The Truth Revealed

Jiang Chen took it all in.

For three days, Zhou Yi had never once complained, nor had she uttered a single word of weariness.

From coordinating tasks to drafting appeal documents and integrating new projects, she had been pushing through purely on willpower.

Meanwhile, Jiang Chen had mobilized all his resources and connections. He spent his days sourcing external resources, his nights consulting with industry mentors, and meticulously studied over a dozen market analysis reports.

This allowed him to complete high-intensity market research and in-depth data analysis.

“Just wait,” Jiang Chen said, his voice hoarse from days of sleepless nights, yet his eyes burned with a fervent light. “I have a feeling we’re going to succeed.”

Li Yanze, his eyes shadowed by heavy dark circles, spoke weakly, “Senior, I’ve managed to keep the message delay to milliseconds, and I’ve set the emergency help function to the highest priority…”

“Right… right… impressive…” Zhou Yi mumbled in response, too exhausted to even lift her eyelids. She truly felt as though she had burned herself out.

She had been so utterly drained that she hadn’t noticed Jiang Chen’s intimate gesture as he brushed her hair away, nor had she registered his gaze lingering on the ends of her strands.

Now, her mind held only the most primal desire: sleep.

She needed it immediately, right now, the kind of sleep where she’d get at least ten hours, even if the sky were to fall.

Dragging her leaden legs, she slowly shuffled back to the girls’ dormitory building.

Xiao Ju and her other two roommates knew Zhou Yi had been working herself to the bone for the project these past few days. Thoughtfully, they always left a small light on for her each night.

Tonight, however, was different. The dormitory room was brightly lit, and the moment she turned the key in the lock, three figures surged forward to surround her.

“Yiyi! You’re finally back!” Xiao Ju was the first to rush over, grabbing her arm.

Her other two roommates also excitedly held up their phones. “Quick, look at the campus wall! You’re trending again! This time, you’re really famous!”

“…Huh?” Zhou Yi blinked her dry eyes in bewilderment.

In these past few days, she had been so consumed by the project that she had neither the time nor the interest to pay attention to the campus wall’s happenings.

Frankly, she had never really cared much for gossip to begin with.

Moreover, the prize money and intense competition of the current event had long become the school’s main focus. Who would still remember her old news?

Thus, as Xiao Ju and the other two grew almost incoherent with excitement, Zhou Yi could only stare at them, utterly baffled. “…Huh? What wall? …What happened?”

“Y-you see for yourself!!!” Xiao Ju shoved her phone directly into Zhou Yi’s hand. “The campus wall! Someone posted the full video!”

Zhou Yi’s scattered gaze finally sharpened. The bolded title on the screen was exceptionally striking.

[#TruthRevealed# Full Video Exposed: The “Senior Bullying Junior” Incident at the Girls’ Dormitory Entrance]

The video playing clearly documented the entire process of Su Xiao’s provocation.

From her initial passive-aggressive remarks to her later sarcastic jabs, every single expression was captured with crystal clarity.

At the end of the video, Zhou Yi’s calm response was fully recorded, as was the scene where she coolly called Jiang Chen.

The poster’s avatar was a Shiba Inu meme with its head tilted, and the description simply read: [Someone has to tell the truth.]

The comment section had already exploded.

[My blood pressure shot up after watching the video! Who can stand Su Xiao’s manipulative words? If it were me, I would’ve flipped the table!]

[So Zhou Yi was targeted? Aren’t those who cursed her out going to apologize?]

[Just the day before yesterday, I saw her arm-in-arm with a sports major senior, feeding him at the second cafeteria.]

[So, unrequited love led to a vengeful bite? That’s such a low move…]

[Am I the only one who thinks Senior Zhou Yi’s last line, “I want to see rivers of blood,” was incredibly cool?!]

[Agree with the above! Her calm counter-attack was absolutely amazing!]

[Jiang Chen caught on super fast too! Their chemistry is incredible!]

The number of likes surged at a visible rate.

Xiao Ju vigorously shook Zhou Yi’s arm. “See?! It’s a complete reversal! A total turnaround! Now the entire internet is cursing her out!”

