Chapter 81 Proving Innocence

"Zhao Zhao." Guan Xiang ran over anxiously and pulled the girl out of the classroom.

The next second, a noisy discussion broke out in the classroom again, and people tentatively looked out the window.

"What's wrong, Xiangxiang?" Gu Zhaodi asked, her face full of confusion, her lips pursed.

Guan Xiang's tone was a mix of indignation and worry: "Why aren't you answering my calls? Hurry up and check the forum."

The girl turned on her phone screen. She almost never checked her phone early in the morning. There were more than a dozen missed calls from Guan Xiang on the screen.

What forum?

"You don't know the school's forum?" Guan Xiang looked at her like she was looking at an alien creature.

Gu Zhaodi shook her head sincerely; she had never paid attention to the school forum.

Guan Xiang hurriedly held her phone up to the girl's face. The top post on the forum read, "High school student morally depraved, kept by a rich man."

The text inside was obscene, full of insults and denigration directed at the girl, accusing her of using any means necessary to climb the social ladder and marry into wealth. The entire text was almost entirely a condemnation of her.

The package also included several photos: a girl having dinner with a man, and a photo of them getting into a car in an underground parking garage. All of these photos showed the girl's face clearly, along with a blurry photo of the man's profile.

However, the man was well-dressed and had a noble and composed demeanor, making him appear to be a person of high status at first glance.

The girl was a little confused but surprisingly calm. The protagonist of the story was actually her, and the person who was supporting her was Uncle Dan.

"Isn't this nonsense?" The girl pursed her lips; she was upright and had nothing to fear.

Guan Xiang was also quite angry, "That's right, who spread such rumors about you and said such nasty things?"

Looking at the background in the photo, the girl felt vaguely familiar. Wasn't this the restaurant that Uncle Dan took her to last time?

Thinking of this, the girl suddenly thought of Li Mu.

"It must have been Li Mu who took the photo; I met her at the restaurant that day."

Upon hearing this, Guan Xiang felt a surge of anger and was about to rush in to confront Li Mu when the girl stopped her.

"Don't stop me, I'm going to settle the score with her today. That little bitch, I'll tear her mouth apart today."

The girl gripped Guan Xiang's arm tightly, saying, "The teacher will be here to handle this soon, don't be impulsive."

Impulsive actions won't solve the problem. Instead, when Li Mu says it was all a misunderstanding, the teacher will often feel sorry for the weaker party and reduce the severity of the punishment.

Just as Gu Zhaodi pulled Guan Xiang back from making a fuss, the students in the corridor gave her strange looks, which happened to be the target of Guan Xiang's anger.

"What are you looking at? Be careful, or I'll gouge your eyes out!" Guan Xiang said fiercely to the students passing by in the corridor.

The corridor, which had just been filled with people watching the show, was instantly deserted, and even the students in the classrooms turned their gazes away from the windows.

"Gu Zhaodi, the Dean of Students wants to see you in his office." Ji Hao walked up to the girl, his seemingly gentle eyes carrying a hint of barely perceptible contempt.

I thought Gu Zhaodi was a special girl, but I never expected her to be someone who loves to climb the social ladder.

Gu Zhaodi saw the disdain in Ji Hao's eyes, but Ji Hao's opinion was not important to her.

"I see."

This shocking revelation was posted on the school's online forum at 7:30 this morning. As the incident unfolded, it naturally attracted the attention of school leaders, and finding the girl quickly became the most basic response.

When Li Mu met the girl a month ago, she didn't reveal what she thought was a big scandal. She simply wanted the girl to lose face when she came to school and experience what it felt like to be ridiculed and despised.

However, she did not expect that the girl and the man were not in a sugar daddy/sugar baby relationship at all, so naturally she did not get the reaction she wanted.

Just then, the bell rang for the first class of the school, and Gu Zhaodi stopped Guan Xiang from going with her.

"Go back to class first, I'll take care of things here."

“But…” Guan Xiang wanted to refuse, but then changed the subject, “Should I inform Uncle Dan now?”

"Let me check the situation first, and then I'll consider whether to tell Uncle Dan." This time, the girl didn't want to take it lightly. If the school wanted to let things go, then it would be fine to tell Uncle Dan later.

"Then I'll go with you," Guan Xiang said, still a little worried.

"No need, just focus on your studies."

The girl gave her a reassuring look, and Guan Xiang had no choice but to go back to the classroom. As soon as she entered the classroom, she glared fiercely at Li Mu.

