Xia Xiaolan was called an academic champion.

She felt Ning Xue was more of an academic god.

After all, she had the advantage of her previous life’s experiences – a form of cheating – while Ning Xue was genuinely just over 20 years old, with her brilliant mind and natural architectural talent truly marking her as a genius-level figure.

However, both of them merely excelled in school. Monde was already a renowned architect who graduated from Cornell University. Before this elite who could teach students using his works, neither Xia Xiaolan nor Ning Xue carried much weight!

Professor Wen’s concerns were justified.

The usually antisocial Professor Wen had gone out of his way for Xia Xiaolan, which moved her deeply.

It wasn’t surprising that Monde ignored Professor Wen’s attempt at reconciliation. Professor Wen was just a purely academic, living his own life peacefully in Ithaca, avoiding conflicts.

When Monde wanted to give McCarthy trouble, Professor Wen lacked the authority to help, so naturally, Monde wouldn’t value Professor Wen’s intervention.

Even if he could help, Professor Wen wasn’t the type to kick his colleague McCarthy down just to pull Xia Xiaolan out of trouble.

While Xia Xiaolan appreciated Professor Wen’s care and admired his integrity, she managed to infuriate Mrs. Dawson at the Academic Affairs Office while Professor Wen was trying to mediate with Monde.

This matter clearly couldn’t be resolved peacefully.

Xia Xiaolan said sheepishly:

“Today I even had Connie introduce me to a lawyer. Mrs. Dawson was too tyrannical. She’s not just targeting me but also Ning Xue. Her comments made me very angry – I absolutely couldn’t tolerate it.”

Professor Wen had heard about what happened at the Academic Affairs Office today.

After hearing Xia Xiaolan’s more detailed version, Professor Wen became very angry:

“You did nothing wrong. I was too naive thinking we could smooth things over. Such an attitude only encourages misconduct!”

Just getting Xia Xiaolan out wasn’t enough.

Ning Xue was still caught in the middle.

As Chinese international students being bullied abroad, Professor Wen had taught Wen Manni the phrase “mutual support.” He approved of Xia Xiaolan’s actions.

“Hasn’t Manni’s lawyer arrived yet?”

Professor Wen decided to call his daughter, but Hu Ying stopped him, “Before you returned, a lawyer named Eric called saying he had arrived in Ithaca and would go directly to the school tomorrow.”

The lawyer Wen Manni found had already arrived!

That night, Xia Xiaolan had a strange dream. She and Ning Xue were competing for an architectural award, both making it to the finals. The presenter was Monde Dawson, who announced that none of the finalist works qualified for the award, so it would remain vacant this year.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t even know what Monde looked like, so his face was naturally blurry in the dream.

How did she know it was Monde Dawson?

Because he went on stage arm in arm with Mrs. Dawson.

Well, Mrs. Dawson wore excessive makeup and revealing clothes, dressed in standard beauty pageant swimwear… After waking up, Xia Xiaolan rubbed her face:

“Do I have the potential to be a pervert?”

Dreaming of shirtless men with six-pack abs would be normal, but dreaming of a scantily clad Mrs. Dawson – surely the heavens wanted her doom!

Xia Xiaolan felt helpless. Whenever “beauty pageant” was mentioned, she would think of the swimsuit segment. People can’t control their subconscious, and what occupies your thoughts during the day naturally appears in dreams at night.

Professor Wen and Xia Xiaolan usually went to school separately, but today he specifically wanted to go with her:

“If Mrs. Dawson causes you trouble again, I won’t be polite with her either.”

Xia Xiaolan responded with a “mm” and said, “I think the college won’t just sit by and watch. No matter how powerful Monde is, he’s not the dean of the School of Architecture. He won’t let Mrs. Dawson keep making a scene – it would affect his reputation too!”

Famous people all care about their reputation.

Monde Dawson was clever, having his wife make a scene while staying out of sight himself.

He probably thought this would intimidate two female students while putting pressure on McCarthy.

Unfortunately, the Dawsons encountered two extraordinary female students.

Ning Xue followed her own heart and never played by so-called rules.

Xia Xiaolan was diplomatic but liked to make her own rules.

Neither student was the timid type easily bullied. Because Mrs. Dawson was so overbearing, Xia Xiaolan had no desire to visit Heidi, and Ning Xue probably hadn’t visited either.

It wasn’t that they lacked compassion, but in the situation Mrs. Dawson created, if Xia Xiaolan went to the hospital, others might think she felt guilty!

Better not to visit at all – her friendship with Heidi wasn’t that close anyway.

Arriving at school with Professor Wen, they ran into Daisy and the others.

After parking the car, Professor Wen said, “You go to class first. Don’t let other matters affect your studies, especially since you took leave to return to China earlier – you need to catch up on what you missed. If anything happens, I’ll go to the Academic Affairs Office.”

“Mm!”

After Professor Wen went to his office, Daisy and the other three surrounded her.

Originally there were four in the group, but after the GMP internship ended, Matthew automatically joined, making it five.

The marks on Matthew’s face hadn’t disappeared after a night.

Xia Xiaolan was surprised, “Was it that serious?”

Being hit by a handbag’s metal chain like this didn’t seem accidental – it looked more like someone deliberately whipped Matthew with the chain.

Matthew lowered his voice, “You’re too naive! Of course, I had to make the marks last longer – they’re evidence of Mrs. Dawson assaulting an innocent student!”

Looking closer, Xia Xiaolan realized the marks had been tampered with by Matthew. It wasn’t that the injury was scary – Matthew had applied colored medicine to exaggerate the injury, making it very obvious!

Matthew was still Matthew.

The title “scheming boy” wasn’t given for nothing. Xia Xiaolan decided she should be nicer to Matthew in the future:

“Is it working?”

“Of course it is!”

Daisy and the other two weren’t originally close with Matthew. They were in different grades, and while Matthew wasn’t as nasty as Heidi, he had the same academic pride and wouldn’t have bothered with Daisy’s group before.

Xia Xiaolan was the bridge that brought them together.

When someone attacked Xia Xiaolan, all four felt personally attacked.

Daisy couldn’t help laughing, “Senior Matthew has been wandering around with his facial injury, and now many people in the college know how bad Mrs. Dawson’s temper is.”

Public opinion can be guided.

As soon as Heidi attempted suicide, whether intentionally guided by Mrs. Dawson or not, the public opinion in the School of Architecture turned against Xia Xiaolan, Ning Xue, and Jonason. Heidi, who attempted suicide, was seen as the weak one, and people tend to sympathize with the weak. Mrs. Dawson’s repeated scenes at the college, while inappropriate for a mother who had lost her reason, were somewhat understandable.

But hitting Matthew too was going too far!

Matthew and Heidi barely knew each other, and weren’t even in the same grade, their only connection being teammates in the C·W design competition. Yet Mrs. Dawson still hit him – everyone in the School of Architecture felt unsafe.

If participating in a competition with Heidi meant being attacked, maybe even speaking to Heidi was wrong.

Heidi’s roommate who called emergency services was terrified. Fortunately, Heidi was saved – if she hadn’t been, wouldn’t the roommate also be considered a murderer? After all, she was Heidi’s roommate, and in Mrs. Dawson’s eyes, that made her not innocent at all!

Xia Xiaolan felt that perhaps from spending too much time with her, not just Matthew but even Daisy had become “crafty.”

“This way, Heidi really won’t be able to continue her studies at Cornell.”