Chapter 658 — A Fierce Quarrel
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"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!"