Chapter 2

 Sheng Churan was the "celebrity" of Class 3 in sophomore year, strikingly beautiful with a bold and unrestrained demeanor.

Almost all the students in the class knew two things about her—firstly, Sheng Churan despised Bai Xunyin, whom she viewed as a delicate white lotus flower. Leveraging her popularity and lavish spending, Sheng successfully led the entire class to ostracize Bai Xunyin.

The reason Bai Xunyin occasionally found herself locked in the classroom after school was all because of Sheng Churan.

Class 3 consisted of fifty students, organized into groups of two or three for daily cleaning duties. Each group would rotate once or twice a month to clean up after school.

The hygiene committee deliberately assigned Bai Xunyin, Sheng Churan, and Sheng Churan's follower, Zhong Qin, to the same group. Whenever it was their turn to clean, Sheng Churan would leave with Zhong Qin after the other classmates had left. Not only would she leave early, but she would also lock Bai Xunyin inside the classroom.

The student on duty in the evening had to bring the keys the next morning to unlock the classroom. So, Sheng Churan believed that even if Bai Xunyin was locked in the classroom overnight, no one would find out.

Even when Liu Chen told Shen Langli about this, Sheng Churan remained indifferent—she came from a wealthy and influential family, was exceptionally beautiful, and had a good social circle. What was wrong with "accidentally" locking a classmate in the classroom? Who could dare to reprimand her?

Because Bai Xunyin couldn't speak, any resistance was silent and unnoticed, so such "acts of violence" continued in silence.

In Class 3, the students either turned a blind eye or distanced themselves.

But they all knew that Sheng Churan hated Bai Xunyin; that was the first thing.

The second thing was that Sheng Churan liked Yu Luoyin from the adjacent class. She had openly declared her intention to pursue him, bold and passionate, creating almost school-wide gossip.

Even the teachers knew about this and had spoken to Sheng Churan about it. But no one could stop Sheng Churan; she was determined to pursue Yu Luoyin.

Aside from Bai Xunyin, hardly any students at Third High School were unaware of Yu Luoyin. He was voted the school's "campus hunk" on the internal school network, consistently ranking in the top three in every exam. Who wouldn't know him?

Teenage girls at sixteen or seventeen were in the most restless period of adolescence. How many hadn't fantasized about Yu Luoyin, this typical "son of heaven"?

However, few dared to express it as boldly and passionately as Sheng Churan did, waiting for Yu Luoyin outside his classroom door almost every day after school...

Bai Xunyin heard about these things from gossip among other students.

It was strange; she had automatically blocked out everything about Sheng Churan before. But ever since that day she had seen Yu Luoyin after school, his news seemed to constantly surround her.

Like something that always lingered around you, you didn't care about it when you didn't pay attention, just felt like passing clouds.

But once you paid a little attention, you couldn't help but feel that he, Yu Luoyin, was everywhere.

It turned out that Sheng Churan and Yu Luoyin were not in a relationship.

It was only Sheng Churan's one-sided liking for him.

"Hey, Bai Xunyin." Liu Yufu in front turned around and knocked on her desk. "Give me the math paper."

Liu Yufu was a girl with a delicate appearance and glasses, also the math representative in the class. After the second class every day, she was responsible for collecting homework and sending it to the math teacher's office, but she always asked Bai Xunyin for the math paper right after the first class.

Because Bai Xunyin was ranked first in the class for math, Liu Yufu wanted to check her own work against Bai's.

Bai Xunyin knew all this, but she didn't say anything, just silently took out the paper and handed it to Liu Yufu.

Liu Yufu was indifferent but not malicious. She didn't mind comparing her paper with Bai Xunyin's, even though Liu Yufu never said a "thank you".

As they were talking, the bell rang for class. The chemistry teacher walked in with a stack of lesson plans and, standing at the platform, suddenly became furious—

"What's wrong with your class today? Who was supposed to clean the blackboard?!" The chemistry teacher slammed the chalk eraser heavily against the blackboard. "No one cleaned the blackboard? Who?!"

The classroom, which had been buzzing with chatter, quieted down because of the chemistry teacher's anger. The silence was so profound that even the sound of a pin dropping could be heard.

Bai Xunyin bit her lip, unconsciously gripping the seam of her school pants.

"Who? Why is no one speaking up!" Seeing no response, the chemistry teacher grew even angrier. "Are you all mute? Who was on duty today?!"

"Teacher." A girl in the front row couldn't help but laugh at his words, raising her delicate eyebrows with a hint of malice. "Our class has only one true mute. If no one speaks, it must be her."

As she finished speaking, murmurs of laughter erupted throughout the classroom, as if they had been held back.

The chemistry teacher was stunned, his gaze instinctively turning towards Bai Xunyin, his thick eyebrows furrowed—

"Bai Xunyin, were you on duty today?"

Bai Xunyin's stiff back froze for a moment, then slowly stood up.

Amidst the silent gaze of those anticipating a spectacle, she opened her mouth but couldn't utter a single word.

However, merely standing up without shaking her head seemed like an admission to the teacher. Frowning, the teacher looked at Bai Xunyin somewhat helplessly and asked, "Why didn't you clean the blackboard? Should the teacher do it herself?"

