⌈It was as if Lu Ran wasn’t holding a hamster, but the bodies of his parents.⌋
“Why are you here?” Shen Xingzhuo frowned as he looked at Zhang Lin.
Zhang Lin glanced around the room.
His gaze didn’t linger on Lu Ran. His eyes were filled with the arrogance unique to the wealthy.
After scanning the surroundings, he finally asked Shen Xingzhuo, “Is Ranran not here?”
Shen Xingzhuo froze for a moment.
In an instant, a wave of disgust washed over him, like swallowing a fly: “Why are you looking for my brother?”
But right after saying this, a trace of awkwardness flashed across his face. Instinctively, he turned to glance at Lu Ran, who was standing beside him.
Lu Ran stood quietly behind him.
His left hand in his pocket became stiff as if stunned into immobility.
Seeing that Shen Xingran wasn’t around, Zhang Lin casually said to his sidekick, “Record a video.”
After giving that instruction, he finally turned to Lu Ran with an air of superiority.
“Was it you who caused trouble for Lin Yi that day?”
Lu Ran said nothing.
Shen Xingzhuo stepped forward.
But Zhang Lin ignored him.
He continued speaking to Lu Ran, “Have things been going well for you lately?”
As soon as he said this, the two lackeys beside him started laughing.
One of them added, “When you mess with the wrong people, you should expect things to go downhill.”
Zhang Lin also laughed.
Suddenly, with a flick of his fingers, the car key he was playing with rolled onto the ground.
Tapping his toe lightly, Zhang Lin said to Lu Ran, “Waiter, pick that up.”
“You—!”
Shen Xingzhuo exploded with anger.
But Lu Ran held him back and calmly walked over.
He said, “He’s not wrong. I haven’t quit my job yet, so I’m still a waiter at this club.”
“Lu Ran, are you out of your mind!” Shen Xingzhuo shouted in fury.
Lu Ran didn’t care much for the bullying tactics of these rich kids.
It was just picking something up; he didn’t find it shameful.
But it was clear that these people were trying to give him a hard time.
As soon as the car key rolled to the floor and Lu Ran’s fingers were about to touch it, someone kicked it away.
Lu Ran changed direction, but then it was kicked under the coffee table by the lackey waiting on the other side.
Lu Ran stopped moving and looked up at Zhang Lin.
“Pick it up.”
Zhang Lin was engrossed in the video being recorded on his phone.
The dim light of the private room cast shadows, and through the rear camera of the phone, the young man happened to look up, his face illuminated in the frame.
A pale blue-purple light beam just happened to sweep across his cheek, making his already fair skin even more alluringly white.
Through the faint noise on the screen, Lu Ran gazed at him quietly through the camera.
His dark eyes were deep.
That pair of slightly drooping eyes, when looking up at him, carried a kind of defenseless innocence.
It effortlessly concealed the danger hidden within those eyes.
Zhang Lin stared at the blurry image for a while.
Suddenly, he realized that this illegitimate son of the Shen family seemed to look quite to his taste.
When he looked over quietly like that, it was as if he would submit to anything.
As if… no matter what you did, he wouldn’t resist.
There was a certain… enticing compliance about him.
“What a pity,” Zhang Lin murmured to himself.
A pity that he had already promised Shen Xingran.
“Since you can’t pick it up, there’s nothing that can be done,” Zhang Lin signaled to his lackeys.
The lackey on the left poured a glass of wine.
The one on the right handed a cigarette to Zhang Lin.
Zhang Lin fiddled with the cigarette for a while without lighting it. Instead, he pressed it directly into the glass of wine.
With an air of false benevolence, he said, “Drink this and we’ll forget about what happened with Lin Yi.”
Everyone present instinctively looked at the glass of wine.
Shen Xingzhuo coldly warned, “Lu Ran, if you dare drink it, just try.”
Lu Ran interrupted him.
In the midst of the tense silence, he raised his hand like a well-behaved child, asking, “Did Shen Xingran only tell you that I bullied Lin Yi? Did he ever tell you how exactly I did that?”
The moment Lu Ran spoke, the faces of those who had been part of that past incident all turned rather strange.
Even Shen Xingzhuo, who had been about to step forward and dump the wine out, froze for a moment, instinctively stepping back two paces.
Only Zhang Lin remained oblivious.
Lu Ran’s question caught him off guard.
To be honest, he was a bit puzzled.
