I Saved the School Beauty, She Made Me a Criminal

I hurried to explain myself. "So that's how it was…" The police officer listened quietly, nodded once, and then spoke in an even tone. "Since you're all witnesses, you'll need to come back with us to assist in the investigation." Before long, we were taken to the police station. The school principal arrived soon after. Then, my parents followed. Finally, Valerie's parents arrived. The moment they stepped inside, Lucas suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs. "Principal! Uncle Harry! Uncle Victor!" "If Marcus hadn't just stood there and done nothing, Valerie wouldn't have been hurt at all!" "Mr. Lancaster!" the principal barked furiously. "Is this what the school taught you?" "Marcus, are you trying to disgrace me completely?!" My father jabbed a finger at my face, his voice sharp with rage as he hurled the words at me like a curse. "You're cold-blooded, selfish, and heartless," he continued, his eyes burning with disgust. "Sometimes I really wonder if you're even my son. Why don't you just go die?" "If anything happens to my daughter, I'll take your life!" Valerie's father, Victor Hale, strode forward and slapped me hard across the face. Behind the crowd, Lucas shrank back and flashed me a dark, mocking grin. When I was struck, my parents did not lift a finger to stop it. Instead, their faces were filled with nothing but disgust and contempt. "How could I give birth to such a beast who watches someone die without lifting a finger?" My mother stepped forward and slapped me as well. Grinding her teeth, she leaned close and hissed venomously into my ear, "Your father has another woman because you're useless. You embarrassed him, so he despises me. And now you've made him lose face again. You really deserve to die." My father roughly yanked my mother aside, raised his leg, and kicked me square in the face. I was sitting on a chair when the blow sent me flying backwards, and I crashed hard onto the floor. Those two. My father cheated openly, yet told my mother it was her failure to discipline me, my making him lose face, which disappointed him and drove him to seek other women. My mother, willingly reduced to nothing more than a man's ornament, knew perfectly well that I excelled both academically and morally, and that I had every chance of being recommended to the top universities at home or abroad. Yet she still chose to humiliate and abuse me, to please my father. It had been the same in my past life. And this life was no different. "So you're saying Lucas's words are something you all believe without question?" I struggled to my feet, wiped the blood from my face, and let out a cold laugh. "I went to save her. I fell down. My leg still hurts right now," I said flatly. "And none of you even asked what happened before you started beating me?" Lucas looked briefly flustered, as if he might be blamed. But in truth, he was not worried at all. "You fell just trying to save someone?" my father sneered, his lips curling in contempt. He looked me up and down as if I were something filthy beneath his feet. "Are you a useless piece of trash?" Then, my father's voice grew sharper as he pressed on, every word meant to humiliate. "I paid for you to study self-defense. Did you only learn how to fall?" He did not care whether I was injured. All he cared about was that I had embarrassed him. "Who knows if he really fell?" My mother suddenly cut in. "Maybe he was too scared to save her, so he pretended to fall!" "That's absolutely despicable!" The principal stabbed a finger in my direction, his voice ringing through the room with righteous fury. "Is this what our school taught you?" he demanded. "To be selfish, cold-blooded, and deceitful?" "You kept pursuing my daughter and got rejected every time," Valerie's father snarled. "You must've held a grudge, so you refused to save her!" He kicked me again. I hit the ground once more. This time, Valerie's parents did not stop there. They rushed forward and began punching and kicking me without restraint. My parents stood by coldly, watching, almost as if they were eager to join in and beat me again themselves. Lucas laughed when he saw the scene. It seemed even he had not expected his words to work this well. Dazed and on the verge of losing consciousness, I barely registered what was happening until a female police officer rushed in and dragged me out of the chaos. "The case hasn't been investigated yet!" she shouted sharply. "Who gave you permission to lay hands on him?!" "Officer, don't interfere!" my father roared. "I'm his father! He stood by and watched someone suffer. He deserves to be beaten!" My mother immediately echoed him. "That's right. Anyone who stands by and does nothing deserves to be beaten!"

