It was so noisy and chaotic in the parade square that it was almost uncontrollable. The teachers of each class walked up and down the line while sternly shouting, “Please keep quiet,” but it was to no avail.

  “What the f*ck?! I’ve never seen anything like this before!”


  “Nobody can beat God Fu in terms of arrogance. I’m curious, though. We used to gossip a lot about him on the school forum. So many people shipped him together with Xia Cheng, but he never said a word about it and just let us be. Why did he suddenly flare up this time?”


  “Everyone thought he cleared the rumors up on the school forum because he hated Lu Guixin, but he ended up speaking up for her again today. What’s exactly going on between them?”


  “It’s not as simple as that. Instead of reflecting on himself under the national flag, he called out Su Zeyue and embarrassed her in front of the school…” The speaker’s voice got smaller and smaller as she turned her head and glanced to the back.

  Standing among the girls, Su Zeyue’s lips were tightly pressed together as she looked down with her face drained of color. A teardrop fell from her eye. She felt like she was drowning, and the feeling of helplessness made it hard for her to breathe. The voices around her saying her name magnified in her ears. It was like her dignity had been trampled on the ground. She felt utterly humiliated.

  While the girls around Su Zeyue carefully looked at her and dared not to say anything, the pony-tailed girl glared at Zhou Fu and growled, “Is he out of his mind? That was too much of him!”


  Tears fell nonstop from Su Zeyue’s reddish eyes as she sank her nails into the flesh of her palms.

  Xia Cheng took out a packet of tissue from her pocket and gave a sheet to Su Zeyue. Although she wanted to comfort her, she didn’t know how she should go about doing it.

  Just then, Zhou Fu’s voice rang across the parade square once more. “You want to transfer to another school, huh? So be it.”


  “Shut your trap, Zhou Fu!” Mr. Dong rushed up to Zhou Fu and snatched the microphone from his hand.

  Zhou Fu smirked and arrogantly slipped his other hand into his pants pocket as well.

  A girl was then seen tearfully running from the group Year Threes with several girls chasing behind her.

  “Let’s see how you’re going to clean up this mess when Su Zeyue’s parents come.” Mr. Dong gnashed his teeth in anger as he pointed the microphone at Zhou Fu, wanting to smash it on him. As he glared at Zhou Fu, he said into the microphone, “Everyone, back to your classrooms!”


  …


  A limousine belonging to the Su family drove straight into the school, where Mr. Dong, the form teacher of Zhou Fu’s class, and Xia Cheng were waiting at the entrance together with Su Zeyue.

  As soon as the car pulled over, a woman decked in expensive clothes and exquisite makeup got out of the car.

  “Mommy.” Su Zeyue instantly burst out crying. “I want to transfer to another school.”


  The woman, who felt bad to see her daughter crying so miserably, hugged her. “What happened? Why do you say that out of the blue? Did somebody bully you?”


  Su Zeyue, whose eyes were all red and swollen, shook her head and refused to state the reason. “Do it fast. I don’t want to stay here.”?

  Su Cheng, in a custom-made suit, walked over and frowned when he saw his daughter. He had never seen her looking so distraught before. After shaking hands with Mr. Dong, he asked, “What’s going on here?”


  He was having a routine company meeting when he suddenly received a call from his wife saying that his daughter was clamoring to transfer to another school. Out of worry for their daughter, the couple instantly dropped all matters at hand to rush over to the school.

  Mr. Dong carefully said, “She had a small conflict with her classmate.”


  “A small conflict?” Mrs. Su dried Su Zeyue’s tears with a piece of tissue as she asked demandingly, “What small conflict could possibly reduce my daughter to this state?”


  The reason Mrs. Su was speaking in such a condescending manner to Mr. Dong was that a few of the school buildings were donated by the Su family.

  However, just as Mr. Dong was about to explain the matter, she ignored him and looked at Xia Cheng instead. “Xia Cheng, can you tell me what’s going on?”


