In just a moment, Xia Yueshan appeared at the school gate, his backpack slung over his shoulder.
Spotting his target, Lin Yu raised a hand and waved, gesturing for him to come over.
Xia Yueshan’s steps abruptly halted. He stood frozen, as if trying to confirm something. After a few seconds, he turned on his heel without a word and began walking back toward the school.
Watching Xia Yueshan retreat, Lin Yu was momentarily surprised but quickly understood the reason.
This kid probably mistook him for some thug hired to bully him.
Damn it!
Do I really look that much like a bad guy?
...
...
Well, aside from their adversarial relationship, his current appearance definitely didn’t scream "good guy."
Rubbing his temples, Lin Yu pulled out his phone and dialed the contact number for Xia Yueshan he’d gotten from Xia Muzhu the night before.
The call connected after two rings. Without wasting time, Lin Yu cut straight to the point:
"Xia Yueshan, right?"
"I’m the guy your sister hired to help you settle the score."
"Stop hiding in the school and get out here!"
For over ten seconds after Lin Yu spoke, the other end of the line remained silent. Just as Lin Yu was about to ask if he’d even heard him, the call abruptly disconnected.
Staring at the now-blank phone screen, Lin Yu frowned, baffled by the kid’s behavior.
He’d gone out of his way to dress like some tough guy—exactly the kind of look middle schoolers supposedly admired—just to help him get revenge.
And instead of gratitude?
Not a single word. Just a hang-up.
What the hell was that about?
Lin Yu’s fingers hovered over the screen, ready to redial, when Xia Yueshan reappeared at the school gate.
This time, his face was set in an icy scowl that looked eerily familiar to Lin Yu.
Wasn’t that the same unwelcoming expression Tang Manman had given him before?
Ignoring Xia Yueshan’s glare, Lin Yu took a drag from his cigarette as the boy strode up to him.
"Get in the car..."
But Xia Yueshan walked straight past him without so much as a glance.
Lin Yu was genuinely lost now.
Dude.
I’m here to help you.
Not beg for your favor.
What’s with the attitude?
As Xia Yueshan moved to leave, Lin Yu leaned forward and clamped a hand on his shoulder.
Like an enraged girl flipping into berserk mode, Xia Yueshan jerked his left shoulder forward, trying to shake off Lin Yu’s grip.
Watching the struggle, Lin Yu sneered inwardly.
If I let you break free that easily, then all those years of training in my past life might as well have been for nothing.
Instead of forcing his hold, Lin Yu released Xia Yueshan’s shoulder and let his hand slide down the boy’s arm. The moment his fingers reached the wrist, he clamped down hard and yanked back.
Seizing the moment of imbalance, Lin Yu twisted Xia Yueshan’s wrist with a deft, practiced motion.
The first twist, followed by a sharp reversal of force, wrenched Xia Yueshan’s slender arm to its limit. Instantly, all resistance crumbled.
Trapped in the painful lock, Xia Yueshan didn’t dare move but still spat out defiantly:
"L-let go of me, asshole!"
"I don’t need your help!"
Lin Yu didn’t hold back either, firing back with equal venom.
"Who the hell wants to deal with your crap?"
"I'm here because your sister asked me to help, not because you did."
"Don't you dare boss me around."
"And one more thing."
"I'm warning you."
"Don’t treat me the same way you treat your sister!"
"She spoils you all the time."
"But I sure as hell won’t!"
"If you give me that attitude again, I’ll punch your lights out!"
With that, Lin Yu gave Xia Yueshan’s arm a firm but not too harsh tug as a warning, making it clear he’d better behave.
Lin Yu knew kids like Xia Yueshan all too well.
At this rebellious middle school age, talking nicely to them was pointless.
Especially when it came to family—these kids acted like they owned the place.
Earlier, when Xia Yueshan saw Lin Yu coming for him, he’d been so scared he bolted back into the school.
But now that he knew Lin Yu was sent by his sister?
Oh, great.
Suddenly, he had the nerve to ignore Lin Yu and give him attitude.
So, with kids like this who didn’t know their place,
if they acted tough, you had to be tougher.
Show them who’s boss, and they’d back down real quick.
Just as Lin Yu expected, after the little arm-yanking lesson, Xia Yueshan yelped in pain and immediately settled down.
No more dead-eyed scowling, no more cursing.
"Get on!"
Lin Yu swung onto his motorcycle and jerked his head toward the seat.
Once Xia Yueshan climbed on, Lin Yu hit the gas and took them to a nearby McDonald’s. After ordering, they sat by the window.
"Alright, talk."
"What’s the deal?"
Lin Yu leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, staring Xia Yueshan down.
"Talk about what?!"
Xia Yueshan shot him a glare, his tone dripping with defiance.
"Tch."
Lin Yu clicked his tongue impatiently, then suddenly leaned forward, raising his left hand like he was about to swing.
"W-wait, don’t hit me!"
"How am I supposed to know what you’re asking if you don’t tell me?"
Xia Yueshan flinched, the fight draining from his voice.
Hearing that, Lin Yu realized his question had been a bit vague—but no matter. When an adult messed up, they could always shift the blame to attitude.
Dirty trick? Sure. But it usually worked.
"Watch your tone!"
Lin Yu jabbed a finger in Xia Yueshan’s direction, scowling.
Seeing the flicker of resentment but overall compliance in Xia Yueshan’s expression, Lin Yu nodded in satisfaction.
"Start from the beginning of the semester."
"On the first day, you got into a fight with some guys in the afternoon. Tell me what happened."
Xia Yueshan glanced up, surprised Lin Yu knew about it. After a pause, he muttered:
"That morning, some asshole talked trash when I parked my bike."
"Said my haircut looked like a damn egg. I told him it was based on his dad’s head."
"Then that afternoon, he showed up with a bunch of guys. Their leader told me not to leave after school."
"I figured they were planning to jump me."
"So I thought, why wait? If they wanna fight, let’s fight now."
"And then I went at ’em."
Xia Yueshan recounted the incident in a light tone, his gaze fixed on the desk, making it hard to discern the emotions in his eyes. Yet, Lin Yu could still hear the undertone of grievance in his words.
Yeah.
What had he done wrong?
He was clearly the one who had been provoked.
Yet, in the eyes of most students and teachers at school, he’d been branded as the bully.
How pitiful.
But there was something admirably fierce about him.
A flicker of appreciation flashed in Lin Yu’s eyes.
And he was smart, too.
If he couldn’t gather a group of friends to fight back after school, then striking back on the spot was indeed the best choice.
First, it sent a message that he wasn’t someone to be messed with.
Second, with the teacher’s intervention, the other side wouldn’t dare escalate things too far—at least not openly.
In a situation like this,
if Xia Yueshan had obediently listened to his tormentors and waited for them after school, passively enduring their bullying,
the problem wouldn’t have been resolved. Instead, his meekness would have invited even more abuse.
He might have spent the next three years of middle school as a humiliated punching bag,
enduring insults and torment from both the bullies and their allies,
ushering in a hellish middle school life.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
