A stone stirred a thousand waves.
The forum exploded instantly.
ãWhat? Wait, what did we see before? Did we get tricked?ã
ãAre you really Xue Zhihan's middle school classmates? How do we know youâre telling the truth!ã
The self-proclaimed classmate of Xue Zhihan was baffled.
ãWhat needs proving? There was bullying in our class. That girl transferred in during the second year of middle school. Because she was pretty and her grades were good, she was ostracized by a small group in the class. But she transferred out in the third year, and the ringleader of the bullying was expelled by the school.ã
Because he had chatted about it in the class group, many of his middle school classmates came to support his statement.
ãI remember that too. I didnât help that girl back then, so I feel guilty, but Iâm sure sheâs not the Xue Zhihan youâre talking about⦠wait, who is Xue Zhihan?ã
ãI know, I just saw it. The Xue Zhihan theyâre talking about is Xue Fang from our class, but she always went to middle school with us, she never transferred. And she was pretty close to the other students in the class, how could she be the one who was bullied?ã
ãDoes this need proof? Everyone in our class should be able to verify what Iâm saying. Or why donât you check our schoolâs forum? This incident was quite big back then. One girl transferred, two were expelled, there should still be discussions from ten years ago, right?ã
The curious viewers quickly found their middle schoolâs forum.
Sure enough, there were discussions about the bullying incident, the details were almost the same as what the person who exposed Xue Zhihan had said, but the girl who was bullied was not Xue Zhihan.
The curious viewers suddenly felt like they had been tricked.
They went back to check the original post exposing Xue Zhihan.
The poster had deleted their account.
Curious viewers: â!â
This must mean theyâre guilty, right?
There were so many reversal incidents online nowadays, and many curious viewers were hesitant to believe anything anymore, adopting a âcry wolfâ attitude.
But this time, first, it wasnât the person themselves who posted, and second, it was a hot topic like school bullying, so the curious viewers still chose to believe it, and out of a sense of solidarity and a desire to fight against school bullying, they extended a helping hand to Xue Zhihan.
But they found out they had helped the wrong person.
The deceived curious viewers were furious.
ãSo Xue Zhihan used someone elseâs story to gain sympathy?ã
ãDoes she have a heart? That victim was already so miserable, isnât this like eating her blood buns?ã
ãWill we find out that she was one of the bullies too? After all, someone mentioned that she was close to that group.ã
Xue Zhihanâs fans were also dumbfounded.
They had dug into this to defend their idol, but they never imagined that the story their idol gave them was a complete lie.
But with the sunk cost fallacy, they were unwilling to admit it immediately.
ãJust eat the gossip, donât spread rumors about things without evidence, okay?ã
ãPlease, it wasnât Xue Zhihan herself who said it, maybe that person just got the wrong person.ã
ãItâs not Xue Zhihanâs fault that we got tricked, why are you blaming her?ã
Unexpectedly, they were scolded back by the curious viewers.
ãThen what about Xue Zhihanâs response?ã
Thatâs right, Xue Zhihan even imitated Jiang Yeâs way of gaining sympathy, choosing to respond with a recorded video.
But unlike Jiang Yeâs response video, which was a special bonus voted for by fans, this one was specially arranged for Xue Zhihan by the company and the program team.
In the video, her eyes were red, but she still smiled and said, âThe past is the past. Iâm doing well now, please donât worry about me.â
It was this video that made everyone believe she was the victim, and they voted for her out of sympathy.
But now, looking back, it was chilling.
The curious viewers dug up the video and slapped the fans in the face.
ãForgot? Let me help you remember, listen to what your sister said?ã
The fans still insisted on being stubborn.
ã⦠Although, maybe it wasnât about school bullying?ã
ãDidnât you all just guess? You guessed and then blamed Xue Zhihan, poor girl.ã
ãPlease, how can Xue Zhihanâs fans whitewash this? Posting this kind of video at this critical moment, what else could it be besides responding to her alleged school bullying? Do I need to find your original comments controlling the narrative?ã
Both sides were arguing heatedly.
The situation escalated.
Because the fans refused to believe it, they labeled those who claimed to be Xue Zhihanâs middle school classmates as malicious black fans or bullies who refused to apologize for the incident.
Of course, Xue Zhihanâs middle school classmates were angry.
To prove their words, they went through a lot of trouble and actually found the original victim.
The victim thought for a moment and used a forum account to post a long post.
ãItâs been a long time, I thought I would never bring it up. But someone decided to bring up the past, so I might as well tell my story.ã
ãIâve never forgotten that experience. I still dream about it, even now. So, I wonât forgive anyone, the bullies and the bystanders, every one of you is a perpetrator.ã
ãYou have no right to ask for my forgiveness, and you have no right to use my story to gain sympathy from the public. After all, I wonât forget the things you said to me.ã
ãIâm doing well now, and I ask that others donât disturb my life anymore. Thank you.ã
The victim posted the long post and went offline.
