Twilight Upon a Thousand Snow-capped Mountains - Chapter 9.2

Chapter 9 (2)

I became more and more afraid of facing Yue Ying, ever since I found out about what happened to her mother, I felt uneasy, but I didn’t have the courage to tell Yue Ying the truth, she was my best friend. I didn’t have parents, no relatives, I had even lost Xiao Shan, I had no courage to be honest to my best friend, to admit to the ugly life I lived under this vibrant exterior. If Yue Ying knew, she definitely wouldn’t skin me, but she wouldn’t care for me anymore.

In this world, I had already lost everything.

Exams were tough, the exam setter was extremely strict, perverse in the topics he set, even top students like Yue Ying complained bitterly after the exam,”I’m done for, I’m afraid I’m going to fail this.”

The school’s BBS had mentioned before that students that have never failed exams lived an incomplete life. Recently the school’s BBS was very lively, although everyone was busy with exam but He Yu Yang’s scandal had only just subsided when there was another topic on the school’s BBS,”Look at those expensive cars picking up girls from X university.”

This was even more scandalous than He Yu Yang’s matter. Since ours was a elite school with hundred years of history, it was well known throughout the city and country, the public opinion was especially rife about such matters, this was widely shared and it blew into a huge issue. The picture taken this time was very clear, I didn’t feel that way before but after reading about it, I really felt that the school was hiding dragons and crouching tigers, the person who started the topic shared ten over photos, all taken out the east and west gates of our school, all types of luxury cars could be seen, from Mercedes, Porsche to Land Rovers, it was like a luxury auto show.

Of course there was a huge commotion over the school’s BBS, because most of the cars were here to pick up ladies, the words from the mouth of those guys were naturally harsh on the ears, the ladies felt indignant, especially Yue Ying because unfortunately for her, she was captured on camera. Her dad’s chauffeur had fetched her home on the weekends, this image was taken and posted on the internet. Although they didn’t manage to capture her face and the car plate number was mosaiced, but I recognized her like I recognized myself, at a glance. Yue Ying’s photo was shared rapidly, and she was touted as the most cow-like female university student, from the extended Lincoln car her father’s driver drove to the Versace watch around Yue Ying’s wrist, as well as the Chanel holiday collection bag she was carrying, were gossip fodder for many experts in luxury items.

Lucky for her, her face was not captured, He Yu Yang specially called to comfort Yue Ying, “Just treat it as a taste of what being a public figure feels like.”

Yue Ying was very depressed but calm, “It’ll blow over in a few days.”

Thankfully none of the girls taking the same major recognized Yue Ying, recently the exams were a huge hurdle, most of them didn’t have the time to go on the BBS to gossip, much less guess who the person in the photo was.

Unexpectedly, the situation made a turn for the worse. On the day of the last exam, to relax, Yue Ying and I went to west gate for dinner, when we returned it was already dark. In the corridor, there were girls whispering, seemingly mentioning our dorm room number. As Yue Ying and I got closer, those girls stopped abruptly, awkwardly casting us glances.

Yue Ying had a premonition, saying to me in a low voice, “Don’t tell me they recognize me from the photograph?”

I was very worried for her as well, the minute we entered our room, we hurriedly got online on our notebooks, behind the topic of the most cow-like female university student on the school BBS, there was already a new “hot” topic, it was posted only two days ago but there were already many replies, I directly went to the last page, all the shares used the same picture, I stared deadly at that photo, like a fish that was out of the water, unable to breathe.

That photo was extremely clear, although it was taken far away but it was obviously a professional job, the angle was good, so good that it didn’t look as though it was secretly taken. In the photo, I was just getting off the car, the door of that black Maybach car had yet to be closed and was captured in the same frame.

As usual the car plate number was photoshopped away, but there was no disguise for my face, through these lenses, the way I looked felt so foreign that I could barely recognize myself. The picture was not taken outside the school gate, and it must have been during summer, my mind was a blank, I simply could not recall which day it was, it should be one of those times Shao Qian took me out for a meal. Because in the picture my hair was done, I was wearing a mini dress and had jewels around my neck.

If it wasn’t to accompany him out, I would not have been dressed like that, much less put on jewellery, but in the photo there was just me and half a Maybach car in the background, Mo Shao Qian was absent from the frame. I could not think of anything, when I pulled down my finger to refresh the page, all the replies were of surprise, someone even said that this was the truly mostly cow-like female university student. Someone was tsking at the jewels around my neck, others discussing the bag I carried, and some even gossiping about the brand of my mini dress, most were focused on the car behind me. The double “M” logo conspicuously present, and many kept bringing up its price.

I wanted to close this webpage with my trembling hands, after trying a few times, I could not seem to click on that little cross. Across the table Yue Ying was looking at me, there were luxury cars pointed out in the threads but I was the only one who had my face exposed. Despite her surprise, Yue Ying tried to comfort me, “Don’t be afraid, it’s not your fault that you have a rich boyfriend! In any case such photos are an invasion of your privacy, you can complain and ask for it to be removed.”

Only I knew what I was afraid of, how I wished I were an ostrich, I could bury my head in the sand and ignore everything else. Immediately Yue Ying contacted the moderator to complain and request deletion of the photo. The moderator deleted it quickly but it got even worse, another new thread appeared, the topic was, “Tong Xue is the mistress of a married man, this kind of student is really the greatest shame”.

I had never seen the ID of the thread-starter before, but the replies were a flurry. Some people said “no wonder”, some people were in disbelief, saying that they knew Tong Xue, hardworking in her studies, no different from the other people in same course. Some people began to retort, stating that those things in the pictures did not belong to college life, some exclaimed in shock that there were girls of this sort in the school…

The pages in the thread increased rapidly, I no longer had the courage to read on, I had known there would be such a day, from the beginning I had expected this. I closed my notebook, stumbling as I stood up, Yue Ying called my name but I did not hear it in my state. I did not know who would be so familiar with the relationship between Mo Shao Qian and I, much less who took those photos and posted it up on the web, exposing all I had conspired to keep hidden.

At that moment everything fell apart, I thought I could live hypocritically, carefully finishing my studies at university, lying to myself and others, but that most ugly side had already been exposed. This was retribution, I knew from the start it would be like this. I had acted unethically and deserved such punishment.