To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure whether Zhang Fang knew anything or not.

I didn’t remember seeing her in the previous workshop. I only remembered Mantuan.

Zhang Fang’s behavior was indeed somewhat beyond my expectations. After that day, she acted as if nothing had happened, never mentioning anything about my affairs.

Every day she simply sat with Mantuan on my left and right sides, watching me install diodes onto chips.

I could only act as if nothing had happened at all, continuously explaining to the two of them the work they should be responsible for on this assembly line.

Zhang Fang was that common type of girl in the workshop—warm-hearted and cheerful, but not smart enough.

She held what seemed like an inexhaustible supply of White Rabbit milk candies, wanting to use them to conquer everyone in the workshop. But in reality, those she conquered were only girls of the same type as her. They formed an inseparable little group.

As for Mantuan… he seemed to have changed as well. I had thought he became taciturn because he saw me, but now it seemed Zhang Fang was very accustomed to his silence.

Every day he just worked with his head down without saying anything. He rarely smiled and rarely showed any emotion.

He seemed to have become a machine, merging with the assembly line as one. When the conveyor belt moved, he moved. When the conveyor belt stopped, he stopped.

When I went to get food, I occasionally saw Zhang Fang’s little group. They talked, laughed, and whispered among themselves. In contrast, everyone’s impression of Mantuan was that he was honest, simple, and didn’t like to talk. Their way of referring to him was merely as “Zhang Fang’s partner.”

The once radiant young man in the workshop—what had caused him to become like this?

Even I hadn’t been defeated by life, yet he had fallen silent.

One night a month later, I was carrying washed clothes from the laundry room to pour water in the alley when I heard whispering from deep within the alley from far away.

“…Fool… you knew all along?” That was Zhang Fang’s voice.

“Didn’t you know before we came? How could you not know after we arrived?” Zhang Fang suppressed her volume irritably. “Why didn’t you tell me back then that she was Tiantian?”

“I felt that everything was in the past, and besides, she’s our mentor now… You’re being too…”

“Does being a mentor mean she can be a mistress?” Zhang Fang interrupted. “How she became a mistress really has nothing to do with me, but she caused you so much trouble that you couldn’t even stay in the previous workshop. Don’t you know why we came here?”

“My resignation had nothing to do with her…” Mantuan answered weakly.

“Nothing to do with her? It spread all over the village… You, Zhang Mantuan, held an iron rod back then to protect a mistress…”

In the alley without any lights, I vaguely saw Zhang Fang point her finger at Mantuan’s nose.

“A group of people came to the factory chasing and beating you two—you don’t find this shameful but I do!” Zhang Fang’s voice grew louder and louder. “Now that I’m willing to marry you already means I’m letting bygones be bygones. How much longer do you want me to work under her?”

“How can I explain it to you… When did they chase and beat us both…” Mantuan pushed Zhang Fang’s hand away. His voice came from within the alley, sounding mentally and physically exhausted. “I was wrongly accused… That day they only beat Tiantian.”

“If they beat her, doesn’t that prove she’s a mistress?” Zhang Fang said while lowering her voice again, but that voice could still penetrate the quiet alley. “Zhang Mantuan, if this gets back to the village and they find out the two of us are apprenticing under a mistress in the city… how are we supposed to live?”

“I…”

“Do you want people to gossip about us again?”

Hearing this, I finally understood why Mantuan had become like this.

The moment I left, the coworkers who had grown accustomed to launching attacks through rumors suddenly lost their target. So at some point, they naturally turned their spearhead toward Mantuan.

They began to freely attack this young man who had been the first to stand in front of me with an iron rod.

Those foul words I didn’t want to recall must have pierced Mantuan’s body from all directions, gradually stabbing a sunny and cheerful young man into his current taciturn and cowardly appearance.

Although it sounded ironic, I had to say… Mantuan’s situation was already much better than mine.

He was a young man who acted impulsively to protect a young woman. Even if rumors spread wildly for a while, they would quickly lose their novelty. But I was different.

The hat on my head had a thousand years of cultural heritage.

This hat had become a demon. It called two helpers named “Three Obediences and Four Virtues” and “Chastity Memorial Archway” together, conveniently pinning fabricated crimes on me.

It stood on top of my head shouting with the wind, announcing to every passing person the despicable deeds I had never committed.

After all, it was a hat transformed from a demon, so I couldn’t throw it away or shake it off. I could only let them drain what remained of me.

People were all listening to that hat’s words. Who would be willing to listen to what I under the hat was saying?

A demon’s words could deceive the masses. Mine could not.

Now Zhang Fang had long known my identity, but was only holding back from acting out because I was her mentor.

Rather than saying she was concerned about propriety, it was more accurate to say she was worried about implicating herself.

But what exactly should I do?

Should I go tell everyone now “Don’t believe in the future that I’m a mistress”?

Standing at the alley entrance, I didn’t know what feeling was in my heart.

It wasn’t fear nor nervousness, but rather like completely melting into the quiet darkness.

“Little Zhang?”

A voice suddenly rang out behind me, startling me. The voices in the alley also stopped abruptly at this moment.

I turned to look—it was Brother Li from the Comprehensive Management Department.

“You child, carrying a basin of water and spacing out here in the middle of the night?”

“I…”

I was at a loss for words for a moment. I quickly turned around to pour the basin of water in the corner, gave a few perfunctory responses, and returned to my dormitory.

I seemed to be able to sense that things were starting to become somewhat unusual from this moment on.

I had accidentally overheard Zhang Fang and Mantuan’s conversation, undoubtedly tearing off the mask she had worn for the past month. With me helpless and unable to act, she ultimately still launched a full-scale attack.

The rumor of “mistress” was an invisible plague. First, it incubated shadows among her little group.

The eyes of those few infected girls looking at me began to change. Even when eating in the cafeteria, upon seeing me they would instantly stop all conversation.

I knew—they were infected.

Later, it spread to other young men and women, older brothers and sisters in the factory.

I had to say, the discipline management in the city workshop was much better than in the village.

Clearly so many people were infected, yet no one jumped in front of me. They only whispered to each other, covering up and coughing behind my back.

But they didn’t know that with just one glance I could tell what stage they had reached. Early symptoms generally showed signs of contempt and mockery. Late stage would be accompanied by complications of ridicule and cold laughter.

These symptoms would sooner or later climb onto the faces of those survivors, as long as the survivors remained in the workshop, as long as they were still normal.

I understood the contagiousness of this thing too well.

It spread through air and language. Once contaminated, it would cause people to lose their most basic judgment, becoming addicted to the trap of verbal pleasure. Then they would parrot others’ words, full of aggression and malice, ultimately becoming incurable.

And as for me…

I rebuilt high walls on all four sides. I shrank into my own corner and isolated myself.