Futile Devices Scans

Su You Yan:

Inside the restroom, Su You Yan stared at herself through the clear mirror. Her fingertips touched the face hidden beneath the hair falling along one side. After a moment, she put her glasses back on. A tall woman entered the restroom and turned on the faucet beside her to wash her hands. After finishing, the woman flicked the water from her fingers, droplets splashing onto Su You Yan’s face. Expressionless, Su You Yan prepared to leave, only to have her wrist grabbed.

“Yo, you saw someone you know and didn’t even say hello? What, don’t you have a mouth or something?”

Su You Yan still said nothing. The woman dragged Su You Yan and slammed her against the wall. “Seriously, dogs never stop eating shit. You sure talk a lot with Zhi Li, so what’s wrong now? I’d really like to see what kind of man can get you to open your precious mouth, Su You Yan.” The woman was Qiu Shui, the Taekwondo Club’s manager. Su You Yan merely stared at Qiu Shui without the slightest trace of fear.

“What are you staring at me for? Think being the chancellor’s daughter makes you special? Ever think about what other people say about you? They say you’re a useless piece of trash who only got into a good school by relying on daddy’s connections. Acting special like that makes plenty of people jealous, you know. You’ve gotten bullied a lot because of it, haven’t you? Every time you got beaten up, you never made a sound. Your precious father probably still has no idea how much suffering his beloved daughter’s gone through since childhood.”

Su You Yan pushed Qiu Shui’s hand away and headed for the exit, only for Qiu Shui to grab her hair and yank her back. “So rude, young miss. I’m not done talking.”

“You’ve never tied up this pretty long hair of yours, no matter whether it’s winter or summer. You look like a female ghost. Such a waste of a beautiful face. Let me see what’s hidden underneath this hair.” Qiu Shui tried to brush aside Su You Yan’s hair, but Su You Yan dodged away with tightly furrowed brows. Qiu Shui raised her knee and slammed it into Su You Yan’s stomach. Taking advantage of the moment, she swept Su You Yan’s hair aside, revealing a pale brown scar roughly four centimeters long stretching from beside her left eye up toward her forehead. Against her snow-white skin, it stood out painfully clearly. Su You Yan closed her eyes.

“Oh? People would really love knowing the chancellor’s daughter is actually ugly. No wonder you always keep your hair down—you were trying to cover this disgusting thing. Women care about their faces most, don’t they? Zhi Li probably hasn’t seen it yet, right? If he saw what an ugly freak you are, you’re scared he’d be horrified too, aren’t you?” Qiu Shui pulled out her phone and snapped a photo directly at Su You Yan’s face.

Su You Yan stared at Qiu Shui coldly. “Are you done?”

“How boring. Get lost already.”

From beginning to end, Su You Yan showed no expression as she quietly walked out of the restroom.

Ke Bu:

It was actually rare for Ke Bu to arrive at the cafeteria before everyone else. He glanced around the students, confirming the others had not arrived yet. Did the entire group have something going on today?? Usually he found those bastards too noisy, but now that none of the bastards were here, Ke Bu strangely felt uncomfortable.

Someone walking toward him bumped his shoulder. By the time Ke Bu turned around, the person was already gone. Shrugging, he went to buy his meal and found a place to sit down.

Not far away, a girl suddenly cried out in frustration. “My money’s gone!” Her boyfriend beside her tried comforting her. “Did you maybe forget to bring it?”

“That’s impossible. I still had it while eating earlier. Did someone really steal it here? That’s awful. There are thieves even inside the university.”

“Search properly again.”

“I already checked several times. It’s definitely gone.”

“I think I just saw this guy take your money.” A boy wearing a cap pointed at Ke Bu. Completely baffled, Ke Bu raised his head. Only after confirming the boy was referring to him did he react. “Which eye of yours saw me take anything?”

The cafeteria was full of students, and everyone immediately began gathering around to watch the excitement.

“You trying to deny it? I clearly saw you do it.”

“I didn’t do anything, so what exactly are you asking me to admit?” Ke Bu replied calmly.

The couple started looking at Ke Bu suspiciously. Then another male voice rang out from somewhere in the crowd. “I saw it too. That kid definitely took it. He’s in the same class as us. His hands have always been sticky. Small things constantly go missing in our classroom too.”

Ke Bu couldn’t see who was speaking, only hear the voice. The surrounding gazes became stranger and stranger, and Ke Bu suddenly sensed things were turning bad.

