Roadmap to the Bound Chapter 192: Proto-Being

Chapter 192: Proto-Being

After Zhan Yi’s suggestion, soone from the university board stood up to side with him.

In a righteous and stern voice, he said, “I agree with Mr. Wei. This sort of person shouldn’t be a student at Martial Valor University.”

Chen Chuan’s expulsion had to be decided by the entire university board. He should have discussed this later with the other university board mbers. Even if they truly decided to expel Chen Chuan, they would need to think it through carefully and balance the interests of all parties and appease plenty of people. He couldn’t impulsively make the decision all on his own.

But he had stood up to respond to Zhan Yi’s suggestion so enthusiastically to show his stance to Wei Hang, the other powerful families, and Black Orchid Co. At the sa ti, it forced the other university board mbers to make their choice.

He wasn’t the only one who responded. Once he stood up, a few others did the sa. Among them were people Wei Hang had spoken to beforehand and so who had quickly made up their minds after seeing how things were going.

The rest of the university board mbers exchanged looks and cursed in their hearts. They were sure that this was planned ahead of ti.

They had been thinking about waiting a little longer, but now, they were forced to make their decision. If they didn’t step forward now, they were going to be seen as standing against Black Orchid Co. and Wei Hang’s group.

Compared to that, it would be better to side with them. No matter how they looked at it, siding with Black Orchid Co. didn’t seem like the wrong choice.

After a brief mont of thought, more people stood up.

There were a total of nineteen mbers in the university board, and fifteen of them had co to the tribunal. Eleven of them had stood up. The others did not reveal their stance on Zhan Yi’s suggestion, but that didn’t matter, because the ones in agreent already made up the majority.

Quite a number of the university’s sponsors had also stood up to show that they agreed with the suggestion.

The first university board mber to side with Zhan Yi turned to Chen Chuan and said sternly, “We’re now officially telling you that after a discussion with the university board, we will expel you from the university. We will give you the notice later.”

Bian Feng shot up from his seat and said gravely, “This isn’t in accordance with the university’s rules! When the university board makes a decision, it needs the chancellor’s signature to make it official. This is just a decision you made on your own. We don’t acknowledge it.”

The university board mber turned to him. “If the chancellor won’t make things official, then according to procedure, we can discuss it. Chen Chuan will retain the status of a student, but he will be suspended until the end of our discussion.”

Bian Feng’s heart sank. There was one big problem with them discussing whether the matter was in accordance with university rules: How long were they going to take to discuss it for? One year? Two years? Three? Four?

There was no deadline for it. This ant that Chen Chuan’s future would be held back, and if the matter of whether Chen Chuan could continue being their student was not resolved, he wouldn’t be able to do many things. If the chancellor heard about this, he might actually decide to set Chen Chuan free instead.

Chen Chuan watched the entire thing unfold from the defendant’s stand. He appeared calm despite all the suggestions that would put him in a horribly disadvantageous situation. “Are you done with your discussion? If you are, then I’m going to start talking.”

The university board mber turned to him and shrugged. “Of course. Before we give you your official letter of expulsion, you’re still a Martial Valor University student. If you have any demands, you can tell us. We won’t forbid you from speaking, nor will we use brute force to solve our problems.”

Since victory was already within his grasp, the university board mber did his best to maintain a just and elegant deanor. His words, though, only brought about lukewarm claps.

“I understand the university board’s stance now,” Chen Chuan said. Then, he turned to Zhan Yi. “You ntioned that you will reject

from joining you and that you will send letters to the other companies to prevent

from working for them. Are you sure you’ll be doing that?”

“Of course. We always keep our promises,” Zhan Yi replied calmly. He wasn’t afraid of Chen Chuan causing any trouble in this regard. Even if he went to the governntal departnts to gain support against Black Orchid Co., it was nothing, because they had always been fighting against the governnt. Besides, Chen Chuan might not necessarily live until he could request help.

Chen Chuan reached into his pocket. Amid the sowhat nervous gazes, he took sothing out and held it up before them. “Well then, what if I used this?”

It was a black business card similar to the recomndation cards the rich children used when enrolling into Martial Valor University.

The crowd was puzzled. Was that a recomndation card? But why was it black?

So people frowned, as if they had so ideas, but most of them were just confused.

Zhan Yi’s expression changed as he stared fixedly at the card.

After so ti, he moved his lips, as if to say sothing, but after so hesitation, he left his seat. Then, right before everyone’s startled gazes, he went out in a hurry.

When he was about to leave the courtroom, he stopped to turn around and said earnestly, “Mr. Chen, please wait a mont. I’ll be back soon.”

