Ma Chongguo heard him out, but there was nothing more he could say. He silently turned away and went back to the office.
His thoughts were a tangled mess.
After mulling it over, he called Principal Zhao of Chaoyang Primary School, where he had once worked.
"Principal Zhao, someone reported me for taking bribes when I was at our school and misappropriating public funds. When did I ever take a bribe? At most, I accepted some local specialties, fruit, and vegetables from students' parents. I tried to refuse again and again, but they would often just leave the things behind and go. There was nothing I could do. But that doesn't count as taking bribes, does it?"
"Oh, and there was a student I taught who later made something of himself. He insisted on giving me 100,000 yuan, but I firmly refused. He left the money behind and walked off, just like the parents who brought me local specialties."
"I wanted to return the money, but I couldn't get in touch with his family. Later, you helped me reach them, Principal Zhao, but they had already moved to Hainan. In the end, you and I discussed it and used the 100,000 yuan to renovate our school. You know about this, and we told that student about it too."
"That doesn't count as taking a bribe, does it?"
"As for misappropriating public funds, no matter how much I think about it, I can't come up with anything I might have misappropriated. At most, when you were away studying, Principal Zhao, I was acting principal. It rained for days on end, and several of our school's classrooms were old and badly in need of repair. Their roofs leaked constantly, so I used the money the school had planned to spend on renovating