The direction of the forum changed in an instant.
Chen Zhiyan’s post—seemingly casual but packed with hidden meaning—instantly caused an uproar on the Hangyang University campus forum.
Just a moment ago, students were still vehemently criticizing the “sickly beauty from the Archaeology Department,” condemning her on all fronts, yet the next second, it was as if everyone collectively lost their memories.
They all switched sides, turning to analyze the subtle and ambiguous undertones between Chen Zhiyan’s words.
[Friends? I get it, I totally get it dog head]
[“She’s not well, I hope everyone won’t listen to rumors and bother her.” …There’s really nothing going on between them?]
[So all those previous revelations were fake? Was someone just jealous and deliberately spreading rumors?]
[How naive, upstairs. Didn’t you notice that Chen Zhiyan didn’t mention anything about that “sponsor” at all?]
…
The vortex of public opinion quietly shifted.
The gossiping masses diverted their fervor from morally judging Hua Qian to speculating about the “friendship” between her and Chen Zhiyan.
Meanwhile, the person who started this storm—Zhao Yingying—found her situation taking a sudden nosedive.
Those so-called “girlfriends” who used to gossip with her behind people’s backs instantly scattered like frightened birds upon seeing Chen Zhiyan personally step in.
They deleted their supportive comments under the posts, disbanded the group chat specifically for Hua Qian gossip, and even, when running into Zhao Yingying on the road, detoured around her as if avoiding the plague.
After all, to offend Chen Zhiyan—a campus figure everyone revered—over the gossip of a classmate they weren’t even that close to… no matter how you looked at it, it was a losing deal.
It was fine to badmouth people with Zhao Yingying when nothing was happening, but when real trouble came, wasn’t it natural for each to fly their own way in the face of disaster?
What made Zhao Yingying feel even colder inside was He Yi.
The same He Yi who had always followed her around like a little shadow, obeying her every word, had now begun openly avoiding her.
No longer did He Yi take the initiative to share new snacks or chatter about the latest dramas with her.
Even when Zhao Yingying tried to start a conversation, He Yi would quickly find an excuse to slip away.
Zhao Yingying sat in the dorm room, the air still lingering with the tension of yesterday’s argument.
“A bunch of fawning, backstabbing bitches!”
Annoyed, Zhao Yingying slammed her phone on the table.
The screen glaringly displayed the order page for the new eyeshadow palette she’d just purchased.
She needed to shop, to use consumption to fill the emptiness and anger inside.
She tossed the recently arrived cosmetics package from the mail station onto her desk.
She tore it open roughly, taking out the unopened makeup inside.
After wrestling with the package, she heard He Yi and Li Xiaozhen leaving the room.
Only then did she glance at the time.
There was still class later.
Zhao Yingying clicked her tongue irritably.
She grabbed her phone and left for class without bothering to clean up the mess on her desk.
But after class, when she returned to the dorm—
Because she’d seen Hua Qian in class, she had looked forward to using her new makeup to create a flawless “battle” look and improve her mood.
Yet her desk was completely empty.
“My eyeshadow?! The new one I just bought!!” Zhao Yingying shrieked instantly.
Her sharp voice echoed throughout the dorm.
He Yi, just coming in, instinctively frowned.
Zhao Yingying ignored her and began to search frantically.
She ransacked the entire desk and the floor but couldn’t find a trace.
All those cosmetics she’d opened were perfectly fine when she left, but now they had vanished without a trace.
Stolen?
“Did either of you see my cosmetics from my package?!”
She turned on He Yi and Li Xiaozhen, demanding.
The two just shrugged, indicating they hadn’t noticed anything.
Zhao Yingying paced the room restlessly.
At last—
Li Xiaozhen poked her head out from her seat, as if she’d suddenly remembered something, her face dark and hesitant.
“…”
“I just remembered, I might have seen your cosmetics.”
Zhao Yingying instantly zeroed in on her.
“When?!”
Her eyes were bloodshot, looking a bit frightening.
Li Xiaozhen shrank back, looking Zhao Yingying up and down before cautiously continuing.
“…When I was taking out the trash.”
Zhao Yingying found the crushed, coffee-stained, fruit peel-smeared box in the trash can downstairs.
She trembled all over with rage.
Her first suspect, of course, was Hua Qian.
After all, Hua Qian had thrown her things away before when everyone went to class.
But she vaguely recalled that this time, when she went to class, Hua Qian was already in the classroom—meaning Hua Qian had left even earlier than she did.
So, besides Hua Qian, who else could it be?
