Feng Ning’s Mandarin was extremely standard – when her voice message was converted to text, not a single word was wrong. Nosy people screenshotted this and posted it on the school forum.
They highlighted the part that said “When was the class beauty selected? How come it wasn’t me?” This made their classmates cringe – was this girl’s mind not right? How bizarre.
People called her funny, shameless, all sorts of comments. Eventually, someone even started a two-day poll to mock Feng Ning: “Who do you think should be the First Year Beauty of Qide High?” The candidates were: Cheng Jiajia, Pei Shurou, Feng Ning, and Zheng Jinjin.
Pei Shurou’s father was a famous painter in South City, and she herself was an art student, though she always kept a low profile at school. Whenever art came up, she’d become mysteriously melancholic. Pei Shurou was close with Jiang Wen’s group, which added an extra filter to her appeal. She had many admirers since middle school at Qide, with many boys considering her their goddess.
Within less than an hour of posting, Pei Shurou was leading by a clear margin. Meanwhile, Feng Ning’s votes probably didn’t even amount to a fraction of hers. This was probably the height of self-humiliation.
After making the phone call in the corridor, Jiang Wen’s expression had almost returned to normal. Desperately suppressing his out-of-control emotions, he returned to his dorm.
Actually, Jiang Wen rarely paid attention to the school forum – he found these things utterly boring and didn’t care what others said. But today, he felt an inexplicable, tremendous anger over this post.
Especially when people spread rumors describing Feng Ning and Jiang Wen as a “bar girl” and a “wayward young master.”
“Bar girl” – they typed it so casually. When those three glaring characters appeared before his eyes, the blood vessels at his temples throbbed, and Jiang Wen almost threw his phone.
It wasn’t disdain or pity or disgust at the word. — He just strongly rejected everything that word implied.
Whenever he recalled Feng Ning drinking until she had to be hospitalized, while he was held down helplessly, Jiang Wen would fall into a kind of depressed mood.
He couldn’t tell what this represented, whether he was depressed about Feng Ning or himself. But no matter how cold he pretended to be, he was still just a kid not even eighteen. With a famous father, he’d lived a smooth life, always protected and doted on, never facing any setbacks.
Regarding this incident, no matter how much time passed, Jiang Wen still resisted thinking about it. It was torturous just to recall. This had almost become one of his trigger points.
While Xi Gaoyuan and Zhao Binlin were chatting, they noticed Jiang Wen come in. He asked, “Finished with your call?”
Jiang Wen made an “mm” sound.
“Listen to this, it’s too funny.”
Jiang Wen said nothing and returned the phone to Zhao Binlin.
The 20-second voice message played through the speaker. When it got to “I suggest those forum people wash their eyes,” there was a strange silence in the dorm.
“What’s this?”
Zhao Binlin couldn’t help laughing, gossiping: “Hahahahaha, Feng Ning meant to send this voice message to someone else but sent it to the class group instead.”
Jiang Wen: “……”
Since the start of school, Feng Ning had done many shocking things, so this didn’t count as much. They were used to her unconventional behavior by now.
Jiang Wen sat back at his desk and opened his book.
The two behind him were still discussing the class beauty selection – it was rare for guys to gossip as much as they did.
He propped up his head, scanning the formulas line by line, half-listening for a while, then quietly picked up his phone again.
The next day.
Feng Ning never studied before exams. Sitting in the exam room, every few minutes someone would walk past, seemingly casually looking this way through direct gazes, side glances, or peripheral vision.
Last night people had mocked her on the forum, discussing how bizarre she was or how poor her family was, but Feng Ning didn’t find it particularly damaging to her self-esteem at all.
When others came to look at her curiously, she showed no shyness, and even eagerly engaged in soul-to-soul eye contact with the peepers.
However long you look at me, I’ll look at you just as long.
This actually made the others uncomfortable, hastily looking away first.
If this embarrassing situation happened to an ordinary girl, she’d probably want to dig a hole and hide. But Feng Ning? Feng Ning was completely calm.
She carried on taking the remaining exams as if nothing had happened.
The last subject was English. When the final bell rang, Li Qifei was packing up his things. Thinking about the upcoming holiday, he was in a good mood, humming as he followed the crowd out of the exam room.
Just as he reached the stairs, someone pulled on his backpack strap. He turned around, puzzled.
Jiang Wen let go, leaning against the pillar, slightly lowered his head then straightened up.
“Are you… looking for me about something?” Li Qifei probed.
Jiang Wen said: “Do you know who I am?”
“Yes, yes.”
Not bothering with small talk, Jiang Wen got straight to the point: “You took those photos?”
“Ah… what photos?” Li Qifei was genuinely stunned for a moment, his pupils dilating: “This… this.”
“Finding your studies too boring?” Jiang Wen looked at Li Qifei, just staring at him.
Li Qifei quickly understood his meaning, the hair on his back standing up as he stammered in fear, “W-what?”
