AAWOMAHI Chapter20

Lu Xingmian and his three friends arrived at the KTV, got a private room, and ordered a case of beer.

 

After the waitress left, the group began celebrating Chen Che’s birthday. They lit candles, sang “Happy Birthday,” and after finishing the cake, they started drinking and singing.

 

Perhaps it was the thrill of skipping class, but they had a great time at the KTV.

 

However, they never expected their homeroom teacher and the dean of students to suddenly make a return, coming back to school.

 

Mainly, too many students had skipped the last self-study session. One after another, students were seen climbing over the wall. While patrolling, school security caught two students in the act.

 

That’s when they realized so many students had skipped class.

 

So, the security guard reported the matter to the dean of students. The dean was furious; he immediately headed back to school with a few homeroom teachers, even before reaching the meeting venue. He had another teacher take his place at the meeting, since he wasn’t scheduled to speak anyway.

 

The dean of students hadn’t expected that even in their final year of high school, these students would still be so unruly.

 

The homeroom teachers who returned to their classes found that several students were indeed missing. Students who weren’t in the classroom and hadn’t asked for leave were noted down.

 

Before Li Mei entered the classroom, she prayed that no students from her class had skipped.

 

But when she walked in, several seats were empty.

 

Even Lu Xingmian’s seat was empty. Li Mei’s head instantly grew bigger; how could even Lu Xingmian have skipped class?

 

The dean of students went class by class. When he reached Class Five, he immediately saw Lu Xingmian’s seat was empty. He was enraged! “Goodness,” he thought, Even the top student in the grade is skipping class. We really need to straighten out the school rules.

 

Just after noting down the names of the absent students in her class, Li Mei received a message from an unknown number. It said they knew where Lu Xingmian and Zhou Cheng were and that they were currently drinking at a KTV.

 

Li Mei frowned. These kids dared to go drinking at a KTV? Who sent this message, and how did they know where they went?

 

She originally planned to quietly go and bring the students back, but then she realized the same person had also sent the dean of students the same message.

 

The dean of students, who was about to leave, saw the message and turned around, calling Li Mei out. “Teacher Li, do you know where Lu Xingmian and the others from your class went?”

 

Li Mei put away her phone and said, “No, I don’t.”

 

“They’re at a KTV right now! We’re going to go catch them!” The dean of students grabbed Li Mei and rushed straight to the KTV. He was determined to teach these kids a lesson today for skipping class to go to such a place.

 

Just then, Xia Zhicheng, who was passing by, overheard and quickly sent a message to Lu Xingmian.

 

The music in the private room was too loud, so it was twenty minutes later when Lu Xingmian finally saw the message from Xia Zhicheng.

 

Lu Xingmian said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute.”

 

Zhou Cheng, thinking something was wrong, paused the screen. “What is it?”

 

Lu Xingmian replied, “Xia Zhicheng says the dean of students and our homeroom teacher are already on their way here.”

 

Zhou Cheng laughed. “No way, aren’t the homeroom teacher and the dean of students at a meeting at another school? How could they be here?”

 

“It’s true,” Lu Xingmian said, showing them Xia Zhicheng’s urgent message. “The dean of students and the homeroom teacher suddenly came back, and they’re heading straight here.”

 

Zhou Cheng exclaimed, “Holy cow, really?”

 

Lu Xingmian’s words shocked them even more: “This message was sent twenty minutes ago, and I just saw it now. The dean might already be here.”

 

Xia Zhicheng had no reason to lie to them.

 

If they were caught by the dean right here, especially at this moment, the consequences would be severe.

 

The group quickly packed up their things to leave.

 

But just as they stepped out of the private room, they heard the dean of students’ voice. They quickly found a place to hide.

 

Luckily, there was a restroom nearby. They fumbled to hide inside, and as the dean of students and Li Mei walked down the corridor, Li Mei only caught a glimpse of a heel.

 

Lu Xingmian and Chen Che each went into separate stalls, while Zhu Jinyan and Zhou Cheng squeezed into one together.

 

They could even clearly hear the dean of students’ voice as he asked the waitstaff if they had seen anyone wearing student uniforms.

 

The waitstaff said no, they hadn’t seen any students in uniforms.

 

So, the dean asked the waitstaff if they had seen four boys who were students, explaining that they were schoolteachers.

