Chapter 7

That bastard is truly a dog.
Although his youthful voice now was different from the cold, mocking tone he would have many years later, it still overlapped with that man's, awakening Chu Yin's memories.
He liked to grip her waist, hold her tightly in his arms, and bury his nose deep into the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply.
"What perfume?" the man's voice was hoarse. "So fragrant..."
If she didn't answer him, he would keep asking, then use actions to press her until she had no choice but to reply, No perfume, it's just the scent of shower gel and laundry detergent mixed together.
Now, with time reversed, Chu Yin found herself being asked the same question by the same person.
She suddenly realized that some things would still follow their predetermined course. Since she couldn't completely avoid this bastard, wouldn't it be faster to make him dislike her?
After all, she knew exactly what Lu Zhen liked.
The head of the Lu family appeared deep and steady, but in reality, he liked thorny wild roses. In her previous life, Chu Yin had been flamboyant and unruly, opposing him at every turn, rejecting him, resisting him, yet that had perfectly suited this damn pervert's tastes.
Well, this time, she would become the kind of obedient, studious student he disliked the most.
Utterly ordinary, meek and dull, except for secretly plotting your murder.
Under her mask, Chu Yin licked her lips, but her voice remained flat and obedient, her gaze confused: "Classmate, I don't know anything about perfume."
Lu Zhen had already felt that he had acted somewhat impulsively. He nodded, then inadvertently lifted his gaze and suddenly noticed that beneath her scattered bangs, her eyes were as clear as glass, her confusion transparent and unmistakable.
The girl wore a mask and was dressed neatly in her school uniform, looking like a well-behaved little nerd. She exuded an aura of strong hidden rejection, like a studious student's instinctive resistance to a delinquent.
Lu Zhen had no interest in that type of person to begin with. But for some reason, his heart felt as if pricked by a soft thorn, spreading an indescribable ache.
"Do you know me?" he asked.
Chu Yin gritted her teeth beneath her mask.
...Know him? Hell, I even know there’s a mole between his abs and his Adonis belt!
But on the surface, she merely furrowed her brows, looking as though she found him strange yet didn’t dare not answer.
In the end, she timidly shook her head. "No, I don’t."
Lu Zhen’s deep, dark eyes watched her, and he thought: Forget it.
Why bother a little fool?
The girl’s retreating figure was slender, her head slightly bowed, as if she could disappear into the crowd at any moment, uninteresting and harmless. Lu Zhen watched her turn the corner before finally withdrawing his gaze.
He had no idea that beneath the "harmless" little bunny was a wolf, and as she walked away, she was sharpening her claws, thinking:
If I don’t kill that bastard, I’m not Chinese!
From the moment Lu Zhen stepped out of the classroom, the International Class had erupted.
"Holy shit, did Brother Zhen just talk to that girl?"
"Who is she? Does she know Brother Zhen?"
"Isn’t she that country bumpkin the Chu family brought back from the village??"
Faced with everyone’s questions, Chu Qiuqiu’s expression also turned sour.
She had no idea what tricks her sister had used to actually manage to speak with Lu Zhen.
Soon, the news spread like wildfire, quickly reaching every corner of the school. Everyone knew that a girl had gone to the sophomore International Class to ask a question and ended up speaking with Lu Zhen alone.
Fu Mingxuan was completely enraged. She couldn’t believe it, Lu Zhen had never paid her any attention, and the most words he’d ever spoken to her were when she gave him a gift. But according to her friend in the International Class, Lu Zhen had been out for several minutes!! That country bumpkin had actually spoken with Lu Zhen for several minutes?!
Throughout the entire class, Classroom 5 couldn’t settle down, with people constantly turning around to glare angrily at Chu Yin.
Song Zhaolin quietly asked Chu Yin, "Deskmate, do you know our Brother Zhen?"
Chu Yin was venting her frustration by doing practice problems and replied coldly, "No."
Song Zhaolin also thought it unlikely they knew each other. When he’d asked her before, she hadn’t even known who Lu Zhen was.
"Then why did you talk to Brother Zhen?" Song Zhaolin whispered, covering his mouth to avoid the teacher’s gaze. "The girls who like him are crazy."
Chu Yin’s fingers tightened around her pen. "...He was the one who spoke to me."
Song Zhaolin wore an expression that said, "I won’t laugh at you, but don’t mess with me."
When the class bell rang, Fu Mingxuan approached with her friends.
Perhaps because Chu Yin usually kept her head down studying, she seemed like an easy target. So Fu Mingxuan immediately adopted an accusatory tone: "Hey, what did you say to Lu Zhen?!"
Chu Yin twirled her pen, raising her eyes. "What’s it to you?"
Song Zhaolin cheered inwardly, his Sister Yin was truly impressive!!
Fu Mingxuan was shocked by her tone and grew furious. "Did you pester him? Otherwise, why would he pay attention to you? You must have used some trick! What exactly did you say?!"
This time, even Song Zhaolin couldn’t stand it. "Hey, you, "
Chu Yin slapped her pen down on the desk with a sharp crack, looking at her with a mocking smile. "You think I’m like you?"
Fu Mingxuan felt so angry she thought her seven orifices were bleeding. "You?!"
Chu Yin stood up indifferently, pushed past her, and left.
"If you're so curious, why don't you go ask Lu Zhen?"
...
That evening, someone started a thread on Quiwen Private High School's anonymous forum,
[Let's talk about that rich young lady who went to the International Class to ask questions and even spoke with Lu Zhen]
The original post introduced the girl, Chu Yin, a transfer student in Class 5 of the sophomore year, the daughter of the Chu family who had just been brought back from the countryside. She was the older sister of Chu Qiuqiu from the International Class and the younger sister of Chu Shi, the popular senior boy.
