I used to be very famous

“The young student is perfectly fine. Just a little skin scraped, nothing serious.”

The grey-haired elderly school doctor smiled at the two of them, told Pei Du to put his shoes back on, and then returned to his computer desk to play Spider Solitaire.

This near-retirement life was truly easy and relaxing.

Pei Du glanced enviously at the leisurely school doctor.

At this moment, he sincerely hoped his future work would involve little effort for good money.

To that end, he was willing to study hard until he was twenty-five.

“Sorry for the trouble.”

“Thank you.”

He Chengxi and Pei Du politely thanked the school doctor at the same time.

Noticing this, they inadvertently glanced at each other, then silently averted their eyes.

The school doctor watched them from behind his desk with an amused smile.

He was getting on in years, but he wasn’t blind.

He was ranked number one among his friends at ‘Spot the Difference’ games.

He was convinced these two young students had just found an excuse to skip the morning run for a little date.

Look at this handsome lad and beautiful girl, so well-matched.

Youth is truly wonderful.

After tying the bandage into a solid butterfly knot, Pei Du pulled open the door to leave and head back to the classroom.

The remaining running time was probably less than five minutes; going to the playground seemed unnecessary now.

He waited for He Chengxi to come out, then gently closed the door behind them.

“Classmate Pei, I’m really sorry about earlier on the stairs. Thankfully you’re okay.”

The top-ranked girl expressed her apology to Pei Du once more.

Her hands were clasped together, and her eyes as she looked at Pei Du were filled with nervousness and unease.

Pei Du looked down at the girl.

He only noticed that her eyes were sparkling and her eyelashes were very long.

Looking more carefully, he increasingly felt her appearance was strikingly beautiful to an almost absurd degree.

“Mm, you should be more careful yourself in the future. Don’t get knocked over again.”

Pei Du had a feeling He Chengxi would keep repeating apologies all the way back, so he spoke first to change the subject.

“Earlier, you said I’m quite well-known?”

Perhaps because of the morning run, the teaching building was unusually quiet.

Passing by a certain classroom, he seemed to hear the faint sound of students talking.

Probably those hiding out to skip the run, Pei Du thought.

“Yes, I’ll be careful.”

He Chengxi walked side-by-side with Pei Du.

“Classmate Pei, you don’t know?”

Was she referring to the fact that I should know I’m well-known?

Sorry, I really don’t.

I might be a caveman disconnected from student society.

“Know what?”

“Um…”

He Chengxi looked up at the confusion in Pei Du’s eyes, ascertaining whether he was genuinely clueless and not just waiting for her to continue.

After pondering for a moment, as if steeling herself, the girl finally spoke.

“Classmate Pei, you’re quite a hot topic in the girls’ circles.”

The girl rarely showed a hint of a “teasing” light laugh.

“Because you’re very good-looking.”

“…Thank you.”

Good.

Today was the best weather this week.

The flowers truly were flowers, the birds truly were birds, and the teaching building truly stood tall and imposing.

The sky was so blue.

Pei Du suddenly felt the world was much more pleasing to the eye.

“Of course, that’s just one of the reasons.”

He could sense He Chengxi had become a little more cheerful.

Perhaps talking about gossip just made people happy, made them much more lighthearted.

“The main thing is that video. It was very interesting.”

“What video?”

From the start until now, Pei Du had been completely in the dark.

He, the person involved, had no idea what she was talking about.

“The one Classmate Zhao Yu posted in his social feed.”

He Chengxi’s steps up the stairs were very slow.

“A friend showed me. I haven’t added Classmate Zhao Yu, but it seems a lot of people have seen that video.”

“He must be very close with you.”

The girl added after saying this.

Social feed?

Pei Du simply took out his phone from his uniform pants and started looking for Zhao Yu on the messaging app.

East High, as a relatively progressive school, didn’t forbid students from bringing phones.

However, it strictly prohibited unnecessary phone use during class time.

