I knew I couldn't transfer schools anymore. Now that my mom and dad were here, they definitely wouldn't let me transfer.

Thinking about living under Maizi's tyranny in the future, maybe even seeing Zou Yang resurrected and making a comeback, and remembering the three years of bullying in middle school, I felt a strange mix of emotions. Suddenly, I sat down on the floor, took out a cigarette from my pocket, put it in my mouth, lit it as if no one was around, and took a deep drag.

Ever since I learned to smoke with Yuan Shao and the others at the internet cafe, I always carried cigarettes with me. Actually, I wasn't addicted; I just smoked occasionally. But now, I just felt like smoking, to calm myself down.

My mom exclaimed, rushing over to snatch the cigarette from my mouth. "Oh my, how could you start smoking? Is it because your dad and I aren't around, so you're indulging yourself and not studying properly?"

That's how my mom was, making a big fuss over small matters. Actually, when I was bullied in the beginning, I complained to my mother. As a result, the next day, she immediately took me to school to find Zou Yang and told him that we should be good friends and classmates. I couldn't say her approach was wrong. But when she left school, I immediately became the laughingstock of the class.

"Hahaha... tattletale..." "Told your mom..." "Be good friends, good classmates..."

The overwhelming ridicule was unbearable. Later on, I stopped telling my mom about what was happening at school, but as a child, I couldn't easily hide my feelings, and my mother probably noticed something was wrong. Otherwise, she wouldn't have gone to talk to Yucheng Fei's mom about me being bullied by Zou Yang, which led to Yucheng Fei later beating up Zou Yang, making me even more of a target for bullying in class.

My mom tried to snatch the cigarette, but I quickly turned my face away, not letting her take it. My dad said, "Let him smoke. After he's done, he'll tell us what happened." I was in pain, knowing that telling them about these things wouldn't help. The only solution they could think of was to find Maizi and ask him to be my friend.

I smoked a cigarette without saying a word to them. I didn't blame them for being useless; I just felt that sometimes parents shouldn't interfere. For example, if I was beaten up, what could my parents do? Beat the other person up? That was impossible, and I already saw it very clearly.

My parents glanced at each other and asked, "Hao Hao, can't you tell us what's wrong?"

Still, I remained silent, staring blankly at the floor tiles, counting how many tiles it would take to cover this office.

"Alright." Suddenly, Director Wang spoke up. "You two should go home first. Sometimes, students can't tell their parents everything. I'll talk to him properly. You can rest assured, I won't let him transfer." My parents nodded and said, "Thank you, Director." They told me to listen to the Director and not cause trouble all the time before leaving the academic affairs office one after another.

I sat on the cold floor, looking up at Director Wang behind his desk. Would he help me now that I had told him the truth?

"I already know everything," Director Wang suddenly said. "About you and Maizi, right?"

I looked at Director Wang in astonishment, not expecting that the head of the academic affairs office, a busy man, would know about such trivial matters among students. Then Director Wang continued, "Don't worry, I won't let you transfer. If one of you two has to leave City High, it will definitely be Maizi."

I continued to stare in disbelief, thinking I had misheard him. Director Wang said he would make Maizi leave City High?

If Maizi left City High, then I wouldn't have to leave to avoid him!

Excitement surged in my heart, but I still kept a clear head and asked seriously, "Why?" Director Wang wouldn't help me for no reason, and he wouldn't ask Maizi to leave for no reason either. Perhaps, it was because of a teacher's conscience? Thinking of this, I even laughed at myself. I didn't believe any teacher had a conscience; they were just working to make a living.

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"I really dislike delinquents," Director Wang stood up, looking down at me even more. "Since I became the head of the academic affairs office, I vowed to eradicate delinquents from City High and give students a clean and pure campus."

I looked at Director Wang in astonishment, realizing he had such noble ideals, making me feel like he was emitting a holy light.

