Chapter 22 Reversal

...

At the podium, Chen Jie's expression was quite strange, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. After staring for a while, he took off his glasses, wiped them with the hem of his clothing, and then put them back on to continue looking.

The students who were waiting to see a spectacle were getting impatient.

"Teacher, did Shen Mianmian get them all wrong?"

After a moment of silence, Chen Jie finally spoke with a serious face, "All correct."

"I knew it! If Shen Mianmian got them right, I'd eat... shit..." Realizing what Chen Jie had said, Zhao Xinlan's following words got stuck in her throat. "Siyu, what did the teacher just say?"

Zhou Siyu's face looked terrible, how could she be in the mood to answer Zhao Xinlan's question?

"Shen Mianmian got everything correct? How is that possible!"

"She must have cheated."

The crowd began whispering among themselves, unanimously feeling that it was more likely for pigs to fly than for Shen Mianmian to have gotten everything right.

Upon hearing the word 'cheating', Zhou Siyu's mood suddenly improved - how could she have forgotten? Currently sitting next to Shen Mianmian was Lu Siyuan.

But such words couldn't come from her own mouth; how could a model student snitch on her sister?

She whispered to Zhao Xinlan beside her, "My sister might have copied Lu Siyuan's homework."

Zhao Xinlan had an epiphany and immediately reported it loudly, "Teacher, Shen Mianmian definitely copied Lu Siyuan's homework."

"Right, she must have cheated."

The other students joined in the chorus of agreement.

Lu Siyuan looked at Shen Mianmian with a very strange expression - if she had cheated or not, he was the clearest about it.

In the eyes of everyone else, Lu Siyuan's expression was one of anger from being cheated off of.

Facing everyone's questioning, Shen Mianmian remained remarkably calm, "Teacher, I didn't cheat."

"If you didn't cheat, then why did you get everything right?" Wang Jingjing asked loudly. Who in the room believed that Shen Mianmian hadn't cheated?

What kind of reasoning is that? Shen Mianmian retorted, "Why can't I get everything right? Is it illegal for me to get everything correct?"

"Because you're the last in class, a total academic loser." If an academic loser could get everything right, would that still make them a loser?

"I used to be an academic loser, but that doesn't mean I'll be one for my entire life." Shen Mianmian glanced at her classmates who were all laughing at her and declared with conviction, "You may not have heard of a loser making a comeback, but that doesn't mean it can't happen."

"..."

The people who were all wearing smiles, mocking Shen Mianmian, suddenly had their expressions freeze.

The words of an academic loser, while seemingly ridiculous, could not make them laugh this time. Shen Mianmian's tone and gaze had changed, as if she were a different person, emanating a sense of authority from deep within that demanded submission.

The confidence she exuded was like a dazzling spark of flame, somewhat... blinding...

Zhou Siyu clenched her fingers around her pen and murmured to herself, "Shen Mianmian really has changed."

In elementary school, when she was falsely accused of stealing an eraser, the timid her didn't even dare to deny it. Now, facing the doubt of so many, she was so composed.

This Shen Mianmian gave Zhou Siyu a very strong sense of crisis.

"Anyone can boast, right? I could even say I'm going to get into Beijing University." Wang Jingjing, who would never believe Shen Mianmian could get the answers right, scoffed again.

Zhou Siyu's eyes flickered with calculation as she said aloud, "Since you all suspect my sister of cheating, why don't we just compare Lu Siyuan's and my sister's solution processes to see if they're the same? Then the truth will be clear, won't it?"

Before her rebirth, Shen Mianmian had been touched by this sort of 'clearing of innocence' by Zhou Siyu.

Looking at it now, how apparent was Zhou Siyu's real intention?

She appeared to be helping her clear her name, but in fact, she wanted to prove she cheated, right? There are only so many ways to solve a problem, and if her approach matched Lu Siyuan's exactly, no amount of explanation would suffice.