5: Chapter 5: After being soft for so many years, it's time to get hard from today onwards.
Su Qingyuan was startled by a student who suddenly rushed out.
Once she saw it was a student from her own class, she gently patted her chest to calm her emotions and said expressionlessly, "Mhm, run slower. You're so reckless, what if you fall?"
The boy felt as if he had been granted a great pardon. He let out an "Aye," and clutching his basketball, he slipped away without looking back.
The other students who followed him out also obediently slowed their pace, politely greeting Su Qingyuan before daring to leave.
"Hey, did you guys notice? Teacher Su's collar is gone," a boy with glasses suddenly whispered once they were a short distance away.
Several boys looked back.
"It really is. Where is her Suppression Collar?"
"Let's go remind her quickly, or she'll mutate. I don't want my goddess to turn into one of those ugly Mutated Beasts outside the city."
Another boy pulled him back. "Are you stupid? Do you think an Suppression Collar is like a necklace? That it would just accidentally fall off? Since Teacher Su isn't wearing it, she must have taken it off herself."
"Are you saying Teacher Su has formed a contract with someone? No way! She's my goddess, who would be so bold?" the boy with the basketball said, clutching his chest dramatically.
"Cheer up, brother. Women have to get married eventually; it was bound to happen sooner or later."
"Doesn't your damn heart ache?"
"Bullshit, my goddess has been snatched away, how could my heart not ache?"
Saying that, the boy snatched the basketball from his arms, slammed it onto the ground, and said irritably, "But what choice is there? If I could just awaken an Earth Rank Lower Grade, I wouldn't even want an Earth Rank High Grade War Princess; I'd definitely choose her."
In an instant, the news of Teacher Su forming a contract spread like wildfire throughout the entire school.
The boys instantly looked as if their souls had been sucked out, each one appearing utterly dejected.
The girls, on the other hand, were in an uproar, discussing who could possibly be so capable as to sign a contract with a goddess like Teacher Su, who possessed both beauty and wisdom.
And every boy had the same thought brewing in his mind: they had to see who that lucky guy was!
They wanted to see exactly where they had fallen short.
...
Yun Zhuo brought a real estate agent to see the house. Just as he entered his residential complex, he ran into Li Wanqing's father, Li Weibin.
The two families lived right above and below each other.
Li Weibin pushed up his glasses, a flash of disdain crossing his eyes. "Xiao Zhuo, why aren't you in class today?"
Yun Zhuo paused for a moment before remembering that the man in front of him was Li Weibin, a minor clerk at a logistics company.
He had taken advantage of Yun Zhuo quite often. Even now, his cousin's family was still staying in Yun Zhuo's home because Li Weibin's house was too crowded, while Yun Zhuo lived alone and had plenty of space.
They had lived there for nearly a year without paying a cent in rent. On top of that, he shamelessly said, "We're all neighbors; talking about money hurts our feelings."
The original owner of the body was a fool too, actually never asking him for it.
"Aren't you also not at work?"
Li Weibin was taken aback and immediately said with a look of displeasure, "Is that any way to speak to your elder?"
"Elder my foot. Let me tell you, I'm selling the house today. Tell your cousin's family to move out immediately. Oh, and settle the rent for this past year while you're at it."
"Selling the house? You want to sell the house? No, I don't agree."
"None of your damn business. It's my house; I'll sell it if I want to."
"You... No, Xiao Zhuo, I mean, you're still a student. If you sell the house, where will you live? You call me 'Uncle' after all; I can't just watch you end up on the streets, can I?"
"Is that so? Then I'll live at your place. Anyway, your daughter isn't living at home right now."
"How can that be? It's so inconvenient for a boy like you to live in our house."
Yun Zhuo gave a cold laugh. "Enough, stop pretending. Either you let me live in your house, or you settle your cousin's rent for the year.
I won't ask for much since we're neighbors. Let's say five thousand a month, so sixty thousand in total."
It wasn't that Yun Zhuo didn't want to ask for more; it was that they wouldn't be able to afford it if he did.
