"Yes, our Vice Principal Zhao is so approachable, always keen to understand the actual living conditions of the students. If you have any difficulties, seeking Vice Principal Zhao’s help can’t be wrong." Liu Hongmin served tea to Bai Xiao and Vice Principal Zhao.
Bai Xiao leaned back onto the sofa, smiling faintly without a word, waiting to see how Vice Principal Zhao would handle the matter.
Vice Principal Zhao also understood that he was being waited on for his stance.
"Director Li, do you realize how grave a mistake you’ve committed? As a director of the Office of Political Education and Counseling, you should hold yourself to an even stricter standard. How much harm can even a small mistake cause to a student? For such an outstanding student as Bai Xiao, if she were delayed in her learning progress due to your oversight, could you be responsible for the consequences?
You are being derelict in your duty to our education department. Having made a mistake, you must correct it. Starting now, go immediately to the education bureau and rectify Bai Xiao’s record.
Also, you are to return here, suspend your duties, and undergo investigation. Seriously reflect on your mistakes, until you recognize what you’ve done wrong."
This was a severe punishment; Director Li had essentially been sidelined.
What was nicely termed a suspension pending investigation could lead to an indefinite absence from work.
As long as Bai Xiao remained at the school, Vice Principal Zhao would never allow Director Li to come near her again to find trouble. Bai Xiao was now the one he desperately needed to curry favor with, his very own Goddess of Wealth.
It was just Director Li, after all, merely a student of his own teacher.
By then, Vice Principal Zhao had already decided that he couldn’t let Director Li interfere with his own ascension.
And it was quite obvious, from the attitude Liu Hongmin displayed just now, always considering Bai Xiao’s interests, that he was already drawing closer to Bai Xiao. This young man also intended to use this incident to push him down.
If Bai Xiao sided with Liu Hong, his dream of becoming principal might be shattered.
After all, a single word from Director Yu could change the upper echelon’s decision regarding his appointment.
Director Li was completely dumbfounded. If she had been clinging to a sliver of hope that Vice Principal Zhao might give her an out for the sake of the old principal, there might have been a chance for redemption.
But now, his words had made it crystal clear that she was stripped of her position as academic director—an outcome too terrible to bear.
Director Li’s face had changed, and she fell to her knees before Vice Principal Zhao, a move nobody had expected.
"Brother, you can’t do this to me! Please, give me a chance to redeem myself. If I really undergo a suspension for investigation, my life is over. You know I’m already forty-eight, about to retire. With this suspension, I’ll go from being an official to an ordinary person immediately.
How am I supposed to live after that?"
No one had anticipated that Director Li would resort to making such a scene, thrashing about like a shrew.
After all, they were all supposed to be role models for their students and had their dignity to maintain. Who would have thought that Director Li would act like those shrews in the streets, throwing tantrums in such a way?
Vice Principal Zhao’s face had turned dark. If Bai Xiao were to spread this to the director, the school’s reputation would be completely ruined. All of them, principal and vice principal alike, would likely be too ashamed to show their faces.
"Liu, hurry up and call someone to take Director Li out. Look at the state she’s in, such a disgrace to the teachers of Medical University."
At that moment, Vice Principal Zhao wished no one knew that he and Director Li were fellow disciples.