Chapter 21

In the internet age, nothing spreads faster than gossip.

As soon as the “suspect sketch” of the person who had destroyed Class 9’s blackboard was leaked, it instantly exploded across the school’s forums, tieba threads, and class group chats—like water hitting a sizzling pan, erupting in chaos.

On Monday morning, when Zhong Yao returned to school, He Lingli excitedly rushed over to tell her: the students had figured out who the culprit was before the school administration did!

“You’ll never guess who it is!” her deskmate said, practically vibrating with excitement.

Zhong Yao, on the other hand, was unusually calm. She only asked, “It wasn’t someone from our class, was it?”

At this point, as long as it wasn’t one of their own classmates, she could accept it. Because to her, the blackboard display had grown to mean much more than just a creative project—it had come to symbolize unity and friendship.

“Of course not!” He Lingli immediately puffed up with indignation. “It was Li Yandong from Class 1!”

Zhong Yao looked blank. Since transferring schools, she hardly knew anyone—she had never even heard of a Li Yandong.

“Is he also one of Qi Yu’s fanboys?” she guessed. That was the only plausible motive she could think of.

“No! He has a crush on Shen Qingqing!” He Lingli said, taking a deep breath like she was still reeling from the shock.

Zhong Yao froze for a moment.

“He likes Shen Qingqing?” She was a little surprised, then quickly accepted it. “Makes sense.”

He Lingli widened her eyes. “You’re not shocked? Li Yandong’s always been super quiet. He didn’t seem like the type to pull something like this. Why would he go off the rails like this for Shen Qingqing?”

Apparently, because Li Yandong lived in the dorms and had once admitted during late-night dorm chatter that he liked Shen Qingqing, everyone naturally assumed he must’ve done it under her orders.

But Zhong Yao had a vague feeling that the truth might not be that simple.

Back in Yunshui Town, didn’t Tan Xiao also lash out at her because he liked another boy? But that didn’t mean the boy had asked him to do it.

Although she didn’t like Shen Qingqing, that didn’t mean she was willing to pin the blame on her without proof.

After a pause, Zhong Yao said, “Shen Qingqing’s the arrogant, domineering type—would she really rely on a love-struck admirer to do her dirty work? She strikes me as someone who’d just hire a senior-year thug.”

“Huh…” He Lingli considered this. “You know, that actually makes a lot of sense.”

Sure enough, as soon as Shen Qingqing arrived at school, she stormed straight over to Class 1.

“Li Yandong!” she yelled, kicking open the door. “Come out here and clear this up! When did I ever ask you to do something so pathetic? You ever look in a mirror? If I were going to get someone to do something for me, it sure as hell wouldn’t be you!”

Li Yandong sat near the back of Class 1. Having his actions exposed and then being humiliated by the girl he liked, his face turned beet red. He didn’t even have the courage to lift his head.

Technically, the whole thing was entirely Li Yandong’s fault. But perhaps Shen Qingqing’s over-the-top aggression rubbed people the wrong way, because his deskmate suddenly stood up.

The boy spoke up with righteous indignation: “Shen Qingqing, do you even have a heart? Li Yandong did all this for you. Anyone else could yell at him—but you shouldn’t be the one doing it!”

“Hah?” Shen Qingqing laughed in disbelief. “That’s rich. What do you mean he did it ‘for me’? Just because he says he likes me, now his screw-ups are suddenly my responsibility? Then what if I say I like you right now, and go kill someone you have a grudge against—are you going to serve my prison sentence for me too?”

The boy was stunned—completely lost for words.

Throughout the whole confrontation, the one who had actually done wrong, Li Yandong, remained completely silent, only hanging his head even lower.

Shen Qingqing had no interest in wasting more time. She stormed over to him and said, “Sure, I’m not a saint—but I’m not the kind of coward who can’t own up to what I’ve done either! You claim to like me, yet you just sat there and watched everyone pin this on me—twice! And you never once stood up to clear my name!”

“Li Yandong,” she snapped, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him up from his desk, “You’re coming with me to the Academic Affairs Office right now. I refuse to let a coward like you drag me down with him!”

——

Thanks to Shen Qingqing’s explosive personality, the mystery of “who destroyed Class 9’s blackboard display” was resolved almost instantly.

