“There’s something I’ve always found really strange. How come I’ve never seen your roommate before? It’s already been over three months since school started, and I’ve literally never seen him once!” This really was a question worth thinking deeply about.
“He thinks the dorm internet is too slow, so he rarely comes back.”
Ke Bu looked around Zhi Li’s dorm room. The bed opposite Zhi Li’s looked as if no one had ever lived there. All the roommate’s belongings were piled beneath the bed, some of them clearly expensive items. Since Ke Bu had never seen this person in his own class, he was probably from the neighboring class. “You’re someone who never locks the door!! Aren’t you afraid someone might come in and steal those computer parts? Sure, students are educated people, but there are plenty of educated people who still steal.”
Zhi Li tilted his chin upward. “He installed surveillance cameras in the dorm.”
Ke Bu raised his head and immediately saw the camera mounted on the wall, clearly capturing the entire room. Ten seconds passed. Twenty seconds passed. One minute passed. Ke Bu muttered, “You already knew.” Zhi Li merely shrugged indifferently. Ke Bu continued asking, “Then the stuff we did in the dorm a few days ago?” He asked cautiously, trying to control himself. Zhi Li answered as if it were perfectly natural. “Yeah, it got recorded.”
“Zhi Li, if I die someday, it’ll definitely be because you drove me to it!!” Ke Bu could no longer suppress himself and roared hysterically. Sleeping together had already triggered an endless chain of humiliations, and this beast Zhi Li, even knowing they were being recorded, still had absolutely no reaction. Just what kind of thing could even make him react?!
“Being recorded in a situation like that by someone we don’t even know—what if he spreads it around or edits it into a porno?! You seriously have no sense of consequences. There’s no way he watches the monitors all the time, right? We can only pray he didn’t see it. And what kind of pervert installs surveillance cameras in a dorm room? Don’t you think that’s terrifying? No matter what you do, there’s always another pair of eyes watching.”
“I’m upright and honorable.”
“You’re using that phrase in the wrong place!! You’re seriously natural to the core. And you don’t even care about something like this.” Ke Bu felt creeped out staying in the dorm and walked out, preparing to go complain to Su You Yan and also drag out the mysterious roommate.
The moment Ke Bu left, Zhi Li crooked a finger toward the surveillance camera. If Ke Bu hadn’t brought it up, he might have forgotten about it entirely.
Not long after, a messy-haired person carrying a laptop entered the dorm. The moment he came in, he opened the laptop and started rapidly typing on the keyboard. This person was Zhang Luo, Zhi Li’s roommate! Zhi Li kicked the stool Zhang Luo was sitting on. “Did you see it?”
Zhang Luo pushed up his thick glasses, remaining calm. “No.”
Zhi Li stared at Zhang Luo. Zhang Luo’s typing gradually slowed. After a long while, he pushed up his glasses again. “I-I saw it.”
“You know what to do, right?”
“You still don’t trust this mouth and these eyes of mine? I already deleted the video and permanently erased it. Don’t worry.”
Zhi Li continued staring at Zhang Luo. Zhang Luo swallowed nervously and immediately corrected himself. “I-I was just about to delete it. Just about to permanently erase it.”
Zhi Li stood up, preparing to head to class. As he reached the door, he tossed out one sentence. “Make a copy for me.”
“Understood.”
“And make it HD.”
“Understood.”
Just after finishing PE class, Ke Bu splashed his face with cold water and headed back toward the classroom. Standing outside the classroom were a short guy and a tall guy. The moment they saw Ke Bu, they walked straight toward him, chewing gum and acting like they were trying to look cool.
“They seem like they’re here for us,” Gong Zhu said worriedly.
“You can tell from the way they walk that they watch too many movies.” Ke Bu shrugged, not taking them seriously.
The short guy practically looked down at people with his chin raised high. “So you’re the so-called strongest group among the freshmen?” Bringing up the military training incident from ages ago already felt outdated. The title “strongest group” had long become a thing of the past. The short guy continued, “Don’t you know the rules of this university? Freshmen should obediently stay in their classrooms. You’re just new students, yet your reputation has already reached us second-years. Where does that leave us seniors? Surely you understand the saying ‘the taller the tree, the stronger the wind.’ Who’s your leader?”
