CH 49

Three Graves 12

As Lin Chen and Xing Cong Lian received their baptism in the female dormitory, a raging storm was also brewing in the headmaster’s office.

At the top of the bookcase sat a slightly droopy spider plant. On the table was a cup of water.

An old man wearing a plain t-shirt sat in front of the window. On the bridge of his nose sat a pair of glasses, and in his hand was a pen. His head was lowered, looking over a student’s thesis.

In front of the old man stood a senior. The boy was covered in cold sweat, as if they were extremely nervous. He never thought that coming to ask for guidance on his thesis would make him run into a war between the school’s higher-ups.

The Vice Principle and a well-dressed, middle-aged man stood behind him, wearing dark expressions, as if they were suffering through something. However, the Headmaster did not seem to care about them, only concentrating on reading the thesis, as if nothing was more important than those sheets of paper.

“Headmaster, it’s probably not good to keep Mr. Chen waiting for so long, right?” Finally, Vice Principal Xu blurted out, shattering the cold atmosphere in the room.

The boy swallowed, keeping his heads lowered, acting like he hadn’t heard a thing.

“Oh… Is something the matter?” The old man warmly asked, not even lifting his head, flipping through the last page of the thesis.

“Headmaster Su, is your intention to let Lin Chen enter the school and investigate?” The mighty housekeeper standing to the side stepped forward, both hands in his pockets in an imposing manner.

“Oh, that.” The old man pushed his glasses up, yet didn’t continue. He only lifted his head and handed the boy the annotated thesis and said, “Your topic could be more detailed. The research breadth is still too large with your current thesis… There are two translation errors in the abstract, I’ve marked it for you. You need to go back and research the correct usage, and your explanation needs to be more concise…”

The boy lowered his head, looking at his densely annotated thesis. He was feeling an indescribable emotion. He originally thought that the Headmaster, his thesis advisor, was just going to do a once over. He was the school’s supreme leader, how could he have time to give guidance to an undergraduate’s theses? He didn’t think that the old man would patiently and carefully teach him, starting with the topic. He even pointed out problems with punctuation. That rigorous, scholarly attitude made him not dare to even think about slacking off.

“There’s not much of an issue with data collection, you were very thorough. However, you can do a multiple comparison test here, in the analysis of variance…”

The old man kept talking, and Chen Ping’s expression turned more and more sour. As the head manager of a big family, he had never received such outrageously cold treatment.

“Headmaster Su, are you not going to answer my question?” Chen Ping asked, once more.

“Please wait a moment.” The old man replied, bowing down to discuss the student’s thesis.

“Su An Zhi, what is the meaning of this?!”

“I can’t keep my student waiting, so you’ll just have to wait a moment.” The old man said politely.

Hearing that, Chen Ping couldn’t tolerate it any longer. He raised his voice, “Su An Zhi, who do you think you are? How could you ignore the decision of the board of directors and let Lin Chen into the school on your own? The Chen Family has already expressed that we forbid Lin Chen from stepping foot within Yong Chuan College!”

“That’s about all the issues. Go back and make corrections and bring it to me again Friday afternoon at 1.” The old man finished and nodded to the student, indicating that he could leave.

Hearing that, the boy glanced at Chen Ping. There was no hatred in his eyes, only coldness. Then, he earnestly bowed to the teacher and turned to leave.

“I am the headmaster of Yong Chuan College.” The old man took off his glasses and hung them on the pocket of his shirt, seriously solemnly answering the first question. “In this entire school, the only person that can make a decision on behalf of the board of directors, is me.”

“What are your intentions? Why do you insist on protecting Lin Chen? Do you not hold the Chen Family in your eyes?!” Chen Ping slammed the table, nearly having an aneurysm.

“He’s my student. If I want to protect him, then I will.” The old man said, nonchalantly.

The old man had a surprisingly tough attitude. He wasn’t buying what the Chen Family was selling at all. Chen Ping suddenly realized he couldn’t advance or retreat; he had no better ideas. In the end, he could only point and cruelly say, “Su An Zhi, you better watch out. During the board meeting this year, the Chen Family will be the first to impeach you!”

Accompanying his threat was three knocks at the door.

Knock, knock, knock…

The sound was very soft and gentle. Every knock was like a knock on Chen Ping’s chest, irritating him. Who was it that was so obtuse, knocking while he was in the middle of a rampage?

He violently looked back, and couldn’t help but breathe for a bit.

He saw an absurdly attractive young man standing at the door.

The young man wore a pair of smoke-grey pants, matched with a black cashmere turtleneck. The cuffs of the sweater were pulled up to the elbows, revealing fair wrists. In his hands was a serving tray, and on the serving tray were two clear goblets with liquid lightly sloshing around inside. The young man swept his gaze around the room with a smile. His hair was a bit light, he had amber eyes, and absurdly white skin, accentuated by the black turtleneck. His smile was as graceful as the spring breeze.

The young man finished knocking and entered with the serving tray without a word. He sat in the seat next to the old man, put down the tray, and passed a goblet to the old man.

It was like the old man had seen some sort of treasure. Without minding the people around him, he lifted his cup and took a big gulp.

Chen Ping, who had been watching with a stupor, finally came back around. He wanted to speak, but the young man slightly lifted his head and looked at him, the corners of his eyes turned up in a smile, “Housekeeper Chen, that sentence you just said has some problems.”

Hearing that, Chen Ping only thought it was funny. He didn’t want to keep fighting, yet now that someone was provoking him, he will happily provide some more menacing words to vent his anger.

“Impeachment is a process. It’s used in prosecuting high-ranking government officials. Yong Chuan College’s board meeting doesn’t seem to have this kind of administrative rank.”