Li Mu, on the other hand, felt that she possessed genuine intelligence and was not afraid of Guan Xiang's resentful gaze. Instead, she became even more determined in her mind that Gu Zhaodi was being kept by a wealthy man.

The dean of students' office wasn't just occupied by the dean; there were also several school leaders. Upon seeing the girl and Ji Hao enter, their expressions were almost all gloomy.

Mr. Lin, the homeroom teacher, was away on a business trip at the time and had not yet heard the news.

"Gu Zhaodi, is the content on the school forum true?" The dean of students looked at the well-behaved girl with a serious expression.

"No, this is my uncle."

The leaders clearly didn't believe the girl's words. They had just pulled up the girl's file, which clearly stated her family background. How could someone from such a family have such a wealthy uncle?

At that moment, everyone felt that the girl was lying and making excuses, trying to escape accountability.

“Gu Zhaodi, I hope you will speak properly and not lie,” a male leader said.

“Yes, you said it was your uncle, but you’re a student from a poor family, how could you possibly have such an uncle?” The head of student affairs slammed the photo in his hand onto his desk.

The photo shows a Maybach worth tens of millions of dollars.

The headmaster's words made the girl frown. Although there was some truth to them, they sounded very harsh.

"Teacher, do you have any evidence?" the girl asked calmly, her tone neither humble nor arrogant, which successfully silenced the head teacher.

A few photos don't prove anything, and the two people in the photos don't seem to be doing anything particularly intimate. It's all just their subjective assumptions.

"Gu Zhaodi, do you know that your behavior might have a negative impact on the school?" The dean of students was somewhat exasperated after being humiliated by the girl.

"Teacher, everything should be based on evidence. I can prove my innocence, so I think we should find the person who posted it first, right? Otherwise, who am I supposed to prove it to, and who will apologize to me?"

Gu Zhaodi is not in a hurry to prove her innocence; instead, she wants to find Li Mu.

Seeing that the girl was completely calm and acted as if she had nothing to hide, the head of the teaching department began to waver.

"Okay, we'll check right away."

The head of the teaching department asked a teacher to log onto the school forum, and as an administrator, he immediately found out who the IP address of the poster was.

Outsiders cannot log in to the Nan'an Middle School's school forum; students of the school must register with the school, which is a form of real-name authentication.

“Li Mu?” The head of student affairs glanced at the name. “Teacher Tao, please check which class he is in.”

"Teacher, these are our classmates," Ji Hao hurriedly stepped forward and said, no longer pretending to be invisible.

"From your class?" The head of student affairs frowned, his eyes holding a meaningful look. "Go and find her quickly."

After Ji Hao left, the head of the teaching department looked at the girl again and asked, "Since you want to prove your innocence, how will you prove it?"

Gu Zhaodi pursed her lips. "I'll call my uncle and have him come and prove his identity to you in person."

"OK."

The girl dialed the phone, and it rang a few times before being answered.

"Does the little one want to go home and sleep?" Dan Anwen glanced at his watch; only half an hour of class had passed.

The girl pursed her lips, her tone hesitant, "Uncle Dan, you might need to come to the school's dean of students' office."

Dan Anwen leaned back in his office chair and raised an eyebrow. Could it be that he was caught sleeping in class by the head of student affairs?

Thinking of this, the man got up from his office chair and walked out of the office.

“Someone took a picture of the two of us eating together and thought I was being kept by you. Now I’m making you come to the school to prove your innocence.”

After the girl finished speaking, she could clearly hear a sound coming from the man's side, the sound of his thigh hitting the corner of the table when he wasn't paying attention.

"What's wrong, Uncle Dan?"

Dan Anwen endured the pain in her thigh, her brows furrowed. "You weren't bullied by them, were you?"

When Gu Zhaodi heard Uncle Dan's first question to her, asking if she had been bullied, she felt a pang of sadness in her heart.

"No." The girl suppressed the tremor in her voice.

The man sensitively noticed the girl's trembling voice and assumed she had been bullied, so he hurried even further outside.

"Don't be afraid, I'll be there soon. Don't hang up."

As soon as Dan Anwen opened the office door, he saw Liu Lei holding documents.

"Take the lawyer and get to the dean's office at Nan'an Middle School right away," the man said to Liu Lei without turning his head, and then his tall figure disappeared around the corner.

Liu Lei, left standing there, was completely bewildered. However, he accurately caught the words "Nan'an Middle School" in his mind. Thinking of Miss Gu, he immediately put the documents on the table, contacted a lawyer, and went to catch up with Dan Anwen.

The girl obediently did not hang up the phone, but stood quietly in front of the teachers, waiting for Li Mu without saying a word.