Zhou Yu lay on his bunk, flipping through a script.
A modern drama.
The male lead is the scion of a wealthy family who has fallen on hard times, only to be despised by the family of his arranged marriage partner—the female lead.
They force the female lead to draw a clear line between herself and the male lead.
Despite their deep affection, the couple is inevitably defeated by the crushing weight of reality.
In a quiet café, they make their final farewell...
With his photographic memory, Zhou Yu flipped through the script from start to finish, locking every line of dialogue firmly in his mind.
This scene of the dialogue between the male and female leads is the heaviest dramatic part of the entire modern drama.
If this part falls flat, the tone of the entire production will be thrown off balance.
It seems that Teacher Hao Zhitong will definitely pick this scene for the lead audition that day.
I just wonder how the person behind the scenes plans to orchestrate things to make a fool of me?
He holds the script right in his hands now.
What else could they possibly manipulate?
Could it be preventing him from attending?
Like: getting diarrhea, getting hit by a car, or some other trouble...
It looks like he needs to be careful over the next couple of days, lest he capsize in a drainage ditch.
"Damn it, Yu-ge, check out the campus forum right now!"
Zheng Hao cried out with exaggerated drama, urging Zhou Yu to open his phone and look at the campus forum.
Zhou Yu lazily rolled over.
"Look at what? Didn't you guys already check it earlier?"
"No, no, man! The campus forum is flooded with posts dragging you through the mud!"
Zhou Yu raised an eyebrow. Dragging him?
Gong Liyang's smirking face flashed instantly through his mind.
The campus forum was locked in a fierce debate over whether Zhou Yu was actually a stealth billionaire.
Even old photos of Zhou Yu dressed plainly and eating humble meals had been pushed to the trending searches.
Tsk tsk, the angles were perfunctory and the images blurry; anyone who didn't know Zhou Yu would never be able to tell it was the same person.
"I bet any money Zhou Yu is just a total fake flexing for clout!"
"If he were really rich, he wouldn't have been living and eating so frugally before! This is too absurd; could he be kept by some wealthy sugar mommy?"
"To the person above, that sugar mommy must be insanely generous! Just handing out a multimillion-dollar sports car like that! Please send a dozen such sugar mommies my way!"
"I heard there are some perverted older women out there in society who just love pretty boys like Zhou Yu! Especially ones who like to make pretty boys lick X and drink X. Sigh, who would have thought, the top freshman in the acting department would stoop to this!"
"Who said Zhou Yu is kept by a sugar mommy? The really rich one is an older man!"
"Holy shit, seriously?! Are you for real, upstairs? Blech..."
The discussions on the forum grew increasingly twisted. Without needing to provide real names, people could unleash the dirtiest, most shameless speculations hidden deep in their hearts, enjoying the secret thrill brought by insulting others.
Zhou Yu's eyes turned icy!
"Damn it, these people are going way too far! Yu-ge, don't worry, your bro is going to clear your name right now!"
Righteous indignation burning within him, Zheng Hao's fingers flew across his screen.
He posted several comments in a row, only for them to be buried under an avalanche of negative replies.
They didn't even make a ripple.
Some people even claimed he was Zhou Yu himself, desperately trying to do damage control.
Which only proved he had a guilty conscience, cementing those baseless rumors as absolute truth.
"Hahaha, haha! Zhou Yu, let's see how you turn things around now, you bastard!"
Li Qiang lay on his bed, his layers of fat trembling with laughter.
Every now and then, he gave instructions to his phone: "All of you give it everything you've got, tear him apart! How dare he make a fool of me? I'll make sure he can never lift his head up again anywhere in Hangzhou University!"
The light from his phone screen reflected on Li Qiang's malicious face, making it look all the more hideous.
At the same time, in the girls' dormitory.
Su Yao had just finished washing up and returned to her room when her roommates swarmed around her.
"Su Yao, come look at the campus forum quickly! It says... it says Zhou Yu is being kept by a sugar mommy and an older man! Is this true?"
Su Yao's hand stopped mid-motion as she dried her hair.
Could this be the real reason Zhou Yu suddenly started acting like a wealthy person?
Hah, and here she had actually thought Zhou Yu possessed some special background.
