Chapter 63: Lun Sang High School (15)
Yao Lu's message was like a stone that set off a thousand ripples. The class group chat erupted with rapid-fire messages. Someone even enabled the anonymous chat feature, and a horde of faceless voices began piling on with jeers and mocking remarks.
People were even frantically mass-tagging Zhao Jiamin.
Under the shield of anonymity, hurtful words flooded the chat unchecked. It was hard to imagine just how devastated the victim at the center of these rumors must be feeling right now.
Ji Ning closed the group chat and sent a message to Song Weiyang, explaining what had happened in the girls' dorm and her own deductions.
Song Weiyang also provided a lead: Only a few boys were actually talking in the group.
He then gave Ji Ning a few names, all of which he had identified through the reactions and chatter in the boys' dorm.
It seemed the anonymous feature had simply made it look like a lot of people were talking.
Ji Ning hadn't expected things to escalate so much in such a short time. And judging by this momentum, it would soon develop into a severe case of school bullying.
The outcome for the NPC Zhao Jiamin was also visibly tragic.
Facing such a hopeless story for the first time, Ji Ning couldn't stop the ache in her heart. She could only keep telling herself that Zhao Jiamin was just a string of data, that none of this was real.
Seeing her silence, Song Weiyang sent another message: Baby, what's wrong?
Followed quickly by: Don't be sad. It's all fake. You're just going through the story.
Ji Ning collected herself and reassured him: Don't worry, I'm fine. Lights out soon, let's sleep early.
Song Weiyang: Okie. He also added a kiss emoji.
Ji Ning replied with a moon and a kiss emoji, then cleared the chat history. She was afraid an NPC might see it and cause both of them to go OOC.
That night, Ji Ning slept fitfully. She dreamed she was still in Room 302. Zhao Jiamin was covered in blood and being tormented. Ji Ning wanted to open her mouth and expose Yao Lu, but no sound would come out. But after struggling for a long, long time, when she could finally speak, everyone turned to look at her with sinister expressions and lurched forward to grab her.
She awoke with a start from the nightmare. It was already the next morning.
She opened her phone and checked. The post Yao Lu had made last night had been deleted by the forum moderator. She finally felt a little better.
However, upon leaving the dormitory, Ji Ning saw a public notice of criticism posted on the bulletin board downstairs. It denounced Zhao Jiamin for theft, recorded a demerit against her, and deducted twenty points from her academic credit score.
A crowd surrounded the bulletin board, pointing and whispering.
On a school rules notice posted nearby, Ji Ning saw that the credit score was on a hundred-point scale. Falling below ninety points disqualified a student from participating in school aid programs and "Three Goods" merit evaluations.
Now, Zhao Jiamin's reputation and her financial aid were both completely destroyed.
When Ji Ning arrived at the classroom, she saw as soon as she walked in that Zhao Jiamin's desk was a mess. Her pencil case had fallen to the floor, her notebooks were torn, and the desktop was smeared with black marker, scrawled with words that were obviously insulting at a single glance.
Yao Lu was surrounded by a crowd, embellishing the story of how Zhao Jiamin had "stolen her things" for all to hear.
The classroom was much more "lively" than usual. Students were chatting in clusters of two or three. Though Ji Ning couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, she knew that Zhao Jiamin's ordeal was providing these people with a topic, a laughingstock, a conversation piece.
Zhao Jiamin didn't slip in through the doorway with her head bowed until the bell for morning self-study rang. She sat down in her seat and silently began to tidy up her disheveled desk.
Not long after, the head teacher, Teacher Du, also walked in.
But he acted as if he hadn't seen Zhao Jiamin's distressed, chaotic state. He didn't say a single word about the two incidents that had happened the night before. He simply called on the English class representative to stand up and lead the vocabulary reading.
Ji Ning thought to herself silently. Zhao Jiamin could no longer receive financial aid because of the school rules now. Did the head teacher's leverage over her still hold? Would she seize this opportunity to expose the head teacher's crimes?
Or, could these two incidents become handles for the head teacher to use in threatening Zhao Jiamin, making her even more passive and humiliated?
The way things would develop from here was still unknown. For now, Ji Ning could only observe quietly.
That morning, perhaps stimulated by the emergency contraceptive pills and the private photos, even the boys in the class who normally didn't get involved in the girls' conflicts underwent a change.
The boy from the back row who had held Yao Lu back yesterday, telling her not to lay hands on Zhao Jiamin, was now constantly flipping up Zhao Jiamin's skirt whenever she stood up, finding amusement in exposing her underwear.
