Chapter 904: Follow-Up Actions
Strictly speaking, there were also other injured hostages like Sun Yu, who was beaten by Xiao Li, and Loud Mouth, who rolled down the stairs and hit her head. However, those two basically didn’t see any blood and didn’t have it as bad as teacher Yu, who was stabbed on the butt.
Before the old principal formally resigned, he went to Shu Sha to get a better understanding of the situation and learned that the police played a limited role. At the most critical moment, I was the one who took away the gas tank and prevented a classmate from being stabbed (although Teacher Yu ended up being the replacement), so he came up with an idea to try to restore 28 Middle’s reputation.
Although we weren’t a prestigious middle school nor were we a listed company like the Shaolin Temple, if we were reported as a negative example of Dong Shan city, it will still negatively impact the school.
Parents are easily incited. If the media fan the flames, some parents (such as Gong CaiCai’s parents) won’t be so forgiving. Even if the old principal takes the blame and resigns, their anger won’t be quelled easily.
She was finally released from her petrified state half an hour after being rescued. She advised her parents not to blame the school too much, after all, it was very rare for mentally ill patients to break into a school and take hostages. Even if they did, it would only be one or two, but this time there were seven of them so the school was inevitably insufficiently prepared.
However, Gong CaiCai’s parents didn’t think that way. They felt that their daughter didn’t want to hold the school accountable because she was to weak. They vowed to pursue it to the end, even if it caused 28 Middle to close down. Anyway, they could always transfer Gong CaiCai to a better school.
“I, I don’t want to go to another school.” Gong CaiCai cried and begged, “Although 28 Middle doesn’t have the best facilities or the best teachers, it does have my best friends. I don’t want to be separated from them.”
But Gong CaiCai’s parents ignored their daughter’s thoughts and felt that their daughter must have been “negatively influenced by bad friends” for daring to talk back, so they insisted on seeking an explanation from 28 Middle.
The school compensated the students who were kidnapped for their medical expenses and psychological damages, regardless of whether they were injured or not. However, Gong CaiCai’s parents weren’t short of money and it’s like they really wanted to bring 28 Middle down.
The old principal discussed with me through Shu Sha and asked me if I could give some of the credit to the teachers, so as to show that the school had done something during this crisis.
I have always had a good impression of the old principal. Since my first year, he never gave up on me because I got into fights. Instead, he tried to ignite my interest in learning as an educator.
Although I have never been very interested in learning, I don’t feel bad when I tell others that I’m a student of 28 Middle because it’s not a prestigious school. Instead, I feel flattered because I’m a student of 28 Middle and I’m proud of our old principal.
Of course, the old principal indeed seemed less energetic than before in the past six months. Maybe it might actually be a sign of Alzheimer’s disease as what the vice-principal said. He didn’t even notice the bad things his granddaughter, Chen YingRan, did to the little boy in the infirmary (none of the boys who were molested by Chen YingRan reported it to the teacher, and more than half of them didn’t even consider themselves victims).
As for the old principal’s suggestion for me to give some credit to Teacher Yu, it basically aligned with my wishes since I originally wanted to keep a low profile anyway. If I was interviewed again for ‘subduing criminals’, I might be recognized for acting in ‘The Battle of Jin Ling’.
The police also made some huge mistakes. In order to not become the target of public criticism online, the police chief reached an agreement with the old principal in private: as long as I give some credit to the police officers, they will allocate more officers to patrol near 28 Middle until they could hire more security guards.
Before resigning, the old principal was still thinking about the student’s safety, so I couldn’t be too stingy. I agreed and gave all the credit for stopping the criminals to Officer Ma and Teacher Yu.
Officer Ma was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal and was commended by the bureau. However, he didn’t understand their decision and wanted to refuse, but he couldn’t go against his boss’ wishes. Afterwards, he was very puzzled and asked me why I did it. He wanted to know if I was trying to bribe him in hopes he would be lenient towards me if I fall into his hands in the future.
“Stop dreaming, I won’t be bribed.” Officer Ma said firmly, “As long as you break the law, then I will definitely arrest you.”
“Huh.” I put my hands in my pockets and asked with raised eyebrows, “It sounds like you’re saying that I haven’t broken the law yet. Didn’t you think that I already had a lot of blood on my hands, but you had no evidence?”
“I didn’t say you were innocent, you just misunderstood.” Officer Ma stopped saying anymore and quickly disappeared into the dusk.
Officer Ma did indeed play a part in rescuing the hostages. If he hadn’t brought pizza mixed with sleeping pills and restrained Xiao Li, who was their best fighter, I would never have had a chance to take action, so Officer Ma deserved to be commended.
However, teacher Yu really didn’t do anything. Being stabbed in the butt was at best equivalent to being shot by a stray bullet while walking past a bank robbery.