“His leg is already swollen from the fall,” the female police officer said firmly as she stepped forward to defend me. “Even if he weren’t a student, if it were me in his condition, I wouldn’t be able to save anyone either.” “Officer, you’ve been fooled by him!” my mother immediately cut in. “He did it on purpose! He deliberately broke his leg because he didn’t want to save anyone!” “Marcus!” My father pointed straight at me and roared. “From now on, you have nothing to do with the Lancasters! You have nothing to do with the Lancaster Group either!” Just then, another police officer rushed into the room. “The street punks have turned themselves in,” he reported. “They said that Marcus Lancaster paid them.” In an instant, every pair of eyes turned toward me. Sure enough. Whether I had saved her or not, they would still come forward to confess. Not long after that, several street punks were brought in. The moment they saw me, they pointed straight at me and immediately began their performance. “Marcus gave me $5,000 and told me to help him deal with someone,” one of them said. “I didn’t know he was going to force himself on anyone.” “He gave you $5,000?” another chimed in hurriedly. “Then why did I only get $3,000? Anyway, Officer, I really thought it was to scare someone. I didn’t expect him to assault that girl.” “She was crying so badly, but he still wouldn’t stop,” a third added. “We tried to stop him,” yet another said, feigning righteousness. “But he hit us instead. He’s the heir of the Lancaster Group. We didn’t dare fight back. All we could do was watch him force himself on that girl.” As their words fell, the expressions of everyone present darkened even further. “You punk!” My father suddenly lunged forward and kicked me hard, sending me crashing to the floor once again. My mother rushed over, grabbed my hair, and slapped me again and again. Valerie’s parents joined in as well, beating me without restraint. The female police officer froze for only a split second. Then she rushed forward to shield me, even though she could not pull them away. More than half of the blows meant for me landed on her instead. Even so, she wrapped her arms tightly around me, protecting me beneath her body as she whispered, “Don’t be afraid… don’t be afraid…” Soon, other officers rushed in and forcibly dragged them away. I saw that the female officer’s face was streaked with blood, her body covered in shoe prints. Even then, she refused to leave. “This isn’t right!” She raised her voice sharply. “The statements say that Lucas Turner claimed Marcus Lancaster never entered the alley at any point! But now these people who turned themselves in are saying Marcus assaulted Valerie. This doesn’t add up!” “Officer, stay out of this!” My father clenched his teeth and turned toward Valerie’s parents. “We’ll settle this privately. This matter cannot get out. We can’t afford this disgrace!” “How do you plan to settle it privately?” Valerie’s father asked coldly. “Didn’t your family want that piece of land on the west side of the city?” “I’ll give it to you,” my father replied. “But on the condition that this matter is never made public.” “Fine,” Valerie’s father agreed. “But he must kneel and apologize to my daughter.” Not long after that, I was left alone in the mediation room. They had all gone to negotiate the terms of reconciliation. I had nowhere to go. I sat in a chair, charging my phone, completely motionless, like a corpse. After a while, the door to the mediation room opened. Lucas walked in. I glanced at him indifferently, then slipped my phone back into my shirt pocket without saying a word. “Marcus… Marcus,” Lucas said as he sat down across from me, a dark smile slowly spreading across his face. “You never expected things to turn out like this, did you?” “The evidence isn’t solid,” I said suddenly. Lucas shot me a sharp glare. Then he laughed. Without warning, he reached out and scratched my arm hard, using all his strength. It was already very late.

But I had nowhere to go. Home was not an option. I did not want to go back there at all. My parents were twisted, distorted people. The moment I saw them, I could not stop myself from wanting to kill them both. School was no longer an option either. The group chat was overflowing with nothing but curses aimed directly at me. [Did you hear? Marcus forced himself on Valerie!] [Wasn’t it said he just stood by and did nothing?] [It wasn’t standing by. He hired street punks! Those punks already turned themselves in.] [Marcus, come out and die, you bastard!] [If he dares come back to school, I’ll beat him to death. Anyone in?] [Count me in!] [Me too!] [Good looks, good grades, and from a good family background. How did he turn out to be such an asshole?] I let out a bitter smile, closed the group chat, and slipped my phone into my pocket. At that moment, the door to the mediation room opened. It was the female police officer. When she saw me, she sighed softly. “You… you… Are you alright?” she asked gently. “I’m fine,” I replied. “Thank you for protecting me.” I was in miserable shape, yet I still forced myself to give her the brightest smile I could manage. “This isn’t right,” she said, her voice tight. “They gave false testimony. But your parents and Valerie’s parents insist on settling privately, and they refuse to pursue what those street punks did.” “I want to help you,” she continued quietly. “But there’s nothing I can do.” As she spoke, her eyes slowly reddened. She was righteous, kind, and beautiful. “Maybe one day,” I said softly, “I’ll be the one helping you, Officer.” Then I stood up and asked, “Could you give me your contact information?” She hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Alright.” She gave me her contact details and told me her name. Officer Rachelle Pierce. Not long after, I was taken to the hospital again because Valerie had woken up. By the time I arrived, the ward and the hallway outside were already packed. Many students from the school were there, and so were many teachers. When they looked at me, their eyes were filled with pure hatred. “Beat him to death!” As I walked forward, a beautiful girl suddenly stepped out and slapped me hard across the face. Her reputation at school was terrible. Everyone knew it. When she had been bullied before, I was the one who helped her. After that, she chased after me relentlessly. When I rejected her, she turned against me. “Do it for Valerie!” Brandon Wells, a chubby kid, kicked me hard. Brandon used to be the errand boy for the entire grade. I was the one who stopped others from bullying him. We had never even argued before, so I could not understand why he would strike me, too. If there had to be an explanation, it was human nature. “Look!” he probably thought. “This is Marcus, the good student, the rich kid, the handsome guy! Now I’ve beaten him, and he doesn’t even dare fight back. I’m stepping on him!” That could be exactly what he was thinking. With every step I took, another blow landed on me. By the time I reached Valerie’s hospital bed, my body was already covered in injuries. The moment Valerie saw me, terror flashed across her face. “Don’t come over!” she screamed. “Please, Marcus, don’t hurt me! I’m begging you!” She broke down sobbing and hid beneath the blanket. “You bastard!” Valerie’s father kicked me, fury blazing across his face. “Beat him to death!” someone in the crowd shouted. I did not see who it was, but I recognized the voice. It was Lucas. Then I was surrounded and beaten. If I had wanted to fight back, I could have dropped them one by one with a single punch each. However, I refrained from doing so, as I sought to understand their motivation for wanting my death. Just then, Rachelle burst in with several other police officers. She looked at me with a complex expression, regret mingled with disappointment. “Valerie has your skin tissue under her fingernails,” she said softly. “Marcus Lancaster, you are under arrest.” I struggled to my feet like a paper figure about to collapse. I staggered forward, then fell straight into her arms. "Officer… my phone password is 591818," I whispered weakly. "Once you see what's inside, you won't be disappointed." After that, everything went dark.