Time goes back to Monday morning.
Su Xin, who had almost recovered from his cold, leisurely had his breakfast as usual and only went to school after wandering around the neighborhood.
He never had the habit of attending morning or evening self-study sessions. Normally, he would run on the treadmill for about half an hour before going to school, but since he hadn't fully recovered from his cold yet and wasn't suitable for intense exercise, he temporarily gave up running. That's why he had plenty of time this morning.
However, when Su Xin leisurely arrived at school, he was called to the office by the homeroom teacher.
"Su Xin, I heard that you skipped the last class on Friday afternoon in front of Teacher Jiang?"
Su Xin didn't explain, he just nodded:
"Yes."
The homeroom teacher earnestly said:
"Previously, when you slept in class, didn't attend morning and evening self-study, I all tacitly allowed it, and even advised other teachers not to be too strict with you because I know you're sensible, have a sense of proportion, and your grades can always stay in the top thirty of the grade. But what you did on Friday was really a bit excessive."
"Teacher Jiang is a newly hired senior teacher at our school, with a somewhat rigid personality, very particular about details. Your behavior is equivalent to challenging him face-to-face, putting him in a difficult position."
"Moreover, ignoring class discipline not only delays your own learning but also affects the learning atmosphere of the class. You have to understand, we are the elite class of the key high school, your classmates are all top students with high aspirations..."
"I know."
Su Xin directly interrupted the homeroom teacher:
"Teacher Zhou, I have my own study habits and ideas. I don't want to change myself, so before entering the third year, I already said I wanted to go to the regular class to avoid letting my habits affect the students in the elite class, but you all wouldn't allow it."
"Teacher Zhou, you're saying this because you have some disciplinary measures for me, right? Just say it straight."
The homeroom teacher was silent for a moment.
The student in front of him, who had no reverence for teachers and was extremely undisciplined, yet always ranked in the top thirty of the grade, really left him at a loss for how to manage.
Ask him to write a self-reflection?
Su Xin would directly refuse.
Give him a demerit?
Su Xin simply didn't care.
Transfer him to a regular class?
With Su Xin's grades, he could at least get into a top university in the future, and they were reluctant to let go of such a promising student.
Contact his parents?
Even more useless.
He still remembered that on Friday, when he called Su Xin's mother, she wasn't concerned about her son's truancy at all. She just asked if Su Xin was feeling unwell, then started explaining how sensible Su Xin was and advised the teacher to be more lenient with him...
How else could he be managed?
Not to mention, both Su Xin's father and even Su Xin himself had a good relationship with the principal, so significant punishments couldn't be enforced.
But if Su Xin wasn't punished, class discipline would be meaningless in front of him... although there had never been any real constraints.
Sighing, Teacher Zhou said helplessly:
"I've arranged a new seat for you, in the last row by the window, a single seat."
"Okay, thank you, Teacher Zhou."
"..."
Teacher Zhou looked at him speechlessly and waved his hand: "Alright, go back to class."
...
After returning to the classroom.
Su Xin, together with a few friends he usually hung out with, moved all his personal belongings to his exclusive, deluxe, sunny spa-like spot in the last row.
He also took out his phone to check the news.
The kneeling incident had already started to ferment, attracting numerous online and social media outlets to repost it, and it had even made it to the trending list on blogs.
Curses against the 'good Samaritan' flooded in, drawing attention to the plight of Chi Lixiu's family, with some people expressing goodwill towards her and beginning to donate money.
In fact, Su Xin hadn't proactively contacted the media. The reason this event unfolded as he expected, quickly going viral, was partly due to Chi Lixiu kneeling around a well-known central square in Wanghai Country, already a place of much attention. When the kneeling incident occurred, this topic's nature immediately attracted various media.
Of course, if it were only like this, the development would have been similar to previous incidents, sparking some discussion among netizens, with few people donating some money, before quietly dying down.
In this hyper-connected modern society, such things often don't stay hot for more than a day.
However, when Su Xin, under the guise of the 'good Samaritan', posted a humiliating reply, it immediately incited countless people's anger.
In this incident, netizens were more dissatisfied with the 'good Samaritan', especially due to the condescending stance as a wealthy person, mocking and humiliating a mother who was already miserable, generating intense hostility from countless people.
Negative emotions in people often manifest more intensely than positive ones.
Compassion, affection, gratitude, joy, admiration, and other positive emotions all fade easily.
But hatred, many people can remember for a lifetime.
For example, in a relationship, the effort of spending thousands to create romance might be forgotten the next day.
But a minor grievance could linger for a lifetime, brought up repeatedly during arguments as old scores.
For instance, in online shopping, most people may not bother to leave a good review even if they are immensely satisfied with the product.
But should there be any faults, they're sure to complain to the seller or give a one-star review, and if they don't succeed in submitting their complaint, they might lose their appetite for the whole day.
The kneeling incident was similar.
If it only sparked discussion, most people would take it as a topic of casual conversation, lament how rope always seems to break at the thinnest point, and the matter would quickly die down without much attention.
But when the negative image of 'good Samaritan' appeared, people's negative emotions were greatly triggered, with unending critique and rapidly rising attention.
In today's society, why is negative news so rampant on the internet?
On one hand, as information dissemination becomes more advanced, incidents that previously went unnoticed can now be spread across the internet effortlessly, and with White Mountain Star having dozens of countries and billions of people, even the least probable negative events seem frequent due to the massive population.
On the other hand, people are more easily provoked by negative emotions. Positive news fades quickly, and many unscrupulous media for views and attention may deliberately sensationalize ordinary events negatively, increasing the news value.
This can be seen as the media industry's bad money driving out the good.
Of course.
Su Xin's actions this time could also be considered exploiting media's propensity for negativity.
The only difference is, he did it not for profit but to save someone.
Along the way, he also earned some karma points.
"Ding! Gained 130 karma points."