When Shen Xinghe saw the transfer, the corners of his lips couldn’t help but curl upward.
He just knew—his baby would love it.
But when he saw the next message, his lifted lips slowly fell.
It wasn’t that he thought his face wasn’t good enough to show.
He was just worried—
The online tutorials said that the most important thing in an online relationship was mystery.
You had to leave room for the other person’s imagination.
But lately, Jinjin had been constantly pressing him for his photos. Was she planning to play with him and then go find someone else?
He saw that her profile had liked many videos of handsome male influencers and followed many good-looking streamers.
He only knew her voice, but had never seen even a single finger of hers.
She was completely in control, her entire body hidden behind the camera, leaving only a pair of eyes visible.
And he was the object being gazed upon.
Light footsteps sounded from the hallway, and he cautiously peered through the peephole.
Only when he saw it was his neighbor did he relax.
Today, Shen Xinghe had moved to a new place.
He didn’t plan to hide away in someone else’s home forever. He’d heard that a big shot he’d met once before was in this area, so he decided to take a gamble.
Thus, he’d requested leave from the voice chat room.
Everywhere in this foreign land was dangerous, and he had no source of income anymore.
In this unfamiliar country, Jinjin was the only light he could hold onto.
The old Shen Xinghe had been arrogant and conceited, treating sincerity like worthless grass.
But now, he couldn’t help but depend on a woman behind the internet cable, feeling anxious and restless over her, like a resentful husband.
Even as he thought this, he habitually leaned close to his phone and spoke in a clean, soft voice: “Wait a little longer, baby. Wait until you love me a bit more.”
“I’m not ugly, baby, don’t worry.”
The other side showed “typing…”
[Fine, I’ll reluctantly believe you.]
Shen Xinghe hugged his phone, closed his eyes, the corners of his lips still raised high.
The coursework at Xingyao Academy was heavy, especially during this period right after the semester started.
Yu Jinyao used classes as an excuse to avoid Wen Jiayan for a few days, and surprisingly, Wen Jiayan didn’t cause any trouble.
Miss Xia treated her just as usual—because they were in the same year and same economics department, their course selections overlapped heavily, so she often ran into Xia Muyan.
When meeting Miss Xia, all she needed to do was compliment her a few times and sit beside her like a star surrounded by moons.
Plenty of people fought over the errand-running tasks, so it didn’t even fall to Yu Jinyao.
Just as she thought her days would pass by peacefully, many posts and videos appeared on Do accusing Xingyao Academy of discriminating against special-admission students.
These posts weren’t just popular on the Xingyao Academy forum—they even spread beyond it, drawing widespread attention from Imperial citizens.
In the past few days, whether in class or between classes, Yu Jinyao saw people wearing deep blue or burgundy brooches gathering together to whisper among themselves.
These noble children treated it as a rebellion game by the special-admission students, discussing it with great relish and enthusiasm.
Their contemptuous attitude clearly showed they didn’t take this little trick seriously at all.
Even Xia Muyan, who was at the center of the storm and accused of bullying her classmates, looked utterly disinterested, going about her business as usual.
Yu Jinyao remembered that this incident had also occurred in the original plot, except it had only stirred up a small ripple before being suppressed by someone.
The Empire’s economic and military lifelines were in the hands of a few. Although democratic forces had grown in recent years and public opinion was increasingly valued by the royal family, this little wave of public sentiment couldn’t shake such a behemoth.
Yu Jinyao didn’t think this had anything to do with her.
The new semester’s foreign language teacher was a meticulous middle-aged woman with some connections.
Every class, she would call roll and ask questions, assigning endless classwork and homework, not even sparing the children of wealthy conglomerate families.
Yu Jinyao had no choice but to go to the library the day before each class to do her homework.
—In the dormitory, she only wanted to play on her phone.
Who had a life as miserable as hers? She got transmigrated into a book and still had to study!
This time, a familiar person sat across from her—it was the real young master, Xu Xinze.
The young man wore black over-ear headphones, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the computer screen, seemingly not noticing her.
Special-admission students had to achieve excellence in every course’s assessment, or they wouldn’t even qualify to stay at Xingyao Academy.
Yu Jinyao understood his efforts and buried her head in her English homework.
She didn’t notice that while she was wrestling with those long passages full of obscure vocabulary, the young man across from her quietly lifted his gaze.
His eyes swept over the long hair cascading down the girl’s shoulders.
Her knuckles gripping the pen showed a faint hint of pink.
Her full, beautiful lips displayed a healthy, natural pink.
Her long lashes drooped, casting a faint shadow over her eyelids.
The weather was gloomy today, and fierce winds had started blowing outside the window, robbing the scene of its most atmospheric ray of sunlight.
But she just sat there, and she herself was the most vivid splash of color in the entire area.
Xu Xinze moved his gaze back to the computer screen, but the corner of his eye kept tracking the girl’s movements.
Yu Jinyao finished her homework, packed her books and tablet into her backpack, and was about to leave.
Unexpectedly, almost at the same moment, the young man across from her stood up, and the two collided with each other.
“Sor—”
Yu Jinyao instinctively wanted to apologize, but remembering that he was on Ruan Zhi’s side—in the opposing camp—she swallowed the last word back.
There was another reason she fell silent.
Xu Xinze’s phone slipped from his grip and dropped to the floor. Though the carpet saved it from breaking, Yu Jinyao caught sight of the video playing on the screen.
It was the footage of her and Ruan Zhi in the restroom that day.
Below it was the unmistakable title and description format of the Do platform.
Yu Jinyao immediately thought of the recent controversy over discrimination against specially admitted students.
【Host, according to your persona, you should immediately stop Xu Xinze from posting the video and demand to know why he’s doing this.】
Yu Jinyao was nothing if not professional—she didn’t need the System to tell her. Her expression shifted instantly.
She picked up the phone a beat before he could.
Xu Xinze was a moment too slow, his hand naturally landing on the back of the girl’s hand.
He snatched his hand back as if burned.
The library demanded silence, so Yu Jinyao simply gave the boy’s phone a little shake.
Slinging her backpack over one shoulder, she turned and walked out.
She skipped the elevator and headed straight for the stairwell.
“Classmate, could you give me back my phone?”
The boy looked puzzled, a hint of embarrassment on his face, but he still mustered the courage to ask for it back.
Yu Jinyao let out a cold laugh.
“Why do you have a video of me on your phone? Were you planning to post it on Do and let everyone judge me?”
The boy froze, his mouth opening and closing, but no defense came out.
“Too bad you miscalculated.”
Yu Jinyao crossed her arms and leaned against the smooth wall, utterly unbothered. “I didn’t do anything that day. If anything, I’m the victim here.”
“But I recorded the audio.”
“…What?”
Yu Jinyao hadn’t expected him to admit it to her face.
The boy raised those puppy-dog eyes that feared no authority. “I recorded the audio. You really did intend to harm Zhizhi.”
“All I have to do is post the audio and edit the video a little, and you’ll be the villain who aided the crime.”