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Chapter 591: Chapter 376: Punishment
Near dusk, the Four Middle School campus was bathed in the last traces of twilight, with each solar-powered street lamp lighting up alongside the winding pebble path.
Yang Sheng strolled along, pinching a red banknote between her fingers.
The Chen Siyu sisters couldn’t believe their luck, a tremendous sense of surprise crashing down on them, the joy of recovering what was lost filled them with doubt:
"You mean to say, you switched out the money beforehand?"
Yang Sheng snapped her fingers.
"I noticed something was off about her, so I took the initiative and swapped the fake money in your hands with real money."
"So the note you guys confronted her with wasn’t a counterfeit, but real money."
She explained the reasons clearly to them.
Chen Siyu finally understood, "So the money you tossed to her later, was actually a fake note?"
Chen Siqing was uncertain, "What if, just what if she accepted the fake money we gave her?"
Yang Sheng walked on nonchalantly, "No need to worry, I will take action."
Chen Siyu, staring at her cool silhouette, suddenly felt she was incredibly badass.
...
Outside the school.
After swindling one hundred yuan, a middle-aged woman was immensely satisfied. She quickly switched spots, chuckling as she walked, occasionally taking out the hundred yuan note to inspect it.
Slowly, she realized something felt off about the bill.
She held it up to the setting sun and her mind screamed, ’Fake money! Fake money!’
The kind expression on her face was now one of utter astonishment.
The money the students later compensated her with turned out to be counterfeit!
After inspecting it repeatedly, she was horrified to find that it really was a fake note.
The middle-aged woman was furious, feeling like the experienced hunter blinded by the prey itself. 𝓃ℴ𝓋𝓹𝓊𝓫.𝒸𝓸𝓂
At this moment, she wished she could storm into the school and drag those girls out, scratching their faces!
But the school was off-limits; if she dared cause a commotion inside, the consequences would be beyond her ability to bear.
Holding the counterfeit bill, her complexion changing, the easily gained one hundred yuan had vanished, and she was reluctant to just let it end like this.
Emotions can be terrifying, and the woman was overwhelmed by the discrepancy in her expectations. So she moved on and found a new strategic spot to lie in wait.
In the streets, Pang Jiao and Wang Yan Yan had just finished dinner: "Yanyan, this braised pork rice is so delicious. I couldn’t help but eat half of your bowl, haha!"
Pang Jiao was large and strong, with an appetite to match—ordinary meals were never enough for her.
And since Wang Yan Yan, who was very slim and couldn’t finish a bowl on her own, Pang Jiao enjoyed dining with her; it served a complementary function and prevented waste.
"Jiaojiao, I’ll buy you milk tea later," Pang Jiao offered proactively.
Milk tea could cause weight gain, and Pang Jiao would feel guilty drinking it alone, but if Wang Yan Yan joined her, it would bring her psychological balance.
A mix of companionship and mutual benefit made their relationship especially good, even better than with Zhang Yifei and Li Shengnan.
Wang Yan Yan exclaimed, "Ah Jiaojiao, you’re so nice. I don’t have to worry about not finishing my meal with you around."
She reminisced about what the elders at home used to say: back in the village, any unfinished leftover rice would be thrown into the pigpen and always be polished off by the sow.
Pang Jiao covered her mouth with a chuckle, her large mouth movements always exposing her vivid red lips.
Just as Pang Jiao was about to buy milk tea, the middle-aged woman who had been standing nearby approached them, with a beseeching look on her otherwise friendly face:
"Young lady, could you please do me a favor and buy me a bottle of water?"
Pang Jiao paused her steps.
...
In classroom 8, there were still more than ten minutes to class.
Chen Siyu told Bai Yuxia and Jiang Ning about her close call outside school, how she almost got conned out of one hundred.
At the end, Chen Siyu sighed: "What about trust between people?"
If previously she thought those stories about helping the elderly only to be extorted were merely news items, today she truly realized that bad people are all around.
"Next time something like this happens, I don’t even know if I dare to help others again," said Chen Siyu, as this incident had left her feeling deeply disappointed, starting to understand why some might become numb to it all.
Bai Yuxia advised, "Just be more vigilant."
For now, these issues remain unchanged. Thankfully Yang Sheng reacted quickly, thus preventing any loss.
Xue Yuantong listened with equal shock, inadvertently asking, "Jiang Ning, would you help if you encountered such a situation?"
Jiang Ning set down the piece of wood and carving knife in his hands, answering promptly, "I wouldn’t have helped before, but now I probably would."
Bai Yuxia was puzzled, "Why the change?"
Jiang Ning responded, "One should do only what one can."
With the social influence he now had, far outstripping that of an ordinary person, even if he were taken advantage of, he could simply neutralize the other party within his capacity, ensuring he avoided any loss.
Bai Yuxia didn’t quite understand his words; did they imply that Jiang Ning’s capabilities had grown?
’But he’s just a high school student, right?’
’Could it mean that his parents’ situation has improved?’ Bai Yuxia guessed this possibility.
With that, Jiang Ning moved his fingers around and returned to whittling the wood with his knife.
This caught Chen Siyu’s attention: Jiang Ning had quite the nerve, not just fiddling with wood during the break but daring to continue during class time, showing no regard for the teacher.
Chen Siyu then glanced at Xue Yuantong. Okay, neither of them seemed to pay any heed to the teacher.
The class was currently abuzz, discussing the Fourth Middle School Cafeteria. Some students said they saw the canteen owner pack up and leave today, signaling a change of management.
Many classmates were discussing the new 8-person dining table system in the cafeteria, considering whether to take part.
"Jiang Ning, that cafeteria 8-person table plan seems to have been approved, are you joining?" Chen Siyu asked.
He was about to answer when a glamorous figure caught everyone’s attention at the front entrance of the classroom.
