Chapter 55

After the brief quiet, Liu Guifang suddenly exploded: "You little bitch, what nonsense are you spouting? Who said they're not biological? Don't you dare talk rubbish, I'll tear your mouth apart!"
She roared and lunged forward. Chi Shen, still reeling from Qiao Zhenzhen's remark, immediately pulled her behind him. The homeroom teacher hurried to restrain Liu Guifang: "What do you think you're doing?! This is a school, control yourself!"
"Don't you dare play favorites here, I've seen it for a long time. You never respected us. And you're supposed to be a teacher, what a piece of work!" the bald man snarled, pointing at Qiao Zhenzhen's nose. "Don't think I won't lay a hand on you just because your dad's a school director. Keep spouting nonsense and I'll teach you a lesson!"
Qiao Zhenzhen had no proof, just words spoken in the heat of the moment. But seeing their reaction, she felt bolstered. She ducked behind Chi Shen, popping her head out to retort: "Then why don't you take a paternity test and see if I'm lying!"
"Bullshit! Chi Shen was born from between my legs, why the hell would I do a paternity test?!" Liu Guifang yelled through the homeroom teacher.
Qiao Zhenzhen sneered: "It's not up to you. If we report you for child trafficking, the police will open an investigation, and then a test will be mandatory."
"Who the hell do you think you are, threatening me?" the bald man shouted, kicking a chair aside and swinging a hand down.
Qiao Zhenzhen flinched instinctively. When she looked up, she saw Chi Shen gripping the man's wrist with an unreadable face.
"Let go, damn you," the bald man growled.
"Watch your mouth," Chi Shen said, staring him down.
The man's gaze met Chi Shen's and something flickered, he remembered the day at the fish shop when Chi Shen had held a piece of glass against him. Old and new grudges flared, and with his free hand he slapped Chi Shen across the face.
Everything happened so fast that by the time Qiao Zhenzhen registered it, the sharp smack had already sounded through the office. The blow, full of rage and malice, skewed Chi Shen's face. Within seconds half his face swelled; his lip was split where his teeth had caught it, a thin thread of blood at the corner.
The office fell silent for a beat before the homeroom teacher's angry voice rang out: "What are you? How dare you hit my student, get out! Security! Security!"
The bald man snorted, ignored the teacher, wrenched free of Chi Shen's grip and smugly flapped his wrist: "So you think playing tough will free you from your mother and me? Think again. You're Chi Qiang's son, you're my son for life. Do what I tell you, or next time you'll get it worse."
Liu Guifang echoed through the homeroom teacher: "You hear your father? If you want an easy life, behave and stop believing other people's nonsense. Only your father and I truly care about you. And don't think I want your money, I'm saving it to find you a wife someday..."
They played the good cop/bad cop routine so theatrically it was almost comical. Qiao Zhenzhen, however, only stared at Chi Shen's swollen face, tears welling: "Does it hurt?" she asked, reaching out as if to touch his cheek but stopping short.
Chi Shen took her hand and gently placed it on his face. "It doesn't hurt. Don't be afraid."
No sooner had he spoken than Qiao Zhenzhen's tears fell. Chi Shen's eyes darkened.
"Hey, I'm talking to you, can't you hear me? You still want to get beaten?" the bald man snapped impatiently.
"I don't want to argue with you," Chi Shen said, expressionless. Even without his bangs, his eyes seemed shadowed. "But you shouldn't have made her cry."
The bald man blinked, still processing, and Chi Shen's fist struck.
There was an almost endless power in the young man's body; every muscle brimmed with fierce anger. One punch sent the middle-aged man, who'd been fueled on cigarettes and booze, tumbling to the floor. The bald man crashed between several water drums, his back and legs seized in pain, and he writhed on the ground.
Liu Guifang's eyes flashed red. She lunged at Chi Shen, claws out: "You ungrateful wretch, I’ll kill you!"
The homeroom teacher was startled and hurried to stop him. Unexpectedly, Qiao Zhenzhen summoned a burst of strength and shoved the teacher hard aside.
The homeroom teacher lost her balance and was heading straight for the corner of the desk. Panic rose in her chest but it was too late to dodge, she could only watch as the desk corner loomed larger and larger before her eyes.
Time froze; her gaze stopped with the desk corner just a centimeter away.
Qiao Zhenzhen broke out in a cold sweat. She adjusted the teacher’s angle, making sure she’d land safely before letting go. When it was over, she realized her back was slick with sweat and her legs felt weak; it took her a long moment to recover her strength.
"Host, restore the time flow?" Xiao Ba asked.
Qiao Zhenzhen nodded at first, then thought of something and quickly shook her head. "Not yet."
