A stone stirred a thousand waves.

The forum exploded instantly.

【What? Wait, what did we see before? Did we get tricked?】

【Are you really Xue Zhihan's middle school classmates? How do we know you’re telling the truth!】

The self-proclaimed classmate of Xue Zhihan was baffled.

【What 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.】

Because he had chatted about it in the class group, many of his middle school classmates came to support his statement.

【I remember that too. I didn’t help that girl back then, so I feel guilty, but I’m sure she’s not the Xue Zhihan you’re talking about… wait, who is Xue Zhihan?】

【I know, I just saw it. The Xue Zhihan they’re 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?】

【Does this need proof? Everyone in our class should be able to verify what I’m saying. Or why don’t you check our school’s forum? This incident was quite big back then. One girl transferred, two were expelled, there should still be discussions from ten years ago, right?】

The curious viewers quickly found their middle school’s 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: “!”

This must mean they’re guilty, right?

There were so many reversal incidents online nowadays, and many curious viewers were hesitant to believe anything anymore, adopting a “cry wolf” attitude.

But this time, first, it wasn’t 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.

【So Xue Zhihan used someone else’s story to gain sympathy?】

【Does she have a heart? That victim was already so miserable, isn’t this like eating her blood buns?】

【Will we find out that she was one of the bullies too? After all, someone mentioned that she was close to that group.】

Xue Zhihan’s 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.

【Just eat the gossip, don’t spread rumors about things without evidence, okay?】

【Please, it wasn’t Xue Zhihan herself who said it, maybe that person just got the wrong person.】

【It’s not Xue Zhihan’s fault that we got tricked, why are you blaming her?】

Unexpectedly, they were scolded back by the curious viewers.

【Then what about Xue Zhihan’s response?】

That’s right, Xue Zhihan even imitated Jiang Ye’s way of gaining sympathy, choosing to respond with a recorded video.

But unlike Jiang Ye’s 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, “The past is the past. I’m doing well now, please don’t worry about me.”

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.

【Forgot? Let me help you remember, listen to what your sister said?】

The fans still insisted on being stubborn.

【… Although, maybe it wasn’t about school bullying?】

【Didn’t you all just guess? You guessed and then blamed Xue Zhihan, poor girl.】

【Please, how can Xue Zhihan’s 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?】

Both sides were arguing heatedly.

The situation escalated.

Because the fans refused to believe it, they labeled those who claimed to be Xue Zhihan’s middle school classmates as malicious black fans or bullies who refused to apologize for the incident.

Of course, Xue Zhihan’s 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.

【It’s 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.】

【I’ve never forgotten that experience. I still dream about it, even now. So, I won’t forgive anyone, the bullies and the bystanders, every one of you is a perpetrator.】

【You 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 won’t forget the things you said to me.】

【I’m doing well now, and I ask that others don’t disturb my life anymore. Thank you.】

The victim posted the long post and went offline.

Leaving the curious viewers dumbfounded.

【？？？What’s going on?】

【Ah, I don’t know what to say, I just wish this girl can overcome her trauma and be happy in the future.】

【This confirms that Xue Zhihan is copying someone else’s experience to gain sympathy.】

【Wait, no one is curious about what she meant by ‘the things you said’? She used the word ‘you’, it must be specific, right?】

Later, someone claiming to be the victim’s friend said that her friend didn’t want to mention those traumatic experiences anymore, but she had heard about it.

Xue Zhihan wasn’t the direct perpetrator.

With her personality, she probably wouldn’t have done things like throwing someone’s books or putting chalk dust in their water cup.

She just told the girl, “I sympathize with what you’ve been through, but I can’t do anything about it. You’re too dazzling.”

“They’re doing this because they can’t stand you being so outstanding. If you don’t do that, they won’t bully you anymore.”

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 didn’t stop.

And Xue Zhihan never intervened.

She always watched silently, and then continued to play happily with the bullies.

It wasn’t 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 wasn’t until her later friend told her that there was no causal relationship between being outstanding and being bullied.

You didn’t do anything wrong to them, they did wrong to you.

•••

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 wasn’t 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 didn’t expect the internet to be so interconnected.

And she didn’t expect that her fans’ 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 didn’t dare to show their faces, afraid of being scolded, “Are you a fan of the school bully?”.

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 didn’t 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 couldn’t 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 didn’t 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 Ye’s 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 couldn’t 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.