Lu Yu stopped in his tracks. "I asked Yan Zhuxi, and she said she doesn't have a boyfriend."
Zhao Yihang froze for a second before stammering, "That's—that's just because she's shy! She didn't admit it, but she is my girlfriend. We even kissed yesterday!"
Lu Yu frowned. "I don't think Yan Zhuxi would lie. Of course, I'll confirm this with her again."
Lu Yu turned to leave, but Zhao Yihang blocked his way. "Confirm what? I already told you she's my girlfriend! Do you have any sense of boundaries at all? You even gave her a gift just now. Lu Yu, are you trying to steal her from me?"
Lu Yu gave him a baffling look and swallowed the explanation about the gift. "Zhao Yihang, don't you think you're being ridiculous? Since you insist on dragging this out, I can call Yan Zhuxi right now and ask her if she has anything to do with you."
Zhao Yihang choked on his words. A few seconds later, he muttered, "I can't be bothered to explain it to you. Just stay away from Yan Zhuxi from now on."
Lu Yu didn't take the matter to heart. However, two days later, as he was walking out of a general lecture, he saw Zhao Yihang dragging Yan Zhuxi toward a corner. Yan Zhuxi looked visibly distressed, constantly trying to pull her arm free.
After a moment of thought, Lu Yu walked over.
"Do you need help?" he asked, looking at Yan Zhuxi.
Before Yan Zhuxi could speak, Zhao Yihang glared at him fiercely. "This is between the two of us! Mind your own business!"
Yan Zhuxi continued to struggle. "Zhao Yihang, let me go!"
Seeing that Yan Zhuxi's arm was turning red from the grip, Lu Yu reached out and clamped his hand down on Zhao Yihang's wrist. "Use your words, not your hands."
Now it was Zhao Yihang's turn to struggle, but he was no match for Lu Yu's strength. After wrestling in vain for a while, he panted heavily and suddenly laughed. "Fine, I'll stop bothering her. Let go."
Only then did Lu Yu release his grip.
To everyone's surprise, the next day, vicious rumors began spreading around the school. People were saying that Yan Zhuxi had been incredibly promiscuous in high school, dated countless boyfriends, and even had an abortion.
As soon as Lu Yu heard this, he immediately investigated. He quickly discovered that the source of the rumors was a series of comments left on Hua University's freshman promotional video.
Lu Yu had Zhou Zheng look into it, and sure enough, the culprit was Zhao Yihang.
Lu Yu informed Yan Zhuxi about his findings. "What do you plan to do? My advice is to sue him directly for defamation."
Instead, Yan Zhuxi asked, "Aren't you curious why he's doing this?"
Lu Yu shook his head. "No matter the reason, what he's doing is illegal."
"But I want to tell you," Yan Zhuxi said. "Are you willing to listen?"
Lu Yu nodded. "Alright."
Yan Zhuxi curled her fingers nervously. After a long pause, she began, "We went to the same high school. He liked me and confessed his feelings, but I didn't like him back, so I rejected him. Who knew that on his way home, he'd get into a car accident and injure his lower body. His family blamed me for the accident, claiming that he only went to that place and took that route because he wanted to confess to me. So, his family tried to force me to promise to marry him in the future. Naturally, I refused, and they retaliated by spreading rumors about my family. Eventually, my mom and I were forced into a corner and had to leave our hometown. I never expected that I still wouldn't be able to escape him here."
Lu Yu listened with a furrowed brow. "You don't need to hide. What you need is to take up legal weapons to defend your rights."
Yan Zhuxi shook her head. "It's no use. It's not like my mom and I haven't tried hiring a lawyer before."
"That just means the lawyer you found wasn't tough enough," Lu Yu replied. "Here's what we'll do: leave this matter to me."
The Lu Group possessed a top-tier legal team; handling a situation like this would be a piece of cake.
Lu Yu immediately contacted Zhou Zheng and told him to bring the lawyers over.
Two days later, Zhao Yihang posted a public apology video on social media and subsequently took a leave of absence from school.
Following this incident, Lu Yu's true identity was exposed. A new wave of rumors suddenly swept through the school, claiming that Lu Yu had acted out of righteous fury for the woman he loved, and that he had been secretly harboring feelings for Yan Zhuxi all along.
Upon hearing this, Yan Zhuxi immediately tried to clarify, explaining that Lu Yu only helped her because they were former high school classmates and that he didn't like her in that way.
However, the rumors refused to die down.
Yan Zhuxi was incredibly frustrated. "Lu Yu, why don't you register an account and make a statement saying you don't like me?"
Lu Yu didn't seem to care. "The more you try to clarify these things, the more people like to gossip about them. Just give it time, and the rumors will naturally die out on their own."
Yan Zhuxi thought that made sense. "Then next time you see me, don't say hi. I won't greet you either. That way, everyone will definitely realize that you don't actually like me."
As she spoke, Yan Zhuxi caught sight of a few students from her department walking in their direction out of the corner of her eye.
She immediately took a few steps back and hid behind a corner. "Let's leave it at that for now, Lu Yu. Thank you so much for helping me. I'll treat you to a meal when I have time. I'm going to head off first!"
After that, Lu Yu noticed that Yan Zhuxi really did start avoiding him.
They had five or six large lectures together every week. One day, Lu Yu was running late. Just as he reached the classroom, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Yan Zhuxi.
He smiled and was about to say hello, only to see Yan Zhuxi turn on her heel and walk right back out.
Lu Yu was completely baffled.
The next second, his phone chimed with a notification. Lu Yu took it out and saw a WeChat message from Yan Zhuxi: "I'm in the classroom next door. If the professor calls attendance later, let me know."
Lu Yu replied:
[You're not planning to come in for class?]
[Yan Zhuxi: We have to keep our distance! Just now when we showed up at the same time, everyone looked over!]
Lu Yu looked up, only then realizing that everyone in the room was indeed staring in his direction.
He had no choice but to reply to Yan Zhuxi with a simple "Okay."
From then on, whenever they had a shared lecture, Yan Zhuxi would message him on WeChat in advance to tell him what time she was heading to the classroom, asking him to stagger his arrival. Furthermore, they sat miles apart from each other during class.
A week later, a new rumor surfaced at the school:
The campus heartthrob and the campus belle's relationship had shattered, and they were now acting like total strangers!
Oh, the campus heartthrob and belle were, of course, Lu Yu and Yan Zhuxi.
Yet even after this rumor spread, Yan Zhuxi continued to avoid him.
Lu Yu tried to endure it, but eventually, he couldn't hold back and sent Yan Zhuxi a WeChat message.
[The rumors about us are gone. You don't have to be so cautious when going to lectures anymore.]
[Yan Zhuxi: We still need to be careful, and besides, I'm used to it now.]
Lu Yu stared at the message, his brow furrowing unconsciously.
After class that day, Lu Yu went to the dining hall with his roommate.
As soon as they walked in, he saw Yan Zhuxi carrying a tray and walking in their direction.
Lu Yu was about to greet her when he saw her suddenly turn away and sit down at a table not far from them.
His roommate suddenly nudged him with an elbow. "Did you hear?"
Lu Yu asked, "Hear what?"
Roommate: "Yan Zhuxi is dating the heartthrob from the law school. Look, it's the guy sitting across from her. I gotta say, they actually look pretty good together. What do you think?"
Lu Yu took another look ahead. He didn't know what the two of them were talking about, but Yan Zhuxi's eyes were curved into happy crescents as she smiled.
His roommate nudged him again. "What do you think?"
Lu Yu glanced at him expressionlessly. "I find you incredibly tedious."
