Chapter 27

"Hey, look who’s back." As Li Xu walked into the classroom, a teasing voice immediately rang out.

Ignoring the scrutinizing gazes that followed the remark, Li Xu walked straight to the second-to-last row and flipped off the big guy who had spoken.

"Damn, Eddie, it’s been a while, and you greet me like this?" the other guy exclaimed.

"So, what way do you want, Adam?" Li Xu shrugged, extending his fist. "This way?"

"Oh, of course." The other guy laughed, extending his fist to bump with Li Xu’s, then tapping it up and down.

As mentioned before, Li Xu didn’t have many friends. In the U.S., his only close friend in high school was this Adam Pritzker.

A child of the Pritzker family, who own the Hyatt hotel chain, Adam was the same age as Li Xu, slightly shorter, with a square face and distinct Ukrainian features.

He and Li Xu were a classic example of enemies turned friends. Oakland Middle and High School included both junior and senior high school, and Li Xu had completed his elementary school in RB. Since he attended elementary school in RB, he inevitably faced bullying, even in an upper-class school.

While bullying is common in schools worldwide—King Edward VIII was even kicked in the navy school—bullying in RB was particularly severe.

Almost all teachers tacitly accepted the existence of bullying. If students didn’t report it, the teachers would turn a blind eye. If students did report it, the teachers would only inform the parents, and once the parents found out, the students would face even more bullying at school.

There was an unwritten rule in RB schools: reporting bullying to parents made you a coward, and you deserved to be bullied even more. Many parents agreed with this, and if called to school, they would blame their children for not fitting in and causing trouble at home.

Children around ten years old couldn’t understand these complexities and just tried to fit in, silently enduring the bullying. How could the RB people be so exclusive?

Moreover, Li Xu was a mixed-race Japanese-American. Even though it was an era when the U.S. often dominated Japan, elementary school kids didn’t understand such complexities. So, as soon as Li Xu’s face, which clearly differed from the average RB person, appeared in school, he became a target.

At first, it was just exclusion—no one talked to him or played with him, and no one wanted to be in his group during PE. They would gossip about him behind his back but stop as soon as he approached.

Li Xu didn’t pay much attention at first. With a mature soul, what did he have to talk about with these kids? It was better if they didn’t bother him; he could use the time to think.

However, as the saying goes, "If you fight for peace, peace will prevail; if you compromise for peace, peace will perish." Seeing his lack of reaction, those little brats started to escalate, defacing his desk and filling his locker with trash.

This suited Li Xu just fine. Having read about such incidents in his previous life, he was well-prepared. Moreover, if he was going to fight for peace, he needed a reason.

So the next day, he brought two buckets of paint to school. In front of about twenty students, he indiscriminately splashed the paint, turning the classroom and the kids into a colorful mess, scaring them into running around the room.

A few tried to fight back, but he swung the plastic buckets and knocked them back one by one.

Naturally, the parents were called. The incident was too big to cover up.

However, when his mother arrived, she ignored the other parents’ disapproving looks and praised Li Xu in front of everyone.

"Remember, Ryo, if anyone bullies you again, you must retaliate with the strongest means." She said this, leaving the teachers, who had intended to mediate, speechless.

And Li Xu cooperated, loudly and confidently saying, "Hai!"

It was the first time he had said "Hai" so enthusiastically.

However, once they got home and closed the door, his mother scolded him.

"Using non-toxic natural paint was a good idea, but two buckets were too few. Even if you couldn’t carry more, you could have added other things to the paint. You could also mix in honey or sugar water, which would make it stickier and more uncomfortable. You need to leave a deep impression on them to earn their respect." Mieko said this.

Li Xu was convinced. No wonder she could wield two wooden swords and chase two bullies from the school’s east gate to the west gate.

Unfortunately, they were wooden swords, not kitchen knives, or he might have earned the title of "Dual Blade Turkey."

After that, there were various arguments, but the matter was eventually settled, and Li Xu had to apologize to the whole class.

