Chapter 3

The conference was scheduled to take place at 9:00 am.

Hundreds of people had already gathered at the Department of Education's door when I arrived. Cameras, phones, and microphones were shoved in my face.

"Did you really cheat during the test, Ms. Lorde?"

"What's your relationship with your seatmate, Mr. Henderson? Why did he testify against you?"

"Are your parents aware of what's happening?"

I didn't answer any of their questions. I kept my head low and walked into the building.

Just then, someone rammed into my side. It was a woman whom I didn't recognize. "Get out of here, you damned cheater!" she shouted.

I ignored her.

Someone behind her pulled her back and said, "Don't do that. The results of the investigation aren't out yet."

"What's there to investigate? Her Englorian score suddenly shot up from 145 to 390 points. Even a fool can figure out that she cheated."

I took a deep breath as I pushed the meeting room door open.

The meeting room wasn't very big. There were about a dozen people seated inside.

The Department of Education's investigative team sat in the center. The five-member panel included the deputy director, the admissions office director, the head of the discipline inspection team, and two other experts.

The principal of my school sat on the left, along with an academic counselor and my homeroom teacher, Benjamin.

Heather and Louis sat on the right.

Heather was wearing a white shirt, and her hair was styled neatly. Her eyes were slightly bloodshot. It seemed that she had cried beforehand.

Louis sat next to her. He kept his head low as he fiddled with his fingers, not daring to meet my eye.

I found a vacant seat and sat directly opposite the investigative team.

Three cameras were set up next to me. The entire conference was being livestreamed.

I glanced at the live stream on my phone. There were over 100 thousand viewers, and they flooded the stream with countless comments that scrolled past at the speed of light.

"She's here. The female lead has finally made her appearance."

"She looks so calm. What a great actress."

"I feel so sorry for Heather. She's forced to confront such a despicable person for the sake of justice."

"If you have even a shred of conscience left within you, Sarah, you'll admit your mistakes of your own volition. Stop wasting public funds."

The leader of the investigative team was Oliver Larkin. He was in his 50s, had a square jaw, and looked like a difficult person to talk to. He rapped his knuckles against the table and said, "Silence."

The meeting room quieted down.

"Our main goal is to verify the validity of Ms. Sarah Lorde's college entrance exam results during today's conference. The person who reported her, Ms. Heather Cliffton, has provided relevant evidence to support her claims. Meanwhile, Ms. Lorde is the one who requested a public conference.

"The entire conference will be recorded and livestreamed. Ms. Cliffton, you may give your statement now."

Heather stood up and nodded respectfully at the investigative team, keeping her head lowered for five seconds.

"Thank you for giving me this chance," she said, sounding like she was doing everything in her power to suppress the tears in her voice.

She acted as if she had been terribly wronged but was staying strong so that she wouldn't crumble under the pressure.

Countless comments began to flood the live stream.

"Heather's so pitiful. She's forced to endure so much pressure for the sake of justice."

"She's so brave. I wouldn't be able to take it if I were in her shoes."

"There's no way that she has ulterior motives. It's not like she can benefit from this situation. She's simply doing it to make sure that justice is served."

Heather took a deep breath before continuing, "My name is Heather Cliffton. I was the second-highest-scoring scholar for the college entrance exam of this province."

She paused, looking like she was suppressing her emotions. "I'm not doing this for myself. I admit that I felt a little unhappy when I learned that I had lost to Sarah by two points. But more importantly…"

She looked up and swept her gaze across the investigative team and the cameras before lingering on me. "I don't want a cheater to steal the rightful place of a hardworking student who actually deserves it."

She suddenly raised her voice as if she had finally found an outlet to express her emotions. "There are hundreds of thousands of students in this province who wake up at 5:00 am to study. They're the same people who are still practicing mock questions at midnight.

"Their fingers are covered in calluses, and they eventually develop myopia. Their hair falls out in clumps. What do these students hope for? The answer is a fair and just college entrance exam.

"But what about Sarah?" Heather asked, turning to stare into the camera, raising her voice again. "I've seen the results of her Englorian tests myself. She has never scored more than 145 points during her time in high school.

"She didn't fail the tests just once or twice. She failed them for three years in a row. Three whole years. Do you believe that it's possible for a person who has never passed their Englorian tests to suddenly score 390 points during the college entrance exams?"

Silence descended upon the meeting room for two seconds.

Some members of the investigative team frowned while others scribbled in their notebooks.

Meanwhile, the livestream commenters were going wild.

"390 points? Her score shot up from 145 to 390 points? Only a fool would believe her."

"It took me a whole year to improve my Englorian score from 290 to 310 points. There's no way that she improved that fast."

"Heather's right. It would be unjust not to investigate someone like Sarah."

Heather didn't stop there.

She continued, "I'm no Englorian teacher, and I'm not equipped with any teaching skills, but I do know one thing. It's impossible for someone to suddenly score that high during the college entrance exams when they usually score low.

"Something like that is only possible if she got her hands on the answers beforehand. Or perhaps she used other ways to obtain such a high score. I don't know what methods she might have used, but I hope that the investigative team will get to the bottom of this."

Heather nodded respectfully at the investigative team again when she was done speaking. She didn't bow her head as deeply as before, but she kept her head lowered for a longer time.