Chapter 32: The Truth Behind the Cheating Claim
After checking the ranking list, the three of them headed back toward the classroom together.
“Why is he still following us? Did he forget which floor his classroom is on after just one holiday?”
Xie Qian was a little intimidated by young master Gu, but he was also curious, so he tugged on Gu Tang’s arm and whispered to him.
The arts class was one floor above the experimental class. But when they reached his own floor, Gu Qinian still did not leave, and instead continued following Gu Tang upstairs.
Gu Tang found this perfectly natural. “Oh, he’s carrying my backpack for me.”
Xie Qian: “?”
Ever since finding out about Gu Tang’s background, he had found this very strange.
The Gu family treated Gu Tang well, sure, but that did not mean their own biological son should become Gu Tang’s pageboy, right?
And if Gu Qinian was voluntarily carrying Gu Tang’s backpack, then that was even stranger.
Just look at that iceberg face. Look at that aura that kept people a thousand miles away. No matter how you looked at it, he did not seem like the type to actively take care of people.
Most importantly—
How heavy could such a small backpack possibly be?!
Could Gu Tang really not carry it himself??
Xie Qian looked at his own finger, still bound in a splint, and then at the lively Gu Tang beside him…
He felt like he was the one who needed help carrying a backpack more!
“Since the student council president is being so kind, why not mine too—”
Xie Qian cautiously jiggled the backpack on his shoulder.
And, as he wished, he immediately received an icy, bone-piercing stare.
After spending enough time together, Xie Qian felt that he and young master Gu had developed a kind of special understanding. For example, right now, even though the other said nothing, he knew exactly what he was thinking—Keep dreaming.
Xie Qian felt wronged, but Xie Qian did not dare speak.
It was only after young master Gu put down Gu Tang’s backpack and walked away that Xie Qian dared start sowing discord.
Relying on the uniquely favorable condition of being Gu Tang’s current deskmate, he knocked on the desk and said with disappointment, “Not to be rude, but if Gu Qinian got first place, then fine, he got first place. Why are you so happy for him? You got fifth place yourself. Why aren’t you proud of that?”
While taking books out of his backpack, Gu Tang replied, “He’s my younger brother. Of course I’m happy when he does well.”
“Are you stupid or what? You’re not real brothers.”
Xie Qian curled his lip and looked at Gu Tang as if he were some innocent little fool who knew nothing about the world.
Maybe the Gu family was raising Gu Tang and Gu Qinian together now, but what about ten or twenty years later? Gu Qinian would be the lofty young master of the Gu family, maybe even the future head of the Gu family.
What would Gu Tang have?
“You need to start planning for yourself sooner rather than later.”
Xie Qian spoke earnestly. “You can’t tell right now, but once you grow up, the gap between the two of you will show.”
“When that time comes, he’ll be the high and mighty master of the Gu family. What about you? Will you have to read his face before doing everything? He’s a capitalist! Right now he’s carrying your backpack for you, but later he could make you carry sandbags for him!”
Gu Tang felt that Xie Qian was thinking way too far ahead.
According to the plot, before young master Gu even became the head of the Gu family, he would already sacrifice the cannon-fodder fake young master.
So strictly speaking, by the time Gu Qinian became the master of the Gu family, Gu Tang would not even get the chance to read his expression.
Seeing that Gu Tang did not answer, Xie Qian thought he had struck a chord and continued, “Even if he treats you well, he’ll still get a wife in the future. What if his wife thinks you’re just freeloading in the house?”
“No need to worry. By then I’ll have completed my mission.”
Gu Tang answered casually.
Xie Qian froze. “What mission?”
Gu Tang froze too.
How had he accidentally let that slip?!
Just now, hearing Xie Qian talk about how young master Gu might dislike him once he got married had made him feel strangely uncomfortable.
Gu Tang could not explain too much, so he could only mumble, “The mission is… to grow up with him.”
Neither of them knew that there was a figure leaning outside the door, having heard this whole conversation clearly.
Gu Qinian was not trying to eavesdrop on purpose.
He had only realized that he had picked up the wrong backpack and came back to switch it.
The backpacks he and Gu Tang were using now had been bought by Madam Su Mei. Just like when they were younger, Madam Su remained devoted to buying matching things for the two boys.
To tell them apart, Gu Tang’s backpack had a palm-sized plush teddy bear hanging from it.
Gu Qinian had already reached the stairwell before noticing the little bear, so he immediately turned back. He had not expected to hear things he should not have heard.
“What about after you grow up? What plans do you have?”
Separated by only one wall, Xie Qian kept asking.
