Chapter 6

“Good afternoon, teachers, students, and parents.

First of all, I would like to thank all the parents for taking time out of their busy schedules to attend this parent-teacher meeting.

This semester is coming to an end. Over the past few months, with the dedication of teachers, the efforts of students, and the support of parents, it is now time for a review.

After today’s meeting, the semester will officially conclude. The final exams will be held on the 29th, so I hope both teachers and students are well-prepared.

As for the new semester…”

The speaker was the director of the academic affairs office. He held a microphone and talked on and on for a long time before finally handing it over to the principal.

The principal took the microphone and said, “Today’s meeting covers six topics.

The first topic is the newly issued document…”

Although he mentioned six topics, each one took an eternity to explain, and the content was almost identical to what the academic affairs director had just said—like an extended version of a composition exercise.

People in the audience had already started complaining.

It was always like this. Every time there was a meeting, the same thing was repeated over and over again. One speaker would finish, then the next would repeat it, followed by another person repeating it again. After hearing it so many times, people ended up remembering nothing.

If you were to randomly pull someone aside and ask them what the key points were, they probably wouldn’t be able to answer.

Eventually, the principal brought up the issue of early romantic relationships.

Instantly, everyone’s eyes instinctively turned toward Lin Nanzhi.

There were many students involved in early relationships, and everyone knew it. But over the past two to three weeks, the most well-known case was Lin Nanzhi’s. Not only had she publicly denied being in a relationship, but she had also reported the matter to the police. She hadn’t attended school for a week and had become the most famous student at Qingya High School.

Lin Nanzhi kept her gaze forward, but she could feel all the looks coming from different directions—some were resentful, some schadenfreude, and some curious or concerned.

The ones who resented her were likely those who had been exposed because of her actions.

As for the others, Lin Nanzhi didn’t care.

—-

On stage, the principal continued lecturing about the dangers of early relationships, saying that they were not real love but just immature feelings of adolescence. After talking for a while, he finally moved on to the most important topic of today’s meeting.

In fact, since the final exams were approaching, the school hadn’t planned to hold another meeting, as they had already had one recently. However, this meeting was mandated by the education bureau to clear the names of a few female students.

In small towns like this, many people held traditional views, and a girl’s reputation was considered more important than anything else. If the situation wasn’t clarified properly, within half a month, rumors would spread across the entire region, claiming that several female students at Qingya High School had been in relationships and even gotten pregnant.

Several teachers had already been suspended over this incident, and no one knew when they would be reinstated. It was best to handle things carefully.

“The last issue I want to address is an apology,” the principal said. “On behalf of all the faculty and students, I sincerely apologize to Lin Nanzhi, Luo Manman, Liu Ai, Zhao Xiaoyu, and Zhao Wei from Class 2-1. We wrongly assumed that these five students were in early relationships without verifying the authenticity of the anonymous report.

Furthermore, due to the actions of certain teachers, the rumors escalated, which negatively impacted Lin Nanzhi’s reputation.

We hereby guarantee that in the future, we will not falsely accuse any student. At the same time, we will not tolerate any students who are actually in early relationships.”

Among the eight students originally accused, these five had never been in a relationship. However, there were indeed some who were guilty. By clearing the names of five students, the principal had indirectly confirmed that the remaining three were actually in relationships.

Although this was the truth, the way it was handled felt inappropriate—it would have been better to avoid mentioning names altogether.

Hearing this, the parents started looking around, trying to spot the students from Class 2-1.

Meanwhile, the parents of Class 2-1 students were looking for the parents of the accused students. The accused students’ parents, in turn, glanced backward, but behind them stood only seventh-grade students. It was impossible to spot their own children, so they withdrew their gazes.

However, in their hearts, they couldn’t help but wonder—had they been too neglectful of their children? How could something this serious have happened without them knowing at all?

Especially Lin Nanzhi’s father.

He was a rather traditional man with a strong patriarchal mindset. He believed that raising children was the mother’s responsibility, while his only duty was to earn money. He never inquired about his children’s school life. It was only because he had divorced Lin Nanzhi’s mother that he was now forced to attend some school meetings. But he was always busy and had little time for his children. Hearing all this, he was extremely shocked.

He wanted to ask what had happened, but in Class 2-1, there were only two girls in their group—Lin Nanzhi and another girl. He didn’t know the parents of the other accused students, so he could only keep his questions to himself and wait to ask Lin Nanzhi later.

Once the principal had finished speaking, a representative from the education bureau took the stage.

To Lin Nanzhi’s surprise, it was the same young woman she had met the other day.

Perhaps tired of long-winded speeches, the education bureau representative kept her remarks concise. She directly announced that the negligent teachers had been suspended and emphasized that the bureau would not tolerate such issues. She also reminded students that if they experienced unfair treatment or discrimination from teachers, they could report it directly to the education bureau.

Finally, she addressed another issue—persuading dropouts to return to school.

She explained that student records were usually kept for several years, meaning that as long as a dropout hadn’t been out of school for too long, they could still return. The education bureau was willing to help resolve issues to ensure more students could continue their education. While studying wasn’t the only path in life, it was often the best one.

Her speech was met with enthusiastic applause from the parents.

With that, the school-wide meeting concluded.

However, there was still a smaller, more private meeting to follow.

The attendees included the principal, the academic affairs director, representatives from the education bureau, the eight accused students, the student who had reported them, and their parents. A dozen or so people crammed into the office.

Lin Nanzhi finally saw the person who had reported them.

It was a fourteen-year-old girl with fair skin, a round face, and strikingly beautiful eyes. Her other features were fairly ordinary. Her name was Ma Shishi, and she was the class academic representative for Class 2-1. She lived in the dormitory next to Lin Nanzhi’s.

Lin Nanzhi wasn’t surprised at all—in fact, she had expected it.

She knew it was her!

Most students in early relationships kept things low-key during the day. They wouldn’t get too close in public but would hold hands and chat in the schoolyard at night. The accused students were all boarders, and two of them were very outspoken, often talking about personal matters. Given that the dormitory next door frequently had visitors, it wasn’t surprising that someone had overheard them.

Ma Shishi was a model student, well-liked by teachers due to her excellent grades. However, she had a habit of tattling on others, which made her unpopular among classmates. She only had two friends, both of whom flattered her endlessly.

It was one thing to report actual cases of early relationships but falsely accusing those who weren’t involved—that was just plain malicious.