Dating Myself - Chapter 4

The Dean of Students, Zhao Xudong, was a middle-aged man in his forties. He was neither fat nor thin, and his face was cleanly shaven. An Mu’s impression of him wasn’t just deep—it was ingrained in her bones.

In her last life, Zhao Xudong never said a single word to help her. He knew she was being bullied, but he turned a blind eye for the sake of the school’s reputation. Later, he even became an accomplice, pushing her into an abyss from which she could never escape.

When Zhao Xudong heard that someone had been secretly filming, and that it was a girl, he wasn’t as surprised as the female teacher. With the calm demeanor of someone who had weathered many storms, he gestured for An Mu to hand over the phone.

An Mu did not. Her amber eyes were as deep and dark as the sea. In this life, she would never allow this man to hurt her one bit more.

She said calmly, “They were filming girls changing into their uniforms.”

The implication was clear: Is it appropriate for you, a male teacher, to watch this?

Zhao Xudong wasn’t a fool. He understood her meaning perfectly. He glanced at the students peeking in from outside the Dean’s office. The doors and windows were closed, but the curtains weren’t drawn.

Zhao Xudong motioned for the counselor to draw the curtains, then turned to the old teacher.

“Did you watch the video?”

The old teacher nodded, her wrinkled face seeming to sigh in exasperation.

“Yes, I did. They were indeed filming.”

Zhao Xudong naturally trusted the old teacher, but every procedure needed to be followed. He had the female counselor next to him take the phone and go to a corner to verify it herself.

The female counselor watched and described the footage to Zhao Xudong.

“It looks like they were specifically targeting one girl, filming her from the moment she entered the swimming pool. There were a lot of other girls changing in the frame too.

“Ah! They zoomed in. Now they’re only filming that one girl. The distance is far, and the image is a bit blurry from the zoom, but you can still tell. This girl looks a little like Jian Yihu, but Jian Yihu is a second-year, so she wouldn’t be changing at the swimming pool. This must be Jian Yihu’s new transfer sister.”

Jian Yihu was a popular student at the school, so the counselor knew her. She had also heard that Jian Yihu’s sister had transferred.

Zhao Xudong sat sideways at his desk, one elbow resting on the glass top, and frowned as he looked at Lu Yuexin’s accomplice. The other accomplice had gone to the nurse’s office with Lu Yuexin, so only one of them remained.

“Tell me what happened.”

The video occasionally played the giggling sounds of the three girls, along with a few lines like, “Slow down, don’t let her see,” or “Lower the phone,” and “Why is that girl always blocking the view? So annoying.”

The girl’s face was dripping with sweat. She could hear her own voice in the video and was in a panic, trying to distance herself from the crime.

“It has nothing to do with me! It was all Lu Yuexin! She said that girl looked a little like Jian Yihu and thought it would be funny to film her. We didn’t have any malicious intent; we just did it on a whim!”

“You’re only freshmen. How do you already know about Jian Yihu?” Zhao Xudong asked.

Jian Yihu was, after all, only a minor internet celebrity. If she hadn’t skillfully exposed herself on the school’s forums and created a few buzz-worthy events, very few people at school would have known her.

Someone like Xie Maomao, who thought she was super popular, was only experiencing a survivorship bias. Everyone around her knew about Jian Yihu, so Xie Maomao instinctively thought that half of China’s billion-plus population knew Jian Yihu, too.

This was like a fan who spends all their time in a fan circle and believes that their idol is a household name known by everyone, which isn’t necessarily true.

Zhao Xudong’s social circle was different from these students, and he viewed Jian Yihu more objectively.

The girl nervously wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, stammering an explanation. “It’s just… um… Lu Yuexin and I went to the same middle school. She follows Jian Yihu, so we started following her too.”

Zhao Xudong’s line of questioning was correct. If he had dug deeper, the girl would definitely have slipped up. Unfortunately, Zhao Xudong stopped asking. Just like he had the female counselor go through the motions of watching the video, he was just going through the motions with his questions.

In his opinion, there was no need to overthink this. Just suppress it, and it would be over. Spreading the news would only bring harm to the school, not good.

“Alright, this matter is clear. It was just a few girls playing around and filming. They didn’t distribute it. While the nature of the act is not good, at least it didn’t have a terrible impact. Since you’re new students, we won’t give you a demerit. Each of you will write a 1,000-word self-reflection paper and turn it in to me tomorrow.”

Hearing that the matter was being handled so leniently, the girl let out a long sigh of relief and quickly nodded, not daring to mention Lu Yuexin being kicked.

The old teacher next to them chose her words carefully and said with a smile, “The news has already spread throughout the school. I imagine all the grades will know about it soon. Someone even filmed it. Won’t a light punishment like this be bad? Won’t the students think that secretly filming is no big deal and cause even bigger trouble later?”

Zhao Xudong said impatiently, “It’s just new students. Everything’s new to them, so they just filmed a little. Why do we have to make such a big deal out of it? If you think my punishment is too light, then you handle it. You decide whether they get a demerit or get expelled!”

