"As for my graduation project, I now have specific ideas and I roughly understand the problems that the teacher mentioned."
Fang Zi smiled and asked, "What about the bad ones?"
"It's the attacks on me from the dorm," Xiang Lan tilted her head. "Although many angels are helping me, and the student council president stood up for me, the harassment continues. If the dorm's landline were plugged in, it would be bombarded with calls. Everyone stares at me when I walk down the street—"
"You've become the center of attention."
Yes, but not in the way I want.
What is it that you want?
"My uncle is having an art exhibition in July or August, and I hope that my work can be selected by him and seen by more people." Xiang Lan was a little shy. Although she has always been outgoing, she still has a passion and hope for her profession.
Do you need my help?
"No need, we're almost at the point of finding the person spreading the rumors." Xiang Lan didn't want Fang Zi to get involved in these things at all. Right now, he was bathed in sunlight on the screen, with fair skin, slender limbs, and a kind of innocent smile on his face. His eyes were fixed on her through the screen, and he could only see her.
"You should call the police," Fang Zidu said sternly. "This is not a trivial matter, and it cannot be tolerated—"
"But I don't have that person's detailed information, so I can't provide evidence."
"I'll send it to your email later," Fang Zidu smiled. "That's easy."
Chapter 20
Xiang Lan and Fang Zidu's first video call lasted an hour and a half, until Deng Yifan returned to his dorm at 11:30 p.m., just as the lights were going out. She reluctantly said goodbye to him. If circumstances allowed, she would chat with him all night, or even sleep with the video call on; she was capable of doing such things.
The happiest thing in the world is when the person you like also likes you.
Fang Zidu quickly sent a package of documents to Xiang Lan's email. She opened it and found not only data from the school's intranet backend, but also the IP address and location of the secondary account used to log in, even specifying the internet cafe, computer location, and the ID card used. He clearly stated in the email that as long as they retrieved the surveillance footage from the internet cafe to prove the person using the ID card matched the real person, and the chain of evidence was complete, they could immediately file a lawsuit.
Xiang Lan thought for a moment, then forwarded the information to Li Xingda and the school's intranet administrator. Sure enough, the relevant comments on the post were immediately deleted. Li Xingda replied that the evidence was very useful, and that she would leave the task of finding the video to him; she would trust him this once.
Xiang Lan had already gotten what she wanted most, so all her troubles vanished like smoke. Every day, she went to the logistics office to draw for half a day and spent the rest of her time looking for various materials to prepare for her final graduation project.
Occasionally, she would run into Wang Runqiu and Xu Na in the office. Both of them tried to talk to her, but she was too busy to listen to their rambling. She would just give them a perfunctory greeting and that was it. Her behavior was so cold that Wang Runqiu swallowed all the things she wanted to say, but Xu Na still came over a few more times to gossip, mostly about the pain between a few people.
But what does all this have to do with her? She already has her own beauty, or so she thinks.
When facing ordinary acquaintances, Xiang Lan is a woman of few words, but when facing Fang Zidu, she becomes a chatterbox, wishing she could give him everything she has.
"My uncle is ten years older than my brother, and my brother is ten years older than me. So when I was growing up to be a naughty person, my brother was troubled by love and wouldn't play with me at all. What could we do? My parents were busy making money at that time, and my uncle was wandering around. My mother couldn't stand it, so she forced me to go to him and let him take care of me. That's when I realized how big the outside world is."
"You're eight or nine years old, and your uncle is almost thirty. How are you going to play?"
"Hehe—" Xiang Lan laughed at Fang Zi in the video, "He travels everywhere. At first, he wanted to teach me to draw, but I'm the kind of person who can't sit still. He couldn't stand me being taught the basics, and he's busy and can't watch me every day. So, he took me with him on business trips, to competitions, to sketching trips, haha, and sometimes even when he's picking up girls. When we're in China, we usually go to antique markets, look at grotto sculptures, see big Buddha statues, go to scenic spots, and he helps me find fun things. He found me a pair of these, and I'm absolutely smitten—"
Xiang Lan took out a small box from her trunk and opened it to show him. Inside lay a round monster, not much thicker than a pair of fingers, with a dark base color but its body surface was interspersed with gold and silver.
Guess what this is?
"A tiger? Or something else?" Fang Zi examined it carefully, but couldn't tell the difference.
"Haha, I thought it was a little tiger at the time. We went to the secondhand antique market, and it was hot. I got tired and didn't want to move, so I squatted in front of a small stall and refused to leave. He made a lot of demands, like buying me ice cream and watermelon, but I didn't agree to any of them. I deliberately wanted to make things difficult for him, so I just pointed to this thing on the stall and insisted that he buy it for me."
