novelraw Chapter 93: The Culprit Plays the Victim
Chapter 93: The Culprit Plays the Victim
Ling Xueshan walked down the stairs alone.
Cao Jiajia hid quietly against the wall, waiting for Ling Xueshan to reach the turn in the staircase.
She suddenly lunged out, raising her right hand and shoving with all her might at Ling Xueshan’s back!
But she’d forgotten that Ling Xueshan was a force to be reckoned with—the kind of person who had trekked alone through deep mountain forests and could single-handedly subdue wild dogs.
Just as her hand was about to touch Ling Xueshan’s back...
Ling Xueshan simply leaned aside and took a small step back.
Cao Jiajia’s push met nothing but air.
She had used too much force and couldn’t stop her momentum. Her entire body lunged forward, and she went tumbling down the stairs!
"AH!"
A large group of students immediately poured out of a nearby classroom, craning their necks to see what was happening.
They saw Cao Jiajia sprawled messily at the bottom of the stairs, her hair in disarray.
"Are you okay?"
"Did... did she fall down the stairs?"
"Oh my god! Her head is bleeding! Go get a teacher! Quick, get a teacher!"
Although the children didn’t particularly like Cao Jiajia on a normal day, seeing someone injured still made them panic instinctively.
Someone ran off toward the teachers’ office.
A teacher heard the commotion and hurried over. The scene startled her, and she knelt down to carefully check Cao Jiajia’s injuries.
"Did you fall? Does it hurt? Are you dizzy?"
The moment Cao Jiajia heard the teacher’s voice, she started crying even louder.
"SOB... Teacher, Ling Xueshan pushed me! She did it! It was on purpose!"
She raised a trembling hand, her fingertip pointing straight at Ling Xueshan, who was still standing on the stairs.
"I didn’t."
Ling Xueshan said calmly.
"She rushed up from behind to push me. I moved out of the way, and she lost her balance and fell on her own."
"You’re lying!"
Cao Jiajia’s face turned beet red.
"You’re just jealous of me! You saw that I have friends now and people like me, so you’re unhappy and wanted to hurt me!"
Ling Xueshan watched her quietly and sighed inwardly.
’In two lifetimes, through countless storms, this is the first time I’ve ever met a spoiled brat with skin thicker than a castle wall.’
The teacher who arrived wasn’t one who taught her class, so she naturally didn’t know Shanshan very well.
The teacher didn’t believe Shanshan would do something like push someone, but the situation at hand prevented her from simply brushing it aside.
Cao Jiajia continued.
"It was Shanshan! Shanshan pushed me! She suddenly shoved me from behind, and I fell and hit my head on the steps!"
The teacher immediately took out her phone, first contacting Shanshan’s and Cao Jiajia’s respective homeroom teachers.
Then, without a moment’s delay, she dialed the parents of both students and informed them of exactly what had happened.
On the other end of the line, the moment Liu Yingzi heard the four words "your daughter is injured," she completely lost it.
She didn’t even bother to change her shoes, just grabbed her keys and rushed out the door.
Cao Daqiang was squatting on a small stool by the kitchen door, cleaning vegetables. He froze for a moment when he heard his wife shouting on the phone.
But his mind was already racing, calculating.
’Money has been tight at home lately. If this blows up into a real incident, could the school offer some compensation?’
’Even a few hundred yuan would help with emergencies and supplement our household income...’
Of course, this thought only flickered through his mind. He wouldn’t dare mention it, let alone let Liu Yingzi suspect a thing.
And so, the couple rushed toward the school, one after the other.
"Faster! Go faster! Jiajia’s crying is breaking my heart!"
Liu Yingzi furiously pumped the pedals.
Her mind was filled with images of her daughter in pain.
Cao Daqiang followed close behind, not saying a word.
The moment their bicycle stopped at the school gate, before it was even propped up securely, Liu Yingzi leaped off and stormed into the school building.
"Jiajia! Where’s my daughter?! Jiajia!"
Hearing her mother’s voice, Cao Jiajia, who had been hiding in a corner of the office, immediately looked up.
"Mom!"
She threw herself into Liu Yingzi’s arms.
The sight of her daughter’s small face wrapped in gauze shattered Liu Yingzi’s heart, and tears instantly streamed down her face.
She knelt down, cupping her daughter’s face in her hands.
"Oh, my baby, how did you get hurt so badly? Does it hurt? Who pushed you? Who would dare do this to you?!"
The mother and daughter clung to each other, their sobs earth-shattering.
All the teachers in the office froze in place, looking at each other, none daring to speak up.
Finally, Cao Jiajia’s homeroom teacher, a middle-aged woman surnamed Yang, braced herself and spoke.
"Jiajia’s mother, please calm down. Don’t get too worked up. The child’s injury isn’t serious, really. She just scraped some skin on her chin. The wound isn’t large. It’s already been disinfected, medicated, and bandaged with gauze. The doctor said that with proper care, it definitely won’t leave a scar. You won’t be able to see it once it heals."
That single statement set her off like a bomb.
Liu Yingzi shot to her feet, her eyes bloodshot.
"Scraped skin? Are you covering for her like this? This is her face! Her entire face! Do you know how precious a girl’s face is? What if it really does leave a scar? How will she face people in the future? How will she find a partner? If she can’t get married, is your school going to support her for the rest of her life? Can you even take that responsibility?!"
"We... of course we will cooperate in handling this, but the specific responsibility still needs to be investigated..."
Just then, Cao Daqiang, who had been silent all this time, finally bent down and squatted in front of his daughter.
"Jiajia, don’t be afraid. Mom and Dad are here. Tell Daddy, who exactly pushed you?"
"It was her!"
Cao Jiajia’s finger stabbed straight toward Shanshan in the corner.
"It was her! Just now... Mom, my head hurts so much... Am I going to die? I’m so scared..."
"Silly child, don’t talk nonsense. You’re fine, nothing’s wrong."
Liu Yingzi rushed forward and pulled her daughter into a tight embrace, her eyes instantly turning red.
"Mommy’s here. No one can hurt you. I believe my daughter. I’ve believed you from the very beginning."
Hearing this, Cao Daqiang’s tense shoulders quietly relaxed.
"Cao Xueshan! You’re absolutely hopeless! What did Jiajia ever do to you? Why would you try to harm her like this? The stairs are so high and the steps are so steep. If she had been seriously injured—cracked her head open, broken a bone—could you bear that responsibility? Have you been harboring these malicious thoughts all along? Did you just want to see her get humiliated, or even fall to her death?"
Shanshan’s homeroom teacher quickly ran forward.
"Jiajia’s father, please calm down. This matter hasn’t been fully investigated yet. We can’t jump to conclusions based on one side of the story. We need to look at the evidence and be reasonable..."
"What’s there to investigate?"
Cao Daqiang interrupted coldly.
"My daughter identified the person with her own mouth. Are you suggesting she jumped down herself? You don’t believe the victim, but instead, you want to doubt a child’s instinctive reaction in a moment of crisis? As teachers, is this how you uphold fairness?"
He acted as if he was in the right, his tone aggressive, his gaze fixed firmly on Shanshan.
But Shanshan didn’t back down an inch.
She raised her head.
"I didn’t push her. Everyone in our class has seen it. From the first day of school, it’s always been Cao Jiajia targeting me—calling me an unwanted child, not letting me sit by her, and forbidding others from playing with me. I never said a single word back, not even to complain. Why would I push her? What’s in it for me? There’s nothing I’d gain from it."