Lu Xia stared hard at him in disbelief when she heard the Principal’s decision.
Mr. Lu was dumbstruck as well. He quickly composed himself and said, “How can you stop my daughter from participating in the nationals? She didn’t do anything wrong!”
The Principal laughed coldly. “You ought to know fully well why Lu Xia has to be kicked out of the National Quiz Contest. If I keep investigating the notes, do you think that’s the only punishment she would get?”
Lu Xia was still a rookie in the entertainment industry and could not afford to sully her name. Moreover, if word got out that the Education Association was directly involved in giving out National Quiz Contest notes, even the Ministry of Education would have to get involved and investigate the matter.
Mr. Lu suddenly broke out in cold sweat.
“I accept the punishment.” Before Mr. Lu could say a word, Lu Xia agreed to the Principal’s decision.
Although she was unhappy, it was the best possible outcome for her. Even if she made it into the finals, she would just stand at the bottom rung, so there was no point wasting her time on it.
Mr. Lu glanced at his daughter but did not say a word.
Wei Mingzhe smiled in self-deprecation. He was probably incapable of ever holding his head high in front of the Principal henceforth.
**
Lu Xia walked her father out of the school after leaving the office.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Huo Yao’s grades?” asked her father in a grave voice.
Lu Xia clenched her fists and replied softly. “I don’t know her well.”
Mr. Lu halted and turned to look at her expressionlessly. “Do you think I’m dumb?”
After things turned out this way, if he was still incapable of seeing the truth, he would have lived all these years in vain.
Lu Xia’s face blanched when she made eye contact with her father’s icy gaze. “I…”
“You’ll never accomplish anything if you can’t maintain your composure,” said Mr. Lu indifferently before he left.
Was she really incapable of any accomplishments?
Lu Xia mocked herself as she watched her father leave.
Would she have ended up like this if Lu Ziming did not secretly send the notes to Huo Yao?
*
Huo Yao went to the Principal’s office at midday.
“Are you going to keep looking at me so guiltily?” Huo Yao sat in the chair and did not know whether to cry or laugh at the Principal’s stricken gaze.
He had been like this for the past five minutes.
The Principal coughed before he finally said, “I invited you into No.1 Middle School, but sadly you kept getting slandered.”
Huo Yao’s hand was lying leisurely on the armrest. “Outstanding people attract a lot of jealousy. You don’t have to feel sorry about it.”
The Principal’s lips twitched at the sound of that. He went quiet before he sighed. “I didn’t know that you had a history with the Lu family.”
He made no direct mention of her being the foster daughter of the Lu family.
Huo Yao pursed her lips and said nonchalantly, “I’m a Huo now.”
She severed ties with the Lu family with a single sentence.
“In the end, you suffered injustice,” said the Principal sadly.
The Lu family had a nouveau riche background before they established the Lu Corporation and rose through the ranks to become one of the city’s rich and powerful families. Now, they were powerfully connected, considering how easily the matter of cheating in the National Quiz Contest was swept under the rug.
Although the Principal wanted to fight for Huo Yao’s innocence, it would do Huo Yao no good if he persisted with the investigation, especially now that the Education Association was also involved. After all, the Huo family was just a bourgeois family. They were powerless and could not pit themselves against an elite family.
He could not bear seeing such talent getting buried by those men of means.
After weighing it in his heart, he had no choice but to cave in.
