Principal Lin looked at the string of numbers, which he had long memorized, displayed on his phone screen. His grip on the phone tightened slightly as he suppressed his emotions and turned around to call Su Cheng. “Mr. Su, Lu Guixin’s parents are calling.”
Su Cheng turned around and said to his wife, “Stay here and settle this matter. I’ll head back to work now.”
“Okay.” Mrs. Su nodded.
Principal Lin ignored him and picked up the call in a respectful manner. “Mr. Lu, it’s me, Lin Song.”
The day Lu Guixin came to register for Ming City High School, Lu Chengzhou and Gu Mang had sent her there. It was then that they exchanged their contact information. That was also the only time Principal Lin had ever met the legendary Gu Mang and the mysterious and influential Lu Chengzhou. Hence, he still felt incredibly nervous about this phone call.
The others were surprised when they saw how nervous Principal Lin was, and they couldn’t help but look sideways. Even Su Cheng, who had walked to the door, stopped in his tracks and looked over with a frown.
Meanwhile, Lu Chengzhou handed a cup of warm water to Gu Mang, who had just stepped out of the bathroom. His voice was low and cold, and he sounded nonchalant as he asked, “Mm, did something happen to Guixin?”
He figured that something must’ve happened to his daughter, which was the reason behind this phone call.
Gu Mang looked at him when she heard that, but the latter lazily lifted his chin in an indication for her to drink up. He then set the call to speaker mode.
“She got into a small dispute with another student,” replied Principal Lin. “And that student’s parents demand that you withdraw your daughter from school.”
“Dispute? Withdraw from school? That sounds awfully familiar.” Lu Chengzhou raised his eyebrows. “How did they provoke my daughter?”
Although he talked in a slow and light manner, Principal Lin found it dangerous. A chill even ran down the latter’s spine.
Principal Lin was just about to answer him when Mrs. Su suddenly said in an arrogant tone, “Since you managed to get Lu Guixin’s parents on the line, let’s just settle it over a video call. Not everyone’s time is as cheap as theirs.”
Principal Lin looked at Mrs. Su out of speechlessness.
“Change it into a video call,” Lu Chengzhou ordered.
“Okay.” Principal Lin retracted his gaze and did as told, connecting his phone to the projector screen on his office wall.
At the top-right corner of the screen was a small image showing the people in Principal Lin’s office, while the main screen showed a man’s face after some shaking.
Mrs. Su was surprised by the face and could hardly believe that the man on the screen was Lu Guixin’s father, for he looked far too young. From his appearance, it didn’t seem like he was a day past thirty. His features were defined and beautifully sculptured, and the dark color scheme in the room made him look all the more imposing.
It took several seconds before Mrs. Su snapped out of it. One word immediately appeared in her mind. Celebrity?
She more or less knew who the popular celebrities were—the not popular ones weren’t even worthy of mention to her. Of course, good looks didn’t necessarily equate to success in showbiz, and that was how it was for some people in the industry.
Mrs. Su instinctively classified the man in the video call as the not-so-popular type since she didn’t know who he was. No wonder Xia Cheng said Lu Guixin was pretty. It’s because she has a celebrity father.
Everyone in the office went into a trance staring at Lu Chengzhou’s face.
“What happened to my daughter?” Lu Chengzhou asked, his voice deep and low. His gaze was fixed on Principal Lin even through the screen. The overwhelming pressure that came from those sharp, dark eyes that were filled with aloofness and hints of laziness almost made it hard for one to breathe.
Principal Lin sat ramrod straight in his seat with his body tense from anxiety.
Mr. Dong and the form teacher from Class One had also come back to their senses by now. As they slowly exhaled, they realized, with a start, their strange reaction.
Principal Lin explained, “There are many people saying on the school forum that Lu Guixin is wooing Zhou Fu, the top student of Year Three.”
Wooing? Lu Chengzhou narrowed his eyes, but he didn’t say anything about it. Upon remembering that Gu Si and the others had just been to Ming City to visit his daughter, he picked up another phone and texted Lu Jilai. [Do you know who Zhou Fu is?]
Lu Jilai’s replies came fast, and he had sent three messages.
[You’ve heard it, Dad?”
[We know about what’s going on in the school forum. It’s no big deal.
[“Is it very strange for a pretty girl like me to have some rumors?” -Lu Guixin.]
While Lu Chengzhou raised his eyebrows in amusement, Gu Mang picked up her phone and contacted Yan Xi to find out the exact details.
Meanwhile, Principal Lin was still rambling on. “Because of this, Lu Guixin was heavily criticized—”
“Criticized?” Mrs. Su interrupted. “How is stating facts the same as criticism?”
Principal Lin was at a loss for words.
Mrs. Su snorted. “Is it a criticism to say that Lu Guixin isn’t worthy of Zhou Fu, that her results are bad, and that she, as a student, deliberately seduced a senior with good results instead of focusing on improving her own results? Isn’t that all true?”
Principal Lin frowned.
Lu Chengzhou, however, showed no change of expression. There was just a cold gleam in his slightly hooded eyes.
Right then, a cold female voice cut in. “It’s a fact that Lu Guixin is immoral and uses dirty tricks to seduce Zhou Fu?”