When Shen Xingran mentioned it, he had been vague.
When Zhang Lin asked Lin Yi about it, Lin Yi burst into tears and ran away.
When he asked others, for some reason, it was as if their lips had been glued shut—no one could speak.
Now, faced with Lu Ran’s question, Zhang Lin felt a bit embarrassed. He was about to say, “I don’t care how you bullied him, just drink the wine.”
But just as the word “I” left his mouth—
Lu Ran, who had been crouching in front of him, looking incredibly “obedient”, suddenly stood up.
With one hand holding the glass of wine and the other pressing against Zhang Lin’s neck, in the blink of an eye, he dumped both the wine and the cigarette straight into Zhang Lin’s mouth.
Lu Ran moved so fast that no one had expected him to pull such a move. Everyone was stunned.
Zhang Lin was dumbfounded for a moment, pointing at Lu Ran: “You—you dare…”
Before he could finish, he immediately reached to gag himself, trying to vomit.
His lackeys standing beside him instantly turned pale with shock.
The cigarette Zhang Lin had just tossed into the wine wasn’t ordinary tobacco.
It didn’t take long for everyone in the private room to understand what had been added to the drink.
Zhang Lin, who had just been lounging on the sofa with a smug, arrogant expression, suddenly couldn’t stop his face from contorting.
It looked like he was desperately holding something back.
Then, those nearby clearly heard a gurgling sound from his stomach.
Immediately after, a loud “pffft” echoed throughout the room.
Everyone froze in shock.
The lackey who had handed him the cigarette broke out in a cold sweat.
That cigarette had been laced with a potent laxative!
Chen Sheng and the other bystanders were left gaping, their mouths forming perfect “O”s.
They had long heard of Zhang Lin’s fondness for cruel pranks.
But no one had expected him to fall victim to his own scheme.
Zhang Lin’s face turned from green to purple, and soon, he couldn’t even speak. Clutching his stomach, he tried to rush to the restroom.
He managed to take two shaky steps before coming to a halt.
Zhang Lin turned back, eyes wide.
Lu Ran was still standing there, wearing the same gentle smile, reaching out to stop him.
“Where are you running off to?” Lu Ran smiled at him, “The video is still rolling. Why don’t we have a nice chat?”
“Let go of me!” Zhang Lin shouted.
But just as he finished yelling, his mouth snapped shut abruptly.
Lu Ran still held onto him, smiling.
Though Lu Ran appeared lean and fragile, the strength in his grip was astonishing.
Zhang Lin dared not move an inch, cold sweat dripping down his forehead.
His two lackeys, realizing what was happening, rushed to help him.
Lu Ran raised his head and smiled at them. “If you move even a little, I’ll drag your young master out into the hallway. If he needs to go, he’ll do it right there in the open.”
At that moment, everyone in the private room shuddered at the sight of Lu Ran’s smile.
“Pffft.”
Another sound erupted.
Zhang Lin stood frozen in place as if turned to stone.
The two lackeys were jumping in panic but dared not move.
The restroom was just a few steps away.
Yet it felt impossibly distant.
Even Shen Xingzhuo, who had never liked Zhang Lin, couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of sympathy.
He hesitated for a moment, then weakly tugged at Lu Ran’s sleeve, trying to persuade him. “Maybe we should…”
Before he could finish, Lu Ran suddenly pulled two bags from his pocket.
Inside were some dark, unidentifiable objects.
Shen Xingzhuo’s scalp tingled with dread.
Memories he’d tried to bury rushed back to him.
He immediately let go of Lu Ran and hopped several steps back, keeping a safe distance.
The bystander Chen Sheng glanced at Shen Xingzhuo. Although he didn’t understand what was happening, he instinctively jumped back as well.
A space quickly opened up between them.
In the center stood only Lu Ran and Zhang Lin.
Zhang Lin was half-bent, standing in a rigid posture.
Lu Ran’s expression remained gentle, his face still tilted upward, looking as innocent and sweet as ever.
Yet, there was a hint of devilishness in him.
Lu Ran spoke leisurely, “I’m quite aware of what’s been happening lately, but perhaps Young Master Zhang isn’t. Would you like me to go over the details?”
“I…” Like hell I want to hear the details right now!
Zhang Lin’s face twitched.
The Zhang family was a prestigious family in Beijing, and as the only son, Zhang Lin was set to inherit everything.