The name "Lu Zhen" alone drew massive attention. As soon as the thread was posted, countless replies flooded in.
1L: Handing the OP a helmet for protection, you're bold to mention that person by name.
2L: Heard about this. Country bumpkins really have no shame, huh? Impressive.
3L: Seriously, where does she get the nerve to approach Lu Zhen?? I refuse to believe she was just asking about a problem.
4L: Replying to the above, it's precisely because she has no shame that she dared to hit on him.
...
Alongside the thread, discussions were also happening in various grade and class group chats.
Lu Zhen was a unique presence. As the current school heartthrob, many people liked him, but unlike the previous heartthrob, Gu Qiuzhe, who was gentle and approachable, Lu Zhen was someone most people didn't dare cross. The situation became one where everyone admired him, but no one could have him.
Once someone broke this balance, many people went crazy.
Gradually, the onlookers came up with a plausible explanation for Lu Zhen's behavior. They believed the country girl was quite cunning, she deliberately brought a difficult problem to the International Class to ask about it, and while explaining the question, she caught Lu Zhen's attention. So, Brother Zhen was merely discussing the problem with her.
As far-fetched as it sounded, the girls preferred this explanation over "Lu Zhen is interested in that person."
Then, someone in the thread asked,
70L: So, is that country bumpkin actually good at studying?
71L: Maybe she was a top student in her village?? She even answered a pretty tough question during the math open class before.
Chu Qiuqiu had been closely following the thread's progress. Seeing this, she smiled, the timing was perfect.
A few minutes later, Fu Mingxuan, who was replying in the thread with "Bullshit, she's no top student, she's just scheming," received an anonymous email.
She opened it and gasped, "!!!"
Ten minutes later, a new thread suddenly appeared on the forum,
[Big scoop, come take a look at the Chu family's "top student" daughter's report card!!]
The original post directly included an image, a class report card from No. 1 Middle School in XX Town, with Chu Yin's name clearly listed.
Chinese 102, Math 69, English 99, Liberal Arts 161, total score 431, grade rank 302.
1L: Holy crap, these grades are an eyesore!
2L: This is a top student? Ranking over 300th even in a crappy village school, I'm dying of laughter hahahaha
3L: Confirmed, Chu Yin is a scheming bitch, pretending to be a top student to get Brother Zhen's attention, gross.
In the high school group chat, this transcript spread rapidly. At this moment, no one cared whether this counted as doxxing; everyone was just enjoying the drama.
Fu Mingxuan: [Oh my god, I really thought she had good grades! She works so hard in our class.]
Xing Lan: [I thought so too.]
Chu Qiuqiu: [Please don't talk about my sister like that. She's already upset that her hard work didn't pay off.]
Even though Chu Qiuqiu said this, many people in the chat continued to mock Chu Yin's grades.
Just then, a new message suddenly popped up in the group.
Lu Zhen: [Who posted this?]
The grade group chat exploded instantly.
[Ahhh Brother Zhen actually appeared in the group!!!]
[Screenshot of us being in the same chat!]
[Same chat confirmed!]
...
Fu Mingxuan: [Actually, I think this is unnecessary. It's someone's privacy, and posting it randomly is really not okay.]
Chu Qiuqiu: [Please, everyone, stop making fun of my sister. If her grades are poor, I'll definitely help her QAQ.]
After sending this, Chu Qiuqiu exited the group chat and went to the forum.
The post had already blown up, with everyone mocking Chu Yin. Chu Qiuqiu browsed through it with great interest. One comment said, "Having bad grades isn't a reason to dox someone." Chu Qiuqiu replied to that comment:
"If your grades are bad, don't pretend to be a top student. If you pretend, you have to lie down and take the ridicule."
After sending it, she walked out of her room, glanced at Chu Yin's closed door, and felt very pleased with herself.
Anonymous forums are the best. Every enrolled student at Quiwen has a dedicated account and can use their real name, but no one does. Everyone enjoys the feeling of speaking freely.
Chu Yin must be panicking right now.
...
Chu Yin had just finished her homework.
The glowing book lay open, and Study System said, "Host, the current plot is quite thrilling."
Chu Yin wasn't in the group chat and didn't browse the forum. She only found out she had been exposed after reading the script. She took a look, all sorts of shady characters were tearing into each other in the comments. The post had become a hot topic, pinned to the homepage.
It's all because of that idiot Lu Zhen...
Her phone dinged. Her brother sent a WeChat message: "Xiao Yin, don't pay attention to what's online. Leave it to me."
Two seconds later, another message arrived: "Want some ice cream?"
Her brother was afraid she'd be upset and was treating her like a child.
Study System was also worried. "Host, the situation is like this now. What are you going to do?"
Even with her privileges, she couldn't turn back time to stop them from posting.
Chu Yin propped her cheek on one hand and raised an elegant eyebrow. In her past life, her high school grades were indeed poor, and the transcript was real. She figured Chu Qiuqiu must have gotten hold of it. It was posted, and she didn't really care.
But since she'd been targeted, not retaliating would be a waste of her golden finger.
Chu Yin moved the light pen and landed it on a specific word in the script,
"Want to play?"
She crossed out the character for "anonymous" and, with a few quick strokes, changed it to "real-name."
"Then let's play bigger, Welcome to Quiwen's Real-Name Forum."
At 10:39 PM, Quiwen Forum crashed for a second.
One second later, the account names suddenly appeared below every user’s avatar!!
All the hypocrites and two-faced personas were instantly exposed.
Chu Yin narrowed her eyes.
Come on! Let’s all run around naked together!