"Cousin, I'm sorry, I might have misunderstood you. Don't be angry, I did this really for your own good. I was afraid you... might do something foolish in a moment of confusion, so I wanted to stop you."

As she spoke, her eyes reddened slightly, as if she were the one who had been wronged.

Shen Yanlin sneered: "Meng Zihan, you've been making these misunderstandings far too often, haven't you? First, you took your mother to the rented apartment and misunderstood my relationship with Ye Linchen; then you misunderstood that Ye Linchen was bullying you; and now you're misunderstanding that she stole the exam paper?"

Feng Linlin chimed in, "Is this a genuine misunderstanding, or a frame-up?"

"Yes, you keep saying Xiaochen is your cousin, but why didn't you try to stop her? Instead, you locked her in the office and went to complain to her! You just wanted to kill her!"

"I didn't, I didn't! I was just listening to Teacher Ma, telling myself to be selfless, so I... Cousin, please forgive me, I really didn't mean to hurt you!"

Ye Linchen stared at Meng Zihan, refusing to accept her apology.

"Stealing exam papers is a serious crime. If Shen Yanlin hadn't been here today, I would never have been able to clear my name! Meng Zihan, you have to give me an explanation!"

Surrounded by the four people, Meng Zihan's eyes reddened even more, and tears rolled down her cheeks one by one.

She sobbed and whispered, "I'm sorry, cousin, I really... I was wrong... I'll be more careful in the future..."

Ye Linchen looked at Meng Zihan, who was crying with tears streaming down her face, looking pitiful, but he felt no emotion whatsoever, only disgust.

Meng Zihan's tears were nothing but crocodile tears, meant to gain sympathy and evade responsibility.

She looked coldly at Meng Zihan: "You think you can just let it go with a simple 'sorry'? You've framed me time and time again. Do you really think I'm so easy to bully?"

Her tone grew even colder: "A verbal apology is too weak. You need to write a formal apology letter, post it on the school bulletin board, publicly apologize to me, and admit that all your previous accusations were completely unfounded."

Meng Zihan's tears froze instantly.

She hadn't expected Ye Linchen to be so aggressive and make such a demand.

Write a public apology letter? And post it on the bulletin board?

This is an utter disgrace!

Absolutely not!

She looked at Teacher Ma pleadingly and said in a pitiful whisper, "Teacher Ma, I...I really didn't mean to..."