He Yi and Li Xiaozhen?
She’d watched those two leave with her own eyes!
So it couldn’t have been them either.
Who else could there be?
Those “girlfriends” who were now ignoring her?
Although they were avoiding her now, they didn’t have the guts to mess with her.
So who was it?!
Zhao Yingying wanted to ask the dorm manager for the surveillance footage.
But she was told—
The cameras had “coincidentally” malfunctioned during the period after they’d left the room.
To prove she wasn’t brushing Zhao Yingying off, the dorm manager even showed her the footage.
The footage was normal at first, but just a few minutes after Zhao Yingying and the others left, the feed began to flicker, turning to static.
Then, it went black entirely.
An hour later, it inexplicably returned to normal—
But for that exact period after everyone left, there was no record at all… as if it was targeting her deliberately.
Even the cameras acting up like this—didn’t that mean there was no way to find the “culprit”?
Unless the culprit even had the power to control the cameras?
All Zhao Yingying could do was admit her bad luck and return to her dorm, seething with rage.
She never expected this was only the beginning.
For the next half-day, Zhao Yingying experienced a series of inexplicable events.
Her newly bought lipstick broke clean in half after she returned from a quick browse online.
The bullet was gouged as if someone had dug their nails into it.
Her favorite bottle of perfume inexplicably ran empty.
The dorm was filled with that sickly-sweet fragrance, mixing with the scent of Li Xiaozhen’s scented candles, making her dizzy and nauseous.
But inside the bottle, there remained a strange liquid residue.
Faintly pinkish, with a subtle, metallic, bloody tang.
What scared her even more was the mirrors.
Whether it was the full-length mirror in the dorm or the compact in her bag—
She kept catching flashes of a red shadow in the reflection, something that didn’t belong in the room.
Sometimes, a patch of dampness would appear on the mirror’s surface for no reason, as if someone had just touched it with wet hands, leaving behind twisted, eerie marks.
Zhao Yingying was about to lose her mind.
It hadn’t even been half a day, and she was already paranoid and jumpy.
She didn’t dare stay in the dorm alone, but there was nowhere else to go.
She tried asking He Yi for help, only to receive a panicked, evasive look and a hasty escape.
She thought about going to Li Xiaozhen, but seeing her even more neurotic and muttering to herself all day, Zhao Yingying gave up on that idea.
At that moment, she suddenly remembered the strange change on Hua Qian’s face when she’d tried to hit her earlier…
Could it be…
Was all this Hua Qian’s doing?!
…
Sitting in the empty classroom, Hua Qian stared at her phone with a blank expression.
This classroom had no scheduled classes next, which was why she stayed behind after the lesson.
Her forum account was newly registered, with an empty profile and no avatar.
But she didn’t rush to post anything.
Instead, she organized all the information He Yi provided, screenshots of several key gossip threads from the forum, and her own recollections of Zhao Yingying’s everyday words and actions into a single document.
She remembered Zhao Yingying’s animated, possessive expression whenever she gossiped about Chen Zhiyan in the dorm.
And her usual habits and mannerisms.
These seemingly trivial details were dissected, analyzed, and recombined in Hua Qian’s calm mind.
Hua Qian’s dark eyes held no anger, no grievance, only focus and coldness.
From the mutual follows of the “leading” accounts, she identified what looked like Zhao Yingying’s main account.
She then compared the writing of the “anonymous” account to Zhao Yingying’s posts.
Zhao Yingying used her main account like a diary, full of her delusional fantasies about Chen Zhiyan and her discontent toward a certain roommate.
Normally, such posts would mean nothing.
But matched with the content posted by the “anonymous” account, the implications became very interesting…
She posted her findings.
Hua Qian let out a long breath, as if expelling all the stifled air from the past few days.
She turned off her phone, no longer caring about the forum’s reactions.
Barring any surprises, Zhao Yingying would soon suffer the consequences of her actions.
But the trouble Zhao Yingying caused wasn’t over yet… If it were only an issue of public opinion, that would be nothing to her…
[Your campus life is quite lively.]
[Come to my office tomorrow.]
As soon as she opened the app, Lin Yanqiu’s oppressive messages appeared again.
Taking a deep breath, Hua Qian put her phone back in her pocket and stood up, heading toward the administrative building.
The reason she didn’t return to the dorm after class… was that she still had to go to Lin Yanqiu’s office.
Although Lin Yanqiu hadn’t said what this was about… Hua Qian had a vague feeling.
Was she about to get called out again?
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