With his mother’s support, Li Xu wasn’t as obedient. After reading the apology from the podium, he threw the paper aside, leaned on the desk, and declared, "Alright, I’m done with the nonsense. I don’t want to talk to you kids. I have one thing to say: if no one bothers me, I won’t bother anyone. But if someone dares to mess with me, I’ll mess with all of you! Got it? Not you, not you, not you, but all of you in this classroom! Next time, it won’t be paint. It might be paint, and the time after that, it could be sulfuric acid. Do you know what sulfuric acid is?"

The teachers, standing nearby, turned pale, trying to interrupt him, but Li Xu fiercely pushed them back. "Baka! As a teacher, if you don’t know what’s happening in your class and can’t manage twenty students, what right do you have to be a teacher?!"

After that, the kids went home and complained, causing another wave of trouble, but his mother dismissed it with, "What do kids know about sulfuric acid?"

After that, no one in the school dared to bully him. Instead, many came to flatter him, seeing him as an idol, even those with surnames like Ichijou, Nijou, Tokudaiji, Saionji, Mouri, and Shimazu.

Li Xu always responded by waving a book and shouting, "Get lost! Don’t bother me while I’m reading!"

Despite this, his grades were always top-notch. Elementary school isn’t that complicated, so even more people admired him. Some even used phrases like "I am under the command of Ryo Ichijou" when fighting with other classes.

Thinking about those scenes, it was incredibly embarrassing, a bunch of masochists.

Anyway, after graduating from elementary school, although many expressed regret that he was going to the U.S. to continue his studies, he felt nothing for them.

But life in the U.S. wasn’t much better. His mixed-race appearance made him stand out, and this was the dilemma faced by mixed-race people. It wasn’t 20 years later, and Latin Americans in South America could barely be considered white. As for him... neither side saw him as one of their own.

So, on the first day of school, while putting things in his locker, a big guy deliberately bumped into him, trying to make him look foolish in front of everyone.

After being bumped, Li Xu didn’t hesitate to slap the guy, stunning him, then grabbed his neck and pinned him against the locker. If it hadn’t been almost time for class and a teacher hadn’t come over quickly, they might have had a full-on fight.

With this and his experience in RB, Li Xu was quite angry, so his self-introduction was a bit aggressive.

"As you can see, I’m a mixed-race person. I know some of you look down on mixed-race people, but that’s fine. As long as you don’t bother me, I’ll ignore you. But if anyone dares to start trouble, I’ll use the most direct and violent means to retaliate. Also, if anyone knows the guy who bumped into me earlier, tell him that if he wants to fight, I’m always ready."

And with that, he walked down, ignoring the teacher, looking quite arrogant.

Arrogance invites trouble. The guy who had bumped into him didn’t show up, but someone in the class was provoked and, after school, brought three others to corner him behind the gym.

They didn’t talk much before the fight started. Despite being outnumbered four to one, Li Xu wasn’t afraid and focused on beating the leader.

The result was a draw. The leader was bruised and swollen, and Li Xu was also covered in bruises.

Thankfully, although they were all young, they didn’t hold back, but Li Xu had learned some fighting techniques in RB. While he hit hard, he didn’t target vital areas and protected his own, so the injuries were mostly superficial.

Naturally, the parents were called. Who said Western schools don’t call parents? Unlike his mother, his father was more diplomatic, smiling and saying that fights among kids were normal and they should just apologize.

Another round of arguments followed, but despite one mother—whose son wasn’t even injured—using her power in the parent committee to push the issue, it was eventually resolved.

It seemed like his father’s support wasn’t as strong as his mother’s, but Li Xu later found out that the mother who had caused trouble was soon kicked out of the parent committee, and her family’s business collapsed due to a hostile takeover.

"You need to understand, Ryo, violence can solve problems, but unless you can solve all the problems at once, it’s meaningless. You must strike at the core and ensure a decisive victory." His father said this.

It seemed to make sense, but much later, Li Xu learned that while the mother was busy with the parent committee, her husband’s company was targeted by a hostile takeover. Caught off guard, they barely resisted before being taken over, and the funding for the takeover came from Stanley.

It just goes to show that his father knew how to use every opportunity. You and your mother are a perfect match, though maybe in different ways.

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