"Expulsion? Isn't that too severe? Should we reconsider? The boy is only sixteen; he has a bright future ahead of him. We shouldn't destroy his life just because his father made a mistake."
At the school meeting, the Dean of Students had proposed that Hou Liangping be expelled immediately. He had encountered similar cases before, where students were affected by the misconduct of their immediate family members. The Dean's consistent advice in these situations was always immediate expulsion. He firmly believed that a corrupt father meant a corrupt son, and that anyone from a tainted family background was unfit to enter the civil service, let alone serve as a public servant.
Gao Yuliang, however, did not see it that way. He saw Hou Liangping in the prime of his youth—sixteen, at the flower of his age. The fact that the boy had passed the entrance exam for Handong University proved his talent. He didn't want to strike him down with a single blow. In the past, he hadn't been in a position to voice his opinions at these meetings, but now that he could, he was determined to speak up for what was fair.
Chapter 244