The news that Xie Ran had beaten Xu Feiyan again spread quickly throughout Qixing Middle School. This time, it was no longer vague rumors but had solid eyewitnesses who came forward with firsthand accounts.

Guan Heng and his gang saw the whole incident with their own eyes. Deeply shocked, they didn’t hesitate to spread the news until the entire school knew about it.

During the spreading, they added many descriptions of their own psychological reactions at the time.

High-frequency phrases included: “shocked my mom,” “as soon as he made a move, you knew he was the old jungler,” “too brutal,” “I almost pissed my pants,” and the like.

It could be said that this fully reflected the poor vocabulary of the school underachievers.

Guan Heng and his group were already notorious rich kids in Qixing, and among the few who had the ability to confront Xu Feiyan. But even Guan Heng absolutely did not want to provoke Xu Feiyan unless it was absolutely necessary.

Because of that, Xie Ran’s ruthless attack left them with an indelible psychological shadow.

Guan Heng and his gang quickly realized that this was a real big brother!

Invincible in the game, delivering heavy blows outside the game—a true dual threat online and offline!

While the news was buzzing around the school, Xu Feiyan was furiously treating his wounds in a clinic near the school.

Now that he had been reborn, preparing to perform well in the Xu family, he naturally could not let his family know he had caused trouble at school and was even beaten, so he didn’t go to the school clinic but to an outside clinic for treatment.

Strangely, although Xie Ran’s two attacks on him were fierce and hit his pain points directly, making Xu Feiyan feel he might die on the spot, when he checked at the clinic, all the injuries were only skin wounds, and even if examined, they might not qualify as minor injuries.

The clinic doctor applied ointment while clicking his tongue in admiration: “How did you get these injuries? The wounds are very skillful!”

“…” Xu Feiyan glared at the doctor with a fierce look: “Shut up.”

The doctor was startled to see such a violent glare from a student for the first time and immediately fell silent.

After the doctor finished applying the medicine and left, Liu Man and other followers who came along reported the school situation to Xu Feiyan.

“Xie Ran really surprised me!” Xu Feiyan laughed bitterly with anger, slamming his hand forcefully on the table, knocking everything on the table to the floor.

With several loud clatters, instruments and medicine spilled everywhere. The doctor almost jumped up to check but was stopped by Xu Feiyan’s words: “I’ll compensate you ten times. Go away.”

The doctor was very angry but dared not say anything. These students were obviously from Qixing, he could not afford to offend them.

Xu Feiyan’s face turned so dark it seemed water could be squeezed out of it. He couldn’t understand why things had developed like this.

He had rarely lowered himself to be kinder to Xie Ran, yet received such treatment in return?

But Xie Ran’s demeanor didn’t seem like someone reborn. He knew the previous Xie Ran very well. If Xie Ran had been reborn, it wouldn’t be like this. The Xie Ran before death had already been crippled, how could he dare to make a move against him? How could he even have the ability to oppose him?

If Xie Ran hadn’t been reborn, and all this was only due to the butterfly effect caused by his own rebirth, then that effect was too powerful.

Back then, Xu Feiyan bullied Xie Ran relentlessly, threatening him with debt, which forced Xie Ran to submit for nearly ten years.

This time, just because he didn’t use debt to pressure Xie Ran, Xie Ran dared to attack him?

Xu Feiyan couldn’t help but wonder what Xie Ran had prepared over the summer before Grade 1.

His mind raced, puzzled, until he heard Liu Man grit his teeth and say angrily: “It turns out Xie Ran has Guan Heng as a backing, no wonder he dared to fight us!”

Guan Heng!

Xu Feiyan was instantly enlightened. Indeed, if anyone in Qixing could rival him, Guan Heng was definitely the first to come to mind.

And today, Guan Heng really treated Xie Ran as a sworn brother and even tried to stand up for him.

So it was Guan Heng who gave Xie Ran the courage!

Xu Feiyan’s anger grew hotter. He clearly wanted to be nicer to Xie Ran, didn’t threaten him with debt as before, but Xie Ran instead teamed up with Guan Heng’s big ship and even turned against him.

Xu Feiyan asked with a dark face: “How did Xie Ran and Guan Heng meet?”

Liu Man was silent for a moment: “…I heard it was through playing games.”

Xu Feiyan: ?

He didn’t understand: “Playing games?”

“A recent popular game called ‘Endless Kill,’” Liu Man and his gang also played it: “Xie Ran is really good and helped Guan Heng climb many ranks.” His tone was tinged with envy: “Just a few days ago, Guan Heng was one rank below me, now he’s just two stars away from Glory… damn…”

Glory was the highest rank in “Endless Kill.” Currently, no one in Qixing had reached Glory rank, otherwise, Guan Heng wouldn’t be so popular.

