197: Pa Yipa

For a while, ‘white lotus’ was very popular in Beijing University. This is not praise but a derogatory mockery. During this time, the gossip section also had such posts. The difference was that the person who was picked up was not an inspiring school flower, but a person who liked to pretend to be a helpless girl, but in fact, had a dark heart.

Before they knew the true face of the girl, many people called her a white lotus flower. After the incident, ‘white lotus flower’ became a derogatory term, referring to a girl with a weak appearance and a black heart.

If the words ‘school flower’ were not mentioned in this post, at most, everyone would gossip a bit and see which girl was exposed again. However, it was not the same when it came to school flowers. School flowers in Beijing University were equivalent to the public figures in the entertainment circle; everyone paid attention to their every move. So, when they saw that it was related to the two school flowers, everyone’s gossiping heart was ignited and they excitedly clicked into it.

The content was astounding. Tang Xin's image and reputation at Beijing University was very good. The members of the student union relied on the votes of the students, so she could be seen to be popular. In addition, while serving as the Minister of Discipline, her performance had always been remarkable, with few serious mistakes. Some boys liked her and some girls admired her.

How could such a good student and good department leader be exposed? Many people couldn’t believe it.

According to the landlord [T/N: original poster], she was right there and witnessed the whole process of how school flower Tang turned out to be a white lotus. She described the process vividly without any personal grievances. Some people reading it immediately believed her, but many people rebuked the landlord.

After all, Tang Xin was a school flower. She also had her own fan group at Beijing University, and they did not believe that Tang Xin was this kind of person, strongly reprimanding the landlord for starting rumors. Someone turned up the landlord's information and said that this person turned out to be a member of the student union, and had published posts of influential Beijing University figures several times in the gossip section. However, the contents of all the posts she posted had a certain degree of authenticity.

The landlord's ID was Pa Yipa [T/N: Means 'take a look'], and she was very tolerant. She disappeared for two days after posting, and let everyone scour the post from bottom to top. Only when the post spiked did she then slowly come out to reply to those people questioning her authenticity.

Take a look: The landlord has a video recorded on the spot. Do the disbelieving students want me to post it? The landlord didn't post the video before, because she didn't want to make school flower Tang too embarrassed. Since they insisted, the landlord would post it. However, the landlord stated in advance that if this destroyed the image of school flower Tang in their mind, they should please make their own regret medicine.

Would school flower Tang’s fans give up their stance just because of this passage?

Of course not, they firmly believed that this was a deliberate attempt to build momentum. So, there were many under the post insisting that she put up a video. The main idea was that if I do n’t believe you, the real gold is not afraid of fire. Unfortunately, in this case, it needed to be real gold to work.

[T/N: ‘real gold is not afraid of fire’ = a strong-willed person can withstand any test. In this case, they think they are innocent, and how can they be proven guilty if innocent?]

The result needn’t be said.

The incident of Tang Xin being exposed had not yet spread to Wang Ziyu’s ears. The brother and sister flew back to Shanhai City. Papa and Mama Wang were very happy when they learned that they were coming back; it had been a long time since the family had stayed together.

Mama Wang deliberately got up early and went out to buy a lot of ingredients to bring home, ready to cook them a sumptuous dinner in the evening. Papa Wang drove to the airport to pick them up when they arrived, otherwise they would have to suffer a bumpy bus ride for a couple of hours.

"Finally home." As soon as he entered the door, Wang Cheng dropped his luggage. He had come back a bit ago, but he felt like it had been a long time.

The happiest was Wang Ziyu. The air in the capital was incomparable to the air in her hometown, because the quality difference was too much. "I still feel more comfortable at home, I don't want to go back to school."

Wang Cheng smirked and said in her ear: "Then don't go."

"Second brother, you are too bad." Wang Ziyu snorted. She was just being emotional, why did he have to tear down her stage.

Seeing the brother and sister talking and smiling as before, with no new hint of grievances at all, Papa Wang was relieved. He knew that his son had already confessed to his youngest daughter, and was a little worried that his younger daughter could not accept it.

