Zhao Jingze shot his head up, literally startled: "What?"

In front of parents and teachers, "internet cafe" was an absolutely taboo term. Shen Zhengning had just pulled out what was no less than a nuclear bomb from his pocket. For a moment, everyone's attention was involuntarily drawn to his next words.

"Excuse me." Shen Zhengning stated unhurriedly, "When I was collecting the math homework just now, you weren't at your seat. Your deskmate helped look for it, and there was a top-up card in your pencil case. I accidentally saw it. Is that a top-up card for the Leyuan Internet Cafe?"

Li Yunqing's tone changed: "Shen Zhengning, are you sure you didn't see wrong?"

Before he could answer, Zhao Jingze cut in with a low shout: "That's my friend's! I'm just holding it for him! Don't talk nonsense!"

His reaction was stern in both voice and expression, but Shen Zhengning just nodded calmly: "Understandable. May I ask, you live in Jixiang Courtyard, correct?"

Zhao Jingze's mouth hung half-open, speechless. The male parent stared at him suspiciously: "Yes, my home is in Jixiang Courtyard. What do you mean? Are you trying to stick up for this little punk? Are you trying to say our kid framed him?"

'One shouldn't divide students into different classes and treat them differently'—this is the basic professional ethic of an educator. In reality, however, people often find it hard to avoid preconceived notions. Just as the always well-behaved Zhao Jingze was more easily trusted than the rebellious, poor student Yuan Hang, Shen Zhengning, a "top student" known to the dean of teaching, had a persuasiveness that could overpower Zhao Jingze's.

The corners of Shen Zhengning's lips curved up slightly in a habitual, polite smile, but there wasn't a hint of mirth in his eyes. His focused expression overshadowed the natural elegance of his features, giving him a sharpness that almost surpassed his age.

His gaze turned to the window of the academic building, from which the school's main gate was just visible: "Xinghai Community is east of the school, and Jixiang Courtyard is to the north. When you go home after school, you just need to exit and turn right. Why would you pass by Xinghai Community?"

Zhao Jingze: "..."

Shen Zhengning prompted, "After leaving the school gate, walk straight for about 400 meters, and a left turn at the intersection leads to Leyuan Internet Cafe, which is across from Xinghai Community."

The dean of teaching gave a slight cough and added, "Mr. Zhao, he's right. There is indeed an internet cafe on that road."

The male parent started to panic a little: "Zhao Jingze, what is he talking about? Did you go to the internet cafe?!"

"I've never been. I don't know what internet cafe you're talking about." Zhao Jingze stubbornly argued with his neck stiff, "I went to buy supplementary books that day. I don't usually take that road."

He succeeded in making the corner of Shen Zhengning's mouth lift another degree. The more Zhao Jingze spoke, the more at ease Shen Zhengning appeared. His bright, intimidating eyes lowered, and everyone followed his gaze to Zhao Jingze's sneakers: "What a coincidence, I usually take that road. So I happen to know that the entrance of that internet cafe is under renovation. You have cement on the side of your shoe. It's already dry, but the mark is still very new, not worn down. Did you perhaps step in it by accident last night?"

Zhao Jingze subconsciously lifted his right foot. The edge of his white sneakers was smeared with a ring of gray, and the other shoe had a small patch of dried cement on the toe.

He took a step back in panic, but there was nowhere for him to hide in the office. Instead, this reaction made everyone fall silent in unison.

"..."

Li Yunqing turned to the male parent and tactfully inquired, "Mr. Zhao, this point Shen Zhengning raised, well, it's indeed worth noting. This matter might not be as your son described it. What do you think we should do?"

Having been a teacher for so many years, Li Yunqing knew all too well what it was like for students to be addicted to the internet. She was giving the parent a way out, suggesting he go back and find out what was really going on with his son, to avoid blowing things up and making it difficult to resolve.

To be fair, she had no malicious intent and could even be considered thoughtful. But the arrogance of adults lies in their fondness for plastering over all conflicts with a coat of paint called "decency," while turning a blind eye to the cracks beneath.

"No, are you sick? What the hell are you trying to do!" Before the parent could respond, the subtle shift in the adults' attitude crushed the high schooler Zhao Jingze's psychological defenses. He pointed at Shen Zhengning's nose and roared, breaking down, "What business is it of yours? Yuan Hang hasn't even said anything, why the fuck are you meddling?!"

Shen Zhengning raised his eyes innocently, giving Li Yunqing a look that said, 'See, he cursed at me.'

Teacher Li's heart tensed up, sensing that nothing good would come next. But she was a step too slow. Shen Zhengning had already ascended to an invisible moral high ground, bringing down the final hammer from above: "I don't mean anything else. I just think you're quite lucky. If it were anyone else, this play of yours, riddled with holes, probably wouldn't have even gotten off the ground."

It took Zhao Jingze a few seconds to understand his subtext, and a cold sweat instantly broke out.

"You said that last Monday after school, Yuan Hang cornered you in an alley downstairs at Xinghai Community and stole your tutoring fees. Your tutoring class is on the weekend, right? Since your parents gave you the money to pay the fees yourself, it should have been paid over the weekend. Why were you still carrying it with you on Monday?"

After a prolonged silence, Zhao Jingze mumbled, out of breath: "I forgot..."

A loud slap echoed across Zhao Jingze's face. The male parent's angry roar reverberated through the office: "Go on, keep making things up! You dawdle every day instead of coming home, saying you're playing basketball with classmates at school, but you take the tutoring money to an internet cafe! Your mother and I work so hard to earn money for your education, and this is what you learn? How to lie and deceive people?!"

"Mr. Zhao!"

