After leaving the stage, she didn’t rush to find Liang Xiheng. Instead, she returned backstage, ready to deal with the rumor situation.
Now that the performance was over, and after holding back for so many days, it was time to settle accounts with someone.
Her gaze swept over the whirling dancers in their matching gilded gauze dresses, then she suddenly stepped forward, grabbed one girl’s wrist, and pulled her out of the waiting room, stopping at an empty windowsill.
Du Lanying shook off her hand. ”Yun Qing, what are you doing?”
But then—
The moment she looked up, she met eyes as cold as frost.
The dim night shrouded her face, yet her gaze was so sharp it seemed to see right through her.
In that instant, Du Lanying felt herself shrink inside. ”I…”
She stammered for a long while without managing a single complete sentence.
“Stop pretending. I can tell—you’re scared of me. You never used to be like this.” Yun Qing’s voice was icy, every word firm and clear.
She hadn’t even said anything outright, yet Du Lanying had already lost her composure, too guilty to meet her eyes.
“I was the one who posted it.”
Du Lanying admitted it through clenched fists, as if deciding she had nothing left to lose, glaring at her with fierce resentment.
“I didn’t say anything wrong. You were in that car for an hour and a half, weren’t you? I don’t believe you came out of there innocent. You dare respond on the forum only because some powerful person is backing you.”
Seeing her turn around and accuse her instead, Yun Qing looked at her in disbelief.
Their homeroom teacher often reminded them that the twelve of them needed unity, needed team spirit to create a good performance. So for three years at school, their class of twelve had never had any real conflict.
She had noticed something off about Du Lanying during rehearsal that day.
After observing her for several days, she had finally confirmed it—the person spreading the rumors was her. She just had no proof.
She never expected that a single sentence would be enough to scare the truth out of her.
“I never thought you were this kind of person.” Yun Qing frowned. “Have I ever provoked you? Why would you spread rumors and slander me like this?”
Du Lanying insisted, “I didn’t spread any rumors.”
“You didn’t? Then what did you see? Did you see with your own eyes what I did with him in that car?”
Du Lanying’s throat tightened, and she was instantly speechless.
The tension between them flared to its peak.
Yun Qing was deeply disappointed in her. “I don’t want to waste any more words on you. Since you’re not being sincere, I’ll have to handle this my own way.”
At those words—
Du Lanying was instantly flooded with fear and hurriedly called out to stop her. “Wait!”
A moment of silence.
She stood before her, panicked and uneasy, begging, “It was my fault. I’m apologizing to you. I’m begging you—please don’t blow this up, okay?”
Yun Qing said, “When you posted it, the bigger it blew up, the better, right?”
Du Lanying clutched her hand, scared to the point of tears. “I was wrong. I was truly wrong. I’m sorry. I’m begging you.”
Her voice suddenly choked with sobs. “I admit it—I was jealous of you. Jealous of how pretty you are, jealous of how effortlessly you draw everyone’s attention. As long as you’re there, no matter how hard the eleven of us work, no matter how well we dance, we’re nothing but your backdrop. Any competition you enter, we don’t even dare sign up.”
Yun Qing frowned and shot back, “Is that my fault?”
“I… I’m sorry. I really know I was wrong. I still want to keep dancing. Please forgive me just this once. I’ll never dare do it again.”
Yun Qing’s eyes darkened.
Given how aggressive Du Lanying had been from the start, she had no intention of forgiving her so easily.
“By tomorrow, you’ll post a clarification on the forum under your real name, admitting that you, Du Lanying, deliberately spread rumors. Then I’ll accept your apology.”
Du Lanying’s face went pale. “But… if I do that, how am I supposed to hold my head up at school?”
Yun Qing said coldly, “The harm I suffered is harm too. You spread rumors about me like that—I can’t hold my head up at school either.”
“But you…” Du Lanying cut herself off mid-sentence, swallowing the words she’d been about to say.
Yun Qing didn’t want to waste any more time on her. “By tomorrow, I want to see a satisfactory result.”
With that, she turned around cleanly and left without looking back.
Halfway there—
As if remembering something, she raised her phone, pressed pause on the recording, and saved it.
The rumors had done serious damage to her reputation. She needed a public clarification.
Now that she had the evidence in hand, even if Du Lanying refused to post it, she would take action herself and expose the recording.
With the matter settled, she felt considerably lighter.
Then she headed back to the auditorium to find Liang Xiheng.
However—
When she arrived, she glanced over the audience seats and found that Liang Xiheng’s spot was already empty.