Chapter 31
Duan Chang’s words really froze me for a moment. What had I done, or what had Guan Dongxuan said to Duan Chang, that Duan Chang would say such a thing? The teacher at the side, Mr. Lin, was also looking at me with a grave expression, which also made me feel that something was wrong.
“Wait, what exactly did I do that warranted my expulsion from the school?” I just asked at the section leader.
“What have you done, don’t you know yet?” Guan Dongxuan then snapped back at me.
“The problem is that I didn’t do anything!” I responded bluntly.
As soon as Guan Dongxuan heard this, he still pretended to be pitiful in front of Duan Chang, “Duan Chang, look at Jin Chao’s attitude. Just the kind of person he is, he should be kicked out of school!”
And Duan Chang was also looking at me very seriously, “Jin Chao, I am now giving you one last chance. Tell us what happened in this case. Otherwise, if this matter is stirred up to the headmaster, you will definitely not be able to get away with it!”
Duan Chang and I said that high school is not junior high school, there is no compulsory education. It was not as complicated as junior high school to expel a student. As long as the student did something that exceeded a certain degree, then the school had the right to do so.
But I really don’t know what I actually ‘did’ to Guan Dongxuan. What do I have to say about this? How do I explain it to them?
“Jinchao, what the hell is going on here? Why are you doing this!” Teacher Lin was also looking at me very seriously.
“Teacher Lin, I really didn’t do anything.” I said to Teacher Lin.
“And you say you didn’t?”
Duan Chang directly interrupted me.
“What exactly has happened here? Can you guys explain it to me first.” I asked, rushing at them hurriedly. I was the victim in this matter. But I listened to their tone as if something had happened in Guan Dongxuan’s body, too. And it made me feel that this matter they were talking about was probably related to Uncle Chen.
As soon as Guan Dongxuan heard my words, he became agitated, “My father has been hospitalised, how else do you want me to explain?”
“Jin Chao, how dare you even find someone from the community? Do you know how serious this matter really is!” Duan Chang and Nong Yang Chen said seriously to me.
People from the society?
I hadn’t figured out what was going on. When did I find someone from the society and beat up Guan Dongxuan’s father until he was hospitalized?
“Duan Chang, Teacher Lin, can you guys do something like that? My Uncle Chen is a police officer!” I hurriedly explained.
“A cop? I think your Uncle Chen is just like a hooligan!” Guan Dongxuan said with a sneer. As I listened to his words, I was extremely unhappy in my heart. Other people could say that, but Guan Dongxuan didn’t have the qualifications to do so. In comparison, who was more like a hooligan, his father or my Uncle Chen?
“This kind of person should be expelled!”
Guan Dongxuan continued.
“Jin Chao, are you still not willing to say clearly what is going on?” Duan Chang then asked at me.
“The point is that I don’t know anything!” I got anxious too.
“Jinchao, otherwise you should go home and rest for a few more days.” Teacher Lin said the same. I was really stunned by what she said, and nine times out of ten, it was because Guan Dongxuan had come up with some kind of evidence that made even Ms. Lin believe it.
But …… could it be that Guan Dongxuan’s father had already offended someone, which led to his father being beaten and hospitalized?
I don’t know!
I left the office before, Lin teacher to my eyes, with a great disappointment within. More than that, it made me feel very bad inside. Guo Xuefu, who didn’t understand what was going on, was even more nervous when she saw that I was leaving the school. She tried to stop me, but because of the cla*ses, she could only watch me leave.
When I returned home, Uncle Chen was no longer at home. I sat at my desk, my head also thinking about what happened earlier.
Could this incident be related to Xu Ying?
I tentatively called Xu Ying, but she had turned off her mobile phone for some reason. After more than ten days, Xu Ying did not find me either. As for the mission she mentioned, there was no explanation either.
Could it be that something had gone wrong at Xu Ying’s end too?
Uncle Chen came back late in the evening, and the school did not contact him, and he did not find anything suspicious. Again, he left home again after dinner.
For days on end, I did not go to school. Mr Lam did not inform me either.
But it was a few days later that Uncle Chen called me in a hurry during work hours, “Ah Chao, where are you now?”
