The next day, Sheng Mian accompanied Yi Chi to a movie and some shopping. As the sky began to dim, Yi Chi said, “Thank you for staying with me today. I should head home. I’ll wash your clothes and return them to you on Monday.”
“Alright. Be safe on your way back. Call me if anything happens.”
Yi Chi stood hesitantly at her front door, hoping her parents weren’t home. She scanned her fingerprint, and the lock clicked open. Sitting in the living room were the two people she had fought with so bitterly the night before.
“Where were you messing around all night? Just getting back?” Chen Lian looked up and spared her a glance.
“I stayed at a classmate’s house,” Yi Chi replied, moving toward the stairs.
“That classmate from the Sheng family?” Yi Jianzhong called out. “Aside from that Sheng Omega, you probably don’t have any other classmates you could stay with.”
Yi Chi clenched her fists.
Chen Lian immediately chimed in, “You should associate with that Omega more. There will definitely be places where she’ll be useful in the future.”
Unable to take it, Yi Chi turned back. “Sheng Mian is my friend!”
“So, what if she’s a friend? Isn’t the point of making friends so they can help you out later?”
Yi Chi couldn’t listen to her mother anymore and went straight to her room.
On Monday morning, Yi Chi packed the laundered clothes and pajamas to bring to school.
“Are you doing okay?” Sheng Mian asked as she took the bag.
Yi Chi forced a smile. “I’m fine.”
The morning classes were unusually noisy. Whispers filled the room, and Yi Chi felt eyes darting toward her every few moments.
“Why does it feel like everyone keeps looking over here?” Qin Heng muttered, scratching his head. Even he had noticed; it wasn’t just Yi Chi’s imagination.
Someone tapped Sheng Mian’s shoulder. It was a girl from across the aisle. She leaned in and whispered, “Sheng Mian, look at this. Does Yi Chi know about it yet?”
The girl handed over her phone. It was a chat log accompanied by a photo from a surveillance-style angle.
m: Check out this massive gossip. I went to dinner with Ye-ge the other day and saw Yi Chi in the next booth. She was getting all intimate with a middle-aged Alpha.
lay: No way, for real?
m: Why would I lie? Look at the [Image]. Just don’t tell anyone.
lay: Got it.
The photo was clear. Due to the angle, it looked as if Yi Chi was snuggling in the Alpha’s embrace. They looked very close.
“Since you’re close to her, you should warn her. Quite a few people probably know by now,” the girl said, taking back her phone.
“Do you know who ‘m’ is? Or this ‘Ye-ge’?” Sheng Mian asked.
The girl sounded uncertain. “There’s a guy in Class 8 named Cheng Liye who’s pretty famous; everyone calls him ‘Ye-ge.’ There’s a guy he hangs out with named Mao Jing. I’m not sure if it’s them, though.”
“Thanks.”
Sheng Mian’s mind was elsewhere for the rest of the morning. “Pay attention to the lesson. We’ll deal with this after class,” a crisp voice sounded in her ear, Shen Zhilin had noticed her distraction.
During lunch break, Sheng Mian pulled Yi Chi to a bench by the sports field.
“What is it, Sheng Mian?” Yi Chi asked as she was pushed onto the seat.
“I have something to tell you.” Seeing Sheng Mian’s solemn face, Yi Chi’s heart began to race.
Sheng Mian handed her phone to Yi Chi. On the screen was the group chat message the classmate had forwarded. The hand holding the phone began to tremble. Yi Chi’s face went pale, and her breathing quickened.
“A lot of people have probably seen this already,” Sheng Mian said softly. Information at this school spread with terrifying speed. She sat beside her and patted Yi Chi’s leg. “Is this Alpha a relative of yours? We can go find this ‘Ye-ge’ and ‘m’ and clear everything up. Once we explain the truth, it’ll be fine.”
Sheng Mian held her breath, hoping Yi Chi would snap, “Who’s so wicked? That’s just my uncle!”
But Yi Chi just stared at the screen as if trying to bore a hole through the image. She bit her lower lip hard, a thick gloom settling between her brows.
