TMISIU- chapter 53

Disputes on the Internet did not stop there.

At nine o’clock in the morning, the official WeChat account of the Gusu Academy of Fine Arts also issued a statement saying that the school had convened an urgent meeting and was investigating the Yan Jingze issue.

The lawyer appointed by Lan Zhan to help Wei Ying also posted a letter to Yan Jingze on Weibo, stating that he would help the client to sue.

The matter developed in a direction that was initially unexpected and expanded.

Perhaps due to the pressure of the school and the lawsuit, at ten o’clock in the morning, Yan Jingze’s Weibo trumpet, who was overwhelmed by netizens, finally sent a Weibo response.

He admitted in the Weibo post that the painting was not his own original, but there was someone else who gave him the painting and asked him to submit it for the competition.

He was deceived by others and the person who anonymously submitted the article to smear the plagiarism was not him.

Throughout Weibo, he tried to clean himself up, and finally @ a Weibo account, suggesting that this was the person behind the scenes.

Netizens clicked on this Weibo account and found that it was a verified account, with a profile of the vice president of the Gusu City Bingqiu Painting Association.

“Ying ge, do you know this person named Yeong Lee?”

Nei Huaisang had endured the desire to surf the Internet all morning, and when he finally had time to gossip during the lunch break, he saw that some netizens had already picked up this Weibo full of selfies belonging to a woman named Yeong Lee.

Wei Ying also swiped his phone, but did not have the leisure to gossip. Instead, he anxiously waited for Lan Zhan’s reply.

The national mathematics competition exam took place in the morning. At this time, it should have just ended.

He looked at the WeChat dialog box and said absently: “I know, I am also in this club.”

Nei Huaisang sketched out a story in his mind, in which a vice president was jealous of a gifted member and thus slandered and framed him. He continued scrolling Weibo, and after a while, he opened his mouth suddenly:

“I saw someone pick it up. Yeong Lee is the girlfriend of the chairman of MG Technology!”

Yeong Lee’s Weibo was full of self-portraits and PDAs. Netizens who were eager to eat melons picked out her boyfriends.

Many people speculated that Yeong Lee was not a girlfriend but a mistress based on her age.

“MG Technology?” Wei Ying didn’t react.

“You don’t know, MG Technology is a very large medical company, and the chairman is…” Nei Huaisang covered his mouth and leaned towards Wei Ying in a low voice, “The next door Class 2 Jiang Cheng’s father.”

Wei Ying said “Oh” without any response. He continued to look at Lan Zhan’s WeChat box.

The interface suddenly jumped into an incoming call reminder. He jolted, got up from his seat with his mobile phone and rushed to the hallway outside the classroom.

“Have you finished the exam?”

It seemed to be a little noisy over Lan Zhan’s side, he let out an “en” without saying how well he did in the test. Instead, he said to him: “I will come back to Gusu in the afternoon. I will pick you up from school in the evening.”

Wei Ying was stunned and asked, “Don’t you have an interview in Beijing this afternoon?”

Lan Zhan’s schedule for Beijing was very full this time. In addition to the competition in the morning, there would be two interviews with American professors in the afternoon. The plan was to return tomorrow.

“I moved the interview to a later date.”

Wei Ying felt that something was wrong, Lan Zhan was not someone who casually disrupted plans like this.

He thought about it and said, “Is there anything wrong with you coming back in a hurry? If it’s about me, you really don’t have to worry about it, I’ve already taken care of it.”

Lan Zhan seemed to have walked to a quieter place, his voice became clearer and deeper: “Wei Ying, I want to take you to see your grandpa and grandma tomorrow morning.”

Wei Ying took a deep breath. His fingers unconsciously gripped the phone and he asked softly: “Why? Didn’t we say we will go on Saturday?”

When he thought of that scene, he still couldn’t help feeling nervous.

Lan Zhan was silent for a while and only said, “I don’t want anything else to happen.”

