The First Reversal

By noon the next day, Class D was quieter than even the day their points had been reset to zero.

It was not that no one was talking.

Everyone was just keeping their voices down.

What happened to Sudo was no longer just his problem.

It was about whether Class D would protect one of its own for the first time.

Gu Heng sat by the window and finished writing the last line.

It was a very thin sheet of paper.

There was no nonsense on it.

Only the timing, the order, and a few things Sudo absolutely had to remember today.

"Just this?"

Sudo stood beside his desk, his face dark. "You want me to memorize this?"

"Not memorize it."

Gu Heng handed him the paper. "It's to save your life."

Sudo's face darkened even further.

"You're not going there today to win an argument."

Gu Heng looked at him. "The most important thing is not scrambling your own words the moment they start setting the pace."

"Then what am I going for?"

"To let them say everything they need to say first."

Sudo's mouth twitched.

He was obviously annoyed.

But the unfamiliar text from last night was still lingering in Gu Heng's mind.

"Don't let Sudo ruin everything you investigated with one opening of his mouth."

Whoever had sent that message, one thing was right.

The person most likely to mess things up today was Sudo himself.

"Got it?"

Gu Heng asked.

Sudo kept a dark face as he clenched the sheet of paper in his palm.

After a long while, he squeezed out one sentence.

"Got it."

That was enough.

Horikita stood beside them, watching.

Her expression was a little more complicated than it had been in the past few days.

"Let's go."

She said.

The people from Class C had already arrived in a small meeting room on the first floor of the special teaching building.

Ishizaki sat at the front, his face full of impatience.

Kondo stood beside him, looking much calmer.

A teacher responsible for disciplinary matters sat in the corner as well.

He had not spoken.

But he was there.

Gu Heng took one glance and knew that today was not just about students comparing statements.

They were here to establish the official version first.

"Class D really brought everyone along."

The contempt in Ishizaki's voice was completely undisguised as soon as he spoke.

Sudo's fist tightened at once.

Gu Heng caught it from the corner of his eye and lightly tapped the edge of the table twice with his fingers.

Sudo's Adam's apple bobbed.

He actually forced himself to swallow his anger.

Seeing that, Kondo took over first.

"Let's get straight to it."

He said, "The afternoon before yesterday, Sudo deliberately picked a fight behind the gymnasium for no reason. He shoved someone first, then kicked someone. Several of us can testify to that."

Gu Heng did not respond immediately.

He first glanced at the teacher in the corner.

The teacher raised a hand slightly.

Signaling them to continue.

"For no reason."

Only then did Gu Heng speak. "Are you sure those are the words you want to use?"

Kondo frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Sudo wouldn't just suddenly rush over and lose his mind for no reason."

Gu Heng's tone was calm. "You just said he picked a fight because he thought you were looking down on Class D."

"So I'm curious."

"Did he just imagine that, or did you say something first?"

The meeting room fell silent for a moment.

Kondo's expression stiffened slightly.

"How would I know why he went crazy?"

"Of course you know."

Gu Heng looked at him. "If you didn't, you wouldn't have said it so precisely just now."

Ishizaki was the first to lose his composure.

"So what if we said something?"

He sneered. "We call them a garbage class a couple of times, and that gives him the right to hit people?"

The teacher in the corner finally looked up.

Gu Heng nodded.

"So you admit you said it."

Ishizaki's expression changed.

Only in the next second did he realize he had been led into a trap.

"Admit my ass, I meant—"

"Enough."

Gu Heng did not let him finish. "At least now, one thing already doesn't match your claim that he picked a fight for no reason."

"Sudo didn't go crazy out of nowhere."

"You provoked him first."

The air immediately turned taut.

Hirata, sitting nearby, even relaxed his shoulders slightly.

"So what if we provoked him?"

Ishizaki gritted his teeth. "Saying a few things isn't illegal. Him laying hands on people is his problem."

"I agree."

Gu Heng nodded.

The moment those three words fell, several people in the meeting room froze.

Even Sudo turned to look at him.

"Of course laying hands on people is a problem."

Gu Heng looked at Ishizaki. "So we didn't come here today to paint Sudo as a saint."