Mama Wang came out of the kitchen. "Wait before you converse. The meal is almost ready, so clean up."

The father and son immediately took their places, and Papa Wang went to the kitchen to help with the dishes. During the meal, Papa Wang clamped a rib for his son and daughter. He looked at Wang Ziyu's rounded face, and couldn't say that he felt she was "too thin". He thought that his daughter was so far away in a strange place, and the food in this place might not be very good. Before they came back, he thought of countless words, but none of them were useful.

After eating, Wang Ziyu mixed the dishes with the rice leftovers and served them to the fragrant pig. Mama Wang was so busy all day with her daughter and son’s return that she had forgotten the pig.

Wang Cheng texted Chu Yifeng when he returned to his room and then unpacked his luggage. He used to not bring much clothes, but now he had more and more clothes. He didn’t only need to bring two or three sets of clothes when he went on a trip like before. There were a lot of other things he brought back, such as specialty products, etc. Before they were sorted out, Chu Yifeng called.

"Tell you good news."

"What good news?" Wang Cheng stood up and closed the door of his room.

What happened this morning was exposed on the Beijing University Forum.

"What's the matter?" Wang Cheng asked surprisedly.

Chu Yifeng smiled, "Maybe somebody couldn't stand that woman's actions." Different on the surface than behind their backs, such a woman could easily attract criticism.

"Very well. At this time, many students have just returned home or haven't returned home. What can you do to get that post to the front?" Wang Cheng was willing to help his sister strangle the dangerous person in the cradle. Since Tang Xin already set up Wang Ziyu twice, if they just let her go so easily, she would definitely play some tricks in the future.

"Just hire a water army."

[T/N: water army = hired commenters on posts, such as social media, meant to guide public opinion.]

Although it was a water army, it should not be too obvious. Otherwise, it would make everyone sympathize with Tang Xin. So, the navy was not only aimed against Tang Xin. There were also water armies who were helping speak good of Tang Xin. The water army hired by Chu Yifeng was of high quality. They were unlike those on the internet which were all the same and superficial. His water army was different, and their words often hit the nail on the head. Wang Cheng didn't tell Wang Ziyu this.

In the evening, the family sat in the living room and watched TV. Wang Cheng went upstairs and took down the things he brought from the Imperial Capital. He had given specialties to Mama Wang before, but she asked him not to buy these things. Now she saw him bring a few things once more and she thought that he was spending money again.

"Dad, this is the wine that someone gave me on my birthday. I heard that it is a limited edition. Haven’t you been obsessed with grape wine? I specifically brought this bottle of wine to you..." Wang Cheng caught a glimpse of Mama Wang’s disapproving expression and added: "To collect."

Wang Ziyu snickered, covering her mouth.

Papa Wang didn't mind his last words when he got the wine. He took a look at the wine that read 1982 and immediately became excited. He felt the bottle and couldn’t put it down. "Good."

He was not a kind of addicted person, but he also liked to collect good wine.

Wang Cheng took out a box as big as two palms. It contained two delicate jade bracelets. He said to Mama Wang, "Mom, this is also a gift from the guests. I don’t need it, so I brought it back so that you and my sister each have one."

"No, this is too expensive. You should leave it to your mother [T/N: other mother]. Your mom is a rough person and can’t wear such an expensive thing." Mama Wang shook her head. The bracelet looked to be of the highest quality. Although she didn’t know jade well, she could see that the value was not low.

Wang Cheng had guessed early on that Mama Wang would refuse. "What is precious does not matter. I am your son, and you are my mother. What is wrong with a son giving the best things to his mother? Besides, mother is not a rough person. When you were young, you were still the flower of the Guan’s Village "

"You also that was when I was young. Now Mom is a yellow-faced woman." Mama Wang said this, but she smiled.

[T/N: yellow-faced woman = kind of an old housewife who has grown less beautiful.]

Papa Wang confessed immediately, "Lanfang, in my heart, you have always been the most beautiful. You are definitely not a yellow-faced woman, and even if you are, you are the most beautiful yellow-faced woman."

