Chapter 480 332: Beware the Cultured Hooligan (Part 2)

"I just saw him arrive. He seemed to have gone into another classroom," Xue Rui said, raising his voice slightly.

Xue Rui was speechless. 'This hapless counselor of his... who knows what he gets up to every day. All I know is that I've heard from other teachers that Xia Tianjun is always the one getting chewed out in meetings...'

Xia Tianjun was standing just outside in the hallway. Hearing his superior ask if he had arrived, he was already numb to it.

Especially when he heard the students say, "We haven't seen him," he was already preparing himself to be chewed out at the next meeting.

Fortunately, Xue Rui had smoothed things over for him, so he should be able to avoid it this time.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, a result of climbing the stairs, and said with a smile, "Secretary Li."

"Mm." Secretary Li nodded and walked toward the next classroom.

Xia Tianjun walked into the classroom and looked at the notebook on the desk. It listed the attendance, noting the number of students present and absent, along with the absentees' names.

"Teacher, the only one missing is Dong Yufan. Someone is already contacting him," Jiang Yuan said.

"Mm, you've done a great job." Xia Tianjun smiled and nodded. 'It's such a relief having capable people around.'

At that moment, several guys from dorm room 623 were huddled together, whispering.

"So, should we lend him the money or not?"

"I think we should probably tell the teacher."

"Dong Yufan said not to."

...

Overhearing their discussion, Xue Rui leaned in and asked quietly, "What's wrong?"

The guys hesitated for a moment before telling Xue Rui what happened. "Dong Yufan was riding his bike near campus and scraped someone's car. Now they won't let him leave and are demanding he pay for the repairs."

"So should we lend him the money?" one of them asked.

Xue Rui's brow furrowed. He didn't really know the students from other dorms, but... 'Aren't freshmen supposed to be flush with cash right at the start of the semester? How can he need to borrow money from his roommates just for scraping a car?'

"How much is he asking for? What kind of car did he scrape?"

"He didn't say. He just asked to borrow five hundred."

"Tell him to send his location. I'll go check it out." As he spoke, Xue Rui asked Lin Ruoxi for her car keys. "Xixi, let me borrow the car for a bit."

Lin Ruoxi didn't ask where Xue Rui was going. Whenever she had free time, she just wanted to be his driver.

Xue Rui shook his head. "Be good. You wait here for me. I'll be back soon."

He had a feeling this wasn't going to be anything good. Bringing Lin Ruoxi along would only get her upset.

"Teacher Xia, about Dong Yufan..." Xue Rui walked to the door and briefly explained the situation to Xia Tianjun.

Afraid Xue Rui was up to something, Jiang Yuan also moved closer to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Today was the last day for the class president election. The fact that Xia Tianjun hadn't appointed an "acting class president" clearly meant he was hesitating between her and Xue Rui.

The main issue was Xue Rui's "prior offense"—he'd once used unsavory methods to give the counselor gifts.

In any case, at a critical moment like this, she couldn't just pretend she saw nothing.

"This... is a bit tricky." Xia Tianjun's expression turned grim. As their counselor, he couldn't act like he hadn't heard.

"It's no trouble. I can go," Xue Rui said calmly.

Jiang Yuan heard the whole exchange. She realized Xue Rui was genuinely worried about their classmate; the concern in his voice was clearly real.

She found it incredible. In her eyes, business-minded people were always very goal-oriented. Helping Dong Yufan was clearly a thankless, money-losing proposition...

'To give up the chance to make an impression on the whole class tonight, just to win one person's vote?'

'Does Xue Rui really just want to be class president to serve the students?'

'Could she be the only shallow one here?'

"I'll go with you," Jiang Yuan said.

She badly wanted the position of class president, but if she only got it because Xue Rui was off standing up for a classmate, she would rather not have the job at all.

"Let's go. Jiang Yuan, you should stay and help in the classroom," Xia Tianjun said, turning his head. He had wanted to call a few colleagues to go with him, but it was too hard to find anyone at this hour.

"Everyone can head back to the dorms at nine. Lin Ruoxi, help keep order, and don't let the Secretary catch anyone." Jiang Yuan ignored Xia Tianjun's words and followed the two men out of the classroom.

"The other classes are all electing their class officers..." someone muttered quietly.

Lin Ruoxi blinked blankly. 'But I came today to vote for Xue Rui, too.'

"Lin Ruoxi, haven't you ever thought about joining a committee?"

"I think you could be the student life representative."

...

Xue Rui drove the two of them out through the north gate. Following the location sent by the classmate, it only took about six or seven minutes to reach the scene of the accident.

After getting out of the car, Xue Rui saw a boy with a naive, youthful face standing off to the side in the distance. He looked like a student being punished by a teacher, forced to stand still. Xue Rui glanced at his face.

'Yep. You can tell just by looking at him that he's an obedient, sensible kid.'

Dong Yufan stood by the greenbelt with his head down, his eyes occasionally darting toward two fashionably dressed, tattooed young men not far away.

The two young men were squatting on the curb, chatting in a local dialect. Xue Rui told Jiang Yuan to go find out what happened from Dong Yufan first. Meanwhile, he pretended to be a passerby and quietly approached the pair. He deliberately lit a cigarette and squatted nearby to listen in on their conversation—a little early reconnaissance on the enemy.

The man with the earring asked incredulously, "Bro, it's just one scratch. You could get it fixed for two hundred. We're demanding over a thousand, and that's *still* not enough?"

Xue Rui glanced at the scratched car. It was parked on the sidewalk.

"Your math is all wrong," the buzzcut guy lectured his buddy nonstop. "We gotta calculate it using the dealership's top price, then add compensation for lost work time and all that other crap. These are all perfectly reasonable demands..."

"Bro, you've been like a different person since you got out," the man with the earring said, feeling like the guy in front of him was a total stranger.

"What the hell do you know? Knowledge is power, man. I screwed up before 'cause I was uneducated. I learned a lot on the inside..."