Wei Ying heard a bit of self-blame in Lan Zhan’s voice. He bit his lower lip. After hesitating for a while, he replied, “Okay, I’ll listen to you.”

After hanging up the phone, he opened Weibo and searched Yeong Lee’s Weibo account to find that the Weibo content had been cleared and the ID became a string of garbled codes.

Yan Jingze’s revelation about Yeong Lee was within his expectation, but he was more curious about what Yeong Lee would do.

Yeong Lee must have slandered him for plagiarism for the purpose of pleasing Jiang Cheng.

Now that the situation had developed to this point, there was no more room to turn back.

Would she cover up Jiang Fengmian’s “son” and block all this for him?

And Wen Xu, who had always been uncomfortable with him and had been trying hard to get in line with Jiang Cheng, would he deny stealing his painting and hide it for Jiang Cheng when confronted by the school leaders?

Wei Ying put the phone back into his pocket.

After returning to the classroom, he walked to the corridor again.

Grabbing a boy who was about to enter Class 2, he handed him a folded note and said, “Can you give it to Wen Xu in your class for me?”

The boy agreed and quickly went into the classroom.

Wei Ying leaned on the railing of the corridor, lowered his head and scrolled Weibo.

Not long after, Wen Xu walked out, glanced at him stiffly, and then looked around.

Seeing no one passing by, he said with a sullen expression: “What do you mean?”

Wei Ying’s gaze fell on Wen Xu’s tightly clenched fingers. Without saying anything, he turned and walked into an empty classroom at the end of the corridor.

Wen Xu hesitated behind him for a while and followed slowly.

The empty classroom had few tables and chairs, and a broken chair with a broken leg was at the edge of the wall.

Wei Ying looked at the chair, and after Wen Xu closed the door nervously, he said in a low tone.

“Wen Xu, I remember I told you a long time ago not to touch my things casually.”

Wen Xu saw the chair and obviously remembered something. He subconsciously took two steps back and stared at him angrily, “Who touched your things? You do not just slander people!”

Wei Ying took a step closer, staring at Wen Xu’s dodging eyes and said, “You may not know that I have a bad habit. As long as it is what I put, how it is placed and where it is, I can remember it clearly.”

Wen Xu stood there, his lips pressed tightly. After a moment of silence, he turned his face sideways and said, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Then I will help you remember.” Wei Ying put his hand in his pocket and held the phone.

Tilting his head as if he was thinking, he continued, “On December 17, Guo Cheng took a day off to go back, I went back to my dorm room late, and you were the only one in the dorm room, right?”

Wen Xu’s face froze for a moment, this was the date written in the note. his heart was panicking like a drum roll, but he tried his best to maintain his composure:

“What does this mean? Guo Cheng is still often alone in the dormitory?”

Wei Ying smiled softly and said calmly, “Didn’t you notice? Every time I finish painting, I cover the easel with a white cloth, but that day when I went back, I found that the cloth had been moved. Guo Cheng was not there, so who do you think moved it?”

Wen Xu lowered his gaze suddenly, the emotions in his eyes were fierce, and after a while he calmed down again, snickering, “Can this be considered evidence?”

Wei Ying didn’t answer the conversation anymore, but suddenly asked, “You haven’t been able to contact Jiang Cheng, right?”

Wen Xu looked gloomy and didn’t say a word. Since things were reversed last night, he panicked and sent a WeChat message to Jiang Cheng and even made a phone call, but there was no response.

Today, Jiang Cheng didn’t come to school directly, and he will go to the Student Affairs Office later to accept the inquiry from Director Shi.

Wei Ying came closer, and said in a slow tone: “Wen Xu, I know that Jiang Cheng asked you to do this. In addition to you, there is also his father’s girlfriend. Now she has been exposed by Yan Jingze. Don’t you think she will give you up for Jiang Cheng?”

Wen Xu’s fist on the leg side suddenly clenched, and his expression remained silent.

“This matter has become a big deal, the school is also investigating. Do you think it can still be hidden?”