The audience couldn’t understand it, and Wei Hang was starting to feel uneasy. He looked at the black card. The problem should stem from it. What exactly was it? Was it a recomndation card? Or was it sothing ng Shu gave him?

That was the likeliest possibility.

It was troubleso.

If ng Shu had given the card to Chen Chuan, then things would be difficult.

The university board mbers, anwhile, were quite lost. What was going on? Since Zhan Yi said that he was going to co back soon, they could only wait.

***

Zhan Yi ran out and hurried to Mr. Luo’s limousine. Once the window wound down, Mr. Luo asked, “Why are you out? Has everything ended inside?”

Zhan Yi shook his head and whispered, “Things have changed, Mr. Luo.”

He imdiately told him about the situation inside and put special emphasis on the card Chen Chuan brought out.

Mr. Luo’s expression turned serious, and he asked, “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure.”

Wariness appeared in Mr. Luo’s eyes as he mumbled, “Proto-Being, a global-level ga corporation...”

Why would the recomndation card from Proto-Being appear here, in the hands of a normal student?

Anyone with this card could join any of Proto-Being’s branch companies or companies with good ties with Proto-Being. Since Proto-Being sponsored Martial Valor University and more than ninety percent of all other martial arts universities in the world, those with their recomndation cards could skip the entrance exams and join as students straightaway.

If any company or martial arts university rejected them, the consequences would be dire, because they were rejecting Proto-Being’s status and spitting on their reputation. Proto-Being would imdiately start targeting those companies or martial arts universities.

Proto-Being was also much larger than Black Orchid Co. The two of them weren’t even on the sa level.

When Zhan Yi saw that Mr. Luo was deep in thought, he said, “Mr. Luo, I checked his information before. He didn’t use the card to enter Martial Valor University, but got in through his own strength. There might be so information about this card that we don’t know. Perhaps...”

Mr. Luo waved off his suggestion and said firmly, “No. We have too many enemies right now. Even if it’s just a one-in-a-million chance, we can’t take the risk.”

Zhan Yi pondered over it before saying, “If that’s the case, we can take back all of our accusations and targeted asures against him. We can also apologize to him. That should be enough to show our respect to him. But we can keep the promise to provide security services to the families. This will still be beneficial to the company.”

“Even if it’s beneficial to the company, if we’ve decided to back down, we have to do it fully. We may only provide security services to these people and nothing more, but they will go out of their way to attack Chen Chuan. Then, they will drag us into their ss and force us to get onto the bandwagon with them. They’ll want the company to bear the risks for them.”

Mr. Luo denied the suggestion outright.

Zhan Yi was shocked and ducked his head to apologize. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking things through.”

“Go and apologize to Chen Chuan, and make sure to do it with the right attitude. Be sincere and pull back our offer to provide security services to the families. Considering our current situation, we can’t afford to make another enemy,” Mr. Luo instructed sternly.

“What if they reject the idea or ask us for an explanation?” Zhan Yi asked.

“Do they even have the right to do that?” Mr. Luo asked coolly.

“I understand.” Zhan Yi nodded. From this mont onward, Black Orchid Co. was going to give up on them. Even though they might be torn to shreds by their competitors later and the company might suffer losses from this, compared to gaining a powerful enemy, this was nothing.

Zhan Yi returned to the courtroom with new instructions. Everyone was waiting for him and looking forward to his reply, but he didn’t return to his seat. Instead, he smoothed out his clothes, walked down the aisle, and went straight to Chen Chuan.

With how close he ca and considering how strong of a martial artist Chen Chuan was, if Chen Chuan harbored any hostility toward him, no one would be able to save him. Yet Zhan Yi just stood in front of him without any weapons.

He bowed to Chen Chuan and said sincerely, “Mr. Chen, I’m deeply regretful for the things I said to you just now. Those were unfair accusations. I’d like to formally announce that I will take back all that I’ve said and extend my sincerest and most heartfelt apology to you.”

Everyone was flabbergasted. They felt as if their minds had gone blank.

Zhan Yi straightened his back and turned to the gallery before proclaiming loudly, “Black Orchid will not impose any restrictions on Mr. Chen. On the contrary, if Mr. Chen wants to work with us after he graduates, we will welco him with open arms.”

Then, with slight pity in his eyes, he looked at Wei Hang. “Also, we won’t be providing any security services to any of you.”

The courtroom fell silent.

“Master?! What’s wrong, Master?!”

Suddenly, a cry of surprise cut through the silence. Everyone turned around and saw that Wei Hang, the decades-long master of the Wei family, had slid off his seat while cradling his chest. The courtroom descended into chaos.

Zhan Yi gave him a cursory glance before turning around and saying respectfully, “Are you pleased with this arrangent, Mr. Chen?”