C3 Teacher You Should Apologize

The homeroom teacher, realizing today's issue was beyond resolution, decisively called for backup. But help was too far off to quell the immediate crisis, as Xia Liang had already made it to the first row of the classroom, a mere three meters from the podium.

"The campus police will arrive shortly. Xia Liang, if you put down the chair and apologize to the teacher, it's not too late. I'll explain to them that everything before was just a misunderstanding."

Desperate to avoid headlines like "Teacher and student brawl in the classroom," the homeroom teacher earnestly tried to dissuade Xia Liang.

"There's no misunderstanding. You're the gentleman who talks; I'm the villain who acts," Xia Liang retorted, clearly unwilling to back down.

"Incurable..."

When the homeroom teacher saw Xia Liang's unwavering intent to attack, he finally let his anger erupt, shouting, "You're insane, a complete nutcase! A student like you will be nothing but scum in society, trash that'll end up behind bars, bringing shame to the memory of your deceased father."

As he hurled insults, the teacher rolled up his sleeves and grabbed a blackboard eraser, ready to defend himself.

"I'm only disgracing him," Xia Liang said with a cold smile, his grip on the chair tightening, veins popping and knuckles whitening from the strain.

"Hold on!"

Just as Xia Liang was about to leap over the first row and charge the podium for a violent encounter, the chair suddenly felt heavier and was yanked back. Turning around, he saw that a female student had grabbed it.

"Xia Liang, please wait!" she implored.

The girl holding back Xia Liang's chair was Gu Wenying, with her twin ponytails and delicate features. She faced Xia Liang's fury unflinchingly, her fair hands gripping the chair leg, her eyes resolute yet filled with an inexplicable complexity.

Her beauty was irrelevant in this situation, at least to Xia Liang. But he recognized her; she was the study commissary of their class, the top scorer in the recent exams, with a bright future and a likely spot at Redwood University.

He had just joined the class and the very next day after his dismal grades were exposed, a girl had approached him several times, offering to tutor him in the afternoons and on weekends. He declined her offers.

"Back off, this doesn't concern you."

Xia Liang was seething with anger, his face intimidating, but he wasn't ungrateful or prone to misdirect his rage at others.

Gu Wenying didn't even glance his way, instead, she looked up sternly at her homeroom teacher. "Chair Yao, I believe you owe Xia Liang an apology."

"What?"

"Good heavens!"

The class fell silent at the sound of her voice, shocked.

The students who had just been impressed by her courage to intervene were now completely bewildered.

"Gu... Gu Wenying?"

The homeroom teacher, who had just begun to smile with relief at the sight of a student intervening, suddenly found his smile frozen in place.

"You verbally insulted Xia Liang. Please apologize to him, and I'm sure he won't resort to violence," Gu Wenying said earnestly.

"What... What? Insult? I did no such thing!" The teacher was perplexed. His prized pupil was siding with that 'trash' and challenging him?

Did he really insult Xia Liang? He didn't think so.

"Yes, you did. You called Xia Liang trash and scum, which is a personal insult," Gu Wenying insisted, her cheeks flushed with emotion.

"Xia Liang's grades might be poor, and yes, he fell asleep in class, but that's the extent of it. What gives you the right to label him as societal trash or scum? He hasn't committed any crimes, swindled, evaded taxes, or toyed with people's emotions. As an educator, you should choose your words carefully and consider their impact."

Her words left the entire classroom, including Xia Liang, in stunned silence.

"Gu Wenying, do you know Xia Liang?"

Chair Yao looked back and forth between Xia Liang and Gu Wenying, unable to make the connection.

"We're just classmates," Gu Wenying replied, shaking her head slightly.

"Yeah, exactly!" Xia Liang couldn't help but nod in agreement.

He didn't know this academic ace, but why was she standing up for him?

"So why did you..."

Chair Yao's eyebrows nearly tangled together as he threw up his hands, clearly baffled.

"Gu Wenying, always so quiet and sensible, why did she lash out today? And why defend that guy? Are they dating? No way, look at that kid's bewildered and even more shocked expression than mine. There's no way they're involved." Chair Yao's head throbbed with confusion.

What was happening today? Was everyone staging a revolt?

"He's the son of Xia Quanhai from Amber Great Wall. You shouldn't publicly humiliate and bully him like this..." Gu Wenying murmured, her head bowed slightly.

"I bullied him? Who's bullying whom here? He fell asleep in class, so I reprimanded him. Then he goes and smashes my phone and grabs a stool! Wait, Uncle Xia?"

As Gu Wenying's murmurs reached him, Chair Yao, feeling a sense of injustice, suddenly had an epiphany.

"That's right, Gu Wenying is a special recruit for the school. I recall she graduated from that institution..."

Chair Yao looked up at Gu Wenying's defiant face, a realization dawning on him.

"Could it be that Xia Quanhai of Amber Great Wall once saved her?"

Meanwhile, Gu Wenying, biting her lip nervously after talking back to a teacher for the first time, was flooded with memories she could never erase.

It was five years ago...

It was a weekend, and she was having lunch with her parents when, without warning, an earthquake struck. The building crumbled and collapsed amidst violent tremors.

When she came to, she was in complete darkness, trapped deep within the rubble.

Once she collected herself, she began feeling around and realized she was cornered (her hand brushed against the TV outlet in the corner). Above her, a large section of wall had caved in, forming a right-angled triangle with the corner where she was wedged.

But she quickly found that she was encased, front and back, by the debris of the destroyed building.

"Dad!"

"Mom!"

"Big brother, can you hear me?"

"Dad! Mom! Wuu!"

Terror-stricken, she cried out for her family, but her calls were met with silence. An eerie stillness surrounded her, the air thick and tainted with the scent of blood.

"Could it be that something happened to mom and dad..."

A dreadful feeling surfaced in her heart, and she collapsed to the ground, her strength leaving her.

She had seen news segments and read about earthquakes in books and on TV, familiar with the infamous Tangshan Earthquake and the Sichuan Earthquake.

Those images of devastation had once kept her awake at night. Now, the thought that her parents might have suffered the same fate sent uncontrollable shivers through her body.

"Dad, mom, can you hear me?"

Her voice rang out, clinging to the hope that her family had merely lost consciousness, not their lives.

But as time dragged on, the silence remained unbroken.