Liu Yan posed in the center of the red-carpet media zone outside the Centennial Grand Auditorium, tilting her chin toward a bank of television cameras and flashing strobes.
Around her along the crimson velvet walkway, alumni in expensive tuxedos and satin dresses strolled with crystal champagne glasses while giant digital screens on the building facade played promotional reels of wealthy donors.
She had spent three hours at Jiangcheng’s top salon getting her hair pinned into an elaborate bridal coil. Her crimson evening gown fluttered in the autumn breeze, revealing a glittering diamond pendant that Zhao Kai had rented for the evening.
Beside her, Zhao Kai leaned against the hood of his gold Porsche, basking in the attention of twenty campus reporters.
“Look, everyone!” Liu Yan beamed into her smartphone screen, angling the camera to catch her best profile. “Vice-Dean Ma just appointed me Deputy Director of the Zhao Youth Charity Committee! And my boyfriend Zhao Kai is pledging ten million yuan to Jiangcheng University today! True success is about elite influence, luxury banquets, and giving back to society!”
She lowered her phone slightly, casting a mocking glance down the walkway where Lin Mo, Su Wan, and Shen Qiaoqiao had just stepped onto the carpet.
“Meanwhile,” Liu Yan sneered loudly enough for ten nearby alumni to hear, “some people still wear two-hundred-yuan department store shirts! If you came here to deliver packages, Lin Mo, the service entrance is around the back!”
Several young alumni laughed politely, glancing at Lin Mo’s simple white collared shirt and dark trousers.
Lin Mo did not even glance at Liu Yan. He walked calmly beside Professor Xu, keeping a steadying hand under his old mentor’s elbow. Behind them, Lin Xiaoxiao and Chen Yu carried clean notebooks, their eyes wide as they entered the grand auditorium lobby.
“A clown wearing rented diamonds makes a lot of noise,” Lin Mo said softly to Professor Xu. “Pay her no mind, Professor. Real substance never needs glitter.”
Professor Xu smiled faintly, though his shoulders remained stiff.
Inside the grand banquet hall, crystal chandeliers hung from forty-foot ceilings, illuminating eighty round banquet tables draped in white damask and gold silk. Table One through Table Ten sat directly in front of the elevated mahogany stage, adorned with imported orchids and silver ice buckets.
Vice-Dean Ma stood near the reception desk, holding a leather seating chart with an oily smirk.
When Lin Mo and Professor Xu approached, Vice-Dean Ma blocked their path with his portly frame.
“Ah, Professor Xu,” Vice-Dean Ma said, dripping with artificial sweetness. “I am so pleased you found time to join us. As an emeritus educator with no current grant funding, you understand that prime seating is reserved for seven-figure alumni donors.”
Vice-Dean Ma pointed a chubby finger toward the very back of the hall.
“Your assigned seat is Table Eighty-Eight,” Vice-Dean Ma declared. “Right against the south wall.”
Lin Xiaoxiao looked across the vast ballroom toward Table Eighty-Eight. Her face burned with anger.
Table Eighty-Eight was not even a proper banquet table. It was a flimsy, gray plastic folding card table with one bent aluminum leg, propped up with a folded cardboard coaster. It was situated directly next to the men’s restroom door, bathed in the draft of bleach and dirty mop buckets from the sanitation closet.
“Vice-Dean Ma, this is insulting!” Lin Xiaoxiao protested, trembling with indignation. “Professor Xu has taught at this university for forty years! He trained three academic deans! How can you put him next to a restroom door?!”
“Seating reflects institutional value, Miss Lin,” Vice-Dean Ma sneered, crossing his hands over his round belly. “If you don’t like it, you can take your mentor and eat your dinner on the sidewalk outside.”
“Xiaoxiao, it is fine,” Professor Xu whispered, gently touching his student’s arm. “A table is just wood and plastic. A clean heart does not need gold cloth.”
“Professor Xu is right,” Lin Mo said with a deadpan smile. “Sitting near the door makes it much easier to step out when the speeches become too nauseating. Let us take our seats.”
Lin Mo led Professor Xu, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Chen Yu to the gray plastic table. The metal folding chairs were cold and hard, and the uneven floor wobbled under the table leg.
At Table One, Zhao Kai and Liu Yan took their seats on velvet armchairs, surrounded by bootlicking junior faculty and wealthy business alumni. Zhao Kai poured imported champagne into Liu Yan’s glass, glancing back at Lin Mo with open derision.
“Look at them,” Zhao Kai laughed, clinking his glass against Liu Yan’s flute. “Sitting beside the toilet like alley cats. That is where broke idealists belong.”
Liu Yan giggled shrilly, snapping a picture of Lin Mo’s wobbly table to post on her social media story.
At Table Eighty-Eight, the autumn draft from the corridor made Professor Xu cough softly. The sixty-three-year-old teacher rubbed his thin hands together, trying to warm his arthritic fingers.