As it turned out, Li Yandong’s motives were even more ridiculous than expected—it all started with a joke among his roommates.

The night Zhong Yao’s blackboard design went viral on Douyin, a few of the guys in his dorm had teased him: “Didn’t you say you liked Shen Qingqing? She totally hates Zhong Yao now. If you stand up for her, she’ll totally notice you!”

A seemingly joking, slightly mocking comment had taken root in the quiet, reserved boy’s heart—and none of his roommates had expected that he would actually act on it.

But Li Yandong didn’t receive any praise for what he’d done. Even the same roommates who had egged him on in the first place now quietly mocked him for being too cowardly to take responsibility after being caught.

In the end, everyone must pay for their own mistakes.

After discussion by the academic office, Li Yandong was punished with the following: a public apology to Zhong Yao, an official demerit, parental notification, a written reflection, and a public statement of remorse during morning assembly.

Shen Qingqing didn’t get away unscathed either. She had admitted to confronting Zhong Yao previously, and her outburst that morning—storming into Class 1, kicking the door, and disrupting school order—earned her the same punishment as Li Yandong.

She was furious, and stormed back to her class to write an 800-word rant about Li Yandong on the spot.

But the one who was most undeserving of all this was Zhong Yao.

After Li Yandong and Shen Qingqing were disciplined, Zhong Yao was also called into the office and questioned closely about sneaking back into the school that night.

By now, since several students had already been asked, she’d long prepared a story.

“I forgot to bring my homework that day,” she explained, “so I came back to the classroom not long after leaving. The blackboard was already erased by then, and I didn’t want to give up, so I stayed to redo it…”

Throughout her explanation, she never mentioned Qi Yu, Tang Yiming, or Song Shi.

They had helped her, and Zhong Yao felt it wouldn’t be right to drag them into it. So, for the first time in her life, she lied to a teacher.

Mr. Jiang, the homeroom teacher, stared at the girl in front of him and fell into deep thought.

Of course, he knew she was lying. If the academic office could pull surveillance footage from that afternoon, they could just as easily check the footage from that night.

These kids had even coordinated their stories?

But truthfully, he wasn’t angry. Though old-fashioned, Jiang admired the girl a little. After all, she’d worked through the night without causing a scene like Shen Qingqing from Class 7, and now she was even trying to protect the friends who helped her.

It was actually… quite moving.

“All right. I do recognize the quality of your blackboard display,” Jiang finally said. “But spending the night at school is still a serious rule violation, and you have to be held accountable.”

He decided to let some things slide. “Your punishment is a written reflection with your parent’s signature. Tomorrow, you’ll read it publicly during the morning assembly with Li Yandong. Do you accept the consequences?”

Zhong Yao’s fingers clenched instantly.

Writing the reflection wasn’t a big deal. Even reading it on stage—she could grit her teeth and do it. But asking her guardian to sign it…

She couldn’t even imagine what it’d be like to bring a punishment report to Jin Chuan for a signature. They had just moved past this incident, and she really didn’t want to bring it up again. And what if one of her classmates saw the signed form?

“Mr. Jiang…”

She was about to plead when the office door suddenly burst open with a loud bang.

She turned around and saw Tang Yiming stumbling in—followed closely by Qi Yu, hands in his pockets.

Zhong Yao froze.

Then she saw Qi Yu casually walk over and say, “Sir, I was the one who brought Zhong Yao into the school. We came in through the side door near the campus shop.”

Then he reached out, pulled Tang Yiming in front of him, and added, “And, uh, it was Tang Yiming who suggested Zhong Yao lie and take the blame alone.”

What?

Tang Yiming gawked at Qi Yu, his expression saying: Bro, come again?

Qi Yu gave him a lazy glance.

Nothing else was said—but Tang Yiming immediately turned and nodded to Mr. Jiang: “Yes, sir. It wasn’t just Zhong Yao. The two of us were actually the masterminds.”

Zhong Yao: …

Were these celebrity boys really just making stuff up without a script?

“No, Mr. Jiang,” she protested. She hadn’t planned for them to take the blame for her. “They’re just trying to help me.”

Mr. Jiang was honestly a little surprised.

