Chapter 8

Fu Mingxuan had sent several messages in the grade group chat.
Lu Zhen usually never used these social apps and was never seen in any group chats. It was rare for him to appear, so Fu Mingxuan was thrilled.
[Since Brother Zhen has spoken up, everyone should stop bumping the thread. Let it sink.]
After sending this, she exited the chat and went to the forum. Strangely, her thread, which had just been rapidly gaining replies, suddenly went cold. There wasn’t a single response.
So Fu Mingxuan posted a reply,
323L: Bump! Such a good thread shouldn’t sink!
As soon as she posted it, she vaguely sensed something off about the interface. Just then, Xing Lan suddenly sent her a message: "Mingxuan, stop bumping it!!!"
"The forum is using real names now!!!"
Boom! A bolt from the blue,
Fu Mingxuan looked again and saw her own name clearly displayed below her avatar!
How could this happen??? Why would an anonymous forum suddenly use real names??
Then wouldn’t everything she said in the group chat and the thread be seen by everyone?!?
Fu Mingxuan panicked, but she tried to console herself with a sliver of hope: Lu Zhen had only asked who posted the thread and hadn’t appeared again after that. He probably just asked casually and wasn’t really paying attention to such a trivial matter, right??
Besides, because the forum had suddenly switched to real names, no one dared to reply anymore. The grade group chat exploded with messages after anonymous mode was enabled, and Fu Mingxuan’s thread gradually sank lower. She breathed a sigh of relief,
But the next second, when she refreshed, the thread was bumped back to the top!
Someone had replied!
The entire school was watching, and everyone immediately opened the thread,
324L (Lu Zhen): @323L (Fu Mingxuan, OP) Are you an idiot?
The thread fell silent for a minute.
Then,
325L (Tan Ke): Sorry hahahahahaha
326L (Song Zhaolin): Sorry, I’m laughing too hahahahahaha
327L (Jiang Yan): I said it before, publicly sharing someone’s transcript without permission is unethical.
The entire anonymous group chat went wild:
[Holy shit, Brother Zhen just tore into her directly!!!!]
[So handsome so handsome ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!]
[Not to be mean, but this two-faced little white lotus needs to be called out directly. Look at what she said in the group chat and the forum post, totally different personas, tsk tsk.]
[Hasn’t Fu Mingxuan always wanted Brother Zhen to remember her name? Well, he finally did this time hahahaha]
Fu Mingxuan quickly gathered a few of her girlfriends in an anonymous group chat to defend her, but within just a few minutes, the entire situation spiraled out of control. Her friends didn’t dare to speak up anymore.
First, she was brutally rejected by the person she liked, and then ridiculed by countless others. After her expression shifted through several shades of distress, Fu Mingxuan finally broke down and cried on her bed.
On the other side, Chu Qiuqiu felt immensely relieved the moment she found out the forum had glitched, grateful that she had sent the photo to Fu Mingxuan instead of posting it herself. But before she could fully relax, she remembered her own comments in the thread and began frantically reporting posts to have them deleted.
Unfortunately, the fire she had ignited soon spread to her.
Someone in the anonymous group chat said: [Has no one noticed? If Fu Mingxuan is a two-faced little white lotus, then Chu Qiuqiu is the ultimate grand white lotus!]
[Image][Image]
The first image was from the group chat: "Please don’t make fun of my sister, I’ll definitely help her with her studies!"
The second was from the forum post: "If your grades are bad, don’t pretend to be a top student. If you’re going to act like one, then lie down and take the criticism!"
Placed side by side, the contrast was stark and embarrassing.
[A major character collapse? I always thought Chu Qiuqiu was elegant.]
[She’s always been low-key shady, it’s just that guys can’t see it.]
[So Chu Qiuqiu doesn’t actually accept her sister, does she? It’s all just for show.]
[I wouldn’t like a country bumpkin either, but I have to admit the white lotus is even more disgusting.]
[I think you’re all overlooking something important, where did that transcript even come from?]
The mockery and ridicule that had been directed at Chu Yin half an hour ago now turned entirely toward Chu Qiuqiu.
As people slowly began digging into the origin of the transcript, Chu Qiuqiu panicked completely. She had always been meticulous about maintaining her image as a refined young lady from a wealthy family, but this time, every act of concern she had ever shown toward Chu Yin was exposed as a lie!
Chu Qiuqiu decided to play dead. She could only hope that her brother and Chu Yin hadn’t seen the forum and that the whole thing would blow over.
