She Was Lying

Bai Xin's voice wasn't loud, but the moment he spoke, everyone fell silent. It was as if someone had pressed a mute button; you could hear a pin drop. Even the few people who'd been chattering around Bai Yan turned their heads, staring at them in shock.

Holy crap, what a bombshell!

What was going on? Why was it that when Fu Haoyao said he wanted to add weekend tutoring sessions—before the person in question had even responded—it was Bai Xin who said no?

A wildfire of gossip ignited in everyone's eyes.

Even Fu Liangxia herself was taken aback. She glanced up at Bai Xin, only to see him wearing that same expression of utter indifference toward everything, as usual.

If he hadn't spoken, no one would ever connect him to the Little A they'd seen on Friday night.

They were like two entirely different people.

Mindful that the parties involved were present, the murmurs were kept low, but Fu Liangxia still caught every word.

"What's going on?"

"So intense... so now it's two F4 members fighting over one girl?"

"Damn, that girl's got some serious game! I'm legit curious now."

The chatter drifting into her ears was veering further and further off course. Sensing the fire about to reach her, Fu Liangxia quickly stepped in to smooth things over: "I'm busy on weekends. I don't have any free time for tutoring."

"Then whose invitation would you rather accept?" Fu Haoyao shot a sidelong glance at Bai Xin, his gaze carrying something Fu Liangxia couldn't quite read.

"What's so great about modeling for Bai Xin anyway? We can move it to weekdays when you don't have classes. He doesn't really listen in class anyway."

The implication in his words was utterly matter-of-fact, as if it would be a crime against nature for her to refuse him.

Fu Liangxia froze for a moment, unable to follow his logic.

On closer inspection, it didn't hold up at all, but strung together, it somehow sounded bizarrely reasonable.

Fu Haoyao truly had a knack for saying nonsense with a straight face, wearing that arrogant, domineering expression of his. Probably trained since childhood by his older brother, his ability to twist arguments was formidable.

Just as Fu Liangxia seemed to waver slightly, Bai Xin furrowed his brow and gripped the armrest of the sofa. "Fu the Second, cut it out."

Fu Haoyao shot him a look, irritation flickering across his face. "Who's messing around? Am I wrong? You don't attend class anyway."

Bai Xin stared at him. "But that's between me and Fu Liangxia."

Well, wasn't that a neat little "between him and Fu Liangxia," making it sound like Fu Haoyao was the one being left out.

Fu Haoyao locked eyes with Bai Xin for two seconds, then let out a cold laugh. "You've said all that, but you never asked the person involved, have you? What if she actually prefers it my way?"

The two stared each other down in silence. Just as the tension grew weird enough that even Bai Yan beside them felt compelled to mediate, Bai Xin suddenly smiled.

There was something inexplicably sinister about that smile, and a flicker of dissonance struck Fu Liangxia. It wasn't the kind of smile that belonged on Bai Xin's face—it was more like... Little A.

Her eyelids twitched involuntarily as she felt him cast a heavy, meaningful gaze her way before turning back to Fu Haoyao. "Then what standing do you have to speak? As her tutoring student?"

The aggression was uncharacteristically sharp for Bai Xin.

Fu Liangxia noticed that it wasn't just her—even Fu Haoyao and quite a few people around them had picked up on something off.

"So what if I am?" Fu Haoyao's expression stiffened for a moment before he shot back. "That's still better than being a painter who only gets half the rights, isn't it?"

What Fu Haoyao actually meant was that Fu Liangxia had made an agreement with both Bai Yan and Bai Xin, with Bai Yan only getting half the time. But he had no idea that the person sitting before him wasn't the original host personality, but Little A—the one who had even less time, forced to share the body's usage rights.

Little A's expression suddenly turned strange, his gaze dark and brooding.

Fu Haoyao's words weren't wrong, strictly speaking—considering the two personalities, what Little A would get as modeling time was barely a quarter. But at that moment, he felt an instinctive pang of discomfort, as if Fu Haoyao wasn't talking about Fu Liangxia's time as a model, but something else entirely.

At once, both of them turned their gazes to Fu Liangxia. Even the surrounding students wore expressions of eager anticipation, all waiting to see what brilliant answer she'd come up with.

Bai Kewei quietly tightened her grip on Fu Liangxia's arm.

"The painting time can be moved to weekdays," she said. "There are some classes I can skip too."

Fu Haoyao grinned, once, then again.

But before he could fully savor it, the girl continued, "Though that still depends on Bai Xin and Bai Yan's schedules, since they're the employers. As for tutoring—even if I'm not modeling on weekends, I have other things