Chapter 75: Double the Envy
“What’s going on!?”
Right after morning reading class ended, a loud shout came from the neighboring class. It was from the photographer, Zhang Suxin.
The reason was simple. As soon as class ended, she happily pulled out her phone to check how many views her post had gotten.
But before she could enjoy it for even a minute, she was shocked to find that her post had been deleted. In fact, all related posts were gone too.
Now, on the school forum, you couldn’t find a single post related to Ye Ziming, or his girlfriend.
And that wasn’t even the most unbelievable part. What was worse was that several new posts had been pinned to the top of the forum, all warning about the dangers of dating too early.
The school even sent out an official announcement: starting now, they would strictly crack down on early dating. If they found a couple, they’d break them up on the spot!
Of course, they couldn’t touch Ye Ziming, because his family was the school’s biggest “sponsor.”
“This is so unfair! I spent so much time and effort to make a huge breaking story, and now it’s just… gone!?”
After scrolling through the school forum, Zhang Suxin shouted angrily, completely dissatisfied.
But at the same time, there wasn’t much she could do, because she knew the forum admins were involved now. Even if she posted again, it would just get deleted.
And if she tried to stir up more trouble, there was a good chance she’d get called into the school office for a “talk.”
Still, she hadn’t given up. She still had one more thing in her hands. A video clip of Ye Ziming and Lin Muqing performing together on stage.
Originally, she planned to post it in the morning, right when everyone was talking about the topic, and then drop this video as a big bombshell.
But now that the school forum was off-limits, she could only try posting it somewhere else.
“Hmph! If I can’t go viral here, then I’ll go viral somewhere else!”
Pouting, Zhang Suxin opened another forum app and started writing a new post, with the video of the two performing on stage.
Besides that, she also planned to personally investigate who the cat-eared maid girl really was!
Meanwhile, on the other side, Lin Muqing had no idea any of this was happening, until Lin Wenbin let out a surprised yell.
That’s when she opened the school forum herself, only to be shocked that all the posts had disappeared.
“Did you do this?”
After checking the forum, Lin Muqing immediately turned to her best friend with a questioning look.
She remembered what they talked about before the morning reading class. He had told her to leave the situation to him and not to worry.
Now that everything had disappeared like this, it was hard to believe he wasn’t involved.
“Yes… and no.”
Ye Ziming nodded and admitted it, but he didn’t fully take credit either. His words were a bit mysterious.
All he really did was mention how early dating could hurt students’ focus on learning, and then had someone pass that idea along to the school leadership.
His plan was just to cool down the popularity of the posts and shift everyone’s attention by getting the school to warn against early dating.
He didn’t expect the school to go all out, deleting the posts and launching a full-on crackdown. That part surprised even him.
“So, basically… this is your doing.”
After thinking it through, Lin Muqing quickly came to the conclusion.
Right then, she looked at her best friend with eyes full of gratitude, and even a little admiration.
Looking at that confident smile on his face, she was sure she was right. At the very least, he definitely played a key role.
“You guess.”
With a mischievous smile, Ye Ziming raised his eyebrows at Lin Muqing and used his old trick again.
“Ugh! You are so annoying!”
As soon as she heard those two words, the warm feeling in Lin Muqing’s heart disappeared, and the gratitude on her face vanished too.
Like an angry pufferfish, her cheeks puffed up quickly as she glared at him, even rolling her eyes for good measure.
What she didn’t know was that while she meant to show her annoyance, to Ye Ziming, it just looked super cute.
Even her eye-rolling was adorable. He couldn’t help but wonder if Lin Muqing had grown up eating cuteness for breakfast, maybe she had lived in a pile of cute things since childhood.
Instead of getting upset at her scolding, Ye Ziming actually felt even happier. He couldn’t help but think maybe he was the one who’s poisoned...
“Is this a pufferfish? They puff up when they’re angry.”
Ye Ziming reached out and lightly poked Lin Muqing’s cheek while smiling.
“You’re the pufferfish!”
She shot him a glare in return, fierce and dramatic.
“But I don’t puff up when I’m angry.”
“You do too!”
“……”
During the short break after the morning reading class, the two of them kept joking around like this.
On the surface, Lin Muqing seemed annoyed, but in reality, she wasn’t angry at all. In fact, she seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.
Not far away, Zhang Xiaoling quietly watched their interaction, feeling a little jealous.
Ever since the comic convention, she had finally met the cat-eared maid and even managed to take a photo with her.
But it was a bit of a shame that she didn’t get the maid’s contact info. Zhang Xiaoling really wanted to be friends with her.
So right now, she was double envious of Ye Ziming.
On one hand, she was jealous that he had such a cute cat-eared maid as his girlfriend. On the other hand, she was jealous of how naturally he could talk and play around with Lin Muqing.
“What are you staring at?”
Just as Zhang Xiaoling was lost in thought, Wang Wenxin suddenly leaned in and whispered in her ear.
“Ah! What are you doing!”
Startled, Zhang Xiaoling let out a little scream and gave Wang Wenxin a complaining glare.
“Want me to help you?”
Even without Zhang Xiaoling saying anything, Wang Wenxin already knew what she was looking at. She was just teasing her best friend a bit.
Plus, there was already a pink letter tucked in her desk drawer. A carefully written note in Zhang Xiaoling’s handwriting (or at least imitating it). A “nice gift,” as she put it.
Since Zhang Xiaoling didn’t dare to make the first move, as her best friend, it made total sense for Wenxin to give her a push.
“No need.”
Zhang Xiaoling turned her head away a little awkwardly and mumbled in a low voice as she looked into Wang Wenxin’s eyes.
In that split second, her heart did flutter a bit.
But after thinking about it more, she felt it wasn’t the right time, so she ignored her feelings and turned down her friend’s offer.
What she didn’t know was that even though she had refused, Wang Wenxin narrowed her eyes slightly and smiled meaningfully.
“All right then.”
Her face showed a bit of regret, but in her heart, Wang Wenxin had already made a decision, she’d send that pink letter out this afternoon.
Because she could clearly tell, Zhang Xiaoling hadn’t told the truth.
“Sigh~ Let’s tidy up, class is starting.”
She gave Lin Muqing one last glance before turning away and getting ready for the next class.
A strange idea popped into her mind.
What if the cat-eared maid and Lin Muqing were actually the same person? If Zhang Xiaoling succeeded in getting close to her… wouldn’t that be double the happiness?
Just imagining it felt exciting. She even started picturing Lin Muqing dressed in that maid outfit.
And then came a new problem, every version of that mental image slowly turned into the cat-eared maid again.
The more she thought about it… the creepier it got!