Seeing Ye Linchen and Lin Xuemei ganging up on her like a double act, Zhou Xiaoyan felt a surge of anger, her face turning ashen.

Suddenly, as if she remembered something, a smirk appeared on her lips as she looked Ye Linchen up and down, her tone turning sarcastic.

"What are you so proud of? Just because you did well on the test, you think you're something special?"

She gave a cold laugh, raising her voice several decibels.

"It's a pity you're good at studying, but your character is absolutely terrible. Not only are you disrespectful to your parents, but you also have illicit relationships!"

Lin Xuemei was stunned by her words and went forward to hit her.

"What nonsense are you spouting? I'll tear your mouth off!"

Ye Linchen was even more direct, grabbing Zhou Xiaoyan's wrist with such force that it made her turn pale with pain.

"Let go! Let go! You're hurting me!"

Ye Linchen seemed not to hear her, staring intently at her, and asked, word by word, "Who's messing around with men and women?"

As he spoke, he increased the pressure on his hand, his voice carrying a chilling undertone.

“Zhou Xiaoyan, you can eat whatever you want, but you can’t say whatever you want. If you can’t produce any evidence today and you’re just making baseless accusations here, then we’ll go talk to the counselor. What will happen if you openly spread rumors and slander your classmates on campus!”

While struggling desperately, Zhou Xiaoyan screamed, "How can I not have evidence? The whole school is talking about it now! You and Wang Lina are fighting over one guy! You even got into a fight at the school gate over a man!"

Ye Linchen narrowed his eyes.

Wang Lina and another woman were fighting over one man, and they even got into a physical altercation?

Taking advantage of her momentary lapse in concentration, Zhou Xiaoyan forcefully swung her wrist, breaking free from Ye Linchen's grasp.

She hurriedly took two steps back and saw that the skin on her wrist was red, which made her feel scared.

This country bumpkin is really strong!

She refused to back down, rubbing her aching wrist as she looked defiantly at Ye Linchen.

"Tsk tsk, I never expected that you two, who always seemed so close, would be so dirty behind the scenes, even fighting over men in the street. It's truly an eye-opener."

Lin Xuemei raised her fist to punch her: "Are you still talking nonsense? Are you looking for a beating?"

"I'm talking nonsense?" Zhou Xiaoyan raised an eyebrow, as if to say, "You can't keep up the act anymore, can you? Why don't you go out and ask yourselves? This is no longer a rumor; flyers are everywhere, and the whole school knows about it."

“My grades aren’t good, but if I work hard, I can retake the exam, or if all else fails, I can repeat the course. But what about you? Your reputation is ruined, and you can never wash it off.” She pointed at Ye Linchen, her eyes full of schadenfreude. “You’re laughing at me? We’ll see who has the last laugh.”

Zhou Xiaoyan, looking like a victor, decided to ignore the two of them and went to rest on the upper bunk.

But Ye Linchen wasn't about to let her get away so easily.

She strode forward, grabbed Zhou Xiaoyan's hair, and her voice turned cold.

"Explain clearly, what exactly happened? Where did the flyers come from? Who distributed them?"

"Let go! You crazy woman!"

Zhou Xiaoyan felt a sharp pain in her head and frantically tried to save her hair.

She shrieked, "It wasn't me! Why are you looking for me? There are so many onlookers outside, go ask them yourself! Let go, you've pulled my hair out!"

Ye Linchen stared at her for a moment, then finally let go.

Zhou Xiaoyan pulled her hair back, not daring to say anything more, only muttering "barbarian" under her breath, before slinking back to her upper bunk to lie down.

Ye Linchen put on his coat with a sullen face, turned around and walked out.

"Xiao Chen!" Lin Xuemei quickly grabbed her. "Where are you going?"

"I'll go see what's going on," Ye Linchen said coldly, without stopping.

"It's already dark and cold outside. What's the point of you going out alone? You don't know who's spreading the rumor. You can't just stand on the street and ask everyone you meet, can you?"

"You and Wang Lina are both involved, so why don't you wait for her to come back and discuss it together?"

Ye Linchen shook his head.

"Wang Lina is still rehearsing for the drama club's opening performance. By the time she gets back, it will be almost lights out. Who will be on the playground then? I'll go check out the stadium first."

After saying that, he hurriedly left the house.

Hearing what she said, Lin Xuemei thought it made sense. She quickly grabbed her coat and ran ahead, calling out to Ye Linchen, "Wait for me to put on my clothes. I'll go with you."

The two put on their coats and ran towards the stadium.

In the dormitory, Zhou Xiaoyan peeked out from the top bunk, rolled her eyes at Lin Xuemei's back, snorted coldly, and cursed inwardly.

What a busybody! He loves to meddle in everything. Sooner or later, he'll get himself into trouble.

However, this time she realized that Ye Linchen was not someone to be trifled with. Not only was he stubborn, but he would also act without warning.

If you really provoke her, you'll be the one who suffers.

From now on, it's best not to provoke her; avoid her if you can.

But then I thought, this incident has caused quite a stir throughout the school, and Ye Linchen is probably going to be in a bad situation.

Thinking that she had also come to this, Zhou Xiaoyan's irritable mood, which had been bothering her for many days, finally showed some relief, and she turned over in satisfaction.

Jiangcheng University has two sports fields: an outdoor 400-meter track and a dedicated indoor venue for sports such as basketball and badminton.

The two stadiums are together, but they are a bit far from the girls' dormitory.

Ye Linchen was preoccupied with something and walked very fast, so Lin Xuemei had to jog to keep up with him.

Before long, the two arrived at the outdoor playground.

As soon as Ye Linchen stepped through the large iron gate of the playground, his eyes were drawn to a piece of paper on the ground.

She bent down and picked it up; it was a poorly printed flyer.

The eye-catching large characters immediately came into view:

"Campus beauties turn against each other over love! A chaotic scene unfolds in the dormitories of Jiangcheng University!"

"Ye Linchen and Wang Lina got into a street fight, and the cause was—a fight over a man!"

Lin Xuemei also noticed another one on the grass not far away, so she quickly ran over, picked it up, and showed it to Ye Linchen.

The headline on this flyer is phrased differently:

"Shocking! Two girls in the same dorm fight over a boyfriend in public at the school gate!"

"Wang Lina & Ye Linchen's indecent behavior fully exposed!"

The two flyers had the same picture.

A blurry photo taken at night, with the gate of Jiangcheng University in the background.

The three blurry figures in the picture seem to be pulling and arguing, with another person squatting nearby.

The photo has extremely low resolution, making it difficult to see faces or even distinguish between men and women.

But paired with these sensational headlines, they are enough to spark endless imagination and easily focus all attention on the names "Ye Linchen" and "Wang Lina".

They found two flyers just at the stadium entrance.

It's easy to imagine how many of these things were scattered across the entire playground, and even the whole campus.

Ye Linchen's face turned cold, and she crumpled the flyer in her hand into a ball.

She whispered, "The people who framed us this time really went to great lengths."

Lin Xuemei nervously grasped her hand and whispered, "Xiao Chen, what... should we do now?"