Turns out he was just someone's kept toy?
No wonder!
Good thing she stopped Zhou Yu today and didn't say anything else that could be easily misunderstood.
She had only reminded him to build up some goodwill.
Hmph, Zhou Yu was nothing special after all; he had ended up taking that path himself.
And yet he used to look at her with such a lofty, sanctimonious gaze, as if she were the filthy one.
What did he have to be smug about?!
Right now, Su Yao actually felt a surge of excitement. If Zhou Yu was being kept by some bigshot, perhaps she could use him to climb even higher.
And secure some resources!
"Su Yao! Su Yao! Why aren't you saying anything? Is it true or not?"
A flash of irritation crossed Su Yao's eyes as she effortlessly brushed past the girl blocking her path.
"I'm not really sure. Excuse me!"
...
"Mengyan, see! I told you that you were being fooled by that punk Zhou Yu! It's all over the internet that he's being kept by an older man! And you still wouldn't believe it!"
Sun Qing kept chattering endlessly in Yun Mengyan's ear.
Yet Yun Mengyan didn't even spare her a glance. "Can you shut your mouth? Your bad breath is so severe, do you have *Helicobacter pylori*? If it's that bad, go get tested immediately, and don't pass it on to the rest of us!"
Hearing Yun Mengyan's words, the other two roommates in the dormitory immediately scrambled a full eight yards away from Sun Qing.
Sun Qing was so angry she almost choked.
Subconsciously, she raised a hand and breathed into it, and a foul odor hit her nasal cavity.
Ugh!
She had been dieting to lose weight lately; though she had gotten thinner, her stomach had been acting up continuously.
Could she really have caught that pylori bug thing?
"Wuuwuu! Mengyan, I was clearly only looking out for you, how can you say something like that to me!"
Sun Qing felt deeply wounded by her roommates' reactions.
She covered her mouth and ran off to brush her teeth!
"Mengyan, you don't think we'll actually get infected, do we?"
One of the women asked.
"As long as we don't eat out of the same bowl and pay attention usually, we'll be fine!"
"Oh god, Sun Qing insisted on picking food out of my bowl with her chopsticks yesterday; what if I'm infected too..."
Ding-dong!
Another message popped up on the campus forum.
"Actually, just ask Campus Belle Yun and you'll know. How could a young lady from the Yun family possibly date a guy who's kept by someone?"
"Yeah, exactly! Campus Belle Yun, are you there? Please clear this up!"
"What's wrong with you people? Campus Belle Yun and Young Master Gong are a pair. Let me tell you all, stop trying to latch onto our Young Master Gong's woman."
"As for that Zhou Yu fellow, hurry up and explain yourself! You have nothing to do with our Campus Belle Yun!"
"Yeah, is Zhou Yu even a man? So many people are cursing you out and you haven't even let out a peep! You're an embarrassment to all guys!"
"If you don't want to be a man, go book yourself a sex change operation right now!"
Yun Mengyan's chest heaved with anger. These people had gone too far!
Did they really think they could willfully smear others online without any legal consequences just because they could spout nonsense?
She was just about to post a message to help clear Zhou Yu's name when another roommate stopped her.
"Mengyan, you don't need to worry. Boring posts like this lose traction by tomorrow! If you speak up, you'll only make the situation blow up even worse!"
Yet the fire burning in Yun Mengyan's heart could not be suppressed at all.
So what if the traction died down later?
Zhou Yu's reputation had already been ruined; in terms of the Hangzhou University campus, it was practically a social death.
Yun Mengyan made up her mind, her delicate fingers flying across the screen.
"I am Yun Mengyan. That's right, my boyfriend is Zhou Yu! He is a young man of upstanding character and excellent academic performance! I hope everyone will stop making malicious speculations!"
Whoosh!
The campus forum fell silent for a single second at Yun Mengyan's declaration.
Then it exploded!
Nobody doubted that someone was impersonating Yun Mengyan, because she had turned on the real-name verification setting.
Resentment, grievance, disbelief, shock, jealousy, and curses were everywhere.
[Ding! System task: Please generously acknowledge your boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with the Campus Belle. Reward: a six-million-dollar Lamborghini sports car!]