Chapter 43
Recognizing the scene and the people in the picture, Jiang Lu sat bolt upright in bed.
This wasn’t just a matter of being from the same school or not. That was clearly her in the drawing! They didn’t even bother to change her hairstyle—what did that mean? Were they manually monitoring her life?
As she sat there in shock, Liang Shuang, who had finished looking at the image, tagged Shao Shuyi repeatedly in the group chat before sending a ten-second voice message: “Shao Shuyi, are you an idiot! This isn’t just a matter of whether the artist is from our school! This is fucking Jiang Lu! That’s from the day of PE class when that freshman girl confessed to her! It’s identical!”
Jiang Lu’s heart was pounding. She pressed the voice button to reply, but a group voice call invitation popped up on the screen. She let go and hit accept, and the three profile pictures instantly gathered in the center of the screen.
Shao Shuyi sounded like she had truly only just realized it, letting out a string of “Holy craps”: “I was wondering why it looked so familiar! I thought great artists just used similar templates!”
“I call you an idiot and you prove it! Even if artists share templates, do their fangirls share the same ones too?!” Liang Shuang was exasperated.
Jiang Lu was equally exasperated. Covering her face, she interrupted: “Shuyi, can you get in touch with this artist? It’s not appropriate for her to reconstruct the scene like this.”
Liang Shuang agreed: “Definitely not appropriate. That freshman girl has a reputation to keep. It’s bad enough being rejected, but to be drawn and posted online? How is this different from a surveillance screenshot?”
Shao Shuyi let out a yelp and immediately switched screens to send a DM: “On it, on it! I’m contacting the blogger right now!”
Liang Shuang had intended to shower, but she stayed where she was, leaning against the bathroom doorframe to wait. “Go ahead. See what they say. Is there a comment section? If so, check if anyone has recognized them yet.”
“Okay, okay,” Shao Shuyi promised. She sent five DMs in a row, but they all remained unread. She refreshed the page anxiously, only to find the blogger was offline.
Liang Shuang: “Not online? Then wait a bit. I’ll go wash up first and we’ll talk later.”
Shao Shuyi lived the furthest from the Jiang residence and had only shared the image once she sat down at home. Now, hearing Liang Shuang was going to wash up, she walked into her own bathroom, propped her phone against the sink mirror, and waited while brushing her teeth.
The blogger remained offline, but the comment section was refreshing rapidly. In just half an hour, the comments and likes had both surpassed two thousand. Every time she refreshed, the numbers climbed.
Seeing Liang Shuang had muted her mic while Jiang Lu was still listening, Shao Shuyi wiped the foam from her mouth and said, “Jiang Lu, I’m taking a quick shower. Be right back! Wait for me!”
With two of the three mics muted, Jiang Lu leaned against her headboard. Following the watermark on the image, she downloaded the app, registered an account, followed the blogger, and found the original post to check the comments.
Whether it was lucky or unlucky, the moment she refreshed, the words “Liancheng No. 1 High” appeared in the latest comments.
A schoolmate?
Jiang Lu’s heart leaped into her throat. she scrolled through the comments; fortunately, most were just fans celebrating the update. She continued to load more, but the colors on the screen suddenly shifted, and a notification appeared across the middle: This content has been deleted!
Deleted? So fast?
She exited the profile and re-entered; the latest update was now a drawing from yesterday noon. The online status at the top left showed “Offline 1 minute ago.”
???
They logged on specifically to delete the post? Was it because they saw Shao Shuyi’s DM, or had someone else contacted them?
Jiang Lu stared at the screen and yawned. She pulled the duvet over herself and got settled, intending to wait for Shao Shuyi to return and ask her. However, during that wait, she actually fell asleep.
When Liang Shuang returned to the call, she only heard even breathing. She didn’t hear Shao Shuyi, and seeing no reply to her private messages, she hung up the voice call and dialed her number directly. The group call was forcibly disconnected. Shao Shuyi, wrapped in a towel, happened to come out and answered the phone.
“Jiang Lu is asleep. Don’t send messages to the group for now; let’s talk privately.”
“Got it.”
The next morning at 6:00 AM, the alarm blared.
Jiang Lu struggled to open her eyes, feeling a dull ache in her neck. She reached out and felt around, grabbing her phone. The screen lit up with a “Low Battery: under 20%” warning.
Right—she forgot to charge it before sleeping.
She rubbed her neck and checked the group messages, finding that the records ended with the group call. She leaned over to plug the phone into the charger and stared blankly at the ceiling. She didn’t know if Liang Shuang and Shao Shuyi had thought of Du Meng, but she definitely had to find an opportunity to ask when she got back to school today.
Before sleeping last night, she had compared the accounts. That Weibo account had previously only posted character art or scenery; it only posted small “cute pet” comics as a bonus during holidays. A comic strip like the one Shuyi shared was a first, and it was clearly an unfinished piece.
Jiang Lu felt instinctively that this was strange. It was an unexplainable feeling… she just felt like the person on the other side was targeting her.
Is that a bit too narcissistic? Jiang Lu’s face flushed at her own thought, and she lowered her head to wash her face with cold water.
At 7:00 AM, she set off for school. She arrived at the No. 1 High gate exactly at 7:30 AM as agreed. Jiang Lu got out of the car, saw Liang Shuang getting out a few meters ahead, and scanned the area until her eyes landed on Shao Shuyi.
Shao Xuan wasn’t busy this morning and had driven her daughter to school personally, arriving ten minutes early. Shao Shuyi hadn’t rushed inside; she sat on her suitcase waiting until she saw the two of them appear almost simultaneously, then waved her arms.
It was return-to-school time, and people were streaming through the gate. After meeting up, the three headed back to the dorm together. The seniors hadn’t had a break this time; through the cafeteria doors, they could see many upperclassmen having breakfast.
