Chapter 658 — A Fierce Quarrel

"Very well, Director Wang. This matter is in your hands now -- you will communicate with the students' parents. Be careful not to let the conflict escalate, and do all you can to preserve the school's reputation!" Ding Binggong instructed Wang Zhifeng.

"Understood, Principal Ding. I'll get to it at once!" Wang Zhifeng nodded and began calling the school's staff to compile the files of the students who had fallen unconscious...

The parents, having received word, arrived at the hospital in short order, and the entrance to the emergency room descended into chaos. Some parents were still calm enough to ask after their children in a normal fashion, but others began shouting the moment they arrived: "What happened to my child? He was perfectly fine when we sent him to your school -- how did he end up in a coma? What did you people do?"

"If anything happens to my child, I'll tear your school down!"

"Who's the principal here? How do you people run this school? My child went there, and now he's in a coma?"

"Everyone, please stop shouting. This is a hospital, and your children are all inside the emergency room. If you carry on like this, how are the doctors supposed to do their work?" Ding Binggong and Wang Zhifeng said helplessly, looking at the clamoring parents.

"Oh, so you do know our children are in the emergency room? What kind of principal are you? The students fell into comas at your school -- what on earth were you thinking? What do you people even do all day?" A middle-aged woman jabbed a finger at Ding Binggong and began to curse him out.

"That's right! Have our children been treated unfairly? Did they collapse because they were corporally punished? We want the truth!" Another parent chimed in, shouting as well.

"The truth! The truth! The truth! We want the truth!" The other parents took up the cry. If there was to be a scene, they would make one together -- for their children's sake, these parents were not afraid to fight the school to the bitter end.

Gu Pengzhan frowned. Seeing that things were growing heated, he had no choice but to step forward himself. He raised a hand in a gesture urging patience to the parents who were whipping one another into a fury: "Everyone, quiet down and hear me out for a moment. I am Gu Pengzhan, chairman of the Pengzhan Group..."

"So you're the chairman? And you want us to be quiet? How can we be quiet? It's not your child lying in there -- of course you're not anxious!" Before Gu Pengzhan could finish, the same middle-aged woman cut him off.

"Exactly. You're the chairman -- how precious and exalted you are. Your children are all little princes and princesses, while ours are good for nothing but fainting at school!" Another parent added with a sneer.

"It is true that I am the chairman of the Pengzhan Group and a member of this school's board, but my feelings are in fact the same as yours -- I too am worried for the children inside and praying for them!" Gu Pengzhan said. "As parents, what we ought to do now is wait here for the doctors' results, not kick up a tremendous row -- that does the children no good at all!"

"You talk so easily -- it's not your child, so of course you're not worried!" The middle-aged woman was clearly a thorn in anyone's side, and hers were the sharpest words of all: "Worried? You're worried about your school's reputation being damaged, aren't you?"

"That's right -- you're afraid for the school's good name, aren't you?" the other parents echoed.

"You've all misunderstood. As I said, I am just like you -- I stand here in the capacity of a parent as well!" Gu Pengzhan shook his head. "Because my daughter, Gu Mengyao, is one of the students in a coma! I am worried about my daughter too! As for your talk of corporal punishment and the like, it is utterly baseless. Do you really believe that if Principal Ding Binggong had laid a hand on my daughter, he would still be standing here talking to you? I would have fired him and packed him off home long ago!"

Gu Pengzhan's words left every parent stunned! None of them had imagined that Gu Pengzhan's own daughter was among the students in a coma. Their earlier speculations, then, truly did not hold up. No teacher or principal would dare lay a finger on the chairman's daughter unless they had grown a leopard's courage and had no wish to keep working at the school!

As for the middle-aged woman who had shouted the loudest before, she now fell silent. A little shame crept into her as well -- it seemed she really had wronged the man after all. If even the chairman's daughter lay in a coma, what right did she have to accuse him? In the end, they were all simply parents worried about their children.

"So the only thing we can do now is wait for the doctors' results! If this truly is the school's responsibility, then the school will certainly not shirk it. And even if it is not, the school will still do everything in its power to treat the children, and every last medical expense will be borne by the school!" Gu Pengzhan continued.

Hearing this, the parents who had been so vocal had nothing left to say. Gu Pengzhan's words were entirely reasonable and left them no room to argue. Better to wait for the doctors' results first.

The seconds and minutes ticked by. Gu Pengzhan and the parents alike waited anxiously for the doctors' results, but the light above the emergency room never went out -- which meant the resuscitation was still under way. After all, with more than twenty students, the matter could not be settled in a moment or two.

Suddenly, a hurried sound of footsteps and a clamor arose -- several people who looked like reporters came running up, lugging cameras and microphones! Some of them had been bought off by Li Cihua, and others were friends summoned by those who had been bought. Their purpose in coming was that they had received a news tip: twenty-eight comatose students had been admitted to the hospital. This was a big story, so even those who had not been bought were happy to come and stick their noses in.

"Hello, I'm Can Lang, a reporter for the XX Daily. I've heard that an extremely grave incident of mass student collapse has occurred at First High School. Are all of you the parents of the students involved?" This fellow was one of the reporters Li Cihua had bought, and the ringleader of this interview. He had once run with the underworld, but one time while out showing off he had been thoroughly beaten by a special forces soldier, and could no longer make a living in those circles; so he had pulled some strings and landed a job as a reporter at a sleazy street tabloid.

It had to be said, this Can Lang was a nasty piece of work: right from the start he sharpened his words to inflame the conflict, framing the matter as a grave mass incident!

Gu Pengzhan frowned, wondering how these reporters had come and where they had gotten their information! The parents had already been calmed down -- no one was shouting anymore, and it was hardly likely they had called the reporters themselves! Before they arrived at the hospital, they had not even understood the situation, and in their worry over their children's safety they would have been even less likely to phone the press!