Volume 1 Chapter 51: Confrontation
“Today’s morning reading task is, uh…”
Teacher Han was standing on the platform, flipping through a book. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gao Liang walking in. She immediately put the book down, stared at him, and shouted sharply.
“Hey, you student! Who are you? Why are you barging into the classroom? Did you go to the wrong—”
Then she noticed Teacher Zhu standing beside Gao Liang. She froze for a moment, and her attitude became even worse.
She had never liked Teacher Zhu. To be exact, Teacher Zhu’s teaching results were too good, which naturally made some people who had seniority but no real ability feel jealous. She pushed her glasses up in a sharp, sarcastic way and said,
“Teacher Zhu? Is this your student? Why did you suddenly bring him into our class?”
“Ahaha…” Teacher Zhu felt a bit awkward. She could hear the impatience in the other teacher’s tone, but she still spoke kindly. “Teacher Han, there is a student in your class. There’s a small matter we need to talk to him about.”
Compared to Teacher Zhu’s patience, Gao Liang was much more direct. He turned his head and shouted toward the students sitting inside.
“Is there a boy named Li Ming in your class? Come out for a moment.”
The classroom fell completely silent. One by one, the students turned their eyes toward a thin boy wearing black-framed glasses, sitting in the crowd. The boy being watched grew nervous. He turned his head away, trying to avoid Gao Liang’s gaze, but Gao Liang still noticed him.
So it’s this guy.
Dare to do it but not dare to admit it?
Gao Liang snorted coldly and was about to step forward to pull the boy out. At that moment, Teacher Han on the platform panicked.
Li Ming’s parents had given her quite a few gifts before. She had to look after him!
She quickly rushed down from the platform, blocked Gao Liang, and shouted,
“What are you doing? Why are you looking for Li Ming? I’m telling you, if there’s anything to discuss, do it after class. Now get out and wait!”
“Ahem, ahem…”
The vice principal, who had been standing outside, walked in and waved his hand. Teacher Han stood there awkwardly. When she saw him, she froze for a moment, then spoke with her teeth slightly trembling:
“Vice… Vice Principal… why are you here?”
“Ahem. Xiao Han, let that student named Li Ming come with us to my office.”
“Oh… yes…”
Xiao Han nodded and stepped aside to make room. Gao Liang quickly walked over. Seeing how fierce he looked, Li Ming’s legs almost went weak from fear. Teacher Zhu hurried to follow and spoke first.
“Li Ming, come out with us for a moment.”
“O… okay…”
Seeing the vice principal standing at the classroom door, Li Ming had already vaguely guessed what this was about. When he looked again at Gao Liang’s intense stare, he was so scared that he could barely walk.
In the end, his legs shaking, Li Ming stood up. Gao Liang shot him a sharp glare, and Li Ming quickly hid himself beside Teacher Zhu, silently following her steps.
Teacher Zhu felt helpless and quickly went to look for Lin Lin.
The group walked to the vice principal’s office. After the door was closed, Li Ming shivered again.
Sitting down, he slowly calmed himself. Looking at Gao Liang, who was still glaring at him, a sudden, nameless anger rose in his heart.
Why is this guy acting so high and mighty?
“Li Ming, why is it you again!”
Inside the small, dark room, the vice principal spoke first. “Last time, you secretly filmed a female classmate. We already gave you a warning and put you on probation. We even smashed your phone. And now you’re causing trouble again?”
For some reason, hearing the vice principal speak first actually gave Li Ming a bit of confidence. He remembered the so-called punishment last time. He should have been expelled, but in the end, his family used their connections, and the school couldn’t really do much to him.
Probation, honestly, wasn’t that scary at all. As for the phone, the one that got smashed last time was just a fake model.
Tsk…
Sitting in the dim room, he suddenly felt confident again. He took out his phone, sent a message to his family on WeChat, then looked up and gave a smug, fake smile, pretending to be clueless as he said,
“Vice Principal, I really don’t understand what you’re talking about. I didn’t do anything. I’ve already turned over a new leaf. What is all this about?”
He turned to look at Gao Liang and Lin Lin, then sneered and deliberately raised his voice in a mocking tone.
“Oh… so classmate Gao Liang thinks I posted that video? What a pity. I did see that post, but the person who posted it really wasn’t me. As for you being exposed for booking a hotel room with a high school girl, I have no comment. Tsk, tsk…”
“We were just tutoring,” Gao Liang said coldly. “And I know the person who posted it was you. Stop pretending. We can check IP addresses.”
He slammed the documents onto the desk. Li Ming didn’t even look at them and directly mocked him:
“Check IP? The person who posted it used an overseas IP. You think you can trace that—”
Before he could finish, he realized he had said too much and quickly shut his mouth. Gao Liang laughed instead and raised an eyebrow.
“I didn’t even say where the IP was from. So how do you know it was overseas? And besides, do you think an overseas IP can’t be traced here?”
Gao Liang stared at him. Li Ming clearly got nervous again. His eyes wandered, and his words became shaky.
“I…”
“If I remember correctly, our school forum doesn’t even show IP addresses,” Gao Liang said with a smile. Then he clapped his hands lightly. “Stop acting. You think using a VPN means no one can find you? Spreading rumors has legal consequences. Finding you is easy for me.”
As he spoke, he knocked hard on the file on the table. Li Ming lowered his head and looked at it. When he saw his own name and home address, he sucked in a sharp breath.
“Hah… you…”
His palms were already sweating a lot, but he still spoke stubbornly:
“Fine, it was me. I admit it. But spreading rumors? Gao Liang, don’t get so arrogant. How did I spread rumors? The video was real! I didn’t fake it. You taking that girl with you to a hotel wasn’t something I made up!”
He shouted angrily.
“Why are you using this to pressure me? Oh, I spread rumors? What did I do wrong? I just posted what you did, and that’s called spreading rumors now?”
“Hah. I just found a quiet place to help a friend with math tutoring,” Gao Liang said coldly. “And you? You titled your post as ‘booking a hotel room.’ What do you think others would think? Did you ever consider how my friend would feel?”
He sneered again. “You think I can’t do anything to you? You think I don’t know where your video came from?”
He took out his phone, held it up in front of Li Ming’s face, and played a video.
It was surveillance footage. It clearly showed Li Ming standing not far from the hotel entrance the night before, secretly filming Gao Liang and Lin Lin. It also showed him waiting near the entrance for a long time and planning to follow Gao Liang afterward.
The whole process clearly captured his face, as well as the phone in his hand with the camera recording.
Gao Liang lowered the phone and looked at Li Ming, who was staring in disbelief. Then he smiled and said,
“Remember this. I am not a public figure. Don’t use that paparazzi logic on me. Invading privacy, stalking, secretly filming, and publicly posting it also damages my reputation. That’s more than enough to send you to jail for a few years. And when I say it, I mean it.”