Chapter 374

The exposure of the campus car-theft gang gave a group of students waiting to finish exams and go home something to pass the time.

In a male dormitory, a person sat at the computer, chewing on a takeout-delivered chicken nugget, with a bottle of beer beside them, legs propped on the desk, fingers tapping the keyboard. His roommate walked over and glanced at the screen.

"Your words are sharp—who are you talking about? You're dragging from the pure hearts of kindergarten kids to grand social harmony."

"Someone's stealing cars—our school has over three hundred vehicles."

"Why get so worked up? It's not like they stole your car. Watch your language, hotshot—have you heard that gentlemen break ties without harsh words?"

"Brother, have you ever had your outdoor sneakers taken? Your drying clothes snatched? Your blankets stolen or your water bottle taken? It's the same feeling—no, it's worse than having your blanket stolen."

"... Damn! This feeling hits hard! Criticize! Really criticize! Get lost, you type too slow—I'll do it!"

"Gentlemen break ties?"

"Screw that!"

……

Situations like this are common; many students say such things when visiting dormmates.

It's the end of the year, with nothing else going on—this is the big event.

Maslow's theory divides human needs into five levels, from low to high: physiological needs, safety needs, belonging and love needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.

College students are at the second and third levels of those needs, gradually moving toward the fourth and fifth, and they're also a group easily swayed by emotion.

Often, their first thought isn't how to cover up a scandal, but how to view things from the big picture. With parents letting go and half‑exposed to society, their edges not yet smoothed, they boldly voice their likes and dislikes, venting their emotions.

Just like now, many people, like those mentioned above, think about how to reduce the school's bad influence, but even more simply speak their minds—if something deserves criticism, they criticize it, with no intention of covering up.

The Horse Racing Car Shop was splashed with foul water, had things thrown at it, and was daubed with paint bearing many profanities unsuitable for children.

Don't assume that elite‑school students are all goody‑two‑shoes; plenty of them can cause trouble.

Some say the people at the Horse Racing Car Shop are gangsters, but so what? Not everyone fears them.

After that, the police got involved in the investigation, and the school attached great importance to the matter—it couldn't afford not to.

Two days later, when Zheng Tan went out again, he found that the Horse Racing Car Shop's storefront had been shut. He heard the shop owner had been taken away by police, and the four Chu Hua Da Xue students who stole cars had been expelled, and were taken away for questioning together with the shop owner.

Schools usually punish students with warnings, demerits, campus probation, or expulsion. Expulsion is a serious penalty: after being expelled, the school no longer recognizes you as its student, past grades and honors are voided, it goes on your record, and you can't even join the military—the political review will reject you outright.

It was said that during the investigation those students implicated several others—fellow students from their own school, from other schools, and nearby car shops. On the day the Horse Racing Car Shop was investigated, another car shop near the school closed up, and its owner fled overnight.

They can do these because the boss of the car dealership helps them make connections; sometimes there are also customer orders, they steal whatever car is requested. Even if those few students graduate, the dealership people will recruit new students to join, so the number of people involved won't dwindle. The racing car dealership has been operating near the school for many years, and no one knows how many students have been involved.

Many people don't understand why, despite getting into such a prestigious school, those students still steal cars.

Later, according to those students' confessions, because this brings in money quickly, most of the time they can earn over ten thousand a month; of course, the amount each actually gets may not be that much, but for many students, especially those from poor families, it's still a decent income.

But poverty is no excuse for theft. Wang Xing's family circumstances aren't good either, yet that kid still comes over here now and then to pick up bottles. And these few 'heaven's proud sons'? As the elders often say: 'They haven't put their smarts on the right path.'

Even the best schools, the highest institutions, still have plenty of people with poor character.

Character has never been proportional to ability.

In fact, many students know when buying a car that those used or refurbished cars have cat urine inside, but since it doesn't affect their own interests and they can spend less money to get a car that looks newer, who would bother to meddle? It's only because this incident came to light that they spoke up.

Some things are impossible to guard against. Even if someone rides out a stolen bicycle, basically no one stops them; Chu Hua Da Xue is so large that it's impossible to strictly inspect every bicycle freely coming and going, and only when they encounter a suspicious situation—like someone walking out with a bike whose lock isn't opened—do they check the student ID and make a record.

This incident undoubtedly embarrassed the security office, and the security office also told everyone that after the new year they would add more surveillance cameras, with bicycle sheds and dormitories being the focus.

As for Sahala's incident, a student posted an explanation. He had already gone home and been offline for a few days; it was only after the car-theft scandal broke that a classmate called him and he found out, whereupon he hurried to an internet cafe to post and tell the truth.

It turned out that this was one of Ruan Ying's students; they often went to find Ruan Ying to play ball, and Sahala was taken out and tied up beside the court. One day everyone was playing ball, with a crowd gathered around, they heard Sahala call but didn't notice; when Ruan Ying followed the sound to look, that student's car was already gone.

Perhaps it was then that Sahala took a grudge against those few people, targeting them whenever he saw them, but Ruan Ying didn't think about it, after all they were just students and didn't look like they'd do bad things.

Once the matter was understood, Sahala also took off the mad dog's hat, and not only that, he was praised by many. However, whether it was criticism or praise, the Sahala locked up at home didn't know about it.

