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Studying and character mattered equally.

Shen Baili acted swiftly. In less than five minutes, she had dealt with the forum posts, put Lu Mingqian in charge of keeping order in class, and left with a bag.

Ji Qi watched her go, her black ponytail swinging playfully from side to side.

"Suìsuì, where are you going?"

She was already out of the Classroom before Ji Qi thought to ask.

Meng Jiu'an had just stood up when Lu Mingqian stopped him. "Trust Suìsuì."

Across campus, the atmosphere in the office was tense.

In the space of one morning, news that Deng Qin had been injured and might be suffering domestic abuse had spread through almost all of No. 1 High School. Students kept appearing at the office door to look in.

"Ms. Deng, are you all right?" a teacher beside her asked. "Why don't you take the day off?"

"Maybe you should go to the Infirmary first," someone suggested.

Deng Qin sat at her desk and tugged her sleeve over the wound on her wrist. Hearing her colleagues' concern, she tried to smile, but the movement pulled at the cut on her lip. The sting froze her smile.

To everyone else, she looked as though she was forcing herself to smile.

"What's wrong with your husband? Who does that to his own wife?" one teacher demanded indignantly.

"What are you going to do?" another asked, more practically.

Family matters were hard even for a judge to settle, let alone colleagues. They were afraid Deng Qin might not be thinking clearly.

"I'm fine," Deng Qin reassured them. "I only have two classes this morning. I'll go home after that."

"I've been to the hospital. They treated my wounds. Thank you."

After getting an injury report at the hospital, Deng Qin had come