TGSS - Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Rumors

Liang Zhouyi finally reined in every trace of her loss of composure.

She braced both hands on the back of the chair and forced herself to stand, walking toward Chu He. Her pale face was filled with disbelief as she picked up the camera, her eyes dark and unreadable.

Her fingertips brushed lightly over its black body. The cold, smooth touch made her expression look caught between tears and laughter. The surface of the camera showed some wear, but perhaps because it had not been used much, it was still quite new overall. Her gaze examined every inch of it carefully, and in a daze she seemed to return to the day she had first received it.

It was a summer afternoon. The cicadas chirped through the dormitory window, making the few roommates trying to nap toss and turn. Liang Zhouyi kept refreshing the delivery tracking information, too excited to sleep. She crept down from her bunk, braved the blazing sun and crossed the entire campus to the delivery station to pick up the package. She held the camera that belonged to her alone with an almost reverent care, as if she were holding a dream firmly grasped in her own hands.

Her university did provide some old equipment for classes, but people who were serious about the craft all had a strange artistic fastidiousness. After the video she shot for Wen Xiaoying went viral, Wen Xiaoying's account gradually began to operate more professionally, moving from a phone at the start to a secondhand camera and lenses, and then to Wen Xiaoying proactively building a team and purchasing new equipment. Yet Liang Zhouyi had never owned a camera and lenses of her own.

Something worth tens of thousands was too expensive for Liang Zhouyi at that time, and even for Liang Zhouyi now. She could not remember how many part-time jobs she had worked during the half-year from the summer after the college entrance exams to the summer of her freshman year to save that money. Only by adding what she earned from Wen Xiaoying's side did she barely manage to save enough.

As Liang Zhouyi walked along the tree-lined avenue holding her package, she passed two girls from the same department. Arm in arm, they sized her up with malicious eyes.

"Acting as a mistress and still strutting around campus so brazenly, what has the world come to!"

The voice was neither loud nor soft, just loud enough for Liang Zhouyi to hear clearly. Her expression turned icy in an instant. Holding the package, she walked toward them, and the two of them showed awkward, panicked looks in unison.

Liang Zhouyi blocked their path and smiled with narrowed eyes. "Who are you calling a mistress, hmm?"

Her gaze was too cold and clear, as if it reflected them as petty gossips. One of the girls tried hard to suppress the flicker of shame and fear in her heart and forced herself to say, "Whoever answers is the one!"

"Ha." Liang Zhouyi burst out laughing, the corners of her eyes carrying a lazy disdain. Her gaze drifted lightly over their faces. "Say it to my face right now, who is the mistress?"

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, forming mottled patches of light. Liang Zhouyi stood in the shade of the trees, her delicate, icy face openly stern. The girl she was looking at felt her feet take root. Though it was May or June, she felt a chill run through her entire body.

"Heh." Liang Zhouyi bumped hard into the girl's shoulder with her package, left her with a contemptuous look, and walked straight away.

If you have the guts to say it to my face, then face me head-on. Why back down now, how boring.

In truth, by the time Liang Zhouyi became aware of it, her reputation had already deteriorated beyond repair.

She returned to the dormitory entrance sweating under the blazing sun, her hands full and about to bump the door open with her body, when she heard giggling and laughter from inside. Liang Zhouyi's expression cooled. It had been a long time since there had been such a pleasant atmosphere when she was in the dorm. She nudged the door, and the room fell abruptly silent.

After a long moment, the door in front of Liang Zhouyi was finally opened. She turned her face to look and saw An Ruo with a cold expression.

After entering, Liang Zhouyi pushed the door shut with her foot and set her things on the desk. Sweat had dampened the fine hair at her temples, and her loose, mid length hair clung to her graceful shoulders, making her skin look even paler.

"Hmph." Xu Junying could not help sneering at Liang Zhouyi, who seemed to be in a good mood. "Xiaoying has moved out, you must be satisfied now?"

