Ch1 - Do you know whose son he is?

The sixth time. 

“Schopenhauer believed that people are born unfortunate. The so-called happiness and enjoyment are only temporary cessation of desire. The main theme of life is; pain, emptiness, and boredom…”  

Pressing the button on the remote control, the projection screen above the podium displayed the corresponding excerpt. 

“It is thus written in the book, ‘The World as Will and Representation’…” 

The seventh time. 

“…desire and struggle are the whole essences of being human.”  

Under the dim light, that man was still looking at his phone. 

In the span of ten minutes, he had checked his phone several times. There was an endless stream of notifications. There were times when the phone started vibrating just after he put it on the table. Although it wasn’t a big movement, it was enough to distract me. 

When he picked up the phone again, I couldn’t bear it anymore. I stopped the lecture, controlled the electric wheelchair to the edge of the podium, and looked towards the other person’s position with a stiff face. 

“You……”

I raised my laser pointer and pointed it at the table situated on the far right in the third row, near the hallway. The small red dot moved up slowly and finally stopped at the man’s position behind the table. 

Any normal person who found themselves pointed at by an unknown laser would always subconsciously look up to find the source. The other party was no exception. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

The young man in a loose white Tee frowned and raised his head, with the words “I’m not happy, don’t mess with me” clearly written on his face. When those dark and deep eyes looked over, I even had the illusion of being stared at by a ferocious beast. 

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P qegrfv ws ilqr, aegcfv boo atf ijrfg qblcafg, jcv rjlv mbivis, “Po sbe tjnf jc egufca wjaafg, pera ub jcv vfji klat la. Zbylif qtbcfr jgf cba jiibkfv lc ws mijrr.”

The voice was clearly transmitted through the headset. The other party raised his eyebrows, looked at me for a moment, tucked the phone into his pants pocket, then stood up and walked out the door. Clean and neat, without making any excuses for himself. 

The two people sitting next to him should be his friends. Seeing him leave, they looked at each other, picked up their books, and quickly followed. 

The classroom door opened and closed. I stared at their receding figures and subconsciously clenched the laser pointer in my hand.  

There was an eerie and awkward silence in the room. Everyone looked at me nervously with bated breaths. They should have been more shocked than I was, that someone actually dared to challenge my authority in class.

It was true that there had not been such a warrior in a long time. 

Looking back, I said to the teaching assistants sitting in the last row of the classroom, “Note them down for truancy.” 

A white and tender arm was raised in the back row as Yu Xixi responded loudly, “Received!”  

Back in the center of the podium, I adjusted the portable mic and pressed the remote again to continue with the previous content, quickly forgetting this episode. 

When the class was over and everyone had dispersed, I held the lecture notes and was pushed by Yu Xixi to the office. “Bei-ge, did you know that you now have the nickname, ‘Philosophical Monarch Bei’?” She had a lively personality and didn’t like being dull. It may be related to her previous experience as the Minister of Literature and Art. She always liked to liven the atmosphere even if the destination was just a short couple of meters away. 

I often felt that it was a pity for her to be a teaching assistant. She should be an entertainment reporter so that she could surf through work and neglect neither her work nor her desire to gossip. 

“What does it mean? t?”  

The shadows of the trees swayed on the ground. It was clearly windy, but it didn’t feel cold at all. It was already October, why was it still so hot? At this time last year, everyone had already started to wear long sleeves. 

South Law Monk, North Philosophical Monarch. Professor Wang Nan from the Department of Law, and you from the Department of Philosophy, are also known as the two most difficult gods in Qingwan University. When explained – Wang Nan, the bald donkey of the Department of Law; Bei Jiao, the Demon King of the Department of Philosophy.”

“…” I thought that no one else had noticed that Professor Wang was wearing a wig, but it turned out that everyone just pretended to turn a blind eye. There were actually heated discussions in private. 

“I also saw someone talking about you from the other departments of popular science yesterday, saying; ‘It’s best if you avoid picking the classes of Philosophical Monarch Bei if possible. It’s very hard to pass and the homework is very demanding. But if it’s for his appearance, just pretend that I didn’t say anything’. Bei-ge, your appearance has withstood the aesthetic test of a vast number of students multiple times.”  

All kinds of gossip on the Internet–  both people I know and didn’t know, from inside and outside of the school, Student Yu Xixi stuffed it into my mouth all at once, not caring if I wanted to eat it or not.

Fingertips tapped the wheelchair armrests regularly, hot and upset. 

“By the way, Bei-ge, do you know whose son was the person you kicked out of the classroom today?” 

Movements paused.  

“Headmaster’s?” I guessed. 

Yu Xixi was delighted, “How can the principal give birth to such a beautiful cub, just his old face…” 

I tilted my head and glanced at her, “Pay attention to your words.”

She seemed to realize that they were not in the wild countryside, but in a crowded school, and suddenly shut up.  

Looking left and right, Yu Xixi lowered her voice and said, “His name is Shang Muxiao, Shang Lu’s son. He was a famous movie star more than ten years ago, the one who filmed <The Retrograde Wind>. Shang Lu was quite popular at that time. My mother likes him so much. But unfortunately, he quit showbiz and went into business after filming <Retrograde Wind>.” 

My heart skipped a beat, “Shang Lu?” 

I haven’t heard this name for many years. Suddenly hearing this name can make someone fall into a daze. My fingertips tapped the wheelchair armrests regularly, feeling both hot and restless. 

More than ten years ago, not only Yu Xixi’s mother liked him, but I also liked him. Speaking of which, he was still the object of my sexual enlightenment when I was young. There were so many quiet nights in the middle of the night, and I would also be thinking about his posters.  

Time flew by like flowing water, and in the blink of an eye, he even had such an old son. 

Looking back carefully, there was indeed a shadow of Shang Lu between the man’s eyebrows and eyes today. It was just that Shang Lu accurately portrayed the appearance of a typical big male protagonist, which easily left a favorable impression on others. Although Shang Muxiao had a more delicate appearance, his facial features had more of a visual impact. There was an indescribable… sense of distance, making people unable to confidently get close. 

“I heard that Shang Lu retired from acting to take care of his sick wife. At that time, he was reported by the media as a peerless and affectionate man. Unfortunately, his wife died the following year.” 

“However, although his family was unfortunate, he turned his grief and indignation into strength. In the next few years, he became prosperous in shopping malls. The industries he invested in were more prosperous than the next. He soon made it onto the list of rich and was given, ‘The Golden Hand,’ nickname by the gossiping tabloid journalists.”  

Yu Xixi gossiped all the way to the office. When she entered the door, she had already dragged up the matter that Shang Lu suddenly ended his long-term widowhood and married a starlet who was about the same age as his eldest daughter two years ago. The media reported him as, ‘becoming firmer as one grows old’.”