Floor 1: [Gu Yu? Oh my god, my heart is breaking…]
Floor 2: [Didn’t he claim he wasn’t interested in girls? Turns out he was just acting. He really hides it deep, huh?]
Floor 3: [And to think I used to look up to him as my role model. What a huge disappointment.]
Floor 4: [Sigh, I thought he was so cool at the sports meet today. Who knew he was this kind of person on the inside! Ptu!]
Floor 5: [Anyone who hasn’t invested in him yet, run! He’s a total double-standard hypocrite. Weren’t there rumors before about him tearing up someone’s confession letter?]
Floor 6: [Who is the girl in this picture? Holy crap, can’t they exercise some decency in public?]
Floor 7: [Decency? If they’re this impatient at school, who knows what they’re doing off-campus!]
Floor 8: [No way, I don’t believe it! My male god is definitely not that kind of person! Maybe he just genuinely met someone he likes…]
Floor 9: [Can you brainless people please get out of here? The evidence is right in front of you, and you’re still calling him a male god?]
Floor 10: [Sigh, Che-god is so close to him. He won’t be corrupted, will he? Sobbing.]
Floor 11: [Heh, birds of a feather flock together. Who can say for sure!]
Floor 12: [If you don’t have solid proof, shut your mouths!]
……
“Stop looking at it. Let’s talk when we get home.” Zhao Che turned off the phone screen, his expression dark as if suppressing a wave of anger. In contrast, Gu Yu’s expression didn’t change much, but the plummeting aura around him was enough to say everything.
Halfway home, Gu Yu spoke up: “It was this afternoon.”
Zhao Che looked back at him, his voice carrying a soothing tone: “I know. It’s okay, I believe you.”
Once upstairs, they went into Gu Yu’s room together. Gu Yu recounted everything that had happened that afternoon, word for word, without missing a single detail.
Zhao Che asked, “Was there anyone else nearby at the time?”
Gu Yu shook his head and said, “No.”
The forced-perspective effect created by that angle was clearly intentional. Since Wang Anran had been the one to proactively call Gu Yu over, this whole affair undoubtedly had something to do with her.
Zhao Che pulled out his phone, added Wang Anran’s contact info through the group chat, and then went to ask Zhou Wei—the person operating the school confessional wall behind the scenes.
Gu Yu lowered his head, reopened the thread, and scrolled down. Countless malicious comments rushed toward him—flattering, harsh, praising, complaining, admiring, hateful… people were saying everything imaginable. As he kept reading, his eyes gradually turned hollow, and his mind drifted back to his middle school days.
It was during a parent-teacher conference after the mid-term exams. Gu Yu had been assigned by the teacher to keep attendance at the classroom door. A classmate walked past him, sneering with disdain: “Hmph! An adopted orphan, no matter how well you score, it’s useless!”
Gu Yu had excelled since he was young, but his personality was naturally withdrawn. Hearing such a provocation, he didn’t pay it any mind, simply keeping his head down to continue his work.
Gu Yu’s inaction, however, did not help; it only led to the other boy’s escalating behavior. Throughout it all, not a single classmate stepped in to stop it. It wasn’t until Gu Yu felt a light pat on his shoulder that he finally reacted.
“Hey, tubby, where are your parents?” It was a rather unfriendly interrogation.
“Zhao Che, who are you calling tubby? My mom is over there!” the boy snapped, pointing at a plump woman walking over gracefully, clad in a mink coat and sunglasses.
“Oh. So that’s why you have no manners?”
Zhao Che’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was clear enough for the woman to hear. However, as she approached, she merely took off her sunglasses, scanned Gu Yu up and down, let out a cold snort, and naturally pinned the label of “having no manners” straight onto Gu Yu’s head.
“Let’s go, son.” The woman scribbled carelessly on the sign-in sheet and headed toward the classroom. “Stay away from people like this.”
“As expected, poor upbringing really gets passed down through generations,” Zhao Che remarked from behind, deliberately drawing out his words.
Having taken only a few steps, the woman whirled around in a fury upon hearing this: “Who are you talking about?!”
“Whoever responds is who I’m talking about.”
A crowd of onlookers had already gathered. The woman barely managed to swallow her rage and sat down in her seat without another word.
Once the crowd gradually dispersed, Gu Yu finally spoke up, his voice somewhat low: “Why are you here?”
“If I didn’t come, were you just going to let him bully you like that?” Zhao Che’s hand remained resting on his shoulder, not letting go.
Gu Yu was speechless: “…”
“I happened to be passing by just now. But what if I hadn’t come?” Seeing how Gu Yu lowered his head without speaking again, Zhao Che felt helpless. Clearing his throat, he said solemnly: “You live in my house now, which means you’re part of my family. Next time anyone bullies you, fight back. Someone will back you up. Got it?”
Gu Yu had lived with the Zhao family for five years, and Wang Xue and Zhao Guowei had always treated him as their own. Yet, what that chubby kid said was indeed a fact. He had no reason to refute it—nor did he know how to.
After what seemed like a long inner struggle, he nodded somewhat mechanically: “Got it.”
Seeing how Gu Yu looked cold yet adorably dazed, Zhao Che found it a bit funny and teased, “Then call me Brother Che.”
“We’re in the same grade.”
“I’m still older than you.” Zhao Che’s tone carried a hint of playful pride.
Although there was only a half-year difference between them, they usually called each other by name in their daily lives. There was never any talk of “older or younger brother,” except when Zhao Che was deliberately joking around.
