Chapter 156: Self-Proof and a Face-Slapping!

She pointed at the pencil used for shading answer sheets, "Lend it to me."

Catching Gu Ci's gaze, the student nodded involuntarily, and then heard Gu Ci say coolly, "Thanks."

Gu Ci picked up the pencil from his desk and began to shade a specific area on page 78.

At this sight, Gu Zhihan's face turned ashen in an instant.

This was her study material after all; how could Gu Ci casually scribble and shade all over it?

"Gu Ci, this is my book! Who gave you permission to randomly draw and scribble on it!"

"That's right, Gu Ci, do you even know anything about manners and respect? Why are you country folks like this!"

With that, someone tried to help Gu Zhihan snatch the exercise book out of Gu Ci's hand, but they were blocked by the students from Class 12.

"Enough! Are you people out of your minds?"

Teacher He was frowning deeply as well. He slapped the podium and marched straight down from the platform!

He walked right up to Gu Ci, intending to snatch the book back and return it to Gu Zhihan.

However, by this time, Gu Ci had almost finished shading.

Just as Teacher He reached out to grab the book from Gu Ci's grasp, Gu Ci spread the book open right before their eyes.

Seeing what was revealed on the page, Teacher He's movements abruptly froze.

Teacher He was standing right at the front, blocking the view of most of the students.

Seeing that Teacher He had not snatched the book back from Gu Ci and returned it to Gu Zhihan as they had expected, someone spoke up.

"Teacher He, why haven't you..."

Everyone grew suspicious and stretched their necks, looking over at the area Gu Ci had blackened.

At that very glance, all voices came to an abrupt halt in a single instant.

Initially, Gu Zhihan had put on an aloof act and refused to look towards Gu Ci's side. However, upon noticing the increasingly strange gazes directed at her by more and more people, she could not help but cast a glance at the book in Gu Ci's hand.

There, they saw that once the previously blank paper was shaded black, the impression left behind revealed a white alpaca!

It was clearly visible that because a drawing had been done directly on top of this very page, it had left behind the embossed indentations!

Therefore, what Gu Ci said just now was the truth!

Gu Zhihan's legs went weak, and she almost collapsed right into her seat.

Feeling the strange, probing gazes of the surrounding students falling upon her, her heart sank lower and lower.

How could this be... Why on earth would Gu Ci use this exercise book as a backing pad while drawing, and why did she remember page 78 so clearly?!

Gu Zhihan's mind was a chaotic mess, and for a moment she couldn't even think of how to salvage her image in everyone's eyes right now.

At that moment, Gu Ci retrieved a sticky note from her school bag and slapped it right beside the white alpaca revealed by the pencil shading. A black alpaca and a white alpaca, identical in every way, were now displayed side by side before Gu Zhihan, creating a striking contrast.

Clearly, the alpaca drawn on the sticky note that Gu Ci had just produced was the original draft for the white alpaca she had just shaded out with the pencil.

Wen Zixin, with her sharp eyes, noticed that this was the very same sticky note Gu Ci had asked her for during a certain class earlier.

She never expected... Sister Ci had actually used it to draw an alpaca! Such a cold and aloof Sister Ci actually drew such an adorable alpaca!

Wen Zixin stared at Gu Ci with sparkling eyes, and after thinking about who-knows-what, she couldn't help rubbing her hands together and letting out a silent, goofy chuckle...

"Still want to keep arguing?"

Gu Ci's icy voice immediately pierced into Gu Zhihan's ears, sounding exceptionally grating to her!

She stood frozen in place, her fists tightly clenched, her face so pale she couldn't utter a single word.

The stares of the crowd made her feel as though she were sitting on pins and needles, almost wishing for a crack in the ground to crawl into on the spot!

Gu Ci raised an eyebrow, "Still not apologizing?"

Gu Zhihan's face instantly turned ashen, like white paper.

Sensing the intentional and unintentional gazes falling upon her from all around, she forced out through stiff lips, "I'm sorry."

Unlike her previous strategic apology to Gu Ci, this time, Gu Zhihan felt a genuine, visceral humiliation and embarrassment!

"Teacher... I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well!"

Gu Zhihan could no longer bear the mortification. She stood up from her seat and stumbled away, running outside.

Gu Ci shoved the mathematics exercise book back into her school bag, her casual movements causing the onlookers' hearts to ache with anxiety.

Her gaze swept past Gu Zhihan's panicked, fleeing figure and then scanned the surrounding crowd.

"So, the way our class's students were guarding against her earlier... wasn't wrong at all, was it? Not excessive in the slightest?"

The tone of Gu Ci's voice dipped low and heavy on the final sentence, allowing anyone to clearly perceive the warning and protectiveness woven within it.

Having said that, Gu Ci turned around and left, taking the students of Class 12 with her.

She left behind a crowd of people still pondering her parting words, their faces alternating between shades of green and white.

To think that once again, they had misjudged and misunderstood Gu Ci!

They suddenly recalled how Gu Zhihan had previously admitted, intentionally or unintentionally, that it was Gu Ci who had sent her the text message telling her to go fetch the books, thereby deliberately framing her—and everyone had believed it at the time!

Yet now... every single circumstance had completely overturned their understanding!

The exercise book in Gu Zhihan's desk was actually Gu Ci's, but Gu Zhihan had claimed it was hers. She had lied right off the bat about this single issue alone.

If so, had they gotten everything else wrong previously as well?

In reality... the entire bag of books had probably been stolen by Gu Zhihan from Class 12 using lies, right? There was never any text message sent by Gu Ci to Gu Zhihan to begin with, right?

How laughable that even though they knew Gu Zhihan couldn't produce any evidence, they still chose to believe her simply because her acting was too convincing!

Yet... if Gu Ci wanted to remind them of this point, why would she say that what her classmates did was not excessive at all?

Could it be because earlier, when Gu Zhihan went to Class 12, they had cursed out the Class 12 students a few times on Gu Zhihan's behalf?

Some even couldn't help wondering if Gu Ci's return just now wasn't actually about retrieving this mathematics exercise book at all, but rather to stand up for her classmates and avenge them?

Yet this thought merely flashed through their minds before they dismissed it themselves.

They were probably overthinking it... When they saw Gu Zhihan being blocked by the people in Class 12 earlier, they had merely spoken up on Gu Zhihan's behalf a couple of times, and besides, that book was the most important thing... right?

Even so, harboring such thoughts, the senior high school students of No. 1 High School dared not casually spread malicious gossip about the students of Class 12 ever again. Of course, that was a story for another day...