Seven days later, the school opened and the students came to school in a depressed mood. However, a mobilization meeting for the senior class was to be held that afternoon, and the class suddenly became filled with wailing.

After class, Bao Kangle suddenly walked to Bai Liu's desk and said stiffly, "Bai Liu... come out with me for a moment."

Bai Liu raised his head and glanced at the bulging "brick" on Bao Kangle's chest: "Where are you going?"

"...the men's restroom next to the teacher's office." Bao Kangle said with a trembling voice, "The teachers are all downstairs for a meeting. There's no one there, and there's no surveillance."

"Well." Bai Liu stood up calmly, "Let's go then."

As expected, there was no one in the toilet in the teacher's office. The whole office was empty. Bao Kangle could tell that this was a frequent toilet user. He took Bai Liu to the last cubicle in the toilet as if he knew the place well. Then he took a deep breath and handed the things in his arms to Bai Liu.

"Twenty thousand yuan." Bao Kangle's hands were shaking. "...My mother received money from the principal. It should be this amount. Please count it."

Bai Liu simply nodded: "It's this amount."

He turned around and walked away coldly, but Bao Kangle called out to him hesitantly, "Bai Liu!"

Bai Liu turned around and asked, "Anything else?"

"I stole this money." Bao Kangle said with red eyes. He was shaking all over. "If, if my mother found out..."

He swallowed his saliva and looked at Bai Liu eagerly: "I won't give you away, and you don't have to say anything either, okay?"

At the same time, the teacher's office.

Xu Wei had already gone downstairs to take care of the venue, but for some reason, her right eye began to twitch wildly. She began to feel uneasy and dizzy, so she returned to the teacher's office holding on to the handrail. However, as soon as she pushed open the door of the office and sat down at her desk, her cell phone rang.

Xu Wei's heart skipped a beat, and she picked up the phone subconsciously: "Hello?"

A slow male voice came from the phone: "Teacher Xu, I'm not very satisfied with the way you handled this matter."

——It’s the principal.

Xu Wei's breathing became rapid: "...What's wrong, Principal?"

"In order to let you investigate the matter of Bai Liu in your class, I paid you a deposit of 100,000 yuan, right?" the principal said coldly, "But your son investigated for a long time and found nothing. He didn't give me any clues, not even an excuse to make this troublemaker drop out of school."

"Then our cooperation ends here."

Xu Wei was startled and raised her voice: "Principal, that's not what you told me at first!"

"You clearly said that as long as I get Bai Liu out of Gaokao Lake, the 2.5 million will be given to me!"

"Did I tell you that?" the principal asked indifferently. "Why don't I remember?"

Xu Wei stood there in a daze.

The principal said earnestly: "Teacher Xu, you are still young and have plenty of opportunities to make money."

"I won't pursue the 100,000 yuan. Just consider it a waste. What happened before is still known to you and me, and to heaven and earth. Just do your job well."

"Click."—The principal hung up the phone.

Xu Wei collapsed to the ground in a daze.

She took out all the 100,000 last weekend, kept a few thousand at home, and spent the rest.

She bought a lot of clothes and bags that she had wanted for a long time, as well as skin care products and high heels. They were the latest popular items that she had been holding back from buying for a long time due to her previous income drop. Her neighbors and colleagues all had them, even the poor biology teacher in the next class had them, but she was the only one who didn't have any!

She used to be the one who replaced these things the fastest every time!

Moreover, she thought at that time that she would soon get 2.5 million, so spending this little money was nothing. She did not hold back at all when spending it, and basically bought whatever was expensive.

Xu Wei took a deep breath and regretted spending money so quickly. She called her husband in a panic: "Hello... are you home? Can you see how much money is left in my paper bag in the bedside table?"

"Ten thousand dollars?! How come there are only ten thousand dollars left?!"

The husband complained: "You bought something worth 90,000?"

"How is that possible! I only bought things worth 70,000!" Xu Wei screamed hysterically, "I still have 20,000! Did you use it?"

When she spent money on buying things before, she didn't feel bad even if she spent 60,000 or 70,000 yuan at once. But now that she has to pay it back, even a penny less would be like cutting off her flesh.

"Who used your money?" the husband was also angry. "I know you are very careful about money, so I didn't touch your money!"