The dean of teaching hurried forward to hold the male parent back: "Don't get excited, don't get excited. Let's talk this out, no violence. Why don't you take your son home first and get to the bottom of this, alright? Find out whether this internet cafe business is true. If it is, then falsely accusing classmate Yuan Hang of robbery has caused him so much harm..."

The male parent kicked Zhao Jingze in the shin: "Go to your classroom and get your schoolbag, and bring that card! I'm going to find out where you spent the money today!" He gave Yuan Hang a quick nod and said vaguely, "Sorry about today. After I'm done with him, I'll make him apologize to you."

The person who had suffered a great injustice had instead become the most invisible person in the room. Yuan Hang remained silent, leaning against the desk with his head down. Li Yunqing looked at his sharply protruding shoulder blades, feeling a little guilty, but couldn't help complaining slightly, "Tell me, why didn't you say anything when you were wrongly accused?"

Zhao Jingze, who was about to walk out of the office, suddenly turned back and opened his mouth, but Shen Zhengning reacted extremely quickly and spoke before he could: "A cat or a dog?"

Li Yunqing: "Huh?"

Shen Zhengning reached out, picked a three-centimeter-long white hair from the sleeve of Yuan Hang's school uniform jacket, and dangled it in front of his eyes: "Are you secretly feeding stray cats and dogs outside of school?"

Yuan Hang finally lifted his reddened eyes and asked hoarsely, "How did you know?"

"Your breakfast every day is either egg whites without the yolk or a steamed bun wrapper without the filling. Things like that are easy to notice." Shen Zhengning blew the hair away in one breath and said casually, "If you really robbed someone, you wouldn't be too stingy to even buy yourself a proper steamed bun, would you?"

Shen Zhengning's skill at deflecting a heavy blow with a light touch was quite remarkable. He successfully blurred the main point, changed the subject, and cleared the thoroughly blackened name of Yuan Hang in just a few words. The eyes of Li Yunqing and the dean of teaching immediately glistened with a benevolent light.

By this time, Zhao Jingze had already been led far away by his father. Shen Zhengning, like a peerless master from a wuxia novel descending from the heavens, calmly finished his business and flicked his sleeves to depart: "Teacher, I'll be heading back to class now."

"Badass," Ding Sheng murmured with his hands on the steering wheel, "I wish I could live so ballsy just once..."

Yuan Hang smiled without speaking. Ding Sheng was still marveling: "He's good at his studies, good-looking, and has such a strong sense of justice. How many people in your school must have a crush on him? If I were half as badass as him in high school, my kid would be in elementary school by now. Hey, were you and sister-in-law high school classmates too?"

Yuan Hang rubbed the unshaven stubble on his chin and chuckled, "Yeah, my wife's grades in high school were great; she ranked even higher in our year than Shen Zhengning."

Ding Sheng sensed there was more to his words and narrowed his eyes suspiciously: "What's the story?"

The setting sun burned passionately on the horizon as this exceptionally long day finally came to a close. Yuan Hang stood under a Wutong tree by the roadside outside the school. Watching Shen Zhengning walk past him with his hands in his pockets, his gaze fixed straight ahead, he finally couldn't help but call out: "Shen Zhengning."

"What is it?"

"Why did you go to the teacher's office today?"

"To turn in homework."

"Why did you help me?"

"Is it your turn to interrogate me?"

"That's not what I meant. I wanted to ask... how did you know Zhao Jingze was threatening me?"

When Shen Zhengning wasn't looking at people with that scalpel-sharp gaze, his features were actually quite handsome and gentle, the kind of good-looking guy that easily made people let down their guard. He beckoned nonchalantly for Yuan Hang to follow and said in a bored tone: "His lie wasn't very clever. If you hadn't done it, a direct confrontation on the spot would have exposed him. But you were bluffed by his words, so the most likely reason is that he had some kind of leverage on you. Besides, you two were shouting like you were singing mountain folk songs; it was really hard to pretend not to hear. The keywords were 'last Monday after school' and 'Xinghai Community.' You were caught on a date with your girlfriend, weren't you?"

Yuan Hang's cheeks burned, and he felt like a broken record: "How did you know it was..."

"That your girlfriend is Yue Ruxue from Class Three?" Shen Zhengning shot him a look as if he were an idiot: "You're the only one who thinks you've hidden it well." He pointed to Yuan Hang's sleeve: "I don't even want to get into the rest. You have a crew cut, yet you're wearing a girl's hair tie on your wrist. If you really don't want to be found out, you'd better put it away."

"Her family is extremely strict," Yuan Hang said like a frost-bitten cabbage, dejectedly confiding in a low voice regardless of whether the other person wanted to listen. "If the school found out, they would definitely cause a huge scene. So when Zhao Jingze hinted that he wouldn't tell, I just thought, maybe I should just admit to it..."

Shen Zhengning's tone was uncharacteristically serious: "I won't comment on you dating, but I completely disagree with you swallowing your anger like this. When you're threatened, you should report it to the police immediately. Who knows if there will be a next time after you endure it this time? If you had a good umbrella, would you put it away after using it just once?"

Yuan Hang's prickly buzz cut seemed to droop, but facing his savior, he still maintained a good attitude of admitting his mistake: "I know, I just..."

He was just all alone and clumsy with words. When someone grabbed hold of his weakness, he couldn't think of a better solution, so he could only expose all his vital points for others to kick and beat, not even resisting in order to protect the thing he treasured most.

"But this determination to protect something even if you have to grit your teeth—although it's very stupid, and not at all worth advocating for or imitating—I still admire it."

Yuan Hang shot his head up. Shen Zhengning was completely oblivious to how big of a splash he had just made in someone else's inner world. He walked past him as if no one else was there and continued straight ahead.

"Didn't you just ask me why I helped you?"

"That's my answer."