The campus forum gradually calmed down; after the students had their uproar, they all rushed home for the New Year, and the number of people on campus also gradually dwindled.

Sahala has already been taken out; the remaining silent struggle will be continued by Professor Ruan and them. The other small fry who go up are only cannon fodder. No matter which circle, climbing to a certain height always comes after countless struggles, just like Jiao Ba, who also has competitive relations with some teachers in the institute; when dealing with fair competition, one must also guard against unfair competition, and although being kind to others, it's always good to keep an extra eye.

Just as Jiao Ba and his graduate students said: when one is a student, one can still focus wholeheartedly on research, but once one truly becomes a teacher, one might not have that time and mindset.

One day a week later, Zheng Tan returned to the compound after strolling outside, and ran into Ruan Ying carrying big and small bags of stuff. Compared to when the incident was still hot a week ago, Ruan Ying's mood is much better now.

Seeing Zheng Tan, Ruan Ying waved and said: 'Hei Tan, come on, let's go home and play with Sahala.'

Zheng Tan also wanted to see what condition Sahala was in, now kept at home without even being let out to stroll; after Ruan Ying called out, Zheng Tan followed.

Walking beside Ruan Ying, Zheng Tan saw what was inside the plastic bag and recognized some by smell. Ruan Ying was holding chicken liver, peanuts, walnuts, sausages, and things like that.

Following Ruan Ying to Sahala's home, upon entering they saw Sahala lying beside the sofa; usually, upon hearing any movement, he would dash to the doorway and jump about, but now he merely lifted his head, looked, then lay down again, looking listless.

'Sahala, Hei Tan's here.' Ruan Ying went over and rubbed Sahala's head, but Sahala just flicked his tail and still couldn't muster any spirit.

'I know, I know, I wrongly blamed you; you've been wronged. I'll go make you some dog food.' Ruan Ying said.

Sahala twitched his nose, but still didn't get up.

After Ruan Ying went into the kitchen, Zheng Tan approached Sahala, who merely lifted his eyelids a bit, then continued lying down.

Really feeling down?

Most cats, dogs and similar pets may carry many grievances in their lifetimes; for people, you can still tell them 'speak up if you feel wronged,' but animals cannot, and even the most spirited pet cannot express its thoughts in human language.

Of course, species like Jiangjun, which inherently have linguistic talent and high intelligence, are another matter; if you wrong it, it can immediately start a shouting match with you, spouting a bunch of nonsense it picked up from who-knows-where, fluently, even with a local accent.

I heard that once, Professor Qin's child went to a milk tea shop to buy milk tea; the shop gives customers a hard paper card the size of a bank card, with thirty slots on the back, stamping a small seal each purchase, and when thirty stamps are collected they give a free drink. When Jiangjun followed Professor Qin's child there, he grabbed the card and flew to the cashier counter, telling the cashier girl: 'Come on, stamp the card!'

The cashier girl listened several times but still couldn't understand what the bird was saying, and thought Jiangjun was speaking non-standardly; only when Professor Qin's child came over and explained did she realize the bird was speaking a regional dialect.

Do you mean this is unintentional? Or are you showing off? Or are you flaunting? Or are you being petty?

Zheng Tan even more believes that guy is just being petty.

From the start, Zheng Tan took a dislike to Jiangjun, simply because that creature can speak human words, whereas Zheng Tan, who was once a real human and now possesses a human inner self, not only cannot speak human words, but can't even meow.

Around Zheng Tan, among cats and dogs and such, only Jingzhang has decent linguistic talent, able to howl back at dogs; the rest can't—cats meow, dogs bark, Zheng Tan can't make any sound at all.

This is a rather disheartening fact. Not having been driven crazy, Zheng Tan feels his psychological endurance is still quite strong.

Looking at Sahala lying there without howling or rebelling, at first glance one might think he's been feeling wronged all along; but on closer inspection, one would notice his eyes constantly drifting toward the kitchen, his ears twitching, paying attention to the kitchen's movements.

Zheng Tan reached out and flicked Sahala's ears—warm. Suddenly thinking of something, Zheng Tan then touched his own ears—cool.

Wondering why dogs' ears are hot while cats' ears are cool, hearing the commotion Zheng Tan only then noticed; Ruan Ying came out holding a food bowl, and Sahala, who had been listless just moments ago, stood up wagging its tail happily, moving its mouth.

"Not feeling wronged?" Ruan Ying said.

"Woof!" Sahala jumped up and barked.

Ruan Ying placed the food bowl in front of Sahala; Sahala paid no attention to anything else, directly started eating—just by looking at the extent of its tail swinging, you can tell this fellow is in a very good mood now.

A bowl of food, a couple of words, a few pats, a stroke of the fur—instantly back to full health. Perhaps this is also why many people like dogs.

Wronged?

What is that? Can it be eaten? (To be continued..)

ps: Only one update tonight; if you're free on Saturday, I'll post more.

Yesterday I mentioned some book friends who were about to start school; today someone said they had already started school. Sorry, Chen Ci hasn't "started school" in a long time—I've always thought school starts on September 1.

I'll go to sleep now; extra update on Saturday. Good night, everyone.