Chapter 285 | Chapter 286 | Chapter 287
Chapter 285: Shield
Through the joint collaboration of Jiang Chuchu and Bao Qingsong, combined with friendly assistance from Ning Fu, Class Three quickly uncovered Yin Xisheng’s past.
After Yin Xisheng was born, her father cared nothing for her, while her mother was constantly consumed by work. At the same time, her mother harbored a deep aversion to the girl’s eyes—which were a pair of phoenix eyes identical to her father’s. Consequently, Yin Xisheng was left entirely in the care of her paternal grandmother.
Her grandmother raised her, but when Yin Xisheng was in the third grade, her grandmother passed away.
Her mother handled the funeral arrangements from start to finish. Afterward, she did pay a bit more attention to Yin Xisheng, but she still prioritized her work above all else.
As a result, throughout the remaining three years of elementary school, Yin Xisheng became the “unwanted kid” in her class.
What was the point of getting top exam scores? Yin Xisheng was always entirely alone during every single parent-child activity at school.
The bad kids in class mocked her for being abandoned. Even when she told the teacher, those kids would only behave for a little while before reverting to their old ways once the teacher’s attention shifted.
Yin Xisheng also tried telling her mother. However, her mother wouldn’t bother coming to the school to warn those kids for her sake; at most, she would just make a phone call to ask the teacher to tighten discipline.
As it happened more often, the teacher grew annoyed, and her classmates didn’t dare to have too much contact with Yin Xisheng either, fearing they would be targeted by the teacher if they got too close.
Yin Xisheng was isolated just like that. She realized that crying to teachers and parents was useless, causing her to become increasingly introverted and reclusive.
With great difficulty, she entered junior high school. In this new environment, the kids who used to bully her were at a different school, so she could finally make a fresh start.
As she grew older, her features shed their childhood innocence, and she gradually became quite striking. At this stage, the way she kept to herself out of fear of social contact was instead interpreted by others as an expression of being “aloof and elegant.”
Thus, one boy after another launched an offensive toward Yin Xisheng, hoping to pluck this “snow lotus of the heavenly mountains” that existed in their imaginations.
Yin Xisheng rejected them numerous times. She knew perfectly well that these boys didn’t understand her at all; they merely liked the idealized version of her in their minds. Furthermore, due to the boys who had bullied her during childhood, she harbored a certain level of dread toward the opposite sex.
However, as the number of her rejections mounted, the boys’ evaluation of her gradually shifted.
This guy won’t do, that guy won’t do—why are her standards so ridiculously high?
Aside from that face and figure, where exactly is Yin Xisheng exceptional enough to reject every single one of them?
They were just giving her face, yet she actually put on airs? Talk about being utterly ungrateful!
When Yin Xisheng rejected yet another boy who confessed to her, the boy suddenly exploded in rage. He violently hurled the bouquet of roses he was holding—originally meant for her—straight at her face.
“Who do you think you are? How dare you reject me?”
“I’ll put it right here: if you don’t say yes today, don’t even think about surviving in this school ever again!”
The students of Class Three chorused in unison: “Bah!”
Song Yi clenched his fists. “If I had been at the scene, I would have twisted his head right off!”
“Twisting this kind of head off to feed the flies wouldn’t even breed maggots,” Ming Xiaolan let out a cold chuckle.
“Why wouldn’t it breed them?” Qin Yue couldn’t help but pry.
“Because even the flies would find him too disgusting,” Ming Xiaolan answered.
Qin Yue thought about it. “Oh, so he’s nastier than literal crap…”
“Alright, alright,” Jiang Chuchu felt a bit nauseous listening to this and quickly called a halt, turning her head to look at Gu Qinghuan. “What happened next?”
This part of the story had been relayed to Gu Qinghuan by Ning Fu, so she was responsible for explaining it to everyone.
Gu Qinghuan let out an exaggerated sigh. “Next came the classic melodramatic drama!”
Yin Xisheng didn’t dare to agree, yet she didn’t dare to refuse either. In her desperation, she blurted out that she actually had a secret crush on someone else, which was why she had rejected so many confessions.
Everyone displayed a thoroughly complicated expression.