The roommates’ excited cheers threatened to lift the roof off the building.

Zhou Yi stared blankly at the constantly refreshing comment section, then turned her bewildered gaze to the anonymous Shiba Inu avatar.

The suffocating feeling of being condemned by a thousand people still vaguely lingered from days ago. Yet, now, she felt somewhat dazed by this sudden revelation of truth.

‘Who exactly is this?’

‘And why… why would they help her?’

Just as she was lost in thought, a clear ringing sound suddenly came from the phone in her bag.

Jiang Chen’s name flashed across the screen.

She swiped to answer, and a voice tinged with amusement came from the other end. “Did you see the campus wall?”

“I just saw it…” Zhou Yi paused, then asked him in confusion, “But how did you…?”

Jiang Chen chuckled softly on the other end of the line, not answering directly.

In truth, days ago, when Li Yanze had mentioned Zhou Yi being targeted by online bullying on the campus wall, an unidentifiable surge of anger had flared within him.

He had clicked on the trending post, and the more he read the comments, the angrier he became. Those passive-aggressive remarks made him frown in displeasure.

Yet, at the time, Zhou Yi had simply smiled and claimed she didn’t care. But he had already taken the matter to heart.

He immediately sprang into action, first contacting the campus wall administrator to demand the post’s deletion. He also leveraged his connections to trace the source of the original post.

However, by a strange coincidence, on the very night Zhou Yi was secretly filmed, the surveillance cameras at the girls’ dormitory just so happened to malfunction.

Since the cameras were broken, the visible chain of evidence was severed. So, where did that so-called “irrefutable proof” screenshot come from?

The only explanation was that the other party must possess the complete video.

With this thought, Jiang Chen turned and abruptly pulled off Han Yan’s noise-canceling headphones.

“Let me finish this team fight!” Han Yan exclaimed, his eyes glued to the screen, not even turning his head. “I’m about to get a penta-kill!”

Besides being Jiang Chen’s roommate, Han Yan was also a genius hacker with unfathomable technical skills. For him, investigating an anonymous post, exposing a fake account, or infiltrating the school network was utterly trivial.

Jiang Chen simply reached out and pressed the computer’s power button. “It’s an emergency.”

“My penta-kill!” Han Yan wailed, slumping dramatically in his chair. “You’d better have a genuinely urgent matter.”

To his surprise, the opposing party’s defenses were incredibly tight. Han Yan’s slender fingers flew across three keyboards, operating them in turn, and it wasn’t until the early hours of the third day that he finally breached the last firewall.

“Well, well, it’s an acquaintance,” Han Yan mumbled, chewing on an energy bar as he tossed the investigation results to Jiang Chen, deep purplish shadows still under his eyes.

Jiang Chen immediately packaged the complete set of evidence and sent it to the security department.

He certainly owed Han Yan a huge favor, but Jiang Chen felt it was worth it.

Snapping back to the present, he spoke softly into the phone, a slight laugh in his voice. “You must be exhausted these past few days, right?”

“I-I’m alright, aren’t you too…?”

“Then… are you satisfied with the gift on the campus wall?”

His words landed like a precisely deployed depth charge, causing Zhou Yi to unconsciously grip her phone tighter.

‘This matter… she could have resolved it in a much simpler way. All she had to do was let Xiao Qi use her system permissions, and the poster could have been identified in under three seconds.’

‘She had simply always felt there was no need to make such a fuss over mere rumors.’

Yet, Jiang Chen had silently done it.

Even though Jiang Chen had also been staying up late with her, fighting tirelessly for the project these past few days, and despite his own exhaustion, with dark circles almost reaching the floor, he had still found the energy to arrange all of this.

“You’ve been so tired these past few days too; you really didn’t need to do all this…” A sudden pang of bitterness welled up in her chest, a mix of emotion she couldn’t quite discern as gratitude or disquiet. “I… I didn’t really care anyway.”

“I know,” Jiang Chen said, a soft laugh in his deep voice as it traveled through the receiver. “But I… I care.”