Zhuang Nuo panicked. Without a second thought, she pushed through the crowd, grabbed Su Li by the arm, and tried to drag him outside.
Su Li caught her wrist with his other hand and somehow still managed to smile under the circumstances.
“Why run?”
Her voice was already breaking. “They’re going to call the police. Hurry and get out of here. I’ll say I did it.”
Su Li smiled. “Wouldn’t calling the police be even better? Once they get here, we can clear everything up at once. There’s no reason I should be the only one arrested just because I did to her what she did to other people, right?”
A flicker of wariness crossed He Jiaxin’s father’s eyes. “What do you mean, clear everything up?”
“What do I mean?” Su Li sneered. He pulled Zhuang Nuo to his side and continued, “Your daughter colluded with local thugs outside school to extort so-called ‘protection fees’ from other students.
“Not only that, she’s also been bullying her classmates for a long time. She deliberately locked one student in a storage room by the stairwell for an entire afternoon. She deliberately poured water on students from the second floor. She deliberately tore up their clothes and textbooks…”
Su Li’s gaze swept over He Jiaxin, who was cowering in her mother’s arms.
“There’s more, but I won’t list everything here. Your daughter knows exactly what she’s done.”
He Jiaxin’s mother lost her temper first. “Impossible! Jiaxin would never do such things. She’s always been obedient and sensible—a good student.”
“A good student?”
Su Li smiled at the people around them. “Everyone heard what she just said, didn’t you? Could a normal student say those filthy things?”
The words had all been vile and vulgar. Even repeating them made Su Li feel sick.
The crowd began whispering among themselves, their discussion seeming to confirm his words. Even the He family’s relatives looked as if they barely recognized the girl anymore.
The police arrived soon afterward. Since no one was injured, they didn’t take anyone away immediately and instead began mediating the dispute at the scene.
He Jiaxin sobbed and insisted that none of the things Su Li had mentioned had ever happened and that it was all slander.
Zhuang Nuo clutched Su Li’s clothes tightly. “That’s not true! Everything Su Li said is true!”
He Jiaxin shot her a cold look. “Do you have any proof?”
Zhuang Nuo opened and closed her mouth. “I…”
“I do.”
Su Li took a portable cassette player from his pocket and tossed it to the police. “It’s the new Sony GX Walkman. It can record audio.”
He Jiaxin’s face changed drastically.
Every word He Jiaxin had said earlier had been recorded, including her own admission that she had bullied Zhuang Nuo.
“I was… I was only joking. I didn’t do any of that,” He Jiaxin argued weakly, her face deathly pale.
Su Li ignored her and said directly to the police, “There’s also the matter of her collecting protection fees with those thugs outside school. I already reported the others to the police this morning, and they should have been arrested by now. Once they’re questioned, they ought to name her.”
He Jiaxin’s eyes widened. She grabbed her mother’s arm. “Mom, Dad, you have to save me!”
He Jiaxin’s mother’s expression darkened. She raised her hand and slapped her across the face. “Shut up!”
At this point, there was no way the banquet could continue.
The police took them all back to the station, including Su Li and Zhuang Nuo.
He Jiaxin’s college admission celebration ended abruptly before all the dishes had even been served.
At the police station, the officers took He Jiaxin inside for questioning. Su Li sat outside with Zhuang Nuo, telling her jokes to cheer her up.
Zhuang Nuo couldn’t laugh at all. If Su Li got dragged into trouble because of her, she would never forgive herself for the rest of her life.
Not long afterward, Zhuang Yi and Meng Lan arrived as well.
“Are you all right? Were you hurt? What happened?”
The couple immediately checked both children for injuries, examining them over and over.
The police officer standing nearby couldn’t take it anymore. “They’re fine this time. It’s the other person who got bullied badly.”
He Jiaxin was simply a bully who preyed on the weak. When she encountered someone as tough as Su Li, all she could do was cry.
She had cried all the way from the restaurant to the police station. Anyone who didn’t know the truth might have thought she had suffered some terrible injustice.
Su Li patted Meng Lan on the shoulder. “Auntie, don’t worry. I’m fine.”
Zhuang Nuo wasn’t nearly as calm. Her face was pale with fright. “Mom, Dad, Su Li only hit her to stand up for me. You have to help him.”
Zhuang Yi frowned. “What happened?”
Trembling, Zhuang Nuo told them everything that had happened.
After hearing the whole story, Zhuang Yi’s face turned livid. “Li Li, were those the very things those people did to Nuonuo?”
Su Li nodded.
Zhuang Yi was furious enough to storm out and settle the score with them, but Su Li stopped him.
“Uncle, this is a police station. If there’s a problem, let the police handle it.”
Zhuang Yi drew a deep breath, the veins standing out on his neck. Meng Lan cried as she hugged Zhuang Nuo.
“My Nuonuo, you’ve suffered so much. Your father and I are to blame for not protecting you.”
Zhuang Nuo, however, looked strangely detached. She pulled herself free from Meng Lan’s arms and took Su Li’s hand.
Meng Lan and Zhuang Yi exchanged a look and sighed.
After Su Li had caused such a “major incident,” the police naturally contacted his family as well.
Linlin was conducting an experiment in the research lab and hadn’t received the message yet, so Yan Yuan arrived first with a team of lawyers.
There were four lawyers, both men and women. All of them wore suits and carried themselves with an air of professional excellence.
The sight of them immediately intimidated the He family.
In the He family’s eyes, Su Li and the others had become the villains who were “using their power to bully others.”
Meng Lan and Zhuang Yi got to experience what it felt like to be villains as well. After negotiating with the lawyers, they were allowed to leave for the time being, but He Jiaxin had to remain behind for further investigation.
They also reserved the right to hold He Jiaxin fully accountable for everything she had done.
The He family was left trembling with fear, completely unsure what they were about to face.
Meanwhile, Su Li was being lectured outside.
He had behaved himself for an entire month, and yet the moment he made trouble, he had gone all the way to landing himself at the police station.
“Just wait until your sister comes home tonight. We’ll see whether she decides to teach you a lesson.”
Su Li hooked an arm around Yan Yuan’s neck. “Bro! Brother-in-law! You have to help me if my sister hits me.”
“Not a chance!”
Yan Yuan pushed him away irritably and said to Zhuang Yi and Meng Lan, “Uncle, Auntie, Su Li was being thoughtless this time and caused you trouble.”
Zhuang Yi hurriedly waved his hands. “Li Li did this for our family. We’re the ones who dragged him into it.”
To be honest, people like them cared deeply about maintaining appearances. Even after learning what those people had done to Nuonuo, they probably would have done nothing more than condemn them a few times.
They would never have acted as decisively—or as satisfyingly—as Su Li had.
Once everything at the police station had been settled, Su Li winked at Zhuang Nuo before Yan Yuan led him away.
Zhuang Nuo followed the car for a few steps before Meng Lan caught hold of her.
“Nuonuo, don’t chase after them. Your father and I will take you to Li Li’s house tomorrow to thank him.”
