Liu Yutong watched helplessly as they snatched her money away, the tears in her eyes finally spilling over and streaming down her cheeks.
This was the first time she had ever cried in front of Zhao Zhu and her gang.
"Give it back! That’s 10,000 yuan my grandfather earned by selling grain, working so hard for it!"
"......"
Yet, no matter how much she struggled, she couldn’t change reality.
Zhao Zhu waved the money triumphantly in front of Liu Yutong and sneered, "Want it? Hah, not a chance!"
"Listen here, Liu Yutong, consider this money compensation for standing us up today. You’d better behave and keep your mouth shut. If you dare step outside the school gates, I’ll have my brother teach you a lesson!"
"Do you even know who my brother is? Liu Hao—the big shot running the internet café strip near Youth Plaza!"
Truthfully, Zhao Zhu hadn’t planned on name-dropping her sworn brother to intimidate Liu Yutong.
But today was different—the amount they had stolen was far too large.
Usually, taking a few dozen or a few hundred yuan wouldn’t push Liu Yutong to act, no matter how resentful she felt.
But 10,000 yuan? That was another story.
To stop Liu Yutong from doing something reckless in desperation, Zhao Zhu had no choice but to invoke Liu Hao’s name to scare her.
Sure enough, the moment Liu Yutong heard Liu Hao’s name, her face turned deathly pale, and a flicker of fear flashed in her eyes.
She seemed genuinely terrified of facing retaliation from those street thugs if she left school.
Zhao Zhu and her gang were in no mood to torment Liu Yutong further. They swaggered off with the money, heads held high.
The moment they were gone, Liu Yutong quickly wiped away her tears, a cold smirk curling at the corners of her lips. "Still too naïve."
Had they bothered to inspect the money right then and there, their punishment might have been lighter.
After all, only the top 800 yuan was real.
But… they hadn’t checked.
As Zhao Zhu and her friends left the dormitory, their hearts pounded wildly.
Though they were bullies, feared by others at school, handling such a large sum still left them uneasy and a little scared.
They scurried to a secluded corner of the sports field before carefully pulling out the wad of cash.
All three gulped nervously, their eyes alight with greed and anxiety.
"Zhu-jie, we took so much from Liu Yutong… Do you think she’ll report us?"
"Relax! It was just the three of us in the dorm. If we deny it, she has no proof. And who’d believe a poor country girl like her could have that much money anyway?"
"Chill out!"
Hearing Zhao Zhu’s reassurances, the two underlings felt slightly better.
They knew stealing was wrong, but as students, they clung to the belief that their status would protect them—that they’d get away with it.
But when they eagerly undid the bundle’s strap, their faces fell.
"Why is it all practice money?!"
After checking repeatedly, they confirmed it—only the top 800 yuan was real. The rest was worthless.
Strangely, they weren’t even that angry.
First, they figured Liu Yutong was the real victim—her family had been scammed by grain dealers who’d paid them in fake bills.
Second, the guilt lifted. Stealing a few hundred felt different from stealing 10,000.
Zhao Zhu tossed the practice money into the trash and strolled back to class like nothing had happened.
But the moment she stepped inside, her blood boiled.
Yu Xin was chatting intimately with Lin Bin, laughing softly.
"Oh, how nice!"
"Yu Xin, you’ve got some nerve. You know I like Lin Bin, yet you still cozy up to him?"
Zhao Zhu gritted her teeth, already plotting how to teach Yu Xin a lesson.
Yet, what caught Zhao Zhu off guard was Liu Yutong—once meek and obedient—now constantly snitching to the teachers, becoming the most hated type of student.
"Teacher, Zhao Zhu and her friends were using their phones in class."
"Teacher, Zhao Zhu passed me a note faking illness to skip class and go gaming."
"Teacher, Zhao Zhu took people to smoke in the bathroom."
"Teacher, Zhao Zhu’s planning to beat up Yu Xin—I have proof."
"Teacher, if you won’t handle it, I’ll go to Teacher Li or the dean."
"Teacher, Zhao Zhu called you an old fart!"
"......"
Homeroom teacher: "Zhao Zhu, where are your manners?!"
The homeroom teacher was fed up with Liu Yutong’s tattling, but he couldn’t ignore it.
After all, Zhao Zhu was Teacher Li’s niece, and Teacher Li—the grade leader—had already given him a heads-up.
To keep Zhao Zhu in line, the teacher moved her seat right next to the lectern.
Zhao Zhu was livid.
But she couldn’t lay a finger on Yu Xin or Liu Yutong at school.
Her uncle, Teacher Li, had warned her to behave and focus on her studies.
Though Zhao Zhu was no model student, Teacher Li, like any parent, hoped she’d get into a decent college—if only to answer to her mother.
Time flew by.
During this period, Yu Xin deliberately provoked Zhao Zhu by asking Lin Bin for help with schoolwork.
Liu Yutong played backup, relentlessly snitching to shield Yu Xin from retaliation.
Zhao Zhu had never felt so miserable.
"Zhu-jie, Liu Yutong’s only snitching because she’s mad about the money. Should we just give it back?" One underling, also suffering, suggested.
But Zhao Zhu refused outright. She vowed to make Liu Yutong and Yu Xin pay.
Finally, Sunday arrived. Zhao Zhu couldn’t wait to call her sworn brother, Liu Hao.
Liu Hao was gaming at an internet café when he heard his sworn sister had been bullied. He immediately stood up.
Rounding up four or five thugs from vocational high schools and Wushui Fourth High, he prepared to act.
In Wushui County, vocational high and Fourth High students were mostly those who hadn’t made it into better schools—college was a pipe dream.
But their families didn’t want them dropping out too early, so they dumped them in these "cow-pasture" schools to idle away.
These schools were lawless zones. Skip class? No one cared.
Their futures? Either a no-barrier vocational college (after a 3+2 or 3+4 program) or dropping out entirely.
Fourth High was technically an academic high school, but 99.9% of its students still ended up in vocational colleges.
Bottom line: they were just killing time.
Liu Hao, based near Youth Plaza’s internet café strip, had thirty or forty such idle followers—making him a minor local power.
Truthfully, in Wushui County, most hooligans were vocational school students.
Those who actually entered society properly wouldn’t waste time in such a dead-end place.
"Come on, follow me to teach someone a lesson." Liu Hao waved his hand grandly and led his lackeys out of the internet café with an intimidating swagger.