If caught, it meant a major demerit and being sent home for reflection.

There were usually patrols during class to check.

Essentially, allowing phones was for the convenience of some commuting students and for students to look up information more easily.

Boarding students’ phones were collected and kept.

As for students using phones during breaks or lunch, it relied entirely on their self-discipline.

East High upheld the principle that student self-discipline was greater than forced education.

Good students didn’t need urging; their good grades came from their own self-discipline.

Problem students didn’t need excessive restriction either; those determined to play on their phones couldn’t really be stopped anyway.

Pei Du had few contacts and rarely looked at social feeds.

He quickly found Zhao Yu.

The feed was pinned with many videos.

The top one had the caption “Off to the comic con with Young Master!”

It had many likes and a long string of usernames and comments below.

Many were from their grade, identifiable from the names—though not added as friends, if they were in the same group chat it wouldn’t show a username but their group chat nickname, which was basically their class and name.

He knew Zhao Yu had contacts with many people in their grade.

Because of the new college entrance exam system, many students had changed classes several times due to subject choices.

From what he knew, Zhao Yu had changed classes at least three times, so having many contacts wasn’t strange.

Instinct told Pei Du this was the video he was looking for.

He Chengxi had been watching beside Pei Du.

When she saw the video’s pure black thumbnail, she couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.

Opening the video, the frame jumped to two boys wearing printed T-shirts.

One had a forehead full of acne, holding a large gift bag covered with images of various anime girls in his arms.

He held a phone in his left hand; the shot showed he also had another bag tucked under his arm.

His other hand was giving a peace sign to the camera.

Then he said something to the other boy.

“Young Master, Young Master, look at the camera.”

“Young Master, hurry up and look.”

The audio was very clear.

The boy beside him finally turned and looked at the camera upon hearing this.

In the video, the boy’s expression was blank, seeming somewhat reluctant.

The white lights of the venue shone on his face, making his already handsome features appear even more dazzling.

The scene immediately shifted.

The pimply boy disappeared from the screen, leaving only the cold-faced one.

The video’s voiceover changed to, “Hehehe, shocked. Turns out Young Master isn’t a normie but an otaku, and a fan of…”

When the cold-faced boy appeared again, he was wearing a contented slight smile, making him seem even more youthful and spirited.

He was seen with his left arm around a life-sized standee of a blue-haired anime beauty, his right hand held low in a peace sign.

Compared to his earlier expressionless state, it felt disjointed, like an ice cube melting to reveal a sunflower—suddenly transforming from icy cold to warm and sunny.

It’s worth noting that the blue-haired anime beauty on the standee had an exaggerated figure—slender waist, curvy hips, full chest, wearing a bright silver dress, dazzlingly white.

The rest was a condensed ten-minute tour of the comic con: otaku dance performances, interactions, autograph sessions, etc.

The whole process was recorded.

Finally, at the end of the video, the two were holding a huge pile of merchandise, exaggerated to the point of blocking their faces.

Pei Du now watched the video with a truly expressionless face, perfectly replicating his look from the beginning of the video.

He knew Zhao Yu liked documenting life, taking photos and videos now and then.

He also remembered Zhao Yu once said he wanted to be some kind of lifestyle vlogger.

He had been very supportive of Zhao Yu, saying he should post whatever he wanted, that life was woven from trivial, everyday moments.

If he kept posting videos, he would surely succeed as a blogger.

Zhao Yu often asked Pei Du to like the videos he posted on various platforms.

Pei Du selectively watched some of the short videos on platforms like Douyin; they seemed to be about cats, dogs, flowers, and plants.

Feeling the content wasn’t comprehensive enough, he had suggested Zhao Yu could film more people.

So it wasn’t that he didn’t film people, but that videos featuring familiar faces were all on his social feed?

Maybe asking Pei Du to like them was a test to gauge his acceptance of such videos.

And Pei Du had “selectively” avoided looking at content on social platforms, accidentally missing this type of video.