As a reborn adult, Xu Feiyan had long lost interest in this game. Hearing this, he felt a tightness in his chest and could not say anything.

Xie Ran teamed up with Guan Heng, alright, but through a game?!

What was Xie Ran doing? Was he giving up on himself?

He once felt a little sorry for Xie Ran because of what happened last life, always thinking that Xie Ran’s declining grades were due to bullying, and wanted to make it up to him, let him study well, get into a good school, earn a good degree.

But it turned out Xie Ran had already fallen willingly, mixing with Guan Heng and his group of unstudious rich kids playing games.

Had it only been because he had forced Xie Ran to submit early that Xie Ran hadn’t had the chance to go down that path?

Xu Feiyan clenched his fists tightly, thinking that he should never have softened toward Xie Ran from the start, from the beginning, he should have forcefully kept Xie Ran under his control as before.

Liu Man mumbled: “Brother Xu, what should we do now? Xie Ran has Guan Heng backing him. If we want to mess with him, we have to consider Guan Heng’s face. It’s a bit tricky.”

“What’s Guan Heng?” Xu Feiyan sneered coldly: “Qixing is our turf. Can he really cause trouble here?”

Liu Man and others were stunned, then quickly recovered and smiled flatteringly: “Right, almost forgot, Qixing is Brother Xu territory. Taking down Xie Ran is just a matter of minutes.”

Xu Feiyan glanced sideways at them and smiled even colder: “Don’t make trouble for now. In a few days, Xie Ran will come to me to apologize.”

Since Xie Ran had chosen to fall willingly, he shouldn’t complain about repeating old tricks.

After school in the afternoon, Xie Ran packed up and just stepped out of the classroom when he saw Guan Heng and his gang already waiting outside for him eagerly.

Seeing Xie Ran come out, Guan Heng immediately came over: “Brother Ran, want to play games together?”

This “Brother Ran” was said with genuine respect, more than in the morning. That morning, Guan Heng called Xie Ran brother mostly because of his gaming skills, now it was from sincere admiration.

Among male high school students, having either gaming skills or fighting skills was enough to be called “bro.” Xie Ran had both, and was outstanding, plus he had beaten the school bully Xu Feiyan—he was the big brother of big brothers.

Xie Ran glanced at them: “Not today, got something to do.”

“Ah, I see…” Guan Heng sounded a little disappointed but dared not force Xie Ran, just sighed regretfully and was about to ask for another time.

At that moment, Xie Ran’s phone rang. The caller ID was an unfamiliar number.

Xie Ran recognized the number—it was the moving crew’s number that Meng Feixuan had booked.

He had gotten up early that morning and gone to Ruijin Garden for a look. With Meng Feixuan there, he didn’t have to filter info himself. After a quick inspection of the apartments, he signed the lease contract with the agent and even had time to buy a new set of clothes.

After getting the new phone, Meng Feixuan booked the moving crew online and gave them Xie Ran’s new number.

Xie Ran answered: “What’s up?”

The caller sounded urgent: “Young man, come back quickly. Your landlord is blocking us from moving stuff, we can’t work…”

Xie Ran frowned slightly: “The landlord won’t let you move?”

He had never moved personally before, such trivial matters were handled by assistants. This was the first time encountering such a problem.

“They say your lease hasn’t expired, to move, you have to pay.” The moving crew leader seemed upset, it was his first time dealing with such a landlord.

From background noise, one could hear the landlord causing a scene: “The deposit isn’t enough. You signed for a year, if you move, you have to pay the full year’s rent.”

Xie Ran said: “I understand, I’ll come back now. Please wait a moment.”

He put away the phone, just as Guan Heng’s group watched him eagerly.

“Brother Ran, you’re moving?” Guan Heng asked: “Was the landlord causing trouble?”

“Yeah,” Xie Ran replied: “I won’t be free today, you guys go by yourselves…”

“We’ll help you move.” Guan Heng immediately found a chance to get closer to Xie Ran, excitedly leaning in a bit and eagerly said: “With us around, your landlord definitely wouldn’t dare cause trouble.”

“No need.” Xie Ran was very cold in attitude: “I can handle it myself.”

Guan Heng quickly waved his hand: “Ran, don’t be polite. We don’t mind the trouble…”

Xie Ran said: “…I mind the trouble.”

That was the truth. To him, bringing along a bunch of high school students was much more troublesome than dealing with the landlord.

Guan Heng: “…”

Guan Heng was silent for a moment, then said bravely: “I can pay to help you move.”

