Chapter 50: Lin Bai Is a Clever Man

"Brother Bai, where are you? Hurry back and take a look, the Student Union people are in our dorm making trouble."

Upon hearing this, Lin Bai frowned, his eyes filled with perplexity.

"Alright, I'm heading back right now."

Hanging up the phone, Lin Bai looked toward Qin Ruowei, and before he could even speak, she grabbed his hand and ran toward the dormitory building.

...

A few minutes later, Lin Bai returned to the dorm, hearing the sounds of arguing from afar.

In the third-floor corridor, students from various rooms stood at their doorways, looking toward room 306. A large crowd had gathered in the hallway.

Lin Bai walked swiftly, bypassing the many students until he reached the entrance of his own room.

"You're fucking talking nonsense! I'll kill you!"

Inside the dorm, the hot-tempered Chen Zhe had clearly reached his boiling point. Having endured to the absolute limit, he raised his fist and swung it at a bespectacled student standing before him.

Gasps rose from the crowd, but just as the fist was about to land on the other person's face, a large hand firmly caught and held it in place.

Chen Zhe looked up and saw Lin Bai looking at him calmly, giving a slight shake of his head.

"Brother Bai, you're finally back!" Zhao Fangting and Lu Xiaobin both stepped forward, their expressions quite grim.

"What's going on?" Lin Bai asked in a deep voice.

Zhao Fangting stepped forward and pointed at the three Student Union members at the door.

"They're going too far! They insist our dorm used prohibited appliances, and God knows where they dug up a cigarette butt, claiming we were smoking! They want to cut off the electricity to our dorm!"

Lin Bai frowned. He knew very well that none of the four in their dorm smoked.

As for prohibited appliances, they didn't even own a hair dryer, let alone anything else.

Lin Bai turned his attention to the Student Union members and saw the leading young man holding up a cigarette butt pinched between his fingers.

"You're the dorm leader, right? This thing was found in your dorm. There are explicit rules prohibiting smoking, and I believe you should know that."

Lin Bai's gaze lingered on the cigarette butt in the other man's hand for a moment.

"And what about the prohibited appliances?"

The Student Union member pointed to Zhao Fangting's desktop computer.

"Well, it's not like I'm trying to lecture you, but students should look like students. You're only freshmen, and the freshman year is the most important. Is it really a good idea to waste time playing video games?"

The young man stood on the moral high ground, looking down with a condescending and bossy demeanor. He was the epitome of a stereotypical Student Union member, the kind so many students despised.

"You're full of shit! What's wrong with me playing games? How does it affect you? The rules don't say we can't have a desktop computer, do they?"

Zhao Fangting was furious.

The young man sneered, "Rules are rules, and the rules are made by us in the Student Union."

...

"You..."

Lin Bai held back the about-to-explode Zhao Fangting.

By this point, he could basically conclude that these people were deliberately picking a fight, and someone behind the scenes must be pulling the strings.

However, Lin Bai still couldn't be certain who was making trouble behind his back.

Zhao Sen? Yuan Fengcai? Or Wang Peichuan?

"How long will the power be cut?" Lin Bai didn't argue with him, focusing instead on the crucial issue.

"According to the regulations, the power will be cut for three days as a disciplinary measure."

"Three days? Your mother's f***..." Chen Zhe was so angry he started cursing relentlessly.

Lin Bai raised a hand and looked at the young man. "We accept the penalty. You guys can head back now."

"Brother Bai!"

Zhao Fangting, Lu Xiaobin, and Chen Zhe cried out in unison, their faces filled with incomprehension.

The young man raised an eyebrow, seemingly surprised that Lin Bai was being so agreeable. He found it a bit hard to believe.

"You mean... you admit your dorm violated the rules? If you admit it, we can shorten the three days to one."

Lin Bai looked coldly at the other man. How could he not know what the guy was driving at? He stepped forward, closing the distance.

"Listen to me carefully. We will never admit to a crime you pinned on us. You know what the real situation is better than anyone else."

"Three days it is! Just remember, I will definitely get to the bottom of this matter."

At that moment, the young man felt an invisible pressure. After swallowing hard, he picked up the notebook in his hand and made a record.

"Fine! Since that's the case, we'll leave if there's nothing else. I hope your dorm takes this as a warning. The Student Union is only doing this for—"

"Get lost!" Lin Bai roared.

The young man's body trembled. He glared fiercely at Lin Bai, then led the other two away from room 306.

Lin Bai closed the dormitory door, and at the same instant, the power in the room was cut off, plunging them into darkness.

"Brother Bai..." Zhao Fangting's voice was plaintive and deeply aggrieved.

Lin Bai sat in his chair in the dark.

"I know you all feel wronged. When you want to condemn someone, you can always find an excuse. Beating them up might vent our anger, but correspondingly, we would bear greater responsibility, and might even get disciplinary marks on our records that would go into our files and affect the rest of our lives."

"Perhaps that's also what the person behind the scenes wants to see."

"The person behind the scenes? Brother Bai, what do you mean?"

"Yeah, the Student Union wouldn't inspect our dorm and throw dirt on us for no reason. Someone must be stirring up trouble behind our backs."

Lin Bai's remark awakened his three roommates.

...

Bang!

Chen Zhe slammed a heavy fist against the bed frame. "When I find that bastard, I'll tear him apart!"

Lu Xiaobin was slightly more rational and asked, "Who could it be? Who has enough power to make the Student Union do their dirty work?"

Lu Xiaobin's question was precisely what Lin Bai was considering. Instead of answering immediately, he thought for a moment and asked:

"Does anyone know who the president of the School of Foreign Languages Student Union is?"

"I think his name is Zhou Teng, a senior," Zhao Fangting said.

"Alright, let's all get some rest early. I'll investigate this matter and give you brothers an explanation. Just give me some time."

"No worries, Brother Bai! Just shout whenever you need us to do anything!"

In the dark dormitory, other people's faces were invisible, and only their voices could be heard.

Lin Bai climbed onto his bed. With his phone battery at 33%, he replied to Qin Ruowei's concerned message, then opened the stock trading app to check today's closing price.

The performance was quite good, with another slight gain bringing the closing price to 4.98, nearing the five-yuan milestone.

Feeling satisfied, Lin Bai put down his phone and started doing sit-ups.

...

Meanwhile, in a private second-floor room at a barbecue restaurant outside the campus.

There were only two people in the private room. One of them was none other than Lin Bai's class monitor, Wang Peichuan.

The other person wore a clean, light blue shirt, with his hair parted 3-7 and neatly combed. Wearing glasses and bearing an ambiguous smile, he was currently on the phone.

On the table were common barbecue skewers accompanied by iced beer.

"Alright, I know. Keep watching them."

Hanging up the phone, Wang Peichuan hurriedly stepped forward to pour a full glass of beer for the man.

"How is it, Brother Teng?"

Judging by Wang Peichuan's form of address, this man before him was clearly Zhou Teng, the president of the School of Foreign Languages Student Union!

"This Lin Bai is a smart guy. He didn't take the bait." Zhou Teng's brief sentence made the smile on Wang Peichuan's face instantly vanish.

"Brother Teng, then..."

Zhou Teng raised a hand. "What's the rush? As long as he's still in the School of Foreign Languages, still at Jiangcheng University, he won't escape my grasp."

Hearing this, Wang Peichuan's face broke into a smile once again.

"Right, right, right, Brother Teng is right. I was too impatient. How could Lin Bai ever compare to you? Come, I toast you, Brother Teng!"