After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 35.1

Everyone present turned to look at Qin Zhijin, who was standing not far away.

Qin Zhijin lightly brushed the hair accessory by her temple and looked at the pale-faced crowd with a light smile. She flicked the “Dog-Beating Staff” in her hand up and down and gave a slight nod. “If you’ve forgotten your knowledge from anatomy class, I can help you reminisce. All I need is a knife.”

Li Yan was intimidated, her face looking exceptionally grim as her crimson nails dug into her palms. If not for the broken glass of the wine bottle in front of her, she would have slapped her already; in all these years, Xia Shibai was the first person who dared to treat her like this.

Li Yan’s husband, Wang Qingyun, stood up from his seat and smilingly reached out to push away the broken bottle Xia Shibai was using to threaten Li Yan. “Miss, hearsay is a dangerous thing. Which one of us here isn’t an elite in the industry? If you truly offend us here, your path ahead will become very narrow.”

Chen Cun, covered in beer, had a buzzing head from Xia Shibai’s words and hadn’t snapped out of it for a long time. He wiped his face, thinking that if the old man really brought the bastard son back, he—who already had little money—would get even less of the inheritance. The words lingering on his lips nearly turned into curses upon hearing Wang Qingyun’s remark.

“…” What a retard.

Chen Cun really wanted to ask Wang Qingyun how he dared use the word “elite” in front of the head of the Lansui Group. Strictly speaking, their whole nest of people couldn’t even compare to one Xia Shibai. Just to protect Lansui’s stock, those shareholders would never allow negative news about Xia Shibai to emerge.

Chen Cun couldn’t catch his breath and forced himself to deflate. Grabbing his coat, he didn’t want to participate in this farce anymore. He prepared to flee with his tail between his legs, fearing Xia Shibai would actually bridge a connection with the bastard son. If that happened, he wouldn’t even have a place to cry. He had to wait at least until the old man died and was cremated so he could get the money first.

Chen Cun’s plan was calculated loudly in his head, but as he moved toward the door, he was blocked by Qin Zhijin’s stick.

“I’m going to the restroom; this beer smell is too strong,” Chen Cun said with an awkward smile. Thinking about what he had just said, he wished he could slap himself twice.

Qin Zhijin didn’t pull the stick back, casting a sideways glance at Chen Cun. “Sit back down.”

“This isn’t right. Even the police don’t restrict personal freedom like this…”

“If I called your brother out to eat right now to talk about next quarter’s cooperation project with Little Bai, do you think the police would arrive faster, or would he?” The stick tapped Chen Cun’s chest twice. There wasn’t much force, but it felt like ten thousand pounds to Chen Cun, making him tremble with pain.

Chen Cun hurriedly grinned, cupping the stick with both hands flatteringly. “Not leaving, not leaving! Sister, what are you saying? We’re classmates after all; whatever it is, we can talk it out properly!”

Chen Cun slapped his own face twice. “Look at this mouth of mine; I never learned how to speak properly since I was a kid. If I’ve offended you anywhere, just say it, and I’ll teach myself a good lesson.”

Qin Zhijin gave a cold snort. Giving Chen Cun even one more look was a waste of her time. She withdrew the Dog-Beating Staff and let it drop to the floor with total disdain; the tip was stained with beer, and she didn’t want to touch it.

Not far away, Wang Qingyun saw Chen Cun’s spineless display and curled his lip in contempt. He quickly redirected his gaze to Xia Shibai. Though she was beautiful, he figured she was just like Qin Zhijin—relying on a good family background, a mere “vase.”

Thinking of this, Wang Qingyun felt a sudden sense of relief. He naturally rationalized why Chen Cun was so terrified after hearing Xia Shibai’s words: most likely, Xia Shibai’s family background or her husband was formidable. Otherwise, what could a woman like her amount to?

Qin Zhijin herself was a failure, so what capable people could she possibly know?

Xia Shibai tossed away the broken glass and raised her eyes, waiting for Wang Qingyun to continue. To her surprise, Wang Qingyun stood before her performing a psychological drama in his head.

