MTB - Chapter 33
Chapter 33: Slander
Tang Yuelou glanced at Guan Yan's phone screen. It took Guan Yan a moment to react, and for a second, she didn't know whether to answer or hide her phone... But it was too late. Tang Yuelou had already finished reading the content, her brow furrowing slightly.
"Chen Hao," she read the name aloud, then looked up calmly and asked, "Who is this?"
"He was with us last time when we were taken to the police station." This "glorious achievement" was hardly something to be proud of, and Guan Yan felt a little awkward. She added, "He was one of the guys from the group that fought with us."
"A student at our university?"
"School of Business Administration, Class XX, Section XX."
Tang Yuelou adjusted her glasses and nodded at Guan Yan. "Thank you."
"Teacher, are you going to go beat him up for me?" Yun Yang pouted. "Never mind, it's better if I do it myself."
"In your mind, am I the kind of person who resorts to violence at the slightest disagreement?" Tang Yuelou looked at her with a half-smile.
Yun Yang replied suggestively, "How could you not be?"
Guan Yan was completely lost. "What? Teacher Tang is so gentle, but she hits people?"
Yun Yang was speechless.
Tang Yuelou laughed out loud beside them. Yun Yang's face instantly turned red, and she rolled her eyes at her in annoyance. "Don't you have anything better to do? If you have a class, go teach it. This isn't your dorm, so stop standing around making a spectacle of yourself, you 'gentle' Teacher Tang!"
"Alright, I'm leaving now." Tang Yuelou stroked her hair, then turned to Guan Yan. "Please keep her company for a little while. Thank you. I'll come pick her up after my class."
Guan Yan nodded blankly, watching her depart gracefully. It took her a long moment to process everything.
"Teacher Tang is so gentle," she sighed.
Then it dawned on her. Guan Yan pointed at Tang Yuelou's retreating figure and asked with a frown, "Why do I feel like I'm the third wheel here?"
Yun Yang could only offer a smile in return and held out her hand. "Now, let me see that post."
Guan Yan snapped out of it and immediately handed her the phone.
The post was a mix of images and text, with the photos taken from clever angles. One clear shot was frozen on Yun Yang grabbing Chen Hao's arm, making it look as if she were deliberately pressing herself against him. The other was taken at night, showing Yun Yang getting into a low-profile black sedan by the side of the road. The photo had been magnified several times, and her face wasn't visible.
Yun Yang herself couldn't remember when the first photo was taken; it was probably from the moment she had grabbed Chen Hao by the collar to punch him. The scene had been chaotic, and who would have thought someone would intentionally take a picture like that? As for the second photo, the photographer had prioritized capturing the car's emblem over her face. It couldn't have been more deliberate... Yun Yang let out a cold laugh.
Based solely on Chen Hao's one-sided account and those two photos, anyone who didn't know the truth would naturally assume the girl in the pictures had impure motives.
Chen Hao had made the post at noon, and in just one short hour, it had already garnered dozens of comments. Guan Yan had many friends, a lot of them casual acquaintances. More than half of her thousand-plus contacts were people she merely nodded to in passing. The majority were there for the drama, a few tried to defend Yun Yang, and others seized the opportunity to kick her while she was down.
"Not bad. He's got some tricks up his sleeve. I didn't notice anyone taking photos at the time," she said with a laugh.
"Yangyang... are you okay?" Guan Yan asked tentatively.
"I'm fine." Yun Yang casually took a screenshot, then pulled out her own phone to photograph the screen, making sure to capture the names of everyone who had jumped on the bandwagon to spread rumors and slander her. She handed the phone back, her expression calm. "He wants to make a big deal out of this. Coincidentally, I have no intention of just letting this go."
"I'm going to go curse him out right now." Guan Yan rolled up her sleeves. "Should I send you his WeChat contact?"
"No need. And don't tell him anything. We don't want him deleting it. In fact, it would be best if it spread even wider," Yun Yang said, running her tongue over her back teeth.
Guan Yan and the few friends who had been at karaoke that night all posted on their Moments to help clarify the situation, but their posts were quickly drowned out. That same day, the original post and photos were reposted on the university's anonymous wall. The sense of security that came with anonymity amplified people's malice and audacity. Someone dug up Yun Yang's full name and student ID number. "Player," "mistress," "lesbian," "gold digger," "prostitute"... and other such glaring, ugly labels appeared one after another.
A girl, a pretty girl—especially a pretty girl who excelled in every way and had an assertive personality—was destined to be the center of attention from the moment she was born. People demanded she be a saint capable of resisting all temptation, yet they stared at her with ill intent, making groundless accusations, magnifying her every move, and applying the most malicious interpretations, all while fantasizing about seeing her dragged from her pedestal and covered in filth.
And the common saying, "the innocent need not defend themselves," was nothing more than laughable self-consolation. When no one believed public clarifications, holding onto one's pride was simply delusional.
In the short span of a single long afternoon lecture, the administrator of the anonymous wall deleted the post several times. But the more it was deleted, the more intensely the rumors spread. Guan Yan scrolled through her social media during class, growing more and more alarmed with every post she read.
"This... this is too much! Is this how people's minds work? They just make up rumors without a second thought!" she exclaimed, utterly shocked. She found it unbearable to read. "How can they insult someone like this!"
The rumors spread with vivid, convincing detail, becoming increasingly outrageous and vile. Someone even posted screenshots of a supposed chat with Yun Yang. The "slightly embellished" conversation was filled with suggestive and provocative messages. If Guan Yan hadn't known Yun Yang personally, she couldn't imagine what she would be thinking of her right now.
The afternoon class was a required course for their major, so everyone around was a fellow student from their department. A few friends who walked past didn't greet them as usual, instead casting complex, unreadable glances in their direction. Guan Yan was hot-tempered by nature, and now she was even more agitated. She nearly launched into a flame war online right then and there, but Yun Yang stopped her.
"Did you get screenshots?" Yun Yang asked.
In just one afternoon, she had unwittingly become the center of a storm of public opinion. And by the looks of it, this anonymous carnival was just getting started. Yet she remained remarkably calm, listening to the lecture when she was supposed to and letting her mind wander when she felt like it, as if she weren't the main character in this drama.
"Got them." Guan Yan sent her the screenshots, then slammed her fist on the desk in frustration. "I never realized so many people were active on this stupid anonymous wall," she said sarcastically. "Our university really is full of people with too much time on their hands."
"It's good that there are so many of them. Besides, rumors are just rumors." Yun Yang's WeChat was blowing up with notifications. She casually tossed her phone into her pocket and ran her hand along the corner of the classroom desk.
Guan Yan had a bad feeling. "Wait, what are you doing—"
Before she could stop her, Yun Yang closed her eyes and slammed her side into the corner of the desk. There was a heavy, muffled thud. Yun Yang lowered her head and let out a pained grunt, and Guan Yan flinched in shock.
It was a hard blow; Guan Yan felt a pang of phantom pain just watching. She quickly grabbed her. "Don't hurt yourself... You still have to teach that bastard Chen Hao a lesson."
"Yeah, you're right. I can't let this suffering be for nothing." Yun Yang grimaced, the pain nearly bringing tears to her eyes. When she looked up again, she truly looked pitiful and vulnerable. She gritted her teeth and said, "Let's go report this to the police. Right now."
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