The Framed Theft

“Mr. Shi, look at how well the Eleventh Middle School is developing now.”

A few stray rays of sunlight crawled up the corners of the walls, tinting the climbing ivy in warm hues of yellow. Ear-splitting music leaked from the campus speakers. Shi Ji and the principal stood by the window of the upstairs office, looking down at the students performing morning exercises in the middle of the playground.

“Whether it’s the school environment or the teaching resources…” The principal held his hands behind his back, wrinkles piling up at the corners of his eyes. The smile on his lips was impossible to suppress. Fearing the music would drown him out, he raised his voice several decibels. “None of this would be possible without your help, Mr. Shi!”

“If it weren’t for you, there would be no Eleventh Middle School as it is today!”

His tone was thick with excitement. He pumped a fist that had been behind his back as if Shi Ji were a savior reincarnated, his expression turning fervent.

Finishing his speech, the principal turned to Shi Ji and pointed toward the playground. “Mr. Shi, I plan to erect a statue of you right there, so that future students will always remember you.”

Shi Ji’s eye twitched. He shook his head and refused coldly, “No need.”

Then, Shi Ji lowered his lashes again, his gaze involuntarily searching for Li Chen’s figure.

Unfortunately, the distance was too great. The dense crowd below huddled together like tiny ants; Shi Ji couldn’t tell where Li Chen was at all.

Seeing his proposal rejected, a flash of regret crossed the principal’s eyes. He followed Shi Ji’s gaze downward, assuming he was looking for the student with the most standard exercise form. He pointed toward the two figures on the rostrum. “Mr. Shi, look. The student on the left is Jiang Mo—the one you met before.”

At the principal’s words, Shi Ji looked over. Even from this distance, he could feel the power in Jiang Mo’s every movement. Compared to the others who were sluggish and listless, he looked like a textbook model.

In the original novel, Jiang Mo’s character was an upright, gentle, and high-achieving “good kid.” He was righteous; every time Li Chen was bullied, he would step in. He was essentially the only ray of sunlight in Li Chen’s dark life.

“If you like, Mr. Shi, I’ll call Jiang Mo over later to perform it for you personally,” the principal suggested.

“No need,” Shi Ji refused again without hesitation.

He had no hobby for watching people do calisthenics.

As the morning exercise ended, students filed back into their classrooms. Only when the crowd thinned out did Shi Ji catch a glimpse of Li Chen.

He was still walking at the very back of the pack. Suddenly, several boys rushed up behind him. One draped an arm affectionately over Li Chen’s shoulder, only to be dodged in the next second.

Perhaps because Shi Ji had been at the school lately, no teachers or students dared to bully Li Chen openly. Some had even proactively approached him to be friends—details Li Chen had mentioned casually to Shi Ji after returning from class.

Shi Ji watched him from the building. Whatever the others said, Li Chen stopped in his tracks. The boys surrounding him seemed exceptionally enthusiastic, their laughter loud enough to echo.

Without even thinking, Shi Ji felt he could already see the embarrassment on Li Chen’s face.

A strange sense of accomplishment filled his heart.

‘Is this the joy of a “raising sim”?!’

Shi Ji’s gaze softened. He was about to turn and leave when the principal let out a cry of surprise: “Eh? Why is Student Jiang Mo going over there?”

‘Jiang Mo?’

Shi Ji was incredibly sensitive to that name. He quickly stepped back to the window and looked toward Li Chen again.

The boys previously surrounding Li Chen were gone, replaced by Jiang Mo. The youth stood with his back to Shi Ji, perfectly obscuring Li Chen from view. His hands were stuffed into his uniform pockets, revealing a glimpse of his slender Achilles’ tendons.

He and Li Chen stayed on the playground for a long time until they were the only two left in the vast space. Then, Jiang Mo turned to stand beside Li Chen, and the two walked toward the teaching building together.

To his surprise, Shi Ji didn’t see any rejection from Li Chen.

I didn’t expect the protagonists’ relationship to progress even more smoothly than imagined!

Shi Ji was ecstatic.

Seeing the two boys vanish from sight, Shi Ji hurried out of the office, completely ignoring the principal’s frantic calls behind him.

Shi Ji felt that he must witness these pivotal romantic developments with his own eyes.

He rushed down to the floor of Li Chen’s classroom, but before he could spot him, he heard a burst of crying.

A small girl with braided hair stood at the door of Class 2-3, sobbing uncontrollably. She wiped her eyes with her thin arms as the homeroom teacher bent over to comfort her, but the girl only seemed to cry harder and more piteously.

“What happened?” The principal, having caught up with Shi Ji, didn’t even have time to ask why he had run off before his attention was drawn to the red-eyed girl.

“Ah, Principal.” The teacher stood up upon seeing him, then looked at the sobbing girl with a troubled expression. “This student says her money is missing.”

The principal frowned. “Missing? How much?”

“Two… two thousand,” the girl answered between sobs. She looked up with eyes as red as a rabbit’s, tear stains marking her small face. “That was the money for my mother’s medicine. I can’t lose it…”

As she spoke, her tears began to fall again.

Right then, light footsteps approached from behind Shi Ji. He turned and happened to lock eyes with Li Chen. The boy’s pupils trembled slightly; he clearly hadn’t expected Shi Ji to be there.

In the next second, both of them looked away simultaneously with a tacit, yet awkward, understanding.

“Think carefully, did you leave it somewhere and forget?” The teacher patted the girl’s head.