Qi Yu and Tang Yiming from the neighboring class were infamous for being hard to manage, known for stirring up trouble wherever they went. But he hadn’t expected them to be so loyal.

Those two certainly needed some discipline. He’d been planning to speak with their homeroom teacher about it anyway. But then Qi Yu pulled something else out of his pocket.

As if afraid the teacher might not believe him, the boy revealed a key: “Here’s the key to the campus shop. You can open it and see for yourself.”

Zhong Yao stared at him in astonishment.

She could understand why Qi Yu stepped in—but wasn’t this going too far?

“Yu-ge,” even Tang Yiming was confused now. “If you hand over the key, how are you gonna hide from your fans anymore?”

As the three kids started to chat like they were in their own living room, Mr. Jiang cleared his throat with a cough.

With a wave of his hand, he said, “Fine. I’ll confiscate the key for now. Since you were all involved, I’ll issue the same punishment as Zhong Yao—write reflections, get parent signatures, and make public apologies during the morning break.”

——

That very afternoon, the entire grade was buzzing with gossip: the real reason Zhong Yao from Class 9 managed to redo the blackboard display so quickly was… because Qi Yu helped her!

It had actually been Qi Yu, Tang Yiming, and Song Shi working together. But somehow, the rumors evolved into:

“Even the security guard is a fan of Qi Yu. He opened the gate for them without hesitation!”

“Qi Yu’s amazing. He cleaned that dirty board all by himself and even helped her paint it!”

“Qi Yu was so cool. He went straight to the office and confronted Class 9’s homeroom teacher, demanding: ‘Why should the victims suffer for what Li Yandong did?’”

“Whoa, Qi Yu really had the guts to go against a teacher?!”

…

When He Lingli brought all these gossip posts to Zhong Yao, she felt both helpless and relieved—relieved that the side door campus shop secret hadn’t been exposed. At least for now, Qi Yu wouldn’t have to come up with a new way to dodge fangirls.

But then again, his key had already been confiscated by Mr. Jiang. So whether the secret was out or not… probably didn’t matter anymore.

Zhong Yao started to feel gloomy again.

“Yaoyao,” her deskmate nudged her elbow, eyes wide with curiosity, nearly bursting, “How exactly do you and the school heartthrob know each other? Seriously—won’t you please tell me? I promise I won’t even tell Panda!”

The girl was so excited that her voice was a little too loud—causing the students in the three rows around them to start eavesdropping with pricked-up ears.

Zhong Yao: …

Forget it. At this point, even if she wanted to keep her connection with Qi Yu a secret, it probably wouldn’t work anymore. Rather than letting everyone make wild guesses and spin a hundred outrageous versions of the story, she might as well come clean and admit it openly.

Zhong Yao confessed honestly:
“It’s really nothing special. On the day I transferred, Qi Yu was being chased by paparazzi and accidentally ran into me. I didn’t know who he was at the time, and later, when I saw him at school, he thought I was part of the paparazzi crew.”

But in the end—

She still underestimated everyone’s imagination. By the time school ended, her version of how she met Qi Yu had already morphed into:

“Zhong Yao says she barely knows Qi Yu and had no idea he was a celebrity!”
“Apparently, she has a distant relative who’s a paparazzo. She only found out who Qi Yu was after her relative got called out for stalking him.”
“Qi Yu thought she was sent by her relative to keep spying on him—that’s why he hit her with a basketball.”
“Damn, Qi Yu’s such a good guy! She said they’re not even close, but he still helped her with the blackboard display…”
“Maybe he was apologizing! Ugh, everyone really misunderstands him—he’s actually so polite!”

Zhong Yao nearly couldn’t believe her eyes reading all this.

Even He Lingli next to her kept shaking her head in disbelief.
“Heavens, even school gossip gets embellished like this? Fans really do have lying mouths, I swear! I’m never trusting gossip again!”

Looking at her deskmate’s crumbling worldview, Zhong Yao chuckled softly and stopped caring about the rumors altogether.

She was about to ask He Lingli to go wait for the bus together outside school when her phone suddenly buzzed. It was a message from Qi Yu:

[Zhong Yao, the classmate I barely know, the sun hasn’t even set yet. Wanna come out and write our reflections together?]