Chapter 10: Spreading Rumors

This incident was quickly posted on the school forum. Some informed people deliberately or unintentionally mentioned Jiang Luoyu in their comments. Although they didn’t explicitly say it, the implication was to mock him for being jealous of Xu Muzhou and doing such a shameless thing.

Jiang Luoyu’s family were nouveau riche, so they weren’t afraid of him getting angry and doing anything. Originally, people were already sour about his close relationship with Fang Chuning, and now that they had caught an opportunity, they were fanning the flames.

All kinds of nasty and even abusive words appeared in the comments.

Yiren: “It must be because he’s jealous that the vice president can perform in the program with the president, so he did such a disgusting thing.”

Cute Jiujiu: “2333 He probably thinks the president could actually like him. It’s all your fault for spreading rumors before and making him think he’s actually worthy. He should look in the mirror. He’s nothing compared to the vice president.”

Sweet Wine Tangyuan: “I agree with the above. I feel like the president and vice president look super compatible standing together!”

No Early Dating: “Is that so? I actually think they’re too perfect for each other and not that suitable…”

Young Dream You Dare Not Proclaim replied to @No Early Dating: “Hmm… why does that sound a bit sour?”

No Early Dating replied to @Young Dream You Dare Not Proclaim: “You don’t have to agree. I’m just stating my own opinion.”

Young Dream You Dare Not Proclaim replied to @No Early Dating: “I can smell the tea through the screen.”

In a certain grade’s classroom, Tang Jiali looked at this reply on his phone without responding further. He returned to the main interface and clicked into the game. The avatar with the highest friend intimacy was still gray.

He dejectedly exited the game and clicked back to the forum to continue scrolling through the comments in the hot post.

“Jiajia, are you also browsing the forum?” A male classmate sitting next to him leaned over.

Tang Jiali casually switched interfaces. “No, just looking around.”

The boy stretched his own phone in front of him, eagerly sharing gossip, “Have you seen this? That boy’s family background has been dug up. I heard his family are nouveau riche, and they even lived in a slum before they had money. Now he’s become the president’s rumored boyfriend. He’s really something!”

Hearing the last sentence, Tang Jiali’s hand scrolling the screen paused. He said unhappily, “Can you stop spreading such rumors? Neither of them has confirmed anything. This kind of thing can easily cause trouble for people.”

The boy didn’t expect such a strong reaction from him and felt a bit depressed. “Why are you raising your voice? It’s not like I said it.”

Tang Jiali impatiently lay on the desk facing the window, his eyes still on his phone, apologizing perfunctorily, “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

The comments on the post were increasing, with the vast majority condemning the “culprit” who cut up the clothes. Although this “culprit” wasn’t directly named, certain words had essentially put the person on display.

Jiang Luoyu wasn’t doing well in school. There were always people in the class looking at him with strange eyes. At first, he pretended not to care, until later when these looks turned into actual targeting.

Someone walked past his seat with a cup of hot water, then “accidentally” spilled the water on his hand.

“Ah, sorry,” the boy said apologetically, but his smug face showed no trace of remorse.

Jiang Luoyu hugged his scalded red hand, looking at him with teary eyes.

The boy felt a bit guilty being looked at like that, but quickly became righteous again, “I said it was an accident, didn’t I? It’s just a little burn, who are you trying to impress!”

After saying this, the boy quickly glanced at the empty seat in front of him, feeling more confident, “Don’t even think about complaining to the president, or else we won’t let you off!”

After the boy left, Jiang Luoyu looked around. The other people in the class were all watching him with schadenfreude, even the male classmates who used to get along well with him were keeping their distance, their faces full of indifference.

Jiang Luoyu lowered his head, biting his lower lip hard to try not to feel so bad.

He knew about the things on the forum, but he had no way to defend himself since he didn’t actually do it, and others wouldn’t believe him anyway.

During the break, Jiang Luoyu stopped Xu Muzhou, who was carrying homework to the office, in the corridor. He looked straight into his eyes.

Xu Muzhou’s beautiful eyes showed confusion, “What’s the matter, Jiang classmate?”

The young man’s innocent and unknowing appearance made Jiang Luoyu feel disgusted. “I didn’t do anything to your clothes. I never even touched them.”

Jiang Luoyu directly stated his purpose, without beating around the bush at all.

The young man’s hands tightened on the homework he was holding, his brows full of apology, “I also don’t think it was Jiang classmate who did it, but when I told them that, they didn’t believe me…”

That delicate and pitiful appearance instead made people feel like he was the victim, making them want to immediately stand up and seek justice for him. But Jiang Luoyu wasn’t fooled by this act. “If you know I didn’t do it, then you should help clear my name!”

The young man seemed to be scared by his aggressive tone. His face turned slightly pale, the eyelashes under his glasses trembling fearfully, his voice weak: “I’m sorry…”

For a moment, Jiang Luoyu almost believed his deceptive face, thinking he was really just a gentle person who could be bullied.

