A Self-Cultivation of a Stand-in [Transmigration GL] - Chapter 16

In the short span of a month, she had been called to the school twice for the same reason.

Even a rebellious high school student might not have such a high frequency.

The mockery in Yu Zhezhi’s tone was obvious. Hua Luoyue felt somewhat embarrassed but didn’t defend herself, merely offering an apologetic smile.

The office door was tightly shut. Muffled voices could be heard from within, though the content was indistinguishable.

Yu Zhezhi stopped at the door. Before knocking, she turned to ask Hua Luoyue, “Before I go in, do you have anything to explain to me first?”

Before the one questioned could speak, Cai Xinyue, standing beside her, involuntarily showed a look of guilt. “I’m sorry, I…”

Hua Luoyue reached out and tugged her, cutting her off. She turned to Yu Zhezhi and said, “Yu—Sister Yu, you didn’t have to come in person.”

Hearing her awkward transition, Yu Zhezhi’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you unhappy about seeing me?”

Hua Luoyue said in a low voice, “No…”

Yu Zhezhi: “Hmm?”

Hua Luoyue: “I just feel bad for always troubling you.”

Yu Zhezhi let out a scoff. “If you really felt bad, you’d cause less trouble. Are you addicted to fighting or something?”

Along with her sarcasm, she shifted her gaze toward the other end of the hall. Yuan Xiaoxiao’s fake wailing suddenly grew louder. Fortunately, there weren’t many people around on this floor, so they weren’t being watched like animals in a zoo.

Yu Zhezhi’s look carried an unspoken meaning. Hua Luoyue froze for a moment, recalling what Yu Zhezhi had said to her the last time she came to the school. Yu Zhezhi was naturally quite dissatisfied with something as crude as physical brawling. But as for the reason Hua Luoyue gave, Yu Zhezhi couldn’t understand it at first, then she simply and bluntly categorized her as the bullied party.

—Next time something like this happens, tell Assistant Li directly.

That was what Yu Zhezhi had instructed back then. Hua Luoyue had listened and agreed, but she hadn’t taken it to heart. Firstly, she didn’t advocate using violence to solve problems; secondly, telling Assistant Li was effectively the same as telling Yu Zhezhi. A busy person like President Yu didn’t necessarily need to be personally involved in her affairs, and leaving the impression of being a “troublemaker” wasn’t exactly something to be proud of.

This time, it was a sudden incident. The new teacher took the conflict very seriously, which led to the guardian being called again.

A fight always has a cause. Yu Zhezhi mocked Hua Luoyue with her words, but in her heart, she had already decided that the fault lay with Yuan Xiaoxiao’s side. And she was mostly right.

Hua Luoyue was surprised for a second or two, then her expression softened as she processed this.

“She bullied me first.”

Her tone sounded even more aggrieved than the injured person at the other end.

Yu Zhezhi’s gaze fixed on Hua Luoyue’s face for a few seconds. After a moment, she reached out and patted her head, saying, “I know.”

She didn’t say anything special, but those simple words were inexplicably reassuring.

Yu Zhezhi turned and knocked on the door. Just then, another girl with messy hair walked out, head bowed, following a middle-aged woman who looked like her mother. The woman walked backward toward the door, repeatedly promising the teacher she would properly educate her daughter at home. The girl stole a glance toward Yuan Xiaoxiao, then quickly lowered her head as her mother harshly pulled her down the stairs.

Yu Zhezhi stepped aside, looking into the room. It was the same office, but the teacher had changed. She looked young, wore thick glasses, and had a tense expression—she looked exactly like a rigid dean from a middle school.

Seeing Yu Zhezhi at the door, the teacher’s expression softened slightly, though she remained sternly serious.

“Which student’s guardian are you?”

“Hua Luoyue…”

“Miss Yu, is it?” The teacher had clearly heard about the last incident. “You were the one who came last time, too.”

Yu Zhezhi nodded.

The teacher continued, “Actually, this time, regarding Student Hua Luoyue—”

Before she could finish, Hua Luoyue, standing at the door, blurted out, “I was the one who hit her.”