“While I can understand her mindset, that really was a terribly flawed move,” Yuan Wuwei said with a frown.
“No matter how difficult her situation was, she shouldn’t have dragged an innocent bystander into it,” Fan Ziran chimed in.
Yu Xin looked thoughtful. “Could it be that the boy she pushed forward to act as her shield was…”
“Yep, it was the exact same guy currently pestering Yin Xisheng—the one who previously bullied her,” Gu Qinghuan spread her hands.
The boy’s name was Ruan Tanyu. In the junior high school Yin Xisheng attended, he was quite the prominent figure on campus. He was handsome, had excellent grades, came from a very affluent family, and usually carried himself with great politeness and grace.
To be fair, he was a perfectly suitable target for a fake crush.
“He sounds like a decent guy. How did he turn into a bully?” Lin Zhulu asked, puzzled.
Gu Qinghuan nodded. “Exactly. After Yin Xisheng claimed she had a crush on Ruan Tanyu, that boy stopped throwing a tantrum, feeling he couldn’t compete with him.”
“Afterward, regarding the shield matter, Yin Xisheng contacted Ruan Tanyu privately to apologize. He forgave her and stated that he could act as her boyfriend in name only to help her block those confession-makers.”
“Just like that, they started dating?” Jiang Chuchu raised an eyebrow.
Gu Qinghuan shrugged. “To be precise, they were still a fake couple at that time. They only became a real couple in the second year of junior high.”
“The next part is the crux of the matter. In the second semester of their second year, disaster struck Ruan Tanyu’s family.”
“His father fled the country, his mother was implicated and thrown into prison, and his elderly grandparents passed away one after another from the shock of the sudden tragedy. Overnight, he was left entirely alone in the house.”
Everyone let out a collective sigh. That truly was tragic enough.
“Ruan Tanyu fell from the heavens to the earth in a single night. The blow was too severe, and his attitude toward Yin Xisheng turned incredibly vicious.”
“Yin Xisheng, on the other hand, felt that she ought to stay by her boyfriend’s side during such a time to weather the crisis together. But to Ruan Tanyu, her presence instead became a source of immense pressure and a psychological burden.”
“Then they could have just broken up. How did it escalate into bullying?” Xie Xiangxue couldn’t comprehend it.
“Let me handle this part,” Bao Qingsong cleared his throat. “Didn’t those boys back then only give up pursuing Yin Xisheng because they couldn’t compete with Ruan Tanyu? Once Ruan Tanyu fell into ruin, they felt they were hot stuff again.”
“According to the intelligence I gathered, they first targeted Ruan Tanyu with bullying and humiliation, demanding he obediently yield the boyfriend position.”
“At that time, Ruan Tanyu already harbored resentment toward Yin Xisheng. After being bullied numerous times, he even declared in public that it was entirely Yin Xisheng’s fault that he was facing this bullying.”
“He wanted to break up with Yin Xisheng, but she refused. After fighting over it countless times, Ruan Tanyu resorted to physical violence.”
The marmots: …This is the kind of drama we don’t particularly want to consume.
Shen Jianwei massaged her temples. “I honestly don’t even know where to begin roasting this.”
Bao Qingsong spread his hands as well. “So it evolved into Ruan Tanyu bullying Yin Xisheng, while those other boys merely treated the drama between them as a complete joke.”
“In doing so, they actually stopped picking on Ruan Tanyu. I suspect that Ruan Tanyu’s bullying of Yin Xisheng was also a calculated move to escape his own status as a victim of bullying.”
“How vile. Treating someone who genuine liked him like that—what an absolute beast,” Ai Ning wore a look of pure disgust.
Gu Qinghuan picked up the narrative again. “When they were little, Ning Fu and Yin Xisheng were childhood playmates living in the same residential compound, and they had a great relationship.”
“However, Ning Fu’s father was later reassigned to another region, so she moved away with him, and her contact with Yin Xisheng dwindled significantly. It wasn’t until the second semester of their third year of junior high that Ning Fu returned with her father.”