A moment later, light footsteps approached the table.
A nineteen-year-old female student wearing a black work-study apron and white cotton gloves walked over. She carried a stainless-steel tray holding a teapot of steaming dragon-well tea and four porcelain cups.
Under her apron, her uniform badge read: Student Worker: Xiao Fang, Library & Catering Logistics.
Lin Mo activated his [Pure-Heart Eye Lv.1].
[Target: Student Worker Xiao Fang.]
[Goodness Score: 90/100.]
[Moral Status: Diligent, supports disabled younger brother, works three campus jobs, zero disciplinary infractions.]
“Professor Xu,” Xiao Fang said gently, placing a hot cup of tea before the elderly mentor. “The hall draft is cold back here. Please drink some warm dragon-well tea.”
Xiao Fang then turned and walked over to an empty VIP alcove. She returned carrying two thick, cushioned velvet armchairs, setting them down so Professor Xu and Lin Xiaoxiao would not have to sit on the cold metal frames.
“Thank you, child,” Professor Xu said, his eyes moist with gratitude as he took the warm cup. “You are very kind.”
Before Xiao Fang could pour the second cup, a furious roar echoed from behind the reception desk.
Vice-Dean Ma stormed over, his face purple with rage.
“Xiao Fang!” Vice-Dean Ma barked, slamming his palm against the plastic table. The impact sent a splash of hot tea across the gray tabletop. “Who authorized you to bring premium dragon-well tea and VIP velvet chairs to Table Eighty-Eight?!”
Xiao Fang flinched, pulling her hands back against her apron. “Vice-Dean Ma, Professor Xu is coughing from the cold draft. The chairs in the corner were unused, so I—”
“You are a student worker on an eight-hundred-yuan monthly university stipend!” Vice-Dean Ma screamed, pointing a stubby finger in her face. “You take orders from the administration, not your personal sympathy! You wasted premium tea reserved for Young Master Zhao’s table! Effective immediately, your campus work-study position is terminated! Your library stipend is revoked! Get your apron off and get out of this hall!”
Xiao Fang’s eyes filled with tears. Her lower lip quivered, but she clutched her apron tightly and refused to look away.
“Vice-Dean Ma, my family relies on that stipend for my brother’s medicine,” Xiao Fang whispered, her voice shaking with quiet courage. “But Professor Xu gave his whole life to teach students like me. I will not apologize for giving him a cup of hot tea.”
“Then you can starve with him!” Vice-Dean Ma snarled, reaching out to rip the badge from her chest.
Before his fingers could touch the fabric, a hand clamped down on Vice-Dean Ma’s wrist like an iron vise.
Lin Mo stood up from his chair. His grip was effortless, yet Vice-Dean Ma’s wrist bones groaned under the pressure.
“Vice-Dean Ma,” Lin Mo said, his voice flat, low, and dangerously calm. “A dean who bullies an honest nineteen-year-old girl over eight hundred yuan is a disgrace to higher education.”
Vice-Dean Ma winced in pain, his knees buckling slightly under Lin Mo’s downward pressure. “Lin Mo! Let go of me! This is university property! You have no authority here!”
Lin Mo released the vice-dean’s wrist with a flick of his fingers, sending the portly man stumbling three steps backward.
Lin Mo turned toward Xiao Fang, his expression instantly softening.
“Xiao Fang, do you have your work-study mobile payment terminal with you?” Lin Mo asked gently.
Xiao Fang blinked away her tears, nodding nervously. She pulled a small blue mobile scanner from her apron pocket. “I... I do, Senior Lin. We use it to collect catering supply vouchers.”
Lin Mo pulled his Black-Gold Card from his coat pocket and tapped it directly against the blue scanner.
“Su Wan,” Lin Mo called out calmly. “Authorize a five-million-yuan direct endowment to the Jiangcheng University Student Work-Study Welfare Pool.”
Su Wan stepped forward from Table Eighty-Eight, her tablet already synchronized with the campus financial network. “Transaction confirmed, Chairman Lin.”
Lin Mo looked at Xiao Fang with a warm smile.
“This five million yuan establishes the Taichu Campus Work-Study Stipend Pool,” Lin Mo announced in a clear, resonant voice that carried across the surrounding tables. “Xiao Fang is appointed Chief Student Administrator of the pool. Starting today, every one of the two hundred honest student workers in the libraries, dining halls, and cleaning crews receives an immediate twenty-thousand-yuan living grant. Furthermore, all monthly work-study stipends are permanently tripled to twenty-four hundred yuan.”
BEEP.
The small blue scanner chimed with a clear digital tone:
[Transaction Approved: ¥5,000,000.00 RMB wired to Student Work-Study Welfare Account.]
