Chapter 8

“Father Lin, our daughter Shishi was also at fault in this matter. Rest assured, we will educate her properly when we return home.” Other than this sentence, she refused to discuss anything else.

Ever since she entered the room, she had been trying to shrink into the background, lowering her presence and staying silent. Lin Nanzhi found this behavior somewhat contemptible.

Father Lin ignored her completely, making Ma Shishi’s mother look even more embarrassed.

“Student Lin Nanzhi, could you forgive our Shishi? She didn’t do it on purpose, it was just an accident…”

Lin Nanzhi didn’t even acknowledge her. Before she could finish speaking, Lin Nanzhi interrupted, “She didn’t do it on purpose… Hmm, but the school is making everyone pay 500 each. I wonder, Auntie, how much are you willing to pay per person?”

Ma Shishi’s mother: “……”

Was this girl obsessed with money? Every sentence she spoke was about money!

She certainly didn’t want to pay a single cent. In her mind, her daughter had merely written an anonymous report letter—the rest of the situation was the teachers’ fault. If the teachers had investigated properly, this wouldn’t have happened. In the end, her Shishi was actually the one who was unfairly treated.

She believed they had acted out of good intentions but were met with such an unjust outcome.

Though she felt this way, she noticed that everyone’s eyes were now on her. Left with no choice, she forced a smile and said hesitantly, “Three… three hundred?”

Three hundred per person meant a total of 1,500 for five people. Ma Shishi’s mother felt her heart bleed, but she still clenched her teeth, took the money out of her bag, and handed it to the principal.

The principal happily accepted it, gave 300 to Father Lin, and assured her that the remaining amount would be distributed to the other four students. This made Ma Shishi’s mother’s face turn red with anger, but she had no choice but to endure it.

“Principal, it’s getting late. I’ll take Shishi home now and educate her properly,” she said as she grabbed Ma Shishi and quickly left.

Watching the mother and daughter leave, Lin Nanzhi sighed inwardly. She didn’t just want them to pay for damages, but since they were minors, this would only be considered a trivial matter. Getting them to compensate was already a good outcome; otherwise, all she would get was an insincere apology.

At this moment, compared to a hollow “sorry,” she found that money felt much more satisfying.

She then turned to the police officers and said, “Uncle Officers, thank you for upholding justice for me.”

“Serving the people is our duty,” the officer replied.

Since their work here was done, the officers left.

“Sister, here’s the money I borrowed from you last time.” Lin Nanzhi handed 15 yuan to the young woman, who was momentarily stunned but accepted it. Then, she turned to the principal and said, “Principal Chen, I hope this matter ends here and that there won’t be a next time. When handling situations like this, please be more thorough to avoid wrongly accusing students…”

—-

The young woman said a lot more before leaving with her colleagues. The principal and other staff escorted them out, then turned to Father Lin and his daughter with a smile. “Father Lin, this was our school’s fault. From now on, if Lin Nanzhi needs anything related to her studies, she can come to me anytime.”

This sounded nice, but in reality, it was just pleasantries. If Lin Nanzhi ever actually went to him for help, he would probably be unhappy about it and only provide a half-hearted response.

Father Lin simply nodded, then left with Lin Nanzhi.

On the way home, Father Lin was riding his motorcycle with Lin Nanzhi sitting behind him. He wanted to ask her something but hesitated. Since he had been working away from home for years and had only returned recently, his relationship with his daughter wasn’t particularly close—just slightly better than that of strangers.

Adding to that, Lin Nanzhi wasn’t much of a talker. So, even though he had many thoughts, he kept them to himself. The only sound that filled the air was the roar of the motorcycle engine.

Meanwhile, Lin Nanzhi thought for a moment before finally speaking up, “Dad, can I have all the compensation money from today?”

Aside from the 300 yuan from Wang Zi’s mother, the rest of the money was in Father Lin’s hands.

“Sure, I’ll give it to you when we get home.”

—-

On a normal day, if she had dared to ask for money like this, she would have been scolded or even beaten. But today, because of what had happened, she felt a little more confident. She had expected her father to at least ask her what she needed the money for, but surprisingly, he agreed without hesitation.

Since she wasn’t particularly close to her parents and wasn’t the talkative type, she simply pressed her lips together and chose not to say anything more.

The motorcycle sped along, and in about ten minutes, they arrived at their village. They happened to run into Wang Zi’s mother, who was about to deliver the compensation money. After exchanging a few polite words, Father Lin took the 700 yuan and handed it to Lin Nanzhi.

The corners of Lin Nanzhi’s lips curled up slightly. Even the discomfort from the bumpy ride seemed to vanish, and she suddenly felt in a great mood.

When they got home, Father Lin gave her the 500 yuan from the school and the 300 yuan from the Ma family. With the 1,000 yuan she already had, she now had a total of 1,800 yuan.

She planned to use this money to buy a laptop. Winter break was coming, and she wouldn’t have time to keep running to town. The round-trip fare was 6 yuan, and using an internet café also cost money—not to mention the hassle. Buying a laptop would be much more convenient.

1,800 yuan wasn’t enough to buy a high-end laptop, but it was more than enough for a decent one.

—-

The next morning, Lin Nanzhi changed into a fresh outfit and took the 1,800 yuan to the city. She visited multiple stores, finding that while prices weren’t too high, the specs were all pretty low-end. However, considering this was just a small county, it wasn’t too surprising.

After checking several stores, she found that the most expensive laptop cost over 3,000 yuan, while the cheapest second-hand one was only 800 yuan.

None of them satisfied her—either the specs were too low, the color wasn’t to her liking, the quality seemed questionable, or the price was too high. By noon, she still hadn’t found anything.

She decided to keep looking. If she really couldn’t find a suitable laptop, she would just settle for one with lower specs or even consider buying a desktop computer, which could also be useful for research.

With that thought in mind, she strode forward. Suddenly, she noticed an elderly man walking in the middle of the street. A car was speeding toward him, about to hit him. Without thinking, she dashed forward and pulled the old man back just in time.

The driver slammed on the brakes and cursed, “Where the hell did this stupid kid come from? Walking without looking? Do you have a death wish?”

Lin Nanzhi was speechless.

You’re the one who wasn’t paying attention while driving, yet you have the audacity to act like the victim?

What if you had actually hit someone?

Just as she was about to snap back at him, the driver sped off. All she could do was roll her eyes and mutter curses at the irresponsible driver. She turned around to check on the elderly man—only to find that he was gone.

She glanced around but saw no sign of him. Instead, the nearby pedestrians were looking at her as if she was crazy.

A chill ran down her spine.

—-

In her previous life, she hadn’t been an atheist. She had a deep respect for supernatural forces. And now that she had been reborn, she believed in them even more.

So… had she just encountered a ghost?

Even in broad daylight, she suddenly felt an eerie chill in the air. Not daring to linger any longer, she ran away as fast as she could. After running for a long time, she finally stopped, panting heavily with her hands on her knees.

She wasn’t even sure where she had ended up.

She looked up to check her surroundings and realized she was in a dead-end alley. Directly in front of her was a lottery shop, and to her left was a phone store.

She turned to look behind her—just beyond the alley was the bustling city center.

That’s strange…

Did this alley even exist in the city?

As she was puzzling over it, a middle-aged woman stepped out of the phone store. She looked at Lin Nanzhi and smiled kindly.

“Little girl, would you like to take a look at some laptops?”

Lin Nanzhi: “……”

This was getting even creepier.