The moment the photograph was uploaded online, it attracted a lot of criticism online.
“Damn it. He’s still at it?”
“A leopard never changes its spots!”
“Fang Qiu is pretty shameless since he’s still practicing Qigong even after more than a week has passed and despite the uproar online. Isn’t he afraid that this could end up becoming his downfall?”
“I can’t believe he’s still stubbornly insisting on his own idea. Wouldn’t it be great if he channeled his boldness to other initiatives?”
The post online attracted a lot of criticism.
Fang Qiu, who was no longer a trending topic on Weibo, was suddenly pushed to the top in search rankings once again.
This caused the comments under Fang Qiu’s Weibo to almost break the 500,000 marks!
500,000 comments.
Most celebrity accounts would not even be able to hit such a large amount of comments. It was clear that Fang Qiu was such a popular topic that he had exceeded the popularity of an average celebrity.
Naturally, in addition to those who had rushed to his Weibo account to leave negative comments, Fang Qiu’s fans also contributed significantly to the comments.
“My hero, why don’t you give in this time?”
“Yes, Fang Qiu, you can’t keep going down the wrong path. We feel very upset when we read criticisms about you online.”
“Fang Qiu, I implore you to listen to us this time. Just admit that you were wrong. This superstitious belief will be your downfall.”
“Haha, why are you still trying to talk sense into him? Fang Qiu might just be practicing Qigong to achieve immortality. Shouldn’t you be hoping that he would achieve immortality soon?”
“Fortunately, I’ve been watching the live stream every day. I really want to see if he’ll be able to achieve immortality before I die.”
“Shouldn’t he be heading into the remote mountains or forests if he wants to achieve immortality? Isn’t he afraid that the trappings of the secular world will impede him from attaining his goal?”
“Hey, you’re too narrow-minded. The great hermit clearly enjoys his solitude in noisy places.”
…
At the university.
Fang Qiu immediately headed to the hospital to treat patients after he finished practicing his Qigong.
Meanwhile, Li Xiucai had also gotten out of bed early to come to his office. He ordered his secretary to pay attention to Fang Qiu’s every move.
After Fang Qiu left campus and headed to the university, his secretary immediately returned and rushed into the vice principal’s office.
“Good news.”
He beamed happily before he delivered the news, “Fang Qiu has left campus and headed to the hospital to see patients.”
“Really?” Li Xiucai’s eyes lit up.
“Yes, I witnessed this myself,” his secretary said.
“Great,” Li Xiucai exclaimed in excitement.
He reached out for the two timetables that lay on his desk with a smile.
He looked at these timetables carefully.
These two timetables were the ones of Fang Qiu’s classes.
“He has two classes in the morning, and both these classes total four hours’ worth of class. He had already missed six hours’ worth of class yesterday, so if he skips the two classes he is scheduled to attend in the morning, he will be expelled immediately!”
Li Xiucai couldn’t help but chuckle loudly at the thought, as though he could already picture Fang Qiu’s face when he was expelled.
“Sir, Fang Qiu might have some issues, but he seems to have a lot of supporters, such as Qi Kaiwen and Su Mudong,” his secretary said as he thought. “If these two join forces with the other directors to petition against Fang Qiu’s expulsion, will we still expel him?”
“Petition against his expulsion?” Li Xiucai said with a cold scoff. “We might let him off the hook if they personally come to beg for mercy on his behalf. After all, he has only missed ten hours’ worth of class and not exceeded ten hours’ worth of class. However, whether we would expel him after he misses ten hours’ worth of class or misses more than ten hours’ worth of class would be at my sole discretion.”
“It would only be a matter of one hour’s worth of class. I’d like to see how many times Su Mudong and Qi Kaiwen would come to beg for mercy on his behalf!”
He couldn’t help but think of his argument with Su Mudong and Qi Kaiwen the other day.
He grew livid at the thought of his argument with them.
This time, he would not let them off so easily.
“Fang Qiu…”
He couldn’t help but picture Fang Qiu begging for mercy in a variety of manners. He even imagined himself subduing Fang Qiu, settling this Qigong issue, and being officially appointed as the vice principal of the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine. Then, his career would rise steadily because of Fang Qiu. He would become the principal, then enter the city’s education department before being promoted to the Provincial Education Department…
It seemed like a beautiful fantasy.
He was so engrossed in it that it was some time before he managed to pull himself out of this fantasy.
He was finally pulled out of his reverie when he heard his secretary calling his name.
He responded in embarrassment and suddenly burst out laughing once more when he remembered how he tried to order Su Mudong to fire Fang Qiu from the hospital.
Now that he thought about it, it seemed like a blessing in disguise.
Fortunately, Fang Qiu was not fired from the hospital, or he would not have gone to the hospital instead of attending classes.
Meanwhile, classes were ongoing.
Soon, the first class that was two hours long had ended.
Fang Qiu did not show up for both classes.
Li Xiucai smiled smugly when he received this news.
He sensed that Fang Qiu was slowly falling into the trap that he had laid out.
“He still has one more class.” Li Xiucai thought for a moment before he told his secretary, “According to the timetables, is it true that someone from the dean’s office will sit in on this class?”
“Yes,” the secretary said with a nod.
