"Gu Yang, you are simply out of control!"
Gu Yang stood silently by the office wall, his lips moving: "He threw the first punch!"
Standing before him was a pretty female teacher wearing black-rimmed glasses. At this moment, she was glaring at Gu Yang with furious eyes.
"Why did he hit you and not anyone else?"
Gu Yang froze, pursed his lips, and stared silently at the ceiling, ignoring the teacher altogether.
The teacher turned her head to look at another boy standing right next to Gu Yang. Only his face was swollen, bruised in shades of blue and purple.
"Zhang Xiang, how are you? Do you want to go to the nurse's office to get that checked?"
The female teacher's expression, which had been brimming with irrepressible fury, instantly transformed into the kindness and gentleness expected of a teacher the moment she looked at Zhang Xiang.
"No need, Teacher Li, I can go in a little while!"
Teacher Li nodded, then turned her head back to fix her fiercely sharp gaze on Gu Yang.
"Three years of high school, and the college entrance exams are right around the corner. Gu Yang, what on earth are you trying to do? I've already called your father. Just you wait!"
"Knock, knock, knock!"
"Hello, I am Zhang Xiang's father, Zhang Weiping. This is..."
At that moment, a man walked into the office.
Teacher Li immediately stood up with a beaming smile and reached out to shake his hand.
"You must be Chairman Zhang Weiping..."
Before Teacher Li could finish, however, Zhang Weiping had already spotted the state his son Zhang Xiang was in.
"What the hell? What happened here? Son, tell Dad, what is the meaning of this? Who beat you up like this?"
As soon as Zhang Xiang saw his old man Zhang Weiping arrive, he stepped forward and tearfully recounted what had happened.
Zhang Weiping's eyes blazed with anger, his face contorted as he stared at Gu Yang. He was trembling all over with fury. But remembering that this was a school, Zhang Weiping forced himself to swallow his immense rage.
"Teacher Li, we said it from the start: as the school's key priority class, you shouldn't be accepting transfer students like this. To top it off, a 23-year-old transfer student—how many times have we parents hinted at this or said it outright? Yet why did you stubbornly refuse to listen? Now look at this! My son has been beaten to a pulp, and the college entrance exams are just days away. If you don't give me a satisfactory explanation for this, I won't let this rest!"
Hearing Zhang Weiping's words, delivered with suppressed rage and absolute finality, Teacher Li scrambled to apologize. "I am so sorry, Chairman Zhang, about this situation... Please rest assured, I've already called the other party's parents."
Chairman Zhang sneered, staring straight at Gu Yang. "I want to see what kind of parents could possibly raise a kid like this. I was already married at 23, and I can see he'll never amount to anything. He might as well go outside and pick up trash where he belongs."
With that, he cast a contemptuous glance at the Pinduoduo outfit Gu Yang was wearing.
Teacher Li chuckled awkwardly and nodded. "Indeed, at 23, goodness knows what goes through Gu Yang's family's heads. The principal arranged for him to be placed here while I was away on a business trip, or I would never have taken in trash like this."
Zhang Weiping sat down casually in the chair Teacher Li had just vacated. Teacher Li eagerly poured him a cup of water, then looked over at Zhang Xiang standing on the side and hurriedly said, "Come on, child, come sit down for a bit, don't wear yourself out!"
Zhang Xiang nodded, curled his lips in a mocking sneer at Gu Yang, and walked over to take a seat.
Zhang Weiping lit a cigarette, exhaling a plume of smoke with an expression of supreme satisfaction. He narrowed his eyes through the haze, staring fixedly at Gu Yang.
"This punk's got quite an attitude. Who are you putting that stony face on for?"
Teacher Li immediately reprimanded Gu Yang. "Gu Yang, this is Chairman Zhang, the chairman of our city's Zhang Group! Wipe that look off your face!"
A stampede of profanities echoed through Gu Yang's mind. Seeing Zhang Xiang sit down, he promptly found a chair and seated himself as well.
A flash of anger crossed Teacher Li's eyes; Gu Yang's completely dismissive action had utterly infuriated her.
"Stand up! Who told you to sit down!?"
The other teachers in the office had been watching the show from the sidelines all along. At this, they began to murmur amongst themselves in low voices.
"This Gu Yang really is completely lawless!"
"You're telling me! He even dares to hit the young master of the Zhang Group. I heard he only got in through the back door anyway."
"Look at those cheap clothes he's wearing; his family background must be terrible. Now that he's hit Young Master Zhang, I reckon his family won't be able to pay for this even if they smash their pots and sell their iron."
"Good thing he's not in our class, what a headache that would be. Teacher Li has really had some terrible luck!"
"Ha, you said it!"
"..."
The whispers reached Teacher Li's ears. Seeing Gu Yang acting as though she didn't exist drove her into an even greater fit of trembling rage. Yet facing Gu Yang—who stood six-foot-one with a crew cut, striking features, and an ice-cold expression—she didn't actually dare to lay a hand on him.
She could only glare fiercely at Gu Yang. "Gu Yang, did you not hear me speaking? I told you to get up!"
Gu Yang remained entirely unresponsive.
"Fine, fine, fine, you won't stand up, is that it? Huh? You refuse to get up?"
As she spoke, Teacher Li cast her eyes wildly around the room, searching for something to use as a weapon.
Zhang Weiping hurriedly advised, "Forget it, Teacher Li, why waste your breath on a piece of trash like him? We'll settle my son's matter with cash—500,000 will do!"
"Gasp..." Every single teacher present drew in a sharp breath. Even Teacher Li, still scanning the room for an implement, was struck dumb.
"500,000?!"
Zhang Weiping glanced dismissively at Teacher Li and the other teachers in the office. "Is 500,000 a lot? That's not even enough for a single meal of mine!"
"Gasp..." Everyone stared at Zhang Weiping in shock. They knew the Zhang Group was wealthy, but Zhang Weiping casually dropped 500,000 on a single meal! That was 500,000—enough for a down payment on a 200-square-meter luxury flat at Zhang Real Estate!
Just as Teacher Li was about to speak, a towering, heavily built man burst through the doorway.
He stood at an estimated seven feet tall, with arms thicker than Zhang Weiping's thighs. His muscles rippled beneath a tight white tank top, revealing a body covered in tattoos. A thick gold chain hung around his bald neck, swaying back and forth as he moved, and he wore dark sunglasses over his eyes.
The moment everyone laid eyes on the man's appearance, they all jumped in fright, their legs turning so weak they couldn't even move.
Seeing the fiercely menacing brute striding directly toward him, Teacher Li hurriedly reached out to steady herself against a nearby desk, her teeth chattering slightly as she asked, "Wh... wh... who are you looking for?"
The big man pushed his sunglasses up onto his forehead.
The ruthless, terrifying glare in his eyes made Teacher Li's legs instantly lock tight together.
"Who the fuck am I looking for? Are you the fucking Teacher Li?"
As he spoke, he cast a sideways glance at Gu Yang.
Yet Gu Yang's previously indifferent expression suddenly knitted into a deep frown.
"Ah? I... I... I suppose so!"
The big man paused in surprise; he naturally possessed a menacing appearance. In that moment of distraction, he happened to narrow his eyes, scaring Teacher Li so badly she collapsed backward into her chair.
Zhang Weiping had already jumped to his feet, shielding Zhang Xiang as he retreated to the side. Fierce-looking or not, just the sheer murderous aura radiating from this man was something ordinary people simply didn't possess. Zhang Weiping had traveled far and wide and seen all sorts of people; one look at this fellow told him this was a man with blood on his hands!