CHAPTER 155: CHAPTER 155: PLAGIARISM IS JUST BORROWING, QI-JIE: ON PURPOSE

The current atmosphere in Brightsong’s Year 6 class is as silent as can be, with dozens of students huddled over assignments and no teacher to be seen on the podium.

Suddenly.

A girl stretches lazily, raising her hand to rub her neck and sleepily asks, "How much do you guys have left? Brother Yao reminded us that Claire should be back in the next couple of days."

"No way," a boy wails, "I’m not even halfway through yet."

Once he says that, others quickly chime in.

"Same here, I’m writing like crazy every day and I’ve still got half left."

"Claire gave way too many assignments."

Just when they are lamenting, a different voice stands out.

"Hehe, I’m almost done with everything."

Aaron Kerr looks at them smugly.

No sooner than he speaks, a few of them rush over to surround him.

"We agreed to improve together, and here you are sneaking off to write on your own."

They crack their knuckles threateningly, as if implying that unless Aaron gives a perfect explanation, they won’t let it slide today.

Aaron feels a bit guilty, since he had been secretly doing assignments while others played games.

"Well, it’s not like I had anything else to do after school but work on them."

Just as he finishes, Harry Lewis rolls his eyes at him, "Yeah right, and when we invited you to play games, you said you were busy, turns out you were doing assignments."

Aaron scratches the back of his head and chuckles awkwardly.

"You guys still have the mood to argue about this, hurry up and write," the girl says, shaking her head in exasperation at them.

Halfway through isn’t something you can finish on a whim.

Yet here they were, having time to debate such useless topics, obviously Claire’s assignments weren’t heavy enough.

Harry suddenly stiffens, his gaze sweeping over to Aaron’s desk, then rubs his chin with a sinister smile.

He hooks an arm around Aaron’s shoulder, "Aren’t we brothers?"

Aaron looks at him, puzzled, "Yeah."

"Then let me copy your homework."

The moment Harry finishes, he sees Aaron shaking his head vigorously like a rattle drum.

"No way, Claire’s assignments have to be done individually, no copying allowed."

But who’s expecting.

Harry grins slyly, "How can you call it copying when it’s what students do? At most, it’s just referencing."

Aaron’s mouth twitches, you’ve really made copying sound elegant.

Is ’referencing’ used like this?

Isn’t he afraid Claire will come back and beat him?

Seeing Aaron’s silence, Harry persists in brainwashing him, "Think about it, all our words are copied from textbooks and dictionaries; can you call that plagiarism? So our actions count as friendly referencing."

Aaron remains unmoved, "Those are two different concepts, you’d better get back to writing your own assignments."

"I..."

Just as Harry is about to speak, a familiar female voice interrupts him.

"Quite good at manipulating concepts."

The seemingly relaxed voice sounds dangerously serious to Harry.

He wipes his forehead and replies stiffly, "Why do I feel like I’m hallucinating?"

Otherwise, why would he hear Claire’s voice?

Everyone else stifles their laughter at this, and Aaron, finding it hard to bear, tells him the truth, "Turn around and look at the screen."

Can I refuse?

Harry turns around stiffly, only to see a girl on the electronic screen propping her chin up with a finger, watching him with an amused expression.

Which means Claire heard everything he just said.

Could it be more embarrassing? First time trying to slack off and he gets caught.

In any case, it’s better to explain first.

"Claire, I was just joking."

Claire Green raises her eyebrow nonchalantly, "Oh really? You seemed quite serious to me."

The others shake with laughter even more, serves you right for trying to get something for nothing.

"Since you like copying so much, why don’t you copy each of their test papers once, that should satisfy you."

The girl changes her posture, a faint mischievous grin playing across her lips.

Harry looks as if struck by lightning, standing dazedly as words elude him.

All the test papers? How long would it take to copy all those?

He shakes his head vigorously, clasping his hands together, "Claire, let’s negotiate, could it be a little less?"

Who’s expecting.

The girl denies him any chance, speaking playfully, "For more, sure."

Julian Sia, sitting to the side, couldn’t help but laugh when he saw the girl like this.

So even Claire can be quite cheeky sometimes.

"You’re certainly very responsible, Claire."

Julian hands over a milk bottle from the table, not concerned about being on camera.

The rest of Year 6 were already surprised by the sudden male voice, but didn’t anticipate seeing an incredibly handsome profile on the screen.

Hiss.

They collectively take a sharp breath, if they’re not mistaken, there’s a guy next to Claire and they seem on very close terms.

What’s going on?

Brother Yao only said Claire was going to Capital City for a birthday; nothing was mentioned about finding them a brother-in-law.

At this point, Harry couldn’t care about the girl’s deliberate misinterpretation anymore; dumbfounded, he watches the screen and suddenly blurts out, "Claire, you secretly got yourself a man behind our backs?"

As soon as the words escape.

Aaron instantly leaps back two meters away, pretending not to know him.

The others are equally speechless, what’s with that aggrieved tone? Anyone would think Claire was some heartbreaker.

Julian Sia on the screen raises an eyebrow subtly, his meaning unclear, "Claire’s classmates have quite the theatrical flair."

Claire’s eyes show a hint of mischief, "And quite a bit of drama."

After that, she ends the video call abruptly and looks at the man with playful eyes, inexplicably asking, "Was that intentional?"

This man would never normally bring her anything during a video call.

Julian’s eyes glint as he stands up with the milk she didn’t drink, "Of course not, I was just delivering a drink purely."

He nonchalantly walks into the kitchen, and Claire chuckles softly, shaking her head a few times before looking at the latest message on her phone.

[Edward Monroe: We’ve arrived in Capital City, heading to the company to find you now.]

Staring at the message, her eyebrows raise, they arrived quickly.

"Brother, I’m stepping out for a bit."

Julian comes out just as the girl says this, and gives a low ’hmm’ in response.

"I’ll come to pick you up later."

...

"Who called Claire on video?"

Harry pats his chest in relief of surviving, and glances around resentfully.

Everyone exchanges glances but none confesses.

No way, with his current expression, admitting it would probably result in him pouncing to bite them.

But amid the silence, a girl calmly replies, "I did, got a problem?"

Harry looks over to find it’s the class rep, and immediately shakes his head.

"None, how could I? I just wanted to say you did a great job."

The crowd bursts into laughter seeing him act without any dignity.

"Harry, come on, it’s one thing to be scared of Claire, but even the class rep?"

"Yeah, it’s a disgrace to us guys."

Harry rolls his eyes, "Easy to say, let’s see you try standing up to her."

This group talks a big game, but are just as scared of the class rep.

If it were just any class rep, but the key issue is she’s handpicked by Claire, does he dare to defy her?

In the end, those people snort at his words, acting like they don’t understand, and start writing their own assignments.

Seeing this, Harry is resigned and exasperated.