Wei Ying’s gaze fell on Wen Xu’s pale face, his voice was cold, “Finally finding out that it’s you who provided them with my paintings, what do you think the school will do? Is it a disciplinary action, or a withdrawal from school?”

Wen Xu’s eyes trembled violently, he swallowed his throat and quickly retorted: “I didn’t know they would do that with your paintings!”

Wei Ying squeezed the phone with his hand in his pocket, and asked with distrust: “You really don’t know?”

Wen Xu turned red and argued quickly, “I just mentioned to Jiang Cheng that you were going to participate in the CAC. He said he wanted to see how your paintings were, and asked me to take a picture to show him, so I agreed, I really didn’t know he would do that.”

Wei Ying laughed coldly in his heart, knowing that Wen Xu was clearing himself. He said nothing more and turned to leave, but Wen Xu caught up and grabbed his arm, saying in a pleading tone:

“Wei Ying, I really can’t leave Gusu High School, my parents would go crazy if they knew!”

Wei Ying stopped in his tracks, broke away Wen Xu’s hand and looked at him coldly, saying, “When you plan to slander me, why don’t you think about the fact that I can’t leave Gusu High School either?”

Wen Xu opened his pale lips but did not say anything.

In the afternoon, Wei Ying followed the others to class as usual, until after five o’clock, just after an English class, Shen Xiao Hai came in through the back door and asked him to go out.

Wei Ying followed Shen Xiao Hai outside the classroom, Shen Xiao Hai led him in the direction of the office building while saying:

“Director Shi of the Political Education Department looked for Wen Xu at noon, his words were not much different from the recording you gave me, then Director Shi went to Jiang Cheng, but Jiang Cheng was not at school and took a leave of absence last night.”

Wei Ying smiled in his heart. At this time, would Jiang Cheng only hide in cowardice?

Shen Xiao Hai didn’t expect that this matter would involve Jiang Cheng from Class 2 and continued with a headache:

“Director Shi had to contact Jiang Cheng’s parents. Now they are here and they are in the meeting room…”

Before he finished speaking, he found Wei Ying suddenly stopped in his tracks, tightly frowned, the bottom of his eyes revealed a nervous and anxious look.

Thinking that Wei Ying was afraid of facing his parents, Shen Xiao Hai calmed him down:

“Don’t be nervous, Jiang Cheng made a mistake in this matter. His parents must have come to talk to you properly and apologize to you. They will not make things difficult for you.”

Wei Ying took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

When Jiang Fengmian rushed to Gusu High School in the afternoon, Gu Yihan and the two elders of the Sanren family hadn’t arrived yet.

Director Shi welcomed and took him into a conference room.

Jiang Fengmian couldn’t hold back lighting a cigarette. His face, which was always gentle and warm, had a layer of heavy frost.

Yeong Lee called him at noon today, and knowing that she had been exposed, she told him about the incident…

Not knowing what kind of deep hatred Jiang Cheng had with the student named Wei Ying, gave her the photo of the painting Wei Ying had submitted to CAC. He asked her to copy the painting, and found a college student with little background, and hired him to submit the copy of the painting to the Golden Cup competition in his own name.

The purpose of this was obvious.

Not knowing what was wrong with his son, he wanted to ruin a classmate’s competition through slander and plagiarism.

More deeply, he wanted to ruin the student’s future in artistic creation.

“Fengmian, I have no grudge against that Wei Ying. It’s also because of your son that I did this, you can’t just ignore it! Now others are going to sue, I can’t take this all down for your son, can you think of something?”

At that time, Jiang Fengmian listened to the forehead veins jumping and forced himself to calm down before he interrupted Yeong Lee’s noisy crying, telling her to clear all the content of the social media platform first, and not to post any response on it.

He was incredibly angry and furious at Jiang Cheng’s behavior, wanting to drag the kid back and beat him up immediately, and he didn’t expect Yeong Lee to let Jiang Cheng do what he wanted!