Still hanging out, I lied to Uncle Chen and said, “I’m at school now. Cla*ses have just ended!”
“You’re really at school?”
“Yes!”
“But why did your cla*s teacher, Mr. Lin, call me and say that you were expelled from school? I have to go over and get your file!” Uncle Chen’s words came out raw and froze me in my tracks.
“What? I’ve been expelled from school!” When I heard that, my head went blank and I suddenly didn’t know what to think.
“Ah Chao, tell me honestly, where are you now?” Uncle Chen asked me anxiously.
I listened to Uncle Chen’s words and then I told him honestly that I was outside the school. When Uncle Chen heard this, he hurriedly told me to hurry to the school. The first time Uncle Chen saw me, he was not eager to blame me or ask me what was wrong.
Uncle Chen led me into the school in a hurry.
But it was between my trips upstairs that Guo Xuefu called me in a hurry, asking me how the school was going to expel me.
Guo Xuefu also knew about it.
And for that, I didn’t have too much explanation with her. Just because I didn’t even know myself!
By the time we walked into the office, the school already had my file all ready to go. Ms Lin’s expression was a little cold, as if she was disappointed to the core. She put the file on the desk and told Uncle Chen to take it so he could go to the cla*s for the rest of the formalities.
It was before we had to leave that we got the story, and the reason why I was expelled from school, from Miss Lin.
Mr. Lin told us that the night I was stabbed by Guan Dongxuan, a group of people warned his father in my name and seriously injured him. When the school found out about this, and since Guan Dongxuan’s father was a director, the school didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, so they had to expel me.
Up to this point, Mr. Lin still didn’t know that I was injured and hospitalised because of Guan Dongxuan!
Even before we left, Mr. Lin reminded me that Guan Dongxuan and the others would probably hold us responsible!
As I listened, I couldn’t stop myself from clenching my fists.
Why?
Why did I have to be expelled when I hadn’t done anything?
Obviously I was the one who was victimised! But in the end, I, the victim, was the one who did the harm?
Why did it come to this!
Chapter 32
Before I left the school, I went back to the cla*s and took all my textbooks with me. And as soon as Guo Xuefu took a look, he hurriedly ran to my side, red-eyed and very excited, and asked me, “Jinchao, you are already going to be expelled, are you still not going to talk to me?”
“He’s too embarra*sed to tell you! And doesn’t know how to talk to you.” Guan Dongxuan then gave a taunting cry from the side.
“Guan Dongxuan, did you cause Jin Chao to be expelled?” Guo Xuefu turned his head and asked at Guan Dongxuan in a very unkind manner.
“Oh, I caused him? Why don’t you ask him, just what did he, the son of a murderer, do to get expelled from the school?” Guan Dongxuan’s voice was loud. His words echoed through the cla*s. Even to the extent that everyone could hear him calling me ‘the son of a murderer’.
Uncle Chen, who was standing outside and wearing a police uniform, walked in in a very unfriendly manner. He glared at, and shocked, Guan Dongxuan. But Guan Dongxuan simply didn’t care so much.
“Get lost, son of a murderer. People like you are not welcome at the school at all!” Guan Dongxuan continued to say the hard words.
“Why don’t you get lost? Why are you still standing here?” Guan Dongxuan’s little brother also stood out.
“Jin Chao, I remember when your father was arrested for stabbing someone to death …… someone as dangerous as you, how dare you come to a place like the school!”
As soon as I heard their words, my anger rose. I hammered my fist heavily on the table, “My dad is not a murderer! He didn’t have a barrel of dead people either!”
“Ah Chao ……”
Uncle Chen hurriedly walked over to me. He told me not to get so worked up and told me to put my things away and get out of here first.
And it was before I left, I was glancing in the direction of Guan Dongxuan and the others, “Guan Dongxuan, you bullied me, blackmailed me, and used me like a dog, let’s forget all that. I’ve put up with everything before. But why are you pushing me step by step into the abyss?”
“What exactly have I done to you, to provoke you? Why do you bully me like this? You even left me without a book to read! Do you know that what you’re doing now is changing my whole life!”
I said, my hands trembling involuntarily.