“Search him! If there are thieves in the university, how are we supposed to attend classes peacefully? If you’re innocent, then let us search you.” The boy with the cap shouted, stirring up the students around them. The crowd immediately became restless.

“And why exactly should I let you search me?”

Several students overflowing with a sense of justice stepped forward and grabbed Ke Bu. Ke Bu struggled, but they dragged him down. The boy with the cap searched Ke Bu’s pants pocket, and several hundred yuan along with a hairpin fell out.

The girl gasped. “That’s my hairpin and my money. So it really was you.”

The boy with the cap looked completely righteous and indignant as he leaned close to Ke Bu’s ear and whispered, “This is probably why your parents got divorced, huh? What’s the point of trash like you, someone even your own parents didn’t want, continuing to live in this world?”

“What the fuck did you just say?!” Ke Bu tried breaking free to punch him, only to have his arms restrained. “You got exposed for stealing and still want to hit someone? Behave yourself. Take him to the disciplinary office!”

The crowd surged around him, and amid the chaos Ke Bu inevitably took several punches. Eventually he was dragged into the disciplinary director’s office. The director looked at Ke Bu sternly. “Can you explain what’s going on here?”

“No. I didn’t do anything.”

“So many people saw the money fall out of your pocket, and you still won’t admit it? Are you saying all those people framed you together?”

“That’s not what I’m saying. I was simply set up by one or two people.”

“Who would do such a thing? Tell me their names.”

“I don’t know.”

“So people randomly targeted you for no reason? Although this university is lenient in certain areas, we absolutely will not tolerate criminal behavior like theft. Continuing to make excuses is wasting everyone’s time. If you admit it now, since this is your first offense, we’ll only record a major demerit.”

“You want me to carry the label of thief for the rest of my life? Impossible.”

“Then I’ll have no choice but to call your parents.” The disciplinary director opened the student handbook to look up Ke Bu’s information. Suddenly Ke Bu’s face turned pale as he bit down hard on his lip.

Call his parents?

He didn’t want that. He absolutely refused. They were already divorced—if they got dragged here again, they would only blame each other for failing as parents. He had endured enough already. His parents argued in front of him again and again. They fought while married, and even after divorcing they still fought. Ke Bu had nowhere to hide inside those endless arguments. He understood clearly that if his parents found out about this, they would only fight even more viciously.

He didn’t want to become a burden.

A burden to his father.

A burden to his mother.

“Wait,” Ke Bu stopped the disciplinary director and painfully forced the words out. “I stole the money.”

At the same pavilion where the group had first gathered together, Ke Bu looked at the people before him with a suffocating heaviness in his chest. Zhou Xin He’s hair was messy and dirty as she treated Chu Hao Yu and Ying Xiu Jie’s wounds. Chu Hao Yu’s hands and body were covered in swollen red bumps. Ying Xiu Jie’s hands still trembled slightly. Gong Zhu’s clothes were disheveled. Although Su You Yan didn’t appear visibly injured, Ke Bu knew her complexion was even paler than usual. She remained silent.

“Other than Hao Yu bringing it on himself, they went too far. How could they do something like this?” Ke Bu clenched his fists.

“Where’s Zhi Li? Don’t tell me he got taken away?”

The moment that question surfaced, they all shook their heads. “That possibility’s way too small.”

“I heard some students say the chancellor called him away.”

“I’m going to find a teacher. I refuse to believe something like this can happen at this university and nobody does anything about it.” The moment Ke Bu finished speaking, he sprinted toward the teachers’ office. After finding their homeroom teacher, he breathlessly explained everything that had happened.

The teacher unscrewed his thermos and calmly took a sip of tea. His tone remained peaceful. “And then?”

Ke Bu froze, never expecting such a reaction. “What do you mean, ‘and then’?”

“Ke Bu, what exactly do you expect me to do? In the future, after entering society, if someone throws food at you, frames you, or causes trouble for you, are you going to cry and run back to your parents or teachers every time for help? This is reality. Life will confront you with hardships for all kinds of reasons. I’ve already said more than once that this university is different from other schools. This university reflects every aspect of society. It reflects reality. This is not a greenhouse, and you are not flowers.”

“I don’t want the students from my class to become useless weaklings incapable of enduring even a little pressure. If you want to protect yourselves and protect others, then you must become strong enough that the current of people can’t even scratch you.”

“As long as it isn’t a major problem, teachers will not interfere. And even if we investigated, do you have evidence? Those second-year students already understand the rules thoroughly. They could simply claim it was an accident or that they weren’t paying attention.”

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