In his previous life, Gu Tang had lived one day at a time. He had never been the kind of person who planned very far into the future. For now, the farthest he had thought was that he would save money, and after completing the plot, he would buy a small house and hide away in it.
That was already the longest-term plan he had ever made.
So he honestly shook his head. “I haven’t thought it through.”
Xie Qian wore an expression that said just as I thought. “So you also don’t plan to stay in the Gu family forever, right?”
Hearing that question, Gu Qinian suddenly became tense. He held his breath and strained his ears, wanting to hear how Gu Tang would answer.
“Mm, it wouldn’t be appropriate.”
That clear, bright voice from inside the classroom answered softly.
Outside the door, Gu Qinian leaned against the wall, his pupils shrinking.
It was not that he had never thought about it, but he had always assumed it was just his own late-night nonsense. How could Gu Tang possibly leave the Gu family?
How could he possibly leave him?
Did that mean… Gu Tang really wanted to go?
Xie Qian, on the other hand, was delighted by that answer. He excitedly said to Gu Tang, “Then when the time comes, you can come find me!”
“The two of us can play piano all around the world! We’ll perform wherever we go, then stay there and have fun for a while. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”
He sounded extremely full of longing.
In his previous life, the most beautiful scenery Gu Tang had ever seen was the changing seasons outside the hospital room window, so he found Xie Qian’s suggestion very appealing.
He nodded. “That sounds pretty good.”
But he still wanted to buy the little house too.
No matter how fun it was to travel and live around, he still needed a place to settle down.
Gu Tang happily imagined his distant future.
Completely unaware that,
on the other side of the wall, Gu Qinian felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
Young master Gu’s head was buzzing.
His hand unconsciously clenched, and even the plush teddy bear hanging from the backpack was crushed out of shape in his grip.
“Gu Qinian? What are you doing outside our classroom?”
Zhu Xu had a loud voice.
The moment he shouted, Gu Tang and Xie Qian heard him too and both stuck their heads out.
Gu Tang asked curiously, “Niannian, why did you come back again?”
Gu Qinian closed his eyes briefly. In only one second, he reined in all of his emotions and slightly curved his lips. “I took the wrong backpack, so I came to return yours.”
“Huh?”
Gu Tang lowered his head and pulled the backpack out from under his desk, then laughed. “It really was the wrong one.”
After taking his own backpack back from young master Gu, Gu Tang touched the little teddy bear keychain in confusion. “That’s strange. Why is it all squashed flat…”
There even seemed to be finger marks on the bear…
“……”
Gu Qinian turned his head away and pretended not to know.
Fortunately, Zhu Xu blurted out some gossip right then and immediately drew everyone’s attention elsewhere.
“This is bad!”
This was simply Zhu Xu’s habitual opening line when sharing news, so usually nobody thought it meant anything serious.
But then came his next sentence: “This placement test—Little Glasses is suspected of cheating. I heard his parents were called in, and they’ve gone to the dean’s office!”
If it were anybody else, maybe fine. But when it came to Duan Zhengyu cheating, Gu Tang was the first one to refuse to believe it.
They had been classmates for six years in elementary school. Little Glasses was the kind of person who would spit in disgust if he saw other people cheating and passing notes—how could he possibly do something like that himself?
“Let’s go take a look.”
Gu Tang dropped his backpack and ran out of the classroom, grabbing young master Gu’s hand as he went.
In the blink of an eye, the two of them had disappeared.
Zhu Xu and Xie Qian were left standing there looking at each other.
Zhu Xu scratched his head. “Should we go too?”
Xie Qian replied, “No need. Even if we go, we can’t save Little Glasses.”
Zhu Xu thought about it and realized that was true.
This kind of thing required the student council to step in. One student council president and one propaganda department member—that carried enough weight.
No need for Brother Zhu the Second to step out personally.
Not long later, Gu Tang and Gu Qinian arrived at the dean’s office.
Before they even entered, they heard a duck-like voice from the middle of puberty loudly rattling on:
“Duan Zhengyu was near the bottom of our class in the entrance exam. How could he suddenly jump more than twenty places this time? I can say for sure that he looked at my paper during the test!”
Gu Tang recognized the speaker.
It was the study committee member from the experimental class.
Whenever Gu Tang went to the experimental class to find young master Gu, the other classmates were always friendly, but this study committee member would always say weird, passive-aggressive things like, “People from the arts class shouldn’t come here and interfere with the experimental class’s studies.”
The moment Gu Tang heard that duck voice, he frowned.
