Li Wei and Hao Liang, who had just received the expulsion notice from the school, were both devastated. For a moment they couldn't figure out what had gone wrong, and neither could accept it.
The official reason on the notice stated that the two of them had attacked the school website and hacked a large number of students' personal accounts.
The problem was they had never done anything like that—their own accounts had been hacked.
Why should they be the scapegoats? And the consequences were too severe.
Zhang Wei's face was gloomy; inside he was terrified of the unknown future.
Ever since his account had been banned, he'd been on tenterhooks, afraid Jiang Cheng would retaliate.
He never expected it to happen so fast—expelled from school in just one night.
Zhang Wei shouted at his Class Advisor, "This is slander! I didn't do it—why should I voluntarily withdraw? Jiang Cheng did this; what's it got to do with me? Did he bribe you?"
All the teachers knew Jiang Cheng had donated ten million to the school.
So when Hao Liang claimed Jiang Cheng was behind it, of course they didn't believe it—why would Jiang Cheng hack the school website for no reason?
"This is the conclusion the school reached after investigation. If you're dissatisfied, take it up with the Principal; I'm only delivering the notice."
Seeing the adviser ignore him, Zhang Wei became even more agitated. "I won't accept this! It's slander—I didn't do it! I'm going to the Principal, I'm going to the Principal!"
With that, Zhang Wei stormed out. Halfway down the corridor he stopped, pulled out his phone, and dialed Hao Liang.
Hao Liang had just received the same notice from his Class Advisor.
He stared at the expulsion letter, eyes wide, disbelief written all over his face.
He knew someone like Jiang Cheng had connections, but he never imagined they were so powerful the Principal himself could be persuaded to pull strings.
Yet Hao Liang had guessed wrong.
Jiang Cheng never personally intervened at all.
The whole affair had simply been driven by a hacker, with the school drawing its own conclusions.
So even if they sought out the Principal, it would be useless.
All the evidence pointed squarely at the two of them; anyone investigating would reach the same result.
Regret, remorse, and hatred swirled together in Hao Liang's heart.
His mind twisted to the point he even considered taking Jiang Cheng down with him.
His plan had been to ruin Jiang Cheng; instead he'd burned himself.
Hao Liang was proud; outwardly calm, he actually found their failure even harder to accept than Zhang Wei did.
The adviser regretted Hao Liang's expulsion too—his family background was decent and he'd been Vice-Chair of the Student Union.
After graduation he should have landed a good job without trouble.
Seeing Zhang Wei's call, Hao Liang answered with a dark expression.
Calmly he said, "I know what you want to say, but he's already bought the school. Going to the Principal probably won't help. I didn't expect his backing to be this strong, but I won't let it end here."
Even in defeat Hao Liang remained as arrogant as ever.
With Hao Liang giving up the fight, Zhang Wei broke down further. "Hao Liang, you dragged me into this—now we're expelled! What do we do? Come with me to the Principal's Office, let's argue it out. You can go home and inherit the family company, but I'll have nothing!"
Afraid Zhang Wei would blurt out something worse in his panic, Hao Liang reluctantly agreed. Things couldn't get much worse; letting Zhang Wei make a scene might blow the whole thing open.
Maybe they could stir up real trouble.
"Panic? We didn't do it. If the school insists, we'll call the Police and let them handle it. Let's head to the Principal's Office now."
With that, Hao Liang and Zhang Wei hurried toward the Principal's Office.
Chen Jin's anger flared the moment he saw the two culprits who'd attacked the school website.
Especially when they demanded to know whether Jiang Cheng had bribed him to expel them.
"You ungrateful wretches! For something this vile, letting you withdraw is already lenient. If I reported it and had the Police arrest you, no other school would take you. If you want justice, call the Police and let them investigate—then the school can't be accused of framing you."
Seeing Chen Jin speak so righteously and fearlessly, the two immediately lost their nerve.
But the arrow had left the bow; there was no turning back.
They had to press on.
Confidently they waited for the Police. Hours later, the investigation still pointed to them as the perpetrators.
And Jiang Cheng had never shown up at all.
The lead Officer had his doubts about the case.
He went straight to Jiang Cheng's dorm to question him.
After all, the two had posted slander about Jiang Cheng online—why would they hack the school forum?
But surveillance footage showed Jiang Cheng had never appeared in the Principal's Office.
By then Jiang Cheng had washed up and was just heading out.
Suddenly he was told to stay put.
The male Officer conducted a routine questioning.
What he learned matched what the parking-lot cameras had shown.
Still puzzled, the Officer asked again, "Why would those two attack the school website and students' accounts?"
Jiang Cheng gave a helpless laugh. "You'll have to ask them—how would I know?"
The Officer fell silent, then asked, "They claim many of their own accounts were hacked—what about that?"
Jiang Cheng frowned slightly. "Isn't that what you're supposed to investigate? I don't know a thing about this whole mess; I didn't even hear about it until I got back to campus. You've checked my whereabouts, so I'm not wasting time on meaningless questions."
The Officer listened and suddenly felt the case was thorny.
Jiang Cheng had airtight alibis, and his account had never logged into the school website.
At the time of the incident, plenty of classmates were vouching for him.
Every student questioned spoke highly of him.
Tricky—though everything seemed odd, every piece of evidence neatly bypassed Jiang Cheng.
A real dilemma!