Chapter 33: A guy who bullies the weak and fears the strong

The last class this afternoon was a study hall.

Although there was no teacher at the podium, the classroom was surprisingly quiet.

I shook my hand, which was sore from writing so much, and reflexively glanced out the window again.

A young man, talking on the phone, walked into my field of vision.

He glanced into the classroom before continuing to focus on his conversation with the person on the other end of the line.

I was startled. Wasn’t this the sleazy man in the suit from last night?

I nudged my deskmate with my elbow, pointed out the window, and asked.

“Zheng Zong, hey Zheng Zong, do you know that guy on the phone outside?”

“Huh? Lu You, you’re way too out of the loop. You don’t even know him? His name is Li Xinyao, a famous alumnus of our school, the principal’s own nephew, and a rich second-gen on top of that. His family is loaded. He’s been coming to our school a lot these past few days to talk with the principal about something. He’s pretty handsome too; quite a few girls at our school have a secret crush on him.”

“Oh, right, yesterday someone said they saw him eating with a girl from our school at a restaurant.”

“Oh, so what? He was eating with a girl from our school…”

I stopped mid-sentence.

Ordinarily, there was nothing strange about that, but then I remembered the scene I saw on my way home yesterday.

That girl…

Zheng Zong didn’t notice my pause, lowered his voice, and continued on his own.

“If that was all, I wouldn’t have bothered telling you. I’ve heard from a lot of people that this Li Xinyao is actually a scumbag. He gets a new girlfriend every month, and he’s not a good person behind the scenes—self-important, domineering, and just puts on a gentle and refined act. In reality, he’s no good.”

“The place they ate at yesterday seems to be on the same street as Sister Yan’s café. Did you see them yesterday, Lu You?”

“Yeah, on my way home yesterday I happened to see a girl in our school uniform eating with a man in a suit, so I stopped and watched for a bit.”

‘Judging from the girl’s expression, she was most likely threatened by Li Xinyao into having dinner with him.’

“I also heard this guy is extremely petty and holds a grudge over the smallest things. Lu You, you didn’t have any conflict with him, did you?” Zheng Zong’s eyes widened as he looked at me and asked.

“Why would I go out of my way to provoke him? Do I look like the kind of person who loves to meddle in other people’s business?”

“That’s good then. Lu You, we’d better stay far away from people like him. With his status and position, we common folk shouldn’t go looking for trouble.”

Although my innate human sense of justice made me feel indignant about this kind of person’s actions, despising his character and scorning his deeds.

As an ordinary high school student who only wanted a peaceful school life, my thoughts were aligned with Zheng Zong’s; I didn’t want to get involved with someone like him either.

After speaking, Zheng Zong’s gaze shifted to the girl with water-blue hair in a braid in front of me. He poked her shoulder with the tip of his pen and asked.

“By the way, Goddess Xue Ruo, do you know this Li Xinyao?”

An Xue Ruo, who had been chatting quietly with Su Ye Mi, paused, turned around, glanced at Zheng Zong, and nodded.

“Li Xinyao… I met him once at a party my father took me to. My father’s evaluation of him was very poor, calling him some kind of troublemaking playboy and telling me not to go near him. He was sensible enough, though. He just glanced at us a couple of times and didn’t come over to make trouble for himself.”

“His reputation is bad even among your father’s generation?”

“Mhm, that’s right. But at most, he just messes with young girls from ordinary families. He wouldn’t dare touch anyone with even a little bit of a background. So he hasn’t caused any major trouble in recent years.”

“So he’s the type to bully the weak and fear the strong,” Zheng Zong shrugged and sneered disdainfully.

An Xue Ruo suddenly glanced at me, a strange smile appearing on her face, as if she were hinting at something.

“I heard from my father that this person was very arrogant and domineering many years ago, and he provoked quite a few powerful families. But those people didn’t really dare to offend his even more powerful father, so they never had a falling out to teach him a lesson. That is, until Li Xinyao foolishly provoked the second young miss of Yunqiong Pharmaceuticals. Not only did his father’s company suffer a heavy blow because of it, but he himself almost lost his life. At the time, his dad sought help from all his connections to plead for him, and that was how his life was spared.”

