When they started fighting, Li Shu was shoved from behind and fell to the ground, twisting his ankle. Now the others had run off, and only Zhou Shiyi and he remained in the garden.

Zhou Shiyi glanced at him. Li Shu flinched, then watched as Zhou Shiyi reached out his hand.

Li Shu, still thinking Zhou Shiyi might try to hit him, hurriedly covered his face. To his surprise, Zhou Shiyi only picked up the phone Li Shu had dropped on the ground.

Of course phones weren’t allowed in high school, but Mingde High was different. The students here were either rich or from powerful families, and in case of emergencies they needed to be able to contact their relatives.

So students brought phones; as long as it didn’t affect studying or disrupt normal teaching, the school didn’t interfere.

Li Shu watched Zhou Shiyi calmly call the police and explain the situation. Only then, under the deputy director’s urging, did he leave the garden. As he passed Li Shu, he handed the phone back and said, “Thanks for your phone.”

Li Shu stood there dumbfounded and muttered, “You’re welcome.” The moment he realized what he’d said, he nearly bit his tongue off.

The deputy director clearly still had some impression of Zhou Shiyi. Seeing the cut at the corner of Zhou’s mouth, he turned and glared at Huang Cheng again.

Of course, Huang Cheng’s injuries were on the inside and not visible, so he could only swallow his anger.

The two of them were taken to the office for questioning, while Li Shu was assisted by two students to the school nurse’s office.

After listening to the two of their accounts, the dean of discipline was so furious with Huang Cheng that he leaned back in his chair.

But because the vice principal knew Huang Cheng’s father and this was a dispute between students, the vice principal decided to split the blame evenly.

“You’re already in the second year of high school — you’ve been classmates for at least two years. What disagreements can’t be resolved privately? If there’s a problem, go to a teacher. Huang Cheng, you really act without thinking.”

And this student here—if you say you didn’t take it, how did that thing end up in your bag?

Alright, alright, don’t tell me you didn’t take it—I’ve seen it all before. You say Huang Cheng was deliberately picking on you, but the other students all say Huang Cheng is very easy to get along with. You need to think about whether it’s you who doesn’t fit in, and that’s why you feel everyone is targeting you. Am I right?

I remember your grades have always been good—you even received the Huang Group scholarship last year. The Huang Group was built up from nothing by Huang Cheng’s father. Chairman Huang values grades above all; he pays special attention to disadvantaged students who excel both morally and academically.

Here’s what we’ll do: both of you apologize to each other. If you can’t get along, we won’t force you to be loving and friendly—just treat each other as strangers from now on, and don’t talk to one another. That should work, right?

Seeing the discipline head about to say something, the vice-principal hurriedly cut him off, “Alright, you two apologize to each other here, shake hands and make up, and this will be over. You’re all classmates—having conflicts is normal.”

The vice-principal smoothed a wrinkle in his beer-bellied shirt and took a cheerful sip of tea.

“I’m not apologizing. Whether I took the thing, you can check the surveillance—if anyone should apologize, it’s them to me.” Zhou Shiyi refused his suggestion with a blank expression.

The vice-principal put down his teacup; his face darkened and his cheerful smile disappeared.

“Can you just adjust the school surveillance whenever you feel like it? You all made a fuss over something so minor, and now you had to call the police?”

“Fine.” Zhou Shiyi nodded. “Theft involving at least a thousand yuan can be punished by imprisonment. Li Shu’s watch alone could be considered a large amount. I’m already seventeen on my ID; I consent to calling the police.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than someone knocked on the office door.

“Hello, everyone. Police. We heard someone here reported a theft.”

“Officer, you must be mistaken, no one here has called the police.” The vice principal hadn’t expected his few words to actually bring the police.

“I was the one who called.” Zhou Shiyi stepped out from behind the vice principal.

When Huang Cheng saw the police arrive, he knew things had gotten out of hand.

So did the vice principal; he hadn’t expected Zhou Shiyi to quietly have called the police before they came — weren’t all the things he had said earlier just smacking his own face?

Once the police arrived, it was a completely different matter. Earlier they said the electronic records couldn’t be accessed at will, but now it was totally different.

Because the amount involved was large, the police separated the people involved and took statements from them one by one.

“Don’t be nervous. Just answer whatever we ask,” said the officer taking Zhou Shiyi’s statement — a woman who sat up straight with her hair tied back in a neat high ponytail. Zhou Shiyi gave his statement in the principal’s office, and the police even poured him a cup of plain boiled water.

Zhou Shiyi nodded and recounted the whole incident.

Both officers were visibly angry after hearing it. When they learned that Huang Cheng had even brought a voice recorder and tried to coax Zhou Shiyi into apologizing, they looked at him with an almost affectionate pity several times.

Now Zhou Shiyi’s biggest worry was that the Huang Corporation would target him, a poor student.

Even if they didn’t do anything overtly, as long as they showed their dislike for him, those below would naturally shift with the wind—the vice-principal today was an example of that.

To his surprise, when he finished giving his statement and came out, he found that Huang Cheng had already confessed; the surveillance footage and the voice recorder had been taken together.

Zhou Shiyi was a little astonished—he’d expected it would drag on for a while, not that it would be resolved so quickly.

The vice-principal who had earlier been leaning toward Huang Cheng now smiled kindly and patted Zhou Shiyi on the shoulder: “Truly impressive, young man. A student who dares to stand up for his rights and remains calm in the face of false accusations—you’re really a model for Mingde High.”

A few people came out of the vice-principal’s office; the principal was among them, and they were saying something to the boy in the school uniform in the middle.

If Zhou Shiyi remembered correctly, that office had been the room where Huang Cheng’s statement was taken, hadn’t it?

