Xia Yuan froze in place and didn't notice the girl in his arms had stopped crying. When the thoughts hidden in one's heart were told from the concerned person, it was as if their own dirty laundry were exposed in the sun and an indescribable feeling rose. He couldn't understand Xia Yao at all but suddenly, he felt that she was not so stupid anymore.

The accusation that had reached his lips felt like a ball stuck in his throat and he couldn't say it. Xia Yao's grades had always been at the bottom of the school and he had long blacklisted any notice concerning her.

As if he had been ashamed of being her brother. She was not studious, she fought with delinquents all day, she was idle and he always felt that such a sister was not worthy of his attention. But he had never obviously shown it and had treated her with distant politeness, just as he would treat a guest at home.

The water dripping from the tap was particularly clear in the silence that had fallen in the girls' restrooms. Xia Yuan calmed down and opened his mouth: "Xia Yao, we will talk about it when we get home." His mind was numb now and he didn't want to think about it anymore.

Xia Yao, who was ready to argue, was startled by his calm tone. She blinked and felt a little annoyed; she really didn't want to go back to this home at all.

But she had no financial resources yet and it seemed that there was no place she could go except there. It wasn't time for her to move out anyway, the plot hadn't progressed that much yet.

As she was conflicted, a shadow suddenly covered her. She looked up and saw a pair of beautiful and affectionate eyes, which could poke people's hearts with just one glance.

Ji Huai was tall and slender and on this slightly cool autumn night, he only wore a blue shirt. With the wind blowing from the window, she could smell his refreshing fragrance.

His face was as gentle as his voice and he said: "Xia Yao, it's late. I will take you home."

Xia Yao felt bewitched by his gaze for a moment and had to blink to wake from her daze. She still really didn't want to go back there tonight.

She knew very well that Ji Huai was one of the heroine's suitors. He always showed people a smile, even when the vicious female character had caused trouble and he had used her to make the heroine jealous. Although Xia Yao felt that this plot was ridiculous, it had brought another layer to Ji Huai's character.

A darker persona hid under his kindness, able to gently push someone step by step into hell or stab them with a smile.

Therefore, hearing Ji Huai's gentle voice, Xia Yao's lips tightened nervously and she activated her newly found white lotus skills again.

"Ji..." She tried her best to suppress the shame in her heart, "Brother Ji Huai."

The teenager was taken aback. The girl's voice was different from her usual indifference, it sounded soft and delicate. He instinctively wanted to protect her.

Ji Huai took her hand, which was as soft as he had imagined, yet slightly cold.

"It's okay, I will take you home."

Xia Yao was still surprised by the white lotus technique's results. It was so easy to use and she looked down at the hand holding her, before saying: "I'm sorry, I want to go to Yinuan's house tonight. It's my fault, it's so late and you're not home, don't be angry~"

When her words fell, she took her hand back and put it behind her back, as she vomited in her heart. The white lotus was very effective but she felt nauseous every time she used it, she must be unworthy of it.

Before Ji Huai could recover from her words, she was already standing next to her friends. She would not go home tonight and when he thought of what kind of brother she had, he understood why. It was really distressing.

On the other side, the dark-eyed other teenager had a somber expression but stayed silent.

—Tsk, she called someone else brother.

***

This night was not destined to be peaceful. The farce had ended close to 9 pm and nightlife had only begun. The roads outside were still full of traffic and colorful neon lights illuminated the girl's face in the car.

In general, the restroom incident seemed to not affect her. Neither Ji Huai nor Xu Shizhou had shown strong hostility or even tried to defend the heroine. Xia Yuan had been the only one actively protecting his fake sister, as always.

Although Xu Shizhou had been a bit irritable and she had been finally able to leave after she had been forced to call him brother twice. It seemed that he really wanted a sister.

Xia Yao followed Xu Yinuan all the way, laughing and joking, but before they reached her house, they received a call from Sweet Girl. Xia Yao answered and directly turned on the speaker.

"Xia Yao! Something big happened, hurry up and log on to the school forum!" The girl on the phone was very excited, "I am laughing to death right now, today is clearly a good day! Log in quickly, hurry up!"

Xia Yao and Xu Yinuan smelled the fragrance of gossip; Sweet Sister was a little too excited, even more than when she had stuffed Xia Xi into the sack.