In the end, Jiang Fengmian managed to calm down and went to the internet to quickly understand the situation, knowing that the matter had already gone too far to be solved by suppressing Yan Jingze.

In any case, he planned to go to the school to ask Jiang Cheng to ask clearly, but soon he received a phone call from Jiang Cheng’s head teacher.

He told him about Jiang Cheng in a gentle tone and asked him to take Jiang Cheng to the school.

Only then did he know that Jiang Cheng didn’t go to school at all, so he had to call Gu Yihan, who had barely contacted him. Gu Yihan said that Jiang Cheng was in a bad mood and went to a friend’s house.

Jiang Fengmian could not hold back his anger. He had always been dissatisfied with the two elders of the Sanren family and Gu Yihan for pampering Jiang Cheng too much.

Because of his willfulness, he made a big mistake today, so he couldn’t help but tell Gu Yihan about the good things Jiang Cheng had done.

Unexpectedly, Gu Yihan happened to be visiting the two old people at Sanren’s house.

The two elders knew about this. The three were shocked and anxious, and they didn’t believe that Jiang Cheng did it.

The door of the conference room was pushed open.

Jiang Fengmian saw Gu Yihan helping the two old men, Baoshan Sanren and Hong Shu, come in, but did not see Jiang Cheng and asked in a deep voice:

“Where is Jiang Cheng? Why don’t you bring him here?”

Gu Yihan said with a tired expression, “I drove to A-Cheng’s friend’s house to pick him up and asked him about it, but A-Cheng didn’t admit it and didn’t want to come to school with me, so I didn’t bring him here.”

At that time, she was afraid of hurting Jiang Cheng, so she asked carefully and euphemistically, but Jiang Cheng reacted fiercely, crying and denying it.

She was so distressed that she didn’t dare to ask any more, and then persuaded Jiang Cheng to go to school to explain, but Jiang Cheng never agreed, and refused to leave his friend’s house.

She had to give up and picked up the two old people who insisted on going to school.

Jiang Fengmian only felt that these two people were ridiculous.

When he was just about to say something, heard Baoshan Sanren squeezed the crutches heavily, his already serious face was now green, and he sternly questioned him:

“Did your lover do a good thing?! How many times have I told you, don’t let her provoke A-Cheng!”

Hong Shu, his wife on the side, was also anxious and angry, but worried about the old man’s body, so she softly persuaded:

“Sit down first and ask the school teacher if there is any misunderstanding. I believe A-Cheng is a good boy and would never do such a thing.”

Gu Yihan helped Baoshan Sanren sit on the sofa, smoothed the old man’s breath, and agreed: “A-Cheng also said he didn’t do it, so there might really be some kind of misunderstanding.”

Ever since she answered Jiang Fengmian’s call, she had been restless. Thinking of Jiang Cheng’s faults during this time and his hostility towards Wei Ying, she was actually a little skeptical, but Jiang Cheng’s denial made her dispel her doubts.

She didn’t believe that the child she raised would do such a thing.

Jiang Fengmian, who had been silent for a long time, put out his cigarette and reached out to pinch his tightly knitted brow, knowing that these three simply did not believe it.

But he knew in his heart that, although Yeong Lee was stupid, she would not fool him on this matter.

“Forget it, wait until Director Shi comes over.”

Director Shi soon entered the meeting room, greeted the four parents politely, and poured water for each of them.

Baoshan Sanren couldn’t help asking him the ins and outs of the matter, so Director Shi calmly described in detail how Wei Ying’s CAC painting was slandered as plagiarism to its final reversal.

“But what does this have to do with my grandson?”

Baoshan Sanren asked with a stern face; he didn’t know this student named Wei Ying at all, and he was old so he didn’t know much about things on the internet.

Director Shi had dealt with many student disputes, and knew that parents would take sides with their own children, so he wasn’t angry when he heard this.

He told them about Wen Xu admitting that it was Jiang Cheng who asked him to secretly photograph Wei Ying’s paintings, and Yan Jingze said that he was instigated by Yeong Lee.