However, in order to restore 28 Middle’s reputation and calm the parents, teacher Yu was inexplicably packaged as a role model who bravely fought against the criminals and was honorably injured while trying to protect his students. Not only did he accept interviews with reporters from various local stations, but he also frequently appeared in various lectures in a wheelchair.
I’ve said before that teacher Yu was a very sad class teacher. Due to his useless personality, he has been beaten up by problem students and also bullied among his colleagues. After decades of working in the industry, he has never received any awards as an outstanding teacher. He could only watch others with envy as they won awards at every awards ceremony.
Now, although he received a knife on his butt, he became the focus of the spotlight. The Education Committee, the Municipal Party Committee, the Ministry of Public Security, and parents of students who didn’t know the truth all gave teacher Yu awards. Teacher Yu has never received any awards before nor has he stood under the spotlights. After receiving so many flowers and applause, he said with tears in his eyes: “My life was worth it.”
Loud Mouth felt bad for me and felt that it was a rare opportunity for me to become famous. Why should I give it to teacher Yu who had done nothing? Xiao Qin, on the other hand, did not raise any objection to my decision.
I explained to Loud Mouth and others that I had offended many hoodlums past. If they saw me in the spotlight, they would definitely be dissatisfied and want to kill me. There’s an ancient saying: ‘Don’t chase after fame and invite trouble’, plus I prefer to keep a low profile.
The class leader knew that I gave away the credit to prevent 28 Middle from being besieged by the media and parents which would affect our studies, so I reached a tripartite agreement with the old principal and the police chief. She thought it was amazing that I could do that and it made her very pleased.
Actually, it was purely accidental that I was able to play a key role. Professor Bai had already informed Peng TouSi and he made his way to 28 Middle in a helicopter. His skills had already reached the limits of human beings, so he might have been able to take care of the Seven Heroes of Dong Shan head-on and resolve the crisis while ensuring everyone’s safety.
But now that could only remain as a hypothesis. After Ai Mi found out about it, she was extremely angry and ordered me to transfer to Qing Zi Academy so she could protect me. Of course I didn’t agree, and she wanted to assign two more bodyguards to me. I thought that was too flamboyant and I didn’t agree.
Actually, I had a ninja bodyguard hiding in the shadows, but Kamakura never shows himself and he definitely doesn’t want to appear in front of the police. After the matter was resolved, I spotted a person who looked very similar to Kamakura on the playground, but he had disappeared when I looked away.
The day after the incident, our class suspended classes for one day in order to cooperate with the police investigation. It essentially gave us a three-day weekend, so some of the students who had not experienced the incident were so excited that they shouted ‘hooray for the mental patients’.
In those three days, all my acquaintances sent me messages and greetings. My father and I were invited to have a dinner at Xiao Qin’s house. As the representative of the students among the hostages, the class leader had to deal with some reporters’ questions and it made her both physically and mentally tired.
The class leader went against her will and told Gong CaiCai’s parents that teacher Yu was stabbed because he was protecting a student. Gong CaiCai’s parents were reasonable people, so after they heard that, they gave up their plan to sue the school.
Gong CaiCai breathed a sigh of relief. If everyone in the school was restless because of her parents, then she would have suffocated herself with a pillow due to shame.
What was worth mentioning is that during these three days, Zhuang Ni was forced by Loud Mouth to visit teacher Yu. Although teacher Yu didn’t really get injured while fighting the criminals, we should still visit our teacher when they are injured. Also, the reason why teacher Yu was injured was because I wanted to stop Xiao Li from attacking Zhuang Ni.
Teacher Yu, who had several stitches on his butt and was lying on the hospital bed, was very pleased with the visits from his students. However, when Zhuang Ni said, “If the obsessive-compulsive class leader sees that only one side of your butt was injured, she might stab you again for the sake of symmetry”, teacher Yu’s face turned pale and he couldn’t laugh anymore. Later, when the class leader came to visit and took out a fruit knife to peel an apple for teacher Yu, he began to sweat profusely which baffled the class leader.
“The incident happened because of you, so even if you objectively protected the class leader, you won’t get my thanks.”
On Sunday evening, I received a text message from Zhuang Ni.
“I’m sometimes away from school, so if the class leader and Gong CaiCai encounters any danger, I can only let them be protected by a barbarian. Be serious. If anything goes wrong, I’ll kill you.”
Huh, does this mean that if there is no problem, you won’t kill me?
“Do you only want me to protect the class leader and Gong CaiCai, but not Loud Mouth?” I sent a message back to Zhuang Ni.
Zhuang Ni didn’t reply. I don’t know if she was too embarrassed to admit that she cared about Loud Mouth or because she felt that she didn’t need to say more because her behavior that day was already enough proof.
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