Chapter Thirty-Four
—Five days have passed, Monday morning reading—
A new transfer student joined the class: Li Lulu, with waist-length hair, her school uniform skirt shortened by three centimeters, and a fragrant scent wafting from her walk. During the first break, she "accidentally" knocked her LV pencil case to the ground, where it rolled to Xu Li's feet.
"Excuse me, could the top student in the grade please pick this up for me?"
Xu Li was doing her English seven-choice-five practice test and didn't even look up: "I didn't invent gravity, pick it up yourself."
A murmur of laughter rippled through the crowd. Li Lulu's face stiffened, and she instantly jotted Xu Li down in her little notebook.
For the next 48 hours, Li Lulu went all out:
During PE class, someone deliberately threw a basketball at the back of Xu Li's head—Xu Li caught it with his backhand and swished it into the net from beyond the three-point line, drawing applause from the entire court.
During evening self-study, someone posted "Confirmed evidence of a top student meeting her boyfriend at night" with a photoshopped picture on their WeChat Moments. However, Bai Chuan used EXIF data to expose the fabricated time, and the comment section was immediately flooded with criticism.
On Wednesday morning, in front of Lao Cao, she spilled a cup of soy milk on Xu Li's competition paper, saying in a coquettish voice, "My hand slipped."
Xu Li used a tissue to dry the test paper and said casually, "Go to the infirmary if your hand slips; don't get sick in the classroom."
Li Lulu didn't expect that every attack would be met with resistance, and she lost face, so she started to escalate her tactics.
During Thursday's lunch break, she and two henchmen cornered Xu Li at the door of a women's restroom stall:
"So what if you're number one in the grade? Believe me or not, I can kick you out of class tomorrow."
Xu Li locked the door from the inside, took out her phone, and pressed the record button. Her voice was as calm as if she were conducting an experiment.
"Come on, repeat yourself, who do you want to get out of here?"
"I just don't like you."
"It's normal for them to dislike me. If they were happy to see me like this, what would happen?"
Li Lulu raised her hand as if to slap someone.
—Smack!
Xu Li grabbed her wrist, twisted it behind her back, and used the force to press her against the bathroom mirror. The mirror cracked with a "crack," and Li Lulu's right cheek was pressed against the cold glass.
“Listen, I’ve never liked hitting people, but I don’t mind disciplining you according to the school rules.”
She looked up, and the reflections of the two people in the mirror showed one cold and one fearful.
"First, don't touch me again; second, delete all the posts you made that spread rumors; third, issue a public apology. If you can do that, this will end here; if you can't—"
Xu Li let go of her hand, and Li Lulu staggered two steps, knocked over the trash can, and sat down on a pile of waste paper, her makeup completely ruined.
She ran into Tan Yuze as she walked out of the restroom. She glanced at him briefly and then headed towards the classroom.
Unable to swallow her anger, Li Lulu went to find her uncle, Director Li of the school board.
Friday morning, outside the principal's office.
Li Lulu, tears streaming down her face, cried out, "Principal, Xu Li bullied me at school! I want her to get a major demerit!"
Xu Li entered the room carrying a stack of evidence:
Screenshot of a rumor circulating on WeChat Moments (notarized)
Toilet recording (complete)
Women's restroom corridor surveillance footage (obtained by Leng Yuxuan after hacking into the security department).
Li Lulu's off-campus money transfer records for hiring online trolls (found by Bai Chuan on a whim)
After reviewing the materials, the principal's face turned from white to pale. He then looked at Director Li, who had already taken out his phone and pretended that the signal was bad.
Final processing result:
1. Li Lulu was publicly given a major demerit and suspended from classes for a week to reflect on her actions.
2. When the parents came to the school to sign the papers, Director Li learned that his niece had been threatening the homeroom teacher in his name.
3. Li Lulu posted a long apology on her WeChat Moments, which was then turned into a popular meme in the grade group chat.
4. She didn't come to school on Monday, the day she returned to school.
In the afternoon, the Academic Affairs Office posted a notice: Li Lulu voluntarily transferred schools, and the procedures have been completed.
The new school is said to be a boarding private school in a neighboring city, the kind where cell phones are confiscated.
After evening self-study, Lu Yi, sitting in the back row, raised a can of cola like champagne and said, "Sister Li, I'd like to be the MVP for today!"
Zhu Yu shook his head and said, "In ancient times, there was Zhuge Liang who debated with a group of Confucian scholars; now, there is Xu Lijing who lectures 'Lu' on the platform."
Bai Chuan pushed up his glasses: "From a game theory perspective, Li Lulu was a one-time all-in. When she encountered an opponent with completely transparent information, she died a worthy death."
Leng Yuxuan broke off the last "Day7" resistance wire, gently tossed it into the trash can, and added:
"The paper money for the rumors has been burned out."
Xu Li packed her schoolbag, folded the competition paper that had been soaked in soy milk and then dried, and stuffed it into the folder.
As she reached the door, she turned back, her tone indifferent:
"Next week's monthly exam, anyone who loses points because of this kind of trivial matter will have to run ten laps around the track."
The whole class shouted in unison, "Received!"
The lights were off, and at the end of the corridor, her back remained straight, like a knife that had just been drawn and was now sheathed, its sharpness completely concealed.