“By that time, Yin Xisheng was already unable to speak. Once Ning Fu found out, she sprinted to the school and threw a massive fit at the Yin family, which finally made the Yin family realize the severity of the situation. Yin Xisheng was then able to take a leave of absence to rest at home, indirectly escaping Ruan Tanyu.”
Chapter 286: Three Teams
“Logically speaking, this matter should have come to an end by now, right? Why is Ruan Tanyu still pestering Yin Xisheng?” Lin Zhulu was somewhat bewildered.
“Because Ruan Tanyu’s family is doing well again, of course!” Jiang Chuchu rolled her eyes dramatically.
Back then, the disaster that struck the Ruan family wasn’t actually that severe. In fact, his family had simply been pushed forward to take the fall for someone else. Two years later, the issue was resolved, and Ruan Tanyu’s father returned from abroad, while his mother was released from prison after serving her sentence. They even received a substantial financial reward for taking the blame, allowing them to resume living a prosperous and high-profile life.
With Ruan Tanyu’s life back to normal, he began to regret his past actions. He wanted to apologize to Yin Xisheng and get back together with her.
“What a rotten piece of work…” even Lian Fenghe couldn’t help but mutter. “He’s worse than the kitchen waste I’ve been composting for two weeks.”
“Wait, the whole taking-the-fall thing just blew over like that? Didn’t the elderly grandparents pass away because of it?” Lin Zhulu’s eyes widened.
Bao Qingsong flipped through the information he had gathered. “Their public stance is that continuing to grieve won’t bring the elderly back anyway, so they might as well live happily, which would bring comfort to the deceased elders if they knew.”
“If I were those elders, I wouldn’t feel comforted at all. I’d just think they were a pack of unfilial monsters,” Zhan Chuchen said, already looking around for something club-like to weigh in his hand.
“Anyway, that’s the gist of Yin Xisheng’s past.” Jiang Chuchu sat in her seat, remaining quite calm. “But after finding out about all this, I think everyone has the exact same question.”
“And that is: should we actually help Yin Xisheng?”
“Alright, let’s do a simple vote. Those who think we should help, stand to my left; those who don’t, stand to my right.” Gu Qinghuan extended both of her arms.
The classmates pondered for a moment, then began moving around to choose their positions.
Excluding Gu Qinghuan herself, there were 21 students in Class Three. The final vote was a perfect eight-to-eight split, with five people standing in the middle to abstain.
“Does it have to be this perfectly even?” Yao Shali, standing on the “against” side, couldn’t help but look surprised at the outcome.
Shi Guanghui had chosen to support helping: “I just feel that although she sounds like a bit of a love-brain, they were only in junior high back then and didn’t know any better. Plus, Yin Xisheng has lacked love since she was little, so it makes sense that she was reluctant to let go.”
“Yes, I was thinking the same thing. We can try to help first, and if it really doesn’t work out, we can drop it,” Fan Ziran nodded.
Yuan Wuwei disagreed: “The guy physically beat her up! She was hit and she’s still clinging to him—is there something wrong with her head?”
“Exactly. With her current state, if we step in to help, she might turn around and accuse us of being busybodies instead,” Ai Ning agreed entirely.
Seeing that it was about to devolve into a full-blown debate match, Gu Qinghuan quickly clapped her hands. “Let’s calm down first.”
The classroom quieted down. Gu Qinghuan said, “The viewpoints of both sides are pretty clear. So, what are the abstainers thinking?”
Song Yi answered bluntly, “I want to hear what you think, Sis.”
The marmots: Alright, we can ignore this one.
Murong Tianjiao said somewhat nervously, “Both Wushuang and I can understand Yin Xisheng’s mindset. If it were us in the past and we suffered bullying, we might have chosen to endure it in silence too.”
“But ever since we met everyone, every day in Class Three has been so happy. So, if Yin Xisheng could be in an environment like ours, she definitely wouldn’t be fixated on Ruan Tanyu anymore.”
“However, we also can’t comprehend why she’s still lingering over her bully and defending him, so we really didn’t know how to choose.”
The other abstainers nodded in succession, all of them hesitant and harboring deep reservations.