Principal Lin’s expression changed. What? Why didn’t Yan Xi do anything about it? She didn’t even tell me.
“It’s also a fact that Lu Guixin is a loose girl and a girl like her isn’t worthy to be mentioned together with Zhou Fu?” said the mysterious woman. “Did you see that for yourself?”
Su Zeyue squeezed her fingers tightly when she heard the female voice reading the posts.
“These two posts are quite popular. There are almost 800 comments on them.” The woman laughed. “The forum ID is thesilentmoon, and the IP address is from Room 413 of the Year Three’s dorm.”
Su Zeyue’s heart skipped a beat as she sank her nails into the flesh of her palms.
When the Class One’s form teacher heard the room number, she turned to look at Su Zeyue in disbelief. It seemed like she never thought that the latter was capable of saying such things.
“You’re quite the gossip, huh?” Lu Chengzhou smiled, but there was no warmth in his black eyes.
“No, I was just stating the facts,” Su Zeyue blurted out in an attempt to build credibility.
Su Cheng’s eyes sank when he realized that the other party managed to obtain such a crucial piece of personal information in such a short frame of time. He thus said, “Mr. Lu, I’ll give you two million yuan in exchange for Lu Guixin’s withdrawal. You can use that money to find another school for her.”
Initially, he was only prepared to fork out half a million, but the situation had changed now. If the information Lu Chengzhou had made its way to the internet, he would’ve to fork out much more than that just to take the articles down.
Mrs. Su, however, knitted her eyebrows together when she heard that figure. It was clear that she didn’t want to give the other party so much money.
“Two million?” Lu Chengzhou laughed.
Thinking that Lu Chengzhou found the money too little, Su Cheng pursed his lips in irritation. “Mr. Lu, one shouldn’t be too greedy. The average person will have to work their entire life to earn that much. It’s best to just end things here.”
Lu Chengzhou smiled ambiguously at him. “Ming City High School respects the students’ privacy, so they’ve always allowed anonymity online. From what I see, we should go about by the students’ real names moving forward. We’ll start by revealing this particular student’s name.”
“I dare you!” Su Cheng narrowed his eyes. “You must be tired of living!”
They then heard the woman’s laughter, followed by the tapping sound of the keyboard.
Mr. Dong instinctively realized that something wasn’t right. He immediately whipped out his phone to check the school forum, and he gasped when he saw Su Zeyue’s name on those two posts. Are Lu Guixin’s parents out of their minds? I can’t believe they dare to go against the Su family!
Su Zeyue hurriedly unlocked her phone to check out the school forum as well. There, she saw her own name at the top of the home page.
As it was already the end of the morning reading session, there were many people commenting on that thread.
[I thought this was an exposé from a freshman. I didn’t expect it to be Su Zeyue’s doing.]
[I didn’t think what was said in this post was credible in the first place. There wasn’t any proof at all. Good thing I didn’t believe it.]
[That’s low of Su Zeyue. Even if she sees Lu Guixin as an eyesore, she shouldn’t damage her reputation…]
[That explains why Zhou Fu said what he said back then after the flag-raising ceremony.]
[She’s revolting. Someone as two-faced as her is even worse than Lu Guixin with bad grades…]
It was chaotic in the school forum.
The color drained from Su Zeyue’s face when she saw all those comments. She turned to her mother and tearfully demanded, “Delete them, Mom! Get them to delete everything!”
Mrs. Su, who had read the comments from the side, sent a glare in Mr. Dong’s direction right away. “Didn’t you hear that? Delete everything this instant!”
Mr. Dong looked at Principal Lin, who just calmly sat there and did nothing.
“Principal Lin.” Su Cheng turned to him, livid. “Hurry up and settle this matter! Do I have to get the city bureau involved? Do you still want your job?”
“You want to abuse your authority, huh?” The mysterious woman slowly said.
Su Cheng stared at the screen and was about to say something when a black figure with a menacing aura suddenly appeared in front of the camera. She lazily sat down on the sofa and stacked her legs on the coffee table before looking up. The hostility in her dark, squinted eyes was almost creepy. “You want to get the city bureau involved? Go on.”
The moment her beautiful and stunning face appeared on the screen, everyone except Principal Lin was shocked as they stared dumbly at it.
Everyone in Ming City High School, and even the students’ parents, couldn’t be any more familiar with this face, for her profile was just hanging on the school’s wall of fame. Even though it had been many years since she had graduated, time showed no traces on her face—she looked exactly like her photo hung up on the wall of fame. And that was why Mr. and Mrs. Su recognized her instantly.
“G-Gu Mang?” Mrs. Su’s voice dropped to a whisper.
Meanwhile, Su Zeyue’s mind drew a complete blank. Gu Mang… Lu Guixin… is Gu Mang’s daughter?
Su Cheng, on the other hand, trembled when he saw the woman in black loose home clothes. Doesn’t that mean that man is… Lu Chengzhou?
His vision went black, and his legs almost gave way when he recalled what he had said earlier.
“Two million in exchange for my daughter’s withdrawal?” The smirk remained on Lu Chengzhou’s face throughout. “Mr. Su?”
