"We’re not stupid," Liang Xiao said matter-of-factly.
However, the gaze of everyone across from her fell on her, because she had been the most agitated when she spoke about the incident.
"I’ve known about this for months and haven’t said a word normally; I was just angry just now. I promise I won’t talk carelessly," she assured.
This was indeed true. "Alright, let’s continue with the class. We’ve wasted so much time; it must be almost the end of the period," someone remarked.
As expected, no sooner had this been said than the bell rang for the end of class.
Seeing everyone return, the classmates quickly asked.
"Class President, how is Mei Mengzhen? Is it serious?"
"Yeah, Class President, is Mengzhen’s injury serious?"
The Class President took a deep breath. "It’s bad; her tongue is bitten deeply both on top and bottom, and there was a lot of bleeding, but it’s not that serious because the tongue wasn’t completely bitten off and she doesn’t need to go to the hospital for stitches. The bleeding is ongoing, so she’s lying in the School Infirmary right now. Oh, and she took a painkiller," the Class President said, describing the situation factually without exaggeration or minimizing.
Even so, people considered the injury quite severe and looked at Chen Junjie with even greater disapproval.
Chen Junjie was feeling regretful. Had he been possessed or what? Why had he been so impulsive? He hadn’t meant to do it, but what should he do about his remorse?
With anxiety overwhelming his thoughts, Chen Junjie was filled with unease throughout the next two classes. During this time, Mi Liang called him out.
Although Mei Mengzhen’s injury wasn’t serious enough for a hospital, it wasn’t minor either. The fact that Mengzhen had no parents to stand up for her couldn’t mean the incident would just be forgotten. The more pressing the situation, the clearer the teachers’ importance became. Mi Liang felt he had to secure justice for Mengzhen; if nothing else, at least an apology was due.
Therefore, after escorting the students back to the classroom, he called Chen Junjie’s mother. After she was fully informed of the situation, she couldn’t stay put and rushed to the school.
This coincided precisely with Chen Junjie being summoned out. He was at the classroom’s back door when his mother, livid, gave him a resounding slap. While berating her son for being unaccomplished, she also scolded him for his malicious intent, complaining that instead of learning from Mengzhen, who had good grades and was improving, he had managed to hurt her over something so trivial.
Mi Liang intervened, "I didn’t call you here to watch you hit Chen Junjie. If Chen Junjie is in the wrong, we’ll educate him properly. Hitting doesn’t solve the problem. The situation has gotten quite severe; the girl is seriously injured. The school doctor has examined her, and she will only be able to rink liquids for a long time, missing out on necessary nutrition during this crucial period of her senior year."
"Teacher Mi, let’s go see that student. I don’t know how seriously the girl is hurt. Maybe I should apologize to the parents and offer to compensate with some nutrition fees, but I’m not sure if that will suffice."
Mi Liang shook his head and said, "That girl’s parents have passed away not long ago, which is why I think her situation is particularly dire. It would be utterly inappropriate for us to ignore this, so I called you over."
Chen’s mother was taken aback but understood that Mi Liang was advocating for the girl. However, this only made her angrier: with no parents to protect her, her son had gone out of his way to bully the girl for having better grades. Fuming, she slapped her son again on the head. "You really are something, teaching you this way," she scolded him.
"Mom, I know I was wrong," he said.
Wrong, my ass; she could tell in an instant whether her son was truly remorseful. He was just mouthing the words, not understanding his mistake; he was just afraid of the consequences of his actions.
This reaction from Chen’s mother was a relief to Mi Liang; it was good that she was reasonable. If she’d been irrational, even if he wanted to support Mengzhen, it might have been difficult. After all, he was just a teacher, not her parent. But since Mengzhen didn’t have much money, it was necessary to insist upon the nutrition fees that were rightfully due.
When the three of them arrived at the School Infirmary, they happened to come upon School Doctor Chen removing cotton from Mengzhen’s mouth.
Since there was slight bleeding on the tongue and medicines weren’t ideal for the mouth, Dr. Chen had placed cotton in her mouth to both press against the wound and absorb the blood that was coming out from her tongue, which would have been too unpleasant for Mengzhen to bear for long.
As they approached, they saw Doctor Chen extracting several bloody cotton balls from Mengzhen’s mouth, making it clear that the injury was indeed grave.
Realizing her son was responsible for such a severe injury, Chen’s mother felt an immediate pang of sympathy. "Is this the student?" she asked.
Mi Liang nodded.
Chen’s mother hurried in, quickly saying, "Hello there, I’m Chen Junjie’s mother, and I’m really sorry for the serious injury my son caused you. Why don’t I take you to the hospital; your bleeding isn’t trivial, and we don’t want any more complications."
Chen’s mother glanced anxiously between Mengzhen and Mi Liang.
Mengzhen waved her hand off, managing to say short sentences more normally than before. "No need, it’s almost healed."
Seeing how sensible the child was compared to her son, Chen’s mother pulled Chen Junjie towards her. "Apologize to her right now."
At that moment, Chen Junjie was shocked himself. Previously, he thought the blood on Weng Tao’s clothes was exaggerated for effect, but now seeing the actual amount of blood, he started to feel scared. "I’m sorry, Mei Mengzhen. I’m really sorry; I didn’t think I would hurt you this badly," he stammered.
"It’s okay, it’s all right, you don’t need to be like this," Mengzhen said calmly, covering her mouth and wincing to indicate that she couldn’t talk much.
Truthfully, she didn’t find apologies all that useful. She was fortunate the injury wasn’t too severe, which allowed him the chance to apologize. But what if she had died? What good would apologies and regrets do then? And was Chen Junjie really sorry for hurting her or was he just scared? Sorry, but she didn’t detect any remorse in his eyes, only fear.
She didn’t care to dwell on the issue with Chen Junjie. Because of the injury, she rested in the School Infirmary for a good while, which gave her time to reflect on a similar incident from her past.
It was senior year again and the protagonist was still Chen Junjie. He had also injured a girl, and Chen’s mother brought him to apologize to the girl, who did not forgive him. Initially, everyone at school thought there was no point in apologizing after causing such harm.
But soon, the narrative changed. Word spread that they had apologized, and people began to question why the girl couldn’t just let it go, considering it a minor issue. They argued that it was senior year, and studying should take precedence over dwelling on such petty matters.