Chapter 216: 216 Human suffering

"Do you know President Sun?"

At the main entrance of East Sea University, Jiang Chen finished paying for his ride and got out of the car, just as a WeChat message chimed in.

Jiang Chen opened it to find a message from Pei Yunxi.

But before he could even feel pleased, the content of the message left him feeling puzzled.

"Miss Pei, who is President Sun?"

The other party seemed to be even more bewildered than he was, her typing indicator flashing on and off multiple times before pausing. After more than ten seconds, the chat box finally popped up with three words.

"Sun Dongye."

Who was Sun Dongye?

Jiang Chen was clueless and bit puzzled, but he also understood that the other person wouldn’t have suddenly asked him an irrelevant question. He closed the chat box, then quickly noticed a notification for a new post in his Moments.

He seldom scrolled through Moments, and even less frequently posted in it, so normally his Moments were practically stagnant.

On impulse, he clicked to take a look, and Jiang Chen finally understood where the problem lay.

"Haha, the film Miss Pei starred in is bound to be a hit, championing presale box office for sure."

The comment he left on Pei Yunxi’s Moments had actually been commented on by someone else!

The person was none other than the severed string, also known as "Emperor String" from the Emperor Chat Group, the one who posted the advertisement for the villa at Spring and Autumn Plaza, and who was also the backer behind the megafamous internet celebrity, Ling Shiqi!

Damn it!

How had he not thought of this!

One was a magnate in the media industry and the other was a rising starlet; it was only natural that they knew each other!

Even the wise can miss something, and indeed that saying was true.

Jiang Chen remembered to hide his Moments but forgot all about "mutual friends."

Almost instinctively, he quickly deleted his comment from just a short while ago.

It didn’t matter on Emperor String’s side, since he didn’t know who Jiang Chen was, but the key was—how to explain it to Pei Yunxi?

After much thought, he had no choice but to concoct a lie.

"Last year, President Sun visited East Sea University, and by a stroke of luck, I had the opportunity to exchange a few words with him, and that’s when we added each other on WeChat."

Although this excuse was full of holes, just from the tone of Sun Dongye’s follow-up comment itself seemed off, Jiang Chen truly couldn’t think of a better pretext. After sending it, he could only hope that Pei Yunxi wouldn’t go so far as to verify this trivial matter with Sun Dongye.

There was no telling what Pei Yunxi thought about this excuse, or perhaps she was busy with something else and didn’t reply.

Jiang Chen put away his phone and walked into the campus.

"Hurry, hurry, someone’s about to jump!"

A few students ran past him, hurrying along.

About to jump?

Jiang Chen furrowed his brows, hesitating for a moment, but he followed them anyway.

The Quality Education Building.

The vicinity was already overcrowded.

The school’s security had arrived, sealing off the entrance and maintaining order.

Looking up, he could vaguely see a male student sitting on the edge of the rooftop, his legs dangling, creating a terrifying sight.

"He seems to be from the Computer Science Department. I heard from his roommate that the pressure from studying for his postgraduate exams was too much, causing him too much mental distress..."

Students whispered among themselves nearby.

Jiang Chen looked up, and since the Quality Education Building wasn’t very tall, just six stories high which amounted to just over twenty meters, he could roughly make out the person’s appearance.

Narrowing his eyes, Jiang Chen felt that the student who was about to jump looked somewhat familiar.

"Jiang Chen."

A voice called out.

It was unfamiliar yet familiar.

Jiang Chen turned his head to see Ai Qian and the person who had been fanning the flames between him and Ai Qian, Wei Chuyin.

"It’s the guy from the lottery shop."

As Ai Qian spoke, she walked over with Wei Chuyin trailing behind her.

After Ai Qian’s reminder, Jiang Chen instantly remembered.

No wonder it felt familiar.

For a while, like many others, he had naively dreamt of a windfall that could change his life; after all, daydreaming is something almost everyone has done.

And the simplest, legally sanctioned way to get rich quick in society today is undoubtedly buying lottery tickets.

During that time, when he went out to work, he would take a detour to the lottery shop. He didn’t buy much, just one entry each time. It was just two yuan, after all. Spending two yuan on hope was a deal that could never be a loss, no matter how you look at it.

But the results were sad. His luck seemed truly dismal; he never even won a twenty-yuan prize.

It was during that time, in the lottery shop, that he met this boy now intending to jump off the building. They weren’t very close, had exchanged a few words, and could be called "lottery acquaintances."

"Where are the police? How much longer till they get here?"

"I called just now; they said fifteen minutes."

The head of the security department looked anxious, glancing up at the rooftop and then down at his watch.

Jiang Chen nodded at Ai Qian, then pushed through the crowd to go over.

"I said not to get close, it’s dangerous here. Stay back."

A security guard stopped Jiang Chen.

"I know him, let me try to persuade him."

Jiang Chen shouted.

"Shut up. What are you showing off for? If someone dies, will you take responsibility?"

The dark-skinned security guard scolded him, trying to pull Jiang Chen away.

The head of the security department turned his gaze and recognized the student.

The incident with compensation for a watch worth hundreds of thousands had left a deep impression on him.

"Wait a minute, let him in."

The security guard was stunned, then stepped aside.

Jiang Chen went in.

"Ah... Don’t jump! Please don’t jump!"

The crowd erupted into a commotion.

The boy on the roof shuffled his buttocks. He appeared relaxed, but it set the people below on edge.

Fortunately, the onlookers were all from East University—staff and students with high caliber and self-control, not like those seen in news stories encouraging a jumper from below.

"Can you do it?"

The head of the security department asked in a grave tone.

Human life is at stake; this was not a matter to be taken lightly.

"The police will take a while to get here; we’ve got to try something."

The head of the security department made eye contact with him, nodded, and then firmly patted his shoulder.

"If you can do it, then do it. If not, don’t force it."

With that, he took Jiang Chen up to the top floor.

"Why is Jiang Chen meddling in this kind of business? If that guy gets agitated and really jumps, he could get into trouble."

Wei Chuyin couldn’t understand.

The boy had been up there for a while, and his roommates had all received notifications from the school and had rushed over. But none of them dared to go up and persuade him.

The reason was simple.

Fear of taking responsibility.

If it were a close friend or a relative, it would be another matter, but Jiang Chen and the other person were just nodding acquaintances, having only exchanged a few words at most.

Heroism running rampant?

Or was he out of his mind?

"That’s just how he is; ordinary people find it hard to understand him," Ai Qian said, looking up at the rooftop of the academic building, her expression distant.

"Do you know? When I was with him, he was so poor, but still made time to work part-time jobs here and there. And yet he kept donating money to the foundation for impoverished children. Not much, a few tens or a couple hundred each time. When I found out, he was really embarrassed about it."

Wei Chuyin was stunned.

"Chu Yin, some people really do think differently from us. Even though they’re not satisfied with their own lives, they still can’t bear to see suffering in the world."

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