Chapter 19
Knock, knock, knock.
“Enter.”
Leon turned the doorknob. As he entered, a cold wind hit his face, mixed with the smell of cigarettes.
“It’s already autumn, yet you still have the AC this cold.”
“To stay awake.”
The huge office was decorated simply.
There were two imaginary axes of symmetry in the void. A walnut coffee table was placed in the center, with leather sofas on both sides arranged symmetrically, not off by a millimeter.
Leon looked down and saw four decorative teacups on the coffee table, aligned perfectly top, bottom, left, and right, capable of drawing four axes of symmetry.
Zhou Xie, who needed to stay awake at 9 PM, sat on the chair on the center line, smoking.
Not seeing him holding a cigarette in both his left and right hands was a regret Leon had held for years.
Zhou Xie spoke indifferently, “How is it on Shi Ye’s end?”
“Didn’t you see his face when the results were announced? He even got mocked by Zhao Zeryang. By now, every sandbag in the world should be on its way to him.”
“Mmn.”
“You handled this matter just like asking a pretty girl for her WeChat while window shopping—your intentions were too obvious. He definitely guessed it.”
Using Zhao Zeryang’s disturbance to stop recruitment as a reason to restart voting, then holding an anonymous vote when Shi Ye had more followers than Zhao Zeryang, and declaring Zhao Zeryang the winner on the spot—this not only taught a lesson but also sowed discord. It was clearly meant to dismantle the crowd Shi Ye had gathered.
“Does he need to guess? I made it as obvious as him building a villa on that plot of land.”
Leon knew Zhou Xie would take revenge for the villa sooner or later.
Since childhood, Shi Ye and Zhou Xie had been at each other’s throats—you hit me, I hit you, neither letting the other have it easy. There was some friendship, but not much.
And this little bit of friendship was purely maintained by “Mom’s Tea Party” and the business dealings between the two families.
Leon was tired of standing, so he went to the sofa and asked, “Can I sit?”
Zhou Xie got up and came to the sofa, made a gesture of invitation, and then sat down together.
Leon asked, “Aren’t you afraid he won’t support your election after he inherits the Shi family?”
Zhou Xie’s father was elected the 46th President of the Federation five years ago, inseparable from the financial support of Leo’s family and the military support of Shi Ye’s family. Now that the children of the three families were approaching the age to start their careers, the situation of mutual support between politics, economics, and the military would likely continue.
In Leon’s view, Zhou Xie offending Shi Ye time and again was not a good choice.
Smoke escaped from Zhou Xie’s lips, hazily covering the fleeting mockery on his face. “With a new mistress and a second young master in the Shi family now, whether the entire family business will be inherited by him is still an unknown.”
Leon mocked back, “Sometimes I really admire you people who can pull up your pants without changing expression. You sleep with the older brother and then can sleep with the younger brother. How do you seduce them?”
“Speak properly.”
Leon spread his hands. “I’m just like this. Too bad I don’t have extra brothers for you to sleep with.”
“I know you don’t like that I’m leaning toward his half-brother, but this isn’t something I can decide. The one who truly makes the decision is his father. I am an outsider; I can only rationally judge the gains and losses.”
The “friendship” born from family cooperation inherently had a communal nature. When Shi Ye’s father pushed that second young master out for socializing and showed an “intention to change the heir,” Zhou Xie indeed couldn’t refuse.
Leon was equally trapped in such troubles and couldn’t help rubbing the center of his brows. “Have you ever thought that even without the Shi family, Shi Ye would be more useful than his father?”
“Even if he works day and night without rest for fifty years, he can’t catch up to his family’s three hundred years of accumulation.”
“It’s not good to be too superstitious about the trees planted by predecessors. Look at now; the field of technology hasn’t had a major breakthrough in nearly 70 years. Resources are too concentrated in the upper class, causing inertia in the upper class and ignorance in the lower class, completely limiting the development of the era.”