She could only see Wang Qingyun grinning. His previously ugly expression changed, and he inexplicably became confident again, as if he had found Xia Shibai’s weakness and held her in the palm of his hand.

Xia Shibai: “?”

“I’ll give you two choices. Either continue being stubborn, refuse to apologize, play dumb, and taste the consequences; or apologize properly, write out everything you’ve done clearly for the public, and I might consider letting you off?” Xia Shibai’s eyes narrowed. She spoke of letting Wang Qingyun off, but in reality, she wanted to destroy him right now.

People like this, who truly harm society and the world, are a nuisance to keep around.

Wang Qingyun sneered. “Little girl, do you watch too much TV? Do your father and his friends know you’re out here using the resources they built to suppress people? If we’re being honest, your father might even need me to perform surgery on him in the future. Qin Zhijin never tells the truth. If you don’t believe me, ask any of us sitting here—who hasn’t been backstabbed by her?”

“Tsk, who told you that?” Xia Shibai scanned the seated guests, reached for another unopened bottle of red wine on the table, and weighed it in her hand. “Since everyone is here, tell me your complaints. Let’s see if the problem is with you or with Qin Zhijin.”

“If the problem is with you, no one is running from the police station or the hospital today. One bottle for each person’s head.” Xia Shibai drawled, “If Dr. Qin is the problem, then I can only say sorry. Since you’re all ‘elites,’ you shouldn’t hold a grudge against us, right?”

Wang Qingyun froze, seemingly not expecting Xia Shibai to be so thick-skinned. He immediately raised his voice to scold her. “Aren’t you just being unreasonable? What kind of family raises someone like you? As expected, the shameless play with the shameless! All of you lack upbringing!”

Xia Shibai gave a light tsk. She had intended to leave Wang Qingyun some face, but after being counter-accused, she didn’t even want to use her hands. She kicked Wang Qingyun’s leg directly. “Get lost.”

Since the “lack of upbringing” label had already been slapped on her, Xia Shibai was too lazy to waste more words.

Li Yan, whose mind was racing for a solution, saw Xia Shibai walking toward her. She held onto her chair and backed up half a step, her speech becoming faltering. “You… you… what are you going to do?”

“Take this, hold it.” Xia Shibai handed the wine bottle she was carrying to Li Yan. “Otherwise, when I finish speaking, you might get angry and not find anything to throw at someone.”

Li Yan looked at Xia Shibai warily. After a moment of hesitation, she stared at Xia Shibai to confirm she didn’t intend to harm her before reaching out to take the bottle.

“What do you mean by this?” Li Yan asked, confused.

“That depends on what your husband means.” Xia Shibai leaned on the back of Li Yan’s chair, the smile not reaching her eyes. “Wang Qingyun probably hasn’t told you, but he had a child with the person outside.”

“What?!” Li Yan’s voice rose. She glared at Wang Qingyun standing aside, but fortunately, she didn’t lose her sanity completely. She coldly denied Xia Shibai’s words: “Don’t try to sow discord in our marriage here!”

“How could it be discord?” Xia Shibai found it amusing. “If you don’t believe me, have Wang Qingyun open his bank app and look at the high-expenditure transaction history. Won’t you know then?”

“Not only that, he plans to dump you and move all the marital assets away. Guess what he says about you?”

Xia Shibai repeated the chat records she had seen line by line. The malicious words were like sharp blades, piercing through the couple who shared a bed but had different dreams.

With every sentence Xia Shibai spoke, Wang Qingyun’s face turned whiter, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He hurriedly said to Li Yan: “Don’t listen to this person’s nonsense! How could I… how could I possibly do such things? You know I was raised up by your father. When the old man was paralyzed in bed and I had to show my filial piety, did I ever refuse?”

“You didn’t refuse; it’s just that while Li Yan was away, you beat the old man in his hospital bed. You even entertained murderous intent multiple times, reducing the dosage the doctor prescribed for him, wanting to kill him. That is also a fact.”

“You’re lying!” Wang Qingyun pointed at Xia Shibai and roared: “Shut up! What nonsense are you talking about? When did I ever do those things?”