“I, Jin Chao, am just a bitter child who grew up without a mother, and even my dad is in prison. If it wasn’t for Uncle Chen, I would have starved to death on the streets. I counted on my studies and hoped to change my life through them. But why do you have to be like this …… Do you have an official dad and you can dictate other people’s lives at will?”
When my words came out, the whole room was silent. Everyone looked at me, and Guan Dongxuan’s face was even more gloomy as he listened to my words.
I took a deep breath and continued, “Guan Dongxuan, you may think that people like me are easy to bully, and that’s okay. I don’t know what your father, exactly, is like. And I have now been completely cornered by you because of this matter. My last path is closed by you!”
“What exactly do you want from me? Guan Dongxuan, you do answer me!” I said in a near-roar.
Uncle Chen, who was standing by the side, didn’t stop me from continuing. The teacher, who was standing outside preparing for cla*s, didn’t stop me either.
The cla*s was already in session and I didn’t want to take up too much of the teacher’s time.
I let my emotions, calm down, was to then say to Guan Dongxuan, “Guan Dongxuan, I really don’t know anything about your father. It wasn’t me who called it, but it was me who was held responsible. So …… I am now going to be driven crazy by you. Also so, I will definitely get back what I did today.”
“I, Jin Chao, solemnly swear today in front of everyone. One day, I will trample you, Guan Dongxuan, under my feet!”
“If you don’t believe me, just wait and see!”
I said, dropping these words, and the subsequent ones turned to leave with Uncle Chen. The words I said in the cla*s, because they were not interrupted, also let out a mouthful of anger in my heart, just like that.
Uncle Chen sighed and was afterwards patted me gently on the shoulder.
He told me to hold my head up high.
He was saying to me in a positive, upbeat way that he believed in me, that I would do what I said I would do!
And his words were a great encouragement to me.
But being expelled from school also meant that I needed to find a new way out. Uncle Chan also took time off from work and spent the day at home to guide me. At dinner in the evening, he also made an exception and let me drink some wine. As I watched Uncle Chen drink more and more, I suddenly received a long-awaited text message from Xu Ying.
In the text message, Xu Ying and I said that she would call me later.
But it was before her call came in that Uncle Chen was already drunk.
I helped Uncle Chen to bed. But it was when I was about to go out that Uncle Chen patted the edge of the bed and told me to sit down.
“Ah Chao, sit down, I have something to tell you.” Uncle Chen reeked heavily of alcohol.
“Uncle Chen, if you want something, it’s better to say it tomorrow. You are already drunk like this.” I helped Uncle Chen cover up the blanket.
“No way! I …… just have to take the opportunity of being drunk today before I dare to talk to you. To change tomorrow …… can’t!” Uncle Chen’s words just kind of smelled like he was talking in his sleep.
And as soon as I heard that, this was to sit on the edge of the bed and wait for Uncle Chen’s next words.
But Uncle Chen then began with the phrase; “Ah Chao, in fact, there is something that I have kept from you for more than ten years.”
“More than ten years? What is it?” I asked curiously at Uncle Chen.
“This matter, in fact …… has to do with your father.” Uncle Chen said in a broken voice.
“What happened to my dad?”
I instantly of nervousness.
“Also actually nothing, in fact I and your father …… your father he has a very important thing …… eh, I suddenly do not know where to start. Never mind Ah Chao, it’s not early, you go and rest first.” After Uncle Chen had completely tickled my curiosity, but at the most crucial point, he suddenly shouted a stop.
I listened to Uncle Chen’s words and watched as he then closed his eyes and just fell asleep.
As much as I wanted to know what Uncle Chen was trying to say, I couldn’t wake up a man who was already drunk. After I walked out of the room, my mobile phone suddenly rang. It was Xu Ying calling.
“Manager Xu, you haven’t contacted me for a while.” I walked back to my room and said to Xu Ying.
“There was a problem recently and it took some time to solve it.” Xu Ying explained to me on the other end of the phone, she was quiet around her, “By the way, I heard that you were expelled from school?”
“Yes.” I affirmed down.
“Don’t worry about this, I’ll take care of it for you. What you need to do now is to find a way to come to the Imperial Hotel before twelve o’clock. I, in room 1908, will be waiting for you!”
