15 : Apology

 Her expression was disdainful, her tone contemptuous.

[1st Floor]: Who said cheating! Why aren't you saying anything now?

[2nd Floor]: Does Song Shi need to cheat with his grades? I won't say who's jealous.

[3rd Floor]: If you ask me, the surveillance video released by your Third Middle School wasn't properly edited. The conversation between those two is also in the video on your official website.

[4th Floor]: Are you so eager to pin the blame on our First Middle School? Are you panicking?

[5th Floor]: Why aren't the people from Third Middle School speaking up? Our First Middle School has three students in the top five now.

[6th Floor]: And your teachers at Third Middle School are the same kind of scum. Like teacher, like student.

[7th Floor]: Apologize!

[8th Floor]: Apologize!

...

The rest of the posts were all demanding an apology from Third Middle School. Jiang Man's mood finally improved a lot these past few days. She still hadn't exposed the student from Third Middle School who framed Song Shi.

Third Middle School wanted to use that student as a scapegoat, but Jiang Man refused. Since it was a student who caused the trouble, the school should take responsibility. At

Third Middle School,

a group of people in uniforms were smoking behind the teaching building. One person with dyed yellow hair looked anxiously at the person standing in front: "Jiajin, what do we do now? It seems like things have gotten out of hand."

Chen Jiajin looked at the online forum on her phone. She hadn't expected they could find evidence like this; they couldn't even handle things properly!

Frustrated, she pursed her lips: "You figure it out yourself. Just don't implicate me, and everything will be fine."

"What if I get expelled?"

"Don't panic, I'll find you a school. Your sister can still stay at that elementary school."

The person thought for a moment and nodded: "Okay, as long as my sister can go to school, everything will be fine."

Not long after, Third Middle School deleted the post and then released a video of the two teachers and the student who bumped into Song Shi apologizing.

Xiacheng No. 3 Middle School: [Due to our school's mistake, Song's grades were invalidated. We hereby offer our sincere apologies and will reflect on our actions to ensure such a situation never happens again.]

[Punishment: Teacher Zhang and Teacher He from the Academic Affairs Office of Xiacheng No. 3 Middle School are suspended for one week due to inappropriate language.]

[Punishment: Student Xiao from Xiacheng No. 3 Middle School is suspended for one month for framing a classmate and committing a disciplinary violation; his record will be kept.]

The school prohibited students from leaving comments under this post, and the matter was considered closed. Less than half an hour later, the school printed out the new rankings and sent them to various universities.

Jiang Man announced the results to the class: "The final results are out. According to the results, eight out of the 50 students in our class will make it into the competition class, 12 out of the other classes, 19 from No. 3 Middle School, 6 from Experimental High School, 4 from No. 9 Middle School, and 1 from No. 6 Middle School's college entrance exam class."

"This is the first piece of good news. We narrowly won the match against No. 3 Middle School because Song Shi's grades improved."

"Damn! No. 1 Middle School is awesome! Song Shi is awesome!"

"Class 1 is the best! Song Shi is the most awesome! We finally suppressed those people from No. 3 Middle School!"

"Damn! Is Mantou going to have a three-day trip?!"

Jiang Man slapped the table: "Yes, this is the second piece of good news. There will be no evening self-study after this class tonight. We will meet at the No. 1 Middle School gate at 9 o'clock tomorrow for a three-day trip!" The cheers

almost broke through the walls of the teaching building.

"Ahhh! No. 1 Middle School is awesome! The principal is awesome!"

"We've finally waited for this!"

"From now on, Song Shi is my brother!"

"Brother Shi!"

At the center of the discussion, one person was looking down at their phone with a frown, while another was propping their head up and laughing heartily while also looking at their phone.

Song Shi looked at his phone's balance. Going out would definitely cost money. He also had some money saved from his summer job as a gaming companion on WeChat, and some more on another card.

All together, it was only a few thousand yuan. He tapped on his contacts at the bottom.

S: [Sister Mo, do you have any orders to take recently?]

The other end replied instantly.

Mo: [Yes, Xiao Shi, short on cash again? If you want to take orders, I can raise your price a bit, just chat more.]

S: [No need, let's stick to the previous price.]

Song Shi pursed his lips. He wasn't good at chatting; he'd been reported by clients before for being too cold. Later, he did some boosting, but the money wasn't as much as gaming companion work, and he always got scammed.

Mo: [How about this, you can become a game streamer with me, you'll earn much more than this.]

S: [Requirements]

Mo: [No requirements, just two or three hours a day for streaming, no showing your face, no talking, just showing off your skills, is that okay?]

Mo: [I'll split the tips 40/60, I get 40%, you get 60%, that's the best I can offer.]

Two or three hours? He's still living at school, and besides not having time, the double dorm room is even more inconvenient.

But seeing the message from the other party, he was indeed a little tempted.

S: [I'll contact you when I need something]

Mo: [Okay.]

There's no rush now. If he runs out of money, he can sell that car. That black warrior was bought with money he saved up when he had some. His mother left him a lot of things after she passed away, but Song Jinming took them all.

He should still be able to sell it for 80,000 or 90,000 yuan, which can last him a while.