“Then to summarize everyone’s points,” Gu Qinghuan said, “the ones willing to help feel that Yin Xisheng can still be saved; the ones unwilling to help don’t want to end up like the farmer and the snake; and the neutral party has concerns and can’t make up their minds.”
Ji Tianxiao let out a sigh. “In truth, the person everyone actually wants to help is Xinghe. It’s just that the root of Xinghe’s problem lies with Yin Xisheng, which is why we’re looking to resolve her issue.”
“Initially, everyone thought Yin Xisheng was quite pitiful and wanted to lend a hand out of sympathy. But now it feels like she’s just willingly putting up with it…” Lian Fenghe said with a grimace.
“I get it. It’s like Lin Xiaoxue and Yan Zhengqing—those two deserve to be locked together forever,” Xie Xiangxue understood perfectly.
Ming Xiaolan shook her head. “I don’t think comparing Yin Xisheng to Lin Xiaoxue is fair. The latter was never bullied.”
“True,” Yu Xin agreed. “Lin Xiaoxue might be a true love-brain, but Yin Xisheng is different. She might be genuinely suffering from a psychological disorder.”
Everyone sighed in unison. This matter really was tricky!
Jiang Chuchu fell into deep thought. “Seriously, is our class cursed or something? How do we always end up with all kinds of bizarre situations?”
Gu Qinghuan’s gaze drifted away. Class Three isn’t cursed; it’s just that all the unfortunate people have gathered here.
Xu Xinghe squeezed his hands together. “I… I feel that if Yin Xisheng truly loved Ruan Tanyu to an irredeemable extent, she wouldn’t have bothered telling me about her hesitation.”
“The fact that she’s hesitating proves that she also feels her behavior is wrong. However, she has no way to save herself, which is why she turned to me for help.”
“Although your words sound like they’ve been filtered through rose-colored glasses, they actually make a fair amount of sense,” Qin Yue stroked his chin.
“In that case, let’s try a different approach this time,” Gu Qinghuan said, instantly lifting everyone’s spirits.
According to Gu Qinghuan’s proposal, the class would split into three teams.
Team One would work alongside Xu Xinghe to understand Yin Xisheng’s situation and help her directly.
Team Two would handle auxiliary support. To put it simply, they would only help Xu Xinghe and would not involve themselves in Yin Xisheng’s problems.
The five neutral students would form Team Three, deciding what to do based on how the situation developed.
Although it seemed relatively flexible, Teams One and Two were forbidden from proactively asking Team Three for help. If Team Three wanted to know the progress of the other teams, they would have to dig around for information on their own.
Gu Qinghuan swiftly set up three group chats and sorted the three teams into them. Naturally, she was in every single group.
She also added Xu Xinghe to Team Two’s chat. After all, the members of Team Two needed to keep track of his condition to help him effectively.
Since it was their first time executing a split operation, everyone found it quite novel and began discussing it eagerly.
Gu Qinghuan took a step back and acted as a hands-off manager, refraining from proactively offering suggestions. She simply watched as everyone, drawing from their past experiences, began organizing the operation on their own.
Sitting in both group chats, Xu Xinghe looked back and forth between them. He walked over to Gu Qinghuan’s side and said in a low voice, “I’ve really caused trouble for everyone this time.”
“You shouldn’t look at it that way,” Gu Qinghuan waved her hand. “Didn’t everyone use to help each other out like this before? It’s just your turn this time.”
Xu Xinghe hesitated to speak, and Gu Qinghuan saw right through his thoughts. “It’s because you have personal feelings involved this time, which is why you’re feeling so self-conscious, right?”
Xu Xinghe instantly clamped his mouth shut.
Gu Qinghuan patted his shoulder. “It’s not like everyone can’t tell.”
Her single sentence succeeded in making Xu Xinghe flush a deep crimson.
“Honestly, if you want to pursue a girl, everyone is more than happy to help. They’d just want you to think things through carefully, since nothing is guaranteed during your student years,” Gu Qinghuan said.
“So, there’s no need to feel like you’ve let everyone down. We are the twenty-two marmots of the melon patch, after all. If we’re missing even one, the melon won’t taste as good.”
Xu Xinghe nodded vigorously. “Got it!”