Hearing this conversation, none of the three wanted to continue. Chu Hao Yu pointed at Ke Bu. “He is, he is. Seniors, go drag him away and whip him for interrogation.”
“You sold me out way too fast!!”
“Stop grinning like idiots. Do you think this is a joke? We’re just here to pass along a message. Your behavior has seriously annoyed four senior students from the Taekwondo Club. If you join the Taekwondo Club too, they’ll forgive you freshmen. You’d better listen obediently. Everyone in this university knows those four seniors’ reputations. If you don’t want to get beaten up, make Zhi Li kneel before our seniors.” They even knew about Zhi Li. Clearly, they had done some investigating. Chu Hao Yu continued pointing at Ke Bu. “He is, he’s Zhi Li. Hurry and take him away.”
“Hao Yu, just how much do you hate me?!”
“Don’t start fighting among yourselves. Right now everyone should be united,” Gong Zhu hurriedly stopped the two of them.
“We’ve delivered the message. How you deal with it is your business. If you don’t behave yourselves in the future, surviving in this university won’t be as easy as you think.” After the tall guy finished speaking, he left together with the short guy.
“What kind of university did I even enroll in?” Ke Bu complained.
“A society where the weak are prey for the strong.” Chu Hao Yu followed them into the classroom, his expression unusually serious for once.
“You’re not actually taking this seriously, are you?”
“They mentioned four seniors and senior girls just now, right? So that means there are senior girls who dislike us too? I wonder if their boobs are big. Could it be they dislike me because they’re interested in me? Aren’t women supposed to say one thing and mean another?”
“You’re thinking way too much!!”
The short guy and the tall guy slowly walked downstairs. “Doesn’t seem like there was anyone called Zhi Li among that group.”
“No wonder the seniors specifically told us to pay attention to him.”
“Looking for me?” The handsome young man approaching them lifted his head.
“Y-you’re Zhi Li? Good timing. We already made things clear to those people just now. From now on, you’d better keep a low profile in this university. This is a warning. Otherwise, what happens next won’t be our responsibility.”
“Something bad?” His expression looked naturally innocent and confused.
“Obviously. Can you even understand human language?” the tall guy interrupted from the side. Zhi Li glanced at him once, and for some reason the tall guy suddenly shut his mouth. In order to look Zhi Li in the eye, the short guy stepped one stair higher. “The seniors said if you’re willing to kneel your way into the Taekwondo Club, this matter will be settled.”
“I refuse.”
“You should think carefully!! Do you know the consequences of defying seniors? Plenty of freshmen like you have already been taught lessons.”
Zhi Li stepped closer, directly forcing the short guy backward until he was trapped against the railing with nowhere left to retreat. Gently, Zhi Li placed his right hand around the short guy’s neck. “Then I’d really like to see…” The short guy felt as though he were hallucinating. On the beautiful face standing before him gathered countless emotions: cunning? sinister? terrifying? excited? He could not find a single proper word to describe it. Rather than being frightened by people coming to pick a fight with him, it felt more like this man was actually anticipating it! Just what kind of person was Zhi Li? What exactly was going on?!
“And also, don’t touch them. Otherwise…” Zhi Li suddenly tightened his grip. The short guy found it difficult to breathe. He wanted to struggle, but he had no strength.
“Can you understand human language?” Zhi Li asked. The short guy nodded frantically with a flushed face. Zhi Li released him. Gasping for air as though freed from death itself, the short guy dragged the tall guy away in panic.
Aside from Ying Xiu Jie insisting on beating those people up, no one else took the incident seriously. Everyone simply wanted to peacefully live out their ordinary daily lives. Ke Bu genuinely had no energy for causing trouble. Although those people had spoken like that, they themselves were no longer children. Starting a life-or-death conflict over something this trivial would be far too immature. So the matter was treated as a small interruption and forgotten after a few days.
Life continued as usual.
Until…
Futile Devices Scans 
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