TL: Moonlit
As Lin Hanchuan stepped onto the rooftop, the hollow iron door behind him suddenly closed.
The male student was startled, and he grabbed onto the iron door desperately, his expression filled with anxiety and panic. âBrother Yuan, we have an exam today. I canât miss itâ¦â
Li Yuan ignored him and turned his gaze to Lin Hanchuan. He thought that a diligent student like Lin Hanchuan, who valued his studies greatly and feared any impact on his grades, would be terrified and pale just like the male student who led the way. However, he saw that Lin Hanchuan remained calm, his eyes showing no ripples of fear.
There was no crying face as he had expected. Annoyed, Li Yuan said, âJiang Tian, if you kneel down and apologize to Tangtang, Iâll let you go.â
âJust that?â Lin Hanchuan felt somewhat disappointed as he scrutinized the young faces behind the iron door and let out a sigh. In the end, theyâre still underage.
They were still too young, acting recklessly and with malicious intentions but lacking the means to match their wicked hearts. The only torturous methods they could think of were either violence or academic pressure.
âWhat did you say?â Li Yuan didnât catch Lin Hanchuanâs muttering and asked reflexively.
âHe might agree,â one of Li Yuanâs lackeys flattered. âWith you here, heâs just a poor student. He can only kneel down and apologize.â
Li Yuan didnât intend to let him off, whether he apologized or not. He just wanted to humiliate Lin Hanchuan.
Li Yuan and his group turned and left, their lingering footsteps echoing in the stairwell.
The male student looked lost and stared blankly in the direction of the iron door. Nervously, he bit his fingers. âIf I donât do well on this exam, I wonât be able to get a recommendation⦠My mom will be heartbroken.â
Lin Hanchuan patted the studentâs shoulder, startling him. The male student finally regained his senses, but there was another victim he had harmed behind him. He turned slowly. âI⦠Iâm sorry.â
Ignoring his apology, Lin Hanchuan calmly asked, âDo you realize that youâre abetting a criminal?â
The male student lowered his head. After a long pause, he spoke in a low voice, âI have no choice.â
He came from a poor family and had an unpleasant personality. In this school, he was at the bottom of the hierarchy, and even the teachers knew he was isolated. However, working-class teachers had little power over these rich kids. At most, they could protect him from physical bullying.
In places where the teachers couldnât see, he faced disdain and discrimination everywhere. If he refused the little tyrant Li Yuan this time, he feared he would end up in an even more embarrassing situation.
This was an irreconcilable contradiction between the rich young masters and the poor students in the aristocratic school.
Poverty was his original sin.
Lin Hanchuan turned to look at the male student whose situation was somewhat similar to the original host, Jiang Tian. âI wonât accept your apology.â
The male student knew better than anyone how important studying was for poor people. When he agreed to Li Yuan, he knew that he had done something wrong and wouldnât be forgiven.
But when the victim himself said those words, the male student couldnât help trembling slightly. He had gone from being a victim to becoming an offender, and the guilt in his heart almost overwhelmed him.
Just as he was on the verge of collapsing, a coat suddenly landed on him. The male student looked up in confusion and saw Lin Hanchuan standing near the balcony. The rooftop wind ruffled his school uniform, and behind him were blue skies, white clouds, and a distant playground. The noon sun shone brilliantly on his head, creating a scene reminiscent of a comic book.
âJiang Tian! Itâs just one monthly exam. Even if you canât get a recommendation, you can still take the college entrance examination. Donâtâ¦â Before he could finish his words, Lin Hanchuan lightly jumped off the balcony, disappearing from the edge.
The male studentâs heart almost stopped beating. He had just caused someoneâs death!
He crawled to the balcony edge and looked down. There was no bloody scene, just a tall figure stepping on an air conditioner and jumping down gracefully, as if playing a game.
His relief and fear disappeared in an instant. The male student nervously watched Lin Hanchuan, witnessing him landing safely on the ground. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief, slumping to the ground, still tightly holding Lin Hanchuanâs school uniform coat.
Li Yuan and his friends came out of the dormitory building, and someone stood in front of them, blocking their way. Annoyed, they looked up, but their faces immediately changed.
âWhy are you here?!â Li Yuanâs legs trembled. He had locked the person on the balcony, so how could he be downstairs now?
Lin Hanchuan looked at them with a calm tone. âAre you coming back with me, or should I invite you back?â
âF*ck.â After a brief moment of fear, Li Yuan gritted his teeth and cursed. He threw a punch at Lin Hanchuan. âNo matter how you got down, stop pretending in front of me.â
Lin Hanchuan effortlessly dodged Li Yuanâs attack. The rest of the group also rushed towards him in a frenzy, thinking their numbers would overwhelm this pretty boy. However, they soon found out that Lin Hanchuanâs fists were more powerful than theirs. After just a few rounds, he had Li Yuan and the other three pinned to the ground. He gave them a severe beating and then herded them back up to the rooftop. If they attempted to resist, they were met with another round of iron fists.
After being beaten a few times, the four of them walked in front of Lin Hanchuan with a wilted and submissive appearance. They didnât dare to make a peep.
When they were the ones bullying their classmates with impunity due to their numbers, they never knew what it felt like to be bullied. It was only after being violently coerced and beaten that they finally understood the taste of being oppressed.
However, none of them thought of repenting for their past actions. They only wanted to retaliate fiercely in the future.
After Lin Hanchuan landed on the ground, the male student couldnât see him anymore. He stood blankly on the balcony, trying to calculate how he could descend like Lin Hanchuan. He attempted countless times, but with his physical ability, he could only go down vertically at best.