"Whether she moves out is her business, I have nothing to be satisfied or dissatisfied about," Liang Zhouyi said without looking up.

"If you hadn't clung to her and insisted on coming between her and her boyfriend, would she have moved out?" Xu Junying said sarcastically.

Liang Zhouyi's hands paused as she opened the package, and the sharp little blade nearly cut her. She smiled. "I don't have the ability to do that, don't pin that blame on me."

Xu Junying rolled her eyes at Liang Zhouyi's indifferent face. This person's mental fortitude was really something. The matter of her being a third party and a lesbian had caused a huge stir at school, yet apart from clarifying once at the beginning, Liang Zhouyi had acted as steady as ever, doing what she was supposed to do, as if she were completely unaffected by the gossip.

In fact, Liang Zhouyi found it quite laughable. After Wen Xiaoying gradually became popular online, she met a rich second generation internet celebrity boyfriend. The two had gone to the same high school. The man spent a lot of money on her and even paid to promote her. Wen Xiaoying began to market the beautiful relationship between herself and her boyfriend, and probably felt Liang Zhouyi was no longer useful and wanted to kick her aside.

Honestly, Liang Zhouyi did not really mind that. Although Wen Xiaoying had always expressed a vague affection for her, and she did not dislike Wen Xiaoying, it always felt like something was missing. The two of them had remained in a state of more than friends but less than lovers.

As for the accusation that she had interfered in their relationship, it was nothing more than that one day Wen Xiaoying had tried to kiss her and Liang Zhouyi had stopped her by holding her head back. Someone photographed that moment and posted it to the school forum, and it evolved into a story that Liang Zhouyi had tried to force a kiss on Wen Xiaoying.

Of course. In everyone's eyes, Wen Xiaoying was the perfect goddess, while she, Liang Zhouyi, had always been an unruly troublemaker. It fit her persona perfectly that she would do something so outrageous as forcing a kiss on someone.

After the incident blew up, Liang Zhouyi was also forced to come out at school, but fortunately it only spread within a small circle and had not yet affected her life. It was not that she had not tried to clarify, but people often only believe what they want to believe. As for the idle gossip, she truly did not care much.

But with the tide of public opinion so one-sided, she did not believe Wen Xiaoying had no hand in it. Wen Xiaoying had even come to her in private because of it.

"Zhouyi, now that things have gotten so big it's not good for either of us, why don't you withdraw from school. I can give you a sum of money to let you retake the exams. With your ability you could definitely get into a better university, why limit yourself to this place?" Wen Xiaoying advised earnestly, looking entirely as if she were thinking of Liang Zhouyi's best interests.

A smile appeared on Liang Zhouyi's indifferent face. "Xiaoying, you can't not know that if I withdraw now I will be taking the blame for good. You don't need to go to such lengths to silence me either. There was never anything between us, so you don't need to worry about your boyfriend saying you're two timing."

Liang Zhouyi was very naive at that time, thinking everything was still under her control. She thought that as long as she did not take it to heart, time would slowly calm the storm. But it turned out she had underestimated Wen Xiaoying's ruthlessness and underestimated the malice of the crowd.

As things escalated, the counselor called her family and asked a parent to come to the school. Liang Zhouyi did not know about the call, and it was her stepfather who answered it. Her family knew nothing about her sexual orientation. Although her stepfather was cold to her, he truly loved his wife, so he decided to come to the school alone to find Liang Zhouyi.

Later, that day became the nightmare Liang Zhouyi least wanted to recall in her entire life.

That evening, she was holding her camera and heading out to her part-time job when she was blocked at the school gate by two men. Liang Zhouyi recognized them as Wen Xiaoying's loyal fans at school. She pressed down the brim of her cap, a trace of coldness appearing at the corner of her lips.

"Bitch, you're disgusting, using friendship as an excuse to get close to Xiaoying, it's revolting. If you have any conscience you shouldn't appear in front of her again, just withdraw from school! Do you know how much harm she has suffered?"

