He was a disabled military officer who doted on his research work in the Northwest.

Ma Decai suddenly turned his head and stared at Shen Yao with wide eyes—his gaze seemed to want to devour her alive.

But Shen Yao didn't look at him. She lowered her head, her eyelashes trembling, and tears slid down her cheeks.

"We know it's not right... but the teacher gave it to us, and we couldn't refuse the teacher..." Her voice trailed off, growing softer and more aggrieved. "Besides, I... I know it's wrong to do this, so I just took it without looking at the contents of the test paper—"

She looked up at Principal Zhou, her eyes blurry with tears, and said, "Principal, I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have accepted it. But I really... didn't look..."

The corridor was quiet for a few seconds.

Ma Decai's face was contorted.

He leaked the exam questions, and she didn't benefit from it? Then she turned around and sold herself out?

You still say you haven't seen it?

Okay. Very good.

"Shen Yao!" He clenched his fist, veins bulging, "A person should have a conscience!" Shen Yao shrank back behind the principal.

Principal Zhou glanced at Shen Yao, then at Ma Decai. His expression was as heavy as lead.

"Shen Yao said she didn't look," Principal Zhou's voice was deep. "What about the other students? Those whose hands showed a fluorescent reaction—didn't you look either?"

Several top students from Class One exchanged glances. Some lowered their heads, while others whispered, mimicking Shen Yao's words, "We... flipped through it, but didn't look at it very carefully..."

Someone whispered, "We didn't pay much attention; maybe this could be handled leniently..."

Ma Decai's hand was clenched tightly. This was the good student he had taught. When trouble came, he betrayed his teacher to protect himself.

"Is that so?" A cold laugh came slowly from the crowd.

Everyone turned around and saw Shen Tang, who took a step forward. All eyes were on her.

"Whether you looked at it or not is not up to you to say. The last bonus question on today's math test was extremely difficult, and it was used for selection. There won't be more than five people in the entire school who could solve it on their own."

Shen Yao's expression changed, and Zhao Liang shouted, "So what? What's wrong with what we did? Is it wrong that we studied thoroughly?"

"You're right. It's a fluke if you get everything right, but it's not wrong either. But—what if I said the accompanying standard answer key you're looking at is wrong? The person who actually solved the problem couldn't have made that mistake. Only someone who memorized the answer key would copy it verbatim—including the mistakes."

"If you copied—" Shen Tang said, emphasizing each word, "then all of you wrote it the same way, made the same mistakes, tell me, can that still be a coincidence?"

After he finished speaking, there was a deathly silence.

Shen Yao and the students who had just said they were flipping through their own papers began to feel a chill run down their spines.

What is she saying? Is it all wrong?

When they received the test paper, they had seen the question, and it was indeed very difficult. Since the answer was already given, who would bother to think about it? They simply memorized the answer.

Now you're telling them the answer is wrong?!

Ignoring the turmoil in their hearts, Shen Tang looked directly at Shen Yao. "Shen Yao—you said you didn't look at the test paper. Since things have escalated to this point, why don't we pull out your papers and see if you made the same mistakes? If not, that will prove your innocence, right?"

Shen Yao's lips trembled twice. Her face turned from pale to ashen.

If everything Shen Tang said is true, then it must be exactly the same thing that is wrong.

Because she memorized every single punctuation mark!

She gritted her teeth, her voice shrill: "No—no! We had no idea! Even if we made the same mistake, it's because we were taught by the same teacher! It was Teacher Ma! He explained this problem to us when he tutored us! We did it according to his method—we didn't copy it!"

She blamed everything on Ma Decai.

The exam questions were leaked.

The tutoring was incorrect.

The corridor was silent for half a second.

The students also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Yes, they had already offended Ma Decai to death, so they didn't care about adding another label. As long as they pushed all the responsibility onto him and said that the teacher had taught wrongly, even if they couldn't get away unscathed, they would at least be treated leniently.