“Go to the forum and clear my name. I never touched your clothes.”

Xu Muzhou lowered his eyes and nodded slightly in agreement.

Afterwards, Jiang Luoyu always felt uneasy. He stared at the forum homepage, constantly refreshing until he saw a pinned post in the hot topics the next day.

The ID was “New Star Vice President”, with a silver crown icon above the name.

The general meaning of the post was to ask them not to speculate too much about this matter, as it could easily cause trouble for people. At the end, there was a polite “thank you”.

The words seemed to convey the poster’s shyness and kindness. Those who had seen Xu Muzhou could almost hear the young man’s soft voice saying thank you. Female classmates who weren’t very interested in this matter before suddenly became excited.

The comments section exploded.

Game King: “Since the president has said this, you boys should stop being so gossipy. It’s none of your business anyway.”

Like Meow Meow: “What do you girls know? We’re just feeling indignant on behalf of the president.”

Yes I’m A Rich Second Generation: “Are you really feeling indignant for the president or are you just targeting someone? You know it in your hearts.”

Eat That Ice Cream: “So is the ‘culprit’ really him or not?”

“He” of course referred to Jiang Luoyu. The post didn’t specify who the “culprit” was, and they were curious. They didn’t care if they had wrongly accused someone; they only cared if that person was Jiang Luoyu.

This post had barely stayed in the hot topics when another post was suddenly pinned. The two posts were published only half an hour apart.

The pinned post was a video. In the video, two male students were facing each other. The camera angle only showed the bespectacled young man, who was holding thick homework. He seemed to hear something, and his face gradually turned pale. His delicate figure looked like it could be blown over by the wind.

The video had no sound, so you couldn’t hear what they were saying, but from the young man’s expression, one could guess that the other person must have said something very harsh.

Combined with Xu Muzhou’s previous post, it made people speculate.

In an instant, the comments once again became one-sided.

More voices of doubt were directed at Jiang Luoyu, with self-righteous abuse regardless of the truth. Even worse, some people even locked Jiang Luoyu in the bathroom for an entire class period.

People in the class were even more unwilling to associate with him.

Fang Chuning knew nothing about these things. She had been so busy with the cultural performance recently that she not only had to rehearse but also deal with scripts from other classes’ performances. She simply had no time to pay attention to anything else.

She only became aware of the situation when Jiang Luoyu was bullied so severely that he was almost forced to drop out of school.

By this time, class had already started, but the seat behind her was empty. When she asked around, she learned that the person might be locked in the bathroom. Fang Chuning quickly excused herself to the teacher and ran out.

When she reached the outside of the boys’ bathroom, she hesitated for a few seconds, then gritted her teeth and pushed the door open.

It was class time, so the bathroom was empty. As soon as Fang Chuning entered, she heard faint sobbing from one of the stalls.

She didn’t hesitate to walk over and knock on the door. “Jiang classmate?”

The sobbing suddenly stopped. The person inside seemed a bit incredulous and tentatively called out with a crying voice, “…President?”

Fang Chuning looked down at the broom wedged across the door handle outside the stall. She frowned, reached out, and removed the broom. The stall door opened from the inside, and the boy stood helplessly in the narrow space, his eyes swollen from crying.

“Why didn’t you tell me when something like this happened?”

As soon as she finished speaking, the boy suddenly threw himself into her arms. Fang Chuning was so startled she almost reflexively threw him over her shoulder.

The boy’s fragile body trembled in her arms as he cried, his suppressed sobs sounding pitiful.

Fang Chuning felt that their current posture and location were very inappropriate. If someone came in and saw them like this, who knows what they might think.

Fang Chuning pulled him away. “Stop crying. Let’s go back to the classroom for class first.”

Jiang Luoyu’s fingers clutched at her school uniform, tears falling uncontrollably, unable to stop.

In the end, Fang Chuning still took him to the president’s office to calm down before returning to the classroom. When they arrived at the classroom door, they immediately received a shower of gazes. Jiang Luoyu shrank behind her, following her closely into the classroom.

As they passed Xu Muzhou’s seat, he couldn’t help but look up, just meeting the young man’s cold gaze. Jiang Luoyu slightly pursed his lips, shifted his gaze, and quietly sat back in his own seat.

After class, Fang Chuning opened her phone and clicked into the school forum. As soon as she entered, she could see the hottest post pinned at the top. She glanced at the content and then clicked into the comments section. Scrolling down, it was all implicit insults and abusive comments, painful to read.

Fang Chuning logged into her own ID and without hesitation deleted these posts. Her ID was an administrator of the school forum, and she rarely looked at or managed these things. After deleting them, she also posted a message on the forum, pinned it, and closed the comments section.

The post basically stated that speculation and discussion about the performance costume incident were no longer allowed, and school bullying was strictly prohibited. Violators would have to scrub all the school’s toilets.

For male students, the warning of scrubbing toilets was undoubtedly fatal, more effective than deducting credits. Those rumors immediately quieted down.