Auntie Wang was blocked by Lin Fan's neither-soft-nor-hard retort. Her face turned pale and then green, and with a disgruntled huff, she hitched her waist and walked away.
Yet this matter was far from over.
The next day, in the hallway and by the public water station, Auntie Wang’s signature loud voice began to drift around, intentionally or unintentionally, specifically picking times when people were gathered.
"Hey, have you all heard? That Lin Fan kid on the third floor isn't learning right at his age. I reckon he's knocked up some female classmate!"
Lowering her voice to another neighbor who was doing laundry, yet pitching it just right so that the surrounding few people with pricked ears could hear, she added with a wink and a nudge:
"That female classmate, she wears a hat and mask every day like a thief. She comes every evening carrying bags and bundles—imported milk powder, imported fruit. Tsk tsk, if you ask me, she's just feeling guilty and using money and goods to pacify the little one!"
Another neighbor leaned in, lowering her voice: "Really? He looks like such an honest student, and that girl looks pretty innocent too."
"Honest? Innocent? Hmph, you can't judge people's hearts just by their faces these days!"
Auntie Wang curled her lips, spittle flying as she spoke:
"Dressed up like a human being, and the things she brings aren't cheap either. I bet eight or nine times out of ten, her family has a bit of money and they're afraid of the scandal, so they're using money to buy his silence! How pitiful—the child is already so big, and now he remembers to take responsibility? What was he doing earlier?! Such a public disgrace!"
The gossip spread like wildfire, embellished and distorted until the versions grew more and more outrageous. Mu Qingxue’s hat and mask became signs of "a guilty conscience," and the milk powder and fruit she brought turned into "maintenance fees" and "hush money."
As for Lin Fan, he was branded as "a scumbag living off a woman who got his female classmate pregnant" and "a gigolo relying on a woman and child to extort money."
That afternoon, just after Mu Qingxue left, Mengmeng pulled the door crack open to look outside. Her little head had barely poked out when she heard Auntie Wang chatting animatedly with Granny Zhang from downstairs:
"...It's that Lin Fan, he got his so-called 'classmate' pregnant. Now the girl comes every day to drop off things, and I don't think that girl is any good either, running around like that at such a young age... Tsk tsk, not learning right when she's so little, she's bound to amount to nothing in the future. What a way to ruin the atmosphere of our building!"
Mengmeng’s little face turned pale as a sheet. Her tiny hands trembled as she quickly shut the door, her eyes welling up instantly. She stumbled and threw herself into Lin Fan's arms, her small body shaking uncontrollably as she asked in a tearful, muffled voice:
"Daddy, Grandma Wang... why is Grandma Wang saying Mommy is a bad woman? She also said Daddy... Daddy is a ruffian... Wuwu... Daddy, Mengmeng is scared... Mommy is a good mommy..."
Holding his daughter and listening to her fearful, childish questions, Lin Fan felt a surge of unholy fury rush straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, burning his internal organs in searing pain.
He could endure others calling him poor, calling him useless, but splashing such filth on Mu Qingxue and Mengmeng was something he could not tolerate!
His chest heaved violently, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked, and the veins on his temples throbbed. For the first time, he felt an unmasked disgust and a fierce impulse to retaliate against the petty and venomous Auntie Wang.
Suppressing the raging fury in his heart, he gently coaxed the frightened Mengmeng to sleep, then immediately used his old mobile phone to send a text message to Mu Qingxue.
He described Auntie Wang's vicious rumors and Mengmeng's reaction in as few words as possible, the lines radiating suppressed anger and a hint of helplessness.
Not long after the message was sent, Mu Qingxue replied with just a single word: "Wait."
Lin Fan could picture her at the other end of the phone, hands and feet cold with rage upon reading the message.
Such gossip was devastatingly lethal to any girl who cared about her reputation, let alone a proud daughter of heaven like Mu Qingxue. If this spread to the school, and especially to her stepmother—who demanded perfection of her to a pathological degree—the consequences would be utterly unimaginable!
Would she...
Lin Fan's heart tightened, terrified that she might shrink back from this, or even choose to take Mengmeng and flee this place of right and wrong.
Sure enough, seeing that Mu Qingxue hadn't come for the past few days and that Lin Fan always hurried by with his head down, Auntie Wang assumed they were scared and became even more emboldened.
That evening, calculating that Lin Fan would be coming home from school, she blocked his doorway holding an empty basin and spoke with a smile that didn't reach her eyes:
"Xiao Lin, it's not that I want to lecture you, but young people still need to walk the righteous path. Look at this room of yours, hiding a child, and that female classmate doesn't even dare to come openly—what kind of way is this?"
Her triangular eyes swept back and forth between Lin Fan and the tightly closed door, her tone laced with undisguised malice and probing intent:
"If you really have difficulties and feel embarrassed to tell your family, you can tell Auntie. Auntie has a kind heart and simply can't bear to watch young people stray onto the wrong path. I can help you call the police, or contact the girl's parents directly and have her family come solve this! We can't just leave things in this ambiguous state and ruin the atmosphere of our building, don't you agree? I heard you guys are students at City No. 1 High School, right? If this goes on any longer, I really am going to have to report the situation properly to the neighborhood committee and your school! At the absolute latest, I'm going to go speak up by next Monday!"
This was practically a naked threat, complete with a deadline.
Lin Fan bit down hard on his back molars, his temples throbbing fiercely. He knew that going head-to-head with someone this unreasonable would only blow the matter out of proportion and make things worse for them.
He took a deep breath, forcing his voice to sound as calm as possible: "Auntie Wang, this is my own personal business. There's no need to trouble you with it."
"Personal business? Hmph, once it affects everyone else, it's no longer personal business!" Auntie Wang refused to let up, her voice raising a notch higher.
Lin Fan ignored her, turned around, stepped into the room, and pulled the door shut behind him.
Leaning his back against the door panel and listening to Auntie Wang grumble and curse as she walked away outside, he finally let out a heavy breath.
He immediately sent a message to Mu Qingxue to inform her of Auntie Wang's ultimatum, a hint of anxiety in his tone: "She's going to report us to the school, by next Monday at the latest. We have to figure something out."
This time, Mu Qingxue replied very quickly, but the content took Lin Fan somewhat by surprise:
"Hiding is no solution; it will only make her more arrogant. Since she loves to talk and meddle so much, we'll let her 'talk her fill.' Doesn't she love gossip and shouting things from the rooftops? Perhaps we can use this to make her spit out the filth she swallowed with her own mouth."
Between the lines, her previous panic was gone, replaced by a desperate, cold determination and ruthlessness, carrying even a sharp, chilling edge.
Looking at the text message, Lin Fan's heart stirred.
Use this? Make her spit it out herself? How?
Late into the night, the light in Auntie Wang's apartment next door was still on. Tossing and turning, unable to sleep, Lin Fan faintly heard Auntie Wang lowering her voice on the phone, a few intermittent keywords drifting over:
"...Right, that student... public disgrace... City No. 1 High School... must report... can't let them ruin the atmosphere... I'll go to the Academic Affairs Office on Monday..."
Lin Fan's heart plummeted, cold sweat beading on his forehead. Auntie Wang was actually going through with this! And she had already planned out the time!
He sat up abruptly, his gaze turning exceptionally sharp in the darkness.