  There were a lot of interactions between the Su family and the Xia family, so they were quite close to each other. Hence, in this situation, Mrs. Su only believed Xia Cheng’s words.

  Xia Cheng looked at Mr. Dong and her form teacher in hesitation as she didn’t know what to say.

  Seeing that, Su Cheng figured that things weren’t as simple as they thought. “I’ve spoken to the principal. Let’s go to his office.”


  …


  The group walked out of the lift when they arrived at the principal’s office floor.

  Mrs. Su turned around to look at the rest of the group. “Please go ahead first. I have something to say to Xia Cheng.”


  She then turned to her daughter and gently said, “Go inside and wait for me with your father. If you really want to transfer to another school, I’ll make the arrangements when we go back.”


  Su Zeyue nodded.

  With Su Cheng in the lead, the rest of the people entered the principal’s office.

  It was only then that Mrs. Su returned her attention to Xia Cheng. “What’s happened? How come Zeyue suddenly wants to transfer to another school? Who bullied her?”


  Xia Cheng hesitantly asked, “Auntie, do you know who Zhou Fu is?”


  “Yes, he’s the top student of your grade, right? Was he the one who bullied my daughter?” Despite asking the last question, Mrs. Su didn’t think it was true, for Zhou Fu was on good terms with Xia Cheng. Even if it was on Xia Cheng’s account, there was no way he would bully her daughter since the two girls were such close friends.

  Xia Cheng didn’t deny nor admit it. “There’s a voting campaign for campus belle on the school forum.”


  “I know. You’ve always been voted as the school beauty ever since you entered Ming City High School.”


  Xia Cheng shook her head. “This time, the title went to a freshman named Lu Guixin.”


  “Lu Guixin?” Mrs. Su, who was unfamiliar with the name, knitted her eyebrows together. “What does this matter have to do with her?”


  Xia Cheng thus explained the rumors going on between Zhou Fu and Lu Guixin and how Zhou Fu spoke up for Lu Guixin and deliberately embarrassed Su Zeyue in front of the entire school population. However, she intentionally left out the part where Su Zeyue and the others defamed Lu Guixin.

  The more Mrs. Su heard, the darker her countenance became. She immediately saw red when she heard that Zhou Fu wanted her daughter to leave the school.

  “Since you’ve heard about Zhou Fu, then you should know that he’s very popular in our grade and gets along pretty well with everyone. What’s more, we’ve been fellow classmates for three years. I don’t know what made him suddenly do that to Zeyue…” Xia Cheng sighed and glanced at the livid woman in front of her.

  She pursed her lips and then added, “It might be rude of me to say this, but Lu Guixin’s results are terrible. She’s in a completely different world from Zhou Fu and the rest of us. Zeyue didn’t say anything wrong. It’s true that they aren’t a good match. The Year Ones and the Year Threes barely have any interactions. Our class and the rest of the grade know that those were just rumors. Besides, Zhou Fu has clarified the rumors.”


  Mrs. Su’s expression was grave. “In that case, why did Zhou Fu take Lu Guixin’s side?”


  “They probably crossed paths with each other after that matter. Since she’s so pretty, there’s a chance that Zhou Fu… spoke up for her on impulse.” Xia Cheng’s fingers were tightly squeezed together as she carefully studied the changes in Mrs. Su’s expression.

  Sure enough, Mrs. Su sneered. “The young lass knows how to make use of the boy to speak up for her with her pretty face. She must be pretty scheming, seeing how she got someone else to do her dirty work.”


  Xia Cheng didn’t respond to that. Instead, she said, “Auntie, the university entrance exams are coming up. It’ll affect Zeyue tremendously if she transfers now. I think we should make Lu Guixin make a public apology to Zeyue so that she’ll drop the thought of transferring to another school.”


  “My daughter isn’t transferring to another school, of course. If anything, Lu Guixin ought to be the one to scram,” said Mrs. Su.?