Tang De’s ears immediately perked up.

He’d known all along that after a whole morning of rumors brewing, Zhou Heng’s story would spread like wildfire and become common knowledge across the school. But he hadn’t expected it to travel so fast. Morning study had barely ended, and students from other classes were already talking about it.

This was an unexpected bonus. Tang De desperately hoped Zhou Heng’s bad reputation would become known throughout the school, making him the target of every student’s malice.

But things weren’t going the way Tang De had imagined.

The student standing closer spoke with obvious admiration.

“Fights? Every student gets into those now and then. But that Zhou Heng guy’s fight was something else. Did you know the two people he fought were tough-looking gangsters with scars on their faces?”

The student farther away brightened and nodded excitedly.

“Yeah, yeah, we’ve all been talking about how that guy Zhou Heng went up against those two thugs and beat them both down. Pretty amazing, huh? He took on two at once, came out without a scratch, and beat them both. He’s a natural-born fighter! It’s got me wanting to go see just how strong and tough this Zhou Heng guy really is.”

The student standing closer laughed heartily.

“He must be a really manly guy.”

Tang De realized he’d been wrong. Terribly wrong.

These young students weren’t exactly paragons of morality. Many of them still thought that being good at throwing punches made you impressive, and that whoever had the biggest fists was in the right.

He’d hoped to ruin Zhou Heng’s reputation with a fight, but it might have the opposite effect and earn Zhou Heng a huge boost in prestige.

Tang De wouldn’t let things go that way. Zhou Heng—the big, dumb, thick-headed, utterly clueless, unbelievably stupid, half-human gorilla—was supposed to fall into the trap right in front of him without realizing it. Then he’d be left wailing over his bloody wounds while Tang De dumped filth all over his head.

A loser should know how to act like one.

“That’s not how it happened.”

Tang De spoke up to the two students he didn’t know.

“I’m in the same class as Zhou Heng. That guy doesn’t just get into fights. The stuff he does is downright vile.”

The two students turned to look at him. Tang De forced a friendly smile, but spoke in a nasty tone.

“That Zhou Heng guy is a real piece of trash. Fighting’s just a regular thing for him. Sometimes he even harasses the girls in our class, and when he’s short on money, he extorts students from poor families. As far as I know, he’s even extorted a poor student whose family survives on welfare. Tell me, what kind of person does something like that?”

He couldn’t talk about fighting. He couldn’t even call it a brawl, let alone say Zhou Heng had beaten several people.

Tang De had grown up watching the Young and Dangerous movies, so he knew why the series had become such a huge hit: it showed the best side of life on the fringes of society. All the filth, the depravity, and the lawbreaking were either ignored or painted as bold and heroic. It never showed that these were just a bunch of scumbags who liked throwing their weight around.

So if he wanted to ruin Zhou Heng, all he had to do was leave out the part where Zhou Heng beat two adults and pile on a few made-up scandals instead.

Even if high schoolers of that age had an unusual admiration for strength, they still wouldn’t like a classmate who bullied the weak and did every kind of evil.

As for whether his lies would be found out—when you told a story the public loved to hear, few people bothered to question whether it was true.

The two students he didn’t know were no exception. As they listened to Tang De’s accusations against Zhou Heng, their mouths fell open and their eyes went wide. They kept making astonished noises, clearly hooked by the story. Tang De had them completely fooled.

Tang De was pleased with their reactions.

“That’s more or less what happened.”

The two students exchanged a look.

The one standing closer said with disgust,

“So this Zhou Heng really is a scumbag, huh?”

Tang De tossed his head.

“Indeed.”

The student farther away snorted.

“That kind of person is disgusting. I can’t believe I thought he was a real man just now.”

Tang De nodded quickly.

“He’s no man. He’s just a scumbag who picks on the weak and backs down from the strong.”

But the student standing closer suddenly sighed.

“But someone like that probably won’t get punished very harshly, will he?”

The student farther away nodded too and said with a sigh,

“It was just a fight off campus. The school definitely won’t want to make a big deal out of it. I bet they’ll just smooth things over and punish both sides equally, then call it a day. Man, villains really do have heaven on their side. How are decent, law-abiding people like us supposed to live?”

Tang De burst out laughing. His young face flushed with excitement as he said,

“No, no, that’s not going to happen. Let me tell you something. This is a big secret—I'm the only one in our class who knows.”

Tang De lowered his voice and spoke with great solemnity, as if he were sharing some earth-shattering secret.

“This time, Zhou Heng didn’t offend those two outsiders. He offended someone he absolutely can’t afford to cross. That person said Zhou Heng’s going to pay for it, and with their influence, Zhou Heng is definitely in for it this time.”

After saying that, Tang De stopped. He’d said enough. Zhou Heng couldn’t afford to offend that person, and neither could Tang De. If he carelessly said their name, they might get upset—and then Tang De would be finished.

But the two students he didn’t know were clearly intrigued. After pulling up their pants, they crowded around Tang De and pressed him to explain who Zhou Heng had offended and how.

Tang De knew where to draw the line. He stuck to vague answers and didn’t touch on any sensitive details.

Anyway, what he’d just said was more than enough to smear Zhou Heng. Once the two students went back to their own class and repeated Tang De’s story, he could easily imagine Zhou Heng would be completely ruined.

Just thinking about it made Tang De’s heart bloom with joy.

He imagined the public opinion Zhou Heng would have to face, the way his peers would tear into him, and how Zhou Heng would have all that brute strength but nowhere to use it, forced to helplessly endure everyone’s malice.

Even with strength like an ox, you still have to grovel before this mouth of mine, don’t you?

Meanwhile, out of sight behind Tang De, the simple lock on a closed toilet stall door suddenly slid down. The red “Occupied” sign changed to green: “Vacant.”

Then came the creak of the door opening, followed by footsteps leaving the stall.

Tang De was so busy chatting happily with the two students he didn’t know that he didn’t notice a thing. Only when the person who’d come out of the stall placed a hand on his shoulder did Tang De turn in surprise—and meet a pair of eyes that looked calm on the surface, but churned with dark currents beneath.

They belonged to the person Tang De least wanted to see right now.

Zhou Heng smiled and said,

“Hey, Tang De. I had no idea I’d done so many things worse than a beast.”