He continued: “Every student in Floriman Academy is a genius picked from millions, but from the day they enter the academy, they start degenerating into dogs, only knowing how to bark along with their masters. When they graduate, they act as dogs for others while using their status to make others act as dogs for them, controlling the most wealth and power, even if their brains are full of trash.”
Zhou Xie looked calm. “I understand you’re speaking harsh words in a fit of anger, but smart people know to follow a good leader.”
Leon reached out and pointed to the Floriman Academy motto behind Zhou Xie’s desk: Lead the Era, Change the World.
“This is a place to cultivate leaders.”
“If everyone wants to be a leader, society will be in chaos.”
Leon tugged the corner of his mouth mockingly and didn’t speak again.
“Let’s not talk about things we can’t control.”
Zhou Xie glanced at his cigarette; half of it had burned. He stubbed it out, took out his phone, and dialed a number. “Bring it in.”
Leo pushed the door open and entered, holding a black ballot box.
After placing the box on the coffee table, Zhou Xie pushed it to the center, right in front of Leon. “This is the ballot box used just now.”
Leon glanced at Zhou Xie. “What do you want to do?”
“Actually, the number of votes for Shi Ye was much higher than for Zhao Zeryang.”
“That’s not hard to guess at all. Shi Ye is currently in a fit of rage and probably hasn’t realized it. Once he realizes it, he will definitely demand an explanation from you.”
“I’ll give him an explanation right now.” Zhou Xie stood up and tapped on the lid of the ballot box. “I want you to take the ballot box to the Special Recruit.”
Leon was stunned. “What did you say?”
Zhou Xie didn’t say it a second time.
Accustomed to power, he wouldn’t repeat a sentence for anyone. Leon sometimes felt he was arrogant, but arrogance itself was a large part of what made up Zhou Xie; Leon had known this since childhood.
Who didn’t have a flaw or two? Accommodating each other, they grew up. Looking back, he helplessly summarized it as “my arrogant childhood friend.”
Leon pulled a smile with his good temper. “Sometimes I think your logic in doing things is very strange.”
“You don’t need to understand my logic.”
“…”
“…”
The air was silent for a moment. Leon leaned back against the sofa completely relaxed, took out a pen and paper from his pocket, and twirled them in his hand.
His attitude toward everyone and everything could be called gentle and tolerant. Because he always wore a smile, many people forgot that he could actually get angry.
Like now, the corners of his mouth were still raised high, but there was not a trace of a smile in his azure eyes. “Zhou Xie, are you treating me like a dog?”
Cold-faced Zhou Xie was silent for two seconds, then said, “What part do you find strange?”
Leon also paused for two seconds, taking the way out. “Shi Ye’s dad’s little mistress couldn’t get her son into the school. You were at the scene that day she caused a scene in the Principal’s office.”
“Yes.”
“That crazy woman saw the Principal’s tough attitude, and someone gave her an idea to change her tune and ask the school to recruit Wen Rong to disgust Shi Ye. You heard it.”
“Yes.”
“Shi Ye originally stopped the Principal. It was you who proposed recruiting Wen Rong that made the Principal change his mind.”
“Yes.”
“You were the one who pushed to recruit him, so why target him now?”
Zhou Xie’s expression didn’t change. “The Principal wanted the Special Recruit; I just gave him a way out.”
“Then you should know the Principal doesn’t want Wen Rong to drop out. Asking me to send this thing to Shi Ye is equivalent to making Shi Ye force Wen Rong to drop out.”
“Whether he drops out or not has nothing to do with me. I’m just asking you to give him the ballot box. As for whether he gives it to Shi Ye, that is his choice.”
Leon twirled the pen again, saying nothing.
“If he wants to enter the Student Council, he has to accept the Student Council’s test questions.”
“Do you want him to give it or not?”
Zhou Xie was frank. “Whether he gives it or not, it’s my reason for rejecting his entry into the Student Council.”
“So after all this twisting and turning, the summary is you just want to put on an act.”
“Just maintaining dignity. I can’t really let a commoner into the Student Council.”
Zhou Xie added, “This is a decision I made after comprehensive consideration. He is so stupid; he can’t work in the government.”
