Chapter 78: Appeal to the Central Government

Chapter 78: Take It All the Way to the Central Government

Lin Qingshi walked up to Jiang Huaizhi, noticing the momentary panic that flashed across his face, and gave him a reassuring look.

Lin Qingshi picked up the dustpan and threw it to the ground with a loud clatter.

He said disdainfully, "So you're a saint when you're lying down, but a devil when you stand up?"

"Which class are you from? Who's your homeroom teacher? Barging into our class to cause trouble!" Quan Hua froze for a moment, then charged down from the podium in a fury, with a ruler in her hand.

Jiang Huaizhi instinctively stepped in front of Lin Qingshi, since Quan Hua was known to hit students with the ruler.

But Lin Qingshi got there first, shielding him from behind.

Lin Qingshi stared at Quan Hua with a defiant look. "I'm the shady character you were just badmouthing."

"As a teacher, casually calling a student you don't even know 'shady'—where's your integrity as a teacher?"

"Our Jiang Huaizhi has been an exemplary student since childhood, with outstanding grades. Every teacher who's ever taught him has nothing but praise, yet you're the only one who picks on him."

"Just because he wouldn't pay for your tutoring, you've got it out for him. Shame on you!"

Quan Hua's hands trembled with rage. "What kind of student are you? What kind of upbringing do you have? I'll have you expelled—you won't be able to study here anymore. And Jiang Huaizhi, my class is too good for someone like you."

"I'm not going anywhere. This is my class, my classroom. I have a right to an education. If you don't want to teach me, then you can leave." Jiang Huaizhi shifted slightly and spoke with firm conviction.

Lin Qingshi gave him an appreciative glance, tilting his head up slightly with a cocky, roguish look.

"Go ahead and try to expel us. If we end up with no school to go to, I'll report you. If the principal won't do anything, I'll take it to the education bureau. If the bureau won't do anything, I'll take it to the provincial level. If the province won't do anything, I'll take it all the way to the central government."

"Whoever's guilty about the tutoring should be the one sweating!"

Quan Hua was practically about to blow her top. She had never seen students like these before.

She was going to go find her brother—she had to get these two troublemakers expelled. The door slammed shut with a loud bang, and her high heels clacked furiously as if she were stepping on firecrackers.

The old witch had been chased off!

The whole class looked at the two of them with admiration. That was seriously badass—the old witch's brother was the vice principal, after all.

"Alright, sit back down and get to class. Stay put, don't go anywhere." Lin Qingshi snorted coldly.

He followed Jiang Huaizhi, and once he was seated, he squinted at Liang Bin and said, "If anything comes up, come find me."

Liang Bin nodded hastily. "Got it, Brother Lin."

After Lin Qingshi left, he explained in a low voice to Jiang Huaizhi, "Last night he cornered me when I got back and forced me to tell him. I didn't have a choice."

Though saying that made him feel a bit guilty, for the sake of his friendship with Jiang Huaizhi and to have someone to copy homework from, he had no choice.

Jiang Huaizhi nodded. So Lin Qingshi had come back to school last night—that explained why he got back so late.

So Lin Qingshi already knew what happened yesterday?

Jiang Huaizhi suddenly felt a little guilty too.

"Will the old witch come after you even more from now on?" Liang Bin looked quite worried.

"It's fine. She can't hit me, and anyway, I have Lin Qingshi." As long as Lin Qingshi was there, he felt bold and unafraid of anything.

At lunch, Liang Bin watched the two of them in silence and felt the atmosphere was weirdly tense today. Almost nobody touched the food in their bowls.

What a waste!

He quickly scooped a big portion into his own bowl, wolfed it down, and made a quick exit.

Lin Qingshi only ate a few bites, waiting for Jiang Huaizhi to finish his meal before finally hashing things out.

He asked coldly, "Why didn't you tell me? It's only three yuan a day—I could've covered it."

"No need. I know all the stuff." Jiang Huaizhi took a sip of water without looking up, and Lin Qingshi could only see his two dark rows of lashes.

"Then why didn't you say anything about the old witch picking on you?"

Jiang Huaizhi looked up, the corners of his eyes slightly red—whether from the spicy food or not, it was hard to tell. "I can handle it on my own."