Leaving the curious viewers dumbfounded.
ãï¼ï¼ï¼Whatâs going on?ã
ãAh, I donât know what to say, I just wish this girl can overcome her trauma and be happy in the future.ã
ãThis confirms that Xue Zhihan is copying someone elseâs experience to gain sympathy.ã
ãWait, no one is curious about what she meant by âthe things you saidâ? She used the word âyouâ, it must be specific, right?ã
Later, someone claiming to be the victimâs friend said that her friend didnât want to mention those traumatic experiences anymore, but she had heard about it.
Xue Zhihan wasnât the direct perpetrator.
With her personality, she probably wouldnât have done things like throwing someoneâs books or putting chalk dust in their water cup.
She just told the girl, âI sympathize with what youâve been through, but I canât do anything about it. Youâre too dazzling.â
âTheyâre doing this because they canât stand you being so outstanding. If you donât do that, they wonât bully you anymore.â
She thought Xue Zhihan was trying to help her.
So, she carefully dimmed her light, learning to be more low-key and ordinary.
But the bullying didnât stop.
And Xue Zhihan never intervened.
She always watched silently, and then continued to play happily with the bullies.
It wasnât until later that she realized that Xue Zhihan said this because before she came, Xue Zhihan was the top student in the class.
She said that just to maintain her position.
She spent a year in a nightmare, and even after leaving, she was still trapped in that nightmare for a long time.
It wasnât until her later friend told her that there was no causal relationship between being outstanding and being bullied.
You didnât do anything wrong to them, they did wrong to you.
â¢â¢â¢
On the other side, Xue Zhihan, who was back in the dorm to get her phone, saw the forum blowing up and almost dropped her phone in shock.
The reason why Xue Zhihan dared to use this story to gain sympathy was that she had changed her stage name and slightly adjusted her face before joining the company.
The middle school she attended was in a remote county, and the internet wasnât very developed.
So, she naturally assumed that after entering the entertainment industry, changing her name and face, no one in that small county would remember her.
But she didnât expect the internet to be so interconnected.
And she didnât expect that her fansâ genuine love would actually harm her.
Public opinion backfired very quickly.
Xue Zhihan had only been off the forum for a few hours, and the wind had completely changed.
Even her fans didnât dare to show their faces, afraid of being scolded, âAre you a fan of the school bully?â.
Xue Zhihan could only desperately call her manager, but she got busy tones every time.
⦠The company must be in a panic right now.
Xue Zhihan sat down, flipping through the forum posts, her back sweating profusely.
She didnât dare to go back to the practice room.
During the recent C-position selection, the other three members unanimously voted for Shen Zhiyi.
When she voted, she gave Shen Zhiyi the lowest score, but not only did Shen Zhiyi not get voted out, she actually snatched the C-position that Xue Zhihan thought was hers.
Why?
Why did everything go back to the way it was?
Xue Zhihan couldnât understand.
When she first joined the company, Shen Zhiyi was more likable.
Shen Zhiyi came from a wealthy family and had been sent to learn dance for several years, so her every move exuded a gentle and elegant aura, making her seem like someone from a different world compared to Xue Zhihan.
So, she secretly imitated Shen Zhiyi, learning her gentleness, her way of interacting with people, trying to completely erase her small-town aura and transform herself into someone else.
She succeeded.
The company thought they were similar and wanted to create a twin persona for them.
Even Shen Zhiyi didnât remember what Xue Zhihan was like before and after.
Before coming to the show, Xue Zhihan noticed that one of the common characteristics of the previous C-position winners was their good interpersonal relationships.
So, she learned to build this persona for herself.
Later, she discovered Jiang Yeâs tragic background, which inspired her to have the same thoughts again.
She even felt a bit lucky.
It turned out that Jiang Ye was similar to her, neither of them had been favored by God.
But her fans still loved her, they did not dislike her because she came from an orphanage.
So why couldnât she, like Jiang Ye, stand at the top?
Who would have thought that the collapse of her empire would happen in an instant.
She desperately wanted to fly out of that county, to climb to the highest peak.
Why would everything be destroyed now?
In a daze, Xue Zhihan suddenly remembered something from the past.
It was when she was in elementary school.
There was a very popular girl in her class.
Xue Zhihan secretly envied her.
So, she would remember what she wore every day and secretly buy the same brand of clothes or shoes.
She would copy her hairstyles.
She thought that this way, she could become popular too.
All the way, Xue Zhihan carefully absorbed experiences from others to expand her own path.
It was not until she looked back that she realized.
She had never grown up since then.
She was still that third-grader who relied on imitating others to gain attention.