 

The waitstaff led the dean of students and Li Mei to the private room Lu Xingmian and the others had just been in.

 

They pushed the door open to an empty room. The large screen was still playing music: “What I anticipate isn’t snow, but winter with you…”

 

On the table was a half-eaten cake, a few empty beer bottles, and some half-finished ones. On the floor was nearly half a case of unopened beer.

 

The dean of students and Li Mei exchanged bewildered glances. “How could there be no one here?”

 

The waitstaff was also puzzled, wondering when the guests in the private room had left.

 

Inside the restroom, Zhou Cheng suddenly thought of something. “Oh no, the dean wouldn’t have seen the name on the cake, would he?”

 

Chen Che’s name was still written on the cake.

 

Zhu Jinyan glanced at him. “The part with the name was already eaten.”

 

Zhou Cheng nodded. “You even remember that clearly. That’s a relief then.”

 

Squeezed face-to-face in the cramped stall, Zhou Cheng looked up. “You seem to have grown taller again.”

 

He remembered that when he stood next to Zhu Jinyan before, they were about the same height. Now, Zhu Jinyan suddenly felt about four or five centimeters taller than him.

 

Zhu Jinyan pushed his glasses up with one hand. “Quiet, don’t talk. The dean and the others seem to be coming this way.”

 

Not finding anyone in the private room, the dean of students looked toward the adjacent restroom. “They wouldn’t be hiding in the restroom, would they?”

 

Li Mei said it was impossible. “That message might have just been a prank.”

 

The dean of students seemed to understand. “Even though we didn’t catch them in the act, Lu Xingmian, Chen Che, Zhou Cheng, and Zhu Jinyan weren’t in class. Skipping class is a fact, Teacher Li; this matter must be handled seriously.”

 

The voices of the dean of students and the homeroom teacher grew fainter, indicating they had likely left. Lu Xingmian and the others stayed in the restroom for more than ten minutes before emerging.

 

Chen Che peered outside, confirming that the dean and the others had departed.

 

“Luckily, Xia Zhicheng sent us that message; otherwise, we really would have been cornered by the dean.”

 

Zhou Cheng voiced everyone’s question: “Why did the dean of students and the homeroom teacher know we were here?”

 

Zhou Cheng thought of the boy from the next class they’d met at noon, but when he and Lu Xingmian picked up the cake, they had mentioned this KTV. Could he have been the one who told the dean? There was no evidence, it was just a guess.

 

Even though they weren’t caught at the KTV, the fact remained that they had skipped class.

 

The next day, upon arriving at school, Lu Xingmian and the others learned that more than twenty students from the senior year had skipped class the day before.

 

Li Mei was already waiting for Lu Xingmian and the others in the classroom early that morning.

 

The four boys stood together in the office. Before Li Mei could speak, the dean of students arrived.

 

“Were you guys at the KTV yesterday? Were you drinking?”

 

Of course, they couldn’t admit to such a thing, so they quickly denied it.

 

The dean of students retorted, “Still denying it? I saw you all!”

 

The group realized the dean was trying to bluff them again.

 

Zhou Cheng earnestly said, “Dean, you must have seen wrong.”

 

The dean of students pressed on, “Alright, even if I saw wrong, where were you yesterday?”

 

They claimed they went to a nearby KFC. When asked why they went to KFC, Zhou Cheng said they went there to study, which clearly sounded like nonsense, but the dean of students had no definitive proof.

 

The dean could only reprimand them about skipping class. The dean spent the entire morning lecturing each class, his throat almost raw.

 

The four of them obediently listened to the dean’s lecture. Before they left, the dean instructed Li Mei to properly educate them and to have them call their parents. He emphasized that at such a crucial time, it was essential to communicate well with their parents.

 

Call their parents?

 

After returning to the classroom, Lu Xingmian remained troubled. Chen Che thought he was worried about writing a self-criticism report, as Lu Xingmian looked like someone who had never written one before.

 

“It’s okay if you don’t know how to write one. I’ll lend you mine to copy once I’m done; the format is pretty much the same.”

 

Lu Xingmian smiled. “Thanks.”

 

He wasn’t worried about writing the report; it was the “call your parents” part that troubled him.

 

Where was he going to find a parent to call?

 

After finishing his self-criticism report, Lu Xingmian suddenly thought of someone.

 

Lu Ge.