Chapter 287: Poetic Justice
This time, Yu Xin and Jiang Chuchu became the captains of the two teams respectively—Yu Xin led Team One, while Jiang Chuchu headed Team Two.
It felt rather novel for the two of them to take opposing sides, but they wouldn’t start a conflict because of it. After all, everyone in this world was unique; it was completely normal for two different people to hold varying perspectives on the exact same matter.
Thus, they simply followed their respective group divisions and began actively resolving the problem at hand.
Gu Qinghuan oversaw all three teams. All three group chats were quite lively, but she refrained from chiming in.
Xu Xinghe, on the other hand, was already a bit flustered just trying to balance his attention between two group chats. Looking up and seeing how leisurely Gu Qinghuan was, he couldn’t help but sigh, “Class Monitor, you’re strictly spectating the drama this time.”
“This is called acting as the Commander-in-Chief!” Gu Qinghuan said righteously.
Hearing this, Yu Xin and Jiang Chuchu both lifted their heads, cast a glance at her, and waved her off. “Go play somewhere else.”
Gu Qinghuan slunk back to her seat and continued updating her Class Three student roster notebook.
Among the students whose problems had already been resolved, Lin Zhulu’s file had the highest page count, as her situation was by far the most complex.
As for Xu Xinghe’s mission this time, Gu Qinghuan actually felt it was quite manageable. At first glance, Yin Xisheng’s psychological state was indeed highly problematic, and Ruan Tanyu was a total piece of work, but at the end of the day, it was strictly a matter between the two of them. Even if you factored in Xu Xinghe and Ning Fu, there were only four people involved, and it didn’t touch upon any illegal activity.
Therefore, Gu Qinghuan intended to let everyone try to resolve the issue on their own this time without intervening too much.
The system spoke up cryptically: [Host, please do not forget that you have an active mission on your hands.]
Gu Qinghuan: [I just said I won’t intervene too much, not that I won’t intervene at all.]
Mainly, the system had also mentioned last time that by working together, everyone could forge more destinies and a brand-new world.
Gu Qinghuan: [I just want to nurture everyone’s ability to solve problems on their own, it’s definitely not because I’m slacking off!]
The system thought it over and offered a word of comfort: [Host, you don’t need to put too much pressure on yourself either. Just take it step by step.]
Gu Qinghuan remained noncommittal. She honestly didn’t feel much pressure, because she believed she could absolutely pull it off.
Throughout the day, everyone utilized their lunch break and spare time between classes to hash out a plan.
Team One decided to first understand Yin Xisheng’s intentions through Xu Xinghe, and follow the suggestion Gu Qinghuan had previously given him to guide Yin Xisheng out of her shell. Her willingness to return to a school campus was a good thing; once she interacted with more people, she might not have the time or energy to worry about Ruan Tanyu anymore.
At present, everyone’s understanding of Yin Xisheng stemmed from the intelligence they had gathered. Her actual, specific state of mind would have to be assessed through direct contact.
By comparison, Team Two functioned as Xu Xinghe’s brain trust. Team Two had no intention of managing Yin Xisheng, but they would help Xu Xinghe objectively analyze the contents of the letters she sent him and provide advice. When Xu Xinghe’s judgment became clouded by emotion, Team Two would be responsible for delivering a blunt reality check to keep him level-headed. If Xu Xinghe ever slacked off during class again to write a reply, what awaited him would be Team Two’s unsparing “discipline.”
As for Team Three, they were currently spectating from a distance, intending to wait until Teams One and Two made some headway before deciding on their next move.
Once Yu Xin and Jiang Chuchu finalized their respective plans, they both called Gu Qinghuan over to review them.
Gu Qinghuan: “Looks great. Just thinking about it gets me excited.”
Yu Xin and Jiang Chuchu: “Do you really not want to do any work?”
But considering there really wasn’t much to do in the initial stages, if Gu Qinghuan wanted to take it easy, they would just let her lie low for now. Once there was significant progress, she would undoubtedly throw herself into it.
Gu Qinghuan used the data Ning Fu and Bao Qingsong had dug up to track down Yin Xisheng and Ruan Tanyu’s social media accounts, parsing through their posting history.
