Chapter 600 - 378: You’re the Best... Hot Potato

"It’s fine, have a seat. Let me get a handle on the situation first," Fan Kangjie said with a smile, giving the others a meaningful look.

He led a few department heads to a corner of the classroom and waved for Cheng Nian to join them.

The group began a hushed discussion. Cheng Nian kept blinking as she glanced over at Xue Rui. ’It’s not every day you see a lineup like this,’ she thought. ’All these Student Union heads and the president, secretly discussing a freshman.’

"Old Sun, be straight with us. How exactly did you piss him off? Why did he blow this so out of proportion?" the head of the Disciplinary Department asked, at a loss for words. He’d been standing by the door and had heard everything loud and clear.

But this was too much blame to take. He didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire, so he could only wait for the Student Union president to deal with it.

Sun Xiaoran’s tense nerves finally relaxed. ’Finally, someone to back me up,’ he thought, repeatedly blinking his stinging eyes.

"Sun Xiaoran... just tell us what happened."

Fan Kangjie pinched the bridge of his nose and handed him a pack of tissues. ’What could possibly happen,’ he wondered, ’to make a junior-year department head cry in his own territory?’

He, for one, couldn’t imagine it.

Sun Xiaoran took a deep breath and confessed his "crimes."

"This morning, I was having a smoke downstairs from the academic building when I saw Xue Rui and his girlfriend with a stack of application forms..."

"I was just a little jealous. I didn’t even say anything that harsh. Maybe I crumpled his application form?"

Sun Xiaoran felt incredibly wronged. He hadn’t said a single curse word from start to finish, yet Xue Rui and the freshmen outside had completely slandered him. A lot of people had ended up cursing him out.

Cheng Nian closed her eyes, replaying the events in her mind. She shook her head. "No, he had this planned out even before you crumpled his application. To be precise, this has nothing to do with that."

Fan Kangjie asked uncertainly, "So you’re saying... just because you didn’t let him introduce himself, he made this huge a mess?"

"It’s true! Old Fan, you know me, I never swear," Sun Xiaoran said, getting worked up.

Cheng Nian lowered her voice. "Sun Xiaoran, be quiet. That’s not what Senior Brother Fan meant."

Fan Kangjie heaved a long sigh. Holding Xue Rui’s profile, he turned to the other department heads.

The head of the Student Life Department awkwardly looked away. How could he not guess what Fan Kangjie was implying? He was treating Xue Rui like Monkey Sun wreaking havoc in the Celestial Palace.

And now they were expected to offer him some token post to appease him.

But if Xue Rui could drive Sun Xiaoran to tears today, he could drive him crazy tomorrow!

Who wouldn’t want to live a peaceful life in their own little fiefdom?

The head of the Disciplinary Department also looked away, adopting an air of "not my problem."

Meanwhile, Xue Rui was casually sipping tea with his legs crossed, chatting with Lin Ruoxi on his phone.

Lin Ruoxi: [Rui, did you pass the first round?]

Xue Rui: [Passed. I have a feeling they’re about to offer me a position.]

Lin Ruoxi: [Mhm! You’re the best. Your little secretary is waiting for you in the car.]

Xue Rui couldn’t help but laugh. Then, remembering where he was, he quickly schooled his expression.

He scrolled through his QQ groups and saw that Xia Tianjun had tagged him in the class chat:

[Xue Rui, when you have a moment, drop by Secretary Li’s office. There’s a letter for you.]

Xue Rui was quite surprised. He’d only asked Guo Wei for the letter of commendation this morning. The postal service these days wasn’t that fast; they must have sent someone to deliver it to the school directly.

Xue Rui glanced toward the back of the classroom at the muttering group. He noticed they seemed to be passing his application form around, glancing over at him from time to time.

’What’s so interesting about that thing?’ Xue Rui grumbled to himself.

’What did Sun Xiaoran just call Fan Kangjie? Old Fan?’

’So they’re old friends! Thick as thieves, are they?’

’Are they trying to figure out how to pull a fast one on me because I’m not a local student?’

’A student’s strongest backing is their parents. With family support, even the principal has to bend.’

’Having my family come to the school is unrealistic. So what kind of backer can I find...?’

Xue Rui swiped around on his phone and called his so-called counselor. He’d decided to pull rank by association.

"Hello? Teacher Xia? What was that you said just now? The reception is terrible over here," Xue Rui said, putting the call on speakerphone.

Xia Tianjun, on the other end of the line, was completely baffled. ’I sent a QQ message in the group chat. What does that have to do with bad reception?’

’Bad reception, so he couldn’t read the words in the QQ group chat?’

’That... doesn’t make any sense, does it?’

Xia Tianjun couldn’t figure out what game Xue Rui was playing, but he repeated himself anyway. "I said, Xue Rui, Secretary Li wants you to stop by his office. He said there’s a letter for you."

"I was also going to ask you, why didn’t you use your own address? Why use the Secretary’s office? What do you think his office is, a mailroom?"

"Oh, I often drop by Secretary Li’s office for tea. I couldn’t think of a better address at the time, so I just put his down," Xue Rui said casually.

In reality, he had addressed it to Secretary Li’s office on purpose. The letter of commendation was meant for Secretary Li to see—a little reminder not to forget about the student startup he had registered at the university. If there were any perks to be had, he didn’t want to be forgotten.

"Well, Secretary Li seemed to be in a pretty good mood when he mentioned you. Do whatever you want. I’m hanging up." After saying his piece, Xia Tianjun hung up.

Xue Rui smiled and slipped his phone into his pocket. ’Of course Secretary Li is happy. A government entity hand-delivering a letter of commendation reflects well on him as a leader.’

The group in the corner listened, their eyes wide and staring. They had already thought Xue Rui was a hot potato...

...and now it turned out Xue Rui had connections to Secretary Li, too?