CHAPTER 192: PROTO-BEING

After Zhan Yi’s suggestion, someone from the university board stood up to side with him.

In a righteous and stern voice, he said, “I agree with Mr. Wei. This sort of person shouldn’t be a student at Martial Valor University.”

Chen Chuan’s expulsion had to be decided by the entire university board. He should have discussed this later with the other university board members. Even if they truly decided to expel Chen Chuan, they would need to think it through carefully and balance the interests of all parties and appease plenty of people. He couldn’t impulsively make the decision all on his own.

But he had stood up to respond to Zhan Yi’s suggestion so enthusiastically to show his stance to Wei Hang, the other powerful families, and Black Orchid Co. At the same time, it forced the other university board members to make their choice.

He wasn’t the only one who responded. Once he stood up, a few others did the same. Among them were people Wei Hang had spoken to beforehand and some who had quickly made up their minds after seeing how things were going.

The rest of the university board members exchanged looks and cursed in their hearts. They were sure that this was planned ahead of time.

They had been thinking about waiting a little longer, but now, they were forced to make their decision. If they didn’t step forward now, they were going to be seen as standing against Black Orchid Co. and Wei Hang’s group.

Compared to that, it would be better to side with them. No matter how they looked at it, siding with Black Orchid Co. didn’t seem like the wrong choice.

After a brief moment of thought, more people stood up.

There were a total of nineteen members in the university board, and fifteen of them had come to the tribunal. Eleven of them had stood up. The others did not reveal their stance on Zhan Yi’s suggestion, but that didn’t matter, because the ones in agreement already made up the majority.

Quite a number of the university’s sponsors had also stood up to show that they agreed with the suggestion.

The first university board member to side with Zhan Yi turned to Chen Chuan and said sternly, “We’re now officially telling you that after a discussion with the university board, we will expel you from the university. We will give you the notice later.”

Bian Feng shot up from his seat and said gravely, “This isn’t in accordance with the university’s rules! When the university board makes a decision, it needs the chancellor’s signature to make it official. This is just a decision you made on your own. We don’t acknowledge it.”

The university board member turned to him. “If the chancellor won’t make things official, then according to procedure, we can discuss it. Chen Chuan will retain the status of a student, but he will be suspended until the end of our discussion.”

Bian Feng’s heart sank. There was one big problem with them discussing whether the matter was in accordance with university rules: How long were they going to take to discuss it for? One year? Two years? Three? Four?

There was no deadline for it. This meant that Chen Chuan’s future would be held back, and if the matter of whether Chen Chuan could continue being their student was not resolved, he wouldn’t be able to do many things. If the chancellor heard about this, he might actually decide to set Chen Chuan free instead.

Chen Chuan watched the entire thing unfold from the defendant’s stand. He appeared calm despite all the suggestions that would put him in a horribly disadvantageous situation. “Are you done with your discussion? If you are, then I’m going to start talking.”

The university board member turned to him and shrugged. “Of course. Before we give you your official letter of expulsion, you’re still a Martial Valor University student. If you have any demands, you can tell us. We won’t forbid you from speaking, nor will we use brute force to solve our problems.”

Since victory was already within his grasp, the university board member did his best to maintain a just and elegant demeanor. His words, though, only brought about lukewarm claps.

“I understand the university board’s stance now,” Chen Chuan said. Then, he turned to Zhan Yi. “You mentioned that you will reject me from joining you and that you will send letters to the other companies to prevent me from working for them. Are you sure you’ll be doing that?”

“Of course. We always keep our promises,” Zhan Yi replied calmly. He wasn’t afraid of Chen Chuan causing any trouble in this regard. Even if he went to the governmental departments to gain support against Black Orchid Co., it was nothing, because they had always been fighting against the government. Besides, Chen Chuan might not necessarily live until he could request help.

Chen Chuan reached into his pocket. Amid the somewhat nervous gazes, he took something out and held it up before them. “Well then, what if I used this?”

It was a black business card similar to the recommendation cards the rich children used when enrolling into Martial Valor University.

The crowd was puzzled. Was that a recommendation card? But why was it black?

Some people frowned, as if they had some ideas, but most of them were just confused.

Zhan Yi’s expression changed as he stared fixedly at the card.

After some time, he moved his lips, as if to say something, but after some hesitation, he left his seat. Then, right before everyone’s startled gazes, he went out in a hurry.

When he was about to leave the courtroom, he stopped to turn around and said earnestly, “Mr. Chen, please wait a moment. I’ll be back soon.”

The audience couldn’t understand it, and Wei Hang was starting to feel uneasy. He looked at the black card. The problem should stem from it. What exactly was it? Was it a recommendation card? Or was it something Meng Shu gave him?

