Chapter 14

Chapter 14

After posting, Shen Lin disappeared from the thread without another word.

A real man never looks back.

Sixteen-year-old Shen Lin casually tossed his phone aside. However, this carefree moment lasted only three minutes before he anxiously checked the forum, his eyes fixed on the replies.

With every compliment about Shen Yan, he smiled like a bright sunflower, as if the compliments were for him.

His grin stretched wide, he accidentally pulled at his wound and hissed lightly in pain.

Where there are people, there will always be those who spout jealous sarcasm. Shen Lin reported every one of them.

He was still cursing when he was forced to log out due to too many reports, his account flagged for unusual activity.

What a lousy forum.

*

"Bro, why do this yourself? Why not get a few people to handle it? Why bother coming here in person?" Lu Zhao squatted on the curb, lighting a cigarette.

He asked again, "Bro, want one?"

Dressed in black and wearing a mask that revealed only his dark eyes, Hu Chengyu gave him a brief, indifferent glance. "No."

Lu Zhao looked at the nearby bar. "When is that guy coming out? Damn it, I was planning to get back for a ranked match."

As if the heavens heard his complaint, a few men stumbled out of the bar, arms wrapped around hot women.

Hu Chengyu kicked him lightly. "Let's go."

Humming a tune, Bai Qian was in a good mood as he walked to the car door, only to be seized from behind, his mouth and nose covered, and dragged into a dark alley.

The area was dimly lit, and no one noticed the slight disturbance.

"Tch, he's really heavy," Lu Zhao shook his hand, disgusted. "Stinks to hell."

Bai Qian stank of alcohol, cheap perfume, and sticky sweat.

Lu Zhao couldn't help but feel an urge to vomit.

"Hey, how many days since you last showered?"

Having drunk a lot and unable to see clearly in the dark, Bai Qian cursed, "Who the hell are you? Do you even know who I am? You dare to touch me—ugh!"

Before he could finish, he was kicked in the chest, slamming into the wall behind him, the dizziness nearly making him vomit.

"Who told you to target Shen Yan?" Hu Chengyu got straight to the point, without wasting words.

Lu Zhao's eyes gleamed in the dark alley. Why is my brother handling this himself?

Isn't this usually my job?

Hearing Shen Yan's name, Bai Qian sobered up a bit, his tone defensive. "What are you talking about? I don't understand. You've got the wrong person, right?"

As he tried to push himself up using the wall, Lu Zhao stomped on his shoulder. "You didn't take the opportunity. So we'll have to use other means."

Muffled groans and the sound of fists followed, enough to make one's scalp prickle.

"Can we talk properly now?"

Bai Qian's eyes quickly swelled up. When Lu Zhao was beating him earlier, he had wanted to speak, but his mouth was tightly stuffed.

"N-no one instructed me, it's his family who stole our business," Bai Qian mumbled unclearly.

After forcing more answers out of him, Lu Zhao turned to look at Hu Chengyu.

Hu Chengyu: "Call an ambulance."

Before Bai Qian could grasp what he meant, his vision went dark and he fainted.

Disgustedly, Lu Zhao pulled out Bai Qian's phone from his pocket, pressed Bai Qian's finger to unlock it, and dialed an emergency call.

Only after hearing the sound of the approaching ambulance did Hu Chengyu and Lu Zhao leave.

The two weren't particularly kind-hearted; they were just worried that if they left first, someone else might finish the job, and the trouble would fall on them.

This concern wasn't unfounded.

As they walked away, another person emerged from the other side of the deep alley, also dressed in black and wearing a fisherman's hat, with not even their eyes visible.

Looking at Bai Qian lying on the ground, the person said regretfully, "Just a step too late."

They nudged Bai Qian's head with their toe and, upon hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, sighed softly, "You got lucky."

Before being discovered, they quickly left.

*

On their way back to the dorm, Hu Chengyu and Lu Zhao grabbed some dinner.

As they walked, Lu Zhao looked at his phone. "Bro, have you checked the forum?"

"Shen Lin called Yan Yan just to take a photo of some awards in his room. When did that brat start showing off so much about his brother?"

"They used to clash. I remember one year, because you gave Yan Yan a butterfly, he went and caught a bunch of colorful bugs, saying they would turn into beautiful butterflies. He placed them in Yan Yan's room."

