Chapter 99: Merit

Chapter 99: Chapter 99: Merit

Deng Yuyuan watched, utterly dumbfounded. Looking up in a daze, she realized she wasn’t the only one frozen in shock. The male teachers didn’t dare to touch a member of the opposite sex, and the female teachers were even less willing to touch a woman spouting lunacy.

"Stop, stop, stop. I don’t have the time to delve into your past, nor do you need to worry about your relatives seeking revenge when you go home. You’re going to prison when you go back. You have to trust the prison guards; it’s very safe in there. It’s just that the food might be a bit hard to swallow if your family doesn’t send you any money."

Before "Deng Yuyuan" could speak, Deng Yuyuan continued, "Furthermore, since you know me, you should know that my excellence has absolutely nothing to do with those men. Or rather, I was the heroine coming to the rescue twice. You have no sympathy for the fact that I was harassed by my ex-husband, that dirty rumors were spread about me, or that my name was lumped together with a bunch of men who are beneath me. Instead, you took my hard-earned achievements and credited them to those men.

"Miss, wipe your tears and give me a solemn apology first." Deng Yuyuan stood up, making sure the kneeling female comrade could see her cold, sharp jawline.

[She said all that to you, and you’re not going to slap her? You just want an apology?]

"How am I supposed to hit her with so many people around? Even if I were in the right, I’d end up in the wrong. Plus, she’s still clutching that fountain pen," Deng Yuyuan replied inwardly. Out of the corner of her eye, she kept a close watch on the woman’s movements, just waiting for her to lash out so she could act in self-defense. Collecting only the exam papers and not the pens after a test was a bad habit. It needed to be changed in the future.

"I’m sorry," "Deng Yuyuan" apologized between sobs. "I was momentarily possessed and spoke without thinking. But don’t you think it’s too much to chase me all the way to Beijing over such a small matter? If you really didn’t want me to do this, you could have completely stopped me back in Baitu Town, rather than waiting until I spent so much money to come to Beijing to put on this show."

"Comrade, you need to speak with some conscience," a counselor interjected, unable to listen anymore. "If your grades are poor, you can make up for it by studying. But if your character is poor, you’ll only face divine retribution.

"This matter is entirely your own responsibility. Don’t push the blame onto Ms. Deng Yuyuan. You can’t just make someone else the scapegoat just because she’s stronger than you, right?"

Everyone began talking at once, telling the female comrade to stop spouting nonsense and urging her to confess everything so it might still count as turning herself in.

Regardless of the warnings, "Deng Yuyuan" lunged recklessly at Deng Yuyuan. Deng Yuyuan dodged, and the woman missed.

"I don’t care! If you hadn’t shown up, I would have had a great life! You have to take responsibility for me! Because of you, my partner is going to be fired. My parents, who have been cadres their whole lives, will be implicated and lose their jobs. Our family’s reputation is completely ruined! The worst that happens to you is taking the exam again next year. You say you’re excellent, so what university couldn’t you get into? Why couldn’t you just test into a different university next year?"

In reality, during this era, most exam candidates from impoverished backgrounds only had one shot at the college entrance examination. Their families could hardly support them taking it a second time, nor did they dare to gamble on another year.

"So what makes you think I should give up my bright future for a vicious, selfish, and stupid person? If you were truly capable, you would have openly and honestly earned your way into Jing City University.

"Or do you think your kneeling and begging carries a lot of weight? You won’t kneel to the high-ranking officials and dignitaries who can actually give you a quota, but instead, you kneel to me—a lowly, educated female youth who also came from a remote, impoverished village. You clearly know I don’t have the power to grant you university admission, yet you still beg me first.

"Even moral kidnapping has to follow the principle of bullying the weak and fearing the strong," Deng Yuyuan said, crouching down in front of her. "No matter how many lies you tell, you can’t change the truth. You stole someone else’s brilliant life. For that alone, dying ten thousand times wouldn’t be enough for you."

"Then you die first!" the imposter student suddenly erupted, pulling out the fountain pen hidden in her sleeve and stabbing it toward Deng Yuyuan’s face.

Deng Yuyuan let out a scream and leaned back, instinctively grabbing the female student’s wrist. The student tried to strike again, but in the struggle, the fountain pen ended up slashing a deep gash across her own face. Blood mixed with ink spurted out.

She let out a bloodcurdling shriek, dropped the pen, and helplessly covered her face as she wailed.

Deng Yuyuan slumped to the ground as well, still reeling from the shock.

[With the medical technology of this era, she’s going to be disfigured. Player, although you’re panting heavily, your face isn’t red. Make it redder.]

The teachers were startled by the sudden turn of events. They rushed forward to subdue "Deng Yuyuan" and then gathered around Deng Yuyuan to check on her. They comforted her, telling her not to be afraid, promising that they could all testify for her and assuring her that she would be perfectly fine.

Two female teachers helped Deng Yuyuan up from the floor, guided her to a chair, and fetched her a cup of hot water so she could catch her breath. The police were already on their way; now they had to call for an ambulance as well.

The dean also came over to console her. Deng Yuyuan’s enrollment procedures were incomplete, so he needed to report the situation to his superiors first. However, he urged her to rest assured—barring any unforeseen circumstances, she would absolutely be admitted. Furthermore, he intended to report the incident to the university president and launch a joint investigation with other schools. The dean knew very well that if there was widespread identity theft among students, someone with the courage of Deng Yuyuan to come directly to the university and uncover the truth was one in ten thousand. Most victims would simply assume they had failed the exam. They couldn’t allow genuine talent to be buried while hypocritical, shameless frauds reaped all the benefits.

[Player, you’ve gained merit points. A person with profound merit comes with a built-in good luck buff. Your bravery is estimated to save the fates of hundreds of people.]

Deng Yuyuan frowned slightly. In this college entrance exam, far more than a few hundred people had been replaced. She had to find a way to draw even greater attention to this matter. However, she needed to solve her housing problem first.

"My situation is a bit special. I’m divorced and have a child, and we’re currently renting a place in a dark alley. I wonder if the university can provide accommodation?" Deng Yuyuan asked.

The dean pondered for a moment. "We’ll need to tally up the remaining empty dorms for this year before we can arrange something for you. We definitely have rooms available, but we can’t sort it out today. Please come back here to register in two days, and we’ll talk about it then."

After the police car arrived, the group had to head to the police station to give their statements. Deng Yuyuan only needed to recount the course of events. As the victim, she was free to leave once her statement was recorded, while the other leaders stayed behind to discuss the matter. Incidents like this had a terrible social impact and had to be publicly reported, but the timing was a delicate issue—they couldn’t alert the enemy too soon. Handling the imposter was also tricky. Current laws had no specific provisions for convicting someone for this kind of crime. Moreover, they needed to use her to follow the trail and uncover exactly how many people were involved.

Politely declining the offer to be escorted back, Deng Yuyuan stated that she had recovered her strength and could head back alone. Her child was still waiting for her.

On the streets of Beijing, one could occasionally spot scattered peddlers bundled up tightly, hawking their wares along the road. The commodity economy was beginning to recover.