After listening at the side for a while, Zhou Shiyi finally understood why Huang Cheng had recognized him so quickly.

Gu Sheng brought people to the office to testify for Zhou Shiyi, proving Zhou Shiyi had not lied.

The others, out of respect for the Gu family—and especially since this really wasn’t something Zhou Shiyi would do—handled it very quickly.

Gu Sheng’s family was well-off, and he himself was outstanding enough that he didn’t lose face standing among the adults; the sunlight hit the teenager’s school uniform, casting a golden halo.

Gu Sheng looked as if he’d truly come to testify for a classmate, and he never once gave Zhou Shiyi a glance.

The whole thing was resolved like that—so quickly it was beyond his imagination.

They said Huang Cheng had still been giving a statement when Gu Sheng knocked on the door and brought the eyewitness.

When Huang Cheng saw Gu Sheng, and recalled what Gu had said before along with what he was doing now,

he suddenly burst into a tirade, openly declaring that he had been played by Gu Sheng.

Seeing him so worked up and trying to make a move right under their noses, the two officers pinned Huang Cheng to the ground just as he stood up.

Huang Cheng still wouldn’t accept it; his eyes remained fixed on Gu Sheng, glaring fiercely.

Later, the vice principal took a call from Huang Cheng’s father. After that phone call, Huang Cheng went completely limp, like an eggplant struck by frost—he didn’t say a word, answered the police’s questions cooperatively, and was taken away.

Later, the principal also received a call from Huang Cheng’s father. On the call he said it was his failure as a parent, apologized to Zhou Shiyi, and insisted this was Huang Cheng’s individual action, adding that the Huang Group still supported outstanding students as always.

By the time everything was settled, it was already evening.

Zhou Shiyi looked around but didn’t see Gu Sheng anywhere.

He didn’t want to get too close to the protagonist couple, but since Gu Sheng had done him a favor, Zhou Shiyi wasn’t an ungrateful person — at the very least he should thank Gu Sheng in person.

Zhou Shiyi met Gu Sheng at the stairwell landing; Gu Sheng was staring blankly at the stairs.

“Gu Sheng.”

Zhou Shiyi didn’t know why he suddenly called out to him, but his gut told him that if he didn’t stop Gu Sheng now, something he very much didn’t want to see would happen.

It was an indescribable feeling.

Gu Sheng’s eyes were hollow, his expression so awful it looked like he might faint at any moment—there was none of the easygoing, well-bred air he’d had a moment ago while chatting with the principal.

He seemed submerged in painful memories, his whole being wrapped in self-loathing and despair.

There was a sense that Gu Sheng might drag someone down into hell with him at any second.

Zhou Shiyi didn’t know that in the original book, with a happy family life, the biggest setback he faced was running into the protagonist uke.

But in the end the two still ended up together. Zhou Shiyi couldn’t imagine what kind of thing could happen to someone like Gu Sheng to make him so miserable.

Gu Sheng seemed to hear it; he mechanically turned his head, his gaze unfocused. He looked at Zhou Shiyi standing in front of him—anxious expression, mouth opening and closing—but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

After a long while, Gu Sheng heard a voice like it was coming from far away, as if asking him how he was.

Gu Sheng tugged at the corner of his mouth and showed an ugly smile. “I’m fine. What could be wrong with me?”

His expression didn’t match his words. Zhou Shiyi looked at him worriedly. “Do you want to go to the school clinic? You look awful.”

Gu Sheng wiped his face, composed his expression, and sneered, “I was just joking with you earlier. I didn’t expect you’d take it seriously. I’m really fine. Go do whatever you need to do.”

If not for the sweat at Gu Sheng’s temples, Zhou Shiyi almost really would have believed that what Gu Sheng said was true.

But everyone has things they’d rather not bring up; Zhou Shiyi saw no need to poke at it. “Mm, as long as you’re okay. School’s out—does your driver come to pick you up?”

“Mm.” Gu Sheng replied coldly, and the two fell silent again.

A few footsteps, neither light nor heavy, broke the strange atmosphere between them. Gu Sheng lifted his foot and began to walk down the stairs.

Zhou Shiyi followed Gu Sheng at a distance, their footsteps occasionally overlapping.

Gu Sheng didn’t need to look back to know Zhou Shiyi was behind him; he waited until Zhou sat in the car before turning and leaving.

No sooner had Gu Sheng sat down than his phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Shengsheng, I heard you called just now—did something happen?”

“It’s fine, it’s just a classmate. It’s already been handled. Mom, don’t worry—what could possibly happen to me at school?”

They exchanged a few more words before hanging up.

Gu Sheng held the phone, replaying the earlier conversation in his mind.

Yeah, just a classmate. He could only stand that Huang Cheng would stoop to such dirty tricks to frame someone—if it had been someone else, it would have been the same.

He Zhou Shiyi wasn’t anything special either.

Thinking this, the self-loathing inside him finally eased a lot.

But when he saw Zhou Shiyi getting on the bus nearby, Gu Sheng’s gaze fell into a stillness like a pool of dead water.

In the last life, did I fail to save you, and that’s why you took revenge on me afterward? So this time, I saved you—what will you do?

Gu Sheng lowered his eyelids. After receiving a message from his eldest brother, he coldly told the driver, “Let’s go.”

On the other side, Mrs. Gu set down her phone and shook her head with Mr. Gu.

They of course knew what had happened, but they were afraid Gu Sheng had been badly shaken and that nothing could be done at school. Ever since Gu Sheng returned from school a week ago, he had seemed as if he’d suffered a huge blow.

Since kindergarten, Gu Sheng had never worried them like this before. That day he suddenly clung to her and sobbed aloud, startling the entire Gu family.

They didn’t say it out loud, but they were all waiting for Gu Sheng to come through it on his own.

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