“Ah~ It’s Academic God Xiao.”
A young girl stared at Xie Qingxiao’s handsome and clear face, speaking excitedly.
Her words seemed to flip a switch, and the classroom became as lively as a marketplace.
“Is this the famous Academic God Xiao from our county? I heard he’s incredibly talented…”
“Mhm~ He’s really amazing. I heard universities from the central city have offered him spots, but he turned them all down, saying he wants to accompany his younger sister through the college entrance exams.”
“Younger sister? Is that Xie Qingtao Academic God Xiao’s sister?”
“If Xie Qingtao has a twin brother like Academic God Xiao, why would she need Liu Yunyun to cheat for her? Did her brain short-circuit? Is life too boring for her, and she’s looking for some excitement?”
“Now that you mention it, they do look somewhat alike, especially their eyes.”
…
With every word spoken by those people, Liu Yunyun’s heart grew a little more panicked, and her face slowly turned deathly pale.
The female invigilator, recognizing Xie Qingxiao, put on a fawning smile.
“Qingxiao, hello! I am…”
Xie Qingxiao ignored the female invigilator, simply lowering his head to look at Xie Qingtao’s slightly red and swollen palm, his eyes filled with heartache and guilt.
The female invigilator was left embarrassed.
Xie Qingxiao raised his gaze, staring coldly at Liu Yunyun, and said nonchalantly:
“You’re saying my sister cheated?”
Xie Qingxiao’s light, almost casual words pressed down on Liu Yunyun, making it hard for her to breathe.
Liu Yunyun gritted her teeth, met Xie Qingxiao’s icy gaze, and lifted her head with an expression that said she had endured enough. Tears welled up in her eyes as she spoke with feigned anguish:
“Qingxiao, I just couldn’t bear to see Qingtao go down the wrong path.”
As soon as Liu Yunyun finished speaking, tears streamed down her face, which was still red and swollen from Xie Qingtao’s slap.
Xie Qingxiao frowned, his almond-shaped eyes—identical to Xie Qingtao’s—narrowing slightly as he sneered:
“Did your brain get squeezed by a door? With me here, would my sister even need to cheat?”
Stung by Xie Qingxiao’s words, Liu Yunyun took a few steps back in distress. Before she could speak, tears began to fall.
Xie Qingtao looked at Xie Qingxiao’s broad shoulders, feeling a deep sense of security. Hearing this, she peeked out from behind him:
“Liu Yunyun, you’ve really pulled out all the stops to drag me down. Convicting me based on just a slip of paper is way too hasty!”
“Qingtao, you’ve already been caught cheating. Why are you still trying to argue? Besides, the exam paper on your desk is proof.”
Liu Yunyun trembled with anger but stubbornly stuck to her story.
“And what about the crumpled paper under your desk? Isn’t that evidence too? The handwriting on it is identical to the writing on your exam paper.”
Xie Qingtao looked down. The originally blank paper was now eerily covered in dense, cramped handwriting.
Today’s exam was for Chinese. Xie Qingtao had known since last night that Liu Yunyun would use cheating to frame her, so from the moment she entered the exam hall, she had decided not to write anything on the paper.
Now, seeing the words on the paper, she realized the handwriting was forged to look like hers.
Seeing the writing on this exam paper again, Xie Qingtao couldn’t help but feel a chilling sense of dread.
How exactly did Liu Yunyun’s System manage to pull off such a switch right under her nose?
“Liu Yunyun, the handwriting on this does look like mine, but I didn’t write it.”
As Xie Qingtao said this, her hands, hidden behind her back, trembled slightly.
Liu Yunyun glanced timidly at the female invigilator, then looked at Xie Qingtao with an expression of exasperation, arguing:
“Qingtao, just admit it! The handwriting on the test paper is clearly yours, why won’t you admit it?”
Liu Yunyun’s earnest persuasion caught the female invigilator’s attention. She glared angrily:
“Student Xie Qingtao, your cheating is already a fact. Please come with me to the office.”
The female invigilator’s thick hand directly grabbed Xie Qingtao’s slender wrist, and she strode away.
Caught off guard, Xie Qingtao stumbled and nearly fell forward.