‘So he started preying on girls from ordinary families? What a scumbag. I really hope that guy gets taught a lesson again.’

“An Xue Ruo, your father knows about things like that?”

“Because they came to my father for help back then. But our family has no connection to Yunqiong Pharmaceuticals, and even if we did, with my father’s personality, he probably wouldn’t have pleaded for him.”

“He’s lucky he provoked the second young miss of Yunqiong Pharmaceuticals and not the first. Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t even know how he died.”

After An Xue Ruo finished speaking, she gave me another inexplicable look, then turned back around and continued chatting with Su Ye Mi.

‘Yunqiong Pharmaceuticals… a very familiar name. I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere, but I just can’t remember where.’

‘Auntie Yun seems to be a high-level executive at some big corporation. But Sister Yuan really dislikes talking to me about her family matters, nor does she like taking me to meet her other family members. To the point that even after being adopted by them for so many years, I’ve never met any of Sister Yuan’s family besides Auntie Yun.’

“Zheng Zong, do you know of this Yunqiong Pharmaceuticals?”

“Yunqiong Pharmaceuticals, huh. I’ve heard a little about it. It seems to be a particularly large multinational pharmaceutical company with its headquarters in the country. I don’t know much more than that.”

‘…Forget it, there’s no need to dig into it. It’s not like I’ll ever have any connection to an organization like that anyway.’

After school, I went to Sister Yan’s café as usual.

I changed into that finely crafted maid outfit, stood behind the counter, and began today’s work.

The number of customers in the shop was the same as always, just a scattered few.

I could handle it by myself as the only server, which was probably why Sister Yan hadn’t hired any other staff.

Su Ye Mi hadn’t come by in a long time, and Gu Yuewan only came occasionally.

I hoped that incident hadn’t affected them too much.

I took out my phone and checked my account balance.

I had already saved up quite a bit of money for Sister Yuan’s gift. Should I continue working here as a maid after her birthday is over?

I actually quite liked this job. The workload was light, the pay was high, and Sister Yan was often not in the shop, so no one really cared if I slacked off.

After weighing the pros and cons for a long time, I still shook my head.

‘Putting aside the fact that students from my school occasionally come for coffee, which carries a significant risk of social death, if I keep going home this late every day, who knows when Sister Yuan might get truly angry and, just as she said, tie me up and lock me at home.’

‘Speaking of which, being kissed and bitten by Sister Yuan like that wasn’t actually that unpleasant. In fact, it was quite comfortable…’

‘No, no, what am I thinking? If Sister Yuan found out that I kind of liked that feeling, I’m afraid she would pin me to the bed and torture me like that every day from now on.’

In the nearly one month that I’ve been working part-time here, the number of days I’ve been able to fall asleep before 10:30 PM can be counted on two hands.

At first, Sister Yuan would find an excuse, like me coming home late or something else, to pin me on the bed.

Later, she stopped even bothering with excuses.

As soon as I finished dinner, she’d pull me into the room, not even letting me take a shower.

Sometimes she’d even forcibly strip my clothes, or even force me to strip myself.

“Going naked or wearing my clothes, Xiao You, pick one.”

That was practically the most demonic thing I had ever heard.

At first, I had considered giving up and just wearing Sister Yuan’s clothes; it was better than wearing nothing.

But every time I took off my clothes, Sister Yuan would just—

“I’ve changed my mind. A naked Xiao You is more fun to play with.”

Fortunately, she at least left me my pants, which was better than being completely stark naked.

Sigh. I sighed helplessly.

I hope Sister Yuan can let me off the hook today.

Just as my mind was wandering, the doorbell chimed with a clear, crisp sound.

The glass door of the café was pushed open.

After seeing who the visitor was, a wave of disgust rose in my heart.

I couldn’t help but clench my fists, glaring at this man in a black suit with a look of contempt and disdain.

Li Xinyao glanced at me, a gentle smile appearing on his face, and said very politely, “A black coffee, thank you.”

Hah, what a hypocrite.