But just as she thought that, her phone screen lit up. Her brother, Chu Shi, had sent her a WeChat message.
[Apologize to Xiao Yin tomorrow. Then, I’ll tell Mom and Dad everything.]
Her brother was actually siding with Chu Yin?!
Chu Qiuqiu’s heart sank completely.
…
The drama lasted until late at night before the onlookers gradually dispersed, leaving only a few people in the anonymous group chat.
[Anyone still here? I didn’t dare ask earlier, but was Brother Zhen protecting that country bumpkin?]
[Protect my ass, he would’ve done the same for anyone else!]
[True!!!]
[But I’m so jealous, wuwu. I’d gladly be mocked for two whole threads if it meant Brother Zhen would stand up for me.]
[You’re insane.]
…
The next day.
Classroom of the International Senior Three Class.
Gu Qiuzhe leaned against Chu Shi’s desk, sipping coffee as he asked, “So, how did your sister react?”
“No reaction,” Chu Shi replied, knowing exactly which sister he was referring to. He tapped his fingers on the desk. “That’s what makes it heartbreaking.”
He could easily guess where the transcript had come from. But Chu Yin hadn’t shown a hint of sadness, nor had she tried to play the victim or defend herself in the forum posts.
Gu Qiuzhe sighed softly, "Indeed, anonymous forums are places that indulge malice."
What happened yesterday had already escalated to cyberbullying. Gu Qiuzhe only found out about it this morning and was quite worried about Chu Yin. The girl seemed pretty and quiet, well-behaved and delicate, unable to fight back when bullied.
Chu Shi frowned, stood up after a moment, and said, "Let’s go check on her."
This time, Gu Qiuzhe followed him without hesitation.
Downstairs in the International Class for sophomores, Lu Zhen was also thinking about the same matter.
In the end, this incident started because of him.
That girl…
Chu Yin. He had learned her name yesterday.
Lu Zhen silently repeated it twice, her clear eyes surfacing in his mind. He idly wondered if a well-behaved student like her would cry from being criticized.
She hadn’t even defended herself in the forum thread.
After a moment, Lu Zhen thought he should probably apologize. Even though the girl seemed unwilling to speak to him, her entire demeanor radiated resistance, though she tried hard to conceal it.
Beside him, Tan Ke called out, holding his clothes, "Brother Zhen, wanna go play ball?"
Lu Zhen shook his head.
Then he stood up and left the classroom, heading toward Class 5. As he turned the corner, he caught sight of her.
She was still wearing her oversized school uniform, standing by the window, gently swaying her head as she recited from memory. People came and went around her, some glancing at the center of yesterday’s gossip, but she seemed entirely unaffected.
Lu Zhen paused, then stopped by the vending machine in the hallway to buy a can of sweet milk.
When he bent down to retrieve it and turned around, he saw someone standing in front of Chu Yin.
Gu Qiuzhe was before her, slightly bowing his head as he said something, then reached out to pat her head.
Chu Yin still wore her mask, hugging her book to her chest, nodding obediently twice. Then, for some reason, she actually laughed at whatever Gu Qiuzhe said.
Lu Zhen watched from afar for a while.
Then he glanced down at the item in his hand, let out a self-deprecating laugh, raised his arm, and tossed it accurately into the trash can.
Lu Zhen turned and walked away without looking back.
She seemed perfectly fine talking to others.
After pulling off her big move on the forum, Chu Yin didn’t bother checking the results. But judging by Chu Qiuqiu’s awkward demeanor today and Fu Mingxuan’s absence, the outcome was probably favorable.
Many students in Class 5 also looked at her strangely today, their expressions tinged with embarrassment, after all, having their anonymous comments exposed felt like being stripped bare, leaving them with a sense of shame.
Chu Yin didn't care about the ever-changing attitudes of these high school students and
Chu Yin curled her lips into an angelic smile, then neatly wrote the phrase "rotten fish and stinking shrimp" above the crossed-out idiom.
"Colloquialisms count as words too," Chu Yin said, clapping her hands lightly.
That same night, in the early hours.
Lu Zhen woke up choking.
The night was quiet, the moonlight pure and bright.
Yet a foul, fishy stench gripped his throat like fate itself.
A few seconds later, Lu Zhen sat up.
He stared blankly at the empty expanse of his bed.
For a moment, he thought he had been turned into a canned seafood product.