Hugh Hu was bawling, snot and tears streaming down his face as he shouted.
His voice sounded exactly like a pig being slaughtered.
Charles Chen and Lucy Lu’s faces turned deathly pale when they heard this.
Linda Guan couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Even though everything was unfolding just as she’d hoped, she honestly hadn’t expected Hugh Hu—who looked so intimidating on the surface—to actually be such a coward underneath.
"You’ve gotten yourself into trouble again, haven’t you!"
On the other end of the call, the previously cheerful voice suddenly turned cold, brimming with anger.
"I... I swear, this really wasn’t my fault! I didn’t even hit him—he just slapped the table in half right in front of me! My god, he’s obviously a socially unstable element! I only scolded him a little, and he didn’t even hesitate before beating me up..."
Hugh muttered a few words under his breath.
Right now, he was lying under the chair that Evan Lin was sitting on, and as he spoke, he covered his mouth, afraid someone might overhear.
Evan absentmindedly pressed his foot down on Hugh’s backside.
"Awoo!"
With that stomp, Hugh Hu let out a pig-slaughtering wail.
"I’ll be right there!"
Major Hu, hearing the commotion, hung up decisively.
"Major!"
Standing beside Major Hu were fifteen soldiers, lined up in perfect formation.
All of them were dressed in camo, heads held high, bodies brimming with fighting spirit.
"Form up! Come with me!"
Today, they’d just finished a joint anti-riot drill with the local police. The exercise had only wrapped up moments ago, and honestly, the results were pretty average—nothing to write home about.
At that moment, Major Hugh Hu looked over the dozen-plus soldiers in front of him, thinking about their performance in the drill. He couldn’t help but compare them to the five Knife-Edge Company soldiers who’d been specially trained for a week and turned into absolute beasts. The gap between the two groups was just too wide.
Ever since Knife-Edge Company’s First Blade through Fifth Blade were all summoned to Beijing, Major Hu had considered asking Eldest Brother Su to introduce him to that instructor, hoping the young coach could whip his own men into shape.
But no matter how many times he’d asked, Su always refused, saying that with his status, he couldn’t possibly invite such a ‘big Buddha.’
Major Hu found that pretty believable.
After all, anyone who could crush a Tiger Special Forces coach in public and send him straight to the hospital in just a few moves was definitely in a league of their own.
Major Hu strode ahead, his fifteen soldiers marching in perfect sync behind him.
They were still two streets away from Easy Breeze Restaurant. Major Hu yanked open the passenger door of a pickup and climbed inside.
"To Easy Breeze," he ordered.
The driver started the car, and the fifteen soldiers ran after it.
Along the way, plenty of people watched the scene unfold, shocked by what they saw.
Across from Easy Breeze, in a dessert shop, Eric Yu was wearing a mask and holding two ice cream cones. He handed one to Lynn Chen, saying, "Lynn, try this—the cones here are really good. When I was a kid, I used to come here all the time. But after I started acting, I rarely got the chance."
"Oh." Lynn Chen took it absentmindedly, took a bite, but her eyes stayed fixed on Easy Breeze’s direction, full of worry.
She’d been uneasy ever since she was ushered out, especially since Linda Guan’s demand was just too bizarre.
Forcing Evan Lin to leave Jinnan and never set foot in Oceanport again—what kind of insane demand was that?
What worried Lynn even more was that, knowing Evan’s personality, he’d definitely butt heads with Linda. And since Linda came so prepared, Evan was bound to suffer for it.
"That idiot... he better not actually start a fight."
Lynn sighed, feeling a headache coming on.
"Lynn, just leave the grown-up stuff to the adults. Let them handle it themselves," Eric said, seeing how Lynn kept staring that way, clearly annoyed but still speaking gently.
He added, "And honestly, transferring Evan back to Brightsea might not be such a bad thing for him."
"Look at him—ever since he came to Capitalview First High, has he acted like a student at all? All he does is skip class and get into fights, and he doesn’t respect the teachers one bit. He’s seriously out of control."
"Maybe the reason he resists our school so much is because he actually misses his old classmates or teachers. Maybe, deep down, he wants to transfer back but just hasn’t found a good excuse yet."
Eric just said whatever popped into his head, trying to keep Lynn’s attention on him. He knew her mind was mostly on Evan Lin, and that thought alone made him annoyed.
"So you’re saying maybe he wants to go back himself? Maybe he misses his old classmates or teachers? Is that why he picks fights with students and talks back to teachers at Capitalview First, always causing trouble—just so the school will expel him and send him back?"
Lynn suddenly turned her head, staring straight at Eric, her pretty face shifting through a range of expressions.
Eric hadn’t expected Lynn to actually respond, but when she suddenly turned to him, her tone urgent and her beautiful eyes flashing with shock and surprise, he was caught off guard.
He quickly nodded. "Exactly, that’s totally possible!"
Seeing Lynn lost in thought, Eric pressed on, "So, did Evan have any especially close friends at his old school?"
"Especially, you know, any girls he was particularly close with?"
Eric leaned in, coaxing her for answers.
Lynn’s face changed again at his words, and she suddenly fell silent.
She lowered her head, a strange confusion flickering in her eyes.
"A girl... there probably was one."
"Back at Brightsea No. 2 High, he confessed to a girl once. She was the school beauty..."
A vision of Rachel Liu floated through Lynn’s mind. Her voice grew weaker, tinged with a strange, sour feeling she couldn’t quite name—something was quietly fermenting in her heart.
"There you go! If he confessed to her, then he must still be hung up on her. And she’s the school beauty, so she’s definitely good-looking—maybe not as pretty as you, but still! Evan’s probably still obsessed with her!"
Eric slapped his thigh, face full of excitement. "I’m a guy—trust me, men understand men best!"