Gu Yu didn’t take the bait. He lowered his head and continued taking attendance, clearly adopting an attitude of not bothering to argue.
“Later, my mom will come to attend the conference for you, and my dad will attend for me.”
Gu Yu didn’t expect Zhao Che to say this. He stared at him for a moment, pursed his dry lips, and asked in confusion, “Why?”
“What do you mean why?”
“Isn’t Auntie Xue attending for you?”
Zhao Che rubbed the back of his neck and said casually, “It was a last-minute decision by my mom. Don’t worry about it, I’m heading out first.” With that, he hurriedly ran off toward the staircase.
Gu Yu: “…”
Later, without knowing how Wang Xue found out about the incident, she pulled that chubby kid aside and gave him a stern lecture, followed by lecturing the kid’s mother as well.
A sudden click of a phone screen locking broke the silence. Gu Yu’s gaze was still fixed in mid-air, his eyelashes trembling slightly, as if he had just been pulled out from his own world.
Outside the window, the sky had completely darkened. Zhao Che’s jawline was set tight, and he was holding Gu Yu’s phone in his hand: “Do you have any leads? Or anyone you suspect?”
Gu Yu paused for only a second before uttering two words: “Sun Hao.”
Zhao Che nodded in agreement: “I think so too.”
From the initial malicious assault to the verbal abuse, Sun Hao had been beaten up twice at Boxuelin. Just yesterday, after they took Wang Anran away, Sun Hao had even left behind a vicious threat: “Just you wait.”
All signs pointed to the high probability that Sun Hao was behind this.
Yet one thing remained unexplained—why would Wang Anran get involved to frame Gu Yu?
“I can’t reach Wang Anran right now. She’s been out of reach since school let out, and her phone keeps giving a busy signal,” Zhao Che stated word by word. “I’ve already contacted the teacher to intervene and delete the post. Tomorrow, all these nasty things will be gone.”
“Mm.” Gu Yu showed little emotion, as if this whole ordeal didn’t affect him much.
“Don’t worry.” Zhao Che looked at Gu Yu with a complex, pained gaze. “Everything will come to light.”
Gu Yu stayed silent for a moment, then let out a faint, brief smile. It was like a gentle ripple stirred by a breeze across a lake’s surface, vanishing after just a few sways: “Thank you.”
At night, Zhao Che sat at his study desk, staring out the window. There was no moon tonight; it seemed like a cloudy day was setting in.
He tapped his phone a few times, switching to an account named “Little Cutie” that he had only used once before—a long time ago, he had used this account to post a confession thread to Gu Yu.
The screen paused for a moment before the messages slowly loaded, densely packed with comments regarding that old confession post about Gu Yu.
When he clicked in, the comment section was no longer like before, when there were only scattered bits of curiosity and teasing. New comments flooded in like a tide, overwhelming the old ones, mostly filled with ill-intentioned speculations:
Floor 51: [So the poster got dumped? Gu Yu must have hooked up with someone else long ago. He really kept it hidden, huh.]
Floor 52: [I feel bad for the poster. Giving your true heart to a dog, only to run into someone who acts one way on the surface and another behind your back. How pitiful~]
Floor 53: [I wonder how the poster even fell for him in the first place. Couldn’t have been just for his face, right? Heh.]
Floor 54: [Give it a break, floor above! Our Little Cutie is a victim too, okay?]
……
Those words wrapped in “concern” were even more suffocating than direct abuse. The thread he had originally posted out of a touch of jealousy had now turned into evidence used by others to attack Gu Yu for “poor character”!
He stared at the screen, typing on the keyboard for nearly half an hour. After deleting and editing countlessly, he finally submitted a clarification post to the school confessional wall.
Little Cutie: > Regarding everyone’s comments and the rumors about Gu Yu, I would like to clarify a few things:
He and I have never been together, but I have always liked him.
He is very kind and frequently helps classmates, almost never refusing a request.
I have been in the same school with him since primary school, and he has never been in a relationship—not even once. Many people can attest to this.
He is not hypocritical or pretending to be aloof; he simply has a cold personality and isn’t good at handling overly enthusiastic advances.
The two circulating photos were blurry to begin with, showing only vague actions. Instead of jumping straight to wild accusations, why haven’t you considered that someone might have intentionally shot them from a forced perspective to spread rumors?
Lastly, I hope everyone won’t judge a person based on one-sided claims. Those who actually know him know what kind of person he is.
After this post went live, Zhao Che switched back to his main account and commented underneath: [I believe Gu Yu. Everything will come to light.]
He forwarded the post to the class group chat. With Zhou Wei and Wei Junjie taking the lead, almost the entire class rallied. Below the post, a string of agreeing names quickly followed: [We believe Yu-ge! Rumors will crumble into dust!]
Before long, the tide in the comment section began to quietly shift.
Those who had previously defended Gu Yu but were shouted down into silence now emerged one after another.
Some deleted their previously hesitant comments and posted directly: [I always believed Gu Yu wasn’t that kind of person! I was too scared to speak up after getting flamed earlier, but finally, someone is speaking sense!]
Others shot back at the remaining scattered hate comments: [Blindly guessing without seeing it with your own eyes—watch your mouth!]
Even a girl who had previously sent a love letter to Gu Yu typed out a line in the comment section: [I secretly slipped a love letter to Gu Yu before. It was indeed returned to me, but he returned it completely intact! It was never torn up or thrown away like the rumors claimed!]