Anyone could tell that Sun Jianren was pretty pissed off at this moment, and facing his obvious fishing for answers, someone quickly buttered up and spoke.
"Captain Sun, I think we're still missing one person. Su Mu hasn't arrived yet."
"It's Sunday today, maybe Su Mu hasn't seen the message?" There were also people dissatisfied with Sun Jianren, taking this chance to express their annoyance at being summoned on a Sunday.
"One of you send him a message. If he doesn't show up today, then we'll postpone the meeting. We'll meet when he shows up!"
Sun Jianren spoke cunningly, pushing Su Mu to the opposite side of everyone and shifting the conflict away from himself.
The two people who had gotten close to Sun Jianren lately took the lead, starting to @Su Mu in the Third Level team group chat, and several minutes passed.
Sun Jianren's expression grew even uglier, because no matter how much they @ed him, someone just kept ignoring them.
"Send it in the big group. I really want to see if Captain Su isn't fond of checking his phone."
As soon as he said this, many people fell silent. If they posted this in the school-wide security group, they'd be outing him and making enemies, even though Su Mu wasn't a team leader anymore.
But everyone could see that Zhou Lei, the leader of the Fifth Level team, was friendly with Su Mu, and Su Mu's martial arts cultivation was also at Second Level Peak—stronger than any of them, basically the same as the school's two main captains.
Last time, Su Mu only lost the captain election by one vote. They didn't want to completely fall out with him.
"Captain Sun, I'll send it."
Li Lei gritted his teeth, thinking how Sun Jianren got Director Li from the Logistics Department backing him, while Su Mu had no one, just some kid from a remote countryside.
He immediately @ed Su Mu in the big group.
Soon, the big group exploded with messages from colleagues asking what happened, and Li Lei exaggerated the whole story.
He said that the Third Level team planned a simple meeting that would finish in a few minutes, and that Captain Sun had nicely notified Su Mu ahead of time, but Su Mu just insisted on not showing up.
As soon as the big group realized what was up, a bunch of people chose to sit back and watch. Since it was the Third Level team's internal issue, it had nothing to do with them.
Li Lei immediately shot a glance at Shen Ming beside him.
Shen Ming gritted his teeth and joined in, echoing Li Lei in the big group, starting to criticize Su Mu for being too much and dragging them down.
Seeing this, a few so-called 'reasonable observers' popped up in the big group, preaching from their high horses, also starting to criticize Su Mu.
The atmosphere in the meeting room was tense, while elsewhere, time passed peacefully—inside the Martial Artist Association.
Su Mu asked to borrow a charger. The staff, not only super polite, brought him a charging cable and personally led Su Mu into a quiet small room.
"So this is the treatment for Third Level Martial Artists?"
He'd never experienced service like this before. He couldn't help but feel a bit sentimental at the moment, then quickly discovered his phone wasn't out of battery—it was broken.
"Most likely it was when I dropped it that time and cracked the screen."
This phone was the one he'd bought when he started college, and all this time he never wanted to replace it—fifteen years had gone by so quickly.
At that moment, he borrowed the staff's phone to call his wife. Before he could even share his joy, his daughter's voice came from the other end.
"Mom, I want to talk to Dad. Dad, Dad—can you hear me?"
"Yeah, I can hear you; Dad can hear you" Su Mu's voice instantly softened a lot, and the staff nearby quietly stepped closer, listening in with pricked ears.
"Daddy, Xiaoyue misses you! Can you come back this summer vacation?"
"Please?"
Summer vacation, huh.
He'd get double wages in summer. For the past two years, Su Mu always chose to stay in the school during summer vacation; even last Spring Festival he spent at the school. It had been almost two years since he'd gone home.
Su Mu hadn't answered yet, when Miaomiao's voice came through on the phone.
"Xiaoyue, stop acting cute. Dad needs to work and make money."
"Oh, okay, Xiaoyue gets it."
"No, this summer vacation I'll come home."
"Daddy's the best!"
"How about Mom?"
"Mom's the best too."
The Association staff next to them listened keenly, smiling like an auntie, getting closer the more she listened. After the call ended, she looked reluctant to let the moment go.
"Sorry, Mr. Su, I—uh—I didn't mean to eavesdrop... But your daughter is so sweet, her voice is so adorable, and your wife's voice is lovely too. You guys must be such a happy family."
"Yeah, pretty happy."
Leaving the Association, Su Mu looked at the growing number of cars on the street and felt like he'd forgotten something.
"If I can't remember it, it must not be important."
If it was important, Su Mu would remember, at least have some clue.
Absolutely nothing came to mind, so it clearly wasn't important.
He quickly went to the bank to cash the Spirit Stone check—true friends are revealed in adversity. Only Zhou Lei alerted him about the meeting, and only Zhou Lei was willing to lend him money to get past tough times. Su Mu first transferred nineteen thousand Spirit Stones to Zhou Lei's card, since he'd promised to pay back double, and he always kept his word.
The remaining thirty-one thousand, Su Mu kept ten thousand for himself to draw next month's superpower, then went to spend a few dozen Spirit Stones on a cheap new phone, leaving the remaining twenty thousand or so to take home in summer and surprise his wife and kids.
"Time to buy a new phone."
Back to the other side, a few people in the big group were still echoing each other, but the main character Su Mu showed no intention of responding.
Inside the meeting room, Sun Jianren's face looked worse than ever.
Minute by minute, time passed quickly. Soon three hours had gone by—it was already eleven thirty.
Sun Jianren finally couldn't sit still anymore.
"That Su Mu—he's selfish, has no sense of teamwork at all! I'm going to report today's events honestly to Director Li from Logistics. I propose we start voting now to fire Su Mu!"
"Raise your hand if you agree."
Sun Jianren threw out a harsh ultimatum, leveraging his uncle as a backer, wanting to fire Su Mu directly. He thought everyone else dragged down by Su Mu would back him.
But in reality, as soon as he said it, everyone's expression subtly changed—even Li Lei and Shen Ming, who'd been echoing him, were silent.
No one raised their hand in support.
The crowd now felt that Sun Jianren had gone too far, because some things can't set a precedent; they'd never seen a security guard fired by the school before, so it was a stable meal ticket.
If they watched Su Mu get fired now, maybe they'd be next, which would affect their own interests.
Sun Jianren's gaze settled on Li Lei and Shen Ming; Li Lei hesitated and spoke, "Captain Sun, this seems a bit much. Su Mu was late, but it's not that serious."
For a moment, Sun Jianren's face flushed dark like pig liver, and suddenly he felt like a clown jumping around.
Someone had tried calling Su Mu earlier—the line was busy at first, but later Su Mu didn't even bother. When they tried again, it went straight to 'powered off'.
Su Mu was clearly doing this on purpose—he simply wanted to disgust him, openly slapping his face.
Sensing everyone's eyes, at that instant Sun Jianren felt like everyone was watching his downfall.
Sun Jianren clenched his teeth and said, "I'll definitely report this to Director Li. Meeting dismissed."
Captain Sun turned and left the meeting room, slamming the door shut with a bang.
...