The Student Council of Floriman Academy was different from those of other schools. Here, students who entered the Student Council were basically born into political families and would inherit their father’s career in the future.
Therefore, the Student Council ostensibly followed the democratic principles of the Federal Government, claiming externally that there was no threshold, but in reality, the threshold was higher than any club.
Wen Rong’s commoner status making him unable to enter the Student Council was the same concept as his inability to hold an important government position in the future; it was decided the moment he was born.
This was a perfectly normal thing, but it was hard for Leon to give Zhou Xie a smile right now. “Then do you think I would be willing to be this villain?”
Pfft—
Zhou Xie laughed for the first time in forever. “Interesting. The person who loves watching drama the most doesn’t want to blow things up.”
Leo chimed in, “Cousin, I told you he treats that Special Recruit differently.”
“Indeed different.”
In this moment, the air swirled, and time flowed back, as if returning to when they were very small, the four of them meeting at “Mom’s Tea Party.”
Zhou Xie mocked Shi Ye, who still walked unsteadily, crawling around like a savage. Leo didn’t understand what a savage was at all, only clapping and chasing Shi Ye shouting “Savage.” Shi Ye was tough since childhood; in a 1v2, he beat the two of them until they buried their heads in their mothers’ skirts and cried.
What was he doing at the time?
He was explaining to Shi Ye that “Savages are the enemy forces, enemies, bad guys on the battlefield,” and then sat aside eating snacks and watching the show.
Leon wasn’t ready to become a person in the play. Playing this role for the first time, his body and mind were in a dilemma, yet he had to feign calm and answer: “I also want to see what Shi Ye will do after being angered by him.”
Using the excuse that the ballot box was hard to carry, he drove away in Zhou Xie’s classic car—an antique inherited from his grandfather. Calculating by age, it should be Zhou Xie’s great-uncle. The interior was old, and it was manual transmission. It looked good but was uncomfortable to drive.
Driving uncomfortably all the way from the Student Council to the dormitory building, Leon checked the time when parking: 9:30 PM.
After the club recruitment, both freshmen and seniors were busy socializing; parties were just starting at this time.
In the rows of dormitory buildings, only one lonely window was bright.
At this moment, Leon was suddenly curious: How will Wen Rong choose?
Shi Ye and Zhao Zeryang were both people he disliked. When he acted as the “judge,” what kind of decision would he make?
The habit of watching the show influenced him at all times.
[Asleep? I’m downstairs at your dorm. There’s something I need you to do.]
Instant reply: [Senior, I’m coming down right away.]
Five minutes later, a lean figure ran out of the dormitory building.
While Leon was rolling down the window, someone seemed to walk into the dormitory building, happened to see Wen Rong, and grabbed him to talk.
Wen Rong’s silhouette bowed. Several times he wanted to leave, but was blocked by that person.
Leon suddenly felt that rolling down the window was totally lame. There was so much modification technology now; he didn’t understand why Zhou Xie insisted on driving an old antique from decades ago.
After about three or four minutes, Wen Rong finally escaped, walked over, and bowed. “Good evening, Senior.”
Leon rested his hand on the car window. “What did that person say to you just now?”
“He said… he wants to go to the cafeteria to have lunch with me tomorrow.”
“How did you answer?”
“I rejected him.”
Leon’s voice was a bit cold. “You don’t need to be too polite when rejecting others.”
“I—”
He interrupted him. “Rejection is rejection. No need to bow, no need to thank, and certainly no need to feel sorry. You can say ‘No,’ ‘Get lost,’ ‘Stay away from me.’ If your attitude is good, the other party won’t think you are friendly; they will only think you are easy to bully.”
Under the corridor light, that boy’s mocking face pierced into Leon’s mind again. That ambiguous, teasing look was as lewd and disgusting as an old man ogling a young girl.
Leon looked up at Wen Rong, who seemed to half-understand, and a surge of anger more turbulent than half an hour ago erupted in his heart.
—Fool. Don’t even know you’re being hit on.
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