Other boys, when passing Zhao Jiamin's seat, would pair up and mimic a rear-entry thrusting pose while leering at her and laughing lewdly.
Poor Zhao Jiamin had now become the target of mockery and amusement for the entire class—boys and girls alike—a person everyone felt they could trample on.
...
Ji Ning saw on the class schedule that the fourth period this morning was P.E. She couldn't wait to see Xing Ye and update him on the developments.
Also, ever since she'd discovered Zhao Jiamin's special regard for Xing Ye, Ji Ning wasn't sure if today's P.E. class would involve any interaction between the NPC and Xing Ye.
After much difficulty, P.E. class finally arrived. But as it turned out, according to the plan, today's class wasn't going to be independent exercise like last time.
Xing Ye separated the boys and the girls to teach everyone how to play volleyball.
Volleyball was a 6v6 format. The girls in Class 10 numbered exactly twelve, which perfectly divided them into two teams.
They split into teams by calling out numbers, alternating between one and two. Ji Ning and Zhao Jiamin were assigned to the same team.
After finishing the skill demonstration, Xing Ye told everyone to practice freely.
Ji Ning watched Yao Lu pick up a volleyball and stride to the front row, casting a contemptuous smile at Zhao Jiamin, who was trying her hardest to be invisible. Ji Ning's heart sank with a sense of foreboding.
And sure enough, from then on, six out of every ten balls Yao Lu hit were viciously aimed at Zhao Jiamin, even smashing into her head. The force was so heavy that Zhao Jiamin's forehead was knocked bright red.
Her eyes rimmed red, she was on the verge of tears but kept forcing them back.
No one stopped it. And no one dared to help Zhao Jiamin.
Zhao Jiamin also didn't make a sound. She didn't dare to resist, didn't even dare to make a noise.
Ji Ning understood why she didn't fight back. One, because Yao Lu's long-term oppression had instilled such fear in Zhao Jiamin that she simply didn't have the courage to oppose her. Two, because Yao Lu's family had power and influence; she simply couldn't afford to provoke her.
Ji Ning desperately wanted to help Zhao Jiamin, but she was forced to hold back. She couldn't go OOC. She couldn't let her progress stop here.
But as her conscience trembled again and again, Ji Ning finally couldn't take it anymore. If she couldn't help openly, she could at least help Zhao Jiamin block some of it secretly, right?
When Yao Lu's ball came hurtling fiercely over once more, Ji Ning pretended she couldn't dodge in time and used her arm to deflect the hit. Her arm was instantly scraped red.
But the ball still smacked into Zhao Jiamin's leg as she ducked her head, too afraid to look forward, dodging blindly.
Xing Ye, who was just walking over from the boys' field, happened to witness this scene. He saw the red mark on Ji Ning's arm, and he also noticed Zhao Jiamin standing behind Ji Ning—her forehead red from being hit, tears brimming in her eyes, cowering in fear.
"That girl over there, why are you intentionally smashing the ball at your classmates? Do that again, and you can forget about attending P.E. class."
Xing Ye's cold voice echoed across the court, so fierce it made everyone's heart tremble.
This direct defense sounded like a divine pronouncement to Zhao Jiamin's ears. She lifted her head, and her eyes, long numb and lifeless, finally showed a glimmer of light.
Since this class had instructional content, Xing Ye had no time to break away.
So it wasn't until class was over that Ji Ning got the chance to go find him.
But just as she arrived outside the P.E. teacher's office and was about to walk in, she saw someone standing beside Xing Ye.
Seen from the back, it was the crucial NPC, Zhao Jiamin.
Ji Ning had no choice but to hide first and wait for Zhao Jiamin to leave before entering.
She waited outside the door for about ten minutes before Zhao Jiamin finally ran out, covering her face.
Ji Ning watched Zhao Jiamin's retreating figure leave the sports hall before slipping into the office, closing the door behind her.
Xing Ye's expression was not very good. It could even be described as heavy.
"What happened just now?" Ji Ning asked in a low voice, walking up to Xing Ye. She had a strong premonition of trouble, not knowing what Zhao Jiamin had said to him.
However, what Ji Ning hadn't expected was that Xing Ye would pull her by the hand, drag her into his lap on the chair, and begin kissing her neck while slipping a hand under her clothes to knead her breast.
"She was peeping through the window. Play along," Xing Ye murmured briefly against her collarbone, sniffing her scent.
Ji Ning's heart tightened. Guessing this was a role requirement for Xing Ye, she responded, her hands slowly, lingeringly stroking his chest muscles.
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