A vortex of rumors
The April wind, carrying the pink and white of cherry blossoms, rustled down onto the windowsill of the laboratory building. Lin Xi and I leaned on the corridor railing, watching Zheng Yiming help Zhou Manyi move experimental equipment downstairs—he carried the heavy iron stand, and Zhou Manyi followed beside him, occasionally handing him tissues. The two were very close, like a jarring painting.
“Look at Zhou Manqi’s fawning manner,” Lin Xi said, pursing her lips. “She really thinks she’s Zheng Yiming’s girlfriend.”
I didn't speak, my fingertips unconsciously picking at the paint on the railing. Ever since that chance encounter during Qingming Festival, Zheng Yiming seemed to be deliberately avoiding any occasion where we might run into each other, even changing the time he went to the cafeteria, which made Zhou Manqi's presence even more conspicuous.
"By the way," Lin Xi suddenly leaned closer and lowered her voice, "I heard from the students in Class 3 that Su Yaqi has been talking badly about you behind your back lately. She said that because Zheng Yiming and Zhou Manqi are getting close, you deliberately tripped up the competition, and she also said that you..."
"say what?"
"You're so jealous you're practically going crazy, always staring at the two of them." Lin Xi clicked her tongue. "Why didn't she say that when she was trying to steal Li Zichen away? Now she's acting like a saint."
Something felt like it had pierced my heart. Su Yaqi, the one who had helped ease the tension between us, had turned around and become a driving force behind spreading rumors. The fickleness of human nature always reveals its cruel and unforgiving side unexpectedly.
"Let her be." I turned around. "People can say whatever they want."
Even so, when I went to the art club that afternoon, I still heard a few female students whispering to each other.
"...Really? Shen Zhixia really deliberately altered Zheng Yiming's experimental data?"
"What Su Yaqi said can't be wrong, right? Doesn't she know Zheng Yiming's family...?"
"No wonder Zheng Yiming hasn't been talking to her lately, turns out she got tricked..."
I gripped the paintbrush tightly in my hand, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door. The female students immediately fell silent, lowering their heads and pretending to mix colors, but their eyes kept darting over me.
"When you're drawing, focus on your work." I placed my art supplies on the table, my voice calm and even. "Instead of worrying about other people's business, you should practice your skills more."
They responded awkwardly, but the atmosphere was like frozen paint, stiff and stagnant.
As we were packing up our art supplies in the evening, Meng Meng rushed in, fuming, and said, "Zhi Xia, Su Yaqi went too far! She was just telling people on the playground that you deliberately pushed Zhou Manqi down the stairs to steal Li Zichen!"
"What?" The paint tube in my hand fell to the ground with a clatter, and the canvas scattered all over the floor. "How could she make up such a thing out of thin air?"
“Who says otherwise!” Meng Meng picked up the canvas. “I had a fight with her, and she even said that Zhou Manqi was a witness… That Zhou Manqi actually nodded!”
My blood rushed to my head, then cooled completely in the next second. Pushed her down the stairs? How could they even make that up? Back in our first year of high school, Zhou Manqi was clearly chasing Li Zichen when she twisted her ankle because she wasn't looking down the stairs. How did it become me pushing her?
"Where are they?" I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms.
"Zheng Yiming is also over there on the basketball court!"
I grabbed my schoolbag and ran outside, with Lin Xi and Meng Meng calling after me, "Wait for us!" but their voices were carried away by the wind.
A crowd had gathered around the basketball court. Su Yaqi stood in the middle, talking animatedly, while Zhou Manyi stood beside her with red eyes, looking as if she had suffered a great injustice. Zheng Yiming stood a little further away, his brows furrowed, his face grim.
"...I was right there and saw it all clearly. Shen Zhixia did it on purpose! She's always been jealous of Manqi and Li Zichen's good relationship..." Su Yaqi's voice was sharp and piercing, like scraping glass.
"You're talking nonsense!" I rushed over, my voice trembling with anger. "Zhou Manqi clearly fell down on her own. What does it have to do with me? Su Yaqi, why are you spreading rumors?"
Su Yaqi was taken aback by my sudden appearance and paused for a moment before sticking out her neck: "I'm spreading rumors? Zhou Manqi has already admitted it, and you still want to deny it?"
"I didn't!" Zhou Manyi suddenly burst into tears and threw herself into Zheng Yiming's arms. "Yiming, I didn't mean to bring up the past. It was just that Su Yaqi asked... I was afraid you'd find me troublesome..."
