At the parent-teacher meeting before National Day, the academic affairs director pointed to a perfect-score exam paper with the name hidden on the projector and announced to the room, “After a comprehensive review, the school has decided to award the scholarship to Zhang Hao. Congratulations!” As the room broke into applause, he stared straight at me, his eyes full of warning. I raised two exam papers for everyone to see. One was identical to the one on the screen and bore the name Ji Zhao. The other was Zhang Hao’s nearly blank paper. “Director Zhang, explain to me: on what grounds did Zhang Hao take my son’s place?” My voice was cold as ice. The classroom fell utterly silent. Director Wang’s face turned deathly pale. But Zhang Hao’s mother slowly stood up, her face full of scorn. “Are you so desperate for money that you stole the original exam papers and swapped the names, all for a little scholarship money?” I smiled and raised my phone. A surveillance video was playing on the screen: Zhang Hao cheating during the exam. A proctor caught him, but then pretended not to see a thing. “I have plenty of backups of this footage,” I said, looking at Director Zhang. “If I don’t get an explanation today, it’ll be tomorrow’s headline.”
