Chapter 26: Idle Man Li Xian

When Li Xian walked out of the girls' dormitory, covering his face, he saw that Liang Yonghe had already been grabbed by the dormitory supervisor and dragged out of the dorm. Liang Yonghe hung his head, looking like a condemned man.

With the danger gone, the nearby students started pointing and chattering noisily. Even when Li Xian passed by, the looks people gave him had something different in them.

Not in the mood to ponder the meaning behind those looks, Li Xian followed to make sure Liang Yonghe wouldn't suffer further.

Soon enough, the school's key leaders arrived: first the dean, then Wu Guohua, and finally even Principal Xu Zhengguang, who rarely made an appearance, hurried over.

After a thorough scolding from the leaders, they contacted the Qiyi Forest Farm, where Liang Yonghe's family lived, to have someone come pick him up. Given the current situation, the leaders clearly didn't dare keep him at the school any longer. Neither Liang Yonghe nor Li Xian had any power to object.

Liang Yonghe's attempt to jump from the building caused quite a stir at the school, especially given that it was during the critical period of graduation assignments. The incident had a significant impact. Many students, not just from the dorm but also underclassmen, witnessed the event.

Moreover, what Li Xian had said about the corruption in job assignments during the incident naturally sparked an uproar among the students.

The students were divided into two camps: one remained silent on the matter, while the other loudly protested the unfairness of the assignment process. Interestingly, those who stayed silent were without exception the ones who had secured decent internship recommendations, while the complainers were the ones assigned to forest farms.

After all, if even Liang Yonghe, the top student in the accounting major of the class of '88, wasn't assigned to stay with the Forestry Bureau but was instead sent to a forest farm as an observer, many students without connections or background worried about their own futures.

The school seemed to recognize the issue as well, so they quickly handed down Liang Yonghe's punishment that afternoon.

There were only two points: temporarily cancel Liang Yonghe's internship assignment, maintain his student status, and send him back to the forest farm.

The implication was clear—they wanted to keep the matter quiet.

That evening, Liang Yonghe's parents, having received the news, rushed to the school on the forest farm's tractor. Even when they saw their son was safe, Liang Yonghe's mother still beat him and cried her heart out.

Meanwhile, Liang Yonghe's father, a taciturn farmer, bowed repeatedly, apologizing to the instructor, who was powerless to change the situation, and begged the school not to cancel his son's job assignment.

Li Xian, who had been waiting in the hallway outside the academic office, felt uncomfortable watching this scene.

In the end, Liang Yonghe was taken away by his parents.

The school, fearing the situation might worsen overnight, ordered Liang Yonghe to move out of the dorm immediately. To save on accommodation costs for the night, his parents decided to head back immediately.

It was early September, and the night air was cool.

The entire dorm gathered in the hallway, watching the silent, head-hung Liang Yonghe.

In the dorm, with Li Xian's help, Liang Yonghe's parents had packed up his belongings.

Learning that Li Xian had saved their son, Liang's father was very grateful. Carrying the bundle of luggage, he said, "Kid, we owe you our family's life for saving Yonghe from doing something stupid."

Li Xian waved his hand repeatedly and looked at the still silent Liang Yonghe, saying, "Uncle, Yonghe has thought it through. Please don't bring it up when you get home."

"I won't, I won't," Liang's father quickly replied. "As long as he's okay, that's all that matters."

Li Xian nodded, then walked over to Liang Yonghe. Seeing that the guy still wasn't speaking, he smiled and patted his shoulder. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

Liang Yonghe's lips finally moved, and he lifted his head, his voice hoarse. "Xianzi... I—"

Looking into those somewhat lost eyes, Li Xian flashed a grin, revealing his good teeth. "Enough, go home and take a couple of days to think it over. When you've realized how dumb you were today, come find me. What I said this morning wasn't just talk. Don't just focus on now; look at where we'll be two years from now."

Liang Yonghe wiped his eyes and nodded heavily.

Liang's father sighed, pulling his son along as they left the dorm under the gaze of a group of students.

With Liang Yonghe gone, Li Xian noticed that his situation had significantly changed compared to before.

Wang Wensheng and Zheng Biao didn't sleep in the dorm that night, and some students with good internship placements started looking at him differently, losing their former friendliness.

Before graduation, people hadn't thought much about it, but now that everyone was about to enter the workforce, differences were starting to show.

Clearly, Li Xian's bold words to Liang Yonghe that morning had distanced him from those who were likely to become successful colleagues in the future.

Many people now thought that Li Xian wasn't someone they should associate with.

The coldness of people's hearts was evident without needing words.

…

For several days, Li Xian felt that people were whispering about him behind his back, which made him very uncomfortable.

Finally, when Wang Wensheng came back to the dorm to grab something, he told Li Xian the truth. "You've really pissed off those who got their job placements through connections and gifts."

Li Xian could only smile wryly.

Though what he said that day was impromptu, it was the truth.

Whether it was Liang Yonghe or himself, they were seen by others as complete failures—doomed to spend their lives in some corner of the Forestry Bureau, unable to rise, destined to live a life of mediocrity.

With such a social status, even without openly challenging the assignment system, just his claim that they would be better off than everyone else in two years made him a laughingstock.

This world is really something.

But there was an unexpected and amusing outcome as well.

After Liang Yonghe left, the phrase "Life is more than just the struggles in front of you" became a popular quote in many students' notebooks at the Forestry School.

During this time, Wu Guohua also called Li Xian in for a talk.

The main message was that Li Xian needed to watch his words and actions. The school's assignment system was based on the needs of various departments and followed the principles of objectivity and utilizing talents to their fullest. After a long lecture, the key point was that Li Xian should write a self-criticism, publicly read it at the school assembly, and admit his slanderous error.

Li Xian had no patience for such nonsense and bluntly replied, "You know in your heart whether what I said has merit or not."

Seeing Wu Guohua turn purple with anger, Li Xian felt immensely satisfied.

But the satisfaction came with a price. The next day, the sanitation department came to the school to fetch him, claiming they were short-staffed for the public restroom renovation on the streets and needed him to start immediately.

Indeed, his street-sweeping job had now turned into latrine duty.

This was intolerable.

Li Xian stood in front of the school office building, flipping the bird three times, yelling, "Wu Guohua, fuck you!" before swaggering off.

From that moment, Li Xian officially transitioned from a latrine cleaner to a proud idle man.

Just as he was preparing to pack up and move out of the school, someone from the dormitory office came looking for him.

"Li Xian, you have a phone call. It's from Bajiu Forest Farm!"

Li Xian smacked his forehead, knowing exactly what it was without needing to pick up.

Before the semester started, he had instructed Zhang Yaba to divide the twenty-three coffins into three batches and to deliver the first batch of seven directly to the bureau when they were ready. Before coming over, Zhang was supposed to call Li Jie to inform him.

Now that the call had come, it must mean the job was done!