Shao Shuyi peered inside curiously, locked eyes with Chu Ziyan as she was walking out, and awkwardly turned her head away as if she had seen nothing. Standing in front of the cafeteria, Chu Ziyan was visibly stunned when she saw Jiang Lu.
Her younger sister had just told her that their mother had indeed gotten the medication from the hospital. If she didn’t want to truly burn her bridges, she had to learn to control herself. Just a high-achieving Alpha junior, not a rival for an Omega’s affection. No need for jealousy, no need to care… Whew!
Once they passed, Chu Ziyan forced herself not to turn back and walked quickly down the steps toward the nearby Zhixing Building.
Returning to the sixth floor of the Alpha girls’ dorm, Shao Shuyi was the first to leave the group. Jiang Lu and Liang Shuang continued down the hallway. As they passed 602, Chu Zishan happened to open the door. “Oh, you guys are back so late?”
“You’re early, you’re the earliest.” Liang Shuang didn’t even bother to turn her head, pushing Jiang Lu into 601 and slamming the door shut with a whoosh.
Lin Tingting and Chen Xueyao were packing their things and turned to greet them. “Jiang Lu, Liang Shuang, you’re here.”
“Good morning,” Jiang Lu and Liang Shuang replied in unison.
“How rude.” A discordant voice sounded as the closed door was pushed open silently. Chu Zishan leaned against the doorframe looking at Jiang Lu, shooting a glare at Liang Shuang in the process.
“…” Liang Shuang rolled her eyes. “Your self-evaluation is very accurate.”
“I was talking about you.” Chu Zishan flipped her hair back, her tone changing slightly when she looked at Jiang Lu. “Hey, Jiang Lu, the monthly exam rankings are out. Did you see them when you came in?”
“No.” Jiang Lu shook her head. They hadn’t taken the main walkway back, so they didn’t pass the display boards.
Chu Zishan let out a chuckle at the answer. “I saw them.”
“Did you take first place?” Liang Shuang felt a wave of irritation at her laughter.
Chu Zishan seemed completely unaffected by the sarcasm. “No. Jiang Lu is still first, for now.”
Liang Shuang: “Heh. I thought it was you.”
“I believe it will be soon,” Chu Zishan said with her arms crossed, looking so proud and confident you’d think the top spot had belonged to her for a long time. Liang Shuang snorted and turned away to organize her things.
No one paid attention to Chu Zishan anymore, but she didn’t seem to care. She pulled her phone from her pocket and tapped it. “By the way, you guys just got here, so there’s something you might not know—”
The residents of 601 gave no response.
Chu Zishan continued regardless: “Jiang Lu, you’re on the Confession Wall again. But it’s different from last time; this time a fangirl drew a comic of you.”
The two Alpha girls sitting and organizing their bags froze simultaneously.
Chu Zishan pulled up the image and commented, “Don’t know who drew it, but the skill is really good. One-to-one recreation. If you replaced the gift box in the little Omega’s hand with chocolate, who could even tell her apart from a surveillance camera?”
Jiang Lu looked up sharply. Chu Zishan spread her hands innocently. “Don’t look at me like that. Everyone was on the playground that day. I just saw it by chance.”
Liang Shuang finally couldn’t take it anymore. She threw her things down and stood up to drive her away. “So annoying! Standing at someone else’s door talking non-stop. Are you a reincarnated cuckoo bird?”
Once the door was locked, Liang Shuang leaned her back against it and pulled out her phone to check the Confession Wall. Seeing that the latest update was indeed the image Shuyi had shared last night, she tapped the profile and started typing. Feeling that was too slow, she tapped the plus sign and initiated a voice call.
The call was hung up instantly. Liang Shuang pursed her lips in displeasure, seeing out of the corner of her eye that Jiang Lu was also on her phone.
The comment section of the Confession Wall had more replies than the entire first page of the school forum combined. It had been updated at 7:00 AM, and in just forty minutes, it was already endless. Someone had already outed the freshman Omega girl rejected by Jiang Lu as Xie Panpan from Class 8.
For adolescents, having a confession rejected can be a big or small deal. Those with a good mindset get over it quickly; those without might feel like it’s the end of the world. Now that it was known and discussed by so many, it was no different from a public execution.
Jiang Lu didn’t know what Xie Panpan’s psychological endurance was like, but she was certain the person who submitted the post was stirring up trouble. Whoever they were aiming at, they had certainly dragged her into it.
Xie Panpan didn’t know yet that she had become the school’s new “celebrity.” Carrying her pale pink backpack, she walked quickly into the Omega dorm building. Just as she reached the third floor, she heard an unfamiliar Omega let out a scoffing laugh, shouting in a sarcastic tone: “Oh! Isn’t this the girl who got rejected after confessing to the sophomore Study God! Ah, right, Xie Panpan from Freshman Class 8, ha!”
Xie Panpan froze. She turned back in surprise to meet the girl’s eyes, her cheeks burning red. “What are you talking about?!”
“What am I talking about?” The girl laughed punchably. “What did I say? Am I not stating facts? Everyone in school knows by now!”
Xie Panpan’s head buzzed, her eyes widening in disbelief. “How do you know! Who told you!”
There were a lot of people on the playground that day, yes, but she had checked before going—not many were paying attention to her, and those who knew had been sworn to secrecy. How? Who was so bored as to spread rumors about her?
“I don’t need anyone to tell me. Everyone can see it. What? You haven’t seen it?” The girl’s smile was sinister. “You’re on the Confession Wall!”
Xie Panpan froze. Standing on the stairs, she pulled out her phone to check her social feed. The second the image loaded, her legs went weak, and she fell backward.
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