Both Lu Chuwan and Fu Zhi were members of the Lu Family, and they were girls.
This was the best solution the school authorities had been able to come up with after long deliberation.
“The school will issue a letter of apology and say our teacher made a mistake. It was Ms. Lu Chuwan who was chosen all along, and our teacher got your names mixed up,” one of the members of the public relations team who stepped forward said. “As the saying goes, the goodies must be kept within the family, so here’s the thing. Your cousin got a better result, and we’re going to publish it to attract other people’s attention. This way, they will stop badmouthing you on the internet and the school’s reputation will not be affected. It’s a win-win situation.”
Indeed, it was a killing-two-birds-with-one-stone kind of approach. The vice-principal had thought of everything. The reason he had summoned Fu Zhi to the office while so many teachers were around was to put pressure on her, as well as to warn her.
Fu Zhi licked her lips as a grin played at the corners of her mouth. She looked straight at the vice-principal and said coldly, “But why does it seem to me that what you guys are doing right now is more like a shady deal? Is Lu Chuwan really that desperate to get the spot?”
The vice-principal was stunned for a while, but he soon composed himself. “Do you know about the hot topic section on Weibo? It’s exactly because of you that the school is being trashed by people on the internet. If the school had not covered this up for you, your scandal would have spread throughout the entire hot topic section! I’m trying to solve the problem here!”
It went without saying that Fu Zhi was familiar with the hot topic section on Weibo. After all, she had occasionally appeared there with different identities in the past few years.
Most people praised her and her team and called them saviors that had descended from heaven, but there was also a minor group of people that dissed them. However, those people were silenced by the people that supported them.
Fu Zhi did not care about these slanderous tales at all, and more often than not, all these false tales would be taken care of by a special team before they could even reach her ears.
The vice-principal then told her forcefully, “I have already given you this option. Do you agree or not?”
Fu Zhi replied, “I don’t agree.”
The vice-principal was stumped.
It was only now that he saw the light and understood why Director Liu had said that Fu Zhi did not seem like an obedient student.
He felt as if there was a fire brewing inside of him, and so did Qian Wenrui. As if she had had enough of Fu Zhi’s attitude, she said, “Do you think Chuwan really wants the spot that much? She chose to step up this time because she doesn’t want you to become a victim of cyberbullying!”
Fu Zhi replied flatly, “Okay.” Then, she paused for a moment before adding, “I thought you guys wanted me to give up my spot for her. Well, she doesn’t have to do this at all. This kind of cyberbullying is nothing to me. Honestly, I think she’s the one who can’t take it.”
Qian Wenrui was stumped as well.
She was getting more and more frustrated with Fu Zhi’s impassiveness. Lu Chuwan was her only hope if she wanted to improve her record. “How can you be so stubborn? This incident...”
Before she could finish her sentence, the vice-principal’s phone rang.
It was the principal calling.
The vice-principal’s face turned serious as he made a shushing gesture to everyone in the room.
“Ah? Yes, yeah, yeah. Fu Zhi is with us right now... Hmm? Okay, I’ll take note of that..”
After he hung up the phone, his face turned even darker. He turned to all the teachers and ordered them. “Go back to your respective classes immediately and ask all your students to stop posting about Fu Zhi on the internet. Those who don’t follow the order will be severely punished, and in serious cases, will be expelled from the school!”
“What do you mean by that, vice-principal?” Qian Wenrui was confused. Everyone was just stating the truth, so she did not understand what was wrong with that and why the vice-principal was forbidding them to criticize Fu Zhi.
She then added, her voice now stern, “Our country promotes freedom of speech. Don’t you think this is unfair to the other students?”
The vice-principal was in a bad mood. The moment he heard Qian Wenrui’s words, the fire inside of him grew even stronger and he exploded. “Unfair to the other students? Do you know who called us just now? The Li Family from the capital! They called the school and asked why our students don’t pay more attention to their studies instead of some ridiculous scandal on the internet!”