Saying that, she searched the office and spotted a stack of clear resealable bags, the kind usually handed out to students as pencil cases, in the corner. She grabbed two, walked up to Liu Guifang, whose expression was frozen in a snarl, and plucked two hairs from her head.
Although she was already convinced these two weren’t Chi Shen’s biological parents, she wanted a paternity test as proof to completely cut them off.
After plucking the hairs, Qiao Zhenzhen sealed them in the bags.
"Host, take a few extra strands as backups," Xiao Ba reminded her.
Qiao Zhenzhen agreed. In case her technique was unprofessional or the sample was insufficient, she pulled a few more hairs. When she finished, she looked at the bald man near the bottled water, frowned, and asked, "What if he has no hair?"
"He has armpit hair," Xiao Ba replied.
Qiao Zhenzhen felt a wave of disgust but stifled it. She walked up to the bald man, didn’t bother searching one by one, grabbed a handful and yanked out a dozen or so.
Xiao Ba: "..." Even though the system didn’t feel pain, it still registered a strange twinge.
This was the eighth time she used the time-freeze function; it cost 45 favor points every thirty seconds, so every second was precious. After she’d finished collecting everything, Xiao Ba asked again if she wanted to resume time.
"Give me ten more seconds." Qiao Zhenzhen said, repeating her tactic: she placed one of Liu Guifang’s feet over the other, adjusted her angle slightly, and aimed her toward the mop bucket not far away.
When everything was set, she returned to her original position.
Time resumed. The homeroom teacher instinctively closed her eyes but felt no pain. After a moment she heard a splash; when she opened her eyes she saw Liu Guifang had fallen, knocking over the mop bucket with one hand, and filthy water poured over her.
Pain hit and Liu Guifang began to scream; the office was a mess.
The class bell rang and the campus suddenly grew lively. Many people crowded over to gawk. Seeing the crowd, Liu Guifang sat on the floor clutching her ankle and wailed, "Is there any justice? A teacher hitting a parent, a son hitting his father, who will stand up for me?!"
The homeroom teacher’s face darkened. "I didn’t touch you. Don’t sling baseless accusations."
"My son used to be so obedient. If it weren’t for learning from you, how could he be so disobedient? You must be held responsible!" Liu Guifang screamed hoarsely.
Security guards parted the crowd and, seeing the scene, immediately came up to the homeroom teacher. "Teacher Zhou, what happened?"
"These two are causing trouble. Take them away," the teacher said.
"Take them to the office of whoever brought them," Qiao Zhenzhen immediately suggested. They were making a scene because that man had acted on his own, he couldn’t be allowed to remain unscathed while they caused all this trouble.
The homeroom teacher paused. "Right, send them to Director Li’s office."
The guard nodded repeatedly. "Okay, I’ll take them there now."
Before he finished speaking, the bald man had recovered enough to grit his teeth and say, "Are we just supposed to let them beat us and that’s it?"
"There’s surveillance in the office. It’ll clearly show who struck first. If you disagree, we’ll call the police," the teacher said, keeping a stern face.
Qiao Zhenzhen immediately added, "And while they’re at it, have the police investigate you for child trafficking."
"Are you talking nonsense?" Liu Guifang, drenched in filthy water, spat as she glared. "Who trafficked children?"
Qiao Zhenzhen narrowed her eyes. "If I’m not mistaken, you don’t have adoption papers, do you? If a paternity test shows he’s not your biological child, then your adoption is illegal, equivalent to child trafficking."
"...I don’t know what you’re talking about." Flustered, Liu Guifang scrambled to her feet and ran to the bald man. "Say something."
The bald man frowned and rubbed his armpit, somewhere there was a sharp sting, then sneered, "So what if he’s not our blood? Ten, twenty years ago people didn’t always document adoptions. What evidence do you have that we trafficked children?"
The homeroom teacher was stunned, frowning deeper. Chi Shen lifted his eyes to them with no sorrow and no joy, as if whether they were his parents or not didn’t concern him at all.
The class bell rang; the onlookers dispersed and quiet returned to the office. Qiao Zhenzhen quietly took Chi Shen’s hand. He gave a small flicker of his eyes when he felt the warm pulse from her fingertips, and his expression finally softened a little.
Qiao Zhenzhen glanced at him, then gently let go.
The bald man’s words were effectively an admission that Chi Shen wasn’t their biological child, so a paternity test wasn’t even necessary. Qiao Zhenzhen’s mouth curved. She helpfully warned them, "You may not have proof of child trafficking, but there is evidence you abused your foster son. Legally, that can sever the parent-child relationship."
She said this while pointing to the camera in the corner. "Everything you’ve done from the start has been recorded."
Both the bald man and Liu Guifang froze; their faces darkened instantly.