Chapter 142 Going Too Far

"Damn bitch, giving you face and you don't want it!"

Inside the dormitory, Wu Shuai smashed a water cup in anger, hysterically cursing Su Yingxue in front of his roommates.

After gaining some power in the student union, Wu Shuai had directly negotiated with his classmates to change rooms, transferring out three ordinary roommates and bringing in three of his own die-hard buddies. Combined with another good friend already in the room, all five of his current roommates were his own people.

Usually, the five of them followed Wu Shuai's lead blindly. Now that Wu Shuai's pride had been wounded by Su Yingxue, they naturally chimed in, saying all sorts of things to back him up.

The guy who had played the guitar at the hometown association gathering to "attract jade with a brick" chimed in to comfort him: "Wu Shuai, since that woman doesn't know what's good for her, there's no need to lower yourself to her level. There are still plenty of beauties among this year's freshmen; no need to waste your energy on just one person."

Wu Shuai asked with fierce hostility: "Among this year's freshmen, who can compare to Su Yingxue?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the other five could only look at each other in silence.

Su Yingxue was indeed the absolute cream of the crop among the more than two thousand undergraduate freshmen at Renmin University this year. Not just among the freshmen, but even upperclassmen couldn't compare to her. Such an ultimate beauty—countless men secretly dreamed of getting their hands on her. Wu Shuai fancied himself different from the rest, believing his advantages were too numerous to count, yet all his supposed merits were worthless in Su Yingxue's eyes.

No, Su Yingxue had never even deigned to look at him. Her eyes seemed to hold only that Li Mu who came from the same place as her.

Whenever Wu Shuai thought of a fifth-tier city like Haizhou, he would twist his mind and curse inwardly: People from small towns really have no ambition. Do they all only dare to look for partners right in their own backyards?

The other five roommates didn't know how to comfort Wu Shuai anymore, so they could only repeatedly hand him cigarettes and accompany him in blowing smoke inside the dorm.

After a few cigarettes, Wu Shuai suddenly stood up, gritted his teeth, and said, "Fine! Since you're forcing me to play dirty, don't blame me for playing along. It doesn't matter if you won't let me have you, you won't have an easy time either. And nobody else is getting their hands on you either!"

Hearing this, the rest of the dorm instantly perked up and eagerly asked, "Just say the word, Xiao Shuai. How are we doing this?"

Wu Shuai let out a sinister laugh: "Take it slow. I have plenty of ways! Su Yingxue, and that Li Mu too—neither of them is going to have a good time! If you dare to mess with me at Renmin University, I'll make sure you can't survive here!"

...

That evening, Liu Nian, the youngest member of Dormitory 606, suddenly returned with red eyes and sat quietly in his chair, looking depressed.

Li Mu and Xue Jianfeng had gone to the gym. Li Yawei and Hu Zhengdao were also out. Sun Jian asked Liu Nian, "Little Nian, what's wrong with you? You look so unhappy."

Liu Nian turned his head, his face full of anger, and said, "Boss, those upperclassmen are going way too far!"

Hearing this, Sun Jian immediately grew anxious and blurted out, "What happened? Who bullied you?"

Liu Nian was the youngest in the dorm, the skinniest, and came from a less fortunate family background. The other five took good care of him, and Sun Jian, acting as the eldest, cared about him even more. Hearing that Liu Nian had been bullied made his temper flare up like dry firewood, igniting instantly.

Liu Nian gritted his teeth and said, "Didn't Wu Shuai from the student union post online that the student union's 'Aid Association' was recruiting for work-study positions? I happened to see it yesterday using Third Brother's computer and submitted my application. This afternoon, they sent word to our class telling me to go over for an interview after class, but as soon as I got there, they rejected me, saying I didn't meet the requirements."

Sun Jian asked him, "What did they say? What requirement do you not meet?"

"I meet every single requirement," Liu Nian said with red eyes. "I applied to be an assistant in Qiuzhen Building, which just involves organizing some documents and handling mail. They didn't have many requirements, just that you had to be meticulous—and I'm very careful. They also required basic office software skills, and I learned computer science in high school, so that's not a problem for me either. Most importantly, they said these work-study positions give priority to impoverished students, and I actually have a poverty certification issued by our county's Civil Affairs Bureau."

With that, Liu Nian took a handwritten document out of a plastic file bag. Unable to hold back his tears, they began to drip down as he sobbed, "I showed them the certification too. Besides, this position is for three people, and hardly anyone even applied. But after looking at my information, they directly told me I wasn't qualified. They even said with a face like mine, if I really went to work part-time in Qiuzhen Building, teachers would be scared to death. And another guy, after looking at my poverty certificate, said someone like me shouldn't even come to Beijing for university—coming here to study when my family is so poor makes me a beast who doesn't care whether my parents live or die..."

At first, when Sun Jian heard that Liu Nian had been rejected, he didn't think much of it. Work-study was a form of job, and since it was a job, it wasn't enough for you to just think you were capable; the employer had to think so too. Liu Nian was probably just young and unable to take setbacks.

But after hearing the rest of what he said, Sun Jian blew his top! Anyone could hear that this wasn't an ordinary rejection; this was standard personal attack!

Moreover, as Sun Jian listened, he was looking at Liu Nian's poverty certificate. It stated that the annual income of their family of six was less than 3,000 yuan. Damn it, 3,000 yuan wasn't even enough for a student's living expenses in Beijing for a year! Although he knew Liu Nian's financial situation wasn't great, he had never imagined it could be this bad. Because of this, his indignation over Liu Nian's treatment flared up even more.