"We came to establish just how far you intend to twist a mutual conflict into one-sided violence."

Kondo's expression finally sank completely.

"And another thing."

Gu Heng turned toward him. "You just said you were practicing basketball normally."

"Is there a problem with that?"

"Yes."

Gu Heng said, "Kondo, why were you holding your phone the whole time while practicing basketball normally?"

Kondo's pupils visibly shrank.

Ishizaki whipped his head around to look at him.

That glance alone was enough.

"Who says I was holding one?"

Kondo immediately shot back.

"Someone saw you."

Gu Heng's tone remained unhurried. "And it wasn't someone from Class D."

That was half true, half false.

But it was enough for now.

"What are you trying to say?"

Kondo stared at him.

"I'm saying that since you already knew this might blow up, don't pretend you were innocent victims who were suddenly attacked."

Gu Heng leaned back slightly. "If someone had a phone ready beforehand, they were either preparing to record video or audio."

"Either way, it shows you were waiting for things to get bigger too."

The teacher in the corner finally spoke.

"Kondo, did you have a phone on you at the time?"

Kondo's expression changed several times.

In the end, he still forced out a quiet answer.

"I did."

"For what purpose?"

"I was... I was going to record a shooting video."

The explanation was far too flimsy.

So flimsy that even Ishizaki did not dare jump in right away.

Gu Heng did not press the attack.

He simply handed the pace over to the teacher.

"Sir."

Gu Heng looked over. "We do not deny that Sudo acted violently."

"But before the full records are retrieved, we hope this will be treated as a mutual conflict."

"At the very least, the version of events claiming it was unprovoked one-sided violence can no longer stand."

The teacher flipped through two pages of his notes.

"So Class D's position is that Sudo did act improperly, but Class C also engaged in provocation and incitement to conflict. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

Gu Heng nodded.

"What evidence do you have at this point?"

"Three points."

Gu Heng's tone was steady. "First, there are already holes in Class C's internal account. Second, the scene was covered by surveillance cameras and within the teachers' line of sight. Third, Kondo himself admitted that he had been holding a phone before the conflict."

"These three points are enough to show that it is inappropriate to immediately classify this as one-sided violence today."

The meeting room fell completely silent.

Ishizaki looked so grim that he seemed ready to eat someone alive.

Kondo did not speak again either.

The teacher closed his notebook.

"I will retrieve the relevant records and investigate further."

"Until then, this matter will be provisionally classified as a conflict incident. No conclusion of one-sided violence will be made."

The moment those words fell, Sudo's shoulders relaxed.

But just as he was about to speak, Gu Heng lightly tapped the table.

Sudo looked at him.

And actually swallowed the words that had reached his mouth.

Horikita's gaze shifted slightly.

After they left the special teaching building, Sudo finally could not hold it in anymore.

"So that means we turned it around?"

"That was only the first round."

Gu Heng said.

"But I didn't even get completely cleaned up."

"Who told you I was going to clean you up completely?"

Gu Heng glanced at him. "You threw the first punch. Turning 'unprovoked violence' into 'a conflict between both sides' today is already enough to keep you alive for now."

Sudo opened his mouth.

Yet he didn't argue back.

Hirata visibly let out a breath of relief.

"At least it won't be immediately reduced to the worst possible outcome now."

"Right."

Gu Heng said, "And more importantly, the other side is starting to panic."

"How can you tell?"

Horikita asked.

"Ishizaki was too hasty just now."

Gu Heng's tone was calm. "Before Kondo admitted to taking the phone, they were still following the original version. After he admitted it, Ishizaki was the first to lose his composure."

"This isn't the pace they wanted."

Just as he finished speaking, Hirata's phone vibrated.

He lowered his head to read it, and his expression changed slightly.

"What is it?"

Horikita asked.

Hirata held out the screen.

It was a screenshot of some idle chatter in the grade group chat.

Only one sentence had been circled.

"I heard Class D recently got someone who's really good with words. He actually managed to protect that mad dog Sudo for now."

There was no name beneath it.

Gu Heng merely glanced at it, and the corner of his mouth twitched faintly.

"Who?"

Horikita frowned.

Gu Heng looked away.

"Ryuuen's side."

He said, "They've already noticed us."