Sheng Mian’s heart sank. Dark possibilities flashed through her mind, had the Alpha forced himself on her? Was Yi Chi being blackmailed?
Just when Sheng Mian thought the silence would last forever, Yi Chi finally spoke. “That was a blind date my parents arranged for me.”
Yi Chi couldn’t bring herself to tell Sheng Mian about her parents’ sordid intentions; for now, “blind date” became her shield.
Sheng Mian was incredulous. The Alpha in the photo was not only mismatched in age but was also worlds apart from Yi Chi in terms of appearance. How could Yi Chi’s parents have such terrible taste? What kind of creep was this?
“He didn’t do anything to you, did he?” Sheng Mian asked, worried she had been taken advantage of.
Yi Chi shook her head. “The people in the next room came out, so he didn’t do much.”
“Then you remember what the person next door looks like, right? Come on, let’s find him.”
Yi Chi hesitated. “But what he said is technically a fact.”
“Regardless of the facts, it shouldn’t be spread with such malice. It’s none of their business anyway. We need to clear it up so this doesn’t spread further.”
Sheng Mian and Yi Chi headed to Class 8 to see if Cheng Liye was indeed “Ye-ge.”
Cheng Liye was striking—bold eyebrows, bright eyes, and an air of wild rebellion. He was sitting on a desk, surrounded by a group of friends. Sheng Mian paused; it was the guy she had run into before.
Confirmed by Yi Chi, Sheng Mian asked a student in the front row to call him over.
“Ye-ge, someone’s here for you.”
Cheng Liye looked up. Seeing Sheng Mian at the door, he raised an eyebrow in surprise, then stood up and walked over with long, casual strides.
His friends watched with mischievous grins. Mao Jing snickered, “That Omega finally couldn’t resist coming to find Ye-ge.”
Then Mao Jing spotted Yi Chi. He recognized her instantly and felt a sudden jolt of panic. Did Wang Ping leak that I was the one who told him? But then he figured Wang Ping wouldn’t rat him out. Since Sheng Mian was the one looking for Cheng Liye, he assumed it had nothing to do with him and went back to chatting.
“Looking for me?” Cheng Liye looked down at Sheng Mian, his eyes carrying an expression as if he had been waiting for her for a long time.
Sheng Mian was internally confused. Are we even that close?
She turned her head toward Yi Chi, silently asking, “Is that the guy from the room next door?” Yi Chi nodded.
Cheng Liye followed Sheng Mian’s gaze to Yi Chi. “Oh, it’s you?”
It seemed Cheng Liye was indeed the one called “Ye-ge” in those chat logs. As curious and prying eyes from the classroom drifted toward the three of them, Sheng Mian spoke up: “Let’s talk somewhere else.”
Cheng Liye followed them to a quieter corner. His eyes were almost locked onto Sheng Mian. He watched as she solemnly pulled out her phone and thrust it in front of him. “You know the ‘m’ in here, don’t you?” she demanded.
Internally, Cheng Liye cursed Mao Jing for having such a loose mouth. He nodded and said, “I know him.”
Sheng Mian looked at him as if he were just finding out about this. “Can you make your friend delete this? And explain the situation? A lot of students have seen it by now, and the impact is very negative.”
Cheng Liye decided to tease her. “But my friend doesn’t necessarily listen to me.”
Seeing Cheng Liye’s intimidating aura, Yi Chi began to worry that Sheng Mian would get dragged into her mess. She thought, What does it matter if the whole school misunderstands? I’m graduating soon anyway. Just as she was about to pull Sheng Mian back and say forget it, Cheng Liye glanced at her sideways before snapping his gaze back to Sheng Mian.
“Besides,” he said playfully, “are your friend and that Alpha in the photo truly ‘innocent’?”
Yi Chi’s reaching hand froze mid-air. Her heart felt as though it were being struck by a massive iron bell. A clarity washed over her ears, peeling away the protective film of self-deception. She felt lost in a maze. Was she truly innocent?
She had been coaxed by her family, but she knew perfectly well it wasn’t a legitimate blind date, yet she went anyway.