"But later on, I found out that delinquents are impossible to completely eliminate," Director Wang continued. "It's like weeds in a garden; you can't get rid of them all. Just like our government, despite years of fighting crime, there are still gangs. Schools are the same. Where there is light, there will always be darkness. Delinquents are like maggots in a toilet or mosquitoes in the grass. They're annoying but indispensable. Every school will have a few bullies, who are arrogant and domineering, regardless of whether they have money or good grades; it depends on their character."

I sat on the floor, listening to Director Wang express his unique views on delinquents.

"A school is like a government. Even the government can't completely eliminate darkness, so it's naturally impossible for a school. So I changed my approach. Instead of blindly clearing out delinquents, I guide them purposefully. Fight fire with fire; that's the government's method, and it's City High's method too. So you see, overall, City High has fewer delinquents than Beiqi and the vocational school. This is not only because City High is a key high school but also because of my guidance behind the scenes."

"Old Dog, Maizi, and Brick couldn't have become the big shots of City High without my secret support. They just don't know it themselves. With them around, at least no other delinquents dare to cause trouble. But it's different for Beiqi and the vocational school. The big shots in their schools change every so often because the smaller ones always want to climb up, causing even more chaos and bloodshed."

With that, Director Wang suddenly laughed. "Whenever a new force is ready to challenge them, I find various reasons to expel them, ensuring their status as big shots."

I couldn't describe the shock in my heart with words anymore. Director Wang's methods of managing the school were truly unheard of! Knowing that Maizi and the others were just pawns in Director Wang's hands sent chills down my spine.

"Are you saying..." I tentatively asked, "that I belong to the new force, ready to challenge them?"

Director Wang laughed again. "You have your own brothers, with Ye Zhan's support outside of school, and now even Brick is on your side. So, you have every right to challenge Maizi."

I took a sharp breath, surprised that Director Wang even knew about me and Brick. This guy was truly inscrutable. But his words raised me too high; I had my own brothers? Liu Zihong, Ou Jiahao, Li Mu? They were all more cowardly than the other. In the woods, Maizi and his gang hadn't even done anything yet, but they were all lying on the ground, afraid to move; Ye Zhan sincerely helped me, but he was powerless against Maizi; as for Yucheng Fei, he dared to challenge Maizi, but he was from the vocational school and couldn't intervene. And Brick, if he knew I still wanted to be with Xia Xue, I don't know how many bricks he'd hit me with. Did he really think he could stand by my side?

Although Director Wang knew a lot of things, he still didn't understand the essence of the matter, let alone understand my heart.

I felt a headache coming on, so I lit another cigarette. I was the only one in the whole school who dared to smoke in front of Director Wang. I had seen him drag five or six people who were smoking secretly in the toilet out and give them a good beating. I smoked leisurely, but Director Wang just watched me silently, without saying a word.

"So, I want to know," I said, "why do you want to drive Maizi away instead of me? You've worked hard to build up a big shot, so why do you want to destroy him?"

"Because Maizi's ambitions are growing," Director Wang said. "He's not content with being just one of the big shots at City High; he wants to be the only one, even the only one among the three schools. This idea is crazy. Once implemented, whether he succeeds or not, a bloody battle between the three campuses is inevitable."

"I see," I continued to smoke. "So you want to get rid of him and then support me as the new puppet."

Director Wang's expression changed slightly. "To call you a puppet is too harsh. I haven't really used Maizi and the others for anything. I've just used their power to ensure that City High isn't too dark and chaotic, unlike Beiqi and the vocational school."

"Sorry, sorry," I chuckled. "I misspoke."

Director Wang sighed. "And, once you become a big shot like Old Dog and Brick, who in City High would dare to bully you? From what I know, you also want to change your fate, right?" There was a cunning gleam in his eyes.

It seemed Director Wang knew about my middle school days and knew that my biggest dream was to not be bullied, to live a dignified life. Such a simple desire for ordinary people was as difficult as climbing to the sky for me.

"You're the head of the academic affairs office, so it shouldn't be difficult to expel Maizi, right?" I raised my doubts. With Maizi's record, just pulling out one incident would be enough to kick him out of City High.