Rumors
Xie Jingyi paused for a moment before continuing, “They’re saying you’re stringing along both Chen Luobai and that male classmate from your department, while also having an ambiguous relationship with Du Yizhou.”
In truth, the rumors that had reached her ears were even more unsavory, but Xie Jingyi didn’t have the heart to repeat them verbatim to Zhou Anran.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Anran felt slightly relieved.
Bai Lingyun, noticing her expression, asked curiously, “Why do you look relieved?”
Zhou Anran hesitated for a moment before confiding in them, “I was worried you were going to say something had happened to Chen Luobai.”
Xie Jingyi was speechless.
“Stop worrying about him and start worrying about yourself,” she advised. “These kinds of rumors, although blatantly false, can be quite troublesome. Firstly, it’s difficult for you to refute them, and secondly, if they spread widely, they’ll inevitably damage your reputation to some extent.”
Zhou Anran nodded, “I understand. Do you know where these rumors originated from?”
“No idea,” Xie Jingyi shook her head. “It’s unclear whether it was intentional, but they didn’t spread it online. If it was deliberate, it’s quite clever, as it makes tracing the source much more difficult. However, because it’s not online, it hasn’t spread too widely yet. It’s mainly circulating within our department, so the source is likely someone from our department.”
“Before you arrived, we were just discussing who might have started these rumors. The thing is, you haven’t offended anyone,” Bai Lingyun suddenly had a thought. “Hey, do you think it could be Nie Zizhen? Didn’t she make some sour comments about you once?”
Xie Jingyi pondered for a moment before shaking her head again, “I don’t think it’s her. From the few times I’ve interacted with her, she seems straightforward but not malicious.”
“Could it be a girl who likes Chen Luobai?” Bai Lingyun continued to guess.
“It could also be a guy,” Xie Jingyi pointed out. “Don’t forget, Anran has turned down quite a few people. Some guys can be even more gossipy than girls, and they can be incredibly petty.” She then looked up at Zhou Anran, “Anran, why don’t you tell Chen Luobai about this? See if he has any ideas.”
Zhou Anran hesitated before shaking her head, “He’s been busy catching up on homework he missed due to basketball practice. I’ll wait and see for now.”
“Alright,” Xie Jingyi said. “There’s another option.”
Zhou Anran asked, “What option?”
Xie Jingyi winked at her, “You could start dating Chen Luobai and make it official. Given our campus heartthrob’s popularity, the news would spread across the entire school instantly, and these rumors would naturally fall apart.”
Zhou Anran was speechless. What kind of solution was that?
“You two enjoy your bubble tea. I’m going to study,” she said, trying to escape.
Bai Lingyun grabbed her, “Don’t go! You didn’t come back last night, so we didn’t get a chance to ask. What did Chen Luobai say to you on the court yesterday afternoon? It looked like he kissed you or something.”
“He didn’t. He just said something to me,” Zhou Anran’s face suddenly felt hot. She had been interrogated by Yan Xingxi and Sheng Xiaowen all night yesterday, and now she was facing a new round of questioning in the dorm. She took out the bubble tea, inserted straws for her roommates, and pushed the drinks towards them. “If you don’t drink soon, the tea will get cold.”
Xie Jingyi couldn’t stop laughing, “Alright, for the sake of the bubble tea, we’ll let you off the hook tonight.”
Zhou Anran retreated to her seat.
She had just taken out her books, hoping to study for a while, when there was a sudden knock on the door.
Zhou Anran, being closer to the door, got up to answer it. “Who is it?”
“It’s me,” Nie Zizhen stood at the doorway. “I came to tell you that I didn’t spread those rumors about you.”
Zhou Anran frowned slightly.
How did Nie Zizhen hear about it too?
It seemed the rumors had spread further than she had anticipated.
“Zhou Anran, why are you frowning? Don’t you believe me?” Nie Zizhen looked at her. “Look, we might not be close, and you might not trust my character, but you can’t doubt my intelligence.”
Zhou Anran was puzzled.
Nie Zizhen continued, “If I wanted to spread rumors about you behind your back, I wouldn’t have made those sour comments to your face that day. Wouldn’t that be like handing you evidence to suspect me? We’re all smart enough to get into A University. You don’t think I’d be that stupid, do you?”