Yi Chi stood at the crossroads of two self-interrogations, seemingly unable to ever reach the destination of “innocence” on the other side.
“She’s not that kind of person. I believe in her,” Sheng Mian said firmly. Yi Chi stared at her, dazed.
“First of all, her meeting with that Alpha—regardless of the reason could never be for the foul reasons you’re imagining.” Sheng Mian glared at Cheng Liye with resentment, perhaps directing it at any man who would make such self-righteous, malicious assumptions.
“Secondly, do you even have the right to judge others? People should focus on their own lives. What right do you have to spread rumors and fabricate lies without knowing the whole story?”
“And finally,” Sheng Mian let out a cold laugh, “Your friend won’t listen to you? I don’t think that’s a possibility, right, Ye-ge?”
Cheng Liye barely absorbed Sheng Mian’s long lecture, but when he heard those last two words, his temple twitched, and a strange sense of satisfaction bubbled up inside him.
Seeing Sheng Mian looking ready for a long-winded argument or even a fight, Cheng Liye smiled. “I never said I wouldn’t agree. Don’t be so angry.”
Sheng Mian didn’t expect him to flip so quickly; she had assumed he would play the rogue. Her aggression instantly vanished, and her voice dropped in volume. “Thank you. Sorry for the trouble.”
She turned to pull Yi Chi away, but Cheng Liye suddenly grabbed Sheng Mian’s arm. “I have something to say to you.”
Yi Chi watched him warily. Seeing that he really just seemed to have something to say, she exchanged a look with Sheng Mian and walked to a distance where she couldn’t overhear them. If Sheng Mian shouted, she would be able to hear and run back immediately.
“What is it?”
Cheng Liye took a step forward, closing the distance. He tilted his head. “You have nothing else to say to me?”
“Weren’t you the one with something to say? What am I supposed to say?” Sheng Mian pointed at him and then herself.
Cheng Liye couldn’t understand why the person in front of him was so different from before, acting as if they were meeting for the first time. He lowered his voice, asking through gritted teeth, “What exactly are you playing at?”
“Look, what are you even talking about?” Sheng Mian’s brow furrowed in genuine confusion.
With the distance between them now less than an arm’s length, Cheng Liye slowly closed in, looking down at her. His sharp eyes scanned her beautiful face, searching for any crack in her expression.
Alarm bells rang in Sheng Mian’s head. Her personal space had been invaded, and he was still moving closer. She raised her forearm and pressed it against Cheng Liye’s chest, attempting to defend her personal domain.
Cheng Liye raised an eyebrow. “I heard you lost your memory a while back. It seems it’s true?” He didn’t see the usual shyness or fluster on her face when she faced him, and he felt a trace of regret.
“Did we know each other before?” Sheng Mian wondered if she had offended him in the past. It would explain why he looked at her so unkindly during PE class, but then again, if she had offended him, why hadn’t he ever picked a fight before now?
Seeing her daze off, Cheng Liye snapped his fingers by her ear. “I look forward to the expression on your face when you finally remember me.”
As she watched Cheng Liye’s retreating back, Sheng Mian felt a headache coming on. It seemed he was someone her original self had known.
As soon as Cheng Liye returned to the classroom, Mao Jing greeted him with a smirk. “Ye-ge, did Sheng Mian finally break down and come looking for you?”
He was met with Cheng Liye’s cold, scrutinizing gaze. Seeing those dark eyes, Mao Jing could tell that Ye-ge was in a foul mood.
Cheng Liye gave Mao Jing a kick—not too hard, but enough to be a wake-up call to his stomach. “How many damn times have I told you to watch your mouth? Delete those posts right now. Do you have any idea how much shit you can dump on someone with just one casual comment? Go explain it yourself.”
Mao Jing clutched his stomach and apologized profusely. “I’ll delete them right away, Ye-ge!” Internally, he cursed Wang Ping. That idiot promised not to tell anyone and then leaked it anyway!
Cheng Liye saw right through him. “If you hadn’t spread it to begin with, how would anyone else know? Blabbing and hurting yourself makes you a fool; blabbing and hurting others makes you a villain.”