Xu Mo quietly stepped back into the corner of his side's group. Before he figured out the full story, he wasn't planning to rashly get involved.
Moreover, from any angle, he wasn't the host of this gathering.
The boy lying on the ground had already been helped to sit aside by two girls. Though his forehead was badly cut from the bottle and covered in blood, he was still conscious. After a simple bandage, he was rushed to the hospital.
The group of young men across from the room seemed to ignore the angry glares from Xu Mo's side. After joking among themselves, they returned to their room to continue drinking, clearly not taking the thirty or so students seriously.
"Hey! You guys just beat someone up and now you're leaving?"
As the host of the gathering, Xu Biling was naturally not in a position to handle such matters, so her newly minted boyfriend, Ou Yang Ning, naturally took up the responsibility. Relying on the fact that the moral high ground was on his side, he forcefully pushed open the door to the other room and loudly demanded, "What's going on here? You've beaten someone up and you think you can just walk away?"
"Oy! You've got some guts to talk like that in front of Brother Three…" A bald youth with a black lizard tattoo on his head looked at Ou Yang Ning with interest. Lighting a cigarette, he stood up and swaggered over to him. Exhaling a thick cloud of smoke directly in Ou Yang Ning's face, he said sarcastically, "You've got some backbone, huh? Alright then, let me give you a chance. Just have that big-boobed girl come over and drink a cup of wine with each of us. If you do that, we'll forget about messing up your fun. No point bullying a bunch of students, right?"
Hearing this, Xu Mo's gaze automatically swept through the crowd, and sure enough, he saw Lin Yijing, surrounded by several girls, still looking pale, while Xu Biling stood next to her, trying to comfort her. It seemed like she was the cause of all this trouble.
Piecing together the clues from the scene, Xu Mo had already figured out the entire chain of events. Simply put, Lin Yijing, who had left the room, was harassed by the group in the opposite room. A boy, unable to tolerate it, stepped in to help, but being unaware of the dangers of the "underworld," he was immediately struck on the head with a bottle, and that sparked the conflict between the two rooms.
"You guys hurt my classmate, so why should we apologize? I've already called the police! We'll talk once they get here!" Ou Yang Ning gritted his teeth in anger and stormed back to his group.
"Haha! The police? Did you hear that, guys? This student said he called the police! Fine! Since you want to wait for the police, we'll wait with you!"
The bald youth grabbed a beer from the table, pulled a chair to sit by the door, and provocatively looked at Ou Yang Ning.
As time passed, the bald youth's beer bottle was nearly empty when two police officers finally showed up. Initially, they seemed ready to scold a little, but once they saw the bald youth sitting at the door, their expressions immediately changed. They formally asked Xu Mo's group and some of the staff for statements, before ultimately determining that this was a case of group fighting. After a brief mediation, they left in a hurry, telling both sides to settle compensation between themselves.
By now, even a blind person could see that these young men were no ordinary group. Anyone who could make the police back off like that either had immense backing or a deep background. From the way they spoke and dressed, they didn't seem like some rich heirs, so it was likely they were part of the underworld.
This suddenly made Xu Mo recall the Southern City Gang, the ones who had once tried to hunt him down. He felt a little relieved he hadn't rashly stepped forward, considering he might still be on their blacklist. If these guys were part of that gang, stepping out would have made things worse.
Nobody expected this would be the outcome after calling the police. Ou Yang Ning wasn't stupid and could see the undercurrents at play. Though he was unwilling, he couldn't do anything about it. With a look of resentment, he glared at the bald youth, turned, and began calming down his classmates, leading them back to the room.
"Now it's my turn to speak…" The bald youth suddenly set down his beer bottle, stood up, and walked over to Ou Yang Ning with a sarcastic grin. "Hey, student, you called the police and now you're just going to leave?"
"You… What do you want?" Ou Yang Ning turned around, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he tried to control his anger.
"Leave that big-boobed girl behind, and you guys can go," the bald youth said, grinning as he approached Lin Yijing.
"Stop it!" A boy from Class Three suddenly rushed forward, shaking his fists. Before he could get close to the bald youth, the latter kicked him with a horizontal strike, sending him flying three or four meters and causing him to curl up in pain on the ground.
While everyone's attention was on the boy lying on the ground, the bald youth had already grabbed Lin Yijing's arm and dragged her out of the circle of girls. Lin Yijing screamed in terror, stepping back and trying to pull her arm free. Her struggle seemed to irritate the bald youth, who simply threw her over his shoulder.
"Put her down!"
Most of the boys present were admirers of Lin Yijing. Even those from other schools had all felt attracted to her as soon as they saw her that day. Now that their goddess was being forcefully carried away, they were all fired up, rushing forward with passionate cries.
"Damn it! Let's see who dares to stop us!"
As a scuffle broke out in the hallway, the group of young men from the opposite side rushed out, each carrying a wooden chair to knock over the first two boys who tried to charge forward. One of the youths then pulled out his phone and made a call. Less than half a minute later, more than thirty people charged up the stairs, many still with food stains on their mouths, clearly from downstairs having just finished eating.
"Wait, everyone, stop!"
Seeing the situation quickly escalate, Ou Yang Ning immediately shouted, trying to hold back his group. He silently cursed, realizing that his original plan to use their numerical advantage to at least apply pressure was futile. Even if they couldn't get Lin Yijing back, he had hoped to secure some leverage for later negotiations.
But now, they had called in reinforcements. What had started as an uneven fight was now impossible to win. If they pressed forward, they'd risk losing everyone without recovering Lin Yijing.
Xu Biling stood behind Ou Yang Ning, gripping his arm tightly. "Ou Yang Ning, we can't let them take Jing Jing[1] away!"
"Biling… I'll try my best," Ou Yang Ning sighed, patting her hand to signal her to step back. In this absolute disadvantage, he couldn't make any promises, but he steeled himself and took a step forward. "Hey, big guys, we're just a bunch of students here for a birthday gathering. If we've offended you in any way, I apologize. Please let us go, and allow my classmate to leave. Can we work this out?"
The bald youth dropped Lin Yijing in front of the door to the room, handed her over to one of his companions, then turned back to Ou Yang Ning. He slapped Ou Yang Ning's face hard and laughed arrogantly. "I've never liked guys like you, little pretty boys. But I have to say, you've got some manners for a student. If you hadn't called the cops earlier, maybe I would've given you face. After all, we from the Northern Dao Gang are a bit civilized for an underworld group. I wouldn't want to make things hard for a student. But now, it's too late. I've got all my boys watching. If I let you go just because you flattered me a little, it would make me look like a joke. How can I hold my head up in front of my brothers after that?"
"Then… what do you want?" Knowing the situation was almost hopeless, Ou Yang Ning could only ask one last time, his voice tinged with desperation.
The stairs were now filled with the bald youth's men. They were shouting and causing a ruckus, making the atmosphere even more chaotic. The bald youth frowned and waved his hand for his underlings to return downstairs and eat. He then lit a cigarette and turned to Ou Yang Ning with a smile. "Alright, I'll give you two options to choose from…"
[1] mean Lin Yijing，a nickname,Calling someone by the repeated characters of their name makes it seem more intimate.