It took Lin Chuxia all morning to arrange the things she had bought, and then she headed out happily to find something to eat.
After all, she was hungry after being busy for most of the day.
But unexpectedly, she ran into An Mingzhu and a few others near Jincheng University!
"Chuxia, what are you doing here?" An Mingzhu was extremely surprised when she saw Lin Chuxia.
"If you can be here, why can't I?"
"No, Chuxia, I didn't mean that... The reason I'm here is that brother Chu Shanwen said he wanted to take us to get familiar with the school environment in advance, as you know, I got into Jincheng University, and school starts in just over half a month..." An Mingzhu explained softly and weakly.
"What a coincidence, I'm also here to get familiar with the environment," Lin Chuxia said as she stuffed the remaining half of a baked bun into her mouth, picked up the half-full water bottle and her bag from the table, and got ready to leave. However, someone didn't let her leave as she wished.
"Chuxia, you said you're here to get familiar with the environment too, could it be that your school is nearby as well?" An Mingzhu asked, somewhat astonished.
"So what, is there a problem?" Lin Chuxia turned her head, her voice revealing no clear emotion.
"Around here, other than Jincheng University, there's only one third-rate school. Could it be that you were accepted by that one?" After saying this, An Mingzhu abruptly covered her mouth, appearing utterly shocked.
Having stayed with the An Family for over a month, Lin Chuxia had already seen through An Mingzhu's somewhat hypocritical and affected nature. Despite clearly not wishing her well, she always pretended to be deeply sisterly.
Lin Chuxia felt annoyed. Wasn't it tiring to keep up such pretense constantly?
"If there's nothing else, I'll be going now!" With that, Lin Chuxia didn't say another word and left.
The ones left behind, including An Mingzhu, continued to stand there, watching her departure and didn't stop discussing among themselves.
"Mingzhu, was that the new sister your family just took in? She seems really disrespectful!"
"Yeah, look at what she was eating... a baked bun from a street stall, I wouldn't even feed that to my dog, and yet she eats it. And Mingzhu, did you notice the way she spoke to you? It was so rude!"
"Right, Mingzhu, didn't you say that her grades were poor and it was uncertain if she could even get into a university? Your parents have been worried about it, haven't they? Could it be she also got into Jincheng University?"
"Hahaha... Impossible, right! Do you think Jincheng University is just any school, that anyone can get in just like that?"
"Exactly. Jincheng University's local admission scores are ridiculously high, let alone from other places. And I heard that Lin Chuxia used to be in some backwater village, right? Do you think a small mountain village can have such high educational standards? I suppose, she got into that wild chicken university next to Jincheng University!"
"Ah? Really? That university is worse than not attending at all! I've heard before that the relationships between the students there are really messy. A lot of them are children of nouveau riche who couldn't get into a decent university, so they stuffed some money in to get a diploma, slacking off. There are often shameless girls from that school who come to our Jincheng University to seduce men."
"Mingzhu, from what you're saying, your sister seems really awful! She can't compare to you at all. I don't know what your parents were thinking, bringing home such a useless person, aren't they embarrassed?"
"Enough, all of you, stop it." When it seemed the debate had run its course, An Mingzhu intervened in a timely manner, "No matter how unworthy Chuxia might be, she's still my sister. Don't speak about her like that."
"So is she really only able to attend that crappy college near Jincheng University?" a girl asked eagerly.
An Mingzhu bit her lip and hesitated, "Actually... I don't know which school Chuxia is going to attend. It seems she only received the admission notice in the last two days, and when my parents and I asked her, she didn't want to tell us..."
"Then there's no need to guess! It must be that crappy college for sure! Right, Brother Shanwen, I heard that the An Family's old man was thinking of switching brides and having Lin Chuxia marry you in place of Mingzhu!"
Chu Shanwen recalled Lin Chuxia gobbling up half a pancake in one bite and couldn't help frowning.
"The marriage agreement between the Chu and An families was just a joke made by the elders when we were kids, it shouldn't be taken seriously." Let alone that he already had someone in his heart, even if he didn't, he would never marry someone like Lin Chuxia.
"Mingzhu, I really don't understand what your grandfather is thinking. He dotes on a useless person as if she's a treasure and neglects you, his real treasure. He'll regret it in the future. Right, Siya, don't you usually like to post on Weibo and write articles? This is prime material for you!"
The mentioned girl's eyes lit up, "Right, I can write all this down and post it online..."
Lin Chuxia, who had already left, had no idea that after she had gone, An Mingzhu and the others had speculated so much and were also slandering her online.
By the time she found out, it was already the afternoon, and it was because of the An Family's old man that she learned about it.
"Chuxia, don't be sad. Those people are just talking nonsense, we should ignore them!" The An family's old man said indignantly from the other end of the phone.
Actually, the An family's old man found out about Lin Chuxia being insulted online by pure coincidence. One of his chess buddies' grandsons had just come back home, and during their chat, Lin Chuxia was mentioned, and then that chess buddy's grandson just happened to see that Weibo post.
Learning that his granddaughter was being vilified online, the An family's old man was furious, worried that Lin Chuxia would be affected, so he called her immediately.
"Grandpa, I'm not sad," Lin Chuxia said, having already figured out the whole story as the An family's old man spoke.
It was an article that compared her to An Mingzhu, praising An Mingzhu to high heaven while trampling her into the mud, saying she had no education, was crude, had a terrible temper, was willfully domineering, and felt self-satisfied about getting into some crappy college without listening to her family's well-intentioned advice…
Lin Chuxia: "..." Is this article really about me?
Because An Mingzhu had a bit of fame online, the article was quickly shared and soon became trending.
The comments were mostly furious condemnations of Lin Chuxia.
One comment was particularly novel: Not good for anything else, but the first in looks!
This comment stood out among the angry and cursing comments about Lin Chuxia and rose to the top spot, after which the comments started to take a strange turn.
Suddenly there were a bunch of comments praising her looks, but they were all, without exception, violently criticized by the trolls.
Lin Chuxia quickly scrolled through and realized that someone was controlling the comments, buying internet trolls behind the scenes to manipulate the narrative.
Someone was definitely out to get her!