Dating Myself - Chapter 20

Boom!

Rain poured down, and the loud sound was so overwhelming that it was as if the windows weren’t even closed. The classroom was silent. No one was talking. Everyone was craning their necks to look at Jian Yixi’s desk. Those who couldn’t see were standing on their desks or chairs.

To ensure fairness, An Mu asked Jian Yihu’s best friend to inspect Jian Yixi’s phone while she inspected Jian Yihu’s. Qin Yige eagerly moved closer, held his phone sideways, and zoomed in on both phones. He adjusted the focus so both were clearly visible.

An Mu told them to unlock the phones at the same time. Jian Yihu’s best friend was about to touch the screen, but An Mu stopped her. An Mu looked at Jian Yihu and said loudly, “The two of you, please go wait at the front of the classroom.”

Jian Yihu froze. “Why? We’re supposed to prove our innocence. How can we do that if we’re not here?”

An Mu said calmly, “You need to leave so we can do this properly. If you have nothing to hide, you won’t be scared no matter how long you’re gone. If you do…” An Mu paused, a slight smile on her lips, her eyes cold. “What? Are you… scared?”

Jian Yihu’s face changed. She forced a smile. “What do I have to be scared of? I’m just worried that you’ll go through my phone, it’s my private property, and I…”

Before she could finish, An Mu pushed Jian Yixi. Jian Yixi got the hint and started pushing her sister toward the front of the classroom. Jian Yihu panicked. “What are you doing? Don’t push me!”

“Sister, we’ll only be at the front for a little while. Everyone’s watching. No one can fabricate any evidence.”

Jian Yihu wanted to yell at them not to look at her messages, but she was afraid that would be too suspicious. She told herself that they would only be looking at her browser history. An Mu wouldn’t have enough time to find anything.

Once the sisters were gone, An Mu looked at Qin Yige. Her smile widened, but it made him feel a sense of dread. “What are you doing? Why are you looking at me? Hurry up and start!”

An Mu said, “You’re Jian Yihu’s friend. To prevent you from cutting the live stream if we find evidence, please hand your phone to someone else.”

Qin Yige scoffed and handed it to a boy in the special class. “Give it to someone in Jian Yixi’s class. Are you happy now?”

An Mu looked at the boy. She remembered him. He wasn’t one of the students who had bullied her in her last life, and he wasn’t a fan of Jian Yihu. He was trustworthy. But she still kicked Xie Maomao.

Maomao looked at An Mu, confused, and was immediately spooked by her cold stare. She quickly turned on her phone’s camera and started recording.

The rain was still pouring. The classroom’s air felt thick. Everyone held their breath and stared at the phones on the desk. Qin Yige said impatiently, “Why are you still standing there? Get on with it!”

An Mu moved her hand and said, “Start.” The phones were placed side by side. The books that had been in the way were now on Xie Maomao’s desk. The only things on the desk were the two phones.

Jian Yihu’s best friend immediately opened the browser and went to the school forum. An Mu calmly opened Jian Yihu’s QQ app, tapped on her profile, went to settings, then account management. A long list of QQ accounts appeared on the screen.

“Wow! So many!”

The best friend had already found the school forum and was about to log in. Huh? Why isn’t Jian Yihu’s account showing up? There was an account saved, but it wasn’t Jian Yihu’s. The best friend looked at the front of the classroom, but she couldn’t see Jian Yihu through the crowd.

That means she didn’t clear the browsing history. The best friend kept scrolling. She found the history, which went back to the day before school started. She scrolled down and saw that the forum had only been visited in the last two days. The night of the incident, the history showed that Jian Yixi had been looking at news about different universities. In other words, Jian Yixi had only visited the forum the day after the incident.

This is awkward.

On An Mu’s side, she opened one of the accounts and found two fan groups pinned to the top. One was called “Lake Through the Earth’s Core,” and the other was called “Teacup Central.” “Teacups” was a reference to how “Yihu” sounded like the word for “teapot” in Chinese.

An Mu opened the “Teacup Central” group and searched for the keyword “secretly took a picture.” The search results came up immediately.

The students in the back couldn’t see, but the ones in the front were shocked. They looked at each other, their faces screaming “Holy cow!” Jian Yihu had secretly encouraged her fans to take pictures of her own sister. This was unbelievable!

An Mu slowly scrolled through the chat history, making sure the live stream and Maomao’s camera captured everything. Qin Yige watched, his eyes wide in disbelief. He was so stunned that he forgot to stop her.

Jian Yihu hadn’t heard anything. She wanted to go back and check. Jian Yixi blocked her way. “Sister, wait a little longer. If they had found anything, they would have said something. Don’t worry.”

