Chapter 354 — Yang Ce the Mighty
Years of Heartflutter · Page 1 of 3
The man with the megaphone was, of course, that show-off Tian Yan; beside him, Zhang Bin was helping him haul the amplifier.
Tian Yan and Zhang Bin had originally brought the amplifier along to cheer Yang Ce on, but the sudden turn of events caught them off guard. Thinking fast, Tian Yan cranked the volume to maximum and let loose a thunderclap that froze everyone on stage and off.
The school officials in the front row heard the roar as well, and each wondered who on earth would dare make such a racket in the auditorium. As one, they turned around—then, as one, turned back again the moment they saw it was Tian Yan.
These officials all knew perfectly well how Tian Yan had gotten into the university: the Tian family had donated more than ten million to build a laboratory for the school, and only then had Tian Yan been admitted. So this kind of connected admission was beyond their jurisdiction—and beyond their power to touch.
The students in the audience had been thoroughly rattled by Tian Yan's eardrum-splitting bellow, but once they collected themselves and thought it over, the man actually had a point! Exactly—if you really haven't forgotten your roots, then why not resign as president of the taekwondo club and go learn long fist instead? Why not just found a Shaolin martial arts club?
You stand up there, so sanctimonious and self-righteous, claiming you haven't forgotten your roots—and forgetting your roots just means throwing on a long robe? Coming up on stage to put on a show, how are you any different from those celebrities who fake their charity donations?
The tide had begun to turn. Whispers rippled through the audience; everyone was starting to have doubts about Ren Jianren's conduct. Seizing the moment, Tian Yan had Zhang Bin turn the volume down a notch, then shouted into the megaphone, "I say you're ninety percent here just to put on a show—posturing, grandstanding! If you announce right now that you're disbanding the taekwondo club, then we'll believe what you say!"
The moment the words left his mouth, they struck a chord with a great many students present! They threw their support behind whoever had the better argument; no one was a diehard Ren Jianren loyalist. They had backed him a moment ago purely because they'd been moved by his impassioned speech. Now that Tian Yan had exposed Ren Jianren's sinister, ugly true face, naturally they wouldn't be taken in—they were beginning to loathe him. "That's right! Disband the taekwondo club, and we'll believe you!"
"Ignorance can be forgiven, but knowing better and doing it anyway—that's the height of villainy! You know full well that taekwondo derives from our Shaolin thirty-two-form long fist, so why learn taekwondo instead of long fist?" "Hmph, hanging up a sheep's head and selling dog meat—fine words on the outside, but at heart you're just worshipping everything foreign. How is a man like that any different from a traitor?" "Down with traitors! Down with Ren Jianren!"
Within moments, Ren Jianren's vileness had been elevated to the level of selling out the country for personal gain, and his face went from black to white and back again, at a loss for what to say.
In his heart he loathed Tian Yan and Zhang Bin with a passion. He didn't know Tian Yan, but how could he not know Zhang Bin? If not for this brat, would his taekwondo club have ever made an enemy of Yan? To think the same brat was down there stirring up trouble—he was obviously in Yang Ce's camp; if he wasn't helping Yang Ce, why would he help Ren Jianren?
Ren Jianren wanted dearly to expose the two of them as men Yang Ce had brought in, but everything they'd said was watertight. If he insisted they were Yang Ce's plants, the students below would surely think he was a cornered dog biting wildly at anyone—and who would believe that?