If it were a normal 18-year-old boy, he'd probably be fuming by now.
But for Brother Lie, it just felt like child's play.
After spending four years in humanities, he understood all too well what a joke the International Exchange College was.
Don't talk about respect between people; it's useless.
If you're going to talk, you need to discuss something deeper.
Han Lie, without changing his expression, asked again, "Are you from Dorm 404?"
"Yeah!"
The blonde boy jerked his head to the right. "Sleeping in the bunk next to you. What about it?"
"Oh. That's good."
Han Lie nodded, showed no further reaction, and climbed onto his bunk with his small shoulder bag.
"Hahahahaha..."
The boys burst into unrestrained laughter.
"This is damn interesting, huh!"
"What, looking for a chance to get even later?"
"Come on, bro, get down now. I'll practice with you."
But Han Lie acted as if he'd gone deaf, showing no extra expression or offering any additional response.
He just calmly took off his shoes, got into bed, then pulled a gleaming claw hammer from his bag, meticulously placed it under his pillow, and pressed it firmly in place.
The laughter abruptly diminished by two-thirds.
The four boys opposite Han Lie were like roosters with their necks squeezed, their eyes bulging, unable to laugh anymore.
GULP.
One of them, dressed in the latest LV shirt, even swallowed hard uncontrollably.
The sound wasn't loud, but Han Lie's movements suddenly paused.
That sort of pause was like someone had slammed the pause button; his whole body seemed to freeze.
However, while Han Lie's body remained motionless, he twisted his head in an extremely peculiar manner and looked at the LV boy.
His gaze was so wooden and dull, his pupils like black holes, utterly without focus.
The LV boy even felt that the other party wasn't looking at him at all but was instead staring through his flesh and blood at some unknown place.
Oh, god! B-b-b-Big Bro, wh-wh-what are you looking at...
A chill shot through the LV boy, and his calves began to tremble.
Han Lie remained still as if his system had crashed, staring at the boy for a solid five seconds before calmly withdrawing his gaze and lowering his head again.
Then, he took out two books from his bag and placed them beside his pillow.
The book underneath was titled *Selected Works of Mao XX*, which was already quite unexpected, but the book on top was even more astonishing...
It was some kind of scripture!
The LV boy made out the cover of the scripture: a Buddha with compassionate eyes and a genial smile, with the suffering masses of the bitter sea prostrating at his feet.
He suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
Han Lie sat leaning against the wall, picked up the scripture, opened it, and quietly began to recite.
GULP.
Another boy swallowed hard uncontrollably.
The blonde and another companion who couldn't see Han Lie finally realized something was off.
They stopped laughing and looked at their buddies in confusion.
"What's going on?"
Their buddies didn't respond.
But just then, a deathly, monotonous chant drifted down from above.
"May I, in my next life, when I attain Bodhi, if all sentient beings are condemned by the king's laws,
Bound by ropes, whipped, locked up in prison, destined for punishment or subjected to countless disasters and humiliations, overwhelmed by grief, in agony, suffering in body and mind;
If they hear my name, by the virtue of my blessings and divine power, may they all be freed from every suffering and calamity."
The blonde suddenly felt his skin crawl. What the hell is this?!
He abruptly threw down his cigarette butt, jumped up, and was about to explode.
"You motherf..."
But his buddy opposite him quickly clapped a hand over his mouth and dragged him out of the room.
The other few guys heard keywords like "bound by ropes, prison, punishment, and humiliation." Thinking about Han Lie's calm placement of the claw hammer under his pillow, they felt every hair on their bodies stand bolt upright.
One by one, the young guys put out their cigarettes and tiptoed out, holding their breath, not daring to breathe loudly.
In less than ten seconds, the dorm was empty.
The blonde was dragged into the neighboring dorm by his buddies and suddenly felt emboldened again, clamoring noisily.
"What the fuck are you holding me back for, Xiao Cheng? That son of a bitch dares to act tough with me? I'd slap him to death!"
Xiao Cheng, his face a mask of misery, was relentlessly rubbing his arms.
Xiao Dongbei, pale with residual fear, cursed, "Just fucking quiet down, will you? Slap him to death? What if you wake up in the middle of the night and he smashes your brains all over the wall with that hammer!"
The blonde was dazed. "What hammer?"
"A claw hammer, man!" Xiao Cheng gestured with his hands. "That big! He quietly hid it under his pillow!"
The LV boy, his back still covered in cold sweat, hadn't fully recovered.
"Could that guy be a psycho?"
"No shit! Who the fuck brings a claw hammer to school if they're normal?!"
"Tell me about it! I wouldn't even be afraid if he had a knife on him, but then he pulls out a hammer..."
"I'm telling you guys, something felt off about that dude the moment he walked in. Too calm, you know? Everything about him was abnormal!"
"Ma... Ma Jia... what was his name again?"