Inside the office, Duan Zhengyu kept shaking his head in the face of the accusation. “I didn’t…”
The dean looked troubled seeing the two students each insist on their own version.
At that moment, a neatly dressed and fairly refined-looking man at the side spoke. “Teacher, I’m very sorry. This is my child’s problem. I’ll discipline him.”
The dean nodded, but in the very next second—
Smack————
A loud slap rang out in the teacher’s office.
Duan Zhengyu was knocked to the floor by the man’s slap, and the glasses on his face flew far away.
It happened so fast that even the dean had no time to stop it.
“The surveillance footage captured everything clearly, and you still won’t admit it?! You’ve completely disgraced me!”
The man completely dropped the gentlemanly politeness he had shown a moment ago and flew into a rage at Duan Zhengyu.
Duan Zhengyu was severely nearsighted. Without his glasses, he could not see anything clearly. He did not even care about being hit. While saying, “Dad, I’m sorry,” he groped around on the floor with both hands, trying to find his glasses.
Although the man was his father, it was obvious that he cared more about his own pride.
Seeing Duan Zhengyu’s pitiful state, he not only refused to help him find the glasses, but even raised his hand as if to hit him again, cursing, “Useless thing, stand up!”
“Stop!”
Gu Tang stepped forward, picked up the glasses, and stuffed them into Duan Zhengyu’s hand. Then he sternly warned, “Uncle, domestic violence is also a form of violence. Violence is forbidden on campus. Please control your emotions and your behavior.”
He remembered that Little Glasses’s father was a university teacher. He had never expected his method of family education to be this rough.
No wonder Little Glasses had become more and more silent, burying himself only in studying.
Duan’s father pointed at Gu Tang. “I’m disciplining my own son. What’s it got to do with you? Move aside!”
As he spoke, he raised his hand again.
But this time, he did not manage to bring it down.
A hand with clear knuckles caught his wrist.
The person holding him was only a half-grown teenager, his body still somewhat slender, while Duan’s father was in the prime of his forties. Yet even using all his strength, he could not shake that grip loose.
Gu Qinian parted his thin lips and said in a soft, chilling voice, “He just told you that violence is forbidden on campus. Didn’t you hear him?”
“He” referred to the doll-faced boy.
What was this nonsense?
Duan’s father was burning with anger. Why should he have to listen to these two little brats?
But although he was furious, he could not break free of the other’s grip.
All he could do was glare.
These two brats were far too good-looking. Based on his many years of teaching experience, boys this good-looking were always useless pleasure-seekers who only cared about dating, gaming, and enjoyment instead of studying. Their grades were definitely bad!
That was what Duan’s father angrily assumed.
“Let me introduce them, Mr. Duan.”
“These two students are our school’s acting student council president and a propaganda department member. In this placement test, they took first and fifth place in the grade, and they also usually get along well with Duan Zhengyu. So they really can help clarify the situation.”
As the dean spoke, he gave Gu Tang and Gu Qinian an approving look, silently praising them for stopping Duan’s father.
After hearing that brief introduction, the way Duan’s father looked at Gu Tang and Gu Qinian changed.
He was surprised—children like this actually had excellent grades?
Gu Tang had no interest in caring about the probing look from Duan’s father. He helped Duan Zhengyu up from the ground and patted the dust off his school uniform pants.
Little Glasses got his butt patted and felt a bit embarrassed.
His glasses were cracked, and even with them on he could not see clearly, but from the voice he knew it was Gu Tang.
His cutest deskmate ever from elementary school.
Gu Tang asked very seriously, “Zhengyu, did you do it?”
He was asking whether he had cheated.
Did that mean even his deskmate didn’t believe him?
Duan Zhengyu felt deeply wronged, and his eyes began to redden. He sniffled and answered softly, “No.”
“Who would believe you?” Duan’s father said, still breathing hard with anger.
“I do.”
Gu Tang’s tone was firm.
Duan Zhengyu turned his head toward Gu Tang in disbelief, but sadly, with his broken glasses he could not see his deskmate’s expression clearly.
Still, he knew the other boy was standing up for him.
When no one else believed him, his deskmate did.
“I do too.”
The cool voice came from the somewhat annoying classmate Gu Qinian.
Actually, classmate Gu Qinian wasn’t annoying, but because he had competed with him for his deskmate before, Duan Zhengyu had drawn a huge “X” over Gu Qinian in his heart.
Sure enough, in the next second, the annoying classmate Gu Qinian said:
“Anyone Gu Tang believes in, I believe in.”
See! Since childhood, classmate Gu Qinian had always been trying to steal his deskmate!
