Seeing one of their own taken down by a girl, the other thugs felt humiliated. They immediately cracked their knuckles, ready to teach Jiang Nian and her friends a lesson.
Jiang Nian raised a hand and pretended to glance behind her. "Huh? The police are here already?"
The thugs' expressions changed at the mention of the police. They forgot all about being humiliated and took off.
The blond thug playing dead on the ground suddenly sat up and shouted after his fleeing companions, "Boss! What about me, boss? Boss!"
You left your precious baby behind!
With that, he limped off after his useless boss.
Once the troublemakers were finally gone, the owner and staff began reassuring the customers.
Liu Chaoshu hurried over to check on Jiang Nian and the others. "Are you all okay? Did they touch you? Are you hurt?"
Seeing how worried he looked, Jiang Nian quickly waved a hand. "We're fine."
Gao Wen, however, frowned as she looked Liu Chaoshu over. "What about you? You were dealing with them for ages. Are you okay?"
Liu Chaoshu merely gave an awkward smile and said he was fine.
Just then, the manager finished reassuring the customers and came over, a grateful smile on his face.
"Thank you, girls. If you hadn't recorded that video, we'd never have been able to clear our name."
Gao Wen quickly waved her hands. "It's okay. We were just doing what we should."
Noticing that Jiang Nian and her three friends seemed to know Liu Chaoshu, the owner offered to treat them to a meal.
"You're Chaoshu's classmates, right? Have you eaten yet? If not, let me treat you. Order whatever you like. Consider it my way of thanking you for helping us."
As the enthusiastic owner moved to usher them in for a meal, Jiang Nian hastily declined.
"No, really, there's no need. Please get back to work. We were only passing by and stopped to say hello when we saw our classmate. Now that everything's sorted out, we'll be on our way."
Remembering the video she had just recorded, Gao Wen stopped Liu Chaoshu. "Oh, right. Let me add you so I can send you the video. Then you can give it to the police."
Liu Chaoshu fumbled his phone out of his pocket. His ears reddened slightly as he tried to look composed while adding Gao Wen's contact information.
Once Gao Wen had sent the video, the girls waved goodbye to Liu Chaoshu and left, leaving him staring blankly after them.
That little incident over the break made Gao Wen and the others realize that Liu Chaoshu worked part-time even during the holidays, with no time off at all.
The consequences of his part-time work first came to a head when the monthly exam results came out.
It was another math lesson. Wearing a grim expression, Li Qing strode into the classroom with a stack of exam papers, her footsteps tapping sharply.
She slammed the papers onto the lectern, planted her hands on either side, and swept an expressionless gaze over the class. Then she remained silent for a long while.
The oppressive silence got to the students too. Their hearts pounded, and they barely dared to breathe.
Watching Li Qing pile on the pressure, Jiang Nian silently snarked to herself.
[This trick again, huh? If the enemy doesn't move, neither do I. If the enemy moves, I still don't. Say whatever you want. As far as I'm concerned, you're just going through pointless motions. Give you a little authority, and you really think you're some petty emperor. Skr~]
Tan Xuguang snorted with laughter, earning a sharp glare from Li Qing. But when she saw who had laughed, her gaze flickered, and she ultimately said nothing more.
She couldn't afford to offend the children of those powerful families, but surely she could still take on everyone else?
She already had her own ranking system in mind: the higher a student ranked, the less she could afford to offend them. She picked through the students at the bottom and finally settled on Liu Chaoshu, an easy target with neither power nor connections.
"Liu Chaoshu, stand up."
Judging by Li Qing's attitude, Liu Chaoshu couldn't have scored very well this time.
"The term has barely started, and your grades have already dropped this much. You worked so hard to get in, only to spend your time eating, drinking, and having fun. What good are you?"
"Look at Fu Zhenzhen. She got in as the top scholarship student, and she's still among the best in the class. You're a boy, yet you can't even beat a girl. Aren't you ashamed?"
"If you're going to keep wallowing in luxury and neglecting your studies, I suggest you withdraw from Pluto now. Don't stay here dragging down my class average!"
As Li Qing spoke, she hurled Liu Chaoshu's exam paper straight at his face. He reflexively closed his eyes and let the paper, marked with a score of 120, fall to the floor.
Unable to bear seeing Liu Chaoshu berated so harshly, Gao Wen whispered to Nie Xuzhi.
"She's really laying into Liu Chaoshu. He already has to spend his free time earning money to help support his family, and he has to squeeze in time to study after he gets home. Ms. Li didn't even ask why before tearing into him."
Only then did they realize just how much his part-time work was affecting Liu Chaoshu.
After all, working part-time meant spending long hours doing physical labor. Not only did he get no mental rest, but his strength was constantly being drained too. He had gradually begun struggling to stay alert even in class.
Gao Wen frowned as she listened to Li Qing's endless stream of abuse. When Li Qing accused Liu Chaoshu of spending his days eating, drinking, and indulging in debauchery, she finally couldn't take it anymore.
She tried to stand up and argue, but Nie Xuzhi, her deskmate, held her back.
"Don't. She's still a teacher. Even if you speak up, you won't change anything. You'll just get yelled at along with him."
"Do you think she doesn't know Liu Chaoshu is innocent? Do you think she actually believes his grades dropped because of those things? No. She just wants an easy target to take her anger out on."
Nie Xuzhi curled her lip as she watched Li Qing relentlessly vent her anger on him.
"You know what she's like. She can't afford to offend the ones with status, and she doesn't want to offend the ones with good grades. So she can only pick on those of us in between."
"If Fu Zhenzhen tried talking her down, she might calm down a little. But if we said anything, she'd just tell us that if we put that effort into studying, we'd have overtaken Fu Zhenzhen ages ago."
The silent Liu Chaoshu seemed long accustomed to this. As Li Qing hurled abuse at him, he simply stood before her without expression, waiting for her to finish.
Gao Wen bit her lip. Watching Liu Chaoshu silently endure the abuse, she still couldn't bring herself to let it go.
She abruptly stood up and protested to Li Qing, "Ms. Li, Liu Chaoshu hasn't done any of those things. He's been working hard at his studies too."
Liu Chaoshu looked at Gao Wen in surprise as she spoke up for him, but the interruption only made Li Qing angrier. How dare she interrupt her lecture?
"Who do you think you are, interrupting me?"
Looking at Gao Wen and Liu Chaoshu, she seemed to have reached a conclusion. A mocking smile spread across her face.
"Oh, I get it. You two are dating, aren't you? No wonder your grades dropped so quickly. Dating at your age! Did you come to Pluto to snag yourselves rich partners?"
Gao Wen and Liu Chaoshu flushed with anger. "We're not!"
Li Qing ignored them and snapped, "I don't care whether you are or not! Both of you, get outside and stand there as punishment. You'll stay outside for every one of my lessons today!"
Watching Li Qing puff herself up so triumphantly, Jiang Nian gave a cold twist of her lips.
[They say you shouldn't argue with idiots, but today I'm going to find out which one of us is the idiot-her or me!]
Before you continue