Lost in his thoughts, the balcony door opened. The male studentâs eyes lit up as he saw Li Yuan and the others entering, but he immediately shrank back, unconsciously holding onto Lin Hanchuanâs school uniform coat. âWhy are you backâ¦â
The next moment, Lin Hanchuan walked in as well.
The male student suddenly stood up and hurried over to Lin Hanchuanâs side, holding the school uniform coat with both hands. âJiang⦠Jiang ge, are you okay?â
Lin Hanchuan responded with a sound, taking the coat and putting it back on himself. He zipped it up neatly to his chest and casually instructed, âGo find a few long ropes.â
Li Yuan and his friends didnât show any obvious injuries on the surface, but in reality, they limped as they walked and the places where they were beaten were incredibly painful. One of them couldnât help but cry softly.
Seeing his underlings like this, especially in front of Lin Hanchuan, Li Yuan felt extremely embarrassed. He gritted his teeth, suppressing the urge to cry, and put on a fierce facade. âWhat do you want? My parents wonât let you off!â
The male student circled around and found a long hemp rope at a place where miscellaneous items were discarded on the rooftop. He hurried back and asked, âIs one enough?â
âEnough.â Lin Hanchuan didnât mind the dust and dirt on the rope. He grabbed Li Yuan and the others and tied their hands together. Then he led them to the edge of the balcony and secured the other end of the rope to the balcony railing.
âWhat the hell are you doing, Jiang Tian?â Li Yuanâs scalp went numb, and he asked fiercely, âMy father is Li Gang, and Iâm good friends with Tang Tang. If you dare to offend me, youâre done for!â
Once the ropes were tied, Lin Hanchuan looked satisfied with his work and smiled faintly, âIâm just treating you as you treated others.â
The place was open and flat, with no shelter at all. Under the scorching sun, Lin Hanchuan was quite content.
These people might be underage, but they were extremely malicious in their intentions. Lin Hanchuan wasnât an old-fashioned person, he didnât have the habit of respecting the old and loving the young, and he didnât want to indulge these spoiled brats.
This incident was just the beginning. In the original story, Li Yuan secretly bullied Jiang Tian, using his gang to do all sorts of terrible things â verbal abuse, ridicule, and physical attacks were common occurrences. The most outrageous incident was when Li Yuan falsely accused Jiang Tian of cheating during an exam, resulting in all his scores being invalidated.
Jiang Tian was deeply hurt, and it was only through the comfort of Zhou Yuntang that he slowly recovered. Because of Zhou Yuntangâs pleading, Jiang Tian didnât hold Li Yuan responsible. If it wasnât for Li Yuanâs deep-seated hatred towards Jiang Tian, Lin Hanchuan would have thought they were just putting on a show, with one playing the role of the angry one and the other pretending to be innocent, all to make Jiang Tian submit.
âEnjoy your sunbathing.â Lin Hanchuan said to them, then turned around and left just as they had done before.
The male student next to him was dumbfounded. After a few steps, he quickly caught up with Lin Hanchuan and anxiously said, âTheyâre exposed there. Wonât they have issues with the sun? Li Yuanâs family is very wealthy, you might get expelled⦠Even if youâre not expelled, theyâll target you even more in schoolâ¦â
Lin Hanchuan glanced at the male student, who immediately shut up, afraid that he might end up exposed on the balcony as well. He looked at Li Yuan and his friends, who were struggling helplessly, and couldnât help but admit that releasing the pent-up frustration from the past two years felt good, really good, refreshing.
âDamn it.â Witnessing the two leaving, Li Yuan was furious and struggled forcefully, but the rope only tightened around them. The pampered skin was rubbed red by the rough hemp rope, and he cursed loudly, âDamn it! Iâll kill him!â
âI swear, I will definitely kill him!â
âBig brother, stop moving. The more you move, the tighter we get bound.â
âDamn it, how is this knot tied? Why canât we untie itâ¦â
The dirty hemp rope had lost its original color, appearing pitch black. It rubbed against Li Yuanâs clothes, staining them black as well. His anger made him feel dizzy, âDamn it!â
The scorching sunlight was relentless, and their phones were left in the shadow of the iron door. Even if they shouted at the top of their lungs, there was no one in the dormitory building, and no one would hear them even from the farther away teaching building.
At this moment, they felt as if they were on a desolate and isolated island. Sweat trickled down their foreheads and necks, soaking their clothes. Li Yuan even began to doubt if he would be sunburned to death here.
It seemed like it was because of⦠Tang Tang. Li Yuan blinked, recalling that it was under Zhou Yuntangâs persuasion yesterday that he decided to take action today and prevent Lin Hanchuan from taking the exam, making this high-achieving student end up with a big fat zero and become a laughingstock.
âYuan ge,â someone weakly suggested, âHeâs a bit terrifying. Shouldnât we just leave him alone?â
âWe canât!â Li Yuan couldnât swallow this anger. âTang Tang and his brothers are formidable, and theyâll definitely take action!â
As long as he pleases outsiders and lets them know about the situation with Zhou Yuntang, without Li Yuan having to intervene, these followers of Zhou Yuntang would deal with Lin Hanchuan, as easily as squishing an ant.
For many years, Li Yuan had been domineering not only because he was the only son of the Li family but also because he was good friends with Zhou Yuntang, and members of the Zhou family became his support without him even realizing it.
Looking back, the most extreme thing Li Yuan had done was to break the leg of a classmate he disliked, but in the end, it was easily smoothed over by compensating the victim with some money.
This time, he not only wanted to break Lin Hanchuanâs legs but also shatter his arms! And then, drive him out of Nanping City! Li Yuanâs eyes were filled with fierceness, flickering with a sinister light.