The announcement sounded.

Wen Yao stood in the center of the classroom and clapped her hands, "Alright, everyone, get ready to go to the field for the tug-of-war."

Deng Ningxuan and his friend stood up, planning to head to the gathering point.

However, he inadvertently turned around and saw Wen Yao gripping Jiang Shuyi's sleeve.

". . ." The look in Wen Yao's eyes as she focused on Jiang Shuyi was something he had never seen before.

Deng Ningxuan tightened his grip on the water bottle in his hand, feeling a bit unsettled.

"Deng Ningxuan." A male classmate patted Deng Ningxuan on the shoulder, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"I think I'm feeling a bit unwell, I might not be able to participate in the upcoming events..."

Deng Ningxuan snapped back to reality from the two in the distance.

He glanced at the male classmate and patted his shoulder, "It's fine, you should go rest. We don't need that many people for the tug-of-war anyway."

He forced a polite and considerate expression.

"No, I still have the long jump competition..."

The guy clutched his stomach, looking a bit pale.

Deng Ningxuan's expression turned troubled.

But seeing the look on the guy's face, he quickly forced a smile.

"......Ah, it's okay. If you don't mind that I'm not good at sports, I can take your place?" he said with a smile.

"Is that okay?" The guy looked somewhat apologetic.

"Of course," Deng Ningxuan patted the guy's shoulder, smiling gently, "After all, your health is the most important."

The guy thanked him repeatedly and headed toward the infirmary.

Watching him walk away quickly, Deng Ningxuan's friend patted his shoulder.

"You're such a nice guy. It's because you often do things like this that you get into so much trouble."

Deng Ningxuan smiled, "Ah, it's not a big deal."

He knew very well that it was precisely because he was like this that he was well-liked.

Deng Ningxuan was popular, not just in his class but also in the entire grade.

His popularity wasn't built overnight, it was accumulated day by day.

He had excellent grades but was neither arrogant nor conceited. He was understanding and empathetic, always willing to help classmates with anything they needed.

Even when he encountered something he truly couldn't do, he would explain why he couldn't, and he would still listen to their troubles in the end. So, to some extent, everyone in the class would seek him out, and the teachers trusted him as well.

However, this kind of credibility had no effect on Wen Yao.

Deng Ningxuan watched as Wen Yao and Jiang Shuyi exchanged glances, his expression darkening.

---

During evening self-study, Teacher Cheng, who taught English, walked in with a stack of papers.

Immediately, someone in the class let out a wail, "Oh no, the English papers have been graded!"

Seeing the students in the class fidgeting, Teacher Cheng pretended to be serious and clapped her hands, "Quiet."

The class immediately fell silent.

Teacher Cheng was a young Omega, not very tall, with a gentle demeanor that made her seem easy to bully.

However, the students in Class 1 knew that this seemingly gentle and pitiful teacher could be quite scary when she got angry.

Moreover, many students in the class were her fans, so no one dared to provoke her. When she said 'quiet,' no one dared to go against her.

Seeing the class quiet down, Teacher Cheng smiled lightly, "......Don't be nervous, your class did quite well this time."

"And two students scored over 140." she said, holding up two fingers.

The class immediately began to chatter excitedly.

Chengbei High School, being formerly a foreign language high school, had particularly strict English exams.

This time, the English paper was exceptionally well-crafted.

If someone could score 140, it meant their English was far ahead at the high school level.

"Let's come up by rank to collect the papers."

Teacher Cheng winked playfully.

"The first place is Wen Yao." She took out the first paper and read the name.

The students in the class showed no change in expression.

No one would doubt that the first place was Wen Yao.

That was a given.

The question was, who would be in second place?

Some people turned their gaze toward Deng Ningxuan.

After all, he was the second-best in the class, especially in English, where he consistently ranked just behind Wen Yao.

Deng Ningxuan's deskmate nudged his arm, "It's you, right? Deng Ningxuan?"

"......The teacher hasn't called out the name yet." Deng Ningxuan replied with a modest smile.

But the next second, Teacher Cheng nodded and cheerfully announced, "Second place, Jiang Shuyi."

". . ."

The classroom fell utterly silent.

Jiang Shuyi pulled out her chair and slowly stood up under Song Jinxi's shocked gaze.

Jiang Shuyi knew that even though no one spoke, everyone was looking at her with astonished eyes.

Deng Ningxuan looked at Jiang Shuyi, and the usual humble expression on his face vanished.

As Jiang Shuyi walked to the podium under the watchful eyes of her classmates, she felt unfazed by their surprise.

In fact, even if everyone in the class was surprised that she achieved this score, she herself was not surprised.

Ever since she attended a seminar in the UK with the professor, she had made up her mind to master English. So for a period, she studied English from morning till night, memorizing vocabulary and doing reading and listening exercises whenever she had time. On weekends, she even sought out people to practice speaking with.

She had memorized every English word in her textbooks without missing any, and her vocabulary for her major was also impressive.

