Xu Shuangrong paused, lowered her eyes, and gave a bitter laugh. "You're right. It was all my oversight, so I apologize to Miss Lai."
"Oversight?"
Xie Mi smiled without replying, then turned to Lai Bingxuan. "Can I ask what happened after you were mistaken for the bully back then?"
"Back then..."
Lai Bingxuan had already developed an instinctive trust in Xie Mi, so she answered without hesitation. "I transferred schools."
"Why?"
Lai Bingxuan pressed her lips together. She didn't want to revisit those memories, but something in Xie Mi's eyes gave her courage, and she spoke anyway.
"Because everyone at school was insulting me. I hated all of it, so I ran away."
Xu Shuangrong's expression shifted slightly, and her fingertips curled inward almost imperceptibly.
The staff exchanged glances, their looks toward Xu Shuangrong growing increasingly strange.
Having gotten useful information from Lai Bingxuan, Xie Mi had intended to fire straight back at Xu Shuangrong, but Lai Bingxuan's last sentence made her pause.
She said with complete seriousness,
"How can you call that running away? That's a retreat. Retreating is a tactic too."
Lai Bingxuan froze.
Only then did Xie Mi turn to Xu Shuangrong, tilting her head in puzzlement. "Now, that's a little strange."
"Lai Bingxuan said the entire school was insulting her, but you said you didn't know she'd been misunderstood because of you. That's quite a contradiction."
Xu Shuangrong's face grew a little paler.
Xie Mi was even sharper than she had imagined, intent on catching every loophole in her words and tearing them apart one by one.
[That makes sense. Even someone from a family like Lai Bingxuan's had no choice but to transfer, which proves it was a huge deal. If it had blown up that much, how could Xu Shuangrong not know?]
[That makes