As he was talking, the husband seemed to realize something and his voice became louder: "Didn't you say you kept 50,000 for this quarter's mortgage payment? How come you spent 70,000? The mortgage payment will be deducted this month, you fucking..."

"I kept 30,000!" Xu Wei interrupted her husband, "There's still 20,000 left!"

"How should I know!" After the husband finished yelling, his voice calmed down as if he suddenly woke up, "Wait, Bao Kangle came to this room this morning. He was hunched over when he walked away, and it seemed like he was carrying something in his arms."

"Kangle?" Xu Wei stood up slowly, and her eyes, as if guided by something, looked towards the toilet in the teacher's office where the light was still on.

At this point, all the teachers have gone downstairs, so the toilet is filled with...

Xu Wei hung up the phone and walked over staggeringly.

Outside the men's restroom, Xu Wei stopped and heard a trembling male voice:

"Don't let my mother find out that I lost the bet with you and took her 20,000 yuan to give to you."

"She watches her money very closely. If she finds out that her $20,000 is missing, she'll go crazy."

Xu Wei turned her head slowly, her eyes bloodshot, and looked straight at Bao Kangle as he took out the paper package from his arms and handed it to Bai Liu.

Bai Liu took it with a normal attitude: "Yes."

"You guys..." Xu Wei suddenly said, her facial features twitching and her expression almost distorted, "What are you doing?!"

Bao Kangle's face turned pale: "Mom, how did you get up here!"

Fifteen minutes later.

The students looked curiously at the office where the woman's screams and curses could be heard, and at the teachers walking by in the corridor. They looked at each other and whispered:

"…What happened? Are you not going to the meeting?"

"The meeting has been postponed because some students stole the teacher's money. We are investigating. It's tens of thousands of yuan."

"This voice seems to be Mr. Xu from Class 17, right?"

"Was her money stolen?"

"Who is so brave as to steal the teacher's money?"

In the men's restroom in the teacher's office, the paper packages containing the money were torn to pieces, and red hundred-dollar bills fell to the ground. The restroom looked like it had been through a big battle; the door was smashed open, with several marks left on it from high heels.

Xu Wei, with red eyes, was pulled away by several male teachers, but she still pointed at Bai Liu who was standing at the back of the men's toilet and yelled, "Bai Liu, how much money did you force our Bao Kangle to give you?"

"Have you been bullying him on campus and forcing him to give you money?"

"Are you fucking dumb? Tell me! How much is it? Give it all back to me!"

Bao Kangle was worried. He stood aside, looking at his blocked mother and Bai Liu who remained silent, and whispered, "Mom, it's not like that. I didn't give him a lot of money. I just..."

"It's for me." Bai Liu raised his head calmly, "He lost a bet with me, and the chip is this 20,000 yuan."

Xu Wei was silent for a moment, but soon she realized that with the principal around, Bai Liu would not be able to expose the Gaokao Lake incident. She seemed to have found an idea, and turned her head sharply, looking straight at Bao Kangle next to her:

"Bai Liu forced you to do that, didn't he? He forced you to bet with him!"

Bao Kangle looked up at his mother in astonishment: "No, Mom, it's you..."

Xu Wei rudely interrupted Bao Kangle's words, with a kind of neurotic greed in her eyes: "If it is confirmed that Bai Liu forced you to bet with him and forced you to steal my money to give him such a large amount of 20,000 yuan, then he is breaking the law and must be expelled from school. You can even report him to the police and send him to jail."

If she could force Bai Liu to drop out of school, she would have an explanation to the principal, and the 2.5 million...

Xu Wei's chest rose and fell violently, and she pressed Bao Kangle: "Is it true?"

For a moment, everyone's eyes fell on Bao Kangle's face. Bao Kangle took two steps back nervously, his eyes moving between Bai Liu and Xu Wei. He also realized something.

If he didn't admit that Bai Liu forced him to do all this, the matter would be resolved. At most, he would be beaten by his mother, and everything would be covered up.

If he admitted now that Bai Liu had forced him to do all this, he could get away with it, but Bai Liu would...

Bao Kangle looked at Bai Liu subconsciously.

Bai Liu was also looking at him, just like when he was looking at Bao Kangle struggling in the water that night, Bai Liu's eyes and expression were very calm, without any emotion revealed.