It could be said that her vocabulary had far exceeded the high school level.

Of course, there were some grammatical details in the paper that she still got wrong.

So Jiang Shuyi felt that achieving this level was quite normal, she even felt a bit wronged.

How could she not have scored higher than Wen Yao at this point?

Was Wen Yao even human?

Teacher Cheng picked up Jiang Shuyi's paper and examined her face without showing any change in expression.

Jiang Shuyi looked into her eyes, feeling inexplicably nervous, ". . ."

After a while, Teacher Cheng patted her shoulder, "Well done."

"When the other teachers said there was a second student in your class who scored over 140, I honestly didn't expect it to be you."

". . ." Jiang Shuyi nodded.

It was only natural that the teacher hadn't thought it would be her.

After all, the original owner had always been at the bottom of the class, anyone who could think of her must have some special insight.

"To be honest, I was really surprised when you got this score."

Teacher Cheng said candidly.

"In any case, keep up the good work." Teacher Cheng smiled again.

"Thank you." Jiang Shuyi took her paper and returned to her seat.

"Third place, Deng Ningxuan." Teacher Cheng read out Deng Ningxuan's name.

Deng Ningxuan walked to the podium under everyone's gaze, his face pale, looking as unappealing as a pool of stagnant water.

Teacher Cheng glanced at Deng Ningxuan's paper and encouraged him, "It's a bit of a pity, you missed 140 by just two points. This score is still very good, but you can do even better."

Deng Ningxuan's face turned from pale to bright red in an instant.

Holding his paper, he felt embarrassed to stand at the podium and nodded, "......I'll work hard."

Deng Ningxuan hurriedly walked off the podium, as if standing there for a minute was like being laughed at.

---

The next day, the sports festival concluded.

When Jiang Shuyi arrived at school, she noticed an uncomfortable atmosphere in the class.

Usually, when Jiang Shuyi spoke to her classmates, most of them would respond.

But today, when she greeted them, some people avoided her.

It wasn't that they were afraid of her, rather, there was a hint of coldness mixed with hostility.

Jiang Shuyi looked at Song Jinxi, puzzled.

"Everyone's attitude towards me seems a bit off today. I just greeted them, and they were all avoiding eye contact. What's going on?"

Unlike Wen Yao's coldness, the chill in the eyes of others contained something that made Jiang Shuyi very uncomfortable.

Contempt, disdainful looks.

Zhou Jingtang brushed past Jiang Shuyi with a water bottle.

But for a moment, his gaze also flickered away.

"......What's wrong with you all today? It seems like you're all avoiding me?" Jiang Shuyi glanced at Zhou Jingtang, looking at him with some confusion.

Zhou Jingtang shook his head, feeling he couldn't hide it from her anymore, and said, "Miss Yi, don't be mad, but someone said there's a problem with your exam results from yesterday..."

". . ."

Jiang Shuyi looked a bit confused, "What?"

"They're saying you used some special means..." Zhou Jingtang added.

". . ."

Jiang Shuyi understood now.

Someone was accusing her of cheating!

She looked at Zhou Jingtang in disbelief, "Who said such irresponsible things?"

"I don't know. As soon as I got to the classroom this morning, I heard someone say you cheated, and others said you must have received help from the teacher to get the answers, and then they said if you didn't cheat, how could you possibly score similarly to Wen Yao..."

"......Of course, I don't believe it! I said you're definitely not that kind of person." Zhou Jingtang immediately made a gesture as if to slam the table.

Jiang Shuyi listened to Zhou Jingtang's words and looked toward Wen Yao in the distance.

She was very concerned about whether Wen Yao thought the same way.

--

As the saying goes, "Among all evils, rumors spread the fastest," and so this rumor quickly spread...

By the time the morning classes were still ongoing, the grade director, Feng Junhua, knocked on the door of their classroom.

"Jiang Shuyi." Feng Junhua said each word clearly.

"Don't leave during lunch, report to my office."

---

Feng Junhua was quite familiar with Wen Yao, the class monitor.

He often asked Wen Yao to help with tasks.

He was also quite familiar with Jiang Shuyi, the school bully.

After all, he had caught the original owner more than once climbing over the wall to sneak out and play, arriving late, and skipping class.

So Jiang Shuyi was also quite familiar with this person's office.

As soon as class ended, she headed straight to the grade director's office.

Feng Junhua sat at the wooden desk in his office, tapping the pen in his hand against the notebook in front of him. "Jiang Shuyi, sit down across from me."

"Director Feng, I'm fine standing." Jiang Shuyi looked at him somewhat nervously, unsure of what he wanted to say.

"Alright, Jiang Shuyi." Seeing her like this, Feng Junhua put the pen down on the desk and got straight to the point.

"I have a question for you."

"Did you cheat on the exam?" Feng Junhua's voice was as cold as a knife, pressing against Jiang Shuyi's neck.

----

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