Zhou Anran suddenly found her somewhat endearing, “Of course not. Jingyi said it probably wasn’t you. She said you’re a good person.”
Nie Zizhen let out a big sigh of relief, “That’s good. Anyway, I’ve never stooped to talking behind people’s backs.”
She then peeked inside the room, “Xie Jingyi, thank you. I’ll treat you to bubble tea sometime.”
“No problem,” Xie Jingyi replied graciously.
After Nie Zizhen left, Zhou Anran sat back down at her desk, but she couldn’t focus on a single word in her textbook.
This was the first time she had been the subject of such rumors. To say she wasn’t bothered or hurt at all would be impossible.
Zhou Anran opened WeChat and scrolled through her chat history with Chen Luobai. Somehow, it helped calm her down.
She lay on her desk with her phone, pondering how to handle this situation. If she knew the source, she could potentially take legal action, but without knowing the origin, she couldn’t think of a good solution at the moment.
As it neared 9 o’clock, Zhou Anran’s phone rang.
Thinking it might be Chen Luobai finished with his work, she quickly picked up the phone, only to see that the call was from He Mingyu.
Zhou Anran blinked in confusion.
She took her phone and went to the balcony to answer.
He Mingyu’s tone also sounded hesitant, “I heard… some rumors.”
Zhou Anran’s brows furrowed tightly, “They’ve spread to your department?”
“No, I’m in your classmates’ dorm. I met one of the guys from your class when I attended a lecture there last time,” He Mingyu explained, then asked, “You’ve already heard about it?”
Zhou Anran made an affirmative sound.
He Mingyu’s tone was apologetic, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cause you this kind of trouble.”
Zhou Anran leaned against the railing, “You don’t need to apologize. I should be the one feeling bad for dragging you into this. If anyone should apologize, it’s the person spreading these rumors.”
“Zhou Anran,” He Mingyu suddenly called her name.
“What is it?” Zhou Anran asked.
“You—” He Mingyu paused, “I—”
He stopped after saying just one word.
“What’s wrong?” Zhou Anran asked him.
Before she could hear He Mingyu’s answer, another male voice suddenly came through from his end, growing louder as it approached. It was so clear that she could hear it distinctly.
“That classmate of yours from the Law School, our school’s campus heartthrob, Chen Luobai, right? He seems to have gotten into a fight with a senior from our department over Zhou Anran, right upstairs in the dorm.”
Zhou Anran’s fingers tightened around her phone, “Is he saying Chen Luobai got into a fight?”
He Mingyu: “Yes.”
He was about to tell her not to worry, that he would find out more details for her, but the girl on the other end of the line had already hurriedly replied, “I’m sorry, I have to go.”
As the call ended tone sounded in his ear, He Mingyu lowered his eyes, suddenly feeling that the words he hadn’t managed to say earlier no longer needed to be spoken.
The guy who had just rushed to the balcony noticed his obvious change in mood and asked curiously, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” He Mingyu looked up. “You just said Chen Luobai got into a fight with a senior from your department?”
The guy replied, “Well, they almost did. It didn’t happen. Chen Luobai’s roommate stopped it.”
*
Indeed, on Chen Luobai’s side, the fight hadn’t occurred.
Yuan Song and Zhou Qingsui had come with him.
As soon as they entered, Yuan Song held him back from behind, while Zhou Qingsui half-blocked his way in front. His expression remained calm, but his tone was serious as he advised, “If you resort to violence, you’ll end up being in the wrong.”
Chen Luobai closed his eyes briefly, suppressing the irritation in his heart. His clenched fist at his side slowly relaxed as he said to the person behind him, “Yuan Song, let go.”
“Let’s talk this out,” Yuan Song didn’t release his grip. “Didn’t Zhu Ran say fighting is the least profitable thing to do?”
“I’m not going to fight,” Chen Luobai didn’t know whether to be angry or amused. “Let go, I need to get my phone.”
Yuan Song was half-convinced.
When they first entered, he felt that Chen Luobai’s extremely grim expression suggested he might not be satisfied even if he gave someone a severe beating. He exchanged a glance with Zhou Qingsui before slowly releasing his grip.
