Volume 10: Pro and Con
Chapter 20: The Tiger’s Pride
The next day, Chen Jianing went to class as usual. She had chosen to take a course on the theory, research, and practice of online self-media. The lecturer was a female Ph.D. in her early thirties who shared her surname. Chen Jianing sat down in the back row and felt thousands of gazes shooting at her like needles. But when she looked left and right, she found that everyone was busy with their own affairs. The illusion of being pointed at by a thousand fingers disappeared without a trace.
Chen Jianing felt as if she were sitting on pins and needles. The message from her phone last night kept replaying in her mind. It was perfectly normal for Liang Xiaoqi to have taken a picture of Lu Li and An Baili holding hands. They were a couple to begin with. She, Chen Jianing, was the third party.
For the past half month, she had let that rumor spread within the school, like a child playing with fire, so captivated by the blazing light that she had subconsciously ignored the spreading flames. She should have known that as the rumor grew more and more intense, it would inevitably trigger some uncontrollable backlash.
The other woman.
These two words were incredibly piercing. No girl could remain calm after hearing them. She had the absurd thought that Liang Xiaoqi had gotten one thing wrong. She wasn’t the “other woman”; if you counted carefully, was she the fourth or the fifth? If Liang Xiaoqi knew, she would definitely be shocked. Chen Jianing laughed at herself.
She remembered last week when she had entered the classroom, she had heard some classmates talking:
“Big news! Chen Jianing is dating someone!”
“Which Chen Jianing are you talking about?”
“Isn’t there only one Chen Jianing in our school?”
“That Chen Jianing?”
“It’s that Chen Jianing!”
When she stepped into the classroom, all the discussions ceased, and fifty pairs of eyes stared at her intently, as if they were observing a giant panda. She could even guess what this group of people would say in private:
“I thought she’d never find a boyfriend…”
“I can’t believe someone can put up with her foul temper.”
“Even Chen Jianing has a boyfriend and I don’t…”
“If only she didn’t have a mouth.”
Little did they know, that period was the time Chen Jianing walked with the most swagger at school. She held her head high, and everyone she saw seemed to be envious of her and Lu Li. Working for Lu Li was actually not an easy task. If it weren’t for wanting to maintain that ambiguous distance with him, who would work themselves to death every day? Chen Jianing felt that the other girls around Lu Li must have thought the same. What a ruthless capitalist, using personal feelings to exploit a working-class person like her, and yet she couldn’t refuse.
“…’the other woman’…” The lecturer suddenly uttered a phrase that startled Chen Jianing, who was lost in her thoughts. Her small arm trembled abruptly.
“In 2010, the domestic self-media landscape was composed of seven small and three large players. The seven small refer to…” The female Ph.D. with the surname Chen spoke eloquently. Chen Jianing breathed a sigh of relief. So she wasn’t being called out.
Ever since receiving that text message from Liang Xiaoqi yesterday, she had been afraid that her lie would be exposed, that she would become a woman who knowingly became the other woman in the eyes of her classmates and teachers. She felt as if every rustle of the wind and every blade of grass were a potential enemy. She sent a question mark back to Liang Xiaoqi, but Liang Xiaoqi had already deleted her. That woman was very petty and must still be holding a grudge about the interview. She would definitely make this matter public and make her lose all face.
Chen Jianing looked at the poor-quality PowerPoint on the lecturer’s podium, her mind wandering. She didn’t want this either. She was also her parents’ darling, a proper girl with her own pride. It was already very painful to be seen as the other woman by others.
She stood up to go to the bathroom. A few classmates around her looked up at her. Chen Jianing shivered. She felt their gazes were full of contempt and disdain, as if she had already become the other woman pointed at by a thousand fingers. Not just them; she felt that everyone had an eye on the back of their head, staring at her with wide eyes.
In a relationship, there are a few words that are below the bottom line: cheating, the other woman, poaching. They signify not only a flaw in the relationship, but also a moral stain.
Chen Jianing squatted in the bathroom stall. She felt a bit disgusted with her female identity. Just to relieve herself, she had to take off her pants and shirt one by one, and then use toilet paper to clean up. She couldn’t be like a boy, who could just hold his pants, shake that carrot, and walk away. How great it would be to be a boy. You could love whomever you wanted, and even if you cheated, you would only be called a scumbag. And scumbags were often the type that most easily attracted girls. But girls couldn’t do that. If they fell in love with someone who didn’t belong to them, they would naturally be in a morally weak position, unable to be as carefree and lawless as a man.
She was afraid of her classmates pointing fingers at her, afraid of her parents being disappointed in her, and even more afraid that Lu Li would question her moral standards because of this. Squatting in the small stall in the bathroom, Chen Jianing was under indescribable psychological pressure. She was terrified of the impending storm of public opinion.
When she walked out of the bathroom, this small and exquisite girl had made a difficult decision. She decided she had to reclaim her pride. She could no longer sacrifice the dignity her parents had given her over twenty years for a bit of humble love.
At this moment, Chen Jianing felt she was radiant, and the bathroom behind her also shone brightly because of it.
…
In the afternoon, after Lu Li finished his class, he called Chen Jianing as usual. He called twice, but no one answered. Lu Li sent her another message, asking when she was going to the company. The girl replied: “After school!!!”
Three exclamation marks. He could feel the stubborn little donkey gritting her teeth.
Lu Li rubbed his forehead. Had he offended this Annoying Ghost again?
Lu Li had always believed that girls needed to be pestered and coaxed—as long as no fundamental mistakes were made. So he packed his bag, planning to go to the academic building to pick up the Annoying Ghost. Incidentally, Lu Li felt his backpack was too student-like and lacked the air of a boss. He had been pondering whether to buy a handbag, the kind that could be tucked under his arm. It would be best if a string of jingling keys also hung from his pants. And perhaps another thermos in his other hand?
Mm… my aesthetic sense is getting worse and worse… Lu Li thought. Since he was little, it had always been women who handled the matter of buying clothes for him. Before, it was Yameng, and later, it was An Baili.
When he arrived outside Chen Jianing’s classroom, Lu Li peeked his head in slightly. He saw that a class was in session. The lecturer was a rather young female teacher, who seemed to be talking about online self-media or something. Chen Jianing was absent-minded, not listening to the lecture at all, her eyes darting around. Naturally, she saw the sneaky Lu Li peeking in from outside the door.
The girl’s face instantly turned red. Why is he here? If she were seen now, wouldn’t it confirm her identity as a vixen, the other woman? She stood up to leave through the back door again, but this time she was stopped by the teacher. “That female student, are you not feeling well? I see you keep running to the bathroom.”
This time, it was for certain that dozens or even hundreds of pairs of eyes were fixed on her. Chen Jian-ing wished she could find a hole to crawl into.
Today is truly an unlucky day, she thought.