Liang Zhouyi raised an eyebrow, finding it funny in her heart. How could she not know that Wen Xiaoying had been hurt to this extent, when she was the one who could not defend herself? But emotional disputes in this world are often the hardest to explain clearly to outsiders.

Liang Zhouyi's sharp gaze fell on the two of them. She slung the camera behind her back and a curve appeared at the corner of her mouth. "Tsk, it really takes all kinds. Does your goddess know her fans are such lowlifes?"

"Fuck, you bitch." The foul language made Liang Zhouyi's expression turn unpredictable. Her fists gradually clenched, a ruthless glint flashing in her eyes. Barely suppressing the anger in her heart, she tried to skirt around them from the side, but one of them shoved her hard on the shoulder. A knife-edge chill settled over her previously languid face.

She took the camera from her body and gently set it on the ground, twisted her shoulders and felt every bone in her body itch. There was a hint of excitement in Liang Zhouyi's voice. "Want to fight?"

The two were completely enraged. One of them raised a fist as big as a sandbag to smash into her face. The blood in Liang Zhouyi's body began to boil, a wanton smile on her face, but this was the last time she would smile like that.

A violent crash, the sharp screech of tires on pavement, and the exclamations of passersby made the group freeze. Liang Zhouyi instinctively turned with everyone else to look at the man who had been knocked flying, rolling several times and lying in a pool of blood.

Her mind went blank. Liang Zhouyi felt her vision blur, and all the sounds around her receded. As if she had not seen clearly, she shook her head and mechanically moved her limbs to push through the crowd and walk to the man.

The middle-aged man's face, usually so stern, was now dazed. He opened his mouth and blood flowed from the corner of it. His lips quivered as if he wanted to say something. In his hazy consciousness he seemed to recognize Liang Zhouyi. The dizziness in his head left him unaware of what had happened. He curled his fingers as if to speak, but his mouth was blocked by blood and he could not make a sound.

Clinging to her last shred of awareness, Liang Zhouyi dialed 120. She knelt on the scorching asphalt, completely unable to feel the burning pain in her knees, just calling out to the man over and over again.

Liang Zhouyi actually could not remember much of what happened that day. The wail of the ambulance, her mother's slaps, the hysterical scolding, those eyes filled with hatred, the sharp crying, all seemed very far away from her. Her soul drifted in the air, leaving only an empty shell to endure everything.

Her thoughts returning, Liang Zhouyi could even smile as she looked at Chu He. "Where did you find this?" She clearly remembered she had already sold it.

Chu He held the camera with one arm and took Liang Zhouyi's icy hands in hers. "Liang Zhouyi, I am giving you a choice now, do you want to pick it up again? I will only ask you this once."

"Hahaha..." Liang Zhouyi first let out a soft laugh, then began to laugh loudly until tears fell. She looked at Chu He with a touch of resentment. "You give me a choice? I don't need any choice, my life now is my choice. Why should I pick it up? Chu He, do you think you understand me so well?"

"I do understand you." Chu He gripped her hands tightly as she tried to pull away, two flames burning in her eyes. "I just know you want to pick it up, Liang Zhouyi!"

"But I can't pick it up anymore!" Tears slid from the corners of Liang Zhouyi's eyes as she shouted at Chu He, her voice trembling at the end.

Chu He held her wrists firmly and said with certainty, "If I say you can, then you definitely can! I don't know what you have been through these years, but the Liang Zhouyi I know would never fall down and fail to get back up. I can see the unwillingness in your eyes, you are not someone content to be mediocre."

Liang Zhouyi laughed and cried at the same time. "You think too highly of me. Photography, that was a dream from how many years ago. Do you know how much pressure daily life puts on a person? Photography, what an expensive hobby."

"Time and money are absolutely not excuses," Chu He retorted.

"Then what if what stands in between is a human life!" When Liang Zhouyi hysterically shouted this sentence, she realized she had personally torn open a wound she thought had healed, only to see that the wound had never healed at all, and had already begun to fester and rot.

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