Chen Luobai took out his phone and coldly looked at one of the dorm room’s occupants. He tapped on an audio file and said, “These are your words, right?”
There was some background noise in the audio, then a male voice spoke: “Zhou Anran just looks pure on the surface. It’s bad enough that she’s stringing along both Chen Luobai and that guy from the Physics Department, but she’s even having an ambiguous relationship with Du Yizhou. Everyone knows Du Yizhou can get his girlfriends into bed within a day—”
The rest of the words were too vulgar to repeat, so Chen Luobai cut it off.
Gong Yongliang’s face darkened instantly as he heard his voice in the recording. He glared at Fu Xiaofeng beside him, “Did you record this?”
He had only said these words when Fu Xiaofeng was around.
Seeing Gong Yongliang’s furious expression, Fu Xiaofeng took a step back, “He’s Sister Qin’s cousin. I can’t afford to offend him. Besides, Zhou Anran just didn’t agree to give you her WeChat, right? The way you’re slandering a girl like this, I really couldn’t stand by and watch.”
Gong Yongliang: “You—”
“Whatever grudge you two have, you can settle it later,” Chen Luobai interrupted, his tone cold and heavy. “You spread those rumors about her, didn’t you?”
Gong Yongliang: “What rumors? Do you have any evidence that I spread them?”
“If I managed to track you down here, I can certainly get those people to come and testify against you,” Chen Luobai didn’t bother to argue further. “Stop struggling. I’ll give you two options to resolve this.”
“One, you apologize to her and then explain the truth to everyone you spread the rumors to, one by one.”
“Two, I take this audio to your department leaders and pursue legal action against you.”
Being tall with deep-set features, when Chen Luobai’s face darkened, he appeared particularly imposing.
Gong Yongliang felt a moment of panic. He tried to calm himself, “Who are you trying to fool? It’s a fact that Zhou Anran is close to all of you guys. I just made some assumptions based on that. Sure, my words might have been a bit excessive, but even if you take this to our leaders, they’ll at most make me apologize. As for legal action, you’ve only been in law school for how long? You’re using that to scare people already?”
“Let’s not even discuss whether this audio can be used as evidence. Even if it can, you could at most sue me for defamation or something, right? You law students should know better than me how troublesome lawsuits are. You’d waste months of time and effort. Would you even have time to study? In the end, even if you win, I’d just have to apologize at most.”
“How about this? I admit my words were excessive. I’ll apologize to Zhou Anran, and we can consider this matter settled.”
“Besides defamation, there’s also the crime of slander, and—” Chen Luobai twisted the watch on his wrist, his tone mocking, “Who said I need to personally deal with you?”
*
When Zhou Anran arrived at the boys’ dormitory, she saw Chen Luobai standing outside the building.
She had been running in a hurry and almost lost her balance when she suddenly saw him.
Chen Luobai reached out to steady her, “Slow down.”
Zhou Anran had run all the way there, her heart still racing. Not even catching her breath, she quickly looked him over, even circling behind him to check, “Are you alright?”
Seeing her so anxious, Chen Luobai’s lips curved slightly, “I’m fine. The fight didn’t happen.”
Zhou Anran finally let out a big sigh of relief, “How did you almost get into a fight?”
Chen Luobai had originally not wanted her to know about the near-fight, but since she had found out unexpectedly, he didn’t hide it, “We found the person who spread the rumors about you.”
Zhou Anran was suddenly stunned.
So it was because of her?
She remembered that he had never liked getting physical with others. Even when Tang Jianrui was almost bullied, he stopped Zhu Ran from fighting.
In the end, they settled it with a basketball game.
Chen Luobai saw her wide-eyed, staring at him blankly, and suddenly felt a bit annoyed. He had shown his feelings so clearly, almost getting into a fight for her, did she need to be this surprised?
His fingers twitched, and this time he couldn’t resist. He raised his hand and pinched her cheek.
Maybe because her face still had some baby fat, her friends and his cousin all liked to pinch her cheeks from time to time.
Chen Luobai had been itching to do it for a long time.
The touch under his fingertips was delicate and soft. Chen Luobai felt his throat itch a bit too. He restrained himself from making any other moves and put his hand back into his sweatpants pocket.