Jiang Wen moved closer, lowering his voice, “If you’re bored, I don’t mind making things more exciting for you.”
The smile on Li Qifei’s face couldn’t hold up anymore, he forced out: “Is there some misunderstanding between us?”
“Delete the post and apologize, or transfer schools – pick one.” Jiang Wen’s tone was disgusted, his expression unchanged.
Whether at school or outside, he rarely used his family background to pressure people, but right now, without even needing to act, Jiang Wen captured the essence of a spoiled young master perfectly.
Li Qifei visibly trembled.
Watching coldly as the person walked away, Jiang Wen turned around and froze.
Feng Ning was standing there casually, her face full of amusement, giving him a round of applause.
Jiang Wen felt a bit embarrassed but quickly regained composure, “What are you doing?”
“Ah, you were so impressive just now.” Feng Ning imitated his words: “Transfer schools or delete the post – pick one.”
Jiang Wen grew angry, “Is eavesdropping your hobby?”
“You even discovered that.” Feng Ning answered seriously.
Jiang Wen was speechless.
She pondered: “So it was this bastard messing with me behind my back.”
Jiang Wen mocked: “How can you be so heartless?”
Feng Ning calmly corrected him: “I’m not heartless, I’m mentally strong.”
She winked mischievously and said: “You don’t need to stand up for me, I don’t take these things to heart at all.”
He stubbornly denied: “I wasn’t trying to stand up for you.”
Feng Ning acted like she hadn’t heard, looking extremely confident, “But I won’t let anyone who offends me off easy!” She smiled, “You’re still too green.”
“Watch me.” Feng Ning smiled sinisterly, pulling out a pink paper from her backpack and quickly writing something on it.
Jiang Wen glanced over, “What are you going to do?”
“Didn’t you say it? Make things more interesting for Mr. Li. Let him experience the power of evil.”
Feng Ning rubbed her nose, “Did I tell you I’m really good at fighting?”
Jiang Wen: “?”
“Dare to mess with me, hmph!” The person in front of him showed an expression Jiang Wen was very familiar with – sleazy, “I’ll give him psychological trauma for life!”
“Follow me.”
Jiang Wen didn’t know what Feng Ning was planning to do, but she pulled him along as they ran forward. Hurriedly going down several steps, he wanted to break free, but her grip was too strong. After running for a while, Feng Ning stopped.
Jiang Wen shook her off and caught his breath.
She took a deep breath, adjusted her expression, put both hands around her mouth like a megaphone, and shouted toward the distance, “Li Qifei!!!”
Her voice was earth-shattering, piercing through the entire campus.
Li Qifei was startled, his ears nearly going deaf. He turned around but before he could see clearly what was happening, someone leaped through the air and gave his backside a fierce kick.
With a splash, Li Qifei fell straight into the fountain pool. In the middle of winter, the freezing water made his bones shiver.
His glasses were cracked, and he barely managed to climb out of the pool, his face full of fear.
Standing one step higher, Feng Ning looked down at him and immediately started berating him: “You shameless man.”
“Are you crazy?!” Li Qifei was furious and instinctively fought back.
People around started turning to look.
Feng Ning put on a fierce expression, took a stance with her hands on her hips, and yelled back even more fiercely: “You creepy guy, even if you died in front of me I wouldn’t agree to be with you!”
Li Qifei’s mouth fell open. He was completely stunned, not understanding what she was saying or what drama this was.
Feng Ning held up a pink letter, “This is the love letter you wrote to me, are you still going to deny it?”
The two faced off as passersby stopped to watch the dramatic scene, their eyes about to pop out.
“What nonsense.” Li Qifei was so angry he could barely speak clearly: “Me? When did I???”
“Say no more!” Feng Ning cut him off, and amid gasps from the crowd, she tore up the “evidence” and threw it in his face, “You’re so shameless! I haven’t even settled the score about you stalking me back to my dorm last time. And now you dare go on the forum to ruin my reputation? If you don’t back off, I’ll fight you to the death!”
As she spoke, the whole story became more and more vivid. She said every word loudly and clearly, with students stopping to point and whisper.
Li Qifei’s face showed complete bewilderment at what the hell she was talking about. He tried to keep his voice steady: “Are you mentally ill?”
Feng Ning put her finger to her lips: “Shh, talk less nonsense.”
She was truly a drama queen, playing the victim perfectly: “You came to my class during evening self-study to try to get close to me, lots of people saw it. I just wasn’t interested in you.”
Li Qifei nearly fainted: “Who saw it?”
Feng Ning, forceful and domineering, shouted loudly: “Jiang Wen—”
Jiang Wen was stunned, never expecting this turn of events.
Some indignant bystanders were recording videos as the crowd parted to make way for Jiang Wen.
Feng Ning was like a complete female demon. She raised her chin, pointing at the drenched Li Qifei, and imperiously asked: “It was this person who asked for my contact information, right?”
Under everyone’s watching eyes, Jiang Wen’s eyelashes trembled as he solemnly nodded.
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