“I want you to remove the person you’ve planted and arrange for someone from the dean’s office to wait in the classroom. I want a report from him every five minutes!” Li Xiucai ordered.
“Sure,” his secretary said before he turned to leave.
Soon, all the arrangements were made.
At 10 AM, Fang Qiu’s second class begun, but Fang Qiu did not show up.
Li Xiucai felt extremely complacent and even felt as though the result was certain!
10:40 AM.
This marked the end of the first hour of his second class.
At 10:50 AM.
Someone suddenly appeared in front of the classroom just as the bell that marked the start of the second class hour was about to ring.
It was none other than Fang Qiu!
Everyone froze in surprise when they saw Fang Qiu. Zhu Benzheng and his friends let out a sigh of relief.
They had been worried that Fang Qiu would not show up.
They had taken turns to send more than ten messages to Fang Qiu since the morning.
Fortunately, Fang Qiu finally made it to class.
Fang Qiu walked into class, glanced at the representative from the dean’s office before he selected an empty seat, and sat down.
Meanwhile, the representative from the dean’s office froze in surprise before he quickly sent a text to Li Xiucai.
In the vice principal’s office.
“Beep beep…”
Li Xiucai’s phone beeped with a message.
He quickly dug out his phone and read the message smugly.
He was sure that it was a message telling him that Fang Qiu did not attend class.
Fang Qiu had gone to the hospital to see patients, so if he saw someone who was more difficult to treat, he would be delayed.
Moreover, once he was kept busy, he would lose track of time.
He opened the message and immediately sat upright when he saw the content.
“What?”
His eyes widened in disbelief.
“Sir?” his secretary asked.
“He, he has come!” Li Xiucai exclaimed in shock.
…
Fang Qiu had just taken his seat in the classroom when the bell rang to signify that class had started.
His teacher entered the classroom, and after glancing at the students gathered in the classroom, he started in surprise to see Fang Qiu before he said, “Let’s continue.”
Then, he flipped open the textbook on the podium and started to speak.
However, Fang Qiu suddenly rose to his feet.
“Clatter.”
“Hmm?”
The teacher froze in surprise and wondered if he had said something wrong earlier.
Everyone in the classroom was equally puzzled.
Why did Fang Qiu suddenly rise to his feet after the teacher had just started speaking?
Everyone turned to look at him in confusion.
…
Then, Fang Qiu spoke, “I’m sorry,” He said as he bowed to his teacher, “I’ve got something else to attend to, so I’ll take my leave now.”
His teacher was astonished.
What was wrong with Fang Qiu?
Why did he even come to class if he had something else to attend to?
Moreover, how was he going to continue speaking after Fang Qiu suddenly made this unexpected announcement?
Nonetheless, he did not verbalize his thoughts.
He had already been impressed by Fang Qiu’s results during the final examination that Fang Qiu had taken ahead of time. Moreover, Fang Qiu was so skilled that it didn’t matter whether or not he attended this class, so he did not stop Fang Qiu from leaving.
Then, Fang Qiu rose from his seat and walked toward the back of the classroom.
When he reached the back of the classroom, he looked at the representative from the dean’s office and said, “Remember this, I’m not skipping out on class. I’m leaving early.”
Then, he smiled mischievously at the representative from the dean’s office before he sauntered out of class.
The representative from the dean’s office was completely stunned.
His classmates finally reacted.
“Oh yes, Fang Qiu had already missed nine hours’ worth of class. This would be the tenth hour.”
“He’s just here to mark his attendance!”
“I was wondering why he was leaving right after the class has started, so this must be the reason why.”
“I’m impressed. This is not the same as skipping out on class. Skipping class means that he did not show up at all, but he was just leaving early, so it is not the same.”
“I remember reading online that the notice mentioned that one couldn’t skip out on class. There was no mention of leaving early.”
After a moment of silence.
“Haha…”
Someone chuckled out loud all of a sudden.
Zhu Benzheng and his friends burst into laughter.
“Our worries were for naught,” Zhou Xiaotian said.
“Haha, I didn’t expect him to be so clever. This is amazing,” Sun Hao said.
He was laughing so hard that tears rolled down his cheeks.
It wasn’t just the students who were laughing. The teacher who stood in front of the podium couldn’t hold back his chuckle.
Soon, Li Xiucai was notified of this incident.
He was livid when he found out that Fang Qiu had left the classroom, and instead of skipping out on class, he had left early!
He was itching to teach him a lesson.
However, his hands were now tied.
The difference between skipping classes and leaving early was clearly stated in the student’s handbook.
Moreover, the notice had already been posted online for a day, so he could not amend it any longer.
If he made any further amendments to the notice, it would be obvious that he was targeting Fang Qiu.
He couldn’t amend the notice, neither could he teach Fang Qiu a lesson.
Li Xiucai was hopping mad.
He felt as though Fang Qiu had pulled a fast one on him and was now mocking him.
This was especially so when he read that Fang Qiu said he wasn’t skipping class but leaving early!
It was obvious these words were meant for him.
Furthermore, he had made this statement during the tenth class hour.
Should he wait another day?
He was certain that Fang Qiu would pull the same trick the next day.
What should he do?
He wracked his brains for a solution and realized that he could not come up with a way to bring Fang Qiu down.