Xie Ran was also silent for a moment: “…Alright.”

It wasn’t really for the money, mainly because Guan Heng had come this far, so it wasn’t easy for him.

On the way to the Xie family’s home, Guan Heng’s followers were still a bit confused. One of them tugged at Guan Heng’s sleeve: “Brother Heng, are we really going to to pay to help Xie Ran move?”

They could understand splurging big money yesterday for Xie Ran to accompany them in games since he helped them rack up a lot of points.

But paying to help him move? What kind of bizarre operation was this?

Guan Heng was also confused. He only wanted to find more chances to show off in front of Ran, but who knew Ran wouldn’t appreciate it? Their back-and-forth talk made Guan Heng unsure why he ended up running a losing business.

…It had to be said, Xie Ran really was the poorest student in all of Qixing. His money-grabbing methods were very unexpected.

Guan Heng suspected his savings would soon become Xie Ran’s savings.

He naturally couldn’t admit he’d lost his mind, so he cleared his throat and pretended to be profound: “You don’t understand, I’m casting a long line to catch a big fish.”

The followers: “…” Although, they still felt more like sitting ducks.

On the other side, Xie Ran also received a message from Meng Feixuan.

Meng Feixuan: [This is the first time I heard someone ask to get paid to help someone move.]

Meng Feixuan: [This is beyond my research scope.]

Meng Feixuan: [Added to ‘The Human Confusing Behavior Awards.’]

In the tube-shaped apartment building, Xie Ran’s parents were already very anxious, especially his mother, who kept wiping tears.

After Xie Ran confirmed with them last night that they were moving, they started packing overnight. In the morning, before Xie Ran left, he said he had already found a moving team to come and help, so they could rest assured and wait.

By evening, sure enough, a moving team came. They were happily preparing to move things when the landlord suddenly came with her brothers and relatives to block the moving team, claiming the Xie family broke the contract early and forced Xie Ran’s parents to pay a full year’s rent before allowing the move.

This was obviously bullying. Xie Ran’s parents had paid two months’ deposit to the landlord, which was not a small sum for them, but since they were moving early, they took the deposit as a penalty and didn’t ask the landlord for a refund.

Unexpectedly, the landlord then produced the lease contract. Xie Ran’s parents found out the contract had a vague clause stating that tenants who moved early must pay the full rent for the agreed lease term.

By normal understanding, this clause meant paying rent for the period they actually lived there, and that was how Xie Ran’s parents understood it when signing.

But the landlord insisted the contract required paying the entire year’s rent regardless.

Moreover, knowing the vague contract wasn’t enough, the landlord brought people to block the way, using both threats and force.

Xie Ran’s parents didn’t expect this. Since Xie’s mother got sick, their family fortune declined, and many relatives rarely visited. They couldn’t get help quickly.

The moving team had a few people, but they were just paid workers who didn’t want to get involved in disputes. After making a phone call, they hid outside the building to smoke.

The landlord blocked Xie Ran’s parents inside the house, eating sunflower seeds and laughing: “Old Xie, you have money to live at Ruijin, don’t act poor over this rent.”

Xie Ran’s father glared: “We never owed you rent, and we gave you the deposit. Aren’t you bullying us?”

“What bullying? Old Xie, be reasonable. I’m just following the contract. Even if you sue, I’m in the right.” The landlord raised her voice, intimidating Xie Ran’s father: “You signed it yourself. If you didn’t agree, you could have refused to sign. Now you say I’m bullying you? You’re the unreasonable one!”

“Sis, why waste time with them?” The landlord’s brother impatiently stepped forward, threateningly looking at Xie’s father: “I heard you have a son still in school. It should be time for him to come home. You wouldn’t want to argue in front of the kid, would you?”

“What do you want?” Xie’s mother became anxious: “Don’t involve the children in adult matters.”

Mentioning Xie Ran made the landlord even angrier. She sneered: “That kid of yours is something else. He was the one pushing to move, and he dared to demand money from me and snub me. He just needs discipline…”

Xie’s father held back until now, but couldn’t anymore. He suddenly stood up: “Don’t push people too far!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what’s this? Want to fight?” The landlord’s brother stepped forward and pushed Xie’s father hard: “You started it. Don’t say we’re bullying.”

Caught off guard, Xie’s father stumbled and nearly fell. Xie’s mother panicked: “Old Xie!”

The landlord’s brother was about to strike again: “You don’t want the drink, you get the punishment—”

Before he could finish, someone grabbed his wrist from behind with skilled force, tightly holding him, preventing movement.

“Who is it?” The landlord’s brother turned around and saw a slender young boy had appeared behind him.

