"Wait, what does this have to do with loyalty to your friends?"
Lu Yubai's face went livid with anger as he stared in disbelief at the "good buddies" who usually threw their arms around his shoulders. "I never told you to lock him up!" he snapped. "If the teacher hadn't called me here, I wouldn't even have known about it!"
The boy with the buzz cut snorted. "Yes, you did. We don't have any problems with Fan Chiran. Why would we give him a hard time if it weren't for you?"
After saying that, he elbowed the brown-haired, curly-headed boy on his left. "Isn't that right? Why are you so quiet? Do you want to get expelled?"
"Uh... yes, that's right! Lu told us to do it!"
The curly-haired boy looked the most timid of the three, probably frightened by how things had escalated. He jolted when he was suddenly put on the spot, then stammered, "L-Lu, just admit it. We... we agreed before that we'd stick together through trouble."
The curly-haired boy's mother immediately stepped forward and shouted at Teacher Zhu, "See? My son said someone put him up to it. You can't blame him for this at all!"
"Teacher, my son has always been timid. How could he ever do something like this on his own? I think he only went along with it because he was afraid of being left out and ostracized! If you ask me, the real culprit should be punished first!"
Although the curly-haired boy acted meek, his mother was the complete opposite. Her voice was incredibly loud, and she was clearly a domineering woman.
She was very heavyset, too, with an arm nearly as thick as Lu Xiaoxiao's thigh. Just standing there with her hands on her hips, she looked intimidating. No one who saw her would have doubted her ability to tear into people to protect her child.
The buzz-cut boy's mother immediately chimed in. "Exactly, Teacher. That student, Fan, is out of danger now anyway, and our children only did this because someone instructed them to. There are mitigating circumstances. Even if they must be punished, shouldn't you take those into account?"
The buzz-cut boy's mother was tall, with carefully styled hair and jewelry around her wrist and neck. Her appearance could certainly be called elegant. She spoke much more gently than the curly-haired boy's mother, without the same belligerence.
The two played off each other, like a good cop and a bad cop, and after just a few remarks, Teacher Zhu began to look uncertain.
"You! How can you stand there and tell such blatant lies?"
Lu Yubai pointed at the curly-haired boy with wide eyes, feeling as though he might cough up blood. His voice was full of anger and hurt. "I didn't tell you a damn thing! If I did, may lightning strike me dead right now! You can't just frame me like this!"
Hah. Finally getting a taste of what happens when you choose the wrong friends, huh? This brat really is unbelievably stupid.
The other boys' parents were all pressuring the teachers, trying to pin all the blame on Lu Yubai. Under these circumstances, Lu Xiaoxiao naturally couldn't remain silent.
She caught Lu Yubai's arm before he could keep arguing and motioned for him to be quiet. Then she glanced at the two mothers opposite her and said calmly, "They're all high school seniors. Even if they aren't eighteen yet, they should be seventeen. They aren't little children."
"From what you just said, it sounds as though you're saying your children can't tell right from wrong and can only let other people lead them around by the nose?"
"What are you trying to say?" The curly-haired boy's mother immediately glared viciously at Lu Xiaoxiao, her expression turning ugly. "My son is an excellent child. Of course he can tell right from wrong! Your boy led him astray!"
The buzz-cut boy's mother smiled at Lu Xiaoxiao. "You're this boy's older sister, aren't you? You're still young, so I understand that all you want is to protect your brother. But beneath the surface, everything has a root cause. It wouldn't be fair not to get to the bottom of it."
As the atmosphere reached a deadlock, a hesitant female voice suddenly came from the side. "Um... I think, no matter what, our children did hurt that student, Fan, didn't they? Teacher Zhu, why don't we all go to the hospital to visit him first? If possible, I'd be willing to cover part of his medical expenses."
The speaker was the short boy's mother. She was even shorter than her son and had a thin, frail build. She had remained silent from the beginning, barely making her presence felt. Her sudden comment made Lu Xiaoxiao turn toward her in surprise.
Wow, finally, a normal person! What a cause for celebration. What a cause for celebration!
Hearing his mother say this, the short boy looked up in shock and called out, "Mom!" There was a hint of resentment in his eyes.
Everyone else's mom knew to protect her child unconditionally, even insisting they were right when they were wrong. Why was his mom accepting responsibility instead?
But the short boy's mother ignored him, not even meeting her son's eyes. She simply watched Teacher Zhu quietly, waiting for an answer to her suggestion.
Teacher Zhu already had a headache from the curly-haired boy's mother and the buzz-cut boy's mother arguing. Her stern expression visibly softened at the short boy's mother's words, but just as she was about to speak, the curly-haired boy's mother loudly interrupted her.
"I don't agree!" Even if he couldn't get medical attention in time because the boys locked him up, you can't blame us for his stomach bleeding! That's obviously a preexisting condition. It didn't flare up earlier or last night, but happened to flare up right then. That's just a coincidence! Why should we have to pay for it?"
The buzz-cut boy's mother looked troubled. "It's not that we can't afford the medical bills, but this clearly has no direct connection to us. My son locking Fan up was, at most, a prank. He didn't physically hurt him. If someone absolutely must be held responsible, shouldn't it be the school for failing to supervise its students properly?"
Hearing the buzz-cut boy's mother shift the blame onto the school, Teacher Zhu frowned. "Haoxin's mother, isn't that a rather irresponsible thing to say?"
"But Teacher Zhu, not a single subject teacher noticed that Fan was missing throughout the entire morning of classes. Compared with me, weren't the teachers even more irresponsible?"
The buzz-cut boy's mother spoke at an unhurried pace, her tone gentle, even. But that last remark was a direct attack on every teacher present.
Another male teacher, who had remained silent until then, spoke up in displeasure. "You may not be familiar with Fan's circumstances. His family situation is unusual, and he often takes leave. He's frequently absent from the classroom, and the subject teachers are used to it, which is why they didn't ask. Besides, with so many students in a class, teachers can't possibly notice every unusual thing about every student at all times."
The buzz-cut boy's mother remained unconvinced and replied coolly, "I still believe this was a failure on the teachers' part. My son's college entrance exam is coming up, and his time is precious. This incident hasn't had any seriously harmful consequences, either, so I hope we can put it behind us as soon as possible instead of wasting any more of his time."
At her words, the teachers' expressions grew even darker, and the atmosphere became more strained.
"Haoxin's mother."
Out of nowhere, Lu Xiaoxiao suddenly spoke.
She gave the woman a friendly smile and asked, enunciating every word, "I remember you just said that getting to the root of things was the only way to be fair. Is that right?"
Before you continue