Chapter 14 The Truth
The rain outside the villa was getting heavier and heavier, and the bean-sized raindrops hit the glass windows, making a "pa pa" sound.
Wen Eryu got off the bed and walked to the window. The rain blurred her face. After a moment, she calmed down, opened the door and went downstairs with Aunt Zhao.
Wen Liang was sitting on the sofa. When he saw Wen Eryu coming down, he put away the newspaper in his hand and gave a look to Chen Jize who was sitting next to him.
"You guys chat first, I'll go upstairs to deal with some company matters." Wen Liang stood up and said.
When she and Shen Jize were the only ones left in the living room, the atmosphere suddenly became solemn.
Wen Eryu didn't know why he came to see her at this time.
After a long while, Shen Jize stood up and said, "I was too harsh in my tone during the day. I'm sorry."
Wen Eryu: “…”
She was stunned. She had never thought that Shen Jize would take the initiative to apologize to her, but this could not make up for the hurt she had felt during the day.
"Are you done?" Wen Eryu said angrily, "If you're done, go back."
Shen Jize took a step forward: "Are you angry with me?"
"No way!" Wen Eryu immediately retorted. After her thoughts were exposed, her face turned red.
In order to avoid being discovered by Shen Jize, she turned around and went upstairs.
The old pendulum clock on the display cabinet ticked away, and it rang out on the hour, making the living room seem even more empty.
Shen Jize pinched his fingers and said, "I'm going to watch your game."
Wen Eryu stamped her feet, her feet felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead, and she couldn't take a step forward.
Shen Jize continued: "It's An Xinqing's fault."
Wen Eryu turned to look at him with red eyes: "...So you saw everything?"
"Yeah." Shen Jize nodded, "I came here today not only to apologize to you, but also to tell you that you are not wrong."
Wen Eryu felt like a lump in his throat, and his hanging hands were shaking constantly.
She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and said in a hoarse voice, "I know."
After she finished speaking, she ran upstairs, leaving only her back to Shen Jize.
Wen Liang, who had been observing at the corner of the stairs, sighed and went back to the study to make a phone call.
*
The next day, An Xinqing didn't come to school.
Rumors were flying around the school. Lin Cheng and Yao Weimin checked the surveillance footage, but unfortunately, the surveillance footage at the shot put field was broken.
So now there is no direct evidence to show that An Xinqing deliberately ran over when Wen Eryu threw the ball.
The referee at the time was suspended by the school for negligence.
Wen Liang asked Wen Eryu for three days off to rest at home. Of course, he trusted his daughter unconditionally. The call he made last night was to the An family.
But Wen Eryu refused, and she did not fall into despair because of this incident.
When he arrived at school, the sports meet was still going on like the day before, but Wen Eryu was looked at with strange eyes by others all the way into the school.
She walked to the monitoring room as if nothing had happened. Lin Cheng and Yao Weimin were still looking through the surveillance footage inside.
Originally, Yao Weimin wanted to leave, but Lin Cheng kept holding him back.
When they saw Wen Eryu coming, they made room for her.
Lin Cheng said helplessly, "The surveillance camera at the shot put field was broken, so it didn't capture any footage."
Wen Eryu frowned: "Broken?"
Is it really such a coincidence?
The surveillance cameras at other venues were all working fine, except for the one that captured An Xinqing. There must be something fishy going on.
Wen Eryu said, "Thank you for your hard work, Chengcheng and Teacher Yao. You should go back and rest first. I'll take a look here later."
Yao Weimin just happened to receive a call and said, "Okay, I have something to do right now. You can keep an eye on it for a while. If you really don't find anything, forget it."
Afterwards, he spoke a few words to the security guard in the monitoring room and left in a hurry.
Lin Cheng still wanted to stay with Wen Eryu: "I'll stay with you."
Wen Eryu looked at her and was deeply moved. She knew that Lin Cheng would not leave, so she did not persuade her to rest anymore.
A whole morning passed like this, and Wen Eryu rubbed his sore eyes and sighed.
Lin Cheng sat aside, supporting her face with her arms, in a daze.
After the security guard came back from the cafeteria after lunch, he casually said, "If you ask me, you can look for surveillance cameras from other angles to see if there's anything that can capture that part."
This sentence instantly awakened Wen Eryu. She cheered herself up again and searched for nearby surveillance footage on the computer.
Twenty minutes later, she finally found it.
The shot put venue is close to the convenience store, and there is a surveillance camera hidden in the corner of the convenience store that can capture that area.
Wen Eryu and Lin Cheng watched the surveillance video playback of yesterday's time period, and as expected, they saw An Xinqing's figure in it.
She took advantage of the fact that no one around her was paying attention and ran to the area where the ball could hit her a few seconds before Wen Eryu threw the ball.
An Xinqing did it on purpose!
Wen Eryu and Lin Cheng copied the video and saved it in a USB drive. After saying "thank you" to the security guard, they ran out quickly.
*
It was the weekend after the sports meet, and after two days of short vacation, the school returned to its previous learning atmosphere.
These days, Wen Eryu had evidence in her hands and was not in a hurry at all, allowing Wang Ni to find someone to add insult to injury and scold her.