“He doesn’t buy things casually. There was no other way but to let others go first and he stayed to look at it. This thing was dirty at the time, with spots and patches of verdigris on it. I didn’t like it at all; I just thought it looked like a tiger. But he actually bought it and threw it to me, telling me to carry it with me the whole way.”
"What should I do? I don't like it, but I can't throw it away, otherwise I'll be so embarrassed. I'll just bring this trouble upon myself and carry it all the way back."
"It's beautiful now." Fang Zidu looked at the little mythical beast, its expression content, its surface gleaming, with a natural patina, and a sense of antiquity formed by the passage of time.
“My uncle did it. I brought them home, and he just took them away without saying a word. I was furious. I went through all that trouble to bring them back, only to have him do all that work for free? Of course I wasn’t going to do it. I kept pestering him to give them back, even when he tried to weigh down the drawing paper, I wouldn’t give them back. In the end, he took me to a small studio.”
"Will he fix it for you?"
Xiang Lan nodded, "Yes, he saw it and thought it might be genuine, but it was damaged too badly. All the inlays had fallen off, so it was just sitting there and had no value. Coincidentally, he was very interested in this thing and wanted to try to revitalize this useless old object himself."
"That studio was full of weird stuff, all sorts of things that I think should have been thrown in the trash, but they were all on the shelves, and you couldn't see any beauty in them. My uncle was very respectful to the old man there, always giving him cigarettes, alcohol, and running errands. While he was fawning over him, I would squat to the side and watch the half-finished products. My uncle has a thick skin; if he wants to, there's nothing he can't persuade. So, in the end, the old man gave in and actually taught him how to make those things."
“He did it himself, and he shamelessly used me as a child laborer, making me hand him tools and run errands, saying it was a gift for my tenth birthday and that I would definitely like it. At the time, I was very dismissive, thinking, ‘This ugly thing, I don’t want it.’ But after about half a year, he actually finished it himself.”
Xiang Lan took the little mythical beast out of the box, brought it close to the camera, and showed it its golden appearance to him. "This was made by my uncle and me. It's a bronze amulet inlaid with gold and silver. Isn't it beautiful?"
"Not only is it exquisite, but it also has a lot of charm."
"When he placed these two little guys in front of me, I couldn't take my eyes off them. I just couldn't understand how they went from being ugly to being so beautiful. Moreover, the little workshop was really small and messy, and the old man looked like an old man playing chess by the roadside. To me, it was the most mysterious thing ever."
"So, you're only now starting to get really interested in this industry?"
“I think this is my uncle’s evil scheme. He shows me beauty to seduce me and then leads me astray. When I took the art exam, he said some sarcastic things, saying that I was sure I wouldn’t pass. Now that I’m graduating, he’s starting to cause trouble again.”
"Your uncle is quite interesting! Xiang Lan, do you know what's most important when doing things?"
"beautiful--"
Fang Zi was speechless at her obsession with good looks. After a long while, he said, "It's an abundance of curiosity and imagination."
"oh--"
"I'm going to find something to show you. Wait for me a moment."
"OK."
Xiang Lan happily lay on the table, playing with the little talisman while waiting for him.
She heard a knock on the door through the video. Looking up, she heard a woman's voice say, "Zidu, are you there? I'm coming in—"
Xiang Lan immediately sat up straight and straightened her clothes; the voice sounded somewhat familiar.
The door was pushed open, and a woman with long black hair dressed in pajamas walked in. Seeing that no one was in the room, she asked in surprise, "There were voices just now, why is no one here?" She glanced around and saw Xiang Lan on the computer screen, and her expression showed surprise.
"Hello!" Xiang Lan smiled, her little motor activated, this must be Lin Li.
"Hello," the woman said hesitantly, "Who are you?"
"I am Xiang Lan, Zidu's girlfriend."
"Girlfriend?" The woman's face showed even more shock. After a long while, she said, "You must be mistaken. Zidu could never have a girlfriend."
Xiang Lan narrowed her eyes, her red lips slightly parted, "Why?"
The woman thought for a moment, then left the room. A moment later, Xiang Lan's video went black. She cursed inwardly and waited patiently for a while. Fang Zidu sent an apologetic text message: "Xiang Lan, I wanted to show you the flowers I'm growing, but the power suddenly went out."
"It's okay, we'll look at the same thing next time." He casually sent a kiss.
Xiang Lan forced down her anger, shut down her computer, and wondered if she had been too proactive all along, which was why Fang Zi didn't care at all. What if she stopped contacting him? Would he miss her?
As it turned out, reality disappointed Xiang Lan.