How can I not worry? I’m sweating bullets! Jian Yihu asked, “Wang Lijuan, are you done?”

Wang Lijuan had been scrolling through Jian Yixi’s phone but hadn’t found anything. Her attention had been drawn to An Mu’s side. Oh… my god! She was shocked. Their friendship was only based on Jian Yihu’s popularity. There was no way it could withstand a test like this. She said instinctively, “Not yet.”

Jian Yihu felt relieved. She thought her friend was just being careful to get a clear shot for the live stream. She looked at the clock. It was 9:56. She watched the seconds tick by.

An Mu showed everyone that all of Jian Yihu’s accounts had these two groups. Only her main account didn’t have the hater groups.

An Mu then opened the browser on Jian Yihu’s phone. The history only went back to yesterday. Everything else had been cleared. This seemed to prove that Jian Yihu hadn’t logged in to the forum that night, but it also made her look suspicious.

Jian Yihu couldn’t take it anymore. Two minutes had passed! Two whole minutes! Why wasn’t she done? All she had to do was look at a website. Was that so hard?!

Suddenly, the lights went out. This time, it wasn’t a prank. The power had gone out. The whole building was dark, and students were screaming. The wind and rain howled outside, and the windows rattled. While the other classes were in a panic, the students in this class were calm. They continued to stare at the phones, their shadows dancing on the walls.

The students closest to Jian Yihu looked especially creepy. Their faces, lit by the phone screens, had a ghostly glow, and their smiles were eerie. Jian Yihu’s heart sank. She pushed Jian Yixi away and ran toward the desk.

She fought her way through the crowd. An Mu had already opened Jian Yihu’s WeChat and was scrolling through her messages with Qin Yige. The students held their breath, not wanting to miss any of the drama.

[Huxinting]: I just got off the phone with you, and I already miss you… /kiss

[Erin]: I’ll take you out to eat tomorrow to thank you!

[Huxinting]: You don’t have to. I’ll take you out. If you really want to thank me, give me a kiss! /grinning face

[Erin]: /red lips

[Huxinting]: Not that kind of kiss. A real one.

[Huxinting]: Are you mad?

[Erin]: No, I just went to the bathroom. No problem. Two kisses are fine. Consider it an advance. /red lips /red lips

[Huxinting]: I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight… /crying

[Erin]: Me neither. I’m afraid something will go wrong.

[Huxinting]: Don’t worry. I’ll handle it. I’m a great actress. Trust me!

[Erin]: I’m just worried that An Mu will ruin everything.

[Huxinting]: Don’t worry. I’ll go live and force your sister to open her phone.

[Huxinting]: You’re sure there’s a record on your sister’s phone, right?

[Erin]: Yes. Unless she clears her browsing history, there will definitely be a record.

[Huxinting]: It’s okay. If she clears it, it’ll make her look even more suspicious.

An Mu didn’t have time to scroll any further. Qin Yige slammed the desk, went crazy, and tried to grab the phone. Jian Yihu also pushed her way to the desk. The student who was live-streaming panicked and backed away, afraid the phone would break and he’d have to pay for it.

The classroom was still dark. Only a few phones with flashlights were on, and the flashes of lightning were blinding. The chaos in the classroom, combined with the chaos in the other classrooms, made it a complete mess. People were yelling, “You stepped on my foot,” “Don’t push me,” and “Stop crowding me.”

An Mu didn’t fight Qin Yige for the phone. Sometimes, not getting a full story is better. The audience’s imagination is more powerful than reality.

Jian Yixi also pushed her way into the crowd. Before she could ask what was going on, Qin Yige grabbed Jian Yihu’s wrist. “You were the one who had someone take those pictures of your sister?!”

Jian Yihu froze. She was already sweating from pushing her way through the crowd. She snatched her phone back. “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The students who had been watching in silence started talking loudly. “I can’t believe she did it. She had someone take pictures of her own sister. That’s so messed up!”

“We don’t need any more proof. She’s the one who logged into the account. When she couldn’t clear her name, she blamed her sister.”

“I think so too.”

“But it’s still weird. Was Jian Yihu stupid? Why would she incriminate herself? Her sister’s phone didn’t have any records.”

“Exactly.”

“But she’s definitely a fake. The way she acted with Qin Yige was so real. She deserves an Oscar!”

“Two kisses as an advance? Holy cow! I had a crush on her!”

“You had a crush on her? Ha ha ha!”

“Don’t we all have a past we regret?”

Laughter, yelling, thunder, Qin Yige’s accusations… The mix of sounds made Jian Yihu’s head spin. She felt like she was going to faint. She didn’t understand how everything had gone wrong. It was supposed to be a success. Jian Yixi was supposed to be exposed, and she was supposed to be cleared. How did it all turn into this?

