Zhuzhou felt a little rueful. He wasn't even the rugged-looking type.
And where were his eldest brother's bodyguards? Did their duties not include handling romantic disputes?