Chapter Fourteen I Have Returned

  An Su felt that his luck was terrible. He had been excited to find Wen Zhan to ask for a reward, but he found it difficult to speak in front of Wen Zhan's gloomy face. An Su, who had never seen Wen Zhan like this before, put away the straightforward words he had prepared and carefully probed: "Teacher Wen, about that gift..."

  Wen Xian faintly responded with a sound: "Oh, it doesn't quite match the captain's intentions."

  Although the tone was light, it weighed heavily on An Su's heart. She let out a soft "ah" and asked urgently, "Why is this?"

  Why is it like this?

  Wen Xuan silently sneered in her heart.

  What's your take on it? Does a calamity arising from within one's own household still need an explanation?

  In order not to arouse An Su's suspicion, Wen Zhan deliberately maintained a light tone: "It's not suitable to give gifts at this time, Director Fu is worried about being taken advantage of."

  With that, a cold light flashed in his eyes, indicating that An Su should not ask further.

  An Su deservedly shut her mouth tight.

  Out of the office, rumors of the principal's defeat came from all directions. These gossips had been circulating since morning, but An Su was too excited to care. Now it seemed that this was indeed the case, she kicked a stone on the side of the road with one foot, and the stone flew straight up and hit the calf of the person opposite her.

  Ansu listened to the voice that didn't sound right, but was too lazy to apologize. She simply raised her eyes and glanced at the other person shallowly, but when she saw the other person's face clearly, her eyes widened suddenly -

  Cloud! Sea! Sail!

  "When were you released?!" Ansu exclaimed.

  Yun Hai Fan didn't even acknowledge her, and instead pretended to be busy, bending down to carefully sweep the small area that had been hit by the stone earlier. He deliberately delayed An Su for two minutes before standing up straight: "It was only yesterday that Teacher Wen agreed to let me return to class."

  "What's going on!" An Su had only just spoken when she realized her voice was too loud, attracting a wave of curious glances from the surrounding crowd. She lowered her voice, "Didn't you fail to get it done?"

  Yun Hai's index finger was pressed against his lips, with an innocent expression: "When Teacher Wen came to find me yesterday, he indeed had some hidden anger. However, Teacher Wen and Principal Ji have always been clear about rewards and punishments. Since the problem wasn't with me, they found the culprit and I was released from detention."

  "How could this be!" An Su saw Yun Hai Fan wanting to leave, so she grabbed her hand. Yun Hai Fan struggled free, but unfortunately, in the winter, skin is fragile, and An Su's long fingernails left a deep and long scar on her hand. Yun Hai Fan felt pain, and her tone also became somewhat harsh: "What can't be helped, if there's punishment to be meted out, it should be for those who caused the problem, what does it have to do with me!"

  "Whose fault is it?" An Su was tortured by Wen Zhan's cold attitude, and although she didn't hold out much hope that Yun Hai Fan would tell her, she still asked.

  "How am I supposed to know?" Yun Hai Fan glanced around and changed the subject, "But judging from my guesses, the problem shouldn't be with a particular person..." Knowing that An Su was eager to hear more, Yun Hai Fan suddenly fell silent, with an air of mystery as if saying "the Buddha said it's unspeakable".

  "Isn't it just a group of people?" Ansu's annoyance led her step by step into Yunhai Fan's linguistic whirlpool, involuntarily drawing her attention.

  Yun Hai Fan looked around cautiously and leaned in close to An Su's ear, lowering his voice: "Considering our long acquaintance, I'll just say this to you personally. I think even if we didn't send gifts, Principal Ji would still have the same outcome. Don't you think it's strange that the inspection team came so suddenly?"

  Ansu nodded in agreement, gesturing hastily for her to continue: "It's very unusual. Typically, personnel investigators wouldn't come at this time. The usual time for personnel changes is the third month after the beginning of spring."

  "That's right." Yun Hai Fan continued to whisper, "This shows that the top is eager to get rid of our principal. Since it's already a done deal, can a gift change anything? Especially a gift whose authenticity is unknown."

  "What does that prove?"

  "Let me tell you, neither Teacher Wen nor Principal Ji can find a scapegoat. To be honest, yesterday Teacher Wen wanted to scold me, but later thought it wasn't reasonable and let me go back. Who knows, maybe he's still cursing me now..." Yun Haifan sneezed in sync with his words, "Achoo! See, he really is cursing me. Now whoever gets close to him will be unlucky, he's so anxious to find a scapegoat."

  After finishing speaking, Yun Hai Fan glanced around and hastily left without waiting for An Su to continue asking questions.

  Ansu gazed at her back, turned around and punched the wall beside him. The flying lime powder fell on her hair and eyebrows, leaving a piece of desolate resentment.

  Against the corner of the wall, a young girl leaned against the wall, listening to the muffled sound from 90° sideways. Her shoulder-length hair cascaded down like a waterfall, and the black silk ribbon slightly refracted the seven-colored sunlight, as if it were a slowly flowing spring. The dazzling luster of the obsidian-like light opened up, and the fine hairs clung to the wall.

  The girl's pale face had a faint smile on it, her right index finger casually curled up a strand of black hair, and her other hand carefully pulled out a fallen hair. Her right hand immediately let go of the hair and pulled at the fallen hair instead. The scars on her hands were still obvious, healing and scabbing over in the cool air by herself.

  A faint sound burst in the air, and her hair snapped. The girl casually flicked away the broken hair, turned around, and left a pale, cold, and proud back view.

  I don't need you to fully believe me, just that once the bond of trust is cracked, it's as fragile as a hair and can be broken with a single blow. And what I'm going to do is let you two pull in opposite directions, then wait for you to self-destruct.

  Do you still remember?

  Yun Hai Fan revealed a delighted smile, and on his right hand, there was a faint hint of crimson dripping down.

  I said I'll be back.

  I have returned now.

  Like the uneasy Quinlan School, the Puppetry Class was also secretly surging. Wen Zhan was largely affected by the heavy blow and gradually became less involved in managing the class. Lan Si Cheng had always been in a state of observation and laissez-faire, since Wen Zhan's puppetry classes were all free trials, he naturally prioritized the overall situation, originally pretending to supervise the class, but later didn't even show up to class.

  "Why don't we skip class?" Toward Ke whispered to Yun Hai Fan that day.

  "This doesn't sound like something you'd say."

  "People are always changing, besides... " Xiang couldn't help but curve the corners of her eyebrows into a smile, "I know it's inconvenient for you to read that divine scroll in school."

  "What? Didn't Akane tell you?"

  "Zi Yin's words are really endearing." Xiang Ke pretended to be jealous, "He is my brother, after all."

  "Your brother has approved it." Yun Hai Fan showed no interest in bickering with her, "Where are we going?"

  "Have you ever heard of 'Carefree School'? We are going for a stroll without a purpose."

  "Is it a street performer on the avenue? It's indeed the old place."