Chapter 58 For the Sake of Peace, This Burden...

"Are you alright, student?"
Chen Fan wiped his face with his hand, and sure enough, his fingers came away stained with blood.
"I'm fine, teacher. Please continue the lesson," Chen Fan replied, grabbing a couple of tissues to staunch the bleeding. A deep crimson mark lingered on his cheek, shaped like a block.
"At least it wasn't sharp," Chen Fan consoled himself.

The world war had not broken out after all; Chen Fan had once again preserved world peace. The two troublemaking girls were taken away by the academic office, while Chen Fan moved to the front of the classroom, reasoning that nothing untoward would happen right under the teacher's nose.

"There's no way college girls could be so childish—still playing the 'dividing line' game from elementary school," Chen Fan began to doubt the world itself, suspecting those two were deliberately acting as NPCs just to help him accumulate virtue points.

Back in elementary school, these antics were all the rage. Everyone was an only child, possessive to the extreme, and with double desks, disputes were inevitable. Chen Fan had suffered plenty from this, the worst being stabbed twice in the arm by his twin-tailed desk mate with a compass for crossing the line.

That dividing line was literal—Chen Fan occupied only thirty-eight percent of the desk, the rest conquered by his adversary.

He had been left with a lingering shadow from that experience. Everyone claimed twin-tailed girls were cute and easy to bully, but Chen Fan felt only the terror of being dominated by a compass.

Normally, there was no danger of running into old enemies during class; students from the sports department rarely chose obscure economics courses. But for PE, caution was required—one glance in the crowd and he might be caught out.

If things escalated like last time, fighting with a group off campus, at best his parents would be notified and he'd get a major demerit; at worst, he'd be expelled and wouldn't need to bother with school anymore. Chen Fan considered himself civilized; scholars preferred subtlety.

Fists? Everyone was supposed to reason.

If pushed into a corner, he'd simply drag the opponent down to his level and defeat them with his wealth of experience.

Chen Fan's PE course was table tennis, conveniently scheduled next.

"Sports students usually pick basketball, or at least football or badminton—surely table tennis isn't their choice," Chen Fan reassured himself.

The lesson continued, Chen Fan listened, blood still streaming from his nose. When he couldn't stop it, he simply tilted his head back like a proud rooster.

On the way to the gym, he remained alert, especially to those in jerseys, wary that someone might suddenly block his path.

Arriving at the gym, Chen Fan didn't boldly stride in. He pressed himself to the door, peering inside, only entering once he confirmed there was no threatening aura.

"Chen Fan, are you here for table tennis too?"

The tense Chen Fan was startled by this sudden greeting. He twitched in place, turned around—and found no one until he looked down and saw Xu Ying.

"You picked table tennis as well, huh." Chen Fan's ability to kill a conversation was in full force.

Xu Ying nodded. "Yes, I don't like sports that involve running around. I couldn't get into yoga or tai chi, so I ended up with table tennis."

Chen Fan sensed her attitude was less intimate than Bai Chiye's, which made sense—his interesting personality was not something most could appreciate.

They were just friends; conversation quantity didn't matter. He asked, "All sports are tiring. Has that guy bothered you lately?"

Xu Ying smiled behind her hand. "Wei Youlong couldn't recover after his interview mishap. He was persistent at first, but word of his character spread through our class. Nothing new these past couple days—he's probably off hunting elsewhere."

"That's good," Chen Fan replied—not just to Xu Ying, but also relieved for Xiao Yuhe.

"Seems we'll need to form teams for table tennis later. Can I pair up with you?" Xu Ying invited.

"Sure, no prob—" Chen Fan cut himself off, spotting a boy entering in a yellow and red number twenty-three jersey. He tensed, then relaxed upon realizing it wasn't the guy from that morning. "No problem, let's team up."

Wang Kehan didn't appear at the gym, so Chen Fan dropped his guard completely. Table tennis was a national treasure; the instructor was highly skilled, and Chen Fan threw himself into the lesson.

Not only was playing enjoyable; watching was, too—especially when sweat soaked shirts and a mysterious black beauty flashed before his eyes, moving rhythmically up and down, stirring Chen Fan's youthful passions.

"Oh~"

Chen Fan cried out in pain, and before Xu Ying could inquire, he turned away, adjusted himself discreetly to prevent further mishaps.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, just sprained my hand," Chen Fan replied, shaking his hand to reassure Xu Ying.

"Oh, shall we continue?"

"No problem, I'll switch hands. I have some left-handed genes," Chen Fan boasted, and to maintain the lie, he had to invent more.

He had been holding his own, but now it turned into a one-sided massacre. Holding the racket with his left hand was a struggle; even picking his nose with his left wasn’t easy.

In the end, he switched back to his right, putting on a show of pain, pretending to struggle the whole time.

"No need to push yourself, let's stop here for today," Xu Ying said, placing her paddle on the table.

Chen Fan wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Alright."

The door clicked open, and Chen Fan leaned against it, finally having survived all his classes without being dragged into any new disputes.

"These virtue points aren't too many or too few—how do you plan to allocate them?" The Elder Card popped out when he saw the dorm empty, holding a conical flask from a chemistry lab, filled a third of the way with some mysterious golden liquid.

Chen Fan switched on his desk lamp. "There's no rush. I haven't decided yet."

"Just finish before midnight—don't repeat the Raven incident," the Elder reminded him.

"Got it, I understand," Chen Fan replied, genuinely taking it to heart this time.

Scrolling through social media had become a daily habit, especially monitoring Wei Youlong's updates—free, Hollywood-style emotional drama.

[Ha, came back to the dorm and found my stuff smashed. The guy said he mistook me for someone else? Who would believe that nonsense? But that pale-faced guy was kind of handsome. What's wrong with me lately (smile emoji)]

Chen Fan glanced at the photo—chaos everywhere, even the wallpaper had been stripped off.

"This guy actually puts up wallpaper. Let me see which brand's logo is printed."

He scanned the scene, identifying at least ten brands. As for authenticity, Chen Fan refrained from comment.

"I bet Wei Youlong saw the other was big and intimidating, probably didn't even dare demand compensation."

He pondered this; after the two amateur thugs Wei Youlong hired got a lesson from him, Wei Youlong had completely backed off. This time would likely blow over, too.

"When will you two finally have a showdown? That would make everyone happy," Chen Fan mused, hoping Wei Youlong would stir up trouble—just not with him.

Knock, knock, knock~

"Who is it?" Chen Fan called.

Knock, knock, knock~

No response from outside the door...