Jiang Si was not surprised by Zhaozhao's decision.
They say daughters take after their mothers, and Zhaozhao not only looked like her but also acted very much like her in how she handled things.
But she was only four years old. Why should she bear others' doubts? And why should she suffer this kind of injustice?
Thinking of this, Jiang Si said, "I respect my daughter's decision."
Upon hearing this, President Lan initially felt relieved, but he soon realized he might have relaxed too early.
Jiang Si continued, "We can participate in the competition, but those who spread such rumors without any verification have seriously damaged my daughter's reputation."
"I hope that after the competition, the main instigators can apologize to my daughter publicly."
President Lan immediately responded, "That's not a problem."
Jiang Si nodded and added, "Also, regarding your association's unauthorized change of the competition rules, we need a public apology for that."
"This was indeed our oversight," President Lan assured. "After the competition, regardless of the outcome, we will publicly apologize to student Jiang Jingyan."
That was exactly the statement Jiang Si wanted, but she wasn't finished. "Since they want a competition, let's have a fair and square one."
President Lan asked, "What do you mean?"
Jiang Si didn't hide her thoughts and explained her idea.
After listening, President Lan pondered for a moment and finally nodded in agreement. "Alright! We'll do it as you suggested, Comrade Jiang."
Although this method was a bit more troublesome, it would indeed silence all the critics.
However, this meant the questions originally prepared for the tiebreaker couldn't be used.
So, President Lan asked Jiang Si to take the child to the waiting room first. He then urgently summoned over a dozen senior instructors from the association as she requested.
The instructors arrived quickly. "President, you asked for us?"
"Yes," President Lan said concisely. "The final round questions need to be redone. Also, all the abacuses used in this competition must be uniformly replaced with new ones."
The instructors exchanged glances upon hearing this. Redoing the questions was understandable.
But the abacuses? Weren't the contestants supposed to bring their own?
President Lan didn't explain further, just urged everyone to get it done quickly.
Fortunately, there were only a little over twenty contestants in the final round; otherwise, the association's warehouse wouldn't have had enough abacuses.
Meanwhile, Jiang Si took Zhaozhao to the waiting room.
Before they even entered, they could hear lively discussions inside.
"To be honest, this is probably true. Look at how young that child is. She sat right next to President Lan in the first round. Who would believe there wasn't any special treatment?"
"I heard from someone that the child has powerful connections, probably pulled some strings from above and got the questions in advance."
"Isn't this a typical 'fixed award'? I wouldn't say anything if she were in the preschool group. Our children have practiced hard for years. Why should they make way for her child?"
"A four-year-old trying to climb up by stepping on our children? It's disgusting!"
The more they talked, the angrier they became, their voices unconsciously rising.
But not everyone liked to follow the crowd.
After the competition, almost all the parents had asked their own children. However, the competition schedule was tight, and no one paid much attention to that little one.
In other words, the whole situation was currently unclear.
Therefore, many parents chose to remain neutral.
They didn't join this siege but tacitly allowed the rule change.
Just then, Jiang Si entered with her child.
She didn't try to be quiet when pushing the door open. She wasn't the one gossiping behind people's backs, so why should she feel awkward?
Seeing these people frozen in place, Jiang Si found an empty seat with Zhaozhao and sat down.
Then she gave them a cool glance. "Why are you looking at us? Go on."
"..."
The few who had been so self-righteous moments ago now looked alternately pale and flushed.
The atmosphere became extremely awkward.
Jiang Si didn't care; it wasn't her who was embarrassed. Seeing that they weren't speaking,
her gaze fell on the person who had been the most vocal earlier, looking her up and down.
"What's your surname?"
The other woman turned her face away, saying irritably, "None of your business what my surname is!"
"So you do know you should mind your own business about other people's affairs. I thought you didn't!" Jiang Si snorted coldly. "Weren't you just very enthusiastic about saying our family used backdoors? With so many people here, don't hold back. Tell everyone quickly."
"Whose backdoor did I go through? Whose connection did I use to buy the questions? Spell it out clearly, every detail."
The woman muttered about her bad luck.
So many people had said things, why pick on her alone?
She had never seen someone so brazen, so she stiffened her neck and said, "Does it even need to be said that your child used a backdoor? During the first round, she was sitting at the podium..."
"Oh," Jiang Si drawled, interrupting. "So you're trying to say I went through President Lan's backdoor."
The woman's eyes widened, and she waved her hands in panic. "No! I didn't say that!"
But Jiang Si didn't give her a chance to speak. "President Lan is still in his office. Let's go, we'll go confront him. Let's ask President Lan exactly what convenience he provided for our family!"
Hearing they were going to confront President Lan, the woman's eyes instantly showed guilt. "It wasn't just me saying it, everyone was! Why are you only targeting me?"
But the only response she got was the faint mockery in Jiang Si's eyes.
Realizing something was wrong, the woman looked back. She then noticed that the group who had been buzzing around her earlier
had, at some point, quietly slipped back to their own seats.
"You! All of you?" The woman was furious. How could they all be so disloyal!
As the two sides were locked in a stalemate, Zhaozhao suddenly spoke up.
She had a good memory. Earlier, in President Lan's office, her mother had said this was called "defaming a public official's family member in public."
That's right, those were Jiang Si's exact words.
Never mind if she was an auxiliary staff member or not—the point was, wasn't she a government public official?
Then Zhaozhao added, "Mom is a military dependent. Does that make me a little military dependent?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the woman who had been almost hopping with anger a moment ago instantly wilted like cabbage hit by frost.
And the others who had participated in the discussion also changed their expressions drastically.
Slandering a military dependent without evidence—they knew better than anyone how severe the punishment for that could be.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, they quickly put on apologetic smiles.
"Jingyan's mom, we're really sorry. We didn't understand the situation clearly and just listened to Mom of Xianzhong's one-sided story. Please don't take it to heart!"
"Yes, yes, we were all misled by her. She described it so vividly just now. We were just worried about the competition being unfair and spoke out of turn in our anxiety."
"That's right, it's all a misunderstanding. You're magnanimous, please don't hold it against us."
In just a few sentences, they had completely absolved themselves of any responsibility.
Mom of Xianzhong felt her vision go dark, her face full of disbelief as she said, "Mom of Jiye! Does your conscience not ache when you say that? You didn't say any less than I did just now. Should I repeat everything you said?"
"And you, Mom of Jianhua, don't just stand there acting innocent. You were the one who first told me about this, and now it's all my fault?"
The named Mom of Jianhua's expression stiffened. "I heard it from someone else too!"
And so, in an effort to absolve themselves of responsibility, before Jiang Si could even speak, the women began exposing each other's secrets.
Before long, the blame was uniformly shifted onto the children who had been eliminated from the Children's Palace.
Unfortunately, those children had already been eliminated.
After making a big scene at the Abacus Association in the morning, the women hadn't returned in the afternoon.
Finally, a young boy who was friends with them came forward and explained the situation.
"They came to me this morning and asked me to sit next to Jiang Jingyan during the exam and keep an eye on her."
Jiang Si glanced at Zhaozhao, who looked completely bewildered, and asked, "Keep an eye on her for what?"
The boy pursed his lips. "To see if she made any mistakes with the abacus. If she dialed it wrong or messed around... we were to report her!"
