"You bastard, put me down! I'm going to kill you!" Wolverine roared. As an effectively immortal man, he was never afraid of escalating a fight. Seeking death was practically a common pastime for him. With his indestructible body, Wolverine simply lived to be willful.
However, one person had reached her limit. Jean Grey looked at Wolverine's miserable state, which was a precise replay of Scott's humiliation back then, and finally couldn't stand seeing him bullied further. She found a diplomatic excuse to intervene.
"Yi, can you please take a breath? What exactly do you gain from this?"
Of course, there was no benefit. In fact, due to the Professor's request, Zhou Yi had been dragged into a massive whirlpool of trouble. From a certain point of view, he was the real victim here.
"You know I didn't start this," he shrugged. Under Jean Grey's displeased gaze, Zhou Yi slowly lowered Wolverine. The moment his feet touched the floor, Wolverine immediately lunged forward, clearly ready to continue their battle for three hundred more rounds.
Jean Grey stopped him with her telekinesis, simultaneously using a subtle psychic ability to calm his raging mind. However, with Zhou Yi's disruptive presence, her soothing attempts were ineffective. So Jean Grey could only implore:
"Yi! Could you step out for a moment? If you don't mind, could you take my place and teach the children a class or something? Wolverine's mental state needs to stabilize, and I can't do that with you standing right here."
Looking at Wolverine, whose eyes were practically spitting fire, and Jean Grey, who had adopted a pleading expression, Zhou Yi could only nod.
"Alright, since you asked so nicely, I'll try my hand at being a teacher. If Ororo comes back, just pass the message along for me. But, Jean. Be careful!" Zhou Yi paused, grabbed his coat, turned, opened the door, and walked out.
As soon as he left, Jean Grey felt Wolverine's mental agitation surge briefly, then slowly recede. It was like a person pushed to the peak of anger: if they don't explode, they eventually have to calm down. Wolverine began to regain control of his emotions.
"Wolverine, you are too impulsive," Jean Grey said, slowly withdrawing her psychic power. She directly criticized his bad temper. Fighting over the slightest disagreement, ending up beaten, and needing her intervention—that was not the behavior of a mature man.
Wolverine was panting, his chest heaving violently. After a long minute, he finally steadied his breathing and looked at Jean Grey with a bewildered expression: "You said he's not a Mutant? Then what the hell were those abilities?"
Jean Grey frowned. Wolverine's tone made her slightly uncomfortable, but she patiently explained: "Yi is a very rare natural superhuman, not one of our kind. The World has more superpowered individuals than just Mutants."
Hearing Jean Grey's explanation, Wolverine's eyes glazed over slightly. A fragment of memory surfaced in his chaotic mind: amidst a rain of gunfire, a man with a shield repeatedly charged into the enemy lines right in front of him. Suddenly, the man turned his head and seemed to shout something, but Wolverine couldn't clearly hear the words.
He tried desperately to grasp the fragmented memory, but the specifics eluded him. Soon, the memory fragment dissolved back into his messy, incomplete recollections, lost once again.
This frustrating uncertainty surrounding his own past made Wolverine intensely irritable, and he directed that raw emotion straight at Jean Grey.
"You should have told me sooner!" He waved his hand dismissively, still immersed in the fruitless search for the memory. This made him entirely oblivious to the rising displeasure in Jean Grey's eyes.
Being unfairly blamed was not a pleasant experience, especially when the anger came from the person who actually caused the problem. Jean Grey's professional nature prevented her from criticizing Wolverine's behavior right then, but it subtly worsened her impression of him. A woman's heart is never infinitely patient.
Zhou Yi, who had supreme confidence in his own appeal, wasn't worried about any developments between Wolverine and Jean Grey. If he could suppress Scott, he could definitely suppress Wolverine. He trusted that Jean Grey knew who the best choice was.
He naturally walked into a classroom, smiled at the group of young people who looked up in surprise, and announced:
"Good morning, everyone. Your teacher Jean had a small urgent matter to attend to today, so I'm here to substitute for the lesson." He glanced at the psychology textbook in a student's hand. "Psychology class, is it?"
The students below began whispering. The most obvious culprits were Charisse and her companions from that morning. They probably never imagined a situation where a family member would sub for a teacher.
However, one student's reaction defied Zhou Yi's expectations: the Little fellow who played with fire. He sat bolt upright, watching Zhou Yi with the posture of a model student. It would have been perfect if he could have just removed the intense, almost fanatic glow from his eyes.