"Yan Yan was so frightened that she had to stay in the hospital for another half-month. She was only about ten years old at the time..."

Hu Chengyu listened to Lu Zhao's stories about their childhood with a good mood.

Especially when he saw the awards and trophies on the forum, his lips curled slightly.

The kid was really outstanding.

There was one more thing that needed clarification?

Hu Chengyu found an account he had registered a long time ago, started a new thread, and posted a clarification.

This clarification shocked quite a few people.

Not only the students at A University who knew Hu Chengyu, but also many of his peers in Jing City's business circle.

Lu Zhao was scrolling through his phone when he saw the clarification and exclaimed, "Holy crap, bro!!!"

"Bro, I didn't know you were a big brother type."

Hu Chengyu snorted. "What kind of brother do I seem like? That kid only has eyes for Brother Lu Zhao."

Lu Zhao: ...

Lu Zhao chose to ignore him and continued browsing the forum.

It was a bit frightening how Huo Chengyu would quibble over even a single form of address.

"My god, is this really Huo Chengyu?"

"He posted under his real name, so someone can't be pretending to be him, right?"

"Does Huo Chengyu know that our forum allows anonymous posts?"

"If it were anonymous, someone might snidely suggest it was Shen Yan pretending to be him. It’s good this way, who dares to question it now?"

"I went to the same high school as Shen Yan. Due to his health issues, he rarely attended school, but he never missed an important exam and always topped the grade. When I first saw the post, I thought it was absurd and spoke my mind, only to be hounded for it. It’s so satisfying to see the reversal now!"

"Are you in the wrong thread? This is Huo Chengyu’s clarification post."

"Who dares to say Yan Yan is clingy now? Huo Chengyu himself admitted he applied for the dorm room!"

...

Lu Zhao found it odd and asked, "Bro, did you really apply for Yan Yan’s dorm room?"

Huo Chengyu: "Fake."

Lu Zhao pouted and muttered under his breath, "I thought so. You don’t seem like the type to do something like that behind the scenes."

As they walked across a bridge over the water, someone passed by them quickly and accidentally bumped into Lu Zhao.

Lu Zhao dropped his phone, which fell to the ground.

The person quickly bent down to pick it up and said, "Sorry, let me check if it’s damaged."

The person gave an apologetic smile, their eyes curved, revealing a canine tooth while smiling.

Under the streetlight, his handsome features were visible, instantly evoking words like "sunny" and "cheerful."

Lu Zhao took the phone, saw only a bit of dust on it, and not a single crack.

Despite being bumped, Lu Zhao couldn’t bring himself to be angry and shook the phone, saying, "It’s fine, be more careful next time."

The boy in black apologized repeatedly, only leaving after confirming Lu Zhao wasn’t upset.

Lu Zhao: "No wonder so many younger girls are smitten with Xie Shiyu. He’s good-looking and polite."

"But why is he wearing black clothes and a black hat at night? It really doesn’t match his face."

But it was a matter of personal preference, and Lu Zhao didn’t say more.

However, Huo Chengyu had been staring at Xie Shiyu’s retreating figure the whole time.

Lu Zhao called out to Huo Chengyu, "Bro? What are you looking at?"

"Do you know him?"

Lu Zhao laughed, "Bro, this is the first time you’ve shown such clear interest in someone."

"Xie Shiyu, he is also a student mentored by Boss Cheng, but he hasn’t come to class these past few days due to some personal matters.

"What? Brother, you’ve never agreed to Yan Yan’s requests. Is it because you like someone like Xie Shiyu?"

Hu Chengyu’s expression turned cold. "Don’t talk nonsense."

He had a gut feeling that he didn’t like this person.

Lu Zhao didn’t take Hu Chengyu’s reaction to heart. "I also think you treat Yan Yan the best. You had everything arranged, yet you still felt compelled to personally clarify it on the forum."

Around 9 PM, the A University forum exploded again.

Even those who stubbornly refused to believe the previous clarification had no room to doubt after the original poster’s personal rebuttal.

The original poster confessed that the earlier post defaming Shen Yan was due to receiving money from someone named Bai Qian.

According to the poster, Bai Qian’s family had a conflict of interest with Shen Yan’s mother’s company and wanted to cause trouble for the Shen family, leading to this setup.

The poster also uploaded the chat logs and transaction records with Bai Qian.

Author’s Note:

Here we go!