Chapter 97: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes
Although he was concerned about Gu Qinghuan’s mental health, Chen Zelin first expressed his opinion, “Sacking them and beating them up isn’t an option.”
Bao Qingsong’s fried rice had already arrived. It was clearly Gu Qinghuan’s “performance time” now, so he lowered his head to eat. But when he heard Chen Zelin say that, he almost choked.
Then he thought about it—if Gu Qinghuan really had said, “Let’s go sack them,” even if no one else agreed, he himself would’ve immediately started checking the school and nearby areas for blind spots in the security cameras.
Gu Qinghuan looked shocked, “In the homeroom teacher’s eyes, am I really that violent?”
Chen Zelin hesitated for a few seconds, “You don’t seem like someone who’d start with violence, but… if someone else hit you first, I feel like you’d make sure it was legitimate self-defense—and then go all in.”
Gu Qinghuan’s gaze drifted away.
Bao Qingsong tried to act calm, picked up his cup, and washed down the rice he’d almost choked on.
“They haven’t even used violence,” Gu Qinghuan said, looking back, her tone righteous. “Right now, they’ve only spray-painted our blackboard, so I won’t use force either.”
You said “right now,” didn’t you! Chen Zelin glared at her. Playing word games, huh!
He decided to skip over that topic, “Anyway, my ideal way of handling this is to make them realize their behavior is wrong and ensure they never make the same mistake again.”
Gu Qinghuan immediately responded, “As for me, I don’t really care if they realize their mistake. I just want to intimidate them so completely they’ll never dare bully our class again.”
She put the twelfth class’s problem aside for now. In her view, real life wasn’t like the movies—just talking or giving a bit of a wake-up call wouldn’t make someone truly repent.
So she didn’t care about apologies or remorse. She just wanted to knock their teeth out so they’d never again dare “bite” at Class Three.
Bao Qingsong glanced sideways. Wow… our class president is hardcore.
Chen Zelin thought about it and admitted she had a point. After all, he wasn’t the twelfth class’s homeroom teacher—why should he care about those boys?
Still, from a teacher’s perspective, he was used to having a guiding attitude toward “students” as a whole group.
But this time, he decided to separate “my students” from “other people’s students.”
Chen Zelin asked, “So how exactly do you plan to intimidate them?”
Gu Qinghuan didn’t answer. Instead, she gave him a fawning smile.
Her smile left Chen Zelin confused and uneasy. He had a bad feeling, “What did you do?”
Gu Qinghuan dodged the question, “After we talked last night, did anything happen between you and Teacher Shen this morning?”
The bad feeling came true. Chen Zelin twitched his lips, “After you left the office, I did talk to Teacher Shen for a few minutes.”
“Just talk? No friction?” Gu Qinghuan looked disappointed.
Confirmed! He had even defended her in front of Shen Mingzhe, but this girl had been plotting against him!
Chen Zelin pieced it together and said, reluctantly, “So… your plan was for me to provoke Teacher Shen, then he’d go stir things up, making the twelfth class students—already annoyed after failing last time—even more eager to cause trouble.”
“And then we’d play along, pretend to coincidentally catch them in the act, blow it up into a big deal, and ideally drag the academic director over to scold Teacher Shen!” Gu Qinghuan nodded repeatedly.
The plan might not be the most cathartic, but the beauty was in its smoothness.
The one who first had bad intentions would be Shen Mingzhe. Complaining to students would be his personal choice. Chen Zelin would simply be defending his own students.
The twelfth class students choosing to cause trouble would also be their own decision. As for Class Three, having already experienced a spray-paint incident, it was only natural to be more alert—and catch them before they acted.
Even if they couldn’t get the academic director there on the spot, once Chen Zelin stepped in, they could call Shen Mingzhe over to confront him.
Then everything would be laid bare, and it would be time to settle accounts.
This “small matter” might not be enough to get Shen Mingzhe fired, but it would be enough to get him and his students a stern warning.
After that, Shen Mingzhe would have to rein in his students and stop them from messing with Class Three.
Of course, it wasn’t impossible that Shen Mingzhe might throw caution to the wind—either deny everything or keep retaliating.
But how could he retaliate? Chen Zelin was already on guard, and if he spread rumors again, the other teachers wouldn’t believe him.
As for his students, those who had stood up for him had already been punished. With that precedent, would the others repeat the mistake? No—they were used to looking out only for themselves.
When they saw there was no benefit for them, they’d just watch from the sidelines.
As for whether Yan Zhengqing would help Shen Mingzhe—Gu Qinghuan was 90% sure he wouldn’t.
Yan Zhengqing’s status in the class had nothing to do with Shen Mingzhe. Even if the homeroom teacher changed, even if he stopped being class president, half a semester’s worth of intimidation was enough for him to keep dominating the twelfth class.
He didn’t need Shen Mingzhe. Shen Mingzhe needed him.
If Shen Mingzhe had any sense, he’d keep his head down and stay away from Class Three.
Bao Qingsong was so absorbed in Gu Qinghuan’s analysis that he subconsciously asked, “What if he poisons the homeroom teacher?”
Chen Zelin shuddered and stared at him.
Realizing what he’d said, Bao Qingsong coughed twice, “Just a random thought…”
“Even if he throws caution to the wind, it wouldn’t go that far,” Gu Qinghuan shook her head. “This kind of friction—give it a few months and almost no one will remember, except the people directly involved.”
“Even if other teachers see through him, they’ll just cut off personal contact. They’ll still have to keep working together.”
“If it doesn’t affect his job, he can keep making money at Mingde. If he behaves better for a few years, people might even change their opinion of him. Why would he throw all that away and risk prison?”
Bao Qingsong was a bit dazed, “So realistic…” he murmured.
“When you enter society, you’ll face this kind of reality sooner or later,” Chen Zelin said.
He couldn’t help glancing at Gu Qinghuan again, truly wondering what kind of brain his class president had.
“So we’re going with this plan?” Bao Qingsong asked tentatively.
Chen Zelin thought for a moment, “I think it’s doable, but right now it’s just an outline. We need to work out the details.”
“So the homeroom teacher agrees to be the mastermind behind the scenes?” Gu Qinghuan asked.
“And who exactly is the real mastermind here?” Chen Zelin felt as if a huge pot was slowly landing on his back. He quickly shot the question back at her.
Gu Qinghuan looked innocent.
Bao Qingsong lowered his head again to focus on eating.
Yep—class president’s one of us. Decision made: from now on, wherever she points, I’ll hit. I’m standing firmly on her side!