"Shh!"
"Shut up! Don't you dare mention that name in the dorm!"
"Guys, aren't you overreacting a bit? Is it really that creepy?"
"Damn! It's not an overreaction! You were sitting down there; you didn't see that fucker's gaze!"
"Seriously, I'm not lying, that wooden stare was really freaking terrifying... I'm thinking, does he see us all as animals or what?"
"You can't rule it out. Who looks at people like that?"
"In a psycho's eyes, we're not even the same species. Killing us would be like slaughtering chickens, okay?"
The blonde became more and more confused. "You guys aren't joking with me, are you?"
Everyone chimed in, explaining it to him with vivid descriptions and wild speculation. Before long, the blonde felt goosebumps too.
"Damn, what did that bastard mean by reciting scriptures later?"
"Call him 'Big Bro'!" LV reminded him solemnly, then closed his eyes and made a wild guess. "Big Bro was probably planning to help your soul pass on, I guess?"
HISS.
Everyone gasped.
"Did anyone catch what he was chanting?"
"I did!" Xiao Cheng eagerly raised his hand. "The scripture said that to kill someone, you need to tie them up and take your time!"
A companion nodded vigorously. "All that stuff about execution and humiliation... so damn meticulous, so much ritual involved!"
HISS.
When a sense of ritual wasn't about flirting with girls, the boys all gasped.
"Definitely a psycho!" Xiao Dongbei nodded gravely, his tone growing more certain. "If he wasn't seriously messed up, who would carry a sinister scripture in their bag?"
"Right, right, right! Weren't those guys from the west famous for making drums out of human skin?"
The blonde, scared out of his wits, cursed.
"Fuck! How did this kind of person even get into university?!"
Another guy, dejected, sneered, "Does this shitty school even require an entrance exam?!"
Xiao Dongbei scratched his head. "So, are we going back to the dorm to sleep or not?"
LV and the blonde looked at each other, then suddenly said in unison, "If you want to go back, you go back!"
Xiao Dongbei thought for a moment, then suddenly shuddered.
"I'm not going back. I'll book an overnight session at the internet cafe, and tomorrow during the day, I'll catch up on sleep on Xiao Qiang's bed."
The blonde anxiously asked, "But we can't keep doing this forever, right? We have four years of university ahead, and there's nowhere to switch dorms to..."
LV thought for a bit, then suddenly fixed his gaze on the blonde. "How about... you go apologize to Big Bro?"
"I'm not going!" The blonde's head shook like a rattle drum.
Xiao Dongbei also tried to persuade him. "Don't worry, go ahead. I've studied psychopathic killers; they act normal most of the time. He definitely won't lay a finger on you! Sickos like him never strike openly; they always sneak up in the dark to hit you over the head. As long as you don't sleep in the same room as Big Bro, you'll definitely be safe!"
LV nodded vigorously. "Big Bro probably just has a slight psychotic tendency; he probably hasn't gone full psycho yet. You go apologize, and we'll turn an enemy into a friend! Otherwise, with a Brother Ma living in the dorm, how are we supposed to go on?!"
After listening to Xiao Dongbei's reassurance and LV's advice, the blonde felt even more terrified. Just the thought... A persistent chill crawled up the back of his neck...
"Screw that! My dad has at least a hundred million in assets, and I've only spent less than two million. Why would I take such a risk? Renting a place outside for four years would cost peanuts!"
Everyone listened and, sharing the sentiment, nodded in unison.
Students at the International Exchange College, even those from the least wealthy families, had net assets of several million; they had truly grown up coddled.
When it came to bullying pushovers, they were relentlessly fierce, each one trying to outdo the last.
If they caught a soft target, they could squeeze them dry.
But when faced with real tough nuts, no one wanted to gamble with their precious, wealthy lives.
Was it worth it for such a minor conflict, one that couldn't even be called a spat?
In their eyes, Han Lie was a man far more fearsome than any so-called "tough nut."
You could deal with tough guys, but how do you handle a psychopath?
Forget it, forget it. Can't afford to provoke him, but I can afford to hide...
"Let's go, let's go! All-nighter it is!" The blonde decisively rallied everyone. "I'll arrange everything. Everyone's going!"
"Sure, let's all go!"
Whether they liked surfing the net or were used to pulling all-nighters, at that moment, no one wanted to stay in the dorm.
So, they all prepared to head out together.
However, the closet doors in the blonde's and LV's dorm room were still open, and their phones, wallets, keys, and other belongings were still in Room 404.
"You go?"
"I'm not going!"
"Let's go together!"
"You go with Xiao Dongbei!"
After muttering for a while, they finally reached an agreement: Xiao Dongbei would go back with LV. Since neither of them had directly confronted Han Lie, they were much safer than the blonde.
So, the two of them encouraged each other and tiptoed as they pushed open their dorm room door.