Chapter 14: Campus Rumors

“Has the school been giving you a hard time?”

After saying this, Wen Yu looked away. Noticing that Wen Xiao was standing two or three steps away from him, this distance made him feel inexplicably uneasy. The hand he had just stretched out quietly retracted.

Though he wanted to reach out and pat his younger brother’s head, he feared it might startle him.

Wen Xiao obediently shook his head.

“Have you been waiting here the whole time?” Wen Xiao knew the season was turning cold, and they had just spent at least a class period in the reception room.

Wen Yu had already skipped class that morning; was he going to skip the afternoon as well?

“I came after class,” Wen Yu said with a slight cough. Of course, he wouldn’t tell Wen Xiao he had been waiting outside for an entire class.

Knowing his brother had been called to the office for fighting, how could he stay put in the classroom?

When Wen Yu looked at Wen Xiao again, his tone was more serious than usual: “Don’t fight at school anymore. And if you see others fighting, don’t go near.”

Wen Xiao nodded, “Got it. I’ll head back to class now.”

As he walked away, he thought maybe Wen Yu still felt he was a burden to the family.

After all, getting involved in a fight meant if any trouble arose, they’d have to clean it up.

That was why Wen Yu warned him so sternly—to stay far away from trouble. He himself wanted to know why, despite wanting to avoid trouble, he kept getting dragged into it. The more he tried to stay away, the more entangled he became.

Wen Yu stared at his departing figure. He wanted to say something more but ran out of time, frustratedly scratching his head.

When his brother was born, he had arrived earlier than expected, seemingly eager to enter the world.

But because he was premature, his health was fragile. Their parents had kept him confined to the room for a long time.

No vigorous exercise, no risky activities; even handling sharp objects made them nervous, increasingly shielding him from the outside world.

Gradually, his personality grew dull and withdrawn.

Preventing him from fighting was more about fearing he’d get hurt.

At first, their parents opposed sending him to Slant School, preferring a place with better care.

Wen Yu didn’t want his brother to feel special, different from others, or even denied a normal school experience.

But he had fought hard with their parents—and had his own selfish reasons.

Slant was a school with all grades combined; if his brother studied there, he could stay nearby for a long time and watch over him. This was his promise to their parents.

He hoped Xiao Xiao would be a bit happier when he returned home to see the kitten.

Wen Xiao stepped into the classroom and found it noisy. After a moment of adjustment, it seemed less loud. Used to a quiet life, a bit of noise felt more like the warmth of everyday life.

Of course, this didn’t include the attention-seeking troublemakers who came over for no reason.

Just as he sat down at his desk, one such troublemaker approached.

“Didn’t I do pretty well just now?” Huo Zhanyan, whose injuries had long been treated by the school nurse, now only showed some swelling on his face.

Wen Xiao didn’t understand this eager-for-praise attitude, as if he were the one who had Huo Zhanyan beaten up.

“What performance? You lying flat on the ground getting beaten?” Wen Xiao said, then turned his head, showing no desire to engage, and noticed the empty desk beside him.

Song Jingbai hadn’t returned.

Wen Xiao frowned. He hadn’t seen Song Jingbai when returning to the teaching building. Normally, this wasn’t his concern; whatever happened to Song Jingbai was none of his business.

But the more he thought about it—before, earlier, and even now—he found himself increasingly worried.

So where had Song Jingbai gone?

“You can’t just see me getting beaten!” Huo Zhanyan added, “And you helped me, so you don’t want to see me get beaten either, right?”

Wen Xiao’s head ached. How on earth had Huo Zhanyan guessed he didn’t want to watch?

Especially now, with both sides of Huo Zhanyan’s face swollen—one side still healing, the other newly bruised—his eyes were squinted with pride.

He truly looked like a pig-headed fool.

Some people just had inexplicable confidence from childhood. If it had been another kid getting beaten, Wen Xiao might have stepped in too.

And it was only because Huo Zhanyan was fighting Wei Chuan; if it were someone else, he’d be hoping Huo Zhanyan got pinned to the ground.

Huo Zhanyan plopped down on the chair of the student in front of Wen Xiao, who stood awkwardly beside him, unable to find a chance to speak despite several attempts.

“Do I care if you got beaten? Get up and give the seat back…” Wen Xiao’s eyelids twitched violently as he almost flipped the desk.

Thinking about today’s incident, he was glad it was Huo Zhanyan. With other classmates, the threat to have him expelled by the school wasn’t empty talk.

He couldn’t believe that at such a young age, some would bully others, relying on their family’s influence to act with impunity.

Huo Zhanyan stood up but didn’t move far from Wen Xiao’s desk, rubbing his nose before asking, “So, are we friends now?”