Thinking back now, from Zhao Yu’s perspective, Pei Du not saying “no” might have been seen as tacit permission.

After piecing the whole thing together, Pei Du felt inexplicably much more relaxed.

Just a moment ago, he had felt somewhat uncomfortable that Zhao Yu had posted a video of them for many to see—it was pretty embarrassing.

But after thinking it through carefully, he realized he had been neglectful first and hadn’t considered things from the other’s perspective.

So, perhaps he shouldn’t be too harsh on Zhao Yu either.

In short, through this, he learned one thing: information must be constantly updated.

Shutting oneself off from the outside world is not advisable.

Pei Du couldn’t help but regret not using social media regularly.

The consequence of not surfing the web or engaging with online society was that many people knew you, while you still thought others didn’t know you at all.

In reality, your life had already been laid bare for others to see.

“Can I ask what your private evaluations of me are like?”

He put away his phone and also slowed his steps up the stairs.

“Nothing much, really.”

“Uncomfortable to say?”

“Hm, not exactly. It’s just… well…”

The girl seemed a bit embarrassed.

“Everyone originally thought you knew about this, more or less.”

“Seeing you didn’t really manage everyone’s opinions, everyone assumed you tacitly accepted these evaluations.”

“No one expected you to be completely unaware. So now it feels awkward to bring it up with you.”

“It’s fine, you can tell me directly.”

So it wasn’t anything good.

Pei Du decided not to let Zhao Yu copy his math homework for a week.

Let him rely on answer-searching apps instead.

What?

You say I just stated I shouldn’t be too harsh?

That was what I said a moment ago. Go talk to that version of me.

“Everyone thinks… the handsome guy from Class Seven is quite… special.”

He Chengxi paused here, as if the following words were difficult to utter.

“Has quite a sense of contrast.”

“Did I miss a segment? Where did this word even come from?”

Pei Du had never imagined the term “sense of contrast” could be applied to him.

It would have to be filed under ‘bizarre.’

“Maybe everyone has been watching a lot of short videos lately.”

He Chengxi, perhaps embodying the investigative spirit of a top student, began to analyze.

“That term is very popular in short videos recently.”

“And Classmate Pei’s private persona differs a bit from his school persona, so it was probably used to describe you.”

“Just like words such as ‘cringe,’ ‘hype,’ ‘attention-seeker’—after people hear them, they start using them frequently in daily life.”

“They might not be very fitting, but the usage rate is high.”

The girl continued her train of thought.

“My school persona? What’s it like?”

Most people are curious about how others see them.

Pei Du was no exception.

“It’s that cold, doesn’t-like-to-joke kind of feeling. When we pass in the hallway, Classmate Pei always has a stern face.”

“I…”

After hearing the evaluation, Pei Du felt it was better to change the subject.

For the record, he didn’t constantly have a stern face.

It was just that at school, while studying, he couldn’t laugh, nor could he cry.

So he appeared expressionless.

In reality, it was a profound sense of being a living dead person.

“Classmate He, do you watch short videos too?”

“Yes, I watch some when I’m tired from doing practice problems.”

“I thought the way a top student relaxed was by reading or reciting.”

“That’s an imagined version of a top student.”

Their steps halted.

They had reached the top floor.

One was in Class (1) on the far left, the other in Class (7) on the far right.

This meant they were about to go their separate ways.

“Classmate Pei, please keep what we just talked about confidential.”

“Yes. I will ensure no rumors about me are traced back to you. You will receive the best protection, my tainted witness.”

“What?”

“Nothing. See you later, Classmate He.”

Pei Du knew he had made a very lame, cold, and awkward joke.

They had gotten along too easily, causing him to unconsciously slip into the bantering tone he used with friends.

He hoped Classmate He wouldn’t mind.

No, they probably wouldn’t have much interaction anyway, so even if she did mind, it should be fine, right?

…

[Senior Year, Class 1 He Chengxi requests to add you as a friend.]

[Note: Tainted Witness]