Every second, every minute, he was always trying to attract his deskmate’s attention!
Even that time in elementary-school swimming class when his deskmate fell into the water.
Obviously he had been the first one to notice! He had only gone to call the teacher, and by the time he turned back, classmate Gu Qinian had already snatched his deskmate away, sob sob sob…
Duan Zhengyu felt full of grievance inside.
Hearing young master Gu’s words, Gu Tang smiled at him with curved eyes. Then he turned back to Duan’s father, his expression turning cold. “Zhengyu is our friend. We understand him, so we believe him. You’re his father—don’t you believe him?”
For a moment, Duan’s father was speechless.
To be honest, he also did not want to admit that his own child had done something so disgraceful.
But there was surveillance footage. He had only felt humiliated, and in that moment he had not cared about trust at all.
The study committee member suddenly shrieked while pointing at the computer screen. “You haven’t even watched the video yet, and you’re already talking about belief or disbelief?!”
Gu Tang was convinced that if Duan Zhengyu said he hadn’t done it, then he hadn’t.
He wanted to see exactly what in the footage had caused Little Glasses to suffer such an unfair accusation.
The video only showed the short segment where Little Glasses had supposedly acted suspiciously.
In the footage, all the students were bent over doing the test. Only Little Glasses suddenly sat up straight, swayed left and right, and then seemed to stick his head toward the right as if looking at something. After watching for a bit, he bent back down to write, except his body was lying extremely low, practically pressed flat onto the desk.
And to his right, coincidentally, was the study committee member’s seat.
“See! And you still say he wasn’t copying my answers!”
The study committee member pointed at the screen. “Isn’t this solid proof?!”
As Gu Tang kept watching, he suddenly noticed the date and time in the top right corner of the video. He raised an eyebrow and asked, “Study committee member, how many points did you get on this math test?”
That question had nothing to do with cheating.
But since the study committee member’s score wasn’t low, he was happy enough to answer, and even smugly added, “I only missed the last two big problems. Everything I did answer was right.”
Gu Tang nodded in understanding. “Then do you know how many points Duan Zhengyu got?”
The study committee member: “?”
“Full marks.”
Gu Tang remembered the ranking list from the red board outside the school gate that morning, and he sounded proud for his friend. “He got full marks in math this time. If he copied from you, would he still be able to get full marks?”
The study committee member choked.
Duan’s father also froze.
“That day was the math exam.”
Gu Tang pointed to the time in the surveillance footage, then pointed at Little Glasses in the video who was shifting around.
“Look carefully. It seems like Duan Zhengyu dropped his glasses in the video. As far as I know, without glasses, let alone your paper, he wouldn’t even be able to see your face clearly.”
At that, Duan Zhengyu let out a small “Ah.”
He remembered now.
Because he had fainted from low blood sugar before and broken one pair of glasses, he had worn an old pair to the math exam.
But the lens was too loose and fell out. It rolled off somewhere, and after searching for a while without finding it, he had no choice but to go without glasses and practically stick his face to the paper to read the problems.
That was why the video made it look like he was looking around for a while and then lying flat on his desk.
The truth was finally revealed.
The study committee member apologized to Duan Zhengyu and said next time they should discuss math problems together.
The dean also calmly said, “Exactly. How could students from our school possibly cheat?”
Gu Tang looked at Duan’s father. “Uncle, aren’t you going to apologize?”
What student had ever dared speak to him with this kind of attitude?
Although Duan’s father did feel a little guilty inside, he couldn’t bring himself to lose face, so he said nothing.
Gu Tang wasn’t polite either. He threw a glaring eye-roll at him, then turned to the dean and asked, “Teacher, isn’t there a math competition next month? Can Duan Zhengyu be recommended for it?”
The dean had already been thinking the same thing.
The questions on this placement test had been prepared with all the math teachers’ full effort, and Duan Zhengyu still got a perfect score. He was absolutely worth trying out for the math competition.
Duan Zhengyu had wanted to join that competition for a long time, but because the whole school only had three spots and students had to be nominated by teachers, his overall class ranking in the experimental class was too close to the bottom, so the teachers had never considered him. He had never expected that because of one sentence from Gu Tang, he would get the chance!
“I-I’ll work hard!” Little Glasses said solemnly.
Gu Tang nodded. “You’ll definitely win.”
This wasn’t just simple encouragement.
Gu Tang was completely certain.
[Host, I just checked! Duan Zhengyu really does appear in the original novel in one line!]
The system came rushing back after checking its records.
Gu Tang replied, “I know.”
