Chapter 69: Reprimand
Standing very far away, Tian Nuo pointed at Fu Zhi and said, “Tingting has been the champion for two years in a row, so her level and ability are unquestionable. As for you, all of us know that you come from a small town, and the level of education there is notoriously low. Ask yourself, has your teacher taught you such a high level of English before?
“In my opinion, you didn’t seek help from the outside. This is because you already had the topic before the competition started! Fu Zhi, I can’t believe that you’re willing to go that far in order to get the access card to the institute. Shame on you!”
After listening to what Tian Nuo said, Zhou Tingting wiped her tears off her eyes and said, “Alright, let’s stop talking about this. What’s done is done, and there is nothing I can do. I believe in our school authorities! I’m certain that they would never allow something like that to happen at school!”
“Bullsh*t! She won because the Lu Family is rich! She did nothing but keep babbling about her own unfortunate experience in a small bubble tea shop while she was on the stage. I’m certain that she will ask her parents to buy her a certificate in the future!” a girl in the hall shouted sourly.
Then, someone added, “Well, truth be told, there’s nothing wrong with her using her family’s wealth to get what she wanted. The problem is that not only did she destroy Zhou Tingting’s dream, but she also had the audacity to say we’re emotionally blackmailing her! We just want to set things right. We didn’t ask her to apologize to Zhou Tingting! Is that still not good enough?”
Du Min, who was in the judging seat, glanced across the group of girls with a dark expression.
Fu Zhi took a step back. The corners of her lips curved upward as she drawled, “All of you have made good points. I have a suggestion. Why don’t you quit school and join multi-level marketing firms? I’m sure you can put your talents to good use.”
“Why should we listen to you? We can distinguish between truth and lies. We’re not wrong!”
“I can’t believe that you would change so much after being taken in by a wealthy family. Have you left your simplicity back in your hometown?”
“You’re so young, yet you’ve already become really selfish. I’m sure you will be a cancer to society in the future!”
Several students in the hall shouted back at Fu Zhi angrily after they heard what Fu Zhi said.
As they continued to hurl more offensive remarks at Fu Zhi, Du Min could not hold back anymore and smacked the table hard with his hand. “Emotional blackmail, arrogance, pride, inability to distinguish right from wrong... Director Liu, are all the students at your school like this?”
Du Min was the vice-president of the FZ Research Institute in the capital, which was the top national base for scientific research in China.
Once he got angry, he was even scarier than Director Liu.
Silence descended in the hall. No one had expected that someone like Du Min would actually stand up for Fu Zhi.
Director Liu took off his spectacles. He wiped the tears that dangled from the corners of his eyes and said, “Vice-President Du...”
Director Liu was trying to explain, but Du Min did not want to hear it. He stared straight at Zhou Tingting and snarled, “Miss, if there was a crash course that could bring someone to Fu Zhi’s level in a week, then the government would have long applied it to all the schools across the country. Don’t mistake ignorance for bliss. Your shallow insight and immature temperament have shaped you into a person who is not only useless to society but would also scorn other people’s success.”
This was the first time someone berated Zhou Tingting so harshly, so her face turned pale.
Before she could say anything, the English teacher of Class 1 chimed in, “Indeed, it would be impossible for Fu Zhi to reach her current level by just joining some crash course. Her pronunciation and enunciation are better than those of most professional speakers. Either she stayed overseas when she was small, or she must have worked very hard on it. It’s not something that could be achieved overnight!”
After she finished speaking, she turned to Fu Zhi as if she was asking for a compliment, only to be ignored by Fu Zhi. After all, she had grown up in a laboratory and had never worked hard to sharpen her English proficiency at all.
The English teacher was stumped when she saw Fu Zhi turn her head away.
‘What an annoying kid!’
The students might not have backed away if only their teachers had stood up for Fu Zhi. However, Du Min had backed Fu Zhi up. He had no relationship with Fu Zhi whatsoever, so there was no need for him to help Fu Zhi reprimand Zhou Tingting.