Chapter 79.2: What Infuriating Nonsense
"Vicious?"
Who exactly was he talking about? Who was supposed to be the vicious one?
The ones left stunned weren't just Nan Yu and Yang Zhou, who had been about to eat. There were also the people who had been involved in the incident and hadn't left yet. In fact, when he said "you people," he probably wasn't referring to just the two of them.
He was referring to everyone here who had been involved.
The corner of Nan Yu's mouth twitched as he picked up his chopsticks. "Yang Zhou, let's just eat. I'm starving."
Yang Zhou nodded and immediately called over a waiter. "Please take him outside. We'd like to eat now."
"Of course, sir. We're terribly sorry. We'll handle it right away."
Very quickly, the frail Mental Power User was dragged outside. Even as he was being pulled away, he continued shouting defiantly, "Just you wait! This isn't over yet!"
The waiter promptly closed the door behind him.
At last, they could enjoy a peaceful meal.
Nan Yu picked up his chopsticks again. "Alright, let's eat."
After finishing their meal, they returned to their residence without incident and soon went to bed. The next day, when they arrived at school, they heard that the academy's complaints department had undergone a major internal cleanup.
Nan Yu and Yang Zhou exchanged glances.
They both felt that something was about to happen.
Sure enough, the moment they stepped through the school gates, security personnel from the campus security office stopped them and respectfully escorted them to the administrative office in the main building.
When they pushed open the door, they found the room packed with people.
Besides several teachers they recognized and some administrative staff, everyone else was unfamiliar.
What truly surprised them, however, was that one of the academy's two vice principals was present.
When the vice principal saw them, he smiled.
"You're here? Come over and have a seat. There are a few questions I'd like to ask you later."
Seeing it was the vice principal, Nan Yu and Yang Zhou naturally behaved politely.
"Thank you, Principal."
Whenever the principal himself was absent, the vice principals were all addressed simply as "Principal."
The two students obediently sat off to one side, each holding a glass of fruit juice a teacher had just treated them to.
Nan Yu took a sip.
It tasted pretty good.
Yang Zhou tried his as well.
Mm.
It really was good.
Their side of the room had a rather relaxed atmosphere.
The other side, however, was filled with tension.
Besides a few people standing against the wall and two people sitting, roughly a dozen others stood in the middle of the office with their heads lowered, each seemingly lost in thought.
Nan Yu's gaze swept over them one by one.
Then he noticed a face that looked vaguely familiar.
He definitely hadn't seen this person in this lifetime.
So it had to have been in his previous life.
He hadn't expected to encounter someone from his past life again.
But when exactly had he seen him?
Nan Yu carefully searched through his memories.
About halfway through, it suddenly came back to him.
Right.
This person had appeared beside Bai Zhouyun.
At that time, Yun Feiyu had not yet become a High-Tier Mental Power User, but Nan Yu had already given him the Nianshen Grass.
It had been shortly before Yun Feiyu returned the Nianshen Grass to him—right around the time Yun Feiyu was on the verge of advancing to High-Tier.
It was also the period when every one of Nan Yu's tragedies was about to begin.
This man had been standing behind Bai Zhouyun.
Bai Zhouyun had come looking for him over something... but Nan Yu had forgotten what it was.
It probably hadn't been important.
The man had stayed behind Bai Zhouyun the entire time, barely speaking, merely echoing whatever Bai Zhouyun said.
Of course, it was also because Nan Yu had already been a High-Tier Mental Power User back then, so the man hadn't dared strike up a conversation with him.
In any case, Nan Yu instinctively classified him as one of the bad guys.
After all, in his previous life, he had been running around with Bai Zhouyun.
He wasn't like the Zhou family or the members of the other families, who merely owed Bai Zhouyun a favor.
This man had genuinely worked under Bai Zhouyun.
Nan Yu merely glanced at him before withdrawing his gaze, as though it had been nothing more than a casual look.
He deliberately took another sip of juice to conceal his reaction.
At that moment, the vice principal began speaking.
"So, are you all going to give me a detailed explanation of this incident?"
"Something this serious happened, yet as one of the principals, I was the very last person to hear about it. The principal knew. The other vice principal knew. I was the last one! If the principal and the other vice principal hadn't been away on business and unable to return immediately, I might have remained completely in the dark!"
"So what exactly are all of you trying to do?"
"Or perhaps someone can explain exactly what happened."
"You."
He pointed directly at one of the silent figures.
The selected man looked utterly defeated.
He had no idea what had happened.
Everything had been perfectly normal when he left work yesterday. Then this morning, he had suddenly been summoned here.