That morning, when he had seen Little Glasses get full marks in math on the ranking list, he had suddenly remembered that the name “Duan Zhengyu” seemed to have appeared in the book before.
Duan Zhengyu, a famous mathematician, fought over by major research institutes, but with a strange temper and a withdrawn personality.
[He shows up in the second half of the book. The male lead even tried to recruit him, but he turned him down.]
Gu Tang found that funny. “So there actually is someone even young master Gu can’t win over with male lead halo.”
Then he’d help future Boss Gu out a little.
The rankings were announced in the morning, and the parent-teacher meeting was in the afternoon.
Parents gradually arrived at the school gate.
The boarding students went back to the dorms, and the ones going home also headed outside.
Still thinking about helping Gu Qinian win over the future mathematician, Gu Tang invited Little Glasses to come study in their dorm. “Zhengyu, your math grades are great, but you’re seriously??. There’s a lot of memorization in the humanities subjects. Come to our dorm and memorize together with us?”
Duan Zhengyu wanted to go, but his father grabbed him.
Duan’s father said, “Go where? How are you supposed to study in a place with so many people making noise—”
Before he could finish, he saw a man in a custom-tailored suit walking toward them.
Duan’s father cared a great deal about appearance, but compared with the man before him, he was completely inferior, like clouds and mud.
The reason the man caught his eye wasn’t just because of his extraordinary bearing, but also because he looked somewhat familiar…
After thinking for a moment, Duan’s father suddenly remembered.
Wasn’t this Gu Quan, the man in power at the Gu Group?!
Several of the research projects he worked on at the university were funded by Gu Group. Strictly speaking, this man was one of his biggest patrons.
A figure he normally couldn’t even get an appointment to meet was actually the parent of some student at his son’s school!
Duan’s father was secretly delighted.
Back then, making his son fight hard to get into Jiang City No. 1 had really been the right decision!
He was just about to step forward and greet him when he saw the head of the Gu family look in their direction. Those sharp eyes of President Gu softened a little.
Did he actually recognize him?!
Duan’s father hurriedly straightened his clothes, bowed slightly, and respectfully extended his right hand.
The head of Gu Group even had a smile on his face as he walked toward them.
“President Gu, hello—”
Before Duan’s father could finish the greeting, his patron walked straight past him as if he hadn’t seen that outstretched hand at all.
Turning around, he saw
that the man in charge of the Gu family had walked over to the two boys from earlier.
He reached out and rubbed the doll-faced boy’s head, then seemed to want to rub the head of the pretty black-haired boy too, but for some reason, after being glared at by the black-haired boy, his hand stopped halfway and retracted again.
Then Gu Quan, who was usually so stern, revealed a fatherly smile. “My little boys, Daddy is here for the parent-teacher meeting.”
Duan’s father: “?!!!”
It was over!
He had offended his patron’s sons completely!
Gu Tang himself had no idea why, but Duan’s father’s attitude changed drastically all of a sudden.
Not only did he become very polite to them, he also told Duan Zhengyu to come study with them whenever he wanted, and that it didn’t matter if he came home late in the evening.
If the book Gu Tang had transmigrated into had been a cultivation novel, he would have thought Duan Zhengyu’s father had been body-snatched.
Anyway, it was extremely strange.
But it didn’t matter.
Gu Tang continued extending an olive branch to the future mathematician. “Zhengyu, don’t go to the piano room anymore. Come read books in our dorm. The study atmosphere in our dorm is strong too…”
Halfway through saying it, he suddenly felt a little guilty.
There were also pig teammates who dragged things down.
“Hahaha!”
As if he had just heard the funniest thing in the world, Zhu Xu burst out laughing. “Actually I’m the only one in the room who reads books—mmph…”
Before he could finish, Xie Qian clamped a hand over his mouth.
Xie Qian said, “Will you shut up already?”
Ever since elementary school, Duan Zhengyu had really liked his cute little deskmate. So being invited made him very happy. “Tangtang, I’ll come often. I hope I won’t bother you all.”
“No, no!”
Gu Tang said cheerfully, “I like it most when you come!”
Woohoo!
He had successfully built a bridge of friendship between young master Gu and Little Glasses!
What Gu Tang didn’t notice, though, was that the moment he said the words “like it most,” young master Gu narrowed his eyes and looked at Little Glasses with murderous intent.
***
Author’s Note:
Tangtang: I successfully built a bridge of friendship between young master Gu and Little Glasses!
Little Glasses: He stole my deskmate. He’s so annoying!
Gu Niannian: He stole my wife. He deserves death!
