It’s Him – Ch29

Expulsion

The case was not complicated.

“As the family member of the victim from back then, Li Yugui saw a sketch online and believed that her daughter’s homeroom teacher was the murderer. Based on her knowledge of the school, she kidnapped her daughter’s homeroom teacher. After imprisoning the teacher for a while, she couldn’t get any information about her daughter’s whereabouts, so she broke down emotionally and took the teacher’s son hostage. The police have already arrested her, and we’ll wait for further updates from the authorities,” said an entertainment reporter during a live broadcast.

The case still needed to be transferred to the prosecutor’s office by the police. If the prosecutor decided to press charges, a formal prosecution would follow.

As for Li Xun’s part:

Li Xun had been injured on her hand, and Sun Ning took her to treat the wound. After treating her injury, she needed to cooperate with the police’s questioning.

However, she was unwilling to speak, and the police had no way to handle her.

Li Yugui did not admit that her daughter was involved in her crimes.

Li Yugui also clarified her relationship with Li Xun.

Li Xun was not her daughter; she was a child that Li Yugui had picked up.

Meanwhile, Teacher Zhao was still at the police station eating instant noodles, continuing to defend Li Yugui.

“She’s mentally unstable, I can understand,” he said.

The more Qin Li observed his forgiving attitude, the more he felt that he was not a good person.

Among the people present, only Zhao Jingzheng remained relatively calm. Initially angry, he began to understand Li Xun’s helplessness after witnessing her mother’s breakdown.

The police asked Teacher Zhao if Li Xun knew about him being held captive.

Teacher Zhao looked at Li Xun. Initially confident, as if he had caught her in some way, now his mental state had collapsed. He stared blankly at the wound on his hand.

Teacher Zhao said, “She doesn’t know. She’s a senior in high school; just send her back to school.”

He didn’t feel the need to send Li Xun to prison. Now that she had lost the adult figure in her life, he could deal with her properly.

Teacher Zhao also didn’t mention his accomplice, Zhang Mingcai. In his eyes, if someone ran away early and didn’t dare show up, it meant they feared prison. And fear presented an opportunity to exploit.

He had sent people to the police station, so it was a matter of time before they were caught. It was better to have leverage.

Li Xun was not treated as an accomplice; she went home with Teacher Sun that evening.

Teacher Sun wanted to talk with her as there were many questions, but she knew it was not the right time. She prepared some hot water for her and set up a blanket.

In the middle of the night, Teacher Sun could not sleep. She heard the balcony glass door being opened outside.

She hurriedly went out. Li Xun was standing alone on the balcony, staring into the distance. In the darkness, her figure seemed not to resemble a high school student.

Teacher Sun walked over, deliberately making her footsteps heavier to alert the other person of her approach.

“Would you like some hot water?”

Li Xun turned around and, seeing her, seemed a little better than before.

Li Xun said, “Teacher Sun, I’m sorry.”

Teacher Sun looked at her, seeming not to understand her words.

“I didn’t tell you that my mom kidnapped Teacher Zhao. I’m sorry, I think I’ve been lying to you a lot.”

“You don’t owe me anything; that was your personal matter. You’ve helped me quite a lot.”

“You all forgive me so easily.”

Teacher Sun stood beside her. Their home was on the sixth floor, and the night wind was a bit cold. The distant buildings resembled strange giant high-speed trains, asleep in the darkness.

“Because you’ve worked hard enough. I can see it. You’re trying to help me, help your mom, and maintain your grades without letting us worry about you.” She seemed to have regained some of her teacher’s demeanor.

“Teacher, do you want to know how I became Li Xun?”

Teacher Sun was very eager to know. She always felt that Li Xun had a complicated past.

“I was abducted when I was six. When I was younger, I wasn’t pretty, and those people wanted to blind my eyes, saying that it would make it easier to beg for money…”

“I told them that if I were really blind, it would be harder to beg for money. Because if I encountered a child on the street with no eyes, I would be scared and would want to avoid them. Even adults, with their small courage, would also want to avoid them.”

Teacher Sun widened her eyes in surprise. She hadn’t expected Li Xun’s past to be this tragic.

“My eyes were left intact, but every day I had to beg for enough money. Otherwise, I’d be beaten. I had to lie a lot every day—my brother was sick, my grandfather died, my dad went crazy, I hadn’t eaten in three days. Everyone knew I was a little liar. At first, I didn’t know how to lie and didn’t know how to read people, so I kept getting beaten. After a lot of beatings, I quickly learned to tell the difference between people…”

There was a time when Li Xun considered that she would try to be sincere with the people around her. Even if she lied for some reason, she tried not to hurt anyone.

Because of guilt.