Although both of them had written very cryptically on the anonymous social platform to avoid exposing their real identities, Gu Qinghuan already held the answer sheet. She could easily decipher about seventy to eighty percent of their riddle-like posts.
In fact, when Ning Fu first handed Yin Xisheng’s account over to her, Gu Qinghuan had asked out of curiosity, “Is it really alright for you to tell me her account?”
“It’s fine,” Ning Fu had replied calmly. “Practically everyone who knows about her relationship knows about this account.”
After all, the romance between Yin Xisheng and Ruan Tanyu had started out as an act. To make the other boys believe she actually had a boyfriend, she naturally had to display it publicly. Once the fake relationship became real, it became a platform for pure love-flexing. Further down the line, it devolved into a tragic melodrama, and the updates gradually ground to a halt.
“She started updating again a while ago, and another ‘he’ appeared. It was only after I noticed it that I realized she had gotten involved with Xu Xinghe from your class,” Ning Fu said.
As for the present, Gu Qinghuan frowned as she looked at the text that read “He is different from you.”
Suddenly, her phone rang. Just as Gu Qinghuan was about to scroll through the interface, her finger accidentally tapped the answer button. Only after the call connected did she realize it was from Xia He.
“Huh, that’s rare. What’s up?” Gu Qinghuan put the call on speaker while switching her screen back to the social media platform.
“The Wei family has been thoroughly dismantled. I figured you ought to know the outcome,” Xia He’s tone was exceptionally relaxed. “To cut straight to the chase, Wei Yan was sentenced to fifteen years. However, due to his lower-body paralysis, he’s been granted temporary medical parole outside of prison. The vast majority of his assets have been confiscated, and as for the remaining portion, I intend to leave it with him for now.”
“Why leave it with him?” Gu Qinghuan asked, puzzled.
“He’ll definitely want to rely on that remaining cash to make a comeback. Waiting until he burns through all that money only to end up with absolutely nothing—isn’t that far more entertaining?” Xia He said nonchalantly.
As for the medical parole, while it might look like he escaped a jail cell on the surface, being out in the open was sometimes far more hazardous than being inside. Without Xia He needing to lift a finger, the families of the girls Wei Xiao had harmed and Wei Yan had silenced were already preparing their revenge. However, this part fell under personal vendettas, so Xia He didn’t intend to tell Gu Qinghuan.
Hearing Xia He’s plan, Gu Qinghuan couldn’t help but click her tongue. He’s planning to bleed Wei Yan completely dry.
She asked, “What about Zhu Yuanyuan?”
“Zhu Yuanyuan’s sentence remains unchanged. However, I had someone pass a little tip to Wei Yan. Once he learned that Zhu Yuanyuan had stashed away money, he decisively clawed it back to pay off his court fines,” Xia He said cheerfully.
Left penniless upon her release from prison, with her history as a human trafficker exposed to the entire world, Zhu Yuanyuan’s future life would undoubtedly become an absolute quagmire, wouldn’t it?
“As for Wei Xiao, he received a five-year sentence,” Xia He said. “Once he gets out, the plan is to let him stay in the country for a bit before finding an opportunity to ship him abroad. He harmed so many girls; let the domestic enemies have a turn first, then let the foreign ones handle the rest.”
He spoke very casually, but without the backing of the Wei family, Wei Xiao would be entirely on his own abroad. Facing his enemies, one could easily deduce what kind of end awaited him. At the very least, the country Wei Xiao used to live in didn’t ban firearms.
Gu Qinghuan shook her head. It was poetic justice; she wouldn’t waste a shred of sympathy on those three.
“That’s about it. Is there anything else you want to know?” Xia He asked her.
“No.” Gu Qinghuan recalled Xu Xinghe’s situation and incidentally asked him, “If you were in this situation, what would you do?”
“Me? I’d just bankrupt the Ruan family. That way, the guy won’t have the luxury of time to think about rekindling old flames,” Xia He said dismissively.
Gu Qinghuan: If this keeps up, Class Three really is going to have to rename itself the Bankruptcy Brigade.