Xia Shibai didn’t argue. “If I were lying, why would you be so angry? It’s just shame turned into rage because I hit the mark.”

“I! I never did those things, how could I… Ah!”

Wang Qingyun wanted to continue his denial, but a wine bottle was smashed directly over his head.

Li Yan was red-faced with rage, still holding the broken glass remains.

Blood flowed incessantly from Wang Qingyun’s forehead along with glass shards. He was dazed, looking at Li Yan in disbelief. Before he could speak, Li Yan picked up a plate used for bones from the table and smashed it hard against him.

“Wang Qingyun, you bastard! How dare you! Do you know where the money you used to start out came from? Do you know how much money my family spent behind the scenes to get you into that director position? Now you want to dump me for that person who sells their ass? Wang Qingyun, where did you get the audacity?”

Li Yan had gone mad with rage. After the plate was thrown, there were bowls; she threw everything she could at Wang Qingyun. She even went up to slap him across the face, cursing as she hit him: “When your mother died, the shroud, the coffin, and the funeral feast were all paid for from my damn dowry! When you messed around outside, I turned a blind eye. Now that you’re successful and climbed up on my family’s back, you want to kick me out?”

“Who do you think you are, Wang Qingyun? If you hadn’t lied to me back then saying you were recommended for graduate school and had a bright future that would keep me worry-free, would I have helped you do those things? Pull any of those out, and do you think you could stay out here safely?”

“You heartless thing, you dare lie to me? If I don’t beat you to death today, I’ll take your surname Wang!”

At first, Li Yan took advantage of Wang Qingyun’s dazed state and held the upper hand, beating him until he was bleeding. But once Wang Qingyun reacted, Li Yan wasn’t as strong as him; she was pinned down and beaten, finding it hard to fight back.

As Wang Qingyun and Li Yan fought each other, the others were frozen in their seats for a moment before quickly standing up to restrain them, not daring to let the fight continue lest someone die and everyone in the room be held responsible.

Seeing the two being pulled apart, Xia Shibai smilingly dropped another bombshell.

“Li Yan, do you know what Wang Qingyun’s real lover’s name is?”

One side of Li Yan’s face was swollen, her hair was disheveled. She looked at Xia Shibai, who stood aside with arms crossed, and said hoarsely: “What? What real lover?”

“The lover who is about to have a child with him and will help him embezzle most of your wealth.” Xia Shibai laughed lightly. “You probably don’t know, but you’re familiar with this person. You know them.”

“Isn’t this a coincidence? That person is also your bedfellow.”

“Li Yan, think about this situation—who would plan such a long game to reel you in?”

Xia Shibai approached, not caring at all about Wang Qingyun’s murderous glare. Instead, she patted Li Yan’s shoulder and whispered in her ear: “You’ve been in the game all along; every step you took was calculated by someone else. You thought you were superior, using Qin Zhijin as a stepping stone for your happy life. But is it possible that Qin Zhijin was never the opponent fate chose for you—your bedfellow was.”

Xia Shibai tucked a stray hair behind Li Yan’s ear and said pityingly: “If Wang Qingyun were a bit more ruthless, you’d be an orphan right now—both parents dead, and at not even thirty, you’d have neither wealth nor power. You earned this, Li Yan.”

After hearing this, Li Yan lost all reason. She struggled to go strangle Wang Qingyun, hurling every curse and slur she could think of at him. She hated herself for not finishing him off just now.

Xia Shibai met Wang Qingyun’s fierce gaze, tilting her head. Her lips moved slightly as she stared at his tense, then numb and crazed face. She leisurely watched Li Yan break free and rush up to scratch Wang Qingyun’s face with her nails, aiming for his vulnerable eyes.

The crowd was in a state of chaos.

Chen Cun, reeking of beer, watched Wang Qingyun and Li Yan fighting tooth and nail. Seeing that Xia Shibai hadn’t even lifted a finger, he was so terrified he huddled next to Qin Zhijin, apologizing incessantly. “I really… I really never did anything to hurt you. Please, please don’t contact my father’s illegitimate son! I don’t know anything! I haven’t done anything! I had no idea about the things they did!”