He was completely bewildered himself.
What was going on?
"P-Principal... I... I... I'm not really sure either."
Truthfully, from the beginning until now, he hadn't even understood what the principal had been talking about.
Seeing his genuinely confused expression, the principal's mouth twitched.
Fine.
Apparently there were people here who had found out even later than he had.
Unwilling to give up, he continued pointing at people one by one.
There were only a few who knew nothing.
When he reached about the fourth person, someone finally explained the situation.
"It seems that a rather serious incident happened at Qinghe Residential Complex. Two Ability Users fought over a Mental Power User and actually used their abilities inside the residential area. Fortunately, they were discovered early, so no damage was caused."
"Afterward, the resident who reported them to the property management discovered that only two days later, those same two Ability Users had appeared in the complex again. Feeling it was dangerous, he directly contacted our academy's complaints department."
The principal nodded.
"So at least someone here knows about it."
"Then who received that call? And how was it handled?"
The man who had answered earlier glanced sideways before replying,
"The person who received the communication was Yan Lü. At the time, he said he would investigate immediately. Then he ended the call, conducted only a few minutes of 'investigation,' and called the resident back, saying... some rather disconnected things."
The principal pressed further.
"Tell me exactly what you mean by 'disconnected things.'"
The man roughly repeated what Yan Lü had said that day.
The principal wasn't satisfied.
He turned to Yang Zhou.
"Student Yang Zhou, why don't you repeat it for everyone?"
Yang Zhou narrowed his eyes and smiled.
"Principal, when I received that communication, I was planning to record it so I could use it when discussing the matter with the property management. I never imagined something like this would happen. Repeating it myself would be pretty boring. Why don't we just let everyone hear the original recording?"
The principal immediately nodded.
"Excellent. That's even better. Play it for everyone. Afterwards, make us a copy."
Yang Zhou enthusiastically walked over, first copying the recording for them before pressing play.
Every single word Yan Lü had said to him the previous night was played back exactly as it had been spoken.
Not a single word was missing.
The principal looked directly at Yan Lü.
"Now tell me. Who were those two Ability Users? How did they bribe you? And exactly how many credit points did you accept from them?"
Following that entire line of questioning, Yan Lü not only received the punishment he deserved, but also implicated many accomplices—others who had likewise accepted bribes.
Even the person who had tampered with student records the previous night was dragged into the investigation.
The academy didn't merely question the suspects themselves.
They also investigated their social relationships.
Most importantly, they examined financial transactions.
When they discovered that Yan Lü had repeatedly transferred enormous sums of money before, they immediately realized the matter couldn't possibly be that simple.
In the end, they reeled in an even bigger fish.
And once the staff member responsible for managing student records had been exposed, many people throughout the academy suddenly realized something extremely alarming.
There had once been rumors circulating within a small circle.
Rumors they had ignored...
Or simply refused to believe.
Some students had claimed that their academic records contained incidents they had never committed.
Those fabricated records had drastically changed the course of their futures.
As soon as the vice principal connected those dots, his face turned extremely grim.
He stared at Yan Lü.
"Tell me. Is it true or not?"
"Don't forget... even if chat logs and other information have been deleted and completely destroyed, as long as we can find experts in data recovery, there's still a chance they'll be restored."
"So are you going to confess yourself..."
"...or shall we investigate?"
Although, either way, the outcome probably wouldn't change very much.
Still, this was at least giving him one final opportunity.
If he remained stubborn to the end...
No one could say what kind of fate awaited him.
Nan Yu and Yang Zhou were asked to leave halfway through the proceedings, right after Yan Lü revealed the identity of the staff member responsible for student records.
Naturally, the academy didn't want more people learning about the rest of the investigation.
Nan Yu and Yang Zhou left without hesitation.
After all...
They genuinely hadn't known anything about that part.
Neither of them had classes during that period anyway, so they hadn't missed anything.
There was still an hour before their next class.
They decided to head over to the academy's commercial street.
That's right—the academy even had its own dedicated shopping street.
It sold all kinds of goods, with the cafeteria located right beside it.
After arriving, they entered a dessert shop, ordered two desserts, and leisurely ate while discussing what had just happened.
Yang Zhou grinned.
"I knew it! Evil ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) can never beat justice!"
The corner of Nan Yu's mouth twitched.
In his opinion, it was probably because he himself had been involved.
After all, many people knew that he had connections with Marshal Yu Lanfeng.
Still, if Yang Zhou wanted to think that way, Nan Yu wasn't about to spoil his enthusiasm.