Chapter 648: Chapter 606: Tacky Script! (2)
"Sir, please wait here for a moment! Don’t wander off. Remember, don’t wander off!"
Amid a sea of baffled onlookers, Qin Fan let go of the old man’s hand and gently patted his arm.
"Okay, okay, okay!" the old man replied, his legs trembling visibly. He swallowed hard, his throat dry from nerves.
"Mm! Don’t panic or be afraid! You’ll be fine!" Qin Fan said with a nod. After offering these words of reassurance, he strode into the auditorium.
Watching Qin Fan’s figure disappear, the old man glanced around. He spotted a stone bench to one side and hesitantly asked a student from the crowd, "C-can I sit here?"
"Of course, you can! Sir, forget the bench—if you wanted to find a sofa in the administration building, no one would dare say a word to you!" the student replied immediately.
That was the wrong thing to say. The old man immediately flinched, thinking the student was mocking him, and the timid look on his face intensified.
Seeing this, the student seemed to realize something and his expression changed dramatically. "No, Sir, please don’t misunderstand me! You were brought in by Boss Fan, so absolutely no one in all of Jinling University would dare give you any trouble! Here, come, have a seat!"
As he spoke, the student ran to the stone bench and obsequiously wiped away the dust and fallen leaves.
"I... I don’t know any Boss Fan," the old man said timidly, glancing at the bench.
"Boss Fan is Qin Fan! Didn’t you hear everyone greeting him just now? By the way, sir, what’s your relationship to Boss Fan?" the student asked, his face full of curiosity.
Qin Fan? He didn’t know who that was either. But hearing the student’s explanation, he recalled all the greetings he had heard on the way here. So "Boss Fan" was what they called the kind man?
"He... he’s my benefactor!" After a moment of nervous hesitation, the simple old man settled on the term "benefactor" to describe Qin Fan.
Benefactor?
The word hung in the air, leaving the crowd of students stunned.
What in the world is going on?
While they were still dazed and confused, the speakers outside the auditorium suddenly crackled to life, blaring a message across the entire campus.
"Zhou Shen, freshman, report to the small auditorium! Zhou Shen, freshman, report to the small auditorium! Zhou Shen, freshman, report to the small auditorium!"
Inside the broadcast room, the student announcer repeated the message three times before turning to Qin Fan with a fawning expression. "Idol, was that okay?"
"Keep going until he shows up," Qin Fan said flatly, standing by the window with his hands behind his back, gazing at the scene outside the auditorium.
"You got it!"
The professional-sounding voice resumed, becoming more insistent. "Freshman Zhou Shen, upon hearing this broadcast, please come to the small auditorium immediately! If anyone has Zhou Shen’s contact information, please notify him to come to the small auditorium! Freshman Zhou Shen, you are required at the small auditorium at once!"
With Qin Fan’s approval, the student, who was a broadcasting major, threw the rulebook out the window and continued to use his professional delivery.
「Off-campus.」
Zhou Shen was walking back toward the university, holding a girl’s hand with a blissful look on his face. "Xiaoru, how about we go see a movie tonight?"
"What’s so great about movies? Let’s go to karaoke instead. I’ll call some of my dorm sisters, and you can bring your roommates. What do you think?" the girl, Xiaoru, replied, clearly uninterested in a movie.
"No problem! How about that KTV we went to last time? It’s pretty high-class and the atmosphere is nice," Zhou Shen said with a magnanimous laugh.
At that moment, he had completely forgotten his own circumstances. He forgot that the money in his pocket was the blood and sweat earned by his father—the sanitation worker he despised, who toiled from dawn till dusk. That last trip to the KTV had cost him 688 yuan. That was enough to feed his father for a month, with money to spare.
Just as Zhou Shen finished speaking, his Xiaomi phone suddenly rang in his pocket.
Seeing him pull out the phone, Xiaoru immediately said, "Oh, right, honey, didn’t you say you were going to switch to an iPhone X? Why haven’t you done it yet?"
"No rush. I’ll buy it during the New Year’s holiday," Zhou Shen said with a self-satisfied grin, as if the iPhone X was already his. He then swiped the screen to answer his phone. "Second Bro, what’s up?"
"Third Bro, the speakers at the small auditorium are calling for you nonstop. Where are you? Get back here!" the voice on the other end said.
"Seriously? Why are they looking for me?" Zhou Shen asked, stunned.
"How would I know? Just hurry up! The damn announcement won’t stop, and I can’t sleep! I was up all night gaming. Seriously, get back here. The entire campus is complaining. If you don’t show up soon, you’re going to be public enemy number one!" his friend said drowsily before immediately hanging up.
"Honey, what’s wrong?" Xiaoru asked, tightening her grip on his hand when she saw his frown.
"Nothing! My roommate said the speakers at the small auditorium keep calling my name! I don’t know what’s going on," Zhou Shen replied.
"Then hurry back! Let’s go!" Without another word, Xiaoru grabbed his hand and they began to run, making no attempt to be discreet.
As soon as they entered the campus gates, they could hear the broadcast, which had now been going for over ten minutes. The relevant school department had even called the broadcast room to complain, but the leadership had reluctantly allowed it to continue after Qin Fan’s name was invoked.
"Damn it! Who is this Zhou Shen? They’ve been calling for him for over ten minutes and he’s still a no-show. Is he trying to cause trouble?"
"This kid’s got some nerve. Who knows if he’s even on campus."
"To be summoned like this and not even send someone to explain... this kid really isn’t afraid of disciplinary action, huh?"
"It’s so damn noisy! Who is that idiot anyway?"
Voices of complaint rose up from all across the campus. Hearing these comments, Zhou Shen started to panic, terrified by the mention of "disciplinary action." Imagining the consequences, he let go of Xiaoru’s hand. "Xiaoru, I’m going to run on ahead!"
"Okay!"
With Xiaoru’s tense reply, Zhou Shen broke into a full sprint.
"He’s here. You can stop," Qin Fan said, seeing a figure sprinting toward the small auditorium in the distance. Although he didn’t know what Zhou Shen looked like, given the circumstances, it had to be him.
After giving the order, Qin Fan turned. His expression was grim as he started to leave the broadcast room.
"Idol, what on earth is going on?" the student announcer asked, putting down the microphone and standing up, utterly bewildered.
"Just a distasteful melodrama about an ungrateful son disowning his poor father," Qin Fan remarked with a playful smirk, then began to walk slowly away.
「Outside the small auditorium.」
Gasping for air, Zhou Shen stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the crowd gathered ahead.
What’s going on? Could this spectacle have something to do with me?
Filled with a mixture of confusion and anxiety, he quickly made his way toward the crowd. However, when he saw who was at the center of their attention, he felt as if he’d been struck by lightning.
His body began to tremble uncontrollably, and all the color drained from his face.
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