Xie Ran stood tall, backlit by outdoor light, looking indifferent at the roomful of people. He gripped the landlord’s brother’s wrist and threw him back and forth. The landlord’s brother staggered on the spot.

Seeing it was Xie Ran, his mother became anxious: “Ran, go outside first and wait. Let us handle this…”

The landlord wouldn’t let Xie Ran leave. She blocked the door with her plump body and waved the lease contract, smiling: “Top student, you came back just in time. You’ve read books, you should know the contract in black and white, right?”

Xie’s father hurried forward: “This is an adult matter. Don’t trouble the kid…”

“No problem, leave it to the lawyer.” Xie Ran interrupted, glanced coldly at the landlord: “Talk to my lawyer.”

In his original world, contract traps were nothing. He didn’t need to show up personally, his assistant could solve it.

It was the same now.

“Lawyer?” Everyone was stunned, confused.

The landlord was also stunned. Then her phone rang. She suspiciously answered, and a mature man’s voice came through: “Hello, I am Xie Ran’s legal representative Meng Feixuan. I have been authorized by Mr. Xie to file a formal lawsuit against you for including illegal and unfair clauses in the contract…”

The landlord had deliberately consulted someone to do this. She knew the contract wouldn’t hold up legally, but she took advantage of the tenants’ ignorance and her family’s numbers to pressure them, hoping to squeeze as much as possible.

She never expected someone would actually find a lawyer to confront her.

The man on the phone spoke firmly and seriously, clearly very familiar with the law. He precisely pointed out the legal loopholes in her contract and cited laws against her usual bullying of tenants.

If the landlord initially doubted the caller, she no longer did. His professionalism and courtroom lawyer tone proved he wasn’t an imposter.

Finally, Meng Feixuan delivered a precise blow: “…To my knowledge, your lease contract was never registered with the tax office. The amount of tax evasion is huge.”

The landlord’s face immediately changed: “Are you trying to threaten me?”

“This kid really found a lawyer?” The landlord’s brother, overhearing, grabbed the phone and sneered: “Top student, your brain must be broken from studying. Hiring a lawyer? Don’t you know this is our turf? Even if the emperor came, it wouldn’t help…”

The landlord’s family were local bullies, which explained their arrogance.

Xie Ran’s phone vibrated. He answered. Meng Feixuan’s voice came through: “Sir, don’t worry. This kind of case is common in disputes.”

Xie Ran: “Okay.”

He already knew, but before, his assistant handled things, he didn’t need to get involved.

Meng Feixuan continued: “I can handle it normally, but it will take some time. If you want it fast, there is another way…”

“Brat, still on the phone? I told you, no one can help…” The landlord’s brother, still bitter after being thrown by Xie Ran, was even more disgusted to see him call a lawyer and acted to teach him a lesson.

Before he finished, Xie Ran suddenly looked up and fiercely kicked, hitting the landlord’s brother’s stomach with a heavy “thud.”

Xie Ran had been kicking Xu Feiyan a lot recently and was pretty good at it.

The landlord’s brother screamed unexpectedly and flew back in an arc, hitting the ground hard.

The scene was brutal.

“What are you doing!” The landlord and her family didn’t expect Xie Ran to suddenly attack so cleanly. They were stunned. Her brother was furious and quickly blocked the door: “Don’t let him escape!”

But Xie Ran had no intention of running. He stood silently, tall and indifferent. Although just a not-very-strong high school student, he exuded an inexplicable aura of superiority, looking down on them.

At that moment, chaotic footsteps came from outside. Someone shouted: “Ran, we’re here.”

The landlord’s family looked out and were stunned.

Outside the small house appeared a group of boys about Xie Ran’s age.

Though young, they were all just finishing growing into their bodies, especially Guan Heng and the others, well-nourished and big. The landlord’s brothers looked small compared to them.

High school boys were at their most energetic. A group standing there looked like gangsters from a movie.

The landlord’s family was shocked. The landlord shouted: “Who… who are you?”

“We’re Ran’s brothers. We heard someone was bullying Ran’s family, so we came to check it out!” Guan Heng looked the landlord’s brothers up and down with contempt: “Damn, I thought you were tough. Turns out you’re just a bunch of old fogies!”

The landlord’s brothers: “…” They were only in their forties or fifties!

The landlord’s phone rang again. It was the same lawyer, Meng Feixuan.

Meng’s voice was steady and experienced, with a bit of a sly veteran tone: “Are you thinking of settling publicly, or privately?”

Author’s note:

Boss Xie: Your savings are fine, the next moment, they’re mine.

Mark: I’ll draft the contract. (Expert mode)

Guan Heng: qwq

Sitting ducks = suckers.

 

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