And why wasn’t her account on the phone?

Her eyes widened. She pushed Qin Yige away and grabbed Jian Yixi’s arm. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you?! You set me up! You tricked me into going live! You wanted to see me fail! You’re just jealous of me! How could you do this?! I went through so much to find you, and this is how you repay me?! You little brat! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”

Jian Yihu was so angry that she went insane. She tried to hit Jian Yixi. Jian Yixi was too close and didn’t have time to react. She was slapped. It didn’t hurt much, but the sound was loud. Everyone was stunned.

Is a girl’s rage really this intense?

Jian Yixi was shocked. She had been through a lot in her life, but she had never been hit by her adoptive parents.

An Mu frowned and kicked the table leg. The edge of the table hit Jian Yihu in the stomach. Jian Yihu screamed in pain and let go of Jian Yixi. She stumbled back into Qin Yige’s arms.

Qin Yige was shocked. He wanted to take her somewhere quiet to ask her what was going on, but Jian Yihu pushed him away and held her stomach.

He was so shocked that he stumbled back and bumped into a student. “What are you doing?!” he yelled. This made Jian Yihu explode. She started hitting him in the chest. She wasn’t strong, but she was crazy. Qin Yige coughed.

“You’re crazy! What are you doing?!”

“I’m crazy?! What are you?! How dare you call me that?! Get lost!”

Jian Yihu had lost her mind. She knew her reputation was ruined. She had been spoiled her whole life. She couldn’t handle this. She was filled with hatred and couldn’t control her emotions.

A flash of lightning lit up her face, which was now a twisted mask of rage. She looked terrifying. She was no longer the “most beautiful sister.”

Jian Yihu couldn’t accept this. She had to take someone down with her! She pointed at Jian Yixi and screamed, “You’re all being fooled by this little brat! She did this! She set me up! I saw the record on her phone!”

Jian Yihu might have been a bad person, but no one could say for sure that her sister was innocent. Maybe both of them were to blame.

“Heh…” A low laugh attracted everyone’s attention. An Mu had her arm around Jian Yixi’s shoulder. Her long hair was tied in a messy bun, with a few strands framing her face. Her eyes were deep and dark, and her lips were a seductive red. She looked calm.

She pulled out a phone that looked exactly like Jian Yixi’s, tapped it, and a video started playing. The video was split into two screens. One was a front-facing camera, and the other was a screen recording.

“Let me see what she did to it.”

“She didn’t do anything!”

The front-facing camera showed a close-up of Jian Yihu’s face. She was sitting in the car, and the screen recording showed her opening the school forum and typing in her account and password. You could see the numbers reflected on the car window. She had no idea that her phone was recording the screen and the front-facing camera.

The video also showed the part where Jian Yixi wanted to ride a bike to school. The classroom was silent. No one expected a family with so much money to be so obsessed with appearances. They were ridiculous.

Jian Yihu stared at the phone. Her mind was blank. How can there be two phones that look exactly the same?! This was all planned. An Mu had switched the phones. She was completely set up!

“You… you two brats!” She lunged at them, trying to fight them.

An Mu threw a few books at her face, grabbed her arm, and pinned her to the desk. Bang! Crash! Desks and chairs fell over, and books were scattered on the floor.

Jian Yihu thrashed and screamed, but the sound of the thunder drowned her out. Even if it didn’t, no one would have heard her. The whole building was in a panic. Jian Yihu’s face was pressed against the desk, and her neck was twisted. This made her calm down a bit. She stopped struggling and started crying. “What did I do to you?! Why are you framing me?!”

“Framing you?” An Mu scoffed. “Did I force you to log into the forum on Jian Yixi’s phone? Did I force you to have your sister’s picture taken?”

Jian Yihu cried, “Why did you team up with my sister to ruin me?!” Even now, she was still trying to blame Jian Yixi.

An Mu’s smile was soft, but it was as if it was laced with poison. “What does this have to do with your sister? Why don’t you think about… Qi Liran?”

Qi Liran?!

Jian Yihu’s face went from pale to white. An Mu looked at Jian Yixi, who was still in shock. The slap mark on her face was red and still visible in the phone’s light. An Mu looked away.

My sixteen-year-old self can’t even handle a single fight.

An Mu’s face hardened. “Jian Yixi, come here.” Jian Yixi didn’t know what she wanted. She gathered herself and went to her. An Mu looked at Jian Yihu, who was still on the table. “Slap her.”

“Oh… Huh?!” Jian Yixi’s eyes widened.