"Which bastard said that? What the hell, do they have any shred of decency? Let's go find them and demand an explanation! If they don't give us a satisfactory answer, we'll take this all the way to the Academic Affairs Office. I refuse to believe the school would shield and condone such scumbags!"

With that, Sun Jian grabbed Liu Nian and tried to pull him out the door.

Crying, Liu Nian pushed his hand away, wiped his tears, and continued, "I was really angry at first, but I didn't dare to confront them directly, so I just left. I didn't expect one of the student union guys to chase after me and quietly tell me that my qualifications actually met all the requirements, and the only reason they wouldn't let me work was because of Brother Mu."

Sun Jian froze.

"Li Mu? What does this have to do with him?"

Liu Nian said with red eyes, "He said Brother Mu offended someone, and anyone from our dorm won't have an easy time at school from now on."

"Fucking bastards!" Sun Jian smashed his fist onto the desk. "These upperclassmen are going way too far! Just wait, I'm calling them right now!"

"Don't!" Liu Nian hastily wiped his tears and said, "Big Brother, I just felt a bit wronged inside, but I'm fine now. Don't tell them."

"How can I not tell them? They've bullied their way right onto our 606 doorstep. Can we just let this go?"

Panicking, Liu Nian said, "They didn't actually do anything to me physically; they just said some mean things. It's useless to look for them or the school. I went to one of their student union offices, and it was full of their own people. If they turn around and deny what they said, what can we do?"

Saying this, Liu Nian's tears started falling again: "Besides, the more this kind of thing blows up, the more humiliating it is for me. Forget it."

Sun Jian looked at Liu Nian, feeling so frustrated inside he thought he would explode. It felt as though his own younger brother had been slapped across the face. Yet, what Liu Nian said also made sense; going to confront them or appealing to the school administration would be pointless. It was just a verbal conflict with no proof, and they could easily turn the tables and accuse his side of framing them. Furthermore, if such a matter blew up, the one who would suffer the most harm was indeed Liu Nian himself.

Sun Jian sighed and said, "Fine, I won't be impulsive. But they still need to know about this. Here, I'll call them back so we can discuss what to do together."

At that moment, Xue Jianfeng was working on bench presses in the gym. Li Mu took a moment to drop off a custom-made item at Yucheng Garden, then went for a half-hour run, rested for over ten minutes, and headed to the swimming pool. Hu Zhengdao was working at McDonald's, and Li Yawei was accompanying Han Xiaoxiao for a meal. Sun Jian called them one by one, implying that someone was bullying Liu Nian and bullying Dormitory 606, though without going into specific details, simply telling everyone to return as soon as possible.

Xue Jianfeng hurried to the swimming pool to find Li Mu, knowing his phone must be in the locker. Hu Zhengdao also rushed to ask his shift manager for leave; despite getting chewed out, he managed to get it approved, hurriedly changed his clothes, and rushed back. Li Yawei abandoned Han Xiaoxiao mid-meal and hailed an unlicensed taxi back to campus.

Li Mu had just swum two laps in the pool when Xue Jianfeng shouted from the edge: "Li Mu, let's go! There's an emergency back at the dorm!"

Li Mu stood in the water and asked, "What happened?"

"Liu Nian got bullied!"

Li Mu used both hands to push himself up from the edge of the pool, hoisting himself out. Running toward the locker room, he said, "Give me five minutes!"

...

Since the start of the semester, Dormitory 606 was enveloped in a tense and oppressive atmosphere for the first time.

After listening to Sun Jian recount the whole story, Xue Jianfeng suddenly sprang to his feet and said to Liu Nian, "Take me to them. Tell me who said those things, and I'll beat the living daylights out of the bastard!"

Hu Zhengdao and Li Yawei also expressed their anger one after another. Li Yawei said irritably, "Damn it, going back five generations, my family are local tyrants in Beijing. Anyone daring to bully my brothers doesn't want to live anymore!"

Only Li Mu remained expressionless as he waved his hand, saying, "Everyone, calm down."

"Calm down? How can we calm down!" Li Yawei shouted at Li Mu, "Brother Mu, those people are clearly targeting you. Can you swallow this anger?"

Li Mu retorted, "Then what do you propose we do? Go beat them up? If we throw the first punch in this situation, there will only be one outcome: the entire dorm gets disciplined."

Knowing that Li Mu always seemed to possess a mysterious foresight beyond ordinary people, Xue Jianfeng asked him, "Li Mu, what do you say we do?"

Li Mu knew that Wu Shuai was entirely using this incident to cause trouble for him. Failing to find a breakthrough directly with him, Wu Shuai had targeted the entire Dormitory 606 instead. He stood up and said indifferently, "They are clearly targeting me, which is why they're targeting you guys as well. In the future, whenever you fall into their hands or need something where they hold leverage, they'll seize the opportunity to retaliate. So right now, all we can do is give them as little opportunity as possible."

With that, Li Mu asked the others, "Does anyone know what Wu Shuai does in the student union?"

Liu Nian said, "I've looked into it a bit. He's currently a core member of the student union and one of the core members of the 'Aid Association'. The 'Aid Association' is quite famous at Renmin University. Aside from securing financial aid positions from the school, they've also signed agreements with external companies and enterprises to introduce off-campus part-time jobs for students. Quite a few people have found part-time work through the Aid Association now."

Sun Jian nodded and added, "Wu Shuai has quite a reputation in school. This organization called the Aid Association is currently trying to make waves with work-study programs, boosting their impression scores among the school, the student union, and school leaders by helping fellow students..."

Li Mu frowned. Just by looking at it, anyone could tell that this bastard was doing this merely to fish for fame and compliments. Young as he was, he certainly had political savvy. Dealing with a character like this probably wouldn't be easy using ordinary methods.