Chapter 40: The Post Scolding Me Has Been Highlighted

Jiang Chiyu didn’t return for the entire morning reading period on Monday.

After the reading period, there was a flag-raising ceremony that required wearing the full school uniform. Su Tian took out her uniform jacket from her bag, put it on, and went out.

She usually waited for Zhou Ying outside the classroom. After waiting for a long time without seeing her, she peeked inside the classroom but didn’t see her there either.

Could she have gone to the restroom or left early?

Running out of time, Su Tian stopped waiting and ran downstairs.

When she reached the class gathering spot, she was the last one again, standing at the very end of the girls’ line.

Boys and girls stood separately, with the ratio being about 50/50 in their class. There were two more girls than boys.

So Su Tian was essentially standing in the very last row of the entire class, all by herself. It felt empty on both sides behind her. Most people didn’t like standing in the back, feeling awkward and extra, not to mention small movements could easily be spotted by the student council inspectors.

She looked ahead and didn’t see Zhou Ying in the front rows either.

Either still in the restroom, or absent.

The flag ceremony began. After singing the national anthem and saluting, it was time for the school leaders’ speech. This part was both long and boring. Many students were getting impatient. Su Tian dropped her eyelids and took out the English vocabulary flashcards she had been hiding in her sleeves, quietly memorizing.

The student council members started patrolling between the classes.

Those who were fidgeting and whispering gradually fell silent.

The inspectors walked from the front to the back of the lines, recording those who were talking or not in uniform.

“Your item fell, classmate,” a gentle smiling face greeted Su Tian, who was absorbed in memorizing vocabulary.

Song Yingjing, wearing his uniform with the school student council badge pinned on his chest, held out his hand towards her while holding a pen and notebook in the other.

The tall, slender boy with delicate features and silver-framed glasses had already attracted the attention of many girls as he walked by.

“Don’t move around, or points will be deducted.” An Ran stood on the other side of the line. Seeing the small-scale commotion among the girls, she reminded them coldly.

Dressed the same way with paper and pen in hand, her paper was already full of names.

Su Tian looked at An Ran, then at Song Yingjing. He was still holding out his hand, so she dazedly stretched out her palm as well.

Song Yingjing then placed a small item in her palm.

Opening her hand, Su Tian saw it was a piece of candy.

But she didn’t bring any candy out with her.

Looking up, she saw Song Yingjing wink at her.

Su Tian became happy. Not daring to smile too obviously, she hid the candy in her palm and held it tightly.

An Ran glanced over at them, looking a bit exasperated, but didn’t say anything.

The two of them quickly moved on to the next class.

After walking not too far, An Ran suddenly stopped and looked towards Su Tian’s class lineup.

“What’s wrong?” Song Yingjing asked.

“Nothing.” An Ran replied, but didn’t move her feet. “Aren’t two people missing from Su Tian’s class?”

Song Yingjing also looked over and chuckled, “You even know how many people are in their class?”

“It’s because I’m in a group with you, checking on their class assessments every day.” An Ran’s gaze lingered on the boys’ line for a while. Not seeing who she wanted to see, she pretended to look elsewhere casually. “Their class used to have an odd number of boys and an even number of girls. Then a new boy came and made both numbers even, so there wouldn’t be a situation where only one person is in the last row.”

Song Yingjing looked towards the end of the line. There was only one person in both the last row of girls and boys.

“Maybe they’re on leave,” he said.

An Ran flipped to their class attendance records, “Only one girl is on leave, so one boy didn’t come.”

“What a good memory,” Song Yingjing smiled faintly again. “You’ll get in trouble sooner or later.”

“Haven’t you seen my posts getting pinned on the school message board already?” An Ran said coldly. “I’ve been the target of a lot of criticism.”

With that, seeing a few playful boys from another class, she glanced at their team position and deducted points for that class without hesitation.

“Sparing their class this time for your sake,” An Ran walked towards the next class. “Don’t let it happen again.”

Song Yingjing shook his head with a smile and followed.

Su Tian had almost finished memorizing the vocabulary, but the leaders’ speech was still not over.

She yawned slightly, lowering her head to look at her toes, feeling a bit sleepy.

“…Classmates, you are at the age of studying, don’t care about things other than learning! Don’t prematurely focus on relationships outside of family and friendship! Be careful! Our school strictly prohibits puppy love!”

Su Tian slowly woke up, startled by this statement.

“You’re only in your teens. Even if you date now, you’ll break up. How many couples can truly make it to marriage? Especially online dating! Onsite school dating can be called lovesick at least! Online dating means you have no brain!”

Students on the field laughed.

“Some of you probably heard, a few days ago, our school had an online fraud incident. A girl spent 2,300 yuan to buy a boy’s contact information!”

The students were in an uproar, whispering to each other.

Su Tian paused for a moment but still kept her head down, ears perked up to listen.

“And it was fake! The scammer staged a show, packaging his accomplice’s WeChat and selling it. The girl had an online relationship with the accomplice after chatting for a few days. Yesterday, she ordered takeout for the accomplice and had the delivery person take a photo, only to realize she had been scammed. So she turned on the scammer’s accomplice, but he denied it, saying that was his online name.”

Another round of laughter erupted. “Damn, who is it? So impressive.”

The school leader continued, “After investigation, we found out the scammer is also a student at our school, and the accomplice is an outsider. Classmates, this incident is very serious in nature and can’t be resolved just by expulsion. Now both of them are suspected of fraud and have been taken to the police station, handed over to the police for handling.”

Su Tian’s legs were a bit numb from standing. She put away the English vocabulary cards and twisted her ankles.

She didn’t know what to say, sighing softly.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone approaching. Glancing over, Su Tian froze.

It was Jiang Chiyu.

He walked over to the end of the boys’ line as if he was taking a leisurely stroll, but didn’t go to fill the gap in the last row. Instead, he stood behind the extra boy.

In the same row as Su Tian.

Right next to her.

Others noticed and also secretly glanced at him.

The school leader was still talking, “This morning, the girl voluntarily said in the office that she wanted to share her scam experience with her classmates to prevent others from falling victim. This girl corrects her mistakes and is very brave, a good child. Next, let’s invite her to give a speech on stage.”

The students on the field were already in a frenzy, craning their necks to look at the podium.