She felt guilty for the lies she told when she was young, and also for learning how to read people during that time, which became almost instinctive. She couldn’t control it, but whenever she interacted with someone, she could sense who they were as a person.

Teacher Sun reflected on her own situation, imagining if she had encountered a child like Li Xun. She said, “It’s not your fault. You were just a child. You couldn’t help it. If those people knew that the money they gave you was also protecting your health, they would probably have been willing to give it.”

“Mom was the best person I’ve ever met. She knew I was a little liar, and at that time, we kept moving around. She would look for me everywhere, and when she found me, she’d give me money.”

“I didn’t want her money, but she wouldn’t listen. She insisted on giving it to me. She said she was afraid I wouldn’t get enough money and would be beaten when I returned.”

Li Xun didn’t know what Li Yugui was thinking at that time.

Li Xun just didn’t know what to do.

“Later, the police caught the bad guys. The police asked me if I remembered who my mother was and where she was.”

“I told them her name. I only recognized her as my mother, but she said she wasn’t my mother. The police told her that they couldn’t find my biological family through the missing persons system.”

“She told me she could only afford to send me to school, but she couldn’t take care of me. She still had very important things to do.”

“I stayed in a boarding school. She said she wouldn’t take care of anything else, but every week, she would come to see me, bring me food and clothes, ask about school matters. When I made a small mistake in my first year of high school, the school called her. She came immediately.”

Li Xun had browsed online that day and saw comments suggesting that her mom had not been good to her.

Li Xun felt uneasy in her heart. She wanted to find someone to talk to. Her mom had treated her so well. From the moment she met her, she knew her mother had important things to do.

And she would help her mom finish this important work.

Teacher Sun’s heart was heavy, thinking about Li Xun, about Li Yugui, and about her own situation.

She had felt miserable all day.

Especially after seeing Teacher Zhao.

The next day, Teacher Zhao returned to school.

Teacher Zhao greeted his colleagues. He was still the same gentle teacher.

In a school like Pingcheng High School, human relationships were most important.

Back then, Sun Ning had been pressured by parents, and the teachers discussed things privately, but publicly they all supported her.

Now, with Teacher Zhao, even though rumors were circulating outside the school, within the school, everyone remained respectful. There was no need for his colleagues to offend someone they worked with daily.

The school administration hadn’t suspended Teacher Zhao either. Suspending him would only cause trouble. Since there was no evidence proving he was the murderer, suspending him would only lead to rumors.

So, Teacher Zhao returned to his comfortable space. He had been in this school for many years and watched Li Xun, still immersed in the aftermath of her mother’s arrest.

Her mother had been arrested—that was what truly broke her psychological defenses.

He began preparing the lessons for his students.

Sun Ning went to see the principal right after the third period.

She had one request.

“There are only a little over two months until the college entrance exam. People are saying that Teacher Zhao is the murderer. His current condition is not suitable for teaching the senior class.”

“We all know Teacher Zhao’s character, Teacher Sun, don’t let it affect you.”

Sun Ning handed him the file she had organized: “This contains the details of that case from back then, along with the connection between Teacher Zhao and three other unnatural deaths at our school.”

“If you let him stay at the school, we’ll take this to the media.”

The principal took the file, clearly not a stubborn person.

Sun Ning was relieved when he agreed to look at it.

Teacher Zhao had not made it to his class yet that morning when he was called to the principal’s office.

“Come have some tea. This time you’ve gone through a lot. We didn’t expect this to happen, and the school has been worried about you.”

Teacher Zhao’s heart skipped a beat as he replied, “This situation is my fault. I didn’t recognize the danger. I’ll find a way to explain the things online.”

“Don’t worry about the online matters, it’ll blow over in time,” the principal said, experienced in dealing with such situations. “The key issue is how the police are handling it.”

“The police said they’re waiting for the prosecutor’s office to file charges.”

“That’s good. Criminal actions like this should be punished by law.”

With the online rumors getting worse, once the case was settled, the online noise would quiet down.

The principal patted his shoulder and added, “You’ve been through an undeserved ordeal. The school’s suggestion is that you take some time off to rest and recharge.”

Teacher Zhao immediately understood—the school wanted him to lay low.

He was suddenly expelled from his familiar safe space.

He quickly realized this had something to do with Sun Ning.

But no matter how much he racked his brains, he couldn’t understand what had happened to Sun Ning.

He felt like a student who had done well, gone on a long vacation, and returned to find that a middle-of-the-pack classmate had scored well. During his time locked up, he had no idea that Sun Ning had already completed a three-step information jump and had started treating him as the biggest threat.

If he had stayed locked up just two more days, Sun Ning could have mobilized all the teachers to expose his true nature.

It had to be said that Li Xun’s alliance-building plan had been very successful.