Yu Zhezhi and the teacher both turned to look at her.

Hua Luoyue met their gazes and explained calmly, “I saw them bullying Xinyue, so I fought them. The injuries on Yuan Xiaoxiao’s face were all from me.”

The teacher frowned but didn’t respond directly, only saying to the others, “Wait until your guardians arrive.” With that, she gestured for Yu Zhezhi to enter and closed the door.

They walked to the furthest corner of the office to sit; as long as they kept their voices down, those outside couldn’t hear. The teacher invited Yu Zhezhi to sit, then pulled a stack of photos from her desk drawer, pushing them toward Yu Zhezhi one by one.

Upon seeing the photos, Yu Zhezhi immediately realized what had happened. One of the main subjects in the photos was Hua Luoyue, but the men beside her were different in each one. The backgrounds were dark and blurry, making the context unclear, but combined with the other photos, it was easy to guess they were meant to imply an improper relationship with middle-aged men.

“These are photoshopped,” Yu Zhezhi said after a single glance.

If it were anyone else, she might have hesitated, but with Hua Luoyue, it was impossible. Before the marriage, Yu Zhezhi had investigated her in detail. Forget messing around with middle-aged men; Hua Luoyue was twenty years old and had never even been in a relationship. Furthermore, before the wedding, Hua Luoyue had undergone various checks and tests as part of the agreement; she preferred women over men.

This was one of the reasons Yu Zhezhi had worried Hua Luoyue might develop improper feelings for her.

Even if she were to mess around with shady, oily, balding middle-aged men, it would be for money. But with Yu Zhezhi already there, Hua Luoyue would have to be insane to seek out those people. Logically and practically, the content of these photos couldn’t be true.

Yu Zhezhi pointed to the most recent photo and said, “She only wore the clothes in this photo once. She was with me the whole day; it’s impossible for her to have gone to a bar or a nightclub.”

That day was when Yu Zhezhi had come to City X and brought a new outfit for Hua Luoyue. But the size didn’t fit; she only wore it for a short while to try it on and go to dinner, after which Yu Zhezhi had casually tossed it into a clothing donation bin.

Considering the injured girls standing outside, the intent and source of these photos were self-evident. It seemed the “greeting” she sent last time hadn’t been effective enough.

Yu Zhezhi felt quite annoyed, but she didn’t want the teacher to have unnecessary misunderstandings about Hua Luoyue based on these fabrications.

“I know…” The teacher adjusted her glasses. “I used to study this. The technique is poor; it’s obvious an amateur did it.”

She hadn’t called Yu Zhezhi to discuss the authenticity of the photos. The direct cause of the conflict was this stack of photos. Yuan Xiaoxiao and her lackeys had been posting these photos on the notice board of the dormitory area, spreading rumors that Hua Luoyue was being “kept” by someone to earn dirty money. Cai Xinyue had caught them in the act. The two sides clashed and a brawl broke out.

Hua Luoyue had actually arrived later. she wasn’t at the school initially but rushed back after receiving a message from a classmate. By the time the teacher arrived, both Yuan Xiaoxiao and Cai Xinyue were already injured. In front of everyone, none of the students involved could escape.

When questioned in the office, Yuan Xiaoxiao did nothing but cry, while Hua Luoyue insisted she was the one who did the hitting. The guardians of the lackeys had already come; most of them usually didn’t care about their daughters and weren’t very sincere when apologizing after being lectured by the teacher.

But legally speaking, the mastermind was Yuan Xiaoxiao. After the last fight, both sides had backed down, but Yuan Xiaoxiao wasn’t satisfied. She had been grounded by her father for a week, had her allowance cut, and most importantly, lost face; her old friends outside of school feared her father and started to distance themselves from her. Seeing Hua Luoyue acting like nothing had happened made Yuan Xiaoxiao grit her teeth with hatred. With old and new grudges resurfacing, she came up with this plan.

