Volume 3 Chapter 43

Volume 3 + Chapter 43: Escalation

“Won’t you reconsider me, Junior Ouyang? I’ve liked you for a long time.” To Ouyang Qianyue’s surprise, Senior Wu Fan, whom she had rejected before, still hadn’t given up and had come looking for her again.

“I’m sorry, Senior Wu Fan. I need to focus on my studies right now. I absolutely won’t date anyone before the high school entrance exam.”

“I see. But if you ever change your mind, you can come to me anytime.”

Qianyue nodded indifferently at Wu Fan’s words, then turned to head back to the classroom.

But as she turned, she happened to see the girl who had been bullying her standing opposite, glaring at her with hatred. The moment she saw that girl, Qianyue’s heart turned cold. She knew that today, that girl would surely cause trouble for her again.

So as soon as the lunch break arrived, Qianyue immediately ran up to the rooftop to hide.

“Now they shouldn’t be able to find me,” she muttered, heaving a sigh of relief as she took out the bread she had bought earlier. But just then, a pair of hands grabbed her collar and slammed her hard against the wall.

“Squish!” As Qianyue held her head, still trying to process what was happening, a foot stomped viciously on the bread that had fallen to the ground, crushing it.

“Where do you think you’re hiding, Ouyang Qianyue? I’ve warned you so many times, and you still dare to seduce my Senior Wu Fan?” Hearing that voice she had come to dread, Qianyue looked up at the person before her. It was indeed the girl who had been tormenting her all along.

“I didn’t seduce him. He came to me on his own…” But before Qianyue could finish, the girl shoved her to the ground and stomped on her hand.

“That hurts!” The intense pain made Qianyue cry out. Yet the girl didn’t let up because of Qianyue’s shrieks, instead, she pressed down even harder.

“Oh my, that expression of yours really looks pitiful. I haven’t even used much force. I get it now, you must rely on acting pathetic to win Senior Wu Fan’s sympathy and seduce him, right?”

“I don’t…” Qianyue whispered.

“Huh? Speak up!” The girl kicked Qianyue hard.

“Hey, the boss asked you a question!” Another girl stepped forward and delivered a harsh kick to Ouyang Qianyue as well.

“Damn vixen. All you know how to do all day is steal other people’s boyfriends!” With those words from the ringleader, the other girls joined in, beating and kicking Qianyue. This bout of bullying lasted longer than usual, and the blows were heavier.

“Whew.” Only when the lunch break was nearly over did the ringleader signal the others to stop.

“Oh, right. The break is almost over, but it seems you haven’t eaten yet, Classmate Qianyue?” The girl smiled cruelly as she spoke.

“Look at that, sorry for wasting your mealtime. You girls hold her down. I’ll personally feed her.” The ringleader had the others restrain Qianyue, then looked down at the crushed bread on the ground.

“Ew~ how disgusting. I can’t believe you normally eat this kind of thing!” With a look of contempt, the girl used a tissue to pick up the smashed bread, wrapped it up, and then forced the entire mess, tissue and all, into Qianyue’s mouth.

“Let me tell you, this isn’t over. Don’t think I’ll let you off that easily.”

After that, an even more terrifying nightmare descended upon her.

The next day, she went to class as usual. Her classmates all looked at her with strange eyes. Only then did she notice that many of their desks had a piece of paper on them, and so did hers. When she read the contents, her heart leaped with shock.

The gist of it was that although she appeared pure and innocent at school, she was actually a loose woman who seduced other people’s boyfriends. 

Even worse, the flyer claimed that her mother was a homewrecker who had an affair with a married man and gave birth to her, calling her an illegitimate child and such.

“Hey, do you think what’s written on this paper is true?”

“No way. I always thought Ouyang Qianyue seemed like a nice person.”

“Hard to say. After all, none of us has ever seen anyone come to parent-teacher conferences for her.” The classmates murmured among themselves.

Despite Qianyue’s desperate denials, some students remained skeptical. And to make matters worse, those flyers spreading rumors about Ouyang Qianyue had also been distributed to other classes.

“So? Did you get everything done like I asked?”

“Don’t worry, boss. I had my girls help spread it. I told them that I witnessed with my own eyes Ouyang Qianyue seducing your boyfriend.” The girls who had been bullying Qianyue were now speaking privately.

“Hmph. I’ll make you suffer not only physically but also ruin your reputation. That’s the only way to soothe my hatred.” The ringleader’s voice was vicious.

And so, with their inflammatory efforts, more and more students began to believe the rumors.

“See that? That’s the one…”

“Ah, that slut.” Every time Qianyue walked through the school, she could hear people hurling insults at her. Nor did the physical violence from that group of girls stop.

“Xiaoyue, why are your eyes a bit swollen?” At the hospital, just as Qianyue was about to help her mother wash up, her mother suddenly asked.

“Ah, I stayed up late studying last night, so my eyes are a little puffy.” Once again, she lied to her mother. In truth, her eyes were swollen because she had been secretly crying every night, overwhelmed by grievance.

“And what about your arm?” Qianyue had habitually rolled up her sleeve, revealing bruises on her arm.

“Th-that’s from a fall. I wasn’t careful.”

“Qianyue, tell me the truth. Are you being bullied at school?”

“N-no, I’m not? Mom, you know me. I get along well with everyone. No one would bully me.”

After leaving the hospital, thinking about returning to school the next day to be bullied and cursed behind her back, she felt utterly miserable. Then she made up her mind and dialed her brother’s number.

“Hello? Qianyue? What’s wrong? Calling me so late.” Her brother’s gentle voice on the phone nearly made her burst into tears. But she couldn’t cause him trouble. So she clenched her jaw, forcing herself not to let out any sobbing sounds.

“Big brother… I just missed you…” Qianyue said softly.

“Didn’t we just see each other at the cultural festival? Qianyue, has something happened?”

“No, nothing. I’m doing fine, brother.”

“Oh, I see. Well, I’m busy this month with the piano competition for the music club, and the national tournament for the Go club is also coming up. So how about this, once I’m free next month, I’ll take you to the amusement park, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you, brother. Please take care of yourself too. Don’t wear yourself out.” With that, Qianyue hung up.

A week later, Bai Yuxuan was handling affairs in the student council office as usual.

“Senior, someone’s looking for you.” Xia Bingdie led a woman into the student council office.

“And you are…?”

“Ah, I’m a teacher from No. 1 High School in Xijiang City. One of my students hasn’t come to school for three days now. She’s a boarder, and her roommates say she hasn’t returned to the dorm for those three days. When we tried to contact her parents, the phone numbers she had provided turned out to be invalid. So we could only follow the address where her tuition fees were sent from, hoping to find her parents.”

“Oh, I see. What’s the student’s name?” Bai Yuxuan opened her computer, ready to access the school’s information system to help.

“Her name is Ouyang Qianyue.”

“What!” At the name from the teacher’s mouth, Bai Yuxuan shot up from her seat.

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