Chapter 199: Scheming with Malice
Chapter 199: Calculated Actions
"Then what about what I said?" Shen Qi, one of the students, suddenly stood up.
"I can vouch that everything Wu Jiangsheng said is true. Moreover, after Wu Jiangsheng left, you three discussed what to do next—that you, Jiang Huaiyu, ordered them to follow your commands."
The students didn’t expect Wu Jiangsheng’s rival, Shen Qi, to actually stand up and speak for Wu Jiangsheng.
If one could say that Wu Jiangsheng’s words can’t be taken as evidence because he has a crush on Mengyu and speaks for her, Shen Qi is a different case.
He is a very proud person, always keeps to himself, and is cold to everyone. He was never seen being particularly close to Mengyu.
With him stepping up to testify, no one dared to say his testimony was invalid.
Shen Qi continued: "Later, you all went to the riverside, and Jiang Huaiyu took out a wallet, distributing five yuan to each of the three girls who spread the rumors as payment!"
"Wow—"
The students didn’t expect Jiang Huaiyu to be so wealthy, distributing five yuan each as payment.
Shen Qi raised the camera hanging around his chest, which he never parted with: "I happened to be taking pictures by the river and captured this scene."
Jiang Huaiyu was completely at a loss for words.
Mengyu continued: "After seeing the statements written by you four, I didn’t understand why they wrote those statements and gave them to Wu Jiangsheng.
If there are things I don’t understand, I naturally want to clear them up. Hence, before the evening self-study session, I called Wu Jiangsheng to the pond next to our classroom.
Wu Jiangsheng told me about the encounter with you four at the snack shop on the street during noon. To thank Student Jiang for his help, I suggested that he could ask me about anything unclear during class, and I could tutor him on Saturdays and Sundays to try to improve his grades.
Wu Jiangsheng was so happy at the moment that he grabbed my hand to express his gratitude. However, both I and Wu Jiangsheng failed to notice that Student Jiang Huaiyu had been hiding on the side, hoping to catch us red-handed.
Unfortunately, there was no evidence to capture; it wasn’t until Wu Jiangsheng happily grabbed my hand that she managed to snap a photo."
Mengyu turned to Jiang Huaiyu and said: "Just to label us with the stigma of puppy love, you really went through a lot of trouble, Student Jiang Huaiyu!"
"I’d like to ask Student Jiang Huaiyu, do you mean to say, if male and female students occasionally hold hands, they’re in love? Or that Wu Jiangsheng speaking up for me amounts to being in a relationship? I don’t believe you’ve never had a boy stand up for you."
Mengyu left him at a loss for words again, since indeed there had been many guys who stood up for her usually.
"Also, I want to ask all students here, have you never felt affection for a fellow student of the opposite sex during these years? Male students, having spent more than two years in high school, have none of you ever liked a female classmate?
Female students, haven’t any of you ever liked a male classmate?
Is liking someone really a sin?"
Some students shouted in unison: "It’s not a sin." But after saying this, they all lowered their heads, afraid of being noticed, and although Chu Zisong had walked away, who knows if he was hiding nearby, listening?
But one male student shouted loudly: "Youth is not a sin! Liking is not a sin!"
Mengyu looked up at the male student who shouted—recognizing him as Wu Jiangsheng’s rival, Shen Qi—and couldn’t help but give him a grateful, slight smile.
That smile of hers, however, seared into Shen Qi’s heart, and remained treasured deep within him for a long time after.