Of course, setting up a mourning hall in the Dean of Instruction’s office wasn’t realistic.
The man always locked his door when he left, making it impossible to get inside.
However, there was an alternative method.
Soon, a plan began to take shape in Gu Chen’s mind.
After the third period ended, she found a secluded spot and called Li Yanqiu.
“Hello, Gu Chen, is something wrong?”
“Teacher Li, I have a way to help Tang Ziya,” Gu Chen said.
Although her current relationship with the teacher wasn’t exactly great, human emotions were universal.
No one could stand for this kind of treatment.
Moreover, she had given them her word this morning, so she had no reason to ignore the situation.
“Oh? What’s your plan?”
“Well, I’ll need your help to head out of the school and buy a few things. I’ll have Tang Ziya contact you in a bit; she’ll need to provide some of the items herself.”
Gu Chen then detailed her plan step-by-step…
“Hahaha — “
Before she could even finish, a silver, bell-like laughter rang out from the other end.
The teacher simply couldn’t hold it in.
“Ahem!”
Realizing her reaction was inappropriate, Teacher Li tried her best to suppress her mirth.
“You’re truly a menace. You’ve really cornered the market on being devious.”
“Conventional methods don’t work against that kind of person. Since he wants to see who’s more shameless, I’ll show him,” Gu Chen said, raising an eyebrow.
“Alright, I understand. I’ll get on it right away.”
The two of them quickly settled on the strategy.
Afterward, Gu Chen shared the plan with the Class Monitor.
Tang Ziya’s cooperation was essential for the plan to succeed.
“What!?”
“Oh my god, isn’t that going too far?”
As expected, Tang Ziya was hesitant after hearing the plan.
“Dean Gou refusing to grant you leave is a thousand times worse than this. Teacher Li has already gone out, and everyone is helping you. You can’t back down now, Class Monitor. Think about it — if your relatives back home see that you didn’t return, there’s no telling how much gossip there will be later. Right?”
Gu Chen tried her best to persuade her, carefully analyzing the pros and cons.
“I…”
Tang Ziya hesitated for a moment.
Finally, her gaze turned firm, and she nodded in agreement.
“I understand. But I’ll go alone; you shouldn’t get involved.”
“With your personality, you’d chicken out the moment you saw the Dean. Besides, I’ve been annoyed with him for a long time anyway. This is a perfect chance to disgust him.”
Gu Chen wasn’t lying.
That Dean of Instruction, Gou Huo, was the most hated man in the entire school.
His specialty was finding trouble for others; neither teachers nor students were spared from his frequent punishments.
Unfortunately, the man was a relative of the Vice Principal and had a powerful backer.
Based on his receding hairline, it was clear the two were cut from the same cloth.
Now that the Principal was away, he had become even more unscrupulous.
The fact that he could even bring someone like Wu Peng into the school made it clear he was trying to build his own faction to amass wealth.
“Alright, thank you…”
Seeing that things had reached this point, Tang Ziya had no choice but to agree.
***
During the lunch break, students finally enjoyed a rare moment of leisure as they strolled around the campus.
Some chatted in classrooms; the girls gossiped about idols and new clothes, while on the other side, the boys discussed everything from the School Belle to national affairs, eventually drifting into ancient and modern history…
“Oh my god, what is that?”
“Who died in our school? Why are they holding a funeral here?”
Soon, students in the school plaza witnessed a bizarre scene.
They began pointing and whispering, and many followed along out of curiosity.
“Isn’t that Gu Chen? What on earth is she doing?”
“And the Class Monitor from Class Five, Tang Ziya… Why is she holding a photo?”
Such a bizarre scene unfolding on campus naturally drew everyone’s attention.
People pulled out their phones and began filming.
“Grandpa Tang, have a safe journey!!”
Gu Chen held a soul-summoning banner in her left hand, which fluttered gently in the breeze.
Every few steps, she let out a loud shout.
With her right hand, she scattered paper money, putting on a proper funeral procession.