Back Then, I Adored You

Things are actually very simple. During the exam, someone had tossed a small note onto Qin Jiayan’s table, and the disciplinary master who was on patrol had coincidentally caught him with the note before Qin Jiayan could report it to the teacher.

Upon snatching the note away from him and opening it up, the disciplinary master saw that it was full of scribbled notes and had thus determined that Qin Jiayan was cheating. Subsequently, Qin Jiayan was brought from the examination hall to the disciplinary office.

Qin Jiayan had tried to defend himself by explaining that the note was not his and had been tossed onto his desk by another individual. The disciplinary master, however, did not believe him and was convinced that Qin Jiayan had written the note. He said that a cheater would never own up to his own actions.

By now, whether or not Qin Jiayan had cheated was no longer the point of the discussion. Afraid that Qin Jiayan would be subjected to disciplinary action, his mother immediately started to apologize after hearing the disciplinary master’s words.

“We’re truly sorry, disciplinary master. This is Jiayan’s fault. Could you kindly make an exception and let him off since he has never committed an offense in the past…”

Qin Jiayan, who had remained silent after he had finished explaining for himself, frowned upon hearing his mother’s words and shouted out hotly, “Mom!”

Shooting him a glance to make him be quiet, his mother continued to plead with the disciplinary master, whose face remained hard and steely throughout her pleas. He showed no signs of relenting.

Qin Zhi’ai couldn’t bear to see her mother beg and moved forward to tug at her, hinting for her to stop. She then asked the disciplinary master, “Could you let me have a look at the note?”

The disciplinary master handed the note to her. After opening and scanning it, Qin Zhi’ai said, “Disciplinary master, the handwriting on this note is clearly not Jiayan’s. This is a large school and randomly accusing a student of cheating seems to be a rather inappropriate way of handling matters. Could we trouble you to investigate further into this?”

The disciplinary master sneered, “Whether it is or isn’t his handwriting, how does that prove he’s not been cheating? I saw him holding onto the note with my own two eyes!”

Subsequently, as if he felt that he had wasted too much time on the issue, the disciplinary master said, “Let’s do it this way. You’ll write up a reflection report now and the school’s disciplinary team will discuss your punishment.”

Reflection report? Wouldn’t that imply that I admit to cheating?

Before Qin Jiayan could say no, Qin Zhi’ai firmly rejected the proposition.

“In that case, we’ll call up the company that he’s currently interning at to inform them about this and see how they intend to address the issue?” As he said this, he proceeded to pick up his cell phone.

A call to Qin Jiayan’s company telling them that he had cheated and is a person of questionable integrity would likely ruin his job prospects. Upon hearing this, his mother began pleading with the disciplinary master, who continued to dial the company on his phone as if she was not even there. In a moment of panic, she grabbed hold of the disciplinary master’s elbow.

Irked and annoyed with her, the disciplinary master swung his arm hard and shoved her aside.

Mother Qin stumbled back a few steps and, luckily, Qin Jiayan was quick enough in moving forward to support her, thus preventing her from falling.