The girl's face shape and nose were almost identical to Zeng Keqin's, except for the spark in her eyes.
Zeng Keqin felt a chill crawl up her back and onto her scalp.
Just then, Jiang Shiyu's deep voice broke the silence. "Is it possible she got plastic surgery?"
Zeng Keqin paused, then looked at the girl's face again.
Indeed, it screamed artificial enhancements.
Without further hesitation, they rushed over.
"Wang Xiaotong!"
Wang Xiaotong instinctively turned when she heard her name, and found three girls standing before her.
"Who... who are you?"
Her voice carried a hint of nervousness.
Liu Ying stood up and walked over to Zeng Keqin. "They're my friends. I brought them along to help me decide on the shoot."
Wang Xiaotong's eyes swept over their faces, finally landing on Zeng Keqin, who looked increasingly familiar.
"And this is?"
Zeng Keqin directly removed her mask. "Don't recognize me?"
Wang Xiaotong's pupils suddenly contracted.
That face—she knew it all too well.
"Or should I call you Wang Xiaotong, or Qi Yu?"
Wang Xiaotong's face instantly turned pale, her lips trembling. "I... I don't know what you're talking about. If you're not serious about booking a shoot, forget it. I'll refund your deposit."
"You don't need to refund the deposit."
Zeng Keqin stepped forward, blocking her way. "We're here today to talk to you."
Wang Xiaotong stepped back, bumping into a chair and stumbling.
Zeng Keqin calmly took out her phone and scrolled through the photos and screenshots of transaction records, showing them one by one. "These are evidence that you stole my photos for fraud. The phone number bound to this account is yours, the name on the pickup record is yours, and Alipay's real-name authentication is yours. Do you want me to read each one out loud to you?"
Wang Xiaotong's face grew paler, but she still stubbornly denied it. "I don't know what you're talking about. If you keep blocking my way, I'll call the police!"
"I'll do it for you."
Jiang Shiyu slowly emerged from the shadows, hands in his pockets, looking down at her. His phone already showed the dial screen for 110.
Wang Xiaotong's eyes widened. Tears welled up, and her voice rose sharply. "What do you want? Bullying me all by yourselves?"
Passersby in the bubble tea shop, unaware of the truth, pulled out their phones and pointed at them.
"It's not the old days; you can't just bully someone."
"Looks like they're students from J University? Let's record this and expose them online!"
...
Wang Xiaotong's lips curled slightly. She wanted to use public pressure to scare them off.
Unfortunately, she miscalculated.
Zeng Keqin, instead, calmly looked at the crowd. "Please bear witness for us and record the whole thing. My name is Zeng Keqin, a third-year law student at J University. This girl is Wang Xiaotong. She stole my..."
Wang Xiaotong's last line of defense crumbled.
"Enough!"
She suddenly shrieked, cutting off Zeng Keqin. She covered her face with both hands. "I'll talk."
Seeing that there was no drama, the crowd gradually dispersed.
Wang Xiaotong collapsed into a chair, her head drooping. Her voice sounded like it was squeezed from her throat. "I've been ugly since I was a kid. The boys in my class called me 'Piggy.' When I told my parents, they just said, 'Just focus on your studies. Who cares what others say?' So I studied hard, got into a good university, thinking a change of environment would help. But even then, the advisor still chose the prettiest student. It turned out that no matter how hard I tried, I was still overlooked because of my looks and figure."
Wang Chunyue opened her mouth to comfort her, but Liu Ying held her back.
"Then I got hooked on the internet. Online, no one knew what I looked like. I had a nice voice and was good at taking photos, so I slowly gained followers. They said I had a beautiful voice and must be pretty... I never denied it, because the feeling of being adored was too good! Unexpectedly, someone dug up my real photos. All those people who had been fawning over me disappeared overnight. One even messaged me privately, cursing at me, saying things like 'Looking like that, how dare you pretend to be a goddess.'"
She bit her lip, her nails digging deep into her palms.
"From that day on, I understood the rules of this world: if you're pretty, people worship you. If you're ugly, even breathing is wrong."
Wang Xiaotong looked up, gazing at Zeng Keqin's face with envy, tracing from her forehead to her chin.
"I envy you so much. You have such a stunning face, but you never socialize, just bury yourself in the library all day. Since that's the case, you might as well lend it to me..."
Zeng Keqin frowned, avoiding her intense gaze. "So you stole my photos?"
"At first, I just used your photo as my avatar, enjoying the feeling of being called pretty. Then people started adding me, ordering me bubble tea and takeout, saying they liked me. I was a bit scared at first, but gradually I got lost in it. Later, I used your photos to have online romances. Those people were very generous, almost always giving me what I wanted."
She raised her unnaturally delicate face, revealing a mocking smile. "You know what? Because of your face, even those who knew they were being scammed went willingly. So I used that money for plastic surgery—double eyelids, nose job, liposuction... The process was excruciatingly painful, but every time I saw myself become a little prettier, I felt it was worth it. Finally, I could be accepted by the world."
Silence filled the air.
Zeng Keqin suddenly spoke. "You're wrong."
Wang Xiaotong looked up at her.