"Ha," Ma Decai laughed, a laugh that sent a chill down their spines. "I taught him?"

Now that there are witnesses and physical evidence, he doesn't care anymore.

Since this ungrateful wretch betrayed him first, then he shouldn't blame him.

She said "I didn't see it"?

Oh.

He turned to look at Shen Yao, then glanced at the other students, his voice as cold as ice pulled from a river in winter, "Shen Yao—when did I ever teach you this problem?"

His voice echoed in the corridor: "I have lesson plans and records for my class—tell me which lesson it was taught in? What day? Which period? Is this question in the lesson plan?"

Shen Yao was stunned.

This question is very difficult and beyond the scope of the curriculum; it's impossible to include it in the lesson plan.

"I didn't teach that." Ma Decai said slowly and deliberately, his gaze fixed on Shen Yao like a nail. "There's no lesson plan, and I didn't teach it. You just looked at the test paper, memorized the answers, and copied them."

"Principal," Ma Decai turned to Principal Zhou, his voice hoarse but clear, "I admit—I took the exam paper."

There was an uproar in the corridor.

"But Shen Yao said she 'didn't look at it'—" Ma Decai's expression turned sarcastic, "The answer to the bonus question has already proven she was lying. She not only looked at it, she memorized it, and copied it down exactly as it was."

Shen Yao stood there, tears streaming down her face, her lips moving as if she wanted to explain something—but she couldn't say anything.

Because the evidence was too irrefutable.

The eight students' answers to the bonus question were exactly the same, down to the exact same logical fallacy. If it really was a case of "the teacher teaching it wrong"—then it should be found in the lesson plan. But Ma Decai said he had never taught this question.

The answer could only come from one place—a stolen exam paper.

Sun Xiulan stood on the periphery of the crowd, watching the scene unfold before her.

A teacher and his student are implicating and betraying each other. They'll say anything to protect themselves.

She suddenly remembered the chill that had swept over her when Shen Tang sat in the office that day, devising a plan with her.

She thought to herself, "This child is terrible."

Now she realizes she was wrong.

When Shen Tang was praised by the principal during the placement test, what did she say in front of the whole school?

"I have benefited greatly from Ms. Sun's teaching methods."

She shared the credit with her teachers and classmates. After class, she would explain problems to her classmates and share her notes. Meanwhile, these two people—one treated her students as pawns, and the other treated her mentor as a stepping stone.

Sun Xiulan took a deep breath and swallowed back the bitterness that welled up inside her.

She shouldn't have thought that way. Shen Tang never hurt anyone. Even when faced with slanderous rumors, she always spoke openly and honestly in front of others, explaining that a teacher's job is to impart knowledge and resolve doubts, and that she has never done anything malicious.

She shouldn't be intimidated by someone's abilities; a capable and good person is even rarer. She should protect her students, especially those like this.

……

Three days after the protest ended, the official results of the investigation into Ma Decai's alleged cheating on exam questions were announced.

The notice from the principal's office was posted on the bulletin board in the lobby of the teaching building—in the same spot as the initial diagnostic test results. But this time, the crowd was much quieter; no one cheered, and no one mocked.

Decision regarding the handling of the cheating incident in the city's mock college entrance examination:

I. Teacher Ma Decai, abusing his position, stole exam papers and leaked exam questions to students, seriously violating professional ethics for teachers and exam discipline. The school committee has decided to suspend all his teaching duties and report the case to the municipal education bureau's disciplinary inspection department for further processing.

II. Eight students from Class 1, including Zhao Liang and Shen Yao, participated in receiving leaked exam questions and using them in the actual exam, constituting serious cheating. They will receive a school-wide reprimand, a demerit in their records, and their scores for this mock exam will be invalidated.

Third, the scores of the entire Class 1 in this mock exam will not be included in the city-wide ranking statistics.

The last line of the announcement reads: "We urge all teachers and students to take this as a warning and rectify their academic and examination conduct."

Class One was in an uproar.