“No.” Wen Xiao felt his head ache more and more, sensing why Huo Zhanyan was so obsessed with that word. Understanding his motive darkened his expression.

Because what Huo Zhanyan wanted wasn’t friendship, but a possessive need to have what others had.

He probably didn’t even know what friendship meant.

Wen Xiao suddenly recalled Song Jingbai telling him last time that students who ranked at the bottom in exams had to clean the classrooms, but Huo Zhanyan didn’t strike him as the cleaning type.

“Do you clean the classroom?”

Wen Xiao’s sudden question caught Huo Zhanyan off guard, who instinctively replied, “No, why would I sweep?”

“But you were at the bottom in the monthly exam, right? Why don’t you have to?”

“I have others clean for me,” Huo Zhanyan said matter-of-factly, making Wen Xiao chuckle coldly inside.

What a young master who liked to boss others around to do his chores.

Noticing Wen Xiao’s gaze, Huo Zhanyan lowered his voice and said sincerely, “Don’t misunderstand, they all volunteer.”

“Volunteer? I think your brain was willingly kicked to the curb!” Wen Xiao thought to himself. There was no way it was voluntary; Huo Zhanyan probably coerced others into cleaning for him.

“If you have others do your own work, don’t expect them to do favors for you.”

After Huo Zhanyan moved aside, Wen Xiao’s view cleared, and he noticed a desk in the front row was empty.

Not just the desktop—it was empty inside, and the backpack was gone.

He thought long and hard, a familiar face flashing through his mind.

The kid who, under Wei Chuan’s orders, had slipped a bag with a dead cat into Wei Nanxing’s desk, and who had just testified for him in the office, directly naming Wei Chuan as the instigator.

Thinking this through, Wen Xiao approached other students near that desk to inquire.

“He packed up and left just now; I don’t know where he went,” a young girl shook her head.

“Was he expelled?”

“I think I saw his parents coming to handle the withdrawal paperwork just now. It must be true.”

Wen Xiao snapped back from their conversation, disbelief flooding his mind. They were the ones who had beaten Wei Chuan—how could someone else be the one expelled?

He hurried out of the classroom, pushed open the office door, and saw someone familiar still sitting inside Wen Xulai’s office.

Wen Xulai looked surprised, “Wen Xiao, what are you doing here?”

“Teacher, is that student really expelled?” Wen Xiao struggled to find his voice.

He had considered countless possibilities but finally settled on his initial suspicion—that to protect the reputations of the Wei and Huo families, someone else was being made a scapegoat.

If that was true, then no matter what, they were in the wrong.

Wen Xulai nodded, “Yes, and that was his parents’ decision.”

Seeing Wen Xiao’s increasingly troubled expression, he patted his shoulder in consolation.

The principal, sitting nearby, sipped his tea and smiled warmly, “But he wasn’t expelled because of today’s incident.”

Wen Xiao was stunned. The principal put down his teacup and crouched before him.

His hair was nearly all white, his face lined with the marks of time, but his smile was kind and reassuring.

“Slant School is a special school. Because of its uniqueness, many parents want to send their children here without considering whether the child is suited to the environment...”

Wen Xiao quickly understood. Though Slant didn’t have many students, each grade had around three hundred.

Leaving aside the four great families, even the other students came from notable families across various fields.

It was precisely because of the school’s uniqueness that so many wanted their children here. If children could build a network early on, their future opportunities would multiply.

Many families planned this way.

Wen Xiao recalled the two encounters he had had with the other boy.

Sensitive, timid, introverted—if it had been a carefree child, it might have been fine. But for this boy, in an environment that constantly reminded him of his shortcomings, it only suppressed him further, making him afraid to speak up.

The more meek and silent he appeared, the more vulnerable he became to bullying, and his unstable traits were magnified.

The principal saw Wen Xiao’s expression and smiled, “Looks like you understand now.”

Wen Xiao nodded, no longer questioning, and bowed politely before leaving. Just as he reached the door, he heard the principal’s voice again.

“He seemed relaxed when he left school. I’m sure he’ll become a happy child.”

Back in the classroom, Wen Xiao looked at the empty desk of Song Jingbai and paused at the doorway.

A somewhat absurd thought crossed his mind: could Song Jingbai think he was responsible for that student’s expulsion and be hiding away out of guilt?

He thought of Song Jingbai’s ever-present smile and those slightly squinted, fox-like eyes—gentle yet cunning.

The idea that such guilt would show on Song Jingbai’s face was already far-fetched.

He remembered a rumor from his past life about someone suddenly running upstairs, all the way to the rooftop, gasping for breath.

In his memory, the Slant forum was full of gossip and preferences about the F4 group, some true, some false, but worth a fortune to girls at the neighboring school who were desperate to buy it.