Why Do All the Villains Look at Me Like This? - Chapter 20

He offered a helping hand back then?

Meng Xuexiao couldn’t help but frown. He really felt that the phrase “offered a helping hand” had nothing to do with Wu Zian. He searched through his memory over and over and finally found a vague clue.

Could it be when he had just switched dorms, and Wu Zian blocked him at the dormitory entrance, insisting on giving him steamed buns, and even claimed he would save him a seat?

Meng Xuexiao almost laughed out of anger.

Since when did that kind of forced goodwill count as “offering a helping hand”? And now it had become material for settling old scores! And he’s still hung up on it to this day!

But the next second, he realized—could that be the reason why Wu Zian targeted him?

When his grades were changed, Xue Chen and a few of his group members had speculated that he must have offended someone. At the time, Meng Xuexiao was still confused, but now… it all seemed to make sense.

Wu Zian altered his grades, sabotaged his collaboration with Xue Chen, got the entire group picked on by the theory class teacher, and even ruined his team combat class partnership — all because of something so petty?! A bag of buns? One line of bravado?

How ridiculous!

And yet Wu Zian still looked so smug, so full of himself!

“You’re really proud of yourself, huh? Think you’re pretty exceptional?” The smile on Meng Xuexiao’s lips seemed even more radiant now, like a rose blooming to its fullest in the flames.

“Oh, I wouldn’t dare say that about most things—” Wu Zian shrugged casually, dragging out the end of his sentence deliberately with a lazy grin, “But if the comparison is with the other people present—”

“Then I suppose I’ll just have to reluctantly accept the compliment. If you’re not convinced, feel free to find someone to go up against me. One-on-one or group brawl—take your pick.” He hooked his finger like a matador taunting a bull with his red cloth.

It was only after Wu Zian’s comment that Meng Xuexiao realized there were quite a few onlookers in the supposedly empty dormitory hallway. Wu Zian had come to stir trouble to begin with and hadn’t bothered to lower his voice. The students in the nearby dorms had all heard it. But mindful of Wu Zian’s reputation, they didn’t step out. Instead, they hid behind their half-closed doors, peeking cautiously through the cracks.

Now, hearing Wu Zian’s challenge, they quickly shut their doors completely—afraid that if they were even a second too slow, they’d be the unlucky one Meng Xuexiao picked to “go up against” Wu Zian. The string of slamming doors echoed down the hallway, like prey lower on the food chain encountering a predator.

“Pfft.” Meng Xuexiao actually laughed out loud, “So that’s all you’ve got? Honestly, I really look down on people like you.”

The boy’s clear and mellow voice seemed to trigger a switch. Wu Zian’s gaze instantly sharpened, and his expression turned cold in a flash.

“Then by all means, explain to me—what exactly do you mean by ‘people like me’?”

His own excellence had always been Wu Zian’s greatest source of pride. Something he wouldn’t allow anyone to tarnish. Meng Xuexiao’s words were like a splash of black ink defacing his banner of glory.

“Then why don’t you go fight the Enforcer, or Chu Sinian?” To Meng Xuexiao, it would honestly be great if these people could just duke it out amongst themselves, it would save him a lot of trouble.

Dangerous people should deal with dangerous people. What sense does it make to drag ordinary people into the mess?

The names “Enforcer” and “Chu Sinian” dropped like bombs, and the hallway instantly fell silent. Meng Xuexiao could even hear the sharp gasp of breath from a curious eavesdropper behind one of the doors. The boy turned his gaze to Wu Zian, eyes steady and laced with provocation. Like a dagger emerging from the heart of a flower.

Wu Zian furrowed his brow, but after a moment he actually chuckled and even clapped his hands, “Seems you hold me in pretty high regard, huh? Comparing me to the Enforcer and Chu Sinian—the top student of the Federal Military Academy and the Federation’s most wanted terrorist. You’re making me think you’re secretly in love with me.”

“In love?” Meng Xuexiao repeated, that same strikingly beautiful face now somehow exuding pressure.

He’s… just an F-rank… right?

“You?” Meng Xuexiao narrowed his eyes and raised his voice slightly.