But this idea didn’t come out of thin air. It was Yuan Xiaoxiao’s lackeys who first noticed that Hua Luoyue’s clothing style had changed, including several sets of high-end brand-name clothes from the current season. Theoretically, even a single set was something Hua Luoyue shouldn’t be able to afford. They were convinced she was selling herself and, unable to find proof, resorted to the low tactic of photoshopping. In their eyes, they were just “exaggerating the facts” slightly; ultimately, they believed Hua Luoyue brought it on herself by not being virtuous.

However, the new teacher didn’t blindly favor them like the previous one. Instead, she saw through the fake photos at a glance and brought out the school regulations that had previously been treated as mere decoration. This made them panic. Being called in by a stern-faced teacher and threatened with a serious warning, followed by their parents being called, they spilled the whole story.

“We confiscated the photos immediately,” the teacher said. “Aside from the parent of the student who helped forge them, we haven’t shown them to anyone else.”

This was meant to minimize the impact on Hua Luoyue’s reputation.

Yu Zhezhi raised an eyebrow. “So, how does the teacher think this should be handled?”

“In terms of its nature, this incident is very malicious,” the teacher replied. “But they are students after all, and very young. The specifics will have to be discussed once the other two guardians arrive.”

The cause was certainly Yuan Xiaoxiao’s fault, but the other two fighting in public also had a negative impact. If one side is punished heavily, the other should be treated equally. But if they were let off too lightly, it might appear to encourage such behavior, leading to a next time.

Yu Zhezhi frowned unconsciously, once again feeling the trouble of raising a child.

“Yuan Xiaoxiao’s guardian said they are busy and won’t be able to come until after 5:00 PM,” the teacher said, flipping through the student file in front of her. “But before that, there are some things I’d like to clarify with you.”

Yu Zhezhi shifted her posture. “Please, go ahead.”

The teacher pushed up her glasses and looked at her for a long time before saying slowly, “I heard that Student Hua Luoyue previously faced some financial difficulties. At the beginning of this semester, she even applied for a leave of absence.” She paused, flipped to a record on the next page, and added, “There was also a withdrawal application.”

X University was the only undergraduate institution in City X; on a national level, it was average. But it offered many advantages for finding local jobs. Hua Luoyue’s grades were average and her attendance was normal—she wasn’t stupid or so disinterested in school that she couldn’t continue. Her name appeared on the financial aid list every year, and any teacher who paid attention knew about her situation.

For a student with such difficult circumstances, she hadn’t applied for financial aid or other subsidies this semester. She had moved out of the relatively cheap school dorms to rent an apartment on her own. This was followed by the reasons Yuan Xiaoxiao and the others used to slander her—expensive brand-name clothes being changed in sets.

The composite photos were fake, but these facts were visible to anyone with eyes. Now that a conflict had erupted because of these suspicions, it was reasonable for the teacher to want to clarify the situation.

“The teacher wants to ask if she really has…” Yu Zhezhi glanced at the photos, gesturing toward them. “…This kind of situation?”

The teacher pushed her glasses, neither confirming nor denying. “I’m worried she’s been tricked into taking dangerous risks.”

Yu Zhezhi realized that if a student were to engage in illegal activities or suffer physical harm while at school, the institution would bear some responsibility, and its reputation would suffer. Of course, the teacher might also be asking simply out of concern for the student.

The teacher studied Yu Zhezhi for a long time. Her expression remained rigid and serious, and her words were less than polite: “Also, I heard that Student Hua Luoyue’s parents are not with her. I wonder what relation Miss Yu is to her?”

—Alright, it seems it’s mostly concern.

Yu Zhezhi actually found it a bit funny. In the blink of an eye, she, the “guardian” who had specifically rushed over to clean up Hua Luoyue’s mess, had become the suspicious character.

This was one area where Yu Zhezhi had no experience. She had always been a law-abiding, top-tier student. She had never raised another child. How should she respond to a teacher’s inquiry?

Yu Zhezhi’s fingertips tapped lightly on the edge of the desk. She instinctively turned toward the door, only to remember it was closed and no one could see inside. They likely couldn’t hear the conversation, either.

Looking down again at the confiscated photos, Yu Zhezhi’s fingertips paused. She said to the teacher:

“I am her… legal partner.”