Zheng Yiming's body stiffened for a moment, but he didn't push her away. He just frowned and looked at me with a complex emotion in his eyes that I couldn't understand.
"Shen Zhixia," he began, his voice low and menacing, "So much time has passed, do you still insist on bringing this up?"
"I'm holding onto this?" I could hardly believe my ears. "They're spreading rumors about me! Zheng Yiming, look closely, the one being slandered right now is me!"
"Even if Su Yaqi is wrong, can't you be a little more lenient with Manqi?" His voice rose slightly, clearly biased. "She sprained her ankle back then and was in pain for several days. Don't you feel any remorse at all?"
"Guilt?" I laughed, laughing until tears almost streamed down my face. "Why should I feel guilty? Zheng Yiming, have you been bewitched by Zhou Manyi? Have you forgotten who stabbed me in the back and who spoke ill of me to others?"
"Can we please stop bringing up the past?" He interrupted me, his impatience piercing like needles. "How are you any different from the people who spread rumors about Li Zichen back then?"
"I'm spreading rumors?" I looked at him abruptly, my heart clenching as if it were being squeezed, the pain making it hard to breathe. "In your eyes, is that what kind of person I am?"
The surrounding chatter grew louder, and some people started pointing and whispering, their eyes like hooks, trying to strip me bare.
“Zheng Yiming,” I looked at him and said, word by word, “It’s not your fault that you like her. But for her sake, you indiscriminately accused me of spreading rumors. You disgust me.”
"What did you say?" His face instantly turned ashen, as if his bottom line had been crossed. "Shen Zhixia, say it again!"
"I'm telling you, if you like Zhou Manqi, then keep it to yourself and don't use me as a scapegoat!" I yelled back, my voice hoarse. "You two are locked in for life, okay?!"
The moment the words left my lips, the air seemed to freeze. Everyone was stunned, including Zheng Yiming. He looked at me, the anger in his eyes suddenly vanished, leaving only a bottomless coldness, like the surface of a frozen lake.
“Shen Zhixia,” he said slowly, each word as if pulled from an ice cellar, “you are just as Su Yaqi said, only using rumors and tantrums to cover up your jealousy.”
"I'm not jealous!"
“You do!” He took a step forward, closing in on me, his eyes practically overflowing with disgust. “You can’t stand me being with other people, you can’t stand me living a peaceful life! You just can’t stand me getting rid of this trouble!”
The word "trouble" was like the last straw, completely breaking my tense nerves.
I looked at him, at Zhou Manqi clinging tightly to his arm behind him, and at the pitying or mocking glances around me, and suddenly felt incredibly exhausted.
What's the point of explaining? What's the point of defending myself? In his mind, I'm already nothing but a troublemaker who's only jealous, throws tantrums, and spreads rumors.
"Yes, I am a nuisance." I sniffed, wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes, and said in a calm voice, as still as a stagnant pool, "I will stay far away from you from now on and promise not to 'bother' you again."
I turned and walked out, my steps faltering. Lin Xi and Meng Meng tried to follow, but I stopped them. "Don't follow me, I want to be alone."
As I walked out of the crowd, I heard Su Yaqi's triumphant laughter and Zheng Yiming's suppressed growl behind me, like background noise from an absurd drama.
Cherry blossoms are still falling, clinging to my hair and shoulders like a gentle funeral. I walk slowly along the edge of the playground, feeling empty inside, yet also as if something is filling me up, making me suffocate with pain.
It turns out that some prejudices, once sown, can never be reversed. It turns out that some people, once they choose to stand on the opposite side, will use the sharpest words to wound you all over.
I didn't spread rumors; I was just stating the truth that everyone could see. But to him, it became an unforgivable slander.
Perhaps, from the moment he chose Zhou Manqi, I became someone he had to belittle and push away in order to prove that his choice was right.
The setting sun cast long shadows as I kicked at the pebbles on the ground. Suddenly, I remembered what my grandfather had said: "Don't argue with a fool. Even if you win, you'll lose your pride."
Yes, what's the point of arguing with someone who sees you as "trouble"?
I stopped and looked at the teaching building in the distance, and made a decision in my heart.
From today onwards, Zheng Yiming, Zhou Manqi, Su Yaqi, and all the people and things related to them are no longer my concern.
I will walk forward, to a place they can no longer reach, to a place where the sunlight can fully illuminate.
As for those rumors and slanders, let them rot where they are.
In any case, the innocent will be proven innocent, and time will tell.
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