"Quiet down, girls and boys. Especially you, Charisse—your vacation is still under negotiation, so don't get too excited." Ruthlessly pouring cold water on Charisse's mood, Zhou Yi tried his best to act like a qualified teacher.
"Can anyone tell me what Young Miss Jean taught you in the last lesson? I came in a bit of a rush, and we haven't coordinated the curriculum yet."
More whispering and soft complaints from Charisse ensued, but a student finally volunteered to answer Zhou Yi's question.
"Sir, Young Miss Jean asked us to think about the impact of human psychology on the living conditions of Mutants last time." It was John speaking again. Despite his unsettling gaze, Zhou Yi thanked him for breaking the awkward silence.
"Thank you for your help, young man. Alright, let's continue this topic," Zhou Yi said, sitting casually on the edge of the podium. "First, I'd like to introduce myself. I am the older brother of the most boisterous girl among you, Charisse. Many years ago, when I first came to this Academy, I underwent testing, and unfortunately, I am not a Mutant."
The room instantly erupted like a boiling cauldron. Zhou Yi's identity stunned them. Many students began badgering Charisse for details, and some looked at Zhou Yi with open suspicion.
Clapping his hands hard to temporarily restore order, Zhou Yi continued addressing the young people.
"You're probably very curious why I'm substituting for your teacher, especially since I am not one of your kind. Before you dwell on that question, please allow me to finish my self-introduction."
Zhou Yi's calm demeanor and gentle confidence quickly settled the fidgeting students. As Mutants facing an uncertain future, they seemed to realize they needed to hear a voice from the human side.
"The identity I just mentioned was simply to bridge the distance between us. See, I have the closest relative among you, so you don't have to look at me like a deer spotting a hunter. I am harmless!"
Holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender, Zhou Yi's performance elicited laughter from some of the younger Little fellows, and others slightly lowered their guard. As Zhou Yi pointed out, they had less reason to be wary of Charisse's relative. In this regard, Zhou Yi was benefiting from his younger sister's reputation.
"Then we can continue," he said, clapping his hands to quiet the room again. "As I said, I need to finish my self-introduction first. What I just told you was only part of the story; the other part is that I have another identity—one that is quite prominent in human society."
"I am the third largest shareholder of Stark Enterprises, and a key decision-making shareholder in Osborn Company. I own around two dozen large-scale scientific research institutions and several high-performing listed companies. If any of you like baseball, I am also the owner of the Colorado Rockies, although I initially bought the team just to see if this young squad could surprise me by winning a Major League Alliance championship. So far, no good news on that front."
At this point, the young students were all listening with intense seriousness. This proved that Mutants and humans were fundamentally the same: when facing genuinely successful individuals, no matter how disdainful they might usually be, they would sit down obediently and listen to what these successful people had to say. For no other reason than the guarantee of success offered by those impressive titles and backgrounds.
"I'm not saying this to boast to you. In fact, I'm past the age of showing off. Compared to you, I seem a bit too old," Zhou Yi said with a harmless self-deprecating joke, then continued his lesson.
"The reason I'm telling you all this is to use my identity to tell you, from the human perspective, the status of Mutants and the behavior they should exhibit."
"You might not think I'm qualified to represent humanity, but I must tell you that the direction of human society is primarily dictated by people like me. There's no need to go into my daily schedule—I'm something of an anomaly—but I can tell you that if I wanted to, sitting down calmly with the leaders of this country to discuss current affairs is absolutely not a problem."
"Our collective opinions basically are the opinions of this society, because in reality, the right to speak and, more importantly, the right to make decisions, resides only in the hands of people like us. Do not forget the true meaning of democracy: the people have the right to speak, but they do not have the right to decide. So, do you want to know what kind of Mutants we see?"
Looking at the students below, all rapt, including the little girl Charisse, Zhou Yi's face held a satisfied expression. He seemed to genuinely enjoy this new role as a teacher.
"Let me put it simply: for us, Mutants are actually no different from anyone else. If you have money to support your life, if you can eat, drink, play, and enjoy yourselves, if you can consume and contribute within this society, then you are indistinguishable from ordinary people."
A sudden, confused buzz erupted from the class; there was a mixture of confusion and noise. Zhou Yi even heard someone fiercely accusing him of lying.
He pressed his hands down, waiting for the young people's excited emotions to subside before continuing to speak.
"Do you think I'm lying? No. I guarantee you, I am not. So, do you want to know why your lives have become so difficult? I can tell you exactly where the problem lies."
"There are only two real problems. Look at yourselves, and think about the difference between you and normal people. This is the first problem: Difference. In addition, there is one more problem, and this problem also appears in you. This problem is called Reputation!"