He Xi turned his head and saw Chen Zhoumu smiling at his phone. He leaned over to look, and his expression was indescribable because it was a photo of him and Song Shi that he had forwarded to Chen Zhoumu.

He really felt that his brother Mu was going to become gay. He interrupted the other's gaze and handed him his phone.

"Brother Mu, can you show me that photo I posted on my WeChat Moments?"

Chen Zhoumu raised an eyebrow and put his phone away. As far as he knew, He Xi seemed to have started an online romance recently, something he met in a game. The girl had a pretty nice voice, but she was always being coquettish, asking He Xi to buy her this and that.

He had warned her beforehand that it might be someone using a voice changer, and she might get scammed. Losing money wasn't the main issue; the main problem was that she had invested emotionally, and she would definitely be heartbroken for a while.

The two photos were taken from the same angle, with the same gestures. Chen Zhoumu thought they were indistinguishable and randomly clicked on one. The other person grinned and went to post the picture.

*

Last night, I don't know what suddenly happened to my older brother; he was incredibly energetic. When the two of them returned to the dorm, they discovered that the bed sheet that had been drying on the windowsill was almost dry.

But my older brother had somehow taken it down, and when they came back, they found him lying on it, sleeping, with a large hole torn in the sheet beneath him.

The entire sheet was ruined. The door to the balcony must have been left ajar, and my older brother had probably broken it open. Luckily, he hadn't run out and was unharmed.

Looking at the ripped sheets, Song Shi took a long time to accept it, thinking he should buy a new one for the other person tomorrow. He should have bought a new one that night.

After the lights were turned off, the older brother still didn't stop, running around the room like a parkourer. Finally, Chen Zhoumu caught him and stuffed him into the blanket before the older brother could finally sleep.

But it was already around three or four in the morning.

Song Shi was incredibly sleepy again this morning. Chen Zhoumu set the alarm and turned it off, then looked at the person next to him, who was frowning and didn't want to wake up.

"Get up."

"Mmm..."

He didn't move an inch.

Chen Zhoumu found Song Shi's appearance rather cute; his usual cold expression was completely gone, and his eyelashes cast shadows.

"I'll go wash up first. What do you want for breakfast? I'll bring it to you later."

There was still no movement from the other side.

Chen Zhoumu got up and tucked him back in. His older brother quietly slept beside Song Shi.

Song Shi felt like he couldn't open his eyelids at all. He could hear the other person speaking, but his mouth was sealed shut, and his head was foggy; he'd been up too late last night.

A minty scent of toothpaste wafted to his nose: "I'll go buy breakfast first. I'll get up soon after sleeping a little longer."

His cheek was poked.

Song Shi felt a bit irritated, his morning grumpiness suddenly flaring up. He opened his eyes and saw the other person staring at him, then sighed inwardly and forced himself to suppress the urge: "Okay."

Hearing the response, the person took the keys and left.

Song Shi couldn't fall back asleep after being bothered for a while. He sat up and rested for a bit; there was still an hour before the meeting time. His older brother also crawled out of bed and rubbed his hand against

Song Shi's. Once his head wasn't so muddled anymore, Song Shi got up and went to the bathroom. He picked up his toothbrush only to find that the other person had already filled his cup with water and squeezed out the toothpaste.

When he went to change, he found that the other person had also neatly folded his clothes for the day and placed them on the upper bunk.

Song Shi: "..." Was that necessary? He hadn't slept well, he wasn't disabled.

The two only brought one suitcase. Chen Zhoumu went to put his luggage down first. When Song Shi boarded the bus, quite a few people had already arrived. The school had gone all out this time; one class had two buses, and everyone could get a seat.

Song Shi sat by the window, naturally next to Chen Zhoumu. Chen Zhoumu came straight over after Song Shi arrived, and He Xi, sitting in front of him, turned around.

"Brother Mu, what did you guys do last night?"

He Xi glanced at Song Shi, who was catching up on sleep in his seat. He was hesitant to talk to Song Shi, mainly because no one in the class dared to talk to him.

Song Shi seemed cold and unapproachable, and after witnessing Song Shi's two outbursts, He Xi was even more afraid to speak to him.

He was intimidating, quiet, and aloof, like the "Bking" (a derogatory term for someone who is overly confident or arrogant) described online. However, he was academically gifted and handsome, so many girls liked him, but none dared to confess their feelings.

Song Shi wasn't as approachable as Chen Zhoumu; in his opinion, only Chen Zhoumu was closer to him.

Chen Zhoumu turned to look at the person dozing in his seat. Song Shi had very fair skin; he hadn't slept much during the three nights of the joint entrance exam, including last night, so there were some dark circles under his eyes.

"I didn't sleep well last night. I went to bed on time, but I tossed and turned until the early hours."

He Xi frowned. "Hmm... something doesn't sound right."

Song Shi opened her eyes and glared at Chen Zhoumu. "If you can't speak properly, shut up."

Chen Zhoumu saw Song Shi open her eyes and waved at He Xi. "Turn around, you're disturbing my deskmate's sleep."

Then he turned to the person sitting next to him. "Want to lean on my shoulder?"

"No."

"Come on, I don't mind your heavy head."

"If you say that again, go sit in the back."

"Okay."

He Xi turned her head, feeling awkward. Damn it, she was already full this morning.

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