The next morning, she received another text message from Fang Zidu. Following the power outage, the internet was also experiencing problems. He was quite busy lately and might reduce contact time. Furious, she threw her phone away again. She was certain that woman was behind it all, feeling as if she had encountered a formidable adversary.
She packed her bag and went to the logistics office to finish the last bit of work on the display board. When she arrived, Wang Runqiu was already waiting there. She stood on the display board, looking closely at her nearly completed painting, her expression hard to decipher.
She tossed aside her schoolbag, sat cross-legged in front of the painting, looked up, and asked, "How is it?"
Unable to say anything against his conscience, Wang Runqiu replied, "Very good, beyond my expectations."
"Right?" Xiang Lan reached for the jar and paintbrush. "This is already beyond my usual level."
"You've been doing well lately?"
Seeing that she was lost in thought, Xiang Lan said, "Someone gave me some very good advice."
Wang Runqiu was even more heartbroken and whispered, "Is it the president?"
“It wasn’t him, he doesn’t know anything about painting.” Xiang Lan took a step back to examine her half-finished work. “What have you been doing here these past few days? Don’t you have classes?”
She lowered her head. "He doesn't want to bother you; he doesn't let you know anything."
"What?" Xiang Lan blinked. Lately, she had been so preoccupied with her own beauty that she couldn't spare any energy to care about anyone else.
“You really don’t know anything.” Wang Runqiu sighed. “In order to catch the person who leaked the information, he and Deng Yifan questioned all of us several times, especially me and Xu Na. Xu Na was almost brought to tears by him. In the end, he even went to an internet cafe to find a surveillance video and insisted that we watch it to see if any of our acquaintances appeared in it.”
“He’s actually quite kind-hearted; he wants to solve this problem himself.” Xiang Lan tilted her head. “I can call the police directly because we’ve already found out which ID card that alternate account used to access the internet.”
“It’s almost graduation time, and it’s never good to have a criminal record like this left behind.” Xiang Lan tried to soften the tone. “We’re all classmates, and everyone knows who did it. Just apologize to me and issue a statement to eliminate the negative impact. Let’s not let it escalate to the point where we can’t graduate because of something so trivial.”
"You think it was done by someone you know?" Wang Runqiu asked, puzzled.
“Of course,” Xiang Lan affirmed. “I don’t have many friends at school, and even fewer people know me. Who would be so idle as to keep an eye on me every day? I even suspected I was implicated by the student council president, which is why he went to such lengths without pressuring me. You see, I’m not even upset—”
Looking at her smiling face, Wang Runqiu couldn't understand how there could be such a big difference between people. "You have such a big heart. Xu Na couldn't eat or sleep well because of this, her endocrine system was out of balance, and she broke out in a lot of pimples."
Xiang Lan's body stiffened for a moment. "Hormonal imbalance?"
"yes!"
Xiang Lan thought about it. Her period was half a month late, which was probably due to hormonal imbalance. She should take some time to go to the hospital to get it checked out.
Author's Note: The story will be available for purchase tomorrow (VIP chapters). There will be three chapters released on the first day of VIP chapters. After that, please subscribe to the first chapter to hopefully boost the readership and secure a good position on the best-selling page. Thank you everyone!
Chapter 21
Xiang Lan registered at the hospital. She was greeted by a smiling middle-aged female doctor. After explaining her situation, the doctor briefly took her pulse and examined her mouth and tongue before ordering a series of tests. Xiang Lan carefully reviewed each test result, and was a little confused when she saw the words "HCG".
"Teacher, what is HCG?" She actually knew, but wanted to double-check to see if the teacher had made a mistake.
The teacher glanced at her and said, "It's for an early pregnancy test."
She swallowed hard and said earnestly, "Teacher, I'm still a virgin."
The teacher, clearly someone who had seen it all, remained calm and smiled, saying, "Go and check it out."
Xiang Lan walked heavily, had her blood and urine drawn, and received the report after waiting for half an hour.
The doctor glanced at the report and said, "You're pregnant."
"How could that be?" she blurted out instinctively, then quickly stopped herself.
The doctor seemed to be trying to suppress a laugh, but ultimately saved her face and didn't laugh out loud.
She walked out of the hospital with a dejected look on her face, sat on a stone bench by the roadside, and stared blankly at the white clouds floating in the sky.
How did I get pregnant? It clearly didn't work out—
Xiang Lan sat on the stone bench for two whole hours, her mind a complete mess, unable to think of anything. One moment she was thinking about what to do with her graduation project, the next she was thinking that Xiang Yuan would definitely skin her alive, and then she was thinking that Fang Zi would definitely be scared away by her monster-like constitution. But, with such good genes, it seemed like a real pity that her father didn't want this child.
Good heavens, what on earth is she thinking?