CHAPTER 373: CHAPTER 366: YUAN JIN’S STORY

Mo Ye only stayed in Beijing for a month before returning to Guangzhou. Not long after his departure, He Xuewen left Beijing as well. Before he left, someone joined his side—a person whom Sisi met in Hong Kong, the Northeast Tiger—Yuan Jin.

According to He Xuewen, Yuan Jin found him last month in Guangzhou with a note written by Sisi. He Xuewen had been planning to recruit a helper, so without a second thought, he agreed as soon as he saw his daughter’s recommendation.

Yuan Jin seemed to have some family matters to take care of, so He Xuewen let him go home to deal with them first, then come to Beijing to find him. That was the reason Yuan Jin appeared in Beijing.

Seeing an old acquaintance, Sisi was very happy. Seeing Yuan Jin’s cheerful appearance, she thought he must have moved on from Ah Rou’s death, hadn’t he?

Sisi had asked Tian Xinhua about Yuan Jin, just casually, not really expecting an answer, but Tian Xinhua actually knew about it.

Thinking of the look of regret on Tian Xinhua’s face, Sisi also felt pity for Yuan Jin. Fate plays strange tricks indeed!

It turned out Yuan Jin had a good brother, named Da Gang. They had a bond forged in life-and-death situations, and Da Gang was also a highly skilled special forces soldier.

At the time of the incident, their group of special forces soldiers was on a mission in the jungle. A politically-connected offspring parachuted into their group, hoping to earn some glory from this mission to further his career.

The mission was not supposed to be particularly dangerous, and everyone thought they’d just spend a few days in the jungle and then return to their unit.

But fate often likes to play tricks on mortals. No one expected that an enemy squad was hidden in this jungle. Because the political offspring was afraid of dying, he pushed Da Gang next to him into the line of fire. Caught off guard, Da Gang was shot and also taken prisoner by the enemy.

The enemy was cunning, taking Da Gang as a hostage and injuring several special forces members. In agony, Da Gang begged Yuan Jin to shoot him dead, so Yuan Jin, in pain, had no choice but to shoot his good brother. Later, that enemy squad was annihilated by Yuan Jin and his team.

"Why then did Feifei say that Yuan Jin narrowly escaped a military tribunal?"

Hearing this, Sisi felt puzzled. Although Yuan Jin had killed his own comrade, it was out of necessity. Surely that wouldn’t warrant a military tribunal?

Tian Xinhua sighed, "That political offspring died."

"Did Yuan Jin kill him?" Sisi was shocked.

"It’s unclear, it remains a mystery. No one knows whether the political offspring’s death was related to Yuan Jin or not because he was bitten to death by a poison snake in his sleep. But the political offspring’s family insisted that Yuan Jin had planted the poison snake to bite their son to death. Moreover, there was a witness, another special forces soldier who claimed he saw Yuan Jin put a poison snake into the political offspring’s sleeping bag."

"What happened after that?"

"After that, the Shangguan Family used their influence to cover up the matter, because Shangguan Hong had a life-and-death bond with Yuan Jin, and he was also the captain of the mission. He stepped forward and stated that the political offspring died due to his lack of skill, having not learned well enough before seeking death in the jungle!"

Tian Xinhua touched his chin and smiled, continuing, "However, since the other family had considerable power as well, Yuan Jin was spared from the military tribunal. But he probably left the service out of concern for burdening the Shangguan Family, submitting his discharge and then disappeared without a trace. Unexpectedly, he turned up in Hong Kong."

Sisi sighed. When would these kinds of privileged practices end?

"So which family was the dead political offspring from? They wield such great authority," Sisi couldn’t help but ask.

"The Tang Family, the eldest cousin of Tang Anzhi," Tian Xinhua said gravely.

Upon hearing it was the Tang Family, Sisi’s impression of Tang Anzhi worsened even more. No wonder Tang Anzhi didn’t seem like a good person; as the saying goes, a crooked beam leads to crooked rafters—it seems the whole family is cut from the same cloth.

