"Clack."
Liu Chen turned on the living room light as soon as he got home. He glanced at the clock on the wall; it was already half-past nine. Had his mother not returned yet?
Just as he was about to pull out his phone to call her, he heard footsteps ascending the stairs outside the door.
Judging by the sound, it seemed like his mother was back.
As expected, the security door opened, revealing his mother's face, her eyes crinkled with a smile.
Liu Fang first closed the security door, then placed her bag on the shoe cabinet by the entrance. She then supported herself with one hand on the shoe cabinet while reaching for her slippers with the other.
"Why are you standing at the door? Waiting for mom?"
Liu Chen, while tidying up the messy shoes scattered on the floor and placing them neatly into the shoe cabinet, replied,
"I just got home a few minutes before you. Why are you so late today?"
Liu Fang, already in her slippers and heading to the bathroom to wash up, chuckled upon hearing this:
"I don't know what happened today. The head chef from your Normal University Affiliated Middle School came to the market looking for scallion pancakes, so I introduced him to some places and bought him a sample to try. Guess what?"
As she said this, Liu Fang, while brushing her teeth, poked her head out from the bathroom and looked at Liu Chen with a smile.
Scallion pancakes? Normal University Affiliated Middle School? Could it be because of me? Liu Chen asked with some uncertainty,
"They ordered scallion pancakes?"
Otherwise, his mother wouldn't be so happy.
Liu Fang nodded and stopped playing coy, eagerly saying with a laugh, "Heh heh, they didn't just order them; their sister cafeteria ordered them too. A total of four school cafeterias, and one of them is even a university! They'll start taking deliveries from tomorrow!"
If selling breakfast shops and hot pot restaurants as main dishes had introduced the delicacy of scallion pancakes to the people of City C, then being included in school cafeterias was like riding a wave of sales.
It was no wonder his mother was so delighted.
"Oh, and Ren Mo said his older brother is coming back from Beijing next Sunday. My godmother is having a birthday, and Ren Mo invited me. He said my godmother is inviting you."
"Oh? Is that the one who's so smart and got into Tsinghua University? What's his name again?"
Liu Chen quickly chimed in, "Ren Yu. He even gave me a gift when I visited Beijing last time."
"Mm, then you prepare a gift for the young man yourself. I'll prepare a return gift. Mom's going to sleep now. You should go to bed early too!"
"Okay, goodnight, Mom."
After Liu Fang entered her bedroom, the living room light was also turned off. Liu Chen, carrying his schoolbag, walked into his bedroom, tied his hair into a bun, and started doing practice problems!
Hard work yields rewards. Liu Chen didn't want anyone to question the authenticity of his college entrance examination scores in the future, so the only thing he could do was to achieve similar results in his daily studies!
The crescent moon hung high in the sky, casting its glow upon all those who toiled through the night in this land.
The next day at seven o'clock, Liu Chen pressed his alarm clock, washed up, and took a taxi to school.
In the early morning, the probing gazes were even more blatant than the day before...
Liu Chen walked into Class 6 of Grade 12 with his back straight. He saw that his classmates, who should have been secretly eating breakfast or attending early morning reading, were all buried at their desks, playing on their phones.
In his usual corner, three other students had English books propped up on their desks, their hands hidden behind them as they furiously typed on their phone keyboards.
He hung his schoolbag on the back of his chair and took out his practice book, asking,
"What are you guys doing? Playing on your phones first thing in the morning instead of studying? Be careful, or homeroom teacher might confiscate them all!"
Lai Jielun replied without looking up, "If you're a bro, help our classmate Liu Chen by topping the thread on Tieba."
"Tieba?"
Perhaps realizing who had asked the question, Lai Jielun's fingers flying across the keyboard suddenly paused.
"Ahem, it's nothing. Uh, that, that..."
Liu Chen sat down, opened his phone, launched a browser, typed in Baidu, then Tieba, and clicked on City C Normal University Affiliated Middle School. He immediately saw the thread at the very top and clicked on it to read.
"Hmm?"
Such a low-level attempt to provoke conflict...
However, seeing his classmates' eagerness to type on their phone keypads as if they were laptop keyboards, Liu Chen felt that he couldn't let down everyone's efforts to defend him.
Putting his phone down, Liu Chen stood up and asked the class, "Who knows this thread starter? I want to have a word with him in person."
"In person?"
"Right!"
"I know, I know! This thread starter used to post about pursuing Liu Lin from our class, saying Liu Lin ignored him."
Liu Lin, who had been suddenly called out, thought for a moment, exited Tieba, opened QQ, and scrolled down the list of QQ messages.
Fortunately, Liu Lin didn't chat much on QQ usually, and she found it before Lai Ban arrived.
"He's from Class 2, named—Xu Rui?"
Having obtained the information he wanted, Liu Chen noted it down carefully, then walked from his seat to the podium, his expression serious.
"Thank you all very much for your support, but this matter isn't a simple debate that can cover up the thread starter's provocative intentions. I apologize for taking up everyone's precious morning study time. I announce that for lunch, it's KFC! If anyone wants to eat, send your order on QQ, and I'll buy it!"
The students of Class 6, Grade 12, who had merely intended to use the excuse of defending a classmate and stealing a moment of laziness, were suddenly thanked so formally by a new student. A thought suddenly bloomed in their hearts—it felt good to be a good person.
Later, whenever Lai Jing recalled this, she would unhesitatingly say—the Grade 12 Class 6 of the 2006 cohort was the most united and positive class she had ever taught.
However, the current Lai Jing was still fending off the nagging from Ding Jiang, the homeroom teacher of Class 2, Grade 12.
"Teacher Lai, I know the new student in your class has good grades, but no matter how good their grades are, you can't treat our student Xu Rui so severely just because of a post online, right?
Grade 12 is such an important year. Student Xu Rui also has a chance to aim for a key university. If this incident leaves him with psychological trauma and affects his performance in the college entrance examination, wouldn't that ruin his life?"
Liu Chen looked at Xu Rui, who was standing behind Ding Jiang. He was less than 1.7 meters tall, his face covered in pimples, and he was currently grinning cheekily.
Lai Jing gestured for Ding Jiang to pause for a moment, then turned to look at Liu Chen, who stood by her desk, appearing somewhat slender.
"Liu Chen, tell me what happened."
"Okay, it's like this..."
"I already know the whole story. It's just a few curious remarks from some children; there's no need to hold such a grudge. If you insist on making this student apologize, then you're being too petty."
Interrupted again, Liu Chen took a deep breath.
He looked at Teacher Ding, who not only tried to mediate but also leaned heavily to one side, and said sternly,
"I have two options for student Xu Rui. First, apologize via the campus broadcast, clearly explaining the origin of the incident, who you are, and why you are apologizing."
Upon hearing this, Xu Rui, before Liu Chen could even mention the second option, burst into laughter, "What a joke!"
Liu Chen also smiled and said slowly, "Then it's the second option. In three days, student Xu Rui will receive a lawyer's letter from my代理律师 (acting lawyer)."