—Friday night, 22:40—
The library was closed, and the lights in the building were being turned off one floor at a time.
Xu Li carried the materials out of the study room and had just turned the corner at the stairwell when she heard familiar footsteps behind her.
Tan Yuze had one hand in his pocket and the other holding two cans of iced cola, with condensation dripping from the cans between his fingers.
"Hush money?" Xu Li raised an eyebrow.
“Support fee.” Tan Yuze placed one of the cans on the inside of her wrist; the coolness made her flinch slightly. “There were too many people during the day, so I’ll add this now—you did a great job today.”
Xu Li pulled the tab, took a sip, and didn't say anything.
So Tan Yuze continued, his voice low but with a smile:
"First, you're the one who exposed Li Lulu's fabricated post, saving me the trouble of hacking into her alternate account and going through all that trouble again."
Secondly, I made three backups of the recording in the bathroom for you. Even if her uncle has all the connections, he can't erase it completely.
third--"
He suddenly leaned down, his gaze level with Xu Li's. The motion-sensor lights in the corridor turned on just then, casting a small shadow under his eyelashes.
He quickly kissed her lips.
"Third, Xu Li, you don't need me to take action at all, but I want you to know:"
If anyone dares to throw dirty water on you again, I'll boil the water and throw it back before you even get there.
When the boy said this, his tone was as calm as if he were discussing a challenging problem, yet it carried an undeniable certainty.
Xu Li shook the Coke can, and the metal flashed under the light, as if in response.
“Tan Yuze,” she began, her voice unusually soft, “I know you got a perfect score in physics; but don’t misuse words like ‘boil’—energy conservation is a waste.”
“Then let’s put it another way,” Tan Yuze straightened up, his smile deepening. “I’ll take care of suppressing the rumors into a vacuum, and you’ll take care of continuing to shine.”
The motion-sensor light went out, leaving only two cans of cola gently clinking together in the darkness.
"bite."
Like a silent "Happy to cooperate".
Saturday morning.
The fog on the playground had not yet dissipated, and only a few footsteps remained on the track.
Xu Li was wearing headphones and practicing her hearing when someone lightly touched her shoulder.
Tan Yuze took off his school uniform jacket and covered her head with the earphone wire: "Stop listening, we're changing projects today."
What are you doing?
"To conduct experiments."
He waved the two passes for the Municipal Youth Science and Technology Innovation Exhibition in his hand. "Rumor propagation model, physical version—are you going or not?"
Xu Li paused for half a second, then smiled and said, "Let's go." At 7:00, the two appeared at the city science and technology museum.
Tan Yuze took out a 32x32 LED dot matrix screen from his backpack, plugged it into a Raspberry Pi, and the screen immediately displayed the text: 【RumorSpreadSimulatorv1.0】
Pressing the button illuminates a red dot in the center of the screen—representing the "source of the rumor." The next second, the red dot spreads exponentially, staining the entire screen like blood.
The children watching exclaimed in surprise. "Watch closely!"
Tan Yuze pressed it again, and the red dot suddenly stopped, then quickly shrank until it returned to zero.
A green message pops up on the screen: 【Countermeasure: Full-chain Evidence + Public Correction】
The real-time graph next to it also declined, eventually stopping at the "0" axis. Xu Li raised an eyebrow: "You used Li Lulu's data?"
"Yes, anonymization."
The boy said in a low voice, "I want the principal, judges, and reporters who come to visit to see this—rumors can spread in an instant, and they can also be destroyed in an instant."
As long as the chain of evidence is strong enough.
Xu Li didn't say anything more, but reached out to help him adjust the demonstration table to a 45° angle so that the light would be more direct.
The two stood shoulder to shoulder, like they were adjusting a jointly signed instrument.
The principal, unusually, took up the time allotted for the flag-raising ceremony to announce two things:
Tan Yuze and Xu Li, students from Class 6 of Senior Three, won the Special Prize in the Municipal Youth Science and Technology Innovation Exhibition for their project "Visualization System of Rumor Propagation Dynamics", and were directly recommended to the provincial finals.
After discussion by the school's Party Committee, the school will introduce this system as a pilot "campus public opinion early warning platform".
Thunderous applause erupted on the playground.
Standing at the back of the line, Lu Yi slapped Zhu Yu's shoulder repeatedly: "Did you hear that? From now on, if anyone dares to spread rumors again, we'll call the police right away!"
Zhu Yu whispered back, "What I'm more concerned about is—does this count as an official announcement between Tan Shen and Xu Shen?"
Leng Yuxuan said expressionlessly, "From an information theory perspective, their joint signature is the highest level of encrypted love letter."
—Lunch break, empty classroom—
The curtains were half-drawn, and the sunlight cut a slant across the room.
Xu Li pushed the newly printed provincial competition registration form in front of Tan Yuze: "In the last column, who should be listed as the cooperating unit?"
Tan Yuze didn't take the pen; instead, he wrote his name directly below hers, leaving a space between the two characters.
“Here,” he pointed to the blank space, “I’ll leave it here. You can fill it with any word you want later.”
Xu Li paused for a moment, then suddenly laughed out loud: "Then keep it."
She bowed her head to sign, her hair brushing against the paper like a silent signature.
The moment the registration forms were handed in, both of them knew:
The rumors have long been dispelled, and the new model has only just begun to run.
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