Rumors
Days passed by, and Jiang Chen settled into a predictable routine, traveling strictly between the military training grounds and his home. Ever since that one meal, however, Xia Xiaoyue had not touched a single dish prepared by Jiang Chen.
He usually cooked portions for two based on their shared appetite, but whatever was left over he simply ate at the next meal. Xia Xiaoyue lived almost entirely on takeout, and he had never once seen her eat breakfast.
Since she refused his food, Jiang Chen said nothing. It was not really his place to interfere in another person's affairs.
Time flew to the final day of military training. Today was the day to showcase the fruits of the past few days of hard work. The classes formed neat, orderly squares and marched past the reviewing stand on the sports field.
Jiang Chen naturally preferred to keep a low profile. When asked if he wanted to volunteer as the flag-bearer at the front of the formation, he refused without a second thought. To his surprise, however, Ding Junfei signed up for the role and was successfully chosen.
In Jiang Chen's impression, Ding Junfei had always been an honest, unassuming sort who shied away from the spotlight. He should have stayed tucked safely inside the ranks just like Jiang Chen.
The reason Ding Junfei gave the other three was that he wanted to run for class monitor and needed to make a good impression. Besides, no one else in the class was willing to be the flag-bearer, so he stepped up himself.
Wang Congle teased Ding Junfei with a lewd grin, "You aren't running for class monitor just to get every girl in the class on WeChat, and then single out one special one while adding the rest just as a smokescreen, are you?"
Jiang Chen had taken it as a joke, but then he caught a fleeting change in Ding Junfei's expression—though it vanished so quickly and returned to normal that the other two noticed nothing at all.
Jiang Chen quietly filed this away in his mind without saying a word. After all, he genuinely hoped Ding Junfei would win the election; that way, if anything ever came up at school, he would have a direct channel of information.
When the training exhibition began, Jiang Chen's class was scheduled relatively late. Watching the other classes perform, Jiang Chen suddenly felt that military training had actually been quite meaningful. After more than ten days of getting along, he had grown familiar with the people in his class. Though he couldn't put names to every single face yet, at least he would recognize them as classmates if they passed each other.
As the performances of the first two departments concluded, it was finally time for Finance Class One. To the students' astonishment, Xia Xiaoyue, who usually stood quietly at the back of the formation, made a rare appearance at the very front.
The previously noisy formation instantly fell silent. Everyone was baffled, until Xia Xiaoyue looked out over the fresh, youthful faces and said softly, "Today is the final day of military training. You have all done wonderfully. You've worked hard every single day, and I know you'll do a fantastic job on this last performance. I will be watching from the sidelines."
Silence hung over the ranks for a moment, but at the sound of clapping, the formation erupted into thunderous applause. The students felt a surge of excitement and elation, and Jiang Chen's own heart grew much lighter. He suddenly felt a twinge of regret for not signing up as the flag-bearer.
As the exhibition came to an end, the students had to part ways with the instructors who had accompanied them for over ten days.
Though the instructors had always been strict with the students, the moment of parting still brought a heavy wave of reluctance. Some of the more sensitive girls even had red rims around their eyes. The boys fared a little better, yet they still went one by one to hug their instructors, using every possible way to express their unwillingness to say goodbye.
When the training wrapped up in the morning, the school granted the freshmen a day and a half off, hoping the students would take a good rest to properly welcome their brand-new university life.
After eating lunch in the cafeteria and coordinating with his roommates to go out for barbecue that evening, Jiang Chen returned home. With nothing to do, he decided to give the living room and kitchen a thorough deep clean. Since Xia Xiaoyue was not home, it wouldn't disturb her.
Without a second thought, Jiang Chen scrubbed the kitchen until it shone. When he pulled back the curtains to look out at the balcony, a set of women's intimate apparel caught his eye. Since only he and Xia Xiaoyue lived in the apartment, these undoubtedly belonged to her.
Jiang Chen instantly dropped the curtain and began frantically reciting the Heart-Cleansing Incantation. Although the balcony was shared space, Jiang Chen rarely ever used it. For one thing, his own bedroom faced south, so he usually dried his laundry right inside his room. For another, the balcony's layout was terribly unpractical, as it provided a direct pathway to the master bedroom.
After a short while, Jiang Chen resumed cleaning the living room, thinking to himself with a quiet sigh, "Having a too-beautiful female roommate isn't necessarily a good thing."
By the time the living room was spotless, Xia Xiaoyue still hadn't returned. Which made sense—being a counselor was a demanding job; there was no way she would get a break right now.
Back in his bedroom, Jiang Chen opened his computer and browsed the campus forum, looking for second-hand electric scooters for sale. For Jiang Chen, saving a penny whenever possible was the priority. Finding nothing satisfactory right away, he simply browsed the forum at random.
Every day brought fresh gossip to the forum, but the moment Jiang Chen spotted a newly published post, he clicked on it immediately. It turned out to be about Xia Xiaoyue. The author was anonymous, and the content consisted merely of a series of screenshots from an older post that could no longer be found.
The post attacked Xia Xiaoyue's family background, claiming she was a child abandoned by her father and neglected by her mother, that she wore a sour face in the dorm all day long, and that absolutely no one was willing to be her friend.
Jiang Chen's expression darkened. He stared fixedly at the screen, his chest heaving violently with anger.
When he finally finished reading the entire post, the fury in his heart instantly erupted like a volcano!
He felt as though his lungs were about to burst from rage. His fingers gripped the mouse so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Chen rapidly typed a sentence into the comment section: "Malicious rumors will face severe legal punishment!" Once sent, still unsatisfied, he immediately hit the report button and blocked the user.
Even after doing all this, Jiang Chen could not calm the storm inside him. He picked up his phone and dialed the number of the forum administrator.
"Hello? I want to report a post... Yes, it's full of malicious rumors! It's going to cause severe harm and a terrible impact on the person involved. Please take it down immediately!" Jiang Chen spoke at breakneck speed, his voice filled with anxiety and indignation.
While waiting for the post to be removed, Jiang Chen remained on edge, a heavy stone pressing down on his chest. He kept refreshing the page, his eyes glued to the screen, terrified of missing any update.
Finally, upon seeing that the hateful post had vanished, Jiang Chen let out a long breath of relief. The heavy stone finally dropped from his heart, and he felt immensely lighter.
Yet, even though the post was deleted, its view count had already grown quite substantial by then. The mere thought of this made Jiang Chen's briefly relaxed mood sink back into heaviness.
He thought with deep worry, "With so many views, I wonder if Xia Xiaoyue will be affected by this? In this day and age, rumors spread so fast—once this thing propagates, the consequences are simply unimaginable..."