Chapter 74 Part 2

The next day, by the time Zhou Chiyu went to school, Gu Yuan had already left to handle lab group matters. He broke his usual habit and ate four Beef Buns, making Gu Lao frown repeatedly, afraid he would get a stomachache like he had as a child.

At that moment, Gu Lao received a call. “What does Little Feng want this early in the morning?”

Hearing Gu Feng’s name, Zhou Chiyu suddenly had a bad premonition.

He quietly watched Gu Lao while holding his bowl and noticed Gu Lao’s expression growing darker.

“Zhou Chiyu openly bribed classmates to cheat for an award, and now it’s all over the place!”

“I’m going to school today, and everyone knows I’m somewhat connected to Zhou Chiyu. They’ve been asking me about the whole thing nonstop. It’s so embarrassing!”

“Grandpa, this counts as a scandal, right? I’m worried that if the public opinion blows up, it’ll affect you and the corporation’s reputation. After all, those netizens aren’t to be trifled with.”

“I understand.” Gu Lao hung up the phone and looked at Zhou Chiyu’s wide, round eyes. Weariness hid beneath the wrinkles at the corners. “Little Fish, has something happened at school lately?”

Zhou Chiyu felt a bit guilty and lowered his eyes. “No…”

“Little Feng just told me about the Top 10 Singers matter.” Gu Lao’s expression was hesitant. “Don’t hide it from Grandpa. No matter how big the issue, Grandpa can help you handle it.”

“I… I was framed by a classmate…”

After Zhou Chiyu explained everything, he pursed his lips guiltily. “Sorry, Grandpa. Have I caused trouble for the family?”

“It’s got nothing to do with you.” Gu Lao let out a long sigh. “You should have told me earlier. Have you been feeling aggrieved these past few days?”

“No.” Zhou Chiyu set down his porridge bowl, his ear tips flushing red. “These bad comments don’t affect me.”

“Little Feng said the school forum knows all about it.” Gu Lao looked at him worriedly. “Leave the rest to Grandpa to handle. I’ll get you a leave of absence for the next couple of days.”

“No need!” Zhou Chiyu objected strongly. “I’ve already contacted the whistleblower. I believe I can resolve this soon.”

Gu Lao frowned repeatedly, clearly disagreeing with his approach.

“Give me three more days.”

Zhou Chiyu’s expression was resolute. “Let me try first.”

…

At noon, the morning professional class finally ended.

Zhou Chiyu packed his schoolbag and quietly tailed Bai Zhiqi.

He had asked a friend to contact the classmate in charge of the voting system. The data showed that from the moment voting opened, Bai Zhiqi’s ranking had consistently been fourth.

Moreover, he had carefully examined every word the whistleblower posted. One of the emojis did not display on his device, so he could infer that the whistleblower’s phone was not an iOS model.

And Bai Zhiqi’s phone happened to be Android.

From the start of class, he had been observing Bai Zhiqi, who was clearly off today, as if he had lost his soul. His Fountain Pen kept dropping to the floor. Zhou Chiyu decided to take the initiative and test him.

“Little White.”

Zhou Chiyu panted as he caught up to Bai Zhiqi. “Are you heading to the cafeteria?”

“Yeah.” Bai Zhiqi instinctively took a step back while speaking. “No, I’m going to the library.”

“Don’t you need to eat?” Zhou Chiyu tilted his head with a smile. “There’s class at two in the afternoon.”

“No need. I ate a lot this morning.” The surrounding cold air carried Bai Zhiqi’s rapid breaths. He clutched his schoolbag tightly, panic swirling in his eyes behind his glasses. “I’m heading out first.”

“Okay.”

Zhou Chiyu watched his retreating figure, a thin mist clouding his amber eyes.

He seemed to have an idea.

He hurried after Bai Zhiqi and discovered that the other had not gone to the library but to the Art Department building, where he spoke softly with a friend.

The friend also wore glasses. His single-lidded eyes looked shrewd when narrowed. Though Zhou Chiyu could not hear their conversation, he gleaned clues from their body language.

This boy from the Art Department must like Bai Zhiqi.

It was the same look his brother gave him.

After the afternoon class ended, it was already six o’clock. Zhou Chiyu had wanted to keep tailing Bai Zhiqi, but the Class Monitor announced that the department had ordered professional books for everyone, and they needed to pick them up before leaving.

Zhou Chiyu looked back for Bai Zhiqi but found he had already vanished.

In the Gymnasium, Finance Department students filed in one after another to collect their books. After picking up his own, Zhou Chiyu simply helped the Class Monitor by handling check-ins.

There were still over 200 books unclaimed. He diligently recorded the book numbers when suddenly he heard a dissatisfied voice.

“Having money is great, huh? Want to learn singing? Hire a Music Academy professor. Want to boost popularity? Toss some pocket change and buy thousands of votes. And people still take photos with this kind of unscrupulous guy?”

Zhou Chiyu’s fingers stiffened. He slowly raised his head to look at the boy who had spoken.

“It’s just a simple singing contest. Maybe he could get into Harvard for grad school without breaking a sweat?”

“His brother isn’t at MIT? Probably bought his way in too.”

These not-too-loud, not-too-soft words suddenly quieted the entire Gymnasium. Everyone turned to look at Zhou Chiyu at the same time.

His hoodie sleeve was clenched into wrinkles, but Zhou Chiyu’s eyes remained clear. As he stood up, they carried an unmistakable sharpness and resolve.

He could ignore these rumors, but Gu Yuan could not be affected.

“You can trash me, but why bring up my brother?”

Seeing Zhou Chiyu respond, the two pretended not to hear and continued their back-and-forth. “Looks like we hit a sore spot.”

“Yeah! If you’ve got the guts, show some solid evidence to fight back!”

“The Top 10 Singers thing is already a false accusation against me…” Though Zhou Chiyu’s voice was not loud, it was clear. “Whoever accuses must provide proof. All his so-called evidence is just chat screenshots— not even a video recording. Why should I have to prove my innocence? Does that mean I could just change the profile pic on a burner WeChat account to you two’s avatars, post some law-breaking nonsense publicly, and make you take the fall?”

“You—”

The two’s momentum clearly weakened, and they hesitated to retort.

“But the whistleblower said you threatened him in a private message!”

“Who can beat your Zhou Family’s legal team?”

Only at this moment did Zhou Chiyu realize the whistleblower had received his private message and showed no remorse. Instead, he had even posted their chat record on the forum, claiming he was scared and being threatened.

“Heh!” A mocking light laugh escaped Zhou Chiyu’s throat. “So that’s what he was thinking.”

“Hey! Quick, look! Someone’s live-streaming on the forum to clear Zhou Chiyu’s name!”

“The forum?”

The onlookers hurriedly opened the forum to catch the latest news. Before Zhou Chiyu could react, a classmate directly clicked the live stream link. A voice both familiar and unfamiliar emerged from the phone—

[Hello everyone, I’m Zhou Chiyu’s boyfriend. Today, I’ll reveal all the doubts and evidence about this incident to you all.]