Back when Meng Xuexiao was gravely ill and had lost all hope in life, the caretaker aunt once told him about her first love—an experience so youthful and sweet it felt like “a lifetime, one person only.”

The way she described it was so beautiful, it felt like something out of a dream.

She would patiently recount it to Meng Xuexiao, her voice soft and flowing like a gentle stream, “One day, Xuexiao will meet someone like that too. Someone who loves you, who wants to hold you in the palm of his hand. But you see, he just hasn’t had the chance to appear yet. So our Xuexiao has to hang in there, just a little longer. You have to wait for that day.”

It was clearly the kind of tone used to coax a child.

Naturally, Meng Xuexiao didn’t believe it. He wasn’t some delicate flower raised in a greenhouse. He had clawed his way back from the edge of death and had long seen too many cold stares from others, “No one in this world will ever treat me better than you do,” he once told her.

But the caretaker aunt believed in it wholeheartedly. Even though she lived a life of hardship, working several jobs a day, eating irregular meals, she still believed in that kind of love.

In her final days, she would often clutch Meng Xuexiao’s hand, murmuring softly, “What’ll I do if I pass on? I still haven’t seen the person who’ll hold our Xuexiao in his hands like a treasure…”

All Meng Xuexiao could do was gently tighten his grip around her increasingly thin fingers. After a long silence, he whispered, “…I’ll meet him. He’s coming soon.”

He hadn’t believed it. But since the caretaker aunt did, he chose to believe in it too.

Love, a lover… He’d believe in them, for her sake.

Now, no matter what, Meng Xuexiao never expected that the word once so solemnly cherished by the caretaker aunt would be uttered with such a flippant attitude by the person in front of him.

“You fought the Enforcer or Chu Sinian or something? Must’ve gone straight to your head, huh? For what it’s worth, I’m the one who’s escaped death at the hands of the Enforcer! And not just once!” The teenager’s words came out slow and deliberate. Each word heavy, cutting and sharp, leaving no room for courtesy.

Meng Xuexiao was always known for having a good temper, quiet and reserved, never one to show off in front of others. If he hadn’t happened to overhear Shen Zekai chatting with a teacher, even Wu Zian wouldn’t have known that Meng Xuexiao had once encountered the Enforcer and lived to tell the tale.

But now, the boy who once seemed so passive and docile was directly ramming himself headfirst into a wall, every sentence laced with thorns, turning the tables and throwing provocation back at him.

Wu Zian gave a grunt of annoyance but instinctively toned himself down a bit. His tone and expression both grew less arrogant than before.

He seemed to realize he’d really made Meng Xuexiao angry.

What was going on? Things were totally fine before…

Damn, what a pain, no fun at all.

He threw an arm loosely around Meng Xuexiao’s shoulder, half-hugging him, and somehow, for whatever reason, the focus of the conversation shifted, from a full-blown argument to a more… casual, even relaxed, direction. Actually, Wu Zian himself didn’t really know why he did it, but with his personality. If he wanted to do something, then he just did it.

“Oh? So you’ve actually escaped death at the hands of the Enforcer? Come on then, tell me about it?”

His tone leaned more toward the teasing of close bros, or perhaps something deeper, a coaxing of sorts.

Meng Xuexiao, however, gave a visible shudder, like he’d been stuck with an overly clingy piece of gum. He had thought that the way he spoke would piss the other off enough to storm off. Worst case, he’d take a beating, and the whole thing would be over with.

He hadn’t expected this guy to be so incapable of letting things go!

The taut string in Meng Xuexiao’s mind suddenly snapped.

Wu Zian was indeed tall and strong, normally, pushing him wouldn’t do a thing. But this time was different. Meng Xuexiao threw his whole weight into it. Like a small wild animal that had escaped the zoo, he slipped right through the dormitory door, and with a loud bang, slammed it shut behind him.

He slapped Wu Zian’s hand away with full force, a heavy “Smack” that knocked Wu Zian’s hand to the side. Then, mustering every ounce of strength he had, he charged toward the dorm entrance.

Though Wu Zian only stumbled a little from the hit, it was enough. Meng Xuexiao found his opening. But just as the door slammed shut, he heard a dull thud, as if the door had smacked… into something.

The sharp sound made Wu Zian’s eardrums tremble, but what hit even harder was the pain in the bridge of his nose.