Xie Qingxiao tightly grasped Xie Qingtao’s other hand and said firmly:
“Teacher, rushing to accuse someone like this is too hasty! Or perhaps you…”
Xie Qingxiao’s clear, sharp eyes swept back and forth between the female invigilator and Liu Yunyun.
It made the female invigilator’s heart race.
Liu Yunyun lowered her gaze, her sallow hands tightly clutching the hem of her clothes, not daring to meet Xie Qingxiao’s eyes.
“Liu Yunyun, could it be that you forged this handwriting? You imitated it quite well, but you probably didn’t know I have a small habit.”
Xie Qingtao broke free from the female invigilator’s grip, snatched the test paper from her hand, and flipped to the long essay section at the back:
“I never write those words of gratitude at the end of my essays.”
Xie Qingtao disliked dragging out conclusions.
Instead, she preferred to end her essays cleanly and decisively.
Liu Yunyun stared at Xie Qingtao in disbelief, shouting loudly:
“That’s impossible!”
Liu Yunyun widened her small, upturned eyes, filled with disbelief.
The others around them didn’t believe it either.
In this era, people liked to write long paragraphs thanking various people at the end of their essays.
Because the graders enjoyed reading them.
“I can explain the reason for Student Qingtao.”
A middle-aged man’s voice came from outside the classroom.
Everyone turned around and made way.
The middle-aged man was Xie Qingtao’s Chinese language teacher and homeroom teacher, Ye Zhenhua.
Ye Zhenhua strode over, his eyes filled with heartache and concern, saying:
“Qingtao, you’ve been wronged, haven’t you?”
Xie Qingtao shook her head and sniffled:
“No, teacher.”
In her previous life, it was this teacher who believed she hadn’t cheated, running around to clear her name and restore her innocence.
Unfortunately, he lost his job because of Liu Yunyun.
After expressing concern for his beloved student, Ye Zhenhua walked directly up to the female invigilator, his tone laced with coldness and anger:
“Let me explain Student Qingtao’s writing habits.
Because Xie Qingtao is too lazy to write those long, drawn-out paragraphs.
She believes a good essay doesn’t need a dragged-out conclusion but rather a clean and decisive one.
The core of an essay is the writer’s insights and reflections, not padding the word count with a long paragraph of thanks.
Xie Qingtao considers this a way to cheat and steal points.
And her essays have the quality to earn those points on their own.”
Ye Zhenhua’s words plunged the classroom into a deathly silence once again. Everyone lowered their heads, silently pondering his words.
“Well said! Ability is everything. Those who write mediocre essays but cleverly spend effort on writing words of thanks at the end are indeed suspected of stealing points.”
Someone outside the classroom spoke loudly, their voice carrying a faint sense of authority that clearly reached everyone’s ears.
Xie Qingtao stood on tiptoe, craning her neck to look. The speaker was a middle-aged man with an imposing and authoritative presence.
Behind the middle-aged man followed a handsome, refined young man.
When Xie Qingtao saw that person, her eyes lit up, and her heart leaped with joy.
Seeing the newcomers, Ye Zhenhua said with a smile:
“Secretary Lin.”
Secretary Lin strode over with the young man, his eyes filled with unconcealed admiration:
“Student Xie Qingtao, your ideas are quite avant-garde. I like them very much.”
Compared to those whose writing was mediocre but who, in order to gain a few extra points, put effort into writing acknowledgments to so-and-so at the end—
especially those who wrote acknowledgments to so-and-so—Secretary Lin truly looked down on them.
He rather liked someone like Xie Qingtao.
Xie Qingtao scratched her head, somewhat shyly saying, “Thank you for your praise, Secretary Lin. It’s just my personal reflection.”
“To have such insight at such a young age is indeed far more outstanding than others.”
Secretary Lin praised her again. With Secretary Lin’s arrival, the situation shifted completely.
No longer did people look at Xie Qingtao with disdain and hostility; at the very least, the accusation of her cheating was cleared.
Liu Yunyun watched Xie Qingtao resentfully, her palms clenched so tightly they bled.
The female invigilator’s face turned pale, and large beads of sweat broke out on her forehead.