After struggling in the water, Bao Kangle received the hand extended by Bai Liu. Now, will Bao Kangle, who is struggling again, reach out his hand and push Bai Liu into the lake?

"Mom." Bao Kangle spoke tremblingly, he looked at Bai Liu, "It's me, it's not Bai Liu's fault..."

When he was halfway through his speech, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in the center of his neck. Bao Kangle's eyes suddenly went blank and he stopped talking.

A blood spot appeared on the back of Bao Kangle's neck. In that blood spot, one could see a transparent puppet string half a finger's length trembling slightly, as if someone was controlling the puppet string from a distance.

——The puppet thread that Bai Liu had pierced through the back of Bao Kangle’s neck before remained in Bao Kangle’s body.

While Bao Kangle was in a trance, he seemed to hear the god again that night. The man looked at Beiyuan, who was leaving Bai Liu, with a distant gaze, and whispered in his ear with a low and laughing voice:

[Bai Liu, if you are a good person and choose not to kill Bao Kangle, you will be punished.]

The puppet strings behind Bao Kangle trembled, and his mind went blank in an instant. He raised his hand and pointed at Bai Liu with a distracted look: "Yes, that's right, it was Bai Liu who forced me to steal money for gambling!"

"He forced me to gamble, saying he would kill me if I didn't give him money! He also forced me to jump into the Gaokao Lake, and nearly drowned me!"

"He's a murderer!"

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the mobilization meeting on the playground, which had been delayed for more than half an hour, was successfully held.

But this time, the opening speech was not given by the top students.

The students below realized something was wrong when they saw a large group of teachers and even the principal surrounding a student who had just come out. The student was pushed by a group of people and was pushed under the national flag stand. His face was obscured and could not be seen, but every teacher around him was reprimanding him harshly. One teacher even called the police.

Fang Dian, who was sitting in the student team below, looked at the situation and had a bad feeling in her heart. She looked around and pulled a student who was walking under the national flag stand and asked, "Who is the student under the national flag stand?"

"Sister Dian." The student saw that the person who pulled him was Fang Dian. He didn't hear clearly what she said and thought she was asking about Lu Yixuan. He answered subconsciously, "The student below the national flag stand is not Lu Yixuan. Lu Yixuan asked for leave. He said he had something to do and he hasn't come back yet. He is not the one who spoke on the stage."

"I know, it's my turn to speak on the stage, but I haven't been notified yet." Fang raised his chin, "So what's going on with that student?"

"That student." This student was in the top class at Shanshang, and he spoke with a subconscious disdain, "He was in the regular class. It was said that he gambled with his classmates and forced them to steal money for him, more than 20,000 yuan. But it happened that this student was the son of a teacher, and he was discovered. Now the police have been notified and are investigating. They said that he will be expelled first."

Fang Dian's heart began to beat wildly. She asked, "What's the name of this student?"

"Bai Liu." The man answered her.

Fang nodded and ran towards the national flag stand without looking back.

Bai Liu was pushed onto the flag stand by a group of teachers, with a freshly printed apology letter in his hand. The principal held his shoulders, held the microphone, and stood beside him with a gloomy face: "Dear students and teachers, before we start the mobilization meeting, we have to announce a serious punishment."

"Bai Liu from Class 37 of Senior High School has no ambition to make progress. Instead, he has taken a crooked approach and forced his classmates to gamble, with the amount exceeding 10,000 yuan!"

"It's hard to imagine that a place like our Qiaomu High School, which is dedicated to learning and teaching, can produce students like this! This is a shame for Qiaomu High School!"

The principal took a deep breath and said, "So, as a warning, we will expel this student from school."

"——We will keep this punishment in Bai Liu's file forever, so that any school can see it and know how bad this student is!"

The whole school was shocked, and the students immediately started discussing:

"Wow, that means no school will accept him? How is he going to take the college entrance exam then?"

"I don't know. I heard that it was the student from the welfare home. I guess the welfare home won't support him anymore. He didn't have the money to go to school in the first place."

"I'm already in my third year of high school. This is too bad..."

"What's so tragic about this? You deserve it for forcing people to gamble!"

The principal let out a long sigh and glanced at Bai Liu standing beside him: "Now, please ask Bai Liu to read his self-review."

"Read a few words! I won't read!" Fang Dian turned over and rushed to the stage and dodged the apology letter that the principal was about to give to Bai Liu. She didn't even look at the principal, grabbed Bai Liu's arm and dragged him away, "Let's go."