"I didn't want you to worry."

"But Jiang Huaizhi, this makes me worry even more. I knew nothing, and you're with me every day, yet I had no idea."

Lin Qingshi's face darkened as he abruptly stood up, looking down at Jiang Huaizhi. This feeling of being out of control stirred up a restless agitation he couldn't suppress.

"Actually, all she does is make snide remarks and have me clean up. She can't really do anything to me. It won't affect me." Jiang Huaizhi tilted his head up to explain.

"It's fine." That faint remark—whether he was saying it to himself or to Lin Qingshi, it was hard to tell.

"So you're not upset? Why have you been talking less lately? Why have you stopped smiling? Why can't you fall asleep until late at night?"

"Jiang Huaizhi, have you ever been wronged in your life? Why do you have to endure it?"

Lin Qingshi walked over to him, slowly unclenching the fist that hung by his side, revealing the marks his nails had pressed into his palm.

Lin Qingshi sat down beside him, his voice much gentler now.

"Do you know where you went wrong? You should have told me. Even if you didn't want to tell me, you shouldn't have let yourself be wronged. From the very beginning, you should have fought back like you did last night."

"She can't insult me and have you get angry, then insult you and have you just take it. Aren't you precious too? Someone raised with good food and care, someone no one's allowed to bully—why should you suffer someone else's mistreatment?"

"Jiang Huaizhi, as long as we're in the right, we have nothing to fear. If a school can't even maintain that much fairness, then education is doomed, and the future is nonsense. So what's there to be afraid of? Just go for it."

Jiang Huaizhi nodded, and all the grievances he'd bottled up these past days suddenly surged to the surface. He wasn't afraid of being bullied—it didn't really affect him anyway.

But now, for some reason, his eyes felt sore and soft. Taking advantage of no one watching, he tilted his head and rubbed it against his school uniform.

"Got it. From now on, I'll be like you—a little rascal. If I'm unhappy, I'll fight; if I'm annoyed, I'll curse."

"That tone sounds like you're not convinced!" Lin Qingshi said with dissatisfaction. "Didn't I make a good point today?"

"It was good. Very reasonable."

"From now on, you should be like me. But you're a good student—our Xiaohuai doesn't curse or fight. I'll handle that."

Jiang Huaizhi hesitated for a moment. "Babe, let's not tell Grandma and Aunt Qiuyan about this for now. We'll only mention it if we're really about to get expelled."

"Mm, we won't get expelled." Lin Qingshi said with certainty.

Although the crackdown on tutoring had relaxed somewhat in the past two years, it was still officially prohibited. The old witch wouldn't dare push it too far.

Sure enough, just as he'd predicted, the matter quietly blew over.

Quan Hua went crying to her brother Quan De to complain, but expelling a student was no easy feat, especially without a solid reason.

Insulting a teacher?

Why would she do that? Because she didn't join the teacher's tutoring sessions? That excuse would never fly.

After that, Jiang Huaizhi was basically invisible to Quan Hua.

But Jiang Huaizhi didn't care. He showed up to class on time every day, listened carefully, and even took meticulous notes in politics class. People he didn't care about just didn't bother him.

On the next exam, Jiang Huaizhi took first place in the whole school, beating the runner-up by more than thirty points.

What surprised him even more was that Lin Qingshi did pretty well too, jumping up a bunch of spots since he first joined the class.

He'd even bring questions he didn't get home to ask Jiang Huaizhi, so Jiang Huaizhi didn't have to chase him to study anymore.

"What, did something finally click? Why the sudden studying?" Jiang Huaizhi asked curiously, looking at the scrawled handwriting in the workbook.

"That's grown-up stuff—kids stay out of it," Lin Qingshi snorted with dissatisfaction.

It wasn't that something had clicked. He hated studying; he always had.

But moving up to the next level required exams, and at his current pace, he wouldn't get into the best school—then he and Jiang Huaizhi wouldn't even be at the same school.

Right now, they're in the same school, and Jiang Huaizhi got bullied without Lin Qingshi even knowing. If they weren't in the same school, who knows what would happen.

So at the very least, he had to get into the same one.

He had no choice but to work hard.