Chen Ping thought he had heard wrong. He was actually corrected on his vocabulary. There was actually someone bored enough to correct him on a single word he used wrong.

“Huh. So what? If you don’t have the Chen Family’s vote, then after the board meeting in June, your teacher can only step down from the position of headmaster.”

“You’re wrong again.” The young man was still smiling. His smile was nurturing- super attractive, “He’s not my teacher.”

“Who the hell are you?!”

Chen Ping immediately regretted asking. He seemed to have carelessly stepped into some kind of trap.

“Guess.” The young man responded with a smile.

Chen Ping felt miserable. That kind of feeling was aggravating. It was like you were using all your energy to fight, yet your opponent wouldn’t respond. Only stabbing you lightly, stabbing you until you’re hurting and itching. You couldn’t even say anything– outside of suffering there was only more suffering.

Chen Ping took a deep breath and flicked his sleeves, turning to leave. From behind him again came the haunting voice of the young man.

“I tried to understand Housekeeper Chen’s meaning, and thought about it for you. If the Chen Family wants to successfully ‘impeach’ the headmaster, then they must first get the majority of seats on the board of directors, which would be equivalent to 26 billion RMB. But you should be aware that the controlling interest of Yong Chuan College has always been in the families’ hands, so, even if the Chen Family could afford it, there’s no guarantee the families will sell…”

T/N: About 4 billion USD

The young man sat cross-legged, head in his hand, sounding quite worried. Mr. Su couldn’t hold back a laugh, then a burp. Yep, soda flavored.

“You!”

Chen Ping furiously turned back around and finally realized that those tall goblets held cola, cola…

The old and young pair in front of him were making fun of him from the start!

“Just you wait!”

The young man didn’t react to being pointed at. He just took a sip from his cup, smiling as he nodded, saying nothing but, “See you.”

Chen Ping felt pain in his chest. He turned around resolutely to leave. He feared that if he stayed any longer, he would be angered to a heart attack.

Watching the mighty housekeeper and vice principal’s retreating forms, Mr. Su put down his cup, expression turning sour. He turned to teach a lesson to the young man beside him, “You bastard, you’re not half as filial as Lin Chen! You didn’t even think to come back to visit for my big 60!”

“Of course.” The young man laughed. He lifted his cup and lightly tapped it to Mr. Su’s, “Not just filial piety, even when it comes to causing trouble, I can’t compete with him.”

This time, it was the professional aggravator, Mr. Su’s, turn to cross his arms and get angry.

_____________________________

Mr. Lin, who was on the same campus, was temporarily unaware that he had been smeared by someone.

He had just finished his visit to the female dorm with Captain Xing. When he left, he had some old books with him.

Captain Xing rubbed his ears. Girls must be the world’s most talkative organisms. Add to that a dormitory aunty that had super high decibels and he could only feel a wave of dizziness and ringing in his ears. Thinking back, what the girls had said had too many extraneous details, it was almost impossible to figure out.

“Did you get anything?” He asked Lin Chen, after a moment of thought.

In response, Lin Chen took a book with a torn up spine and handed it to him.

Xing Cong Lian paused and looked down at the cover, and realized it was a copy of <<Discrete Mathematics>>. The version wasn’t that old, so the reason it was so worn out was probably because it had been read too many times. Thinking to that point, he opened the book and realized there was a name written on the title page.

“Xu… Hao Zhen?” Xing Cong Lian read. He thought this name sounded familiar.

Before he could recall the name, he was clapped heavily on the shoulder. From behind him came the grim voice of Professor Fu, “Ol’ Xing, are you thinking about our younger classmate?”

Xing Cong Lian then remembered that Xu Hao Zhen was the girl that appeared at Lin Chen’s class reunion. He turned around to find Professor Fu in a groggy state. He was probably woken up by the phone call just now. He had an unwilling expression.

“Why is your classmate’s book on the victim’s bed?”

“What victim?” Fu Hao ran a hand across his face, thinking he was hallucinating.

“Something’s happened in the school.” Lin Chen stopped Fu Hao, and gave him a rundown of the weird case that happened this morning.

As Fu Hao listened, his jaw dropped lower and lower. He didn’t expect something so big to happen in the school while he was sleeping.

“So… Xu Hao Zhen’s book was discovered on Wang Shi Shi’s bed. Does this mean they know each other?” Fu Hao’s gaze landed on Xing Cong Lian’s hands. He thought for a second, and looked disbelievingly at Lin Chen, “Older Brother… Didn’t you already think there was something wrong with Sister Xu? What was it?”

“At first, I just thought she was kind of weird.”

“What, just because she admired you and wanted to meet you?”

“No, because of her nail polish.”

“What’s wrong with the nail polish?”

“Under what circumstance would a girl choose to wear nail polish that didn’t suit her?”

“You think it doesn’t suit her, but what if she just really likes it?” Fu Hao couldn’t help but retort.

Lin Chen thought back to when he shook hands with Xu Hao Zhen, the girl had intentionally retracted her fingertips. He shook his head, “She knew it didn’t suit her. She didn’t like it and she was very aware of it.”

“Maybe she was just testing colors?”

“Why does she need to paint all ten fingers for a test?”

“Maybe someone forced her to wear it?”

“It’ll be considered forced if I make you paint your nails.”

Lin Chen’s tone was flat. Fu Hao hurriedly retracted his fingers. “Then that means she picked it for someone, or someone wanted her to wear it and she couldn’t turn them down. For example, Brother, if you lent your shirt to me to wear then I would be too embarrassed to refuse… Although, Brother, why are you caught up about this nail polish problem? It seems like you’re splitting hairs…”

Fu Hao spoke, then couldn’t stop. Hearing this, Lin Chen’s eyes suddenly went wide, as if he had thought of something essential.