If he had known that Li Wanqing had just brought home fifty thousand yuan a few days ago, he would have doubled the rent this time no matter what.
"Are you crazy? Five thousand a month to rent this old, broken place?"
"I don't care. If you don't pay, I'll go make a scene at your workplace. I'll let your colleagues and leaders see how you bully a parentless orphan like me.
By the way, my father was a soldier. Bullying the orphan of a martyr—do you think this would make the headlines?"
"You..." Li Weibin broke into a cold sweat from fear. He was afraid of being cyberbullied, but even more afraid of being extorted by the City Lord.
That's right, extortion. This world wasn't prosperous and peaceful like Yun Zhuo's previous life.
This was the Kindling Federation, divided among warlords, where the City Lord was a local tyrant.
With the Dawn City Lord's notorious reputation, if given a chance to extort someone, he would surely suck them dry. He wouldn't stop until Li Weibin's family was completely bled dry.
He wouldn't care if the Li family's daughter was an Earth Rank War Princess; in fact, that would just allow him to fetch a better price.
And he wouldn't give a single cent of that money to Yun Zhuo.
"You're crazy! Doing this won't get you a single cent; it'll only kill our whole family."
"I don't care about the money. Seeing your family die would make me feel great."
"Xiao Zhuo, you're a good kid. How did you suddenly become like this?"
"A good kid?" Yun Zhuo sneered. "Wasn't I forced into this by your family? Now, either you pay up, or I make a huge scene. Take your pick."
"I... I don't have that much money right now."
Li Weibin had no choice but to back down. His daughter had just awakened as an Earth Rank War Princess and had a boundless future. With prosperity and wealth within reach, he didn't want everything ruined by this little beast, Yun Zhuo.
He gritted his teeth but was forced to lower his posture. "Xiao Zhuo, let's talk this through. About the money... can we discuss it further?"
"No discussion. If you don't have money, you can go get a loan. Online loans are quite convenient these days anyway."
A loan? Don't be ridiculous.
The bank loans here were like shark loans; a working-class person like him could never afford to pay them back.
Left with no choice, he had to go back and discuss it with his wife to see if they could use the fifty thousand Li Wanqing had brought back last time for this emergency.
Simply put, his family was even poorer than Yun Zhuo thought.
As a result, when his wife heard this, she immediately blew her top.
"that scoundrel! He's really crossed the line, trying to extort me!"
Li Wanqing's mother, Luo Minzhen, was notoriously shrewish in the neighborhood. With a mouth that could scold for three days and nights without rest, the entire building was afraid of their family.
She was about to rush out to teach Yun Zhuo a lesson, but Li Weibin pulled her back. "Enough! That little beast has been driven mad by Wanqing. Don't provoke him any further.
If he really leaks this, our whole family will be finished."
"You useless coward." Luo Minzhen poked Li Weibin's head and said, "Wanqing worked so hard for that money. We haven't even had it for long, and you want to give it to that little beast? Are you really okay with that?"
"What else can we do? Wanqing is an Earth Rank War Princess now. Do you not want the future prosperity and wealth? Do you really want to go down in flames with that scoundrel right now? Is it worth it?"
"I..." Luo Minzhen was momentarily speechless, but then she stiffened her neck and said, "So we're just going to let it go like this?"
"It's not over. Once our daughter becomes successful in the future, we'll just make that little beast pay us back a hundred or a thousand times over."
Yun Zhuo's house was sold for a closing price of two hundred thousand. He received one hundred and ninety thousand, with the agent taking a ten thousand commission. The commission rate was as high as 5%—what a rip-off. And yet, this was already the most ethical agent he could find.
Li Weibin's cousin's family was kicked out by the shady agent, and then the two families could be heard arguing through the door.
But that was no longer any of Yun Zhuo's business.
Yun Zhuo didn't call a moving company because he didn't have much to move. Besides his parents' funeral portraits and an incense burner, he only had a few changes of clothes.
After packing everything up, he called Su Qingyuan.
"Hello, Teacher Su, where do you live?"