The teachers at the national flag stand were startled by Fang Dian's sudden rush onto the stage and tried to stop him:

"Fang Dian! Your speech is at the back! What are you doing rushing up there?"

"I know." Fang Dian raised her head, her tone was very calm, "I won't give a speech anymore, I want to take Bai Liu away."

The teachers were all stunned: "Leave?! Why are you leaving? You still have classes to attend later!"

"I won't go to class anymore." Fang Dian raised her head, her eyes showing the anger of a beast whose territory has been invaded. "Didn't you ask Bai Liu to drop out of school?"

"I'll retreat with him."

"Are you crazy, Fangdian?" Fangdian's homeroom teacher stood up in astonishment, "You are the top student in the grade! The college entrance examination is coming soon, why are you mixing with a hooligans who will be punished severely?"

"You are not from the same path at all, come here!"

The teacher waved anxiously.

Fang Dian looked up at the teacher who was really worried about her. Her tone softened a little: "Teacher, being the first in grade and taking the college entrance examination are not that important to me. I can get them anywhere. At worst, I can repeat a year and start over. I can still be the first in the city."

"But Bai Liu is my friend, and I like to walk the same road with him."

Fang Dian's eyes were firm, and she smiled: "If we don't go together now, we may go our separate ways in the future."

"Please make way."

Fang Dian pulled Bai Liu's arm and walked past the dazed teacher without looking back.

Fang Dian was very calm in the face of things. She first sent Bai Liu back to the dormitory and packed a package for him. While packing, she said, "This is strange. Don't panic. I will stay in school to help you check the situation."

"But you don't have to stay in school for now. I'll take you back to my house and give you some notes. During this time, you can study on your own at my house to prepare for the college entrance exam. Some of my classmates know some ways. I'll ask them for you to see how to deal with this matter."

Bai Liu sat on the edge of the bed, Fang Dian covering his head with a towel to wipe off the water that someone had splashed on him. He quietly watched Fang Dian packing his things, and suddenly said, "Don't you dislike associating with those people?"

"What was the situation then? What is the situation now?" Fang Dian said in a natural tone, "In an emergency, we must take emergency measures, understand?"

"Just like you just threatened those teachers that you were going to drop out of school?" Bai Liu asked back in a flat tone.

Fang Dian smiled and said, "That's about right. At least let them calm down and think about it. Do they think it's okay to expel the top student in the city before the college entrance examination just to cover up your mistake?"

Bai Liu was silent again: "I really took the gamble."

Fang nodded: "I know, you look like you can do gambling, but not other things."

"I bet 20,000 yuan." Bai Liu paused for a moment and continued, "It's normal to be expelled from school."

"If you really don't want to miss it, you can drop out. I have no objection." Fang Dian jumped. She sat on the table opposite Bai Liu, propped up her chin and looked at Bai Liu with a smile, "But you can't drop out like this."

"Because I know you miss me."

"I can't accept that you've worked so hard for a year and this is the result. I hope you do well in the college entrance examination."

Fang Dian rubbed Bai Liu's head and said, "Okay, don't think about it anymore. Go home and have a good rest."

Bai Liu was silent for a long time. He raised his head, his wet hair covering his pale face. He said softly, "Sister Dian, I want to eat popsicles."

Fang Dian was silent for a moment.

Apart from joking, Bai Liu seldom called her Dianjie and seldom asked her to do anything. Fang Dian sometimes complained, saying, Bai Liu, you are not even willing to call me sister.

But at this moment, looking at Bai Liu like this, Fang Dianning wished she had not heard the call "Sister Dian".

She took a deep breath and said, "Okay, I'll go down and buy it for you right now. Just wait."

When Fang Dian came up with a bag of popsicles, he saw only an empty dormitory.

Bai Liu was missing, and the small luggage bag she had just packed for Bai Liu was gone. Only a hundred yuan was left on the table, pressed by a cup, and next to the hundred yuan was a note - [I borrowed it before, and now I’m returning it to you, Sister Dian].

The next line of text is: [Don’t drop out of school because of me, the cost-effectiveness is low. ]

Fang Dian looked at the hundred-dollar bill, took a deep breath, and then slowly, slowly put down the bag of popsicles.