Chapter 31
What Shen Bining thought was a minor incident turned into a major storm the next day, sweeping through the entire hospital.
Starting that afternoon when Lisa came to cause trouble, rumors about Shen Bining being a mistress spread like wildfire throughout the hospital. By the afternoon of the following day, after 24 hours of fermentation, the rumors were practically common knowledge.
Almost everyone in the hospital had heard the rumor. The rumor not only spread rapidly, but also became distorted and exaggerated in the process, evolving into different versions.
Regardless of the version, the core content remains the same: Shen Bining, the daughter of the hospital director, is suspected of stealing someone else's boyfriend and is confronted and berated by the person involved at the hospital.
Shen Bining is not only of special status, but also one of the most beautiful girls in the academy. How could she not cause a sensation when she is caught in this emotional vortex? Since ancient times, the love lives of great beauties have always been the focus of attention. If there is also a melodramatic love triangle involved, then it is even more of a favorite for gossip lovers.
Most importantly, since Shen Bining started working at the hospital, there has been no news of her dating. No matter who pursues her or tries to set her up on blind dates, she rejects them all, appearing as an aloof and detached queen.
Now, however, she is rumored to have stolen someone else's boyfriend, and her aloof and pure image has collapsed. This has made some people sigh, some feel frustrated, and some people gloat with ill intentions.
It's easy to imagine how much humiliation and ridicule she would have faced if she hadn't been protected by her status as the dean's daughter.
Because of Shen Bining's identity, those people didn't dare to talk about her to her face. However, their gazes towards her and their attitudes when speaking to her were already somewhat strange.
By the time Shen Bining learned what had happened, the rumors had been circulating in the hospital for almost three days, reaching a point where almost everyone knew about it.
It was a nurse who was specifically responsible for assisting her with end-of-life care that secretly told her, out of pity.
After hearing the nurse's complaint, Shen Bining realized that the incident of Lisa causing trouble that day had indeed spread. What was most infuriating was that only the part about Lisa accusing her of being a mistress was circulated, while her subsequent explanation and clarification were completely ignored.
Overwhelmed by a mix of emotions—helplessness, anger, frustration, and exhaustion—she went from anger to calm to numbness, completely at a loss as to how to save herself.
It's often said that it takes only a mouth to spread rumors, but running around trying to refute them is exhausting; she's certainly experienced that firsthand this time.
Even though the defamation and the clarification of the rumors happened at the same time, within three minutes of each other, and with so many patients and colleagues present as witnesses, the unsavory rumors were still the ones that circulated widely.
Even if she explains and clarifies each one, how much of that information can those people believe? Will the rumors really stop spreading?
The only two things to be thankful for are: first, her father has gone to another city for an exchange program and won't be back for at least half a month, so these rumors should have subsided by then and shouldn't reach his ears; second, everyone is still wary of her status as the dean's daughter, and no matter how much they despise her in their hearts or how harsh their words are behind her back, no one dares to show it in front of her.
Even when they ran into her in the cafeteria, they only dared to steal glances at her.
She didn't care much about how her colleagues viewed her, hadn't considered making friends with them, and certainly hadn't considered dating any of them, so she didn't care what they speculated about. Besides, they had no evidence to prove the rumors were true.
Now all we need to do is pretend we know nothing and quietly wait for them to get tired of the gossip, or for a new big story to replace the old one, and then this matter will be over.
Fortunately, hospitals are never short of gossip, and medical staff are very busy, so they will soon put this matter behind them.
Since it didn't affect her work and she really didn't know how to deal with it, Shen Bining pretended not to know that rumors about her were spreading like wildfire in the hospital and didn't take it to heart at all.
But while she may not care, there are a few people who have no choice but to care.
Those were the medical staff who witnessed the entire process of Lisa causing trouble that day and who afterwards solemnly promised to keep it a secret.
When the group heard this gossip from others, they nearly went crazy. They were witnesses present at the time, and if the rumor spread, they would be the prime suspects.
The group quickly huddled together, interrogating each other about who had leaked the information, but no one admitted to it. And rightly so, who would admit to something like that?
If they can't find the "culprit," they'll all be suspects. Just think about it: spreading rumors about the hospital director's daughter in the hospital. Once Shen Bining makes a scene, will they have a good time?
The problem is, they really didn't tell anyone.
Since they couldn't catch the "culprit," they could only try to minimize the impact of the incident. The group gathered together again to discuss it. At first, they wanted to go to Shen Bining to prove their innocence, but upon closer inspection, that seemed a bit like protesting too much.
Ultimately, they came to a conclusion—to help Shen Bining clarify the situation by speaking the truth as bystanders.
So whenever someone mentioned this gossip to them, these people would recount the events of that day in detail, especially the part where Shen Bining refuted the foreign girl, which they described in great detail.
But they couldn't possibly go around explaining to everyone individually; that would feel like they were being paid to whitewash someone's actions. Therefore, they could only explain the situation to each person who initially raised the rumor.
