When Heidi is discharged, transferring departments will be her only choice.

Due to Mrs. Dawson’s actions, everyone in the School of Architecture – students and professors alike – had been frightened. Who would dare get close to the Dawsons’ precious daughter now?

If she wanted to study architecture, she could go to MIT or Harvard… There were so many universities in America offering architecture programs. Why insist on staying at Cornell?

While regular students might have trouble transferring schools, with Monde Dawson’s status, getting Heidi transferred would be easy.

Xia Xiaolan admitted that Matthew’s approach wasn’t honorable, but dealing with someone like Mrs. Dawson required such underhanded methods.

Matthew touched the marks on his face and snorted:

“Heidi can transfer schools or change majors without worry – she’s Monde Dawson’s daughter. But what about you? You’re just an exchange student from China. If Mrs. Dawson makes it impossible for you to continue your studies, returning to China will be troublesome too!”

Xia Xiaolan understood Matthew’s perspective clearly.

“So you all knew Heidi was Mr. Monde’s daughter.”

Yet they still helped her.

Weren’t they afraid of being marked by the Dawson family?

Daisy muttered, “So what if it’s Monde Dawson? Does offending him mean we’ll never find work? His wife is unreasonable, and we did nothing wrong!”

So Daisy knew too.

Richard and Lyle naturally knew as well.

Plus Matthew.

Yesterday these chicks protected the dark lord, and today they were still protecting her.

These were her classmates at Cornell University, her companions!

Xia Xiaolan waved, “Come on, let’s go to class first. We’ll deal with Mrs. Dawson after class. By then, my lawyer should have arrived.”

Matthew puffed out his chest and followed them to the classroom door before realizing he wasn’t even a junior – this wasn’t his class. Why had he foolishly followed along?

Must be because Mrs. Dawson’s handbag chain had knocked him silly yesterday!

Xia Xiaolan was right – Mrs. Dawson couldn’t possibly come to grab people from the classroom. Making a scene at the Academic Affairs Office was one thing, but if she burst into a classroom, campus security would remove her regardless of who her husband was!

…

While Xia Xiaolan attended class peacefully, Mrs. Dawson received a notice from the Academic Affairs Office to come in:

“Mrs. Dawson, there’s a lawyer here to see you.”

A lawyer?

Mrs. Dawson was at the hospital and didn’t want to leave. Today, Jonason hadn’t come to take his shift! If she left, no one would be at the hospital with Heidi.

Her husband Monde was still nowhere to be seen, which secretly angered Mrs. Dawson.

She knew Monde cared greatly about-face, and Heidi’s suicide attempt was seen as a weakness by him. Monde was causing trouble for McCarthy only because the Dawson family’s face couldn’t be lost – this fight was about Monde establishing his authority.

Mrs. Dawson was angry that her husband didn’t care enough about Heidi, but she could do nothing about Monde. Though powerful outside, she had little say at home.

Monde never discussed work matters with her, because she wouldn’t understand anyway.

“Lawyer? What lawyer?”

“Student Xia Xiaolan’s lawyer.”

Pronouncing Xia Xiaolan’s full name was awkward, but in formal settings, just “Xia” wouldn’t suffice.

Mrs. Dawson was furious – she had waited so long at the Academic Affairs Office yesterday!

She initially didn’t want to respond but found it laughable.

What kind of lawyer could a Chinese student afford? Must be some cheap lawyer who couldn’t find other work!

Mrs. Dawson stayed at the hospital and sent her lawyer to the school.

Half an hour later, her lawyer called:

“Mrs. Dawson, that female student’s lawyer is Eric Bloom.”

Mrs. Dawson didn’t know who Eric was, but her lawyer did: “Eric is extremely tough to deal with. His last case was representing a non-profit organization suing Brown University for systematic discrimination against African American students in admissions. He’s been consistently taking on Affirmative Action cases – you must take this seriously!”

The “Affirmative Action” policy was implemented by the Kennedy administration in the 1960s to address America’s historical racial discrimination issues.

By 1986, racial discrimination still existed in American society and wouldn’t completely disappear even after another 30 years.

But since the 1960s, the implementation of Affirmative Action has made an impact. The more prominent public figures became, the more careful they had to be about this – “racial discrimination” had become a sword that normal people would avoid… Put another way, fewer and fewer public figures made openly discriminatory remarks, only occasional slip-ups by a few idiots.

Nobody cared what nobody said, as nobody listened to them anyway.

But for public figures, being labeled as “racist” was very troublesome.

Upon hearing that Eric specialized in Affirmative Action cases, Mrs. Dawson got a headache.

People like him valued reputation over money and were the toughest nuts to crack!

Mrs. Dawson couldn’t help asking, “Did he win the case against Brown University?”

“…Brown University opted for an out-of-court settlement.”

If Brown University wasn’t guilty, why choose an out-of-court settlement? It was just a polite way of saying Eric had won – Brown University had conceded and met Eric’s demands.

Shit!

How did that yellow monkey find such a powerful lawyer?

If Xia Xiaolan’s lawyer hadn’t arrived after a day, Mrs. Dawson would mock her.

But finding a lawyer like Eric Bloom in just one day – Mrs. Dawson was somewhat shocked at how quickly it happened.

“I’m coming to school right away!”

Mrs. Dawson gritted her teeth as she hung up.

Could a yellow monkey even afford lawyer fees?

Perhaps Eric wasn’t charging at all, purely providing legal aid… A lawyer seeking fame rather than money was the worst!

And her husband, winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize two years ago, was exactly the type of person Eric loved to sue. Monde needed fame, and so did Eric.

An architect’s fame came from designing buildings.

A lawyer’s fame came from winning cases.

Brown University could be a defendant.

A Pritzker Prize winner could also be a defendant. Eric was like a shark smelling blood, portraying himself as a righteous defender of the weak… Mrs. Dawson quickly kissed her daughter’s forehead:

“I must rush to school, dear. I won’t back down easily – I’ll protect you.”

Mrs. Dawson believed herself to be the most dedicated and responsible mother in the world.

When she arrived at the Academic Affairs Office, her two lawyers looked sheepish.

Eric, wearing a gray suit, handed his business card to Mrs. Dawson:

“Mrs. Dawson, you demanded Cornell University stop admitting Chinese students and used the racially discriminatory term ‘yellow monkey’ to refer to my client. If you don’t apologize to my client, we’ll need to go to court.”