“Really, really, I’ve truly done nothing! You must help me explain it clearly to her, really, don’t mess with me!”

Qin Zhijin looked at Chen Cun with a cold face, her eyebrows furrowed in disgust. “Get away from me, you’re filthy.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll stay away, but I’m begging you, don’t let her cooperate with my father’s illegitimate son. Besides that, you can have me do whatever you want! I’m begging you, anything!”

“Get away from me. Can’t you understand human speech?” Qin Zhijin didn’t care at all what Chen Cun was begging for.

To put it bluntly, what did these matters have to do with her?

When she told Chen Cun to stay away from her back then, did he listen?

Why should she listen now that he was begging her? That’s not how life works; what goes around comes around. Chen Cun deserved it.

Seeing no reaction from Qin Zhijin, Chen Cun knew she wouldn’t help him. He was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, but he didn’t dare do anything to her for fear of provoking Xia Shibai, who might actually kick him out of his position as heir and let his father bring the mistress and bastard son into the house.

If that happened, not only would he be steamed to death with rage, but his mother wouldn’t be able to take the shock either.

The private room was a mess of noise. Outside, the floor manager, dripping with cold sweat, finally waited for the police to arrive and hurriedly led them to the door.

“It’s right here. They’ve been arguing for nearly half an hour. There’s smashing and fighting; we’re really worried someone might die…” The manager wiped his forehead. “We didn’t dare go in. Our employees are people too; the fight inside is fierce, and it’s not worth it if an employee gets hurt.”

The police glanced at her and waved for people to disperse. They opened the door with their colleagues. Inside, the fight was at its peak; a group of people were tangled together like madmen, making it hard to tell who was hitting whom.

Xia Shibai and Qin Zhijin stood aside and didn’t leave. Seeing the police arrive, they instead nodded calmly.

Chen Cun’s face was a mess; it was hard to tell if the marks were tears or dried beer. Seeing the police step forward to take them away together, he said hoarsely: “I didn’t do anything, can you not call my family?”

“Stop the nonsense, let’s go!” The officer pushed Chen Cun to move faster. As for Xia Shibai and Qin Zhijin, they were also taken back for questioning.

Fighting is a serious matter. Although Xia Shibai and Qin Zhijin didn’t use their hands, the statements from the others all claimed they had incited the incident.

Xia Shibai spoke the truth. Not only did she speak, she left no face, saying she wanted to report Wang Qingyun and Li Yan for using their positions to take bribes. Furthermore, they had violated social norms and morality.

As for the other things Xia Shibai had investigated, she didn’t tell the police. Anyway, Wang Qingyun’s phone had traces; if the police wanted to investigate, it would be easy.

Qin Zhijin and Xia Shibai were given a verbal warning and required someone to come and sign for their release.

“It’s normal to have anger in your heart, but with so many of them, you two just went in there and unleashed a verbal assault? If a fight broke out, would you have made it out alive?” the officer said crossly. “It’s only because this group was already divided. If they were united, tonight wouldn’t just be about a brawl. If it turned into a social news story, your families wouldn’t even have a place to cry.”

“No matter what you do, you must think twice. Prioritize your own life and health.”

Xia Shibai nodded while copying a formulaic self-reflection letter and signing it.

The officer said that according to the city’s standard procedure, they had to write a reflection with their real names and have their photos displayed on the public notice board.

Xia Shibai: “Officer, isn’t this a bit too much…”

“It’s fine, it’s not your turn yet. Besides your group, there are a dozen others from brawls earlier; you two won’t make it onto the board.”

“…” Xia Shibai gave an awkward smile, her pen not stopping.

Thanks, but I don’t really want that kind of honor.

Because someone had to come pick them up, Qin Zhijin called Qin Wang.

Qin Wang, who had just finished work only to work across districts again: “You’re truly outstanding, Dr. Qin. Are you planning to become a reserve doctor at the police station?”

“Just get here, enough nonsense.” Qin Zhijin hung up.