Simultaneously, a magnificent celestial chime resonated deep within Lin Mo’s consciousness:
[Ding! Detected spending of ¥5,000,000.00 RMB on Student Worker Xiao Fang (Goodness: 90/100) & 200 Impoverished Work-Study Scholars (Avg Goodness: 89/100)!]
[Target Integrity Verified: Protecting vulnerable student labor, guaranteeing educational access for honest working youth.]
[Triggered 100x Pure Benevolence System Refund!]
[Received Cash Refund: +¥500,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Funds deposited directly into Host Personal Liquid Vault!]
[Personal Liquid Vault: ¥51,000,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Benevolence Merit Points: +500,000 BMP | Total BMP: 143,949,528 BMP!]
[Good People Network Expanded: 8,410 Verified Righteous Allies (+200: campus student workers and library staff)!]
Five hundred million cash refund, Lin Mo thought, watching his liquid vault climb to fifty-one billion yuan. Spending five million to protect two hundred hardworking students from academic bullies, and gaining half a billion in profit. Doing good is the most unstoppable force in the world.
Xiao Fang stared at the screen of her blue scanner, her jaw trembling in disbelief. “Twenty thousand yuan... to each of us? Senior Lin, this... this is a miracle!”
Across the vast banquet hall, two hundred student workers in black aprons and white gloves suddenly felt their smartphones buzz in their pockets.
“Your bank account has received a direct Taichu Work-Study Grant: +¥20,000.00 RMB.”
Gasps and joyful sobs broke out from the catering stations, the coat check counters, and the service corridors.
“My mother’s dialysis bill is paid!” a student waiter shouted from the kitchen entrance.
“We don’t have to skip meals anymore!” a girl at the beverage station wept, clutching her phone to her chest.
Within thirty seconds, fifty student workers gathered around Xiao Fang. When they heard what had happened at Table Eighty-Eight, their eyes burned with passionate loyalty.
“Brothers and sisters,” a tall student worker named Da Long said, rolling up his sleeves. “Vice-Dean Ma wants to insult Chairman Lin and Professor Xu? Let’s show this school where true honor lies!”
Before Vice-Dean Ma could utter a word, forty student workers swarmed Table One.
With swift, coordinated precision, the student workers lifted the gold-embroidered velvet armchairs, the crystal ice buckets, the silver fruit towers, and the floral centerpieces right off Table One.
“Hey! What are you doing?!” Zhao Kai yelled, spilling wine onto his lap as a student worker cleanly pulled the plush velvet armchair from under him. “Put that back! That is my VIP chair!”
“You didn’t pay for these chairs, Young Master Zhao,” Da Long replied coldly, carrying the gilded armchair away. “These chairs belong to the university. And today, they belong to Table Eighty-Eight!”
The students marched across the ballroom, placing four magnificent velvet armchairs, two crystal fruit platters, and three silver ice buckets directly around Lin Mo, Professor Xu, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Chen Yu.
They even carried a massive mahogany carved banquet table from the VIP lounge, replacing the flimsy gray plastic card table in under two minutes!
Table Eighty-Eight was now the most luxurious table in the entire hall, bathed in warm smiles and genuine respect.
Zhao Kai and Liu Yan sat stranded at Table One on bare, squeaky metal stools, their expensive clothes looking utterly ridiculous in the bare space.
The entire hall buzzed with murmurs of shock and suppressed laughter.
Liu Yan’s face was white with humiliation. She buried her face in her hands as her live stream chat exploded with mocking comments.
Vice-Dean Ma stood trembling in the middle of the aisle, his face pale as chalk. He opened his mouth to shout for security, but the cold glares of two hundred united student workers made him swallow his tongue.
Just then, a breathless student worker burst through the side doors leading to the adjacent library quadrangle.
“Senior Lin! Professor Xu!” the student cried out, his face flushed with anger. “Student Council President Wang Hao just stepped out of the Faculty VIP Lounge onto the library terrace with the official roster for the National Poverty and Academic Excellence Scholarships!”
Lin Xiaoxiao and Chen Yu stood up at once. “The National Poverty Scholarships? Those are meant for the three hundred impoverished research scholars waiting outside in the quadrangle!”
“Not anymore!” the student worker said, clenching his fists. “Wang Hao and three rich kids wearing Rolexes took the top slots, and every single impoverished scholar from our labs was wiped off the list! Three hundred students are gathered at the library steps right now demanding an explanation, and Vice-Dean Ma is about to come out and threaten them with expulsion!”
Vice-Dean Ma’s expression darkened at once. He turned on his heel and hurried through the side corridor toward the Faculty VIP Lounge to back up Wang Hao.
Lin Mo set down his teacup and rose calmly from his velvet armchair.
“Let us take a walk outside,” Lin Mo said to Professor Xu, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Chen Yu. “It seems the Student Council President needs an audit of his own.”