However, whether it was because too few people heard their explanations or because the darker side of human nature made them more willing to believe negative news, their explanations seemed to sink without a trace, failing to stir up even a ripple in this major scandal.
Rumors about Shen Bining being a mistress are still circulating privately.
Several witnesses present were extremely anxious, even more so than Shen Bining, the person involved.
They weren't afraid that such rumors would affect Shen Bining's reputation; what they were afraid of was that Shen Bining would misunderstand and think that they were spreading rumors behind her back, and that she would come after them in the future.
Ultimately, they resorted to a last resort: finding a middleman to convey to Shen Bining that they had not spread rumors.
It was obvious who to ask to act as the middleman: Chen Nian, Shen Bining's best friend at the hospital.
*
Chen Nian learned about the rumor even later than Shen Bining; she was arguably the last person in the entire hospital to find out.
Firstly, she doesn't like to get together with a group of people and gossip about others; secondly, she's been busy with work and exams lately and has no time to listen to gossip; thirdly, the whole hospital knows she's close to Shen Bining, so who would be crazy to discuss it in front of her?
So when she learned about this from several people, she was so shocked that she couldn't speak.
After seeing the group off, she approached the doctors and nurses she was on good terms with and subtly inquired about the rumor. Seeing that she already knew, they stopped hiding it from her and recounted the whole story.
Chen Nian's face changed after hearing this. It turned out that her good friend had been slandered without her knowledge. Moreover, judging from the words of several colleagues, the rumor had spread throughout the entire hospital and almost everyone was talking about it recently.
Taking advantage of her free time, Chen Nian angrily went to settle accounts with Shen Bining.
That brat! Such a big thing happened and she didn't even tell me. Is she planning to shoulder this all by herself? Does she even consider me a friend?
Filled with anger, Chen Nian arrived at Shen Bining's office, pushed the door open without knocking, and slammed the door shut with a loud bang while Shen Bining was still stunned. Then she glared fiercely at the bewildered Shen Bining.
At this moment, Shen Bining had just finished processing the relevant data for a cancer patient. When she saw Chen Nian come in, she subconsciously said, "I'm done. Shall we go have lunch together? Let's go."
Chen Nian was so angry she laughed. She plopped down opposite Shen Bining and said irritably, "Eat, eat, eat! What time is it and you're still thinking about lunch? Rumors are flying all over the hospital. Why didn't you tell me about something this big? If someone hadn't come to see me today, were you planning to keep it a secret forever? Don't you even consider me a friend?"
Upon hearing this, Shen Bining immediately understood what had happened. She couldn't help but burst out laughing and teased, "I thought I was the last one in the whole hospital to know, since those people wouldn't dare to gossip in front of me. Turns out you found out even later than me. I was wondering why you didn't come to ask me what was going on."
Seeing that Shen Bining was still in the mood to joke, Chen Nian stomped her foot in anger, "You're still joking? Do you know that this matter has spread throughout the entire hospital, and what they've said is awful? I guess they didn't dare to spread rumors about you to my face, which is why I didn't know. If it weren't for a few people coming to me today to ask for my help, I would still be in the dark..."
As she spoke, Chen Nian recounted how the people who had come to her today had helped her explain the situation. Finally, she stammered, "I think they were really worried, afraid that you would misunderstand and think they were gossiping behind your back. It doesn't seem like they spread the rumors, but you should still investigate thoroughly."
Seeing her friend so worried and concerned about her, Shen Bining's remaining anger and grievances vanished. She didn't really care what outsiders thought of her; as long as the people she cared about believed in her, that was enough.
"There's no way to investigate this kind of thing. There are so many people and so many mouths in the hospital; it's impossible to find out where the rumor started or how it went wrong. Besides, there's no need to investigate. What good would it do if they didn't believe me? No matter how much I explain, it would just be a cover-up. The innocent will clear themselves up. This kind of gossip won't last more than a few days. Life moves so fast these days; even rumors come and go quickly. After a while, new gossip will emerge, and they'll forget about me. I believe that in time, everyone will know what kind of person I am. As for those 'suspects,' I never suspected them. They wouldn't be so stupid as to spread rumors about me knowing I knew they were all there."
Chen Nian fell silent after hearing this. Shen Bining's words made sense; such rumors were hard to explain, and those who didn't believe them wouldn't believe them even if the truth was presented to them. The best approach was to ignore them, wait for the rumors to die down, and let time prove itself.
Because of her good looks, she was the target of lewd rumors starting from the beginning of junior high school. She ignored them and instead quietly used time to prove herself and let her classmates understand her character.
Over time, no one in the school spread rumors about her anymore, and even if they did, no one would believe them, because everyone subconsciously thought that Chen Nian wouldn't do such a thing.
Shen Bining had only been working at the hospital for a short time, and because of her outstanding appearance and status, not many people dared to approach her or get to know her. In many people's narrow-minded and superficial minds, beautiful women are always associated with all sorts of scandalous news, so when rumors spread, everyone subconsciously believed them.
Perhaps only time will tell if Shen Bining is truly a good girl.
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