Sisi felt it was very likely that Yuan Jin was the one who committed the murder. Considering Yuan Jin could search for Ah Rou for such a long time in Hong Kong based on just one word from his good brother, how could he possibly stand by and let the enemy who harmed his brother get away with it?

In her spare time, Sisi briefly shared the matter of Yuan Jin with He Xuewen, and upon hearing it, He Xuewen’s favorable impression of Yuan Jin grew even stronger. A man loyal and righteous, brave and resourceful—wasn’t this exactly the kind of person he needed at the moment?

Afterwards, He Xuewen increasingly valued Yuan Jin, and Yuan Jin was also extremely loyal to He Xuewen, becoming He Xuewen’s right-hand man.

As mentioned earlier about how privilege kills, there was another victim here—it was Teacher Xiao Xu, who was dismissed.

Because of the incident that occurred during this sketching trip, and with the injured students’ parents being unyielding, the Liu Family was even less so, especially Liu Jinyi. It was not easy for him to have raised a granddaughter to be useful, and before she could accomplish anything, she was wasted. How could his heart not ache?

He of course also hated He Sisi and Shangguan Feifei, but he couldn’t afford to provoke either of them right now, so he vented all his fury at the school, joining forces with several other parents to pressure the school, insisting they give them an explanation.

In reality, everyone knew, what sort of explanation could there be? It was nothing more than these parents wanting to find someone to take the blame and vent their anger on.

The school’s leaders were all shrewd people; they understood the parents’ intent very well. If these parents had all been ordinary people, the leaders could have ignored their demands, but these parents all had certain influences. Although the school might not fear one or two of them, the collective force of so many could not be taken lightly!

As a result, Teacher Xiao Xu was made the scapegoat and ended up being held responsible for the incident and was dismissed from public office.

When the students learned the outcome, many of them were angry. They had all seen the events of that night very clearly—it was clearly Professor Ma’s obstinacy and refusal to listen to advice that had caused the disaster. Why then was Teacher Xu the one to face punishment?

Yet no one would pay attention to these students’ concerns, including their parents. In their view, this was a very satisfactory resolution.

The school suffered no losses, the parents had vented their frustrations, and everyone was quite content with the outcome. As for the unfortunate Teacher Xiao Xu caught in the middle, nobody even mentioned him. Who asked you to be caught up in this mess?

Professor Ma was still teaching class as elegantly as before, but the students in the class no longer respected him like they used to, and some even held him in contempt—Chang Yunhuan being the exception, of course.

Chang Yunhuan continued to show extreme respect to Professor Ma in front of others and behind their backs, attending to him so diligently that Professor Ma, somewhat disheartened by the students’ attitudes, felt much comforted.

Professor Ma also recalled that on the night of the incident, it had been Chang Yunhuan who had stayed behind to weather the hardship with him, unlike Teacher Xu and He Sisi, who had left him behind.

Thinking of this, Professor Ma became even more appreciative of Chang Yunhuan, feeling that such a loyal and righteous student was truly rare. Should he speak to the dean, perhaps suggest ending Chang Yunhuan’s probation period earlier?

Sisi also went out of her way to find Zhang Mingliu and told him the truth, feeling that Teacher Xu should not bear the burden of blame.

Zhang Mingliu sighed and said, "Ah Nan, the decision to dismiss Teacher Xu was made by the school’s administration; as an honorary dean I’m powerless, too."

With the matter settled, Sisi had no choice but to accept the reality. Although she could ask Mr. Yun to intervene, Teacher Xu was only an acquaintance and there was no need to trouble Mr. Yun. Tian Xinhua mentioned that some people were already talking behind the scenes because Mr. Yun had used his influence to mobilize the H city garrison!

Sisi and some classmates went to see off Teacher Xu, chipping in to buy some gifts. Teacher Xu, moved by the presence of so many students coming to bid him farewell, found his somewhat cynical heart somewhat soothed.

At least he wasn’t a total failure, right? There were still many students who recognized him! And hadn’t he himself anticipated this outcome?

Between a renowned old professor and a young and unskilled teacher, which one would the school choose? Even fools could guess!