Chapter 101: Trapped in One’s Own Web

The girl was not someone to be easily bullied. She frowned and retorted sharply at Shi Xuetong, “Shi Xuetong, what’s wrong with you?”

“How am I supposed to know why you didn’t come? I was just being nice and asking, yet you snap at me—who spoiled you like this?”

She had only asked Shi Xuetong out of courtesy, since they were classmates after all. Who would have thought she’d get yelled at in return?

Anyone would be upset in her position.

What’s more, this girl was straightforward by nature, used to speaking her mind and never one to back down or endure injustice over such things.

As the gazes of the entire class instantly turned toward her, Shi Xuetong felt a pang of humiliation. Huo Shuyue and Gu Ci had surely spread word of what happened to her. By now, everyone in class must know what she had done and the embarrassment she’d suffered on the basketball court that day.

Wasn’t this girl’s question just meant to make her look bad in front of everyone?

With that thought, Shi Xuetong’s eyes grew even redder. She glared furiously at the girl and the rest of the class, ready to throw caution to the wind.

“What’s wrong with me? Aren’t you all the ones trying to drive me into a corner?”

“I want to ask you instead—since you already know why I was absent yesterday, why did you insist on asking? Wasn’t it just to watch me make a fool of myself?”

Her gaze turned venomous as she looked at Gu Ci. “Gu Ci, it was you, wasn’t it?”

“Or was it you, Huo Shuyue?”

She was shaking with anger, looking at Huo Shuyue as though she had been betrayed.

But the girl just stared at Shi Xuetong in confusion, not understanding what she was talking about. She turned to the other classmates and asked bluntly, “Does anyone know what happened with her?”

Most of the classmates looked just as baffled, turning to Gu Ci and Huo Shuyue for answers.

So what did this have to do with the big shots in class?

After the basketball game that day, they had congratulated Xiao Yang and his team and left right away. They hadn’t stayed to see what happened next.

They had no idea about any incident that occurred afterward.

At school, neither Xiao Yang’s team nor Huo Shuyue or Gu Ci had mentioned the event to anyone. In reality, only a handful of them even knew what had happened to Shi Xuetong.

“How could you still pretend? Is it necessary?” Shi Xuetong still refused to believe that Gu Ci and Huo Shuyue would pass up such a golden chance to ruin her reputation at school.

One of the classmates grew impatient. “If you have something to say, just spit it out. We’re not mind readers—how would we know what you did wrong?”

Then, this classmate called out loudly into the classroom, “Does anyone know what’s up with Shi Xuetong? She’s acting crazy first thing in the morning.”

Huo Shuyue simply watched coldly, saying nothing. She neither spoke up for Shi Xuetong nor revealed anything about Sunday’s events.

The look of betrayal on Shi Xuetong’s face seemed certain that Huo Shuyue had already told everyone about what happened that weekend...

So, in Shi Xuetong’s eyes, she, Huo Shuyue, was always just this base and despicable sort of person?

Huo Shuyue couldn’t help but feel a fleeting sense of disillusionment.

Gu Ci, on the other hand, appeared even less inclined to say anything.

It was Xiao Yang’s friend who finally lost patience. “So, Shi Xuetong, you really think Gu Ci and Shuyue told everyone about what happened?”

Shi Xuetong let out a cold laugh and shot back, “Didn’t they?”

She simply couldn’t understand it. Why would they do it, then pretend like it wasn’t them?

Xiao Yang’s friend actually laughed in disbelief. “Gu Ci and Huo Shuyue haven’t said a word. But since you’re so eager for everyone to know, I’ll oblige you!”

Hearing this, and seeing the confused looks from the other classmates, Shi Xuetong felt a sudden, ominous premonition.

Still, she clung to her conviction that Gu Ci and Huo Shuyue must have spread her story around the school, so she just stiffened her neck and sneered at Xiao Yang’s friend.

Seeing her attitude, Xiao Yang’s friend lost all patience and bluntly recounted how Shi Xuetong had colluded with Cao Yue to harm Xiao Yang.

However, being young, he didn’t go so far as to destroy her completely; he left out the parts about Shi Xuetong’s feelings for Xiao Yang and her ultimately being taken away for investigation.

He couldn’t help but add a word in defense of Huo Shuyue, “To think Shuyue specifically asked us not to tell the class about this. Yet this is what you think of her? All her kindness to you these past two years was wasted!”

“Shi Xuetong, is it true? You not only exposed Brother Xiao’s whereabouts, but even drugged him and his friends, letting Cao Yue beat them up?”

At those words, everyone instinctively glanced at Xiao Yang’s leg, which was still not fully healed.

Although on Sunday Xiao Yang had seemed fine, even dominating Cao Yue and his gang by the end, looking at him now, it was clear he had paid some price for standing up that day.

If, for argument’s sake, Xiao Yang hadn’t managed to get up that day, he would have lost the bet with Cao Yue.

Given how Cao Yue had always been at odds with Xiao Yang, everyone could easily imagine what would have happened to him.

“Tell me, Shi Xuetong, did Xiao Yang ever do anything to you? Was it worth it to harm him like that?”

“And you’re blaming Shuyue and Sister Ci? They never said a thing to us, you know?”

“Shuyue was always good to you, even covering for you when trouble came, and yet the first thing you thought was…”

As the voices around her rose, and the classmates’ gazes shifted—some shocked, some filled with contempt and anger—Shi Xuetong’s face grew ashen.

Her body began to tremble, her mind buzzing until it was blank.

So…

So Huo Shuyue and Gu Ci really hadn’t told anyone at school what had happened over the weekend…

It was actually she herself who had brought it up, causing everyone to find out?

Which meant, if she hadn’t brought it up today,

The classmates would still be in the dark, and she could have continued to go to school as usual, waiting for time to erase it all…

Seeing the mixture of shock, disdain, and anger in her classmates’ eyes, Shi Xuetong’s legs gave out.

She stumbled back, finally collapsing into her seat, then sprang up as if terrified, her face deathly pale as she fled from the classroom.