The girl pursed her lips and stole a glance at Li Chen. “I… I remember that before I went to the restroom, I saw… I saw Student Li Chen standing by my desk.”

Wen Xiaoyi’s choked words caused everyone’s gaze to fall squarely on Li Chen.

The phrasing felt a bit too deliberate, as if she were forcing the topic onto him.

Shi Ji leaned against the wall.

Suddenly singled out, Li Chen knit his brows and asked blankly, “What?”

“Her money.” The moment the teacher looked at Li Chen, her gentle expression vanished. She stepped toward him. “Li Chen, did you take Wen Xiaoyi’s money?”

She had zero evidence, yet she questioned him with total entitlement. Li Chen’s expression grew grave. He pressed his lips together, offering no answer or defense. He merely lifted his eyes to Wen Xiaoyi and said flatly, “Why are you saying that?”

Wen Xiaoyi froze, her lips trembling. “But… but I really saw it.”

“Li Chen, I hope you tell the truth!” the teacher added. “If you really took it, return it to Student Wen Xiaoyi immediately. I don’t want such a vile case of theft occurring in Class 2-3!”

Li Chen’s lips were pressed white. Jiang Mo, standing nearby, couldn’t take it anymore and spoke up for him. “Teacher, Li Chen wouldn’t do something like that.”

Seeing her favorite star student defending Li Chen, the teacher’s eyebrows shot up. “Jiang Mo, you say it wasn’t him, but do you have any proof?”

Jiang Mo’s brow furrowed. “I…”

“Do you have proof?” Li Chen spoke up suddenly, his voice chilling. “Proof that I stole the money.”

“You… you…” The teacher gritted her teeth, staring at him.

The principal took a deep breath. “Enough, stop arguing!”

At his command, the aggressive teacher finally shut her mouth. The principal glanced at Shi Ji before continuing, “Teacher Lin, you’re insisting it was Student Li Chen without proof. How about this… Mr. Shi, how do you think we should handle this?”

Shi Ji, who had been trying to minimize his presence, was dragged into the fray. Li Chen’s brows were tightly knit; his hands at his sides were clenched into fists. Shi Ji watched his profile turn pale and his arms tremble slightly.

In the next second, Li Chen turned his head to look at Shi Ji. His pupils were quivering, his misty-blue eyes like a surging, turbulent sea.

“Do you believe me?”

He heard Li Chen ask.

The youth’s breath was ragged, yet his eyes held a flickering, unreadable emotion.

“I…” Shi Ji started to answer instinctively.

But just as he was about to speak, the system’s voice rang in his ear.

[Loading next plot segment—] [Plot loaded successfully.] [Next Task: Help the supporting characters frame Li Chen.] [Time to complete: Within 10 minutes.]

[Data synchronizing… Synchronization complete.]

The countdown timer appeared in his mind, and the bright red numbers ticked down, forcing Shi Ji to swallow the words at the tip of his tongue.

‘What kind of system is this?’ ‘This is purely asking me to dig my own grave!’

The youth was still staring at him. Shi Ji couldn’t bear it; he forced himself to look away and spoke coldly, “Whether you did it or not, we’ll know once we check your backpack.”

Those light words shattered the hope hidden in Li Chen’s eyes.

[Congratulations to the Host for completing this plot segment. 300 points awarded, loaded into the database, data synchronization complete.] [Detection: Host character OOC level 0. 100 points awarded. Detection: Risk of supporting characters noticing character replacement is 0. 100 bonus points awarded.] [Current total points: 15,700.] [Entering intermission.]

As the system notification chimed, the gaze Li Chen had fixed on Shi Ji slowly drifted away. He lowered his lashes and suddenly felt like laughing.

In that split second just now, Li Chen had seen a flash of fear on Shi Ji’s face.

What was he afraid of?

Was he afraid of believing in him?

A massive confusion tangled itself around Li Chen’s heart, to the point where he couldn’t even hear the accusations of the others around him.

Shi Ji was too strange; he had never met someone so bizarre.

He seemed to want to be good to him, yet he was wary of something; he wanted to help him, yet he forced himself to wear a sinister mask to disguise it.

Did he think Li Chen couldn’t see through it? It was laughable.

“By what right!” Li Chen shouted. “I didn’t steal anything!”

“Who would ever admit to stealing?” the teacher sneered.

“Then do as Mr. Shi suggested,” the principal nodded.

Li Chen watched as his backpack was hauled out of the classroom and dumped onto the floor. Textbooks and pencil cases spilled out. Finally, wedged between a couple of books, a light pink bunny-shaped wallet fell out.

“Ah! My wallet!” Wen Xiaoyi ran over and picked it up. She looked up at the teacher and the principal, her tears falling again with a patter-patter.

“The evidence is conclusive now, isn’t it?” The teacher crossed her arms and barked, “Li Chen, you stole Wen Xiaoyi’s money!”

The principal’s expression turned solemn. “Student Li Chen, since you insisted it wasn’t you, why was the wallet in your backpack?”

Li Chen bit his lower lip and said nothing.

“Since Student Li Chen has no explanation, I must handle this matter strictly.” The principal walked over to Shi Ji and gave him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, Mr. Shi. Even if he is your brother, I cannot let this slide.”

He then turned a stern face toward Li Chen. “Li Chen, come to my office with me.”

With that, the principal put his hands behind his back and started to walk away, his belly leading the way.

“Wait a minute!”

Before the principal could even take a full step, Jiang Mo rushed forward, holding the light pink wallet.

He sniffed the surface of the wallet, his expression grim. “There is the scent of an Omega’s pheromones on this.”