The Trap Was Finally Set

Tang Tongtong and Qin Ying exchanged a glance, didn’t press further, and left on their own.

Sang Jiuning wandered aimlessly around campus, her thoughts in disarray.

Before she knew it, she’d climbed up to Lover’s Hill. Seeing no one around, she sat down in one of the pavilions there.

She even began to wonder if her “cold treatment breakup plan” had been wrong from the very start.

Wen Zhaoci, this male lead, seemed different from what she’d imagined.

He wasn’t like the characters in novels who’d misunderstand the female lead over the smallest thing and break up easily.

Just as Sang Jiuning was lost in her tangled thoughts, her phone finally rang.

But instead of “Wen Zhaoci” flashing on the screen, it was Tang Tongtong.

Sang Jiuning pressed answer.

“Hello?” Her voice came out a little dry.

“Ningning! All those posts about you on the forum—they’re all gone!”

Tang Tongtong’s voice was practically bursting with excitement and disbelief through the receiver. “Did you see? I just refreshed the forum, and every single post exposing you—whether it was calling you vain or saying you were two-timing—they’re all gone! Even the comments vanished completely, like they never existed!”

Sang Jiuning shot up from the stone bench, her heart missing a beat.

“What?” She opened the campus forum in disbelief.

Sure enough, all those glaring headlines that had been on the front page were gone, replaced by trivial campus news and help posts.

She didn’t give up and typed her name along with “Wen Zhaoci” into the search bar. The result came back: “No relevant content found.”

They were really… all deleted?

Who did it?

The moment the thought surfaced, a name crystallized clearly in her mind—Wen Zhaoci.

Who else had that kind of power, to completely wipe out the wildly popular negative posts on the campus forum in such a short time?

A wave of complicated emotions washed over Sang Jiuning—surprise, confusion, and a faint warmth she couldn’t quite name.

Why would he do that?

According to her “script,” wasn’t he supposed to see those posts, feel disappointed in her, and then break up?

“Ningning? Ningning, are you listening?” Tang Tongtong’s voice came through the phone.

“Ah… I’m listening.” Sang Jiuning steadied herself and tried to make her voice sound calm. “Deleted is deleted. Maybe it was the moderators.” She instinctively wanted to keep Wen Zhaoci out of it.

“No way!” Tang Tongtong shot back immediately. “Moderators aren’t that fast! Besides, with gossip posts like that, as long as they’re not too over the top, the mods usually turn a blind eye. I’m telling you, I just saw someone post a new thread asking why the old ones were gone, and within two minutes, that thread got deleted too! Someone’s definitely pulling strings behind the scenes!”

Tang Tongtong paused, lowered her voice, and said mysteriously: “Ningning, I’m going to take a wild guess here… could it be your boyfriend?”

Sang Jiuning’s heart tightened again, her fingers gripping the phone a little harder.

“How could it be… he doesn’t pay attention to this kind of nonsense.” She tried to refute with facts, but her conviction wavered.

“With his status, getting rid of something this small would be a piece of cake!” Tang Tongtong reasoned confidently. “Think about it—who would want you to be dragged through the mud the most? Him, obviously! You’re his girlfriend! This is about his reputation, and about your relationship too!”

Girlfriend…

The word made Sang Jiuning’s cheeks heat up again, and the image of Wen Zhaoci leaning down under the camphor tree last night, pressing that gentle kiss to her forehead, surfaced unbidden in her mind.

“And get this,” Tang Tongtong’s voice grew even more excited, “someone just leaked that Wen Group’s legal department contacted the forum’s operators! Not sure if it’s true, but combined with the posts getting nuked instantly, there’s no way this isn’t connected to our campus heartthrob!”

Wen Group’s legal department?

Sang Jiuning was completely stunned.

Over a bit of campus gossip about her, he’d actually mobilized his family company’s legal department?

Wasn’t that… making a mountain out of a molehill?

No—maybe to him, it wasn’t.

He was… protecting her?

This realization sent her heart racing again. A feeling she’d never experienced before began to spread quietly within her, like vines winding around her heart, making it hard to breathe—yet she didn’t dislike it.

She shook her head violently. Maybe Wen Zhaoci was just preparing a grand breakup gift for himself?

“Ningning, say something! Don’t you think it was Wen who did it?” Tang Tongtong pressed.

Sang Jiuning opened her mouth, but found she didn’t know what to say.

Admit it? Or deny it?

Just then, her phone screen lit up with a new WeChat message.

Sender: Good Little White Bunny.

Sang Jiuning said to Tang Tongtong on the phone: “Tongtong, something just came up—I’ll talk to you later.”

“Huh? Okay—”

Before Tang Tongtong could finish, Sang Jiuning hung up hastily and opened Su Qingyan’s message.

Sure enough, Su Qingyan’s WeChat name was: Good Little White Bunny.

It was just a short line:

Good Little White Bunny: [Ningning, do you want to do a part-time gig?]

Fluffy Little Chinchilla: [What kind of gig?]

Good Little White Bunny: [Someone recommended it to me—car model work. Tonight from eight to eleven, at Bo’ai Plaza downtown. It’s not far from school. If you’re interested, I can send you the contact’s card.]

Sang Jiuning stared at the words on the screen, her brow furrowing involuntarily.

Would Su Qingyan be this kind?

The Su Qingyan in her memory, though always appearing gentle and harmless, occasionally had a calculating glint in her eyes that had always made Sang Jiuning vaguely uncomfortable.

Especially after the forum incident, her guard against Su Qingyan was at an all-time high.

Fluffy Little Chinchilla: [Why did you suddenly think of me?] She asked directly, not hiding her suspicion.

Good Little White Bunny: [Aren’t we friends? I saw how tired you were from your part-time job at the milk tea shop, and this opportunity came up. Car modeling pays 1,000 yuan for just a few hours, so I thought I’d let you know. Plus, the work’s pretty easy—just stand there and pose.]

Friends? Sang Jiuning sneered inwardly.

From the original owner’s memories, the original had always fawned over Su Qingyan, but Su Qingyan had always kept her at arm’s length, occasionally even taking advantage of her naivety to make her run errands, without so much as a sincere thank you afterward.