After that, Shi Nianhuan seemed more lively and cheerful than before. She smiled carelessly in front of others, her eyes and brows curving like a painting, while her heart had long since become riddled with wounds and utterly broken.
That matter became an unhealable scar in Shi Nianhuan's heart from then on, untouchable and impossible to bear.
She never returned to that home again. With a bank card containing 500,000 in her hand, she no longer had to worry about living expenses.
Shi Nianhuan thought that as long as she did not go home and did not see Jiang Chenyu, she could pretend that nothing had ever happened.
The days passed peacefully for more than two weeks.
Until one day, all the classmates at school exploded with excitement.
Yes, the sun rose as usual that day, and the sky was as blue as ever, but an agitated atmosphere permeated the entire school.
There were no classes in the morning, so after Eating, Shi Nianhuan returned to the dormitory.
At around seven o'clock, Bi Tiantian should normally have been lying on the bed, fast asleep.
But as soon as she heard Shi Nianhuan enter that day, she poked an agitated little head out from the bed.
Shi Nianhuan was still smiling as she joked with Bi Tiantian, “Why did the little fairy get up so early today? No classes this morning?”
“Xiao Huanhuan, something happened. Did you know?” There was no joking expression on Bi Tiantian's face. Instead, she looked very serious.
Shi Nianhuan blinked and looked at Bi Tiantian, unclear why. What could have happened? Had the sky fallen?
“How can you not be curious even a little?” Bi Tiantian really had no idea what to do with her. Someone without any curiosity was truly difficult to understand.
“Then tell me. What exactly happened?”
“Here, look for yourself.” Bi Tiantian's arm reached down from the bed, and Shi Nianhuan caught the mobile phone she handed down.
After taking only a cursory glance, Shi Nianhuan's expression instantly became much more solemn.
Bi Tiantian said nothing either, quietly waiting for Shi Nianhuan to finish reading.
After quite a while, she returned the mobile phone to Bi Tiantian uneasily.
Sitting on the chair, Shi Nianhuan's mind was still filled with the contents of the post she had just seen.
It was a gossip post on the school Forum, yet it had occupied the front page since early this morning. Its view count remained high, and its popularity showed no sign of declining.
“Xiao Huanhuan, isn't Senior Lin very close to you? Do you want to call and ask whether he is all right?” After a long while, Bi Tiantian finally asked cautiously.
Shi Nianhuan deliberated, but said nothing.
Her hand clenched into a fist and remained that way for a long time.
A handsome, wealthy man gets cheated on; high-definition photos of his girlfriend in bed leak online...
It was a vulgar title. Shi Nianhuan felt somewhat repulsed at first glance, but she quickly found Lin Xiangyang's name beneath the post.
The photos below were extremely explicit. Although the private parts had been mosaicked, Shi Nianhuan still immediately recognized Momo from her profile and blurred facial features.
Momo... That girl who unconsciously livened up the atmosphere whenever she appeared, the happy girl Lin Xiangyang had smilingly called his girlfriend—how could something like this possibly have happened to her?
Shi Nianhuan grabbed her bag and hurriedly slammed the door shut as she left.
Bi Tiantian called out to her from behind, but she did not respond.
After leaving the dormitory, she impulsively ran to the building where Lin Xiangyang lived. Only when she reached the bottom did she come back to her senses in a daze.
Why had she come here? Did she want to call Lin Xiangyang? With his strong pride, Lin Xiangyang definitely would not accept anyone's concern at a time like this.
Shi Nianhuan felt that she had been reckless, and her heart was filled with bitterness. The boy she liked had been cheated on, yet she had to deliberate for a long time even before seeing him once.
Shi Nianhuan stood beneath the graduate dormitory for a long time, then finally left dejectedly.
Shi Nianhuan was absent-minded throughout the entire day. Her mind was completely occupied by Lin Xiangyang. Was he very sad? What exactly had happened between him and Momo? Had they broken up?
She even wondered whether she should be happy if Lin Xiangyang had truly broken up with Momo...
Did she still have the right to confess her feelings to Lin Xiangyang now?
That evening, Bi Tiantian pulled Shi Nianhuan along to eat. Unable to resist, Shi Nianhuan said she would go after putting her things in order.
Bi Tiantian leaned against the door on one side, playing with her mobile phone while waiting for her.
“Xiao Huanhuan, there has been new progress in the matter. Those people are truly crazy. They actually dug up everything about Senior Lin's girlfriend.” Bi Tiantian had seen the latest developments and couldn't help sharing them with Shi Nianhuan.
But Shi Nianhuan stood frozen in place.
“What is it?” Bi Tiantian raised her head and looked at her with a bewildered expression.
Shi Nianhuan shook her head slightly, then looked solemnly at Bi Tiantian and said calmly, “Tiantian, I can't eat with you. You go ahead. After thinking it over, I still have to call Lin Xiangyang.”
“All right.” Bi Tiantian did not insist.
Once only Shi Nianhuan remained in the dormitory, she opened her mobile phone, found Lin Xiangyang's number, and called him.
She was extremely worried about Lin Xiangyang.
Although Lin Xiangyang had always been the cheerful and outgoing type on the outside, Shi Nianhuan had also believed that he was genuinely sunny by nature.
But when she thought of what had happened six years ago, she began to doubt it. Perhaps Lin Xiangyang was not as sunny as he appeared on the outside.
The call was answered quickly, but the other end seemed very noisy, and the man who spoke next was not Lin Xiangyang either.
“Hello.” It was the voice of a very unfamiliar man.
Shi Nianhuan was somewhat bewildered. “Hello, may I ask whether Lin Xiangyang is there?”
“Are you his younger sister? Then that's perfect. Come quickly—he's had too much to drink.”
“Had too much to drink?” Shi Nianhuan repeated instinctively. Her voice already carried a hint of anxiety. “May I ask where he is now? I'll come over right away.”
“Forgetful Bar. All right, all right, I'll be there soon.” Shi Nianhuan hung up the phone, quickly checked the bar's location on the map, then grabbed her bag and jogged out.
Lin Xiangyang did not hold his liquor very well. At least compared with Jiang Chenyu, he was the far worse drinker.
Every New Year, the two of them liked drinking with Uncle Jiang, and Lin Xiangyang was always the first one to get drunk.
Shi Nianhuan did not dare waste any more time. She casually hailed a taxi and hurried toward Forgetful Bar.
This was Shi Nianhuan's first time going to a bar. Standing at the entrance and looking at the flashing lights inside, she felt a faint trace of fear rising in her heart, as though she had remembered what happened at the club last time.
However, after thinking of Lin Xiangyang, Shi Nianhuan could no longer worry about anything else, so she lowered her head and walked in.
After passing through the crowd, she stood at the bar counter. The noise here was simply too loud, so Shi Nianhuan had to raise her voice. Her face flushed when she spoke loudly.
“Hello, I'm here to find Lin Xiangyang. I called earlier.”
A little brother working as a bartender looked at her curiously, as though he had not heard what she said clearly.