As soon as she said that, a series of gasps echoed through the hallway.
Xiao Yingying, who had been sitting around doing her nails, let out a cold laugh. It seemed she hadn't been mistaken last time—that night, Cheng Buxi had indeed gotten out of an Audi A8 with a Beijing A license plate.
Cheng Buxi was used to being a loner, with a cold personality and beautiful looks. It would be impossible for people not to pay attention to her private life and romantic affairs.
"Wow, that's explosive. She's always been so aloof, but in private she's this wild..."
"Today's female college students are so degenerate. Such poor morals!"
"Come on, Qu Yijiao is clearly the pot calling the kettle black. She's no saint either, right?"
...
Bystanders loved a good drama. Gao Yabin, annoyed by the noise, retorted, "Don't you know you can choose a luxury car option on DiDi?"
Qu Yijiao was momentarily speechless, but a second later she said, "What about the stuff in her hands, then?"
"I saw it with my own eyes—the old man in the car handed it to her!"
As her words fell, the dormitory building gradually regained power. Under the glaring white light, the items on Cheng Buxi's desk were instantly exposed to everyone's eyes.
"Wow, that's a bag..."
"And it's a Hermès."
"Really?"
"She really is being kept..."
Almost everyone on the floor was attracted and gathered around, whispering among themselves.
Hu Die also caught wind of the gossip and came over to listen. She immediately recognized that Cheng Buxi's bag was the same model as Xiao Yingying's. Xiao Yingying had been showing it off in the dorm all afternoon—hard to forget.
It was a clearly priced item; a quick search online would reveal it.
Hu Die immediately said, "Isn't this bag limited edition in the city? I heard there are only a few."
Xiao Yingying's expression instantly changed.
Cheng Buxi's eyelids twitched. No wonder she had never seen it before—it was a limited edition.
Despite knowing the truth, she couldn't help feeling a twinge of guilt. She sighed inwardly at how her brother bought gifts without looking at the price, buying blindly. This bag's fate would be to gather dust in a cabinet; she'd never carry it.
"People are tearing it apart online," Hu Die continued to stir the pot. "One was snagged by Nie Xiaoyan, the one who just won the Best Supporting Actress award. Rumors say it was a gift from her sugar daddy."
"Are you two... sharing the same sugar daddy? Or does he run a wholesale business?"
At these accusations, the whole hallway fell silent.
Xiao Yingying couldn't afford to lose face in such a situation. She immediately seized the moral high ground, rolling her eyes and saying, "My boyfriend is rich. Giving me a bag is nothing, just pocket change."
She slammed her phone onto the desk with a slap, shaking even the cactus on the balcony.
"As for you, Cheng Buxi, your family is ordinary, at most middle-class. How could they afford to buy you such an expensive bag? Did you hook up with a big shot? Spill it. Last time, I saw you get out of an A8—"
Qu Yijiao chimed in, "Listen, listen!"
Wave after wave of mud was slung at her, but Cheng Buxi remained like an outsider throughout, as if watching an irrelevant farce. She looked up and interrupted, "Are you done?"
"What? Is that an admission?"
"Admit to what?" she retorted. "Spreading rumors is a crime that can land you in jail. You want that?"
As she spoke, she shook her phone, a faint, helpless smile curling at the corners of her mouth. "Say it to the camera."
Xiao Yingying's expression changed instantly. She still remembered the warning from last time. By reflex, she snatched the phone from Cheng Buxi's hand.
Taking a closer look, the screen displayed next week's class schedule, not a recording or video. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Amid the gossip, there were also sensible people who knew that the crime of spreading rumors could indeed lead to jail time, something not to be taken lightly.
"Ooh, looks like someone's feeling guilty..."
"If you're jealous, just say it."
"Jealous of her? What's there to be jealous of a kept woman?"
"I think you're pretty jealous of her..."
"You!"
Just as things were about to escalate, someone shouted, "The dorm matron is coming!" and the crowd in the hallway scattered like birds and beasts.
Cheng Buxi didn't court trouble, but she wasn't afraid of it either. Raised by Lu Tingzhou since childhood, she naturally carried some of his shadow.
The Lu family was a century-old aristocratic clan, with endless visitors at their door. She had grown up seeing all kinds of people and dealing with all sorts of lowly tactics. Deep in her bones, she was imbued with an unassailable pride. Her dark, deep gaze swept over calmly, without intense emotion, but it sent a chill down one's spine.
Having been humiliated in front of so many people, Xiao Yingying looked at the new bag on her desk, recalling how her boyfriend had boasted when he gave it to her, then looked at Cheng Buxi. If it was really as the online rumors said... her heart turned cold.
She called her boyfriend, but the line was busy.
Slamming the door, she left and didn't return all night.
-
The next day, while the two of them were gone, Guan Qianru spoke mysteriously in the dorm: "That bag of Cheng Buxi's? It's real." She quickly glanced at Xiao Yingying's empty bed. "And that one? Fake."
Feng Yuan was the first to shout, "How do you know?"