[Chapter 183]
Soon, Gerald reached the college.
He went straight to his own department classroom.
When he reached the west entrance, he saw that it was crowded.
There were a lot of students from different departments, and they almost blocked the road.
Gerald saw Harper and the others who stood in the crowd. So he squeezed his way into the crowd.
Then only he saw what was happening.
A girl was standing at the west entrance, holding up a sign pitifully.
She lowered her head greatly.
But Gerald recognized her at first sight. It was none other than Layla.
Beside her, there were Cassandra, Victor, and the president of the student union—Whitney.
At that moment, Layla acted like a background image, giving the others the chance to snap their photographs with her.
"Gerald, here you are. It's so frustrating!"
Harper patted Gerald's shoulders slightly.
He then said angrily, "Layla is indeed in some crisis now. But the class representative is over the line. It's fine if they want to hold a fundraising campaign. But why do they have to force Layla to hold up a sign like this and stand here in front of everybody?"
Benjamin said, "If they don't create such a commotion, how would our department gain our popularity? Just take a look at it now.
The class representatives, Victor and Whitney, have worked busily for the entire afternoon for Layla's fundraising event. They then asked Layla to stand there like that just so they could show off about it."
"Besides, this event has attracted the attention of the college. They claim that they have to put significance on it, and they must help that particular student to resolve her crisis!"
Actually, there were quite a lot of students who knew the inside story of that event. They were quite angry about it.The others who knew not what happened would have another kind of mindset. "Just look at her! How pitiful she is! Her family has run out of money. So she's more than willing to stand in front of everybody, trying her best to raise funds for her younger sister so that her illness could be cured."
"She's so pitiful!"
So a lot of them were willing to donate some money for her.
But for those who knew the inside story were perfectly aware of the fact that it was all planned and arranged by Cassandra.
Something happened in the morning. Layla returned to the college and asked for help from Cassandra.
In the end, Cassandra thought of such a plan for her. If Layla refused to do so, she would not help her with that other request.
"Mr. Zach, here you are!"
Cassandra shook hands with a middle-aged baldheaded director. After that, that middle-aged director took out his donation—two hundred dollars and put it into the donation box.
"Mr. Zach, let's take a group photo!"
"Sure!"
The sound of the shutters was heard.
They took a group photo.
"Hey! Tyler! Max! Here you are!"
At that moment, Victor's friends came too. He greeted them smugly. Those friends came from another department, and they were friends in the student union.
"Yes!"
Then, they donated a few hundred bucks too.
Soon after that, they snapped some group photos there.
Gerald watched the whole scene there. He realized that the entire donation process had almost the same procedures.
'How could it be called a donation? It's just some kind of show, showing off one's honor!'Gerald was so angry that his face turned pale.
He pitied Layla who now appeared hopeless and desperate. At the same time, she felt slightly guilty too.
He was the first one who knew that something was wrong with Layla's family. She trusted him and told him about it.
Moreover, he advised her and gave her hope.
But for the next few days, he did not manage to help her to resolve that crisis in time.
That was why she was put in such a difficult position.
Gerald was not such a kind and generous person. But whenever he saw a scene like that, he could not help but think about himself. It was because he had experienced the same kind of thing before.
'No! I can't let this go on anymore! Layla might even lose the desire to live then!'
Thinking about that, Gerald rushed into the crowd and pushed Victor away, who was still taking a group photo. He snatched Layla's sign away and threw it down.
"Gerald, you-!"
Layla sounded hoarse. Clearly, she had cried multiple times now.
"Layla, you don't have to be the background for them. If they do want to help you sincerely, they would never do such a thing to you. I'll help you with the money. Just go back to the classroom first!"
Gerald said angrily.
"There are a lot of kind people in this world. If someone is in great trouble, the others would surely lend a hand if they noticed it.
But how could Cassandra and Victor do such a thing? You manipulated this incident and made yourselves look quite good about it. You really shouldn't do a thing like this!"
"Gerald! Have you gone mad?"
Whitney stared angrily at Gerald. 'When did he become so bold?'