<b>Chapter </b>80
A
After that, Alicia went to live with the Lawrence family and brought that piece of cloth along. She remembered how it had a stunningndscape painted on it. She’d once taken it out to copy the artwork, and that was probably when someone ended up photographing her.
So she asked the guy who wanted to buy the cloth if he recognized it.
The guy said he didn’t, he just thought the painting was beautiful. He owned an art gallery and wanted to disy the painting there.
The painting really was gorgeous. She could probably exchange the cloth for 60 thousand dors now. But with the cloth in her hands, she honestly had no idea how it could help her track down her real parents.
She figured that if she let the gallery show the painting, it would get way more attention–and maybe, just maybe, that would make it easier for her to find her birth parents.
If she, like Tiffany, had been secretly taken away, maybe her real parents would see the cloth and actually try to find her.
If her parents really did abandon her on purpose, then selling that cloth for 60 thousand dors would basically be thest bit of goodwill they left for her.
With her mind firmly made up, Alicia decided she’d reach out to the guy who wanted to buy the painting as soon as she got home tonight.
Soon, the second ss started. Alicia didn’t let anything else distract her and focused on the lesson. By the time ss ended, it was already half past twelve.
Everyone started packing up to head to the cafeteria for lunch when someone suddenly called out, “Hey, I saw all those forum posts were gone this morning–so why are they showing up again now?”
Alicia just let out a softugh. ‘Hank really gets things done fast,’ she thought. ‘Guess I need to hurry up raise the money for Sasha’s surgery.’
and
She didn’t bother checking the forum again. She just wanted to see how the school would handle the incident.
After the big ss in the afternoon, Alicia noticed the forum posts had vanished once more.
‘Guess I was right, Alicia thought to herself. ‘Looks like the school’s just going to ignore this and hope it all blows over. So they’re really not doing anything about it?‘
She messaged Hank again, asking him to restore all the deleted posts one more time.
By now, the school forum and all the ss group chats were totally blowing up.
Students were all specting: [What is the school even doing? Delete the posts, restore them, delete them again–what’s up with that?]
Someone wrote, [Maybe the tech guys are trying to figure out who posted them?]
5 vouchers
A guymented, I don’t getputers at all, no idea what’s going on, but this can’t be as simple as it looks.] <fnbf1f> The rightful source is fin?novel</fnbf1f>
Another one said, [Seriously, I wish I knew what the school’s up to. Didn’t they say they’d find out who posted all this? Still nothing.]
At that moment, Bruce was utterly baffled. ‘What is even happening?‘ he wondered helplessly. ‘Weren’t those forum posts already deleted? So why are they showing up again?‘
Now things were blowing up all over–students who never cared about gossip before were suddenly glued to the story, everyone dying to know what the school was really nning.
The mess just kept snowballing, and even parents who usually trusted Bruce were calling nonstop, demanding answers.
Some parents were even starting to worry that their own kids could be hit with some kind of vulgar gossip or sexually explicit rumors at school next.
Bruce was at his wits‘ end.
But he had to squash this whole mess–he was dead set on bing the next principal.
So he called in aputer whiz and asked, “Howe these posts keep popping back up even after we delete them?”
After a whole day of trying, those posts were finally deleted–gone for good, no way to bring them back.
That night, Hank sent Alicia a message on WhatsApp. He said the school probably called in some elite tech guys, and this time, the posts were totally wiped–he couldn’t recover them at all.
Feeling a little guilty, he wrote: [Maybe I’m still not skilled enough… I’ll definitely level up my technical game from now on.]
Alicia chuckled and messaged him: [It’s fine. Just send me whatever proof you have that Nora was behind that post.]
Hank immediately forwarded all the evidence to her like she asked.
Alicia knew this kind of resolution couldn’t be what Derek wanted. He was the kind of man who didn’t tolerate even a speck of trouble, so there was no way he’d let a student like Nora stay at the school.
If she went to Derek, he’d probably settle things with Nora in a heartbeat. But with all the major responsibilities on his te, why would he bother with something this minor?
Even if Derek chose to get involved, Alicia didn’t want to take up his valuable time.
There were other ways she could handle this herself.
That evening, feeling fed up with how things were going, Alicia whipped up a fresh post where she exposed all the evidence–Nora was behind the nasty rumors about her and was also responsible for spreading the photo with Derek.
16:05 Fri<b>, </b><b>Oct </b><b>3 </b>
Alicia didn’t hold back, tagging the school directly and writing: [Have you really spent all this time without figuring out who posted those things? Are you seriously just going to let it slide and pretend nothing happened?]
She wanted the school to set things straight for her.
She also made sure to attach screenshots of every previous post–before they disappeared, she’d already saved them all,ments included in extra–long images.
As soon as the post went up, she dropped the link straight into the school’s main group chat. It was right around dinner time, and Alicia knew her schoolmates loved to scroll through messages while eating, so nobody would miss it.
D
She thought, ‘Who knows, maybe some of them will even end up talking about it with their families at dinner, turning it into the newest gossip topic.
“To the students, it’s just another hot piece of gossip to joke about. But the parents? They’ll take it more seriously, worrying that their own kids might get caught up in the same kind of drama.
‘I can bet they’ll be pressuring the school for a proper exnation and won’t back down until they get one.
She just waited for what woulde next. After everything was set up, she didn’t bother with it anymore- instead, she logged into the art–selling website she’d been on before. It took some digging, but she finally found the person who’d messaged her earlier.
She snapped a photo of the painting on her cloth with her phone and sent it over, asking: [Hey, are you interested in this painting?]
The guy replied almost instantly, clearly excited: [Yes, definitely! Are you finally ready to let it go?]
Reborn Soul: [Yeah, so what price can you offer now?]
still
This time, the buyer didn’t shoot back an instant reply. After a long moment, he finally messaged: [How about 100 thousand dors? Does that work for you? If not, we can definitely negotiate.]
He guessed Alicia was pushing for a better deal–after all, he’d offered 60 thousand dorsst time and she turned him down, making him wait all this while.
Not long after, he added: [Honestly, the highest I can go is 150 thousand dors. Your painting is beautiful, really–it’s got the vibe of something created by a renowned artist. But since there’s no signature and we can’t confirm who painted it, that’s my limit.]
Alicia read his offer and replied: [I’m good with 100 thousand dors, but I’ve got one request.]
The buyer answered: [Sure, what is it?]
Reborn Soul: [If you put this painting up in your gallery and someonees asking about it, please let me know right away. And if you ever sell it, tell me who the buyer is, okay?]
<b>16:05 </b><b>Fri</b><b>, </b><b>Oct </b><b>3</b><b>. </b>