"Her cheating is a nailed-on fact, what’s there to doubt?"
A sharp-faced student from the Rocket Class said disdainfully, "If she didn’t cheat, how could she possibly rank first? And exactly seven hundred and forty points at that? There’s only one possibility!"
"There’s a problem with her scores!"
A girl beside him retorted, "Isn’t that stating the obvious?"
"Everyone knows there’s a problem with her scores, but how do we prove it?"
This question was indeed not easy to answer.
No matter how Shi Yaoguang had cheated, they needed concrete evidence.
From whom could she have copied?
With the first rank this time, and a score close to perfect.
Nobody should have been able to let her copy that score, right?
Moreover, she had been last in the previous mock exam, which meant no advantage in the seating arrangements during the test.
During the exam, the scores of people around her were all pretty bad.
In such an environment, whose test could she possibly have copied?
"Who knows how she managed to copy? Maybe someone gave her the answers in advance, and she just copied from there."
The moment these words were uttered, they shocked everyone present.
"Oh my God, it couldn’t really be like that, could it?"
"What’s so impossible about that?"
"Wasn’t there talk before that she had some connection with the principal? Maybe the principal helped her cheat."
"Tsk, tsk, isn’t that too dark? The principal is the head of Ruihe High School, surely he wouldn’t open that door for her?"
"No matter what, cheating is unacceptable to us! We must seek justice for ourselves!"
"Hahaha, speaking of which, I think we should seek justice for the whole grade."
"Hm? What do you mean by that?"
"You guys haven’t forgotten Shi Yaoguang’s true level, have you? Last place!"
"The one who went from last place to scoring well all of a sudden, aren’t they eclipsing those who used to have better scores? If we can find evidence that she cheated, we’d be helping the whole grade!"
Hearing this, the crowd joined in agreement, "That’s right, that’s right, we’d indeed be acting as agents of justice."
"Hahaha, this is so thrilling, I never imagined we’d have a day of acting as agents of justice."
"Helping to eradicate social cancers is the right thing to do, let’s not get ahead of ourselves..."
Shi Yiqing listened to the noisy voices in the class, feeling uneasy at the core.
When she sneaked a peek at the test papers, she had not expected Shi Yaoguang to rank first.
According to her, Shi Yaoguang’s true abilities would come to light upon examination.
Even without brains, she wouldn’t have scored so high directly.
But reality slapped her hard across the face.
Shi Yaoguang not only scored the highest marks, but just like the last time, she scored seven hundred and forty points.
Even after sneaking a look at the test and searching for the correct answers beforehand, she merely managed to score seven hundred and thirty through her own abilities.
If the rumor about "Shi Yaoguang cheating" blows up...
The school investigated whether Shi Yaoguang had cheated, thereby implicating her, and her future was ruined...
Shi Yiqing considered this, and when she heard others say they were going to trouble Shi Yaoguang, she raised her voice sharply and shouted, "You can’t go! You can’t go!"
Upon hearing this, everyone turned to look at her, surprised.
Shi Yiqing took a deep breath, trying to appear calmer.
After struggling for a long time, she finally said, "I just think that you all..."
"I..." Shi Yiqing bit her lip, tears rolling down, "Can you please not go? I really don’t want you to trouble my sister."
Seeing her suddenly cry, the students from the Rocket Class were flabbergasted.
A girl asked in astonishment, "We just want to seek justice for ourselves, why can’t we go?"
"If Shi Yaoguang dared to do such a shameful thing, she shouldn’t be using it as an excuse."
"Shi Yiqing, you’re not being a saint, are you?" someone couldn’t help questioning, "After all she did to you, you still defend her? Or do you have a masochistic tendency?"
Shi Yiqing wiped her tears, saying aggrievedly, "It’s not like that; I don’t have a masochistic tendency. I just... I just feel guilty, that’s all."
"Guilty? Why should we suffer this loss just because you feel guilty?"
"Exactly, do you not understand how important ranking is to us?"
"Moreover, if the monthly test questions were really leaked, why should Shi Yaoguang compete with us? It’s already unfair that she took the test with the answers!"
"We must seek justice from her!"
Shi Yiqing looked at her impassioned classmates, steeled her heart, and blurted out, "If you want justice, I’ll give it back to you!"
"What do you mean by that?"
Everyone turned to her in unison.
Shi Yiqing bit her lip, struggling to say, "I can cancel my scores."
The crowd looked at her incredulously, "Do you even know what you’re saying?"
Shi Yiqing nodded with red eyes, "I know..."
Her tone was sorrowful, "No matter how disgraceful she may be, she’s still my parents’ biological daughter. She’s taken her place, I can’t... I can’t just stand by idly."
She first expressed her inner feelings, and then concluded, "I know she gained an unfair advantage by cheating, blocking certain students’ paths. For this, I’m willing to cancel my own scores."
Speaking, she lifted her pale face and offered a forced smile to everyone, "After my scores are canceled, everyone’s ranking will go up by one, and then it’ll be fair to you all."
Hearing her words, the students of the Rocket Class all felt uncomfortable.
Someone even cursed Shi Yaoguang directly, "What kind of mess is this? Why should you carry the burden for the shameless actions of Shi Yaoguang’s cheating? Just because you took her identity?"
"Shi Yiqing, are you being foolish? Even if you took her identity, it wasn’t by your own initiative! Frankly, you don’t owe her anything; there’s no need for you to do this for her!"
"But..." Shi Yiqing bit her lip, looking down, "But after all, she is my parents’ daughter, and that blood relation cannot be severed."
Someone said bluntly, "What bond cannot be severed? Shi Group has more than once issued statements to cut ties with her. Shi Yaoguang is no longer their daughter anymore."
"Exactly, Shi Yiqing, you shouldn’t take her too seriously."
Persuaded by everyone, Shi Yiqing still did not waver.
"I’m sorry, everyone, whether you think I’m a saint or feel that I’m being too protective of her, this time I absolutely have to stand by her side no matter what."
As she spoke, she made a gesture as if she wanted to kneel on the spot, "We’ve been classmates for so long, please, I’m begging you, can you not go?"
Seeing her tearful appearance, everyone couldn’t help but feel swayed.
Just then, a commotion came from outside, followed by someone shouting loudly, "Shi Yaoguang is here!"