He instinctively touched the tip of his nose, his hand came away glaringly red. Blood dripped steadily from his fingers onto the floor. When he looked up again, a large, reddish mark shaped like a wooden board was clearly visible on his nose.

Not good, Wu Zian was definitely about to snap!

Meng Xuexiao’s earlier provocation was already serious enough, but now he had even struck first, and the door had slammed right into Wu Zian’s face! That was basically the same as slapping the school tyrant across the face!

Students near the dorm had heard the sharp crack and the dripping of blood. They instinctively crouched down and covered their ears. In the past, Wu Zian hadn’t been the only student gang leader in the Federation Military Academy, and different groups often clashed. Once, someone had embarrassed Wu Zian publicly. In retaliation, Wu Zian pinned the guy to the ground. Every minute, he used a cigarette to burn a mark into the boy’s face—over and over, for five full hours.

By the time Wu Zian finally left, that student’s face was covered in dense burns, horrifyingly disfigured,

“Hah! Playing weak all this time, going along with everything, who would’ve thought you actually had a spine! “Wu Zian let out a low laugh and casually wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand. It wasn’t a clean wipe—the blood smeared across half his face, making him look even more sinister.

The next second, he exploded. His hand clenched tight, veins bulging across the back of his hand. He pulled back his arm, muscles coiled and then launched a ruthless punch straight ahead.

“Thud!”

The entire tenth floor shook violently. Even after several minutes had passed, the surrounding students still felt as though the ground was trembling.

Next to Meng Xuexiao’s dorm room door, a deep dent had formed in the wall. Within the dent were five clearly defined finger marks, and radiating outward from it were countless spiderweb-like cracks. It had been just a little short of breaking through entirely.

Wu Zian’s gaze remained fixed on Meng Xuexiao’s door. He extended his tongue and licked his lips, tasting the iron tang of blood. His powerful arm swung out again, and even from the sound of the wind trailing the motion, it was obvious this was a full-force blow.

The students in the neighboring dorms immediately sensed danger.

This Wu Zian was a complete madman! It’s over. The tenth floor… is in serious danger!

His fist reached the wall in an instant, so fast that it was impossible to track with the naked eye.

With a blow like that, it might not just punch through the wall—it could even bring down the ceiling!

“Thud.”

But this time, the sound was unexpectedly soft, so faint that if you didn’t listen carefully, you wouldn’t hear it at all.

The fully charged punch, at the very last moment, merely landed gently on the deep dent in the wall—as if it had only brushed against it—perfectly aligning with the five finger marks already imprinted there.

“But I guess… this counts as showing me a side of you that no one else has seen before, doesn’t it?”

At the very least, he could be certain. Meng Xuexiao had never done anything like this to Shen Zekai.

Wu Zian stared at his hand, still lodged in the dent in the wall, for a few seconds. Then suddenly let out a light laugh. The arm that had been tensed up slowly relaxed and dropped to his side. He took one last long look at Meng Xuexiao’s dorm room door, then turned and walked away.

As he left, his footsteps rang out deliberately loud, as if he wanted someone to know he was leaving.

“Huh? He… just left?” The students in the neighboring dorm were baffled, mostly in disbelief.

“No way. Wu Zian is definitely pretending to leave. He’s probably still lurking outside the door, just waiting for that poor unlucky Meng Xuexiao to step out so he can bash his head in!”

Having thought this through, they stayed huddled where they were, clutching their heads and silently counting in their minds.

1, 2, 3…

But even as midnight struck, the hallway remained eerily quiet, no second bang ever came.

Meanwhile, downstairs in front of the dorm building—

A tall man stood on the first floor, eyes half-lidded, looking up toward the tenth floor, “He didn’t make a move?”

Chu Sinian adjusted his glasses slightly, “Well, I suppose… Wu Zian got lucky.”

Just as Meng Xuexiao had guessed, what Chu Sinian had told him, about Wu Zian possibly coming to cause trouble, had not been a lie.

Initially, Chu Sinian had planned to profit from this information trade with Meng Xuexiao. But he’d failed. By the original plan, he should’ve followed up, used his “secret protection” as leverage to extract greater returns.

But… Oh well.