"Teacher," Liu Yufu in the front suddenly spoke, her voice calm and quick, "There were three of us on duty, not just Bai Xunyin."

Bai Xunyin was taken aback, somewhat surprised, and looked down at Liu Yufu's neatly braided ponytail.

"Three? Who are the other two?" The teacher scanned the room and said sternly, "All three of you, stand up."

The class remained quiet for a few seconds until Sheng Churan and another female student reluctantly stood up.

"What's going on with you three?" The chemistry teacher, seeing it was three girls, felt somewhat unable to scold them and sighed silently, "Are all the young girls so playful these days?"

"Teacher," Sheng Churan spoke up first, her peach-blossom face looking particularly innocent, her big eyes blinking, "Zhuang Qing and I weren't feeling well after class, so we went to the restroom. We're really sorry that no one cleaned the blackboard."

Her words seemed like an apology, but in reality, she was shifting the blame onto Bai Xunyin.

Sure enough, the chemistry teacher looked somewhat reproachfully at Bai Xunyin—clearly thinking she lacked a spirit of mutual assistance.

In truth, many teachers had heard about this mute student in Class Three. Bai Xunyin was good at academics and was pretty. Logically, she should have been a "teacher's pet" to many teachers, but for some reason, she was at odds with her classmates.

The human mind works this way—thinking that if one or two people dislike you, it might be their fault, but if the whole class isn't friendly toward you, then there must be something wrong with you.

Bai Xunyin bit her porcelain-white teeth and, after a while, walked straight to the podium.

In a group of astonished gazes, Bai Xunyin's slender fingers picked up a piece of chalk, and her delicate and sharp characters appeared in front of every student in the class—

[Teacher, the three of us have our tasks: Sheng Churan cleans the blackboard, Zhuang Qing arranges the desks, and I fetch the water.]

The water source at No. 3 was outside, down three floors, so when distributing tasks, the other two didn't hesitate to leave this task to Bai Xunyin, taking on easier jobs themselves.

Though fetching water was tiring, someone had to do it. Bai Xunyin didn't mind the labor, but she didn't want to shoulder the blame.

It was clear from what was written on the blackboard that neither Sheng Churan nor Zhuang Qing had gone to the restroom just after class.

Sheng Churan and Zhuang Qing were taken aback by Bai Xunyin's audacity. Their faces alternated between red and white.

The chemistry teacher, having seen students squabble before, knew what was going on. He sighed silently, softened his tone toward Bai Xunyin, and said, "Alright, I understand. You can go back to your seat and listen to the lesson."

Then he looked up at Sheng Churan. "Come here and clean the blackboard."

Sheng Churan's face turned red, and reluctantly, she walked to the front to clean the blackboard. As she passed by Bai Xunyin, who was coming down from the podium, she couldn't help but glare at her fiercely.

Bai Xunyin sighed silently. She didn't know if what she did was right or wrong.

Indeed, she had stood up for herself, but Sheng Churan certainly wouldn't let it go. What should she do next?

Sure enough, after class, Sheng Churan came looking for trouble.

When Bai Xunyin returned to the teaching building after carrying a heavy bucket of water across the playground, her slender arms were visibly strained, with blue veins faintly protruding on her fair skin.

Most girls would ask boys for help when it was their turn to fetch water, but Bai Xunyin preferred to do it herself rather than bother others with written communication.

Struggling to carry the bucket of water up to the third floor, she encountered a roadblock at the staircase.

Sheng Churan stood at the top of the stairs with Zhuang Qing, smiling ambiguously, clearly blocking her way.

"Bai Xunyin, you're quite something," Sheng Churan's features were exceptionally beautiful, with a slight upward curl, exuding a domineering aura. She shrugged her shoulders and looked at Bai Xunyin with a smile that wasn't a smile, "A mute girl like you has learned to plot behind people's backs?"

Bai Xunyin listened silently, her expression unchanged. She couldn't help feeling a bit amazed. No wonder Sheng Churan didn't do well in describing her qualities.

Was she really plotting behind someone's back? She had just spoken the truth.

"What do you have to say to her, Miss Su?" Zhuang Qing laughed, her eyes full of disdain. "Just teach her a lesson."

She said, shoving Bai Xunyin behind her shoulder, pushing the girl's slender shoulders against the wall behind her with a loud knock.

Bai Xunyin felt that any expression she gave them was a waste of time, frowned slightly, and showed no emotions in her beautiful black eyes.

However, Sheng Churan had always been most angry with Bai Xunyin's indifference, as if she didn't care about them from the bottom of her heart.

She had been accustomed to being praised since childhood. Unfortunately, she had lost to a mute person once, which made Sheng Churan feel a deep sense of shame.

"What are you pretending to be?" Sheng Churan couldn't help shouting, sneering, "You love fetching water so much, then go fetch it again!"

She finished, kicking the water bucket under Bai Xunyin's feet down the stairs without hesitation.

With a loud noise and splashes of water, students who were about to go upstairs or downstairs screamed and avoided it for a while, creating a chaotic scene.

The water bucket rolled down for a few turns, making a loud noise, and stopped in front of a pair of white sneakers. The remaining water splashed onto the girl's dark blue school pants.

In front of the stairs, Yu Luoyin and several boys behind him stood quietly, staring at the three girls on the steps.

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