Thus, he had always acted arrogantly toward others.
But even he couldn’t help but back down in this situation.
Enduring the intense pain in his gut, he clenched his core and forced a horribly strained smile at Lu Ran. “L-let’s talk later…”
“How could that be?” Lu Ran whispered softly.
He held up one of the bags in his hand to Zhang Lin’s face and asked, “Do you know what this is?”
Zhang Lin couldn’t say a word.
Lu Ran continued, in that same gentle voice, “This is cow dung that I personally collected from my teacher’s farm.”
Hearing the words “cow dung”, even in his current state, Zhang Lin instinctively recoiled slightly.
Lu Ran looked affectionately at the dung in his hand and went on with its story, “To prevent contamination, I used a sterile specimen bag, followed the cow for ages, and waited a long time just to get a perfect sample.”
“I almost got kicked by the cow in the process.”
Lu Ran tilted his head, sincerely asking, “Wasn’t that hard work?”
Zhang Lin was on the verge of tears, completely lost as to why he was being told all this.
He could only nod and agree, “Yes, hard work.”
“Wasn’t it difficult to obtain?” Lu Ran asked again.
“Yes, yes!” Zhang Lin struggled toward the restroom.
“But you had someone throw it into the trash!” Lu Ran suddenly raised his voice. “You even tossed the culture I painstakingly separated!”
He grabbed Zhang Lin by the head and shook him furiously. “Because of that, I failed my experiment! I can’t complete my research project, which means I won’t get my credits! And without credits, I won’t qualify for a scholarship!”
“Do you know how hard it is for a poor student to earn enough credits?! Huh?!”
Zhang Lin had no clue.
He had never struggled for grades.
His path through university had been paved by his family.
Since the day he enrolled, he hadn’t attended a single class, always hiring someone else to mark his attendance.
Before today, Young Master Zhang had never imagined earning credits could be so difficult.
Not until Lu Ran smeared the contaminated specimen across his face.
At that moment, Zhang Lin truly felt the pain of it all.
His soul was practically leaving his body.
Seeing this, everyone in the room was utterly dumbfounded.
Shen Xingzhuo huddled on the sofa, trembling.
He began to reconsider if he had spoken to Lu Ran too loudly earlier.
Chen Sheng, squatting beside him, was also shaking. He wiped his face and muttered in disbelief, “Is university really that hard?”
The others around them stayed perfectly still.
No one dared approach Lu Ran.
Partly because of what he was holding.
And partly because of… Zhang Lin’s current state.
They feared that if anyone tried to pull him away, Zhang Lin might just lose it entirely.
But Lu Ran wasn’t finished yet.
He picked up the other bag.
Inside was the bloody corpse of a hamster.
Lu Ran’s voice was so soft it sent shivers down everyone’s spine.
“What did the hamster ever do wrong?”
“Why did you kill the hamster?”
Zhang Lin, with cow dung smeared across his face, stared at the bloody corpse before him. He couldn’t hold back anymore, and tears slid down his face.
“Apologize!” Lu Ran demanded.
“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have interfered with your experiment,” Zhang Lin, usually so arrogant, choked out through sobs.
His expression was one of deep sorrow.
It was as if Lu Ran wasn’t holding a hamster, but the corpse of his parents.
“I told you to apologize to the hamster!”
“S-sorry… I’m sorry…”
His tearful apology was so pitiful that everyone watching almost felt the weight of his distress.
After all, anyone who’s ever had to hold it in and not make it to the bathroom knows that agony.
Only then did Lu Ran stand up. He smiled at Zhang Lin and said, “You’re welcome to come by my lab anytime.”
Chen Sheng, having watched the entire spectacle, alternated between touching his face and clutching his stomach.
He couldn’t quite remember all the details of what had happened that day.
But what he did remember was this: Young Master Zhang crawled into the restroom on all fours, hands and feet working together.
As for what his pants looked like, that was anyone’s guess.
In full view of everyone, after thoroughly defeating the heir of the Zhang family, Lu Ran calmly gathered his belongings.
He stood, wiped his hands clean, and didn’t forget to call the club owner to formally resign.
Finally, with five times his normal salary, along with a sparkling record of victory, Lu Ran confidently walked out of the club.
No one in the room dared to stop him.
Before leaving, he even glanced at the underling who had been filming the whole time.
With a smile, he kindly reminded him, “Don’t forget to send that video to Shen Xingran.”