Mama Wang blushed and glared at him, "What are you saying, aren’t you ashamed to be saying that as an adult?”

"Mom, since it was given to you by my second brother, please accept it. How good it is to have one each, others will know that we are mother and daughter at a glance." Wang Ziyu knew that her second brother must have thought about it before deciding to give them the bracelets. It was not necessary to refuse her second brother's kindness.

Wang Cheng persisted. "If you don't accept it, Mom, I don't know who to give it to. My mother and sister already have a necklace. I can only sell these bracelets."

The price of buying and selling the bracelet would not be completely different, even if it was a good deal. Mama Wang finally compromised. The mother and daughter wore one each. Both had pale skin by nature, so it beautifully complemented their wrists. She couldn’t put it down, and often wore it when she went out. The envious villagers knew that it was her son who gave it to her.

The next day, Papa Wang went to the jam shop, and Mama Wang and Wang Ziyu went out together, taking the fragrant pig to the chicken shed.

Wang Cheng ate the breakfast left by Mama Wang, returned to his room and moved his laptop to the living room. Then he logged into the Beijing University Forum and saw the gossip section at a glance.

Chu Yifeng did not disappoint him. The post he mentioned had been hung on the top of the gossip section, and had been pinned by the administrator. The water army disappeared after a flash of light last night. Most of the remaining ones were Beijing University students, the amount of attention they paid was considerable.

Someone put up another post, saying that as an insider, they wanted to pick on some things about Tang Xin.

Tang Xin's superficial hard work at Beijing University was very successful, but it was impossible for her to get everything done right. There would always be some people who didn’t like her. Now that someone exposed her, these people ran out. Of course, there were also some people who targeted Wang Ziyu, saying that she was hypocritical, but none of these posts caused many waves, everyone's attention was still on the other post. In just one night, the post floor had been covered to the fifth or sixth floor.

Wang Cheng's roughtly found that the direction of public opinion was currently more favorable to Xiao Yu, and he had a feeling that this was only the first wave, there should be more heavy news later.

Most of the students who went home learned of the news relatively late, but the students who had not left at Beijing University already knew about this, including Tang Xin herself. As the news broke, her previous black history was exposed one by one. Her lungs almost exploded in anger.

She instigated anonymous people to quarrel with other people in the forum, but she still couldn't beat those people. Some things were not groundless. If there were no signs, why would anyone expose her? However, there was quite a turning point, and it wasn’t known if it was Tang Xin herself or her friend, but when Tang Xin's reputation was about to sink, someone put up a post to blacken Wang Ziyu.

Tang Xin was positioned as the victim on the post, and Wang Ziyu was the aggressive, unscrupulous wicked woman, alluding to the fact that Wang Ziyu instigated her blackening. The brainless fans immediately scolded Wang Ziyu, saying that she was the real white lotus, that she was too clever.

Pa Yipa was a senior ID in the forum. The school sister was said to be going to take her postgraduate entrance examination. She had no communication with Wang Ziyu. It was also a coincidence that she would appear on the scene. She had a cousin who was a freshman and lived in Wang Ziyu’s dormitory building.

After closing the webpage, Wang Cheng put away his computer. It was no longer necessary for him to show up at this stage. In the afternoon, he went to the north mountain for a lazy stroll. Papa Wang managed the medicine in the north mountain very well, and he could harvest it again in a while. At that time, they could plant more effective medicinal materials. When he passed by the door of his uncle's house as he was returning home, he unexpectedly saw a few figures he didn’t expect to be home. In the afternoon, Papa Wang closed the shop and returned early. After returning, Mama Wang and Wang Ziyu went to the small jam factory in the village, so there was only Wang Cheng in the family.

Wang Cheng found that Papa Wang didn't smile as much as usual, his face seeming a little heavy. He found it unexpected in his heart, as his dad rarely had troubles; he was a very optimistic person by nature. If something happened, it must not be ordinary.

***

Back    ToC    Next