Hardly had Zhang Beixing and his group descended the stairs when another chaotic flurry of footsteps echoed from the corridor behind them, accompanied by a volley of curses.
BANG!
The door to the public classroom on the third floor was violently kicked open for the third time.
The girls in the classroom, busy gathering their belongings, had grown numb to such commotions.
They looked up with numb expressions to see a group of men, around twenty years old, storming in from the hallway. One of them yelled furiously, "Damn it! Who's so blind as to cause trouble at Shi University? Got some serious nerve, messing with our turf?"
Their stance was imposing, their aura intense. They radiated one thing above all: coolness!
They had already imagined their own script. They would make a heroic entrance, and the lawless thugs would flee in terror. The school officials would praise them by name, and the female upperclassmen and underclassmen would be smitten. After today's incident, they would become renowned throughout the school, reaching the peak of their lives, gaining priority mating rights.
But the turn of events far exceeded their expectations.
Inside the classroom, the girls were indifferent, each occupied with their own tasks.
As for the so-called suspicious characters, the lawless thugs, they were nowhere to be found...
Wait, there actually was someone. If they hadn't looked closely, they might have missed the person walking towards the door.
He was dark-skinned and stout, not particularly tall, with small eyes—hardly the image of an upstanding citizen.
But upon a closer look, wasn't that Zheng Jituo?
"What's going on here? Wasn't there supposed to be some outsider causing trouble, picking on Lin Siqi?"
"We're here, so where is everyone?"
Someone in the crowd asked—no one knew who—and as soon as the question hung in the air, all the men fell silent.
Jin Linyu stepped forward out of the crowd, looked at Zheng Jituo, and asked, "Jituo, what's the situation here? Did someone cry wolf? And, weren't you going to look for Lao Zhang? Where's Beixing?"
He remembered clearly: Zheng Jituo had bolted from the dorm to find Zhang Beixing the moment he heard Lin Siqi was being bullied.
And now Zheng Jituo was in the classroom, while Zhang Beixing and the troublemakers were gone.
As Jin Linyu voiced his questions, all the men present fixed their gazes on Zheng Jituo, their eyes filled with confusion.
Hearing this, Zheng Jituo realized it was his turn to shine. Clearing his throat, he announced to the crowd, "Well, you're too late. The troublemakers have been subdued and taken away."
"What the hell? Subdued? Explain yourself!"
The group of men instantly grew restless.
What was their purpose in rushing here? Wasn't it to help a classmate get some payback and, while they were at it, flaunt a bit of their masculine charm in front of all these girls?
But now, after they'd dashed all the way over, he was telling them the incident was already over.
Damn it! If they didn't get to the bottom of this, they wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.
Seeing their eager, questioning faces, Zheng Jituo didn't keep them in suspense and launched into a narration of the day's events.
When he recounted how Zhang Beixing alone had confronted the five thugs and knocked them all unconscious, the room instantly erupted with cries of "Holy crap!"
The boys were all dumbfounded. One against five, and he actually took all five of them down!
"Zheng Jituo, you're really laying it on thick now. You can try to fool us, but don't kid yourself."
"Exactly! One against five, taking them all down? Why don't you just say Zhang Beixing is Ip Man? Could you be any more ridiculous?"
"We're from the same class; you think we don't know what kind of guy Zhang Beixing is? Aside from being handsome, he's as frail as a skinny monkey. Now you're saying he took on five at once, and it was a crushing victory? Are you even listening to yourself?"
"If you'd said Zhang Beixing struggled through a tough fight and won, I could believe that, but this... ever thought about writing web novels? Your imagination is pretty wild; if you start writing, you could be the next Platinum Author!"
"Impossible, absolutely impossible! There's no way someone that awesome is in the Economics and Management Department!"
Upon hearing Zheng Jituo's account, the boys immediately erupted.
None of them could believe it was true.
Seeing their reaction, an inexplicable sense of pride swelled in Zheng Jituo's heart.
Look at you all, making a fuss like you've never seen the world. Shameful! It was just one against five, then taking them all down. Was it really so surprising? Tch, tch, tch. The mental fortitude of this generation is weak; they can't even handle something like this! How will they ever achieve greatness!
Zheng Jituo thought to himself and didn't plan on explaining; he wanted to continue to enjoy the shock on their faces.
However, just because he wasn't planning to explain didn't mean others weren't.
After Zhang Beixing had come to their rescue, the girls in the class were completely captivated by his heroic takedown of the five thugs and had become his devoted fangirls.
Now, as his fangirls, they couldn't stand to hear their idol being doubted like this.
They immediately spoke up to defend Zhang Beixing:
"What are you talking about? How is it impossible? Just because you can't do it, you assume Zhang Beixing can't either? Hmph! How shallow!"
"Even though you're shallow, I don't blame you. You haven't seen Zhang Beixing's heroic prowess, so it's normal to be deceived by his appearance. I just hope you'll use your brains and think: if this were all fake, would we have stayed silent and implicitly agreed when Zheng Jituo was speaking just now?"
"Exactly! I even have some photos I secretly took."
"Speaking of which, did anyone take a video? If there were a video, it would settle everything. Once a video surfaced, the truth would be undeniable."
"Ah... actually, no one did. Things were too hectic, and it didn't even cross our minds to record. What a pity, looking back. How could we forget something so important!"
"....."
The girls chattered excitedly, some even pulling out photos.
Truth be told, by the time these girls started speaking up for Zhang Beixing, the boys were already half-convinced.
And now, seeing the slightly blurry photos—though Zhang Beixing was barely recognizable—along with the images of Dong Shengjie and the other four's miserable state, they were completely convinced!
The boys' mouths hung open, their faces etched with shock.
"Holy crap, is that really Zhang Beixing? He looks so thin, yet he's so fierce?"
"Damn, I always saw Zhang Beixing as a loser, but I never expected this guy could take on five and beat them so badly they didn't know what hit them! That's just too incredible!"
"Still calling him a loser? You've got guts, kid. I'll tell my bro Zhang Beixing to give you a couple of 'electric punches.'"
"Just a couple of 'electric punches'? Bring it on! I'll 'try 'em and die 'em'! So what if Zhang Beixing is awesome? In the end, he'll still be kneeling on the ground, begging me not to die."