Otherwise, looking at the appearance of Old Madame Lu and her family, it would be hard to imagine them coming up with such a mean strategy.
The media in the newspapers had never even interviewed Lu Zhu.
Yet, capturing shadows from Zhang Dalu’s perspective, they portrayed Lu Zhu as a villain who denied everything and tried to shrug off responsibility after hitting someone.
In the papers, it was written that Zhang Dalu rushed to the hospital and upon seeing his frail mother, was overwhelmed with heartache. He wanted to ask Lu Zhu about the incident, but Lu Zhu verbally abused him.
Zhang Dalu endured the mistreatment and tried to reason with Lu Zhu, only to be oppressed by Lu Zhu playing the martyr’s relative, attempting to brush it off and walk away.
They also depicted Zhou Xitong and Ye Chunxiao as heroes who sacrificed their own kind and bravely reported a classmate without fearing reprisal.
In those days, people still very much believed in what was written in newspapers, and almost every household subscribed to them.
Seeing such reporting, they were naturally predisposed to harshly criticize Lu Zhu.
Some even came specifically to the front gate of Yizhong.
Wanting to see who was so shameless and thick-skinned.
Because the report mentioned sensitive words like martyr, Lu Zhu’s identity was quickly unearthed.
Her further deeds were also quickly dug up and reported by the media.
Now Lu Zhu was the criticized party, and the journalists naturally portrayed her as greedy, miserly, arrogant, and unsociable with classmates.
In just two or three days, Lu Zhu had become a rat crossing the street in the media, and even people from the same school despised her enough to want to spit on her.
Lu Zhu was unusually silent about it all.
The police came to inquire about the situation and also questioned the sweet potato vendor at the gate at that time.
But the uncle was busy serving customers and hadn’t noticed what happened over there.
The police then sought clues from the school.
But as everything happened so suddenly, unless students were particularly attentive, they were hardly likely to notice.
However, someone mentioned hearing a harsh screech of brakes, which aligned with what Lu Zhu had described.
Nevertheless, Ye Chunxiao told the police, "There was a car that braked suddenly, but it didn’t even come close to the old lady. I saw Lu Zhu knock the person down with my own eyes."
After examining the elderly woman at the hospital, it was found she had fractures from a fall, but it was difficult to say whether she fell due to a scrape from a car or was knocked down by someone.
The police were troubled; with the clues they had, they could not determine the truth, and such a case could very likely lead to Lu Zhu losing if it went to court.
She would still have to pay damages.
In this era, the roads didn’t have surveillance cameras everywhere like in the future, where video footage could easily reconstruct the truth.
The policemen could only investigate through inquiries, but their conclusions were not in favor of Lu Zhu.
Under such circumstances, apart from Qu Ruorui and a few others, almost everyone in the school believed Lu Zhu had hit someone.
Some felt Lu Zhu had tarnished Yizhong’s reputation, often castigating her indirectly in her presence.
Most of the time, Lu Zhu wouldn’t respond.
However, one time, after someone insulted her parents, Lu Zhu immediately became enraged like a provoked lion, and fiercely fought with the person.
This incident was immediately followed up by the media, and as one might expect, the criticisms against Lu Zhu grew even louder.
The class teacher had to call Lu Zhu to the office, "Lu Zhu, you can’t go on ."
Due to public opinion, several school leaders proposed expelling Lu Zhu.
If it hadn’t been for the principal taking on the pressure along with the class teacher’s protection, she might have already been sent back home.
Lu Zhu sneered, "Can’t go on ? Then what should I do?"
She had come to understand, that’s just how this world is.
Good people don’t live long, yet calamities leave a legacy for a thousand years.
If those people were cursing her, then why should she continue playing the good person?
Seeing Lu Zhu’s demeanor, the class teacher heaved a deep sigh.