That was the likeliest possibility.

It was troublesome.

If Meng Shu had given the card to Chen Chuan, then things would be difficult.

The university board members, meanwhile, were quite lost. What was going on? Since Zhan Yi said that he was going to come back soon, they could only wait.

***

Zhan Yi ran out and hurried to Mr. Luo’s limousine. Once the window wound down, Mr. Luo asked, “Why are you out? Has everything ended inside?”

Zhan Yi shook his head and whispered, “Things have changed, Mr. Luo.”

He immediately told him about the situation inside and put special emphasis on the card Chen Chuan brought out.

Mr. Luo’s expression turned serious, and he asked, “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure.”

Wariness appeared in Mr. Luo’s eyes as he mumbled, “Proto-Being, a global-level mega corporation...”

Why would the recommendation card from Proto-Being appear here, in the hands of a normal student?

Anyone with this card could join any of Proto-Being’s branch companies or companies with good ties with Proto-Being. Since Proto-Being sponsored Martial Valor University and more than ninety percent of all other martial arts universities in the world, those with their recommendation cards could skip the entrance exams and join as students straightaway.

If any company or martial arts university rejected them, the consequences would be dire, because they were rejecting Proto-Being’s status and spitting on their reputation. Proto-Being would immediately start targeting those companies or martial arts universities.

Proto-Being was also much larger than Black Orchid Co. The two of them weren’t even on the same level.

When Zhan Yi saw that Mr. Luo was deep in thought, he said, “Mr. Luo, I checked his information before. He didn’t use the card to enter Martial Valor University, but got in through his own strength. There might be some information about this card that we don’t know. Perhaps...”

Mr. Luo waved off his suggestion and said firmly, “No. We have too many enemies right now. Even if it’s just a one-in-a-million chance, we can’t take the risk.”

Zhan Yi pondered over it before saying, “If that’s the case, we can take back all of our accusations and targeted measures against him. We can also apologize to him. That should be enough to show our respect to him. But we can keep the promise to provide security services to the families. This will still be beneficial to the company.”

“Even if it’s beneficial to the company, if we’ve decided to back down, we have to do it fully. We may only provide security services to these people and nothing more, but they will go out of their way to attack Chen Chuan. Then, they will drag us into their mess and force us to get onto the bandwagon with them. They’ll want the company to bear the risks for them.”

Mr. Luo denied the suggestion outright.

Zhan Yi was shocked and ducked his head to apologize. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking things through.”

“Go and apologize to Chen Chuan, and make sure to do it with the right attitude. Be sincere and pull back our offer to provide security services to the families. Considering our current situation, we can’t afford to make another enemy,” Mr. Luo instructed sternly.

“What if they reject the idea or ask us for an explanation?” Zhan Yi asked.

“Do they even have the right to do that?” Mr. Luo asked coolly.

“I understand.” Zhan Yi nodded. From this moment onward, Black Orchid Co. was going to give up on them. Even though they might be torn to shreds by their competitors later and the company might suffer losses from this, compared to gaining a powerful enemy, this was nothing.

Zhan Yi returned to the courtroom with new instructions. Everyone was waiting for him and looking forward to his reply, but he didn’t return to his seat. Instead, he smoothed out his clothes, walked down the aisle, and went straight to Chen Chuan.

With how close he came and considering how strong of a martial artist Chen Chuan was, if Chen Chuan harbored any hostility toward him, no one would be able to save him. Yet Zhan Yi just stood in front of him without any weapons.

He bowed to Chen Chuan and said sincerely, “Mr. Chen, I’m deeply regretful for the things I said to you just now. Those were unfair accusations. I’d like to formally announce that I will take back all that I’ve said and extend my sincerest and most heartfelt apology to you.”

Everyone was flabbergasted. They felt as if their minds had gone blank.

Zhan Yi straightened his back and turned to the gallery before proclaiming loudly, “Black Orchid will not impose any restrictions on Mr. Chen. On the contrary, if Mr. Chen wants to work with us after he graduates, we will welcome him with open arms.”

Then, with slight pity in his eyes, he looked at Wei Hang. “Also, we won’t be providing any security services to any of you.”

The courtroom fell silent.

“Master?! What’s wrong, Master?!”

Suddenly, a cry of surprise cut through the silence. Everyone turned around and saw that Wei Hang, the decades-long master of the Wei family, had slid off his seat while cradling his chest. The courtroom descended into chaos.

Zhan Yi gave him a cursory glance before turning around and saying respectfully, “Are you pleased with this arrangement, Mr. Chen?”