Chen Liyuan said, "Dad caught two rabbits, Mom made you cured meat, and there are melons. I said we have them in the city, but Dad insisted ours are sweeter."
Gu Xingping said helplessly, "Me too. I brought green beans and squash, and salted duck eggs. I didn't want to, but Mom and Dad wouldn't let me not."
Chen Lishu packed things, unable to stop a smile. Both sets of parents were thinking of her.
After a day and night on the train, they were tired and hungry. Chen Lishu asked Zhao Qiuyue to cook some blanched noodles for everyone, while she went into the house to tidy up the beds for Chen Liyuan and Gu Xingping. They could rest and sleep after eating.
In the afternoon, after eating and sleeping, the three finally had energy and went back to their respective schools to report.
...
Jiang Weiguo never dreamed that someone would report him by name. During his tenure as manager of Yimin Store, he not only embezzled funds but also took advantage of his position to have improper relationships with female colleagues.
The offense was so serious that he should have been summarily dismissed. However, considering his nearly twenty years of service to the store, they opted for a lighter punishment, demoting him to a basic sales clerk.
From manager to sales clerk was a world of difference. Such a drastic fall was worse than being fired outright.
Even so, Jiang Weiguo gritted his teeth and endured it. After all, being a private business owner was disreputable, and no matter how bad a sales clerk was, they were still a state employee.
Jiang Weiguo was not stupid; otherwise, he wouldn't have risen to the position of manager. He had just asked a friend to investigate Li Zhengxing and Chen Lishu, and shortly after, he was reported by name. Regardless, he had made enemies with these two.
The more he thought about it, the more he couldn't swallow his pride. After much deliberation, Jiang Weiguo found his little notebook for recording phone numbers. After flipping through a few pages, his gaze settled on a name. He picked up the phone and dialed.
...
"Hey, did you guys hear? Our classmate Sun Ling actually got into college by taking someone else's spot. That's just too..."
"I was stunned when I saw the newspaper. No wonder her grades were always at the bottom; it turns out her college spot wasn't obtained honorably."
"She always looked down on everyone because her family was well-off, like her eyes were practically in the sky. Tsk tsk."
"..."
Hearing her classmates' discussions, Zhang Xue looked at the empty seat in front of her, with only Jiang Yuwei there. She leaned over and asked somewhat uncertainly, "Is the thing about Sun Ling true?"
Before Chen Lishu could speak, Li Zhiwei interjected from behind, "It's true. Her parents even came to my house when the incident happened, but no one can help with this kind of thing."
They had all attended the same school before, and he had pursued Jiang Yuwei, and his relationship with Sun Ling was decent. But he never knew the Sun family had such audacity. Now the entire province was watching this matter. Unless they wanted to die quickly, no one would dare to court disaster.
"They still had the nerve to ask for favors after what their family did? With Sun Ling's character, if only I knew who anonymously did a good deed like a Lei Feng, I would definitely send them a banner."
Chen Lishu looked at Zhang Xue's serious demeanor, guessing she might actually do something like send a banner.
As they were talking, Jiang Yuwei, who had been sitting silently in the front, suddenly turned around and questioned Chen Lishu, "Sun Ling's situation, you did it, didn't you?"
Zhang Xue was taken aback, "Did what?"
Chen Lishu met her gaze and blinked twice, "I don't understand what you're saying."
"I know it was you. You've already caused Sun Ling's father to lose his job, why are you doing this? We're all classmates, don't you think you've gone too far?"
Chen Lishu raised an eyebrow, thinking to herself: If you hadn't provoked me, would you have ended up like this? If she hadn't reacted quickly back then, she might be locked up now. Now, she had only caused Sun Zhiqiang to lose his job and Sun Ling to be unable to attend university. Compared to the viciousness of the father and daughter, she could be considered quite lenient.
"I don't know what status you're using to accuse me. If it's as a classmate, then forget it. I don't think our relationship is that close. If you're Sun Ling's good friend, then that's truly laughable. You're a university student too, you've received higher education. Do you think what the Sun family did was right? Or did your family also contribute to it?"
Jiang Yuwei was aghast, "You, what nonsense are you talking about!"
Chen Lishu sneered, "I'm just casually saying it. Why are you panicking?"
Jiang Yuwei feared that she would say something that would cause misunderstandings. Even though she was unwilling, she obediently turned around. The situation with Sun Ling was already bad enough; she couldn't be implicated.
On the other side, Sun Ling and her mother walked out of the principal's office dejectedly. No matter how much they pleaded, the school absolutely refused to allow Sun Ling to return to school.
"It's all my fault. I should have insisted you repeat the year." Sun's mother, having already lost her job due to the severity of the incident, now only wanted her only daughter to continue her studies. She had already attended university for half a semester in her second year, and just two more years would have meant graduation. Who knew that man proposes, but heaven disposes.
"We already settled things, my husband and I. The person involved took money and didn't pursue it anymore. How did it get reported by outsiders?"
Sun's mother couldn't understand for the life of her. She felt her family had been plagued by bad luck this year. Both her husband and she lost their jobs, and their daughter's future was ruined along with it.
Sun Ling walked ahead with a gloomy expression. Hearing her mother's words, her steps unconsciously slowed.
Yes, the person involved didn't pursue it anymore. The matter of her taking someone else's spot couldn't have been known to outsiders. Besides Jiang Yuwei, there was no one else... Sun Ling suddenly remembered. There was Yang Lili! How could she have forgotten Yang Lili? What she and Jiang Yuwei had said before was overheard word for word by Yang Lili.
Good old Yang Lili, always thinking she was a harmless little lamb. Who knew she would stab her in the back! The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Sun Ling didn't care about anything else and changed direction, running straight towards the classroom.
"Xiao Ling, Lingling, where are you going?" Sun's mother was afraid she might do something rash and was about to follow, but Sun Ling ran too fast. In almost the blink of an eye, she disappeared at the end of the corridor.
...
Yang Lili buried her head in the new textbooks she had just received, listening to everyone's discussions but not taking in a single word.
Thinking of how Sun Ling had treated her before, even humiliating her in front of so many people, and now that Sun Ling couldn't attend school, Yang Lili felt a hint of secret satisfaction.
"Sun Ling, fel..." Class monitor Yao Bin had just returned from the teacher's office. Seeing Sun Ling approach, he intended to call out to his classmate, but then remembered she had been expelled by the school and swallowed the last character.
Before he could figure out how to address her, Sun Ling had already rushed into the classroom.