Words Can Kill!

Cheating!

Anyone who knew Li Mu Yang's usual grades and then saw this exam paper would have thought the same thing.

In the past, aside from randomly filling in the simplest questions, almost the entire paper Li Mu Yang submitted had been blank. But this time, not only had he completed most of it, he had somehow gotten every single answer right.

It had to be known that although Zhao Mingzhu had said aloud that the questions this time were not difficult and were all ones they had done before, she knew perfectly well that this placement examination was quite challenging. She had even deliberately included several trap questions commonly found in the Literary Examination.

Li Mu Yang had answered even the trap questions flawlessly. Some of the answers he had given were even more accurate than the correct answers she herself had in mind.

If this wasn't cheating, what was? Could the uneducated, incompetent Li Mu Yang really be more knowledgeable than a teacher like her, who had been in the profession for twenty years?

It was exam time. Most of the students were racing against time, bent over their desks answering questions. Aside from when Li Mu Yang handed in his paper, when they had raised their heads to glance at him and snorted disdainfully through their noses, they could only focus their energy on their own papers. They did not even have the time to mock Li Mu Yang.

The questions this time were difficult, and there were a lot of them. Aside from the self-abandoning Li Mu Yang, the others could not possibly finish answering them in a short while.

Even Cui Xiaoxin, the top student in the class, had only just finished the last question. She set down her pen and began checking her paper.

After hearing Zhao Mingzhu's furious roar, everyone looked up at the podium in astonishment.

Crash—

Zhao Mingzhu shoved the chair aside with her backside, grabbed Li Mu Yang's exam paper, and stood up. She glared fiercely at Li Mu Yang and shouted, "Li Mu Yang, explain yourself. What exactly is going on?"

Hearing Zhao Mingzhu's interrogation, everyone's eyes shifted in unison to Li Mu Yang's face.

Their faces were full of schadenfreude. They thought, Everyone in the class knows how good your grades are—no, everyone in Fuxing Middle School knows. What meaning could cheating possibly have at a time like this?

Besides, what was the difference between twenty points and thirty points?

Only Cui Xiaoxin remained calm as she checked her paper, not even sparing the commotion a glance. She had already anticipated this result.

Li Mu Yang had returned to his seat. He looked up at Zhao Mingzhu and said, "Teacher Zhao, I don't understand what you're talking about."

"You don't understand?" Zhao Mingzhu let out a cold laugh. "How could you not understand? You got every question right. Give me an explanation. What is going on?"

"I got them all right?" A happy smile appeared on Li Mu Yang's face, and the huge stone hanging over his heart finally fell. When answering many of the questions, he had felt as if he had seen them before, but that memory was distant and hazy, and even he could not be sure whether he had answered correctly. Now that Teacher Zhao Mingzhu had said he got them all right, that proved he could get a very good score this time.

"Li Mu Yang—" Zhao Mingzhu snatched up her ruler and once again wanted to strike the lectern. But remembering the incident when she had broken the ruler last time, she forcibly restrained this barbaric impulse. She truly did not want her name associated with Li Mu Yang again. "I told you to give me an explanation. Do you think I'll let you off just because you avoid answering?"

"Teacher—" The smile on Li Mu Yang's face gradually faded. He said, "I only answered the questions correctly. Why do I need to explain myself to you? Explain what? That I answered them correctly because I worked hard?"

Smack—

Zhao Mingzhu slammed a palm onto the desk and shouted sternly, "Li Mu Yang, do you think we're all idiots? I wrote this exam paper. I chose the question types. I know better than anyone how difficult it is—you not only handed in your paper half an hour early, you answered all forty-eight questions, and every single one you answered was correct."

Zhao Mingzhu swept her gaze across the class and asked sarcastically, "Do you believe that? I certainly can't."

Whoosh—

The entire classroom erupted!

"No way! Li Mu Yang answered all forty-eight questions? I haven't let up for even a moment, and I still have half of them left—"

"Every one correct? Is he trying to fool ghosts? How could someone with his grades do that?"