The girl in front of him raised her hand to cover her cheek. When she looked up at him, her face showed a “why did you pinch my cheek” expression, still surprised but now with a hint of shyness.
Chen Luobai’s annoyance suddenly disappeared, “Don’t you want to know who spread the rumors?”
Zhou Anran lowered her hand from her face, “Who was it?”
“Gong Yongliang, do you know him?” Chen Luobai asked.
Zhou Anran had long forgotten about the small incident during that dinner gathering. Hearing this name was somewhat unexpected, but given her limited social circle and the fact that she hadn’t offended anyone, thinking back to his behavior that day, it didn’t seem so surprising after all.
She nodded at him, “He’s from the dorm next to my roommate’s boyfriend. He came along when my roommate’s boyfriend treated us to dinner last time.”
Chen Luobai remembered what he had heard in their dorm earlier, his dark eyes narrowing, “Is he the one who asked for your WeChat that day?”
Zhou Anran nodded again, “How did you know it was him?”
Chen Luobai didn’t go into detail about the effort it took, only saying, “Your senior Yu helped a bit. You don’t need to worry about this anymore. He’ll explain to everyone he spread rumors to himself.”
Zhou Anran was stunned again.
She was already surprised that they could find the source, thinking at most they could get an apology from the person. How did they manage to get him to agree to explain to everyone?
“How did you manage that?”
Chen Luobai’s fingers in his pocket suddenly itched again, “I scared him a bit.”
Zhou Anran blinked, “How did you scare him?”
“I just told him—” Chen Luobai paused, the corner of his mouth curving up, “If he didn’t explain, I’d beat him up every time I saw him.”
Zhou Anran: “…”
He was teasing her again.
She still remembered how his eyes shone when he told her why he studied law in the convenience store that day. Moreover, he had always been against solving problems through violence. She didn’t believe him.
“Did you scare him with legal means?”
Chen Luobai raised an eyebrow, suddenly leaning closer, “You know me quite well, huh?”
The distance suddenly became so close, that Zhou Anran still wasn’t used to being this close to him. She unconsciously held her breath, her brain starting to react slowly again.
“I’m being serious with you.”
Chen Luobai watched her face turn red in an instant and leaned even closer, “How am I not being serious?”
Zhou Anran: “…”
She really couldn’t handle this anymore.
“Well, if you’re okay, I’ll head back first.”
Why is she so shy?
Chen Luobai smiled and held her back, “Alright, I’ll stop teasing you. Don’t go yet, let him come down and apologize to you properly.”
Zhou Anran obediently nodded, then glanced at her wrist that he was holding.
Chen Luobai’s fingers tightened slightly. People were coming and going outside the boys’ dormitory, it wasn’t appropriate. He let go and put his hand back in his pocket.
A minute later, Gong Yongliang came down from upstairs.
Zhou Anran didn’t know how Chen Luobai had scared him, but she noticed that this Gong senior no longer had the confidence he showed when publicly asking for her WeChat that day. His head was slightly lowered, and his apologetic tone was surprisingly sincere.
“I’m sorry, Zhou Anran. I shouldn’t have spread rumors about you. I hope you can forgive me.”
Zhou Anran felt the pressure that had been building in her chest all evening finally dissipate, “I heard you.”
Gong Yongliang looked up, then turned to Chen Luobai, “You see, Zhou Anran has already forgiven me. Those rumors weren’t believed by many people anyway, so—”
Zhou Anran interrupted him, “I only said I heard you. I didn’t say I forgave you.”
Although she didn’t know how he had tracked down the source, it couldn’t have been easy. Besides, regardless of how it was done, the damage had already been caused. How could she forgive him just because of one flippant apology?
The corner of Chen Luobai’s mouth curved up, “Did you hear her? It’s getting late. I advise Gong senior to go back up and explain to everyone who needs an explanation before I change my mind.”
After Gong Yongliang left, Zhou Anran touched her still-warm ears and said softly to the young man in front of her, “Thank you.”
Chen Luobai: “You can’t just thank me for nothing, right?”
Zhou Anran blinked, “Then should I treat you to a meal?”
“No need to treat me to a meal,” Chen Luobai paused, moving his hand from his sweatpants pocket to his jacket pocket, feeling the two candies inside. “Don’t you have an elective class tomorrow night?”