Chapter 104: Impressive
“Impressive!” Jiang Chuchu immediately high-fived Yu Xin beside her.
The two of them were in the classroom at that moment, watching a live broadcast on a phone hidden by another student.
Everyone in the class was watching the stream together in a private chat room. The comment section was flying with messages.
Qin Yue: “Xie Xiangxue’s response is really good!”
Ming Xiaolan: “Her fall was acted out perfectly…”
Bao Qingsong: “The girl who helped her has been identified—she’s the study representative from Class 6, named Lu Jian.”
Bao Qingsong: “By the way, Class 6 had the highest average score on this midterm, and Lu Jian was first in the class and seventh in the grade.”
Xu Xinghe: “Wow, just randomly bumping into someone, and she’s a top student. What luck!”
Jiang Chuchu was a bit surprised, and through her earpiece, she told Xie Xiangxue Lu Jian’s identity, advising, “See if this information can be useful.”
Xie Xiangxue was also surprised, though she didn’t show it on her face.
In front of her, Hong Yi’s face had turned green with anger from Xie Xiangxue’s earlier words: “What did you just say?!”
His aggressive stance seemed to startle Xie Xiangxue, and she instinctively stepped back.
Lu Jian frowned, displeased, and looked at Hong Yi: “What are you trying to do? What she said isn’t true? Aren’t you from Class 12, and didn’t your class rank last?”
As someone from Class 6, she didn’t necessarily remember the exact rankings of each class—like she wouldn’t recall that Class 3 was third—but she did remember that Class 4 was first and Class 12 was last.
Hong Yi was momentarily speechless. Du Xianhui quickly rushed over: “We are indeed from Class 12. Yes, last place is correct, but that doesn’t mean Class 3 didn’t cheat!”
Lu Jian remained noncommittal. Just by looking at Xie Xiangxue’s attitude, she didn’t believe Class 3 would cheat.
For the students to treat a rumor so nonchalantly showed that Class 3’s cohesion was strong; each student trusted their classmates and believed in their own abilities.
Wasn’t it normal for a class to have good grades? And most likely, they weren’t just good academically—they probably worked well together in activities too.
“So, how exactly did we cheat?” Xie Xiangxue asked, curious.
But her tone and expression made it sound like she was watching an unrelated spectacle.
Du Xianhui was instantly dumbfounded, exchanging glances with Hong Yi for a few seconds before nervously saying, “Y-you… you stole the test papers! Copied the answers!”
“Who stole the test papers? When did it happen? How do you know? Who told you?” Xie Xiangxue quickly fired off a series of questions.
Du Xianhui stammered, unable to answer. He realized that Xie Xiangxue’s reaction was completely different from what they expected!
Hadn’t Hong Yi and Cui Loulan said before that this girl, Xie Xiangxue, would be intimidated and rendered speechless by just a bit of pressure? How come she was now so sharp-tongued?
He had assumed that spreading false accusations was easy—just say a few things, play a little trick, and it would be done. How could it turn out like this?
In the end, Hong Yi and the others didn’t realize that their “smooth sailing” all this time had only been because of Yan Zhengqing’s influence.
In most situations, it wasn’t that others were easy to bully—it was that nobody dared resist with Yan Zhengqing around.
So they had no experience dealing with someone truly tough.
Now, with Du Xianhui blocking in front, Hong Yi had a moment to catch his breath and think.
Seeing that Du Xianhui couldn’t respond, he tried himself: “Are you trying to trap someone into talking so you can punish the person who told the truth?”
He thought it was a good opportunity to make people suspect that Class 3 had ulterior motives.
But Xie Xiangxue’s expression instantly turned icy: “Isn’t this only something you and Yan Zhengqing would do?”
Mentioning Yan Zhengqing’s name caused a stir among the nearby students, though the chatter was quieter than before.
Yan Zhengqing’s reputation was still somewhat formidable. With the backing of the Yan family and being a top-performing school bully, most students at Mingde had heard of him.
But this time, everyone’s attention had shifted away from cheating entirely.
Xie Xiangxue now looked like she was ready to confront Hong Yi and the others: “Earlier, I just accidentally bumped into Yan Zhengqing, and he suspected I had ulterior motives. You—and you—I remember you two were right beside him.”
“And before, it was also you guys, coming to our class with Yan Zhengqing to cause trouble,” Xie Xiangxue stared at them. “Why are you targeting our class? What do you gain from this?”
That was enough; she couldn’t go on.
Yang Xiao, who had been quietly observing, decisively stepped forward, pretending not to know what had happened: “Hey, what are you guys doing here? Weren’t we supposed to eat and then go play basketball?”
With that, he forcefully pulled Hong Yi and the others away, in a rather anticlimactic manner.
Of course, the onlooking students weren’t going to stop “eating melon” just because one group left; they just dispersed and continued sharing the gossip with others.
Lu Jian relaxed once Yang Xiao and the others left and turned to Xie Xiangxue: “Are you okay?”
Xie Xiangxue pinched her slightly numb fingers and smiled at Lu Jian: “I’m fine. Thank you so much for stepping in. I’m Xie Xiangxue. And you?”
“Lu Jian, Class 6,” Lu Jian replied simply.
They exchanged a few more polite words before parting.
Xie Xiangxue slowly walked back to her class. As soon as she entered, she was enveloped in a hug.
Jiang Chuchu patted her back firmly: “Well done!”
Finally drawing everyone’s attention to Yan Zhengqing was sheer brilliance!
Although she had some concern about whether this would anger Yan Zhengqing, Gu Qinghuan reminded her that Xie Xiangxue’s situation was real. If someone came after Xie Xiangxue, they should be prepared to be suspected by her.
Besides, today’s incident was entirely due to Yang Xiao and the others acting on their own. If Yan Zhengqing felt his “reputation” was affected, he would have to blame them.
Moreover, Gu Qinghuan thought it was also possible that Yan Zhengqing didn’t care at all.
The more others feared him, the more satisfied he would be.
So rather than suspecting Xie Xiangxue out of “consideration,” Yan Zhengqing would be more likely angry at Yang Xiao and the others for failing to carry out the plan of “framing Class 3 for cheating.”
Jiang Chuchu released her hold and methodically began preparing the next stage of command: “This stage of counterattack is complete, but don’t target Yan Zhengqing next. The goal remains Teacher Shen!”
“I’ll confirm with the homeroom teacher that Teacher Shen is in the office, and then it’s time to report!”
Chen Zelin’s smartwatch vibrated. He immediately opened his phone and saw Jiang Chuchu’s message: [?]
Chen Zelin quickly replied: [✓]
This was their prearranged code: “?” asks whether Shen Mingzhe is in the office; “✓” means he is.
Jiang Chuchu responded with an OK emoji.
Chen Zelin was instantly excited: finally, it was time for him and Shen Mingzhe to confront them face-to-face!