"That guy is so stupid he's practically bubbling over. Even if he cheated, he should've deliberately gotten a few questions wrong. He has no tactical experience at all—"

—

Cui Xiaoxin finally looked up at the podium. Her delicate brows knitted slightly, as if they had been ruffled by the clear breeze outside the window.

After studying Li Mu Yang's expression for a moment, she lowered her head and returned to her own work.

"Teacher Zhao—" Li Mu Yang sat in his chair, his formerly frail frame held perfectly straight. Only now did the students who had always ignored his appearance or formed a fixed impression of his looks realize that Li Mu Yang seemed to have grown a little taller, and his body had become a little sturdier. Even his complexion was no longer as dark and shiny as before.

He had become a young man with bronze-colored skin, eyes like stars, and lips like cherry blossoms. His long, black-jade hair was tied up with a snow-white ribbon. His face was radiant and his spirit soared. He was no longer the deformed monster they had humiliated and bullied.

A withered sapling had suddenly put forth new shoots, creating a strikingly bright and fresh sight.

At that moment, Li Mu Yang's expression was incomparably solemn, as though he were speaking of a matter of the utmost importance. For a student, wasn't being falsely accused by a teacher of cheating on an exam precisely a matter of the utmost importance?

"Your student answered the questions correctly, and compared with before—he has made tremendous progress. As his teacher, shouldn't you be happy for him?"

"If he had studied diligently and achieved such progress and results one step at a time, I would naturally be happy for him. But that student achieved such progress and results through cheating and copying. Aside from being disappointed in his attitude toward learning, I would also be disappointed in his character—in my eyes, a student like that truly is beyond saving. I'm ashamed to have a student like him."

Zhao Mingzhu had already made up her mind to drive him out. She would use this cheating incident to drive him out. She did not want him to remain in the classroom, and she did not want this rotten apple to affect the other students' studies. There was only one month left, counting every day, before the Literary Examination. She and her students had to make full use of this brief period. They could not waste another second or let this good-for-nothing anger them.

Drive him out!

After making this decision, Zhao Mingzhu instead calmed down. She waved her hand and said, "Li Mu Yang, you don't need to say anything more. Pack up your things and wait in the school library. There'll be a decision shortly. It's exam time now. Don't disturb the other students while they answer their papers."

"Teacher Zhao—" There was a trace of red around Li Mu Yang's eyes, and even his voice had turned hoarse. It was anger, grievance, and the icy desolation of being falsely accused with no way to voice his pain.

Since childhood, aside from his parents and younger sister, no one had been close to him, no one had cared for him, and no one had ever suddenly come over, draped an arm around his shoulders, and said, "Brother, let's go play cuju together after school."

He had always been alone, like a person cut off from the world. The entire world stood against him, pointing at him from afar and saying, "Look, there's a monster."

He was not a monster. He was only a child, a young man.

He longed for friends. He longed to be accepted. He longed for someone to pass him a note during class, and for someone to sling an arm around his shoulder after school and eat mung bean cakes with him—even when the students passed notes among themselves, they deliberately avoided him, as if the writing on the note would vanish the moment he touched it.

He had done nothing wrong. Why did everyone have to treat him so cruelly? It was unfair.

"Teacher Zhao—" Li Mu Yang stubbornly tilted his face upward so that the tears gathering in his eyes would not slide down. Otherwise, those people would say, "Look, Li Mu Yang is crying. The Black Charcoal in our class is crying—"

Li Mu Yang had never cried, not even when those people had forced him to the ground and ridden him like a sheep.

This was the only thing he could do to defend his dignity.

"Teacher Zhao, even if you suspect that I cheated on the exam, shouldn't you investigate and confirm it first before making such a heart-condemning judgment?" Li Mu Yang looked at Zhao Mingzhu and spoke one word at a time. "Do you know what one sentence from you—means to me?"

Li Mu Yang's voice caught. He was afraid he would not be able to continue, afraid he would not be able to hold on. "Teacher Zhao, you're trying to kill me."