"She sounds so anxious, it doesn't match our Sweet Sister's character." Xu Yinuan and Xia Yao looked at each other and opened the school forum at once.

Xu Yinuan couldn't load the page. She refreshed twice but still couldn't log in. They hadn't hung up the phone yet and she asked: "Sweet Sister, aren't you the administrator? The forum is stuck."

"The traffic is too big right now, try to refresh again and squeeze in." Sweet Sister answered, "Or I could tell you first but Yaoyao should see for herself!"

As Xia Xi was also waiting to enter the forum on the other side, Xu Yinuan finally logged in.

"Fuck! Look at that, the anonymity behind the posts has disappeared!"

Xia Yao leaned over and looked at the post that was floating on the top of the forum. Above, bright red explosions showed how popular it was.

#Nobody really thinks that Xia Yao didn't cheat, right?#

She frowned and asked: "Is it this old post again?"

"Yeah."

Xia Yao rolled her eyes. The post included Xia Yao's school transcript from last semester, where no subject had more than 20 points. This kind of transcript was easy to get, as long as someone logged into the school's official website with someone's student number, they could download it. But who knew her password?

She glanced at the author, which wasn't a gray anonymous profile picture but an artistic selfie of a beautiful girl, and she recognized Xia Xi at a glance.

"Fuck, Xia Xi is amazing! I already knew she was very capable at pretending but she's also a real schemer behind the scenes." Xu Yinuan was laughing, "Yaoyao, look at it, look at how she really is."

[Xia Xi: Come and see last semester's transcript. Who can really believe she didn't cheat this midterm? Does anyone really believe she pretended all along just to counterattack?]

[2nd comment: Fuck, I can't bear to look directly at this report card.]

[3rd comment: The school is required to thoroughly investigate this midterm exam and not let cheaters get away with it!]

[4th comment: Can someone with such bad grades have been admitted to our school?]

[5th comment: Last comment, if you have money, yes.]

[Xia Xi: 4th comment, are you the navy hired by Xia Yao? Get out, everyone joins in to write a letter against Xia Yao. We can't let this scheming bitch cheat and get the first place!]

[7th comment: Doesn't her conscience hurt? Stealing someone else's position... we study so hard and she's a thief!]

At that time, the post had not exploded yet. The original poster had been anonymous and it hadn't been a big gossip as nobody knew who it was.

But now, everyone had seen the anonymity disappear and realized that the one actively scolding Xia Yao on the forum was the sister who claimed she was helping her with her homework!

[233rd comment: What a peerless white lotus! In the afternoon, she instigates her friends to go against Xia Yao, and in the evening, she slanders her on the Internet.]

[234th comment: It's so disgusting to fake sisterly affection.]

[235th comment: No, no, no, who doesn't know they aren't really sisters?]

[236th comment: Among all the anonymous posts Xia Xi created, I remember there was one titled #Nobody really thinks that Xia Yao isn't pestering Ji Huai, right?#]

[237th comment: You remind me of what happened at the library last weekend. Ji Huai exposed Xia Xi's white lotus identity on the spot and it turns out that Xia Xi was spreading all the rumors all along.]

[238th comment: Last comment, please tell me more about it!]

The post was quickly covered in comments and the people who ate melons were happy to observe.

"Hahaha, now I guess that everyone knows what kind of person this white lotus really is. I'm afraid she won't dare to come to school in the future!" Xu Yinuan laughed again, "I wonder who took the time to uncover her real identity. Who is it? I will offer a reward for anyone that can tell me, I really must thank them!"

***

On the other side, as soon as Xia Xi had turned her phone on, it started vibrating constantly and a message appeared on top.

[Xia Xi, did you make those posts on the forum?]

When she read the message and realized it was about the school forum, Xia Xi panicked on the spot and her heart skipped a beat. She trembled and opened the forum only to see her post on top.

Her last few posts had been deleted by the administrator within a few minutes but this one had already been active for so long and she realized something was wrong, especially after seeing her friend's message. She clicked on it and realized that the anonymous gray picture was no longer there and had been replaced by a photo of her innocently smiling and smelling a small daisy.

She had always acted as a very caring sister towards her younger sister at school but now—

Xia Xi was shocked and her back was cold and sweaty. She had always been very cautious in her work and had always repeatedly confirmed she was posting anonymously every time. How could her real name appear now?!