Chapter 24 — The Day the Whole School Went Wild

Principal Tran stood by the window, the collar of his shirt soaked with cold sweat, while Director Thieu slammed the newly published school announcement down onto the mahogany table with a heavy thud.

Who authorized this publication?

The vice principal’s lips were drained of all color, his voice trembling as he offered a weak defense. The public relations department was merely following standard protocol to manage public sentiment ahead of time.

Director Thieu let out a harsh, humorless laugh. The investigation has not even concluded yet, and you have already shifted the blame onto the victimized student. Is that also considered standard protocol?

Silence descended upon the room, heavy and suffocating. My mother stepped forward, her expression resolute, and placed her smartphone firmly in the center of the table.

Delete it immediately.

The vice principal stood frozen in utter shock. My mother enunciated every single word with chilling clarity, demanding that the announcement be erased, a proper apology issued from the beginning, directed specifically at the right parties, and most importantly, an apology extended directly to her daughter.

The vice principal cast a nervous, pleading glance toward Principal Tran. The principal’s Adam apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed hard. Respected parent, the wording might indeed have been somewhat inappropriate, but the administration had to weigh all factors to balance public opinion.

My mother burst into bitter laughter. Balance public opinion? When my daughter was smeared with vicious rumors about her background and connections, did you balance the public opinion? When she was locked away in a dark utility room, did you balance it? When her name was deceitfully hijacked to claim foundation grants, did you balance it?

Principal Tran was interrogated to the point of turning completely pale, utterly devoid of a retort. Uncle Co stepped in, placing a preliminary audit report of the foundation flatly on the table. Principal Tran, let us drop the subject of public opinion and examine the ledger instead.

As the portfolio was unsealed, the air inside the conference room froze entirely. Seventy-eight thousand yuan for consulting service fees. Forty-two thousand yuan for promotional design. Thirty-six thousand yuan for family-school coordination gifts. Twenty-one thousand yuan for psychological activity catering. Every single expenditure meticulously recorded the person in charge and the authorizing officer. Cao Lam was listed as the person in charge, Headmaster Ma as the reviewer, and Principal Tran as the final approver. The contact person for the third-party consulting firm was listed as Huy Minh Huy, the younger brother of Mrs. Huy.

Director Thieu turned his piercing gaze toward Mrs. Huy. Do you have anything left to explain?

Mrs. Huy’s lips quivered uncontrollably. I did not know the exact sums. It was all handled by my younger brother.

Mr. Huy whipped his head around, staring at his wife in sheer disbelief. Exactly how many more things have you kept hidden from me?

Bursting into tears, Mrs. Huy wailed that she had only done it for the sake of Gia Nghien. Everyone else does it. If I did not offer gifts, others certainly would.

My mother gazed at her with frigid contempt. And so, when your daughter refused to apologize, was that also because everyone else does it?

Mrs. Huy choked on her words, completely silenced. Finally, Cao Lam suffered a complete psychological breakdown. She pointed an accusing finger straight at Mrs. Huy. It was she who approached me first, demanding that as long as Gia Nghien was included in the foundation exhibition project, a generous donation would be made to the class later. The principal also wanted to shape it into a model project. I merely followed the school administration’s wishes.

Principal Tran flew into a rage, bellowing that she was talking nonsense.

Cao Lam laughed, her eyes burning with fiery red tears. Am I talking nonsense? Did Headmaster Ma not know how special funds were funneled through consulting firms? Did the school office not know how promotional materials were altered? And that announcement posted online, did you not give the explicit order to publish it?

Headmaster Ma stood trembling by the side, his legs turning to jelly. At that exact moment, an auditor pushed the door open and stepped inside. Director Thieu, inside the school financial system, we discovered an internal payment appendix containing a detailed list of gifts provided by the Huy family.

He placed the printed documents neatly on the table, listing premium tea, shopping vouchers, beauty salon cards, hotel membership top-ups, and a specific item labeled as enrichment fees for student representative Gia Nghien.

Mr. Huy stared at the pages, his face turning an ash-gray. He slowly lowered himself back into his chair, as if finally comprehending the devastating truth: his family had not been framed by outsiders; rather, they had rotted completely from within.

When Hua Gia Nghien was finally brought in by his guardians, he looked utterly drained, devoid of any trace of the confident class monitor he had been earlier that morning. Catching sight of the itemized list, his instinctive reaction was still to shake his head and deny any knowledge.

I do not know anything about this.

Yet, those words carried no weight anymore. Trinh Hao, standing quietly by the doorway, suddenly spoke up. He knows.

Every pair of eyes in the room immediately shifted toward him. Trinh Hao kept his head lowered, staring at the floor. He used to brag about it to me. He said the Nam Kieu Development Foundation would look good on his academic profile later on. He complained that the name Thamm Nam Kieu sounded profoundly unlucky and that the foundation should replace her with a much brighter representative.

Hua Gia Nghien shrieked in absolute panic, telling him to shut his mouth.

Trinh Hao glanced at him, his eyes swimming with deep resentment. I am not going to keep covering for you anymore.

I had remained silent throughout the entire ordeal, until Hua Gia Nghien finally looked up and met my gaze. In his eyes, there was hatred, raw fear, and a final stubborn shred of unwillingness to accept defeat. Thamm Nam Kieu, why do you always have to push me into a corner?

I walked slowly until I stood directly in front of him. Hua Gia Nghien, even until now, you still believe that I was the one pushing you. But from the very beginning to the very end, I asked only one single question. Where is my ticket?

His face instantly drained of all remaining color. The conference room fell into an eerie, profound silence, because every single person in the room was instantly reminded of the very inception of this tragedy. A field trip ticket deliberately purchased short. A forced chorus of fake camaraderie. A deliberate choice to look away. And following closely behind, a cascading avalanche of vicious bullying, forgery, bribery, identity theft, and embezzlement.

Director Thieu quietly closed the thick file folder, looking up with a stern expression. Notify the police to step in. Take all involved parties away for investigation in strict accordance with the law.