Baoshan Sanren smiled and fell silent, his withered right hand clutching the cane in his hand, Hong Shu sighed lightly and did not speak.

Gu Yihan frowned when he heard the name Yeong Lee. She glanced at Jiang Fengmian with an unsuspecting expression and asked in a cold voice, “Could it be that Yeong Lee asked A-Cheng to do it?”

Jiang Fengmian didn’t expect Gu Yihan to turn a blind eye, his tone was impatient:

“Yeong doesn’t know Wei Ying very well, why would she harm him for nothing? She showed me the chat records with A-Cheng, and it was indeed A-Cheng who asked her to do it.”

He held back and didn’t tell them what Yeong Lee said about Jiang Cheng asking her to borrow money and asking her to help teach Wei Ying a lesson at a classmate’s birthday party, for fear that the old man wouldn’t be able to bear hearing it.

Perhaps from these words he understood that Jiang Fengmian was defending Yeong Lee, Baoshan Sanren said angrily at Jiang Fengmian:

“Look what kind of woman you found, if not for her ideas on the side, can A-Cheng understand these means?!“

Jiang Fengmian supported his forehead irritably. Over the years, it was difficult for him and Baoshan Sanren to say a few words peacefully.

The old man’s resentment against him was not for a day or two. He silently did not answer the words and let the old man get angry.

Gu Yihan was still in disbelief. She was startled and suspicious for a while, and seemed to have been hit hard, muttering:

“How can A-Cheng…”

Hong Shu’s expression was solemn, and her heart turned upside down. Knowing that Gu Yihan couldn’t stand it, she took her hand and sighed gently:

“The kid was confused and did something wrong. We as adults are also wrong, we didn’t teach him well. Director Shi, what do you think is better to deal with this matter?”

Director Shi had been in an awkward situation. Seeing that someone finally noticed him, he said hurriedly: “This matter is a bit serious now. The follow-up process has to be taken care of by the school leaders. My personal suggestion is to make Jiang Cheng apologize to Wei Ying, and then you can see if you can discuss it with Wei Ying and see what he says.”

Jiang Fengmian understood the meaning of Director Shi’s words and after thinking for a while asked, “Don’t you need to invite Wei Ying’s parents over as well? Maybe it’s more appropriate for us parents to talk together.”

Baoshan Sanren agreed with Jiang Fengmian in a rare moment: “Yes, children sometimes can’t make up their minds.”

Director Shi replied: “Wei Ying is a student from our school and Yanping County’s remote live broadcast project. The parents are not here, nor do we have their contact information.”

Gu Yihan returned to her senses, a sad cloud covering her face. She nodded and said: “I know Wei Ying, he is indeed from Yanping County.”

The other three fell silent, because Yanping County was a place they did not want to recall. They did not expect that the child involved in Jiang Cheng’s incident were actually from Yanping County.

In the end it was Jiang Fengmian who said to Director Shi: “Thank you, we’ll discuss it first and then talk to you.”

“Okay. If you want to see Wei Ying, I can bring him over.”

Director Shi said goodbye and walked out.

He closed the door of the meeting room and shook his head outside the door when he heard the faint quarrel coming from inside.

Wei Ying was led by Shen Xiao Hai to the door of the conference room, and the hands that fell on the side of his legs were clenched together until the joints were white.

He already knew from Shen Xiao Hai that the parents who came this time included his father, grandfather and grandmother, and Lan Zhan’s mother.

Originally, he was ready to visit his grandparents with Lan Zhan tomorrow, but how could he have expected to meet his relatives on such an occasion first?

Wei Ying stood up straighter and cleared his throat as Shen Xiao Hai knocked on the conference room door, each knock knocking heavily on his heart.

Soon there were footsteps coming from inside, followed by the door being opened.

Wei Ying saw Jiang Fengmian gave him a kind smile on his tired-looking face and said:

“Wei Ying, come in.”

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