Rumors

Monday.

At the intersection, a petite girl was smoothing out the wrinkles on her school uniform. Even though she was already a college student, Yinshan Academy still required students to wear uniforms. Fortunately, there was a wide variety of styles to choose from, and they looked quite good, so they were generally well-received by the students.

"Isn't this skirt a bit too short? I should have worn the old set," Taozi murmured as she looked at her pleated skirt and her bare knees below it, feeling a bit unaccustomed to this style.

Over the weekend, she even thought she had bought the wrong uniform. However, the uniforms were ordered uniformly by the academy, and the tag even had a printed copy of the school director's handwriting—

[Those who don't like pleated skirts are destined to have a failed youth.]

Or something along those lines.

"It should be about time, right?" Just as Taozi checked the time and muttered to herself, a voice called out from a short distance away, "Taozi—"

Taozi turned around and saw Tang Keke and Bai Yuyou walking over. Both were wearing their summer uniforms, their fair legs exposed to the air. Unlike Tang Keke's soft, slightly plump thighs, Bai Yuyou's legs were straight and slender.

"Good morning, Keke, Yuyou." Taozi smiled. Since she had agreed to go to school with Tang Keke and the others, she had waited at the intersection early.

"Have you guys eaten breakfast?"

"We did, we ate a lot today," Tang Keke said.

"Is that so?" Taozi thought for a moment and glanced at the breakfast she was carrying. She had actually bought some extra, just in case Tang Keke and Yuyou hadn't eaten.

Tang Keke noticed Taozi's expression and asked, "What's wrong, Taozi?"

Bai Yuyou took in the scene and reached out her hand like a little paw. "Taozi, I'm hungry again."

"Hey Yuyou, you can't just eat Taozi's breakfast."

"It's fine, I actually bought a bit too much." Taozi smiled and handed two steamed buns to Bai Yuyou.

"Thank you." Bai Yuyou began eating the buns.

"You're welcome."

The three girls chatted as they walked, and eventually, the topic shifted to Ye Shuang. It wasn't that they deliberately wanted to talk about him; rather, Bai Yuyou brought up Ye Shuang roughly once every three sentences. Because of this, their conversations frequently centered around him.

"Brother hasn't been as busy with work lately, but he still went to the company today," Tang Keke said.

"It still sounds like a lot of hard work," Taozi couldn't help but remark.

"It's alright, Brother is amazing."

Just then, Taozi asked out of curiosity, "Keke, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"You always call Brother Ye 'Brother'. Is he your relative?"

Tang Keke blinked. "Nope."

"You always use that title, it makes it feel like you're his actual younger sister." Taozi chuckled. "You two have a really good relationship."

"Is that so, Yuyou?" Tang Keke turned to ask Bai Yuyou.

Bai Yuyou, who was busy eating her bun, blinked her beautiful eyes innocently. It was obvious she hadn't been listening to their conversation at all.

"Never mind, just eat your bun."

"My dad always says I act like a dowry maid," Tang Keke crossed her arms, looking thoughtful.

"A dowry... maid?" Taozi was curious.

...

...

As soon as they entered the classroom, many of their classmates' eyes darted over to them. Although Bai Yuyou and the others were used to drawing attention, the gazes this time felt unusually different.

"How strange." Tang Keke looked around and noticed that the students quickly turned their heads away the moment they made eye contact with her.

"What's wrong?" Bai Yuyou asked, taking out her books after sitting down.

"Yuyou, don't you feel like our classmates are looking at us weirdly today?"

"..." Bai Yuyou took a look but didn't take it to heart. "There's no need to care. Ye Shuang said that instead of worrying about other people's stares, it's better to think about what you need to do next."

"You can't live for the gazes of others."

"Well, that's true," Tang Keke scratched her head.

Just then, a phone suddenly vibrated. Tang Keke took a look and saw it was a message from the Light Music Club group chat.

Zhixia: Um... do you guys feel like things are a bit weird today?

Keke: What do you mean?

Zhixia: There seems to be a sudden nasty rumor about Yuyou.

Zhixia: [Forum Link]

Tang Keke clicked on the link Zhixia sent, only to find it was a campus forum post, and its title was particularly eye-catching—

"Yinshan Academy's Number One Campus Belle is Actually a Bar Singer and Hostess!"

Inside the post, there were photos attached of Bai Yuyou singing in a bar. The angles seemed to have been deliberately adjusted so that only Bai Yuyou was visible singing, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers.

"No way, Bai Yuyou actually works at a bar as a singer and hostess?"

"Is this for real? Hasn't she been totally ruined by now? Tsk, tsk, tsk, so many guys' dreams are shattered."

"The girl you can't let go of has already let other people in."

The replies below were mostly from people enjoying the drama. Since Bai Yuyou was a popular figure on campus, it was inevitable that people would jump on the bandwagon and stir up trouble.

"This is too much, way too much!" Tang Keke slammed the desk in anger. "Who exactly is starting these rumors?!"

"Yuyou, let's go find the counselor right now!" Tang Keke immediately said.

However, upon seeing the contents of the post, Bai Yuyou remained calm. "It's fine, Keke."

"But this is crossing the line! Look at these replies. We have to catch the person responsible and make them apologize. Attacking people and stirring up trouble without knowing the truth!"

"Let's go right now!"

Bai Yuyou, however, was used to this sort of thing. She had lost count of how many times rumors had been spread about her in the past. Perhaps it was these very experiences that made the young girl's heart more resilient than ever. She simply said softly,

"We won't catch them. Ye Shuang told me that there are two things crowds love to do the most—"

"Add to the glory, or..."

"Kick someone while they're down."

"Sometimes, the truth doesn't matter, and right and wrong don't matter. What matters is that people enjoy the darkness."

"Blowing this up out of proportion will only give them exactly what they want."

Hearing Bai Yuyou's calm tone, Tang Keke inexplicably quieted down. She scratched her head, feeling that Bai Yuyou seemed much more mature than she was.

She even spoke exactly like Ye Shuang.

Like a carbon copy of Brother.

"Alright, Yuyou, but what should we do now?" Tang Keke asked. If they completely ignored it, who knew what other rumors would pop up.

Bai Yuyou thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "Our Light Music Club's account posted a video of us singing."

"Oh right! After all, it was a music festival. A rumor like this is full of holes," Tang Keke said. She then took several screenshots from their account and prepared to log in to post a response.

"Let's see how you trolls handle my wrath."