Clearly, Principal Liu had no idea about any of it.

“What rumors?” he asked, confused.

From the look on his face, he genuinely didn’t know.

Gu Yezhou stared at him for a long moment before calmly repeating everything Teacher Yu had said earlier.

Principal Liu slammed a hand against the bedside table in outrage.

“Ridiculous! Who on earth spread such nonsense? How did I never hear about this?”

“When this happened, weren’t you at the kindergarten?” Gu Yezhou asked.

Rubbing his temples, Principal Liu sighed.

“Sorry, I’m old now. A lot of things slip my mind.”

“The reason I wanted to dismiss Teacher Yu wasn’t just because of his age. There was also his appearance. We already had those two brothers at the kindergarten—Dong Ruiyang and Dong Yunzhou.”

“They looked very alike, but those faces of theirs…” He hesitated before continuing awkwardly, “Anyway, having too many male teachers at a kindergarten just isn’t ideal.”

“I’m a man myself, but even ten years ago, it was already time for me to step aside.”

Sang Ning said,

“But you didn’t. Instead, you made them compete for the principal position and planned to choose the most popular teacher.”

Principal Liu nodded.

“That’s right. Later on, I realized many other kindergartens had plenty of male teachers too. They didn’t need to be especially warm or approachable, and people still hired them.”

“I was too narrow-minded back then.”

Gu Yezhou’s gaze sharpened slightly.

“So besides his appearance, you didn’t really like Teacher Yu, did you?”

Principal Liu glanced at him, then quickly lowered his eyes.

“No.”

His hands gripped the blanket tightly.

“I really didn’t like him. He got too close to all the female teachers in the kindergarten. No wonder those kinds of rumors started.”

“He was a married man. Yet he never knew how to keep his distance from women.”

That was the old generation’s way of thinking.

At least in Principal Liu’s eyes, it had nothing to do with gender.

Once someone was married, they should maintain boundaries.

“I often saw Teacher Yu walking different female teachers home after work. Who knows what intentions he had?”

“A teacher with such questionable conduct wasn’t someone I could keep employing.”

Principal Liu sighed heavily and waved his hand repeatedly.

“Wasn’t Teacher Yu only walking Teacher Chen home?” Sang Ning asked.

“And Dong Ruiyang, the security guard, constantly criticized the female teachers’ clothing—especially Teacher Chen’s.”

Principal Liu looked up, confusion filling his cloudy eyes.

“But that has nothing to do with Teacher Yu. He was a married man…”

Then suddenly, realization struck him.

“Wait… did he actually like Teacher Chen?”

He slapped his thigh.

“Good thing he never became principal in the end. I don’t know what kind of tricks he used on the parents, but somehow he still made it into the principal selection process.”

At this point, both Gu Yezhou and Sang Ning could clearly see that Principal Liu harbored a strong bias against Teacher Yu.

But that wasn’t the important part.

“So,” Gu Yezhou continued evenly, “you truly knew nothing about those rumors. And you didn’t want to dismiss Teacher Yu because of them?”

Principal Liu nodded solemnly.

Which meant—

Teacher Yu was lying?

Sang Ning asked,

“Did you ever call Teacher Yu into your office to discuss Teacher Chen’s pregnancy?”

Principal Liu shook his head, baffled.

“No. I thought Teacher Yu got too close to the female staff, yes, but the child in Teacher Chen’s belly belonged to Dong Ruiyang.”

The moment those words fell, Sang Ning was stunned.

Dong Ruiyang’s child?

Both the old principal and the current principal claimed the same thing.

So why was Teacher Yu insisting the father was Dong Yunzhou?

“About the mountain trip,” Gu Yezhou asked, “were you the one who organized it?”

Principal Liu nodded again.

“Yes. By then, Teacher Chen had already passed away. Everyone had been very close to her, and her death left the staff depressed and unable to focus on teaching.”

“So I thought I’d pay out of pocket and take them on a trip to relax and enjoy the scenery.”

“I’d heard mountain climbing was good for relieving stress. Young people just need to stand on the summit and scream a couple times—then everything passes.”

Noticing Principal Liu hadn’t mentioned the incident during the hike, Gu Yezhou asked directly,

“You knew Dong Ruiyang went too?”

Principal Liu fell silent for a moment.

First came surprise, then understanding.

“Well… that’s not strange either. Dong Yunzhou was his younger brother. And since Dong Ruiyang was the kindergarten’s security guard, it made sense for him to go along and look after everyone’s safety.”

“I didn’t go on the trip myself. After summer vacation ended, the teachers still seemed downhearted. That’s when I learned Dong Ruiyang had disappeared.”

“They all hid it from me.”

Then he sighed.

“But honestly, someone like him dying was practically doing society a favor.”

Whether it was the current principal or the former one, both clearly despised Dong Ruiyang.

Neither of them seemed particularly saddened by his death.

Seeing Principal Liu had no intention of saying more, Gu Yezhou asked,

“May I ask why Dong Yunzhou didn’t become the new principal instead?”

Principal Liu looked puzzled.

Beside him, Sang Ning smiled lightly and explained,

“It’s just that when we visited the kindergarten earlier, we noticed the current principal and Dong Yunzhou had similar seniority. Was it because she was a woman?”

Given how Principal Liu disliked married male teachers being too close to female staff—and considering how much more tolerant he seemed toward women in general—

It was obvious.

At Xiangyun Kindergarten, Principal Liu simply didn’t like male teachers very much.

Especially the Dong brothers.

Sure enough, the next second, Principal Liu brought up the deceased Teacher Chen again.

Avoiding Gu Yezhou’s question entirely, he said emotionally,

“Officers, you must investigate Teacher Chen’s death properly. Something was wrong.”

“She was an optimistic person.”

“Even though that beast Dong Ruiyang refused to acknowledge the child, Teacher Chen still planned to give birth and raise the baby herself.”

“A woman that strong would never choose to jump off a building for no reason!”

“It’s absurd!”

Sang Ning got pulled into his emotions and voiced the question bothering her most.

“Teacher Chen herself told you the child belonged to Dong Ruiyang?”

Principal Liu nodded firmly.

“Teacher Chen worked at the kindergarten for many years. She was diligent, responsible, and loved children deeply.”

“She wouldn’t lie to me.”

Which meant—

Teacher Yu’s claim that Dong Yunzhou was the father no longer held up.

So who exactly was lying?

“We’ll investigate Teacher Chen’s death thoroughly,” Gu Yezhou said, his gaze turning sharp again.

Then he repeated his earlier question.

This time, Principal Liu could no longer avoid it.

Frankly, he answered,

“Actually… yes, Teacher Chen was part of the reason.”

“It wasn’t because the current principal was a woman.”

“To be honest, speaking as a man myself, I always believed men were generally better suited to managing a kindergarten.”

“But the current principal was personally recommended by Teacher Chen. And since Teacher Chen was resigning, I could only promise to nominate her. Whether she won or not wasn’t up to me.”

“As for Dong Yunzhou, he was a good teacher. It’s just unfortunate he had a brother like that.”

“Of course, if he’d become principal, he definitely wouldn’t have fired Dong Ruiyang.”

“He would’ve let him continue poisoning Xiangyun Kindergarten.”

With that, the conversation ended.

Gu Yezhou and Sang Ning no longer stayed at the retirement home and quietly left.