Wen Eryu took screenshots of all the obscene words and saved them, planning to prepare a "big surprise" for them on Monday.
It has been rainy in H City for several weeks. The rain wets the osmanthus flowers, and the air is filled with a faint floral fragrance.
The puddle reflects the figures passing by hurriedly.
Wen Eryu did not go directly to find the teacher, but instead asked An Xinqing to meet him alone in an empty water room.
She took out the USB drive and shook it in front of An Xinqing.
Wen Eryu said: "This is the surveillance footage from that day."
An Xinqing was not panicked at all because she knew that there was no surveillance camera capturing her that day.
"Tsk, you think you can trick me with an empty USB drive? Don't you underestimate me?" An Xinqing said disdainfully.
Wen Eryu looked at her arrogant look and couldn't help laughing: "I'll give you a chance, as long as you apologize to me now——"
Before she could finish, she was interrupted by An Xinqing's laughter: "That's hilarious! Why should I apologize to you? You hit me with the ball."
Wen Eryu took a deep breath. She had given An Xinqing a chance, but she just didn't want it.
"Okay, don't find someone to scold me then."
"Whatever you want." An Xinqing didn't want to pay attention to her and walked straight out of the water room.
Due to the rain in the morning, the flag-raising ceremony and speech were moved to the lecture hall.
Pan Xiang stood on the stage and gave his usual weekly summary, but few people in the audience listened carefully.
At this moment, Wen Eryu suddenly walked onto the podium. As Pan Xiang looked puzzled, he took the microphone from him and said, "Classmates, give me a few minutes."
The audience instantly fell silent, and everyone looked towards Wen Eryu.
"Who is this person? How dare he take Pan Xiang's microphone?"
"You don't even know this. She is Wen Eryu from Class 9, Grade 2."
"So it's her. Now I remember, isn't she the girl who hurt the school beauty?"
"Shh—let's see what she's up to."
The spotlight shone on Wen Eryu. She was a little uncomfortable and narrowed her eyes slightly.
The next second, a voice from the audience yelled, "Get off, you bastard."
Everyone booed, and Pan Xiang whispered beside him, "Wen Eryu, what are you doing? Hurry up and give me the microphone."
Wen Eryu said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Pan. I'll explain it to you later."
Then she glanced at Lin Cheng who was backstage.
Lin Cheng gave her an OK gesture, then inserted the USB drive into the computer. A moment later, the surveillance footage of that day appeared on the big screen.
In the surveillance video, An Xinqing looked around, and when she saw no one was looking in her direction, she trotted into the venue.
Her behavior was very deliberate, and anyone with a discerning eye could see it.
Just as the audience was still excitedly enjoying the show, dozens of chat records insulting Wen Eryu appeared on the screen.
"Exciting, so exciting."
"It turns out that Wen Eryu was wrongly accused. Why are these people cursing so harshly? I feel sorry for Wen Eryu."
"That's right, the evidence is all here. Fortunately, I have never said anything bad about Wen Eryu."
“…”
An Xinqing, who was sitting below, saw that public opinion was completely biased towards Wen Eryu, and she became visibly panicked. She never thought that Wen Eryu would get the surveillance footage from this remote corner.
She bit her lip hard and looked around nervously.
Wang Ni came over and asked anxiously, "Xinqing, what should we do?"
"What should I do? Look at what you've done. Didn't you promise me that you'd break the surveillance camera?"
"I……"
"Also, who told you to find someone to scold her?"
"I'm just helping you vent your anger."
"You!" An Xinqing was about to explode with anger, "You are such a pig-brained person."
Wen Eryu raised an eyebrow at An Xinqing while holding the microphone and said, "Aren't you going to explain?"
An Xinqing: “…”
She was about to quibble, but was interrupted by Pan Xiang's voice: "Enough, come to my office to discuss this matter."
Wen Eryu, An Xinqing and their group were taken to the Academic Affairs Office.
The farce just now made Pan Xiang's head hurt. He sat down and drank a sip of tea, saying, "Our superiors are also investigating this matter, but why are you so anxious?"
Pan Xiang said this to Wen Eryu.
Wen Eryu retorted, "Then what would you do if you were wronged or cyberbullied one day, Teacher Pan?"
"I, I..." Pan Xiang didn't know how to answer for a moment, "Then how do you want to solve this problem?"
Wen Eryu paused and said, "An Xinqing must apologize to me in front of the whole school."
Pan Xiang thought about it and nodded, "Then An Xinqing, do you have any opinions?"
An Xinqing saw that the matter had been exposed, but she was still unwilling to give in. She had made plans and was determined to give Wen Eryu a severe warning this time.
At this time, the door of the Academic Affairs Office was knocked, and a middle-aged man stood behind a female teacher.
An Xinqing's heart trembled: "Dad, why are you here?"
An Xiong didn't respond to her. He walked in and greeted Wen Eryu, "Eryu, do you still know Uncle An?"
Wen Eryu shook his head and said, "I don't know him."
She was telling the truth. In her impression, there seemed to be no such person as An Xiong.
An Xiong smiled awkwardly and said, "I held you in my arms when you were a child."
"Dad!" An Xinqing's defense immediately broke down when she saw how much he cared about Wen Eryu. "I am your daughter."
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