With his blunt tone, the old teacher couldn’t say anything more. She just laughed and said, “I was just saying. I’ll listen to you, Dean.”

Zhao Xudong frowned and waved his hand. “Alright, everyone go back.”

The old teacher sighed and patted An Mu’s shoulder. She turned to walk out, but after a few steps, she realized An Mu hadn’t moved and was still standing where she was, staring at Zhao Xudong.

Zhao Xudong caught a glimpse of her from the corner of his eye. He looked up. “Go on. Why are you standing there? Hurry and change into your uniform and get to class.”

The girl had already reached the door, holding the doorknob and looking back at her.

An Mu was beautiful. Her honey-brown hair and amber eyes, her skin was so fair she didn’t look Asian, and her figure was a clothes hanger with narrow shoulders, a slender waist, and long legs. She would look good in anything.

She was such a beautiful girl, bright like a ray of light. Who would have thought that at the moment the girl opened the door, An Mu would suddenly grab the cup of lukewarm tea from the table and dump the entire thing over Zhao Xudong’s head?

Clang! Clang! Bang!

The thermos mug fell from his head and hit the floor, rolling under the desk. Tea dripped down Zhao Xudong’s hair.

Zhao Xudong was stunned. The students at the door went crazy with delight, wishing they could break in and take some close-up photos.

Zhao Xudong wiped the tea leaves from his face, his eyes wide with fury. He slammed his hand on the desk, stood up, and raised his hand as if to hit An Mu. But he suddenly remembered that people were watching and changed his action, pointing a finger at An Mu that was trembling with rage.

“What class are you in?! How dare you attack a teacher?! You’re getting a demerit! This has to be a demerit!!”

An Mu had just returned from overseas, and her transfer had been low-key. Zhao Xudong didn’t know her and didn’t even know she was a transfer student. He instinctively thought she was a freshman, and the students watching thought the same.

An Mu showed no fear. She turned and looked at the students outside the door who were frantically taking photos. She spoke each word without any emotional inflection or sarcasm, her tone as plain as lukewarm water, yet it was inexplicably powerful and captivated everyone.

“You all saw it. It’s not a big deal for a girl to be secretly filmed while changing her uniform. All they have to do is write an apology, and it’s over. But for the Dean to have a cup of warm water poured on his head, he gets a demerit. A dean is more noble than all the freshmen girls. Following that logic, if I had poured this on the Chief of Police, I’d probably be taken out and shot, right?”

The news that a freshman girl was caught secretly filming quickly spread to Class 11. Jian Yixi had just finished her short quiz and was cleaning the eraser bits off her desk when Xie Maomao’s ears perked up. She pulled Jian Yixi and ran to the hallway.

Although it was only two floors down from the third floor to the first, students were so lazy that they would wish someone would go to the restroom for them. Going downstairs was out of the question. They could still gossip just by leaning on the railing.

Xie Maomao pulled Jian Yixi, and with their knees bent to prevent anyone from seeing up their skirts, they both crouched down and craned their heads to look into the Dean’s office on the first floor.

“It’s that girl! Look! It’s her! She’s so pretty, how could she be so lewd? She secretly filmed people but wouldn’t admit it, and then she poured tea on Dean Zhao’s head. She must come from a wealthy family and is used to acting crazy.”

Jian Yixi was also shocked that someone had actually secretly filmed. She also bent her knees and leaned on the railing, craning her neck in the same posture as Xie Maomao to look at the Dean’s office on the first floor.

The door frame blocked her view, and she could only see half of the girl’s face. But from the familiar harem pants, Jian Yixi immediately recognized her as An Mu, the girl who had helped shield her earlier.

Jian Yixi’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. “You’re saying the person who filmed… is her?”

“Right! Didn’t you hear them? Not only did she film, but she also poured water on the Dean. She’s being held in the Dean’s office now and they’re calling her parents.”

Jian Yixi was still in disbelief. “Could it be a rumor that got twisted?”

“No, listen for yourself!”

On the first floor, many students were also standing in the hallway, whispering amongst themselves. What they said seemed to confirm the story.

“But I just feel like… she doesn’t seem like that kind of person.”

Xie Maomao couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you kidding me? Does a murderer have ‘I’m a murderer’ tattooed on their face?”

Since they had only met once, Jian Yixi didn’t know An Mu well. While she wasn’t sure if the rumor was true, one thing was certain: An Mu was definitely involved in this matter, or she wouldn’t be at the Dean’s office.

Before she came to Weicheng, her mother had told her to be more careful. Someone who looks like a good person isn’t necessarily a good person. Human traffickers often looked like honest, ordinary people. Even if An Mu seemed nice, she couldn’t rule out that she wasn’t a bad person.

It’s wrong to be malicious toward others, but it’s important to be cautious. Regardless of whether An Mu had secretly filmed or not, it was better to stay away from her in the future.

Jian Yixi grabbed the railing and stood up, experiencing for the first time what it meant for people’s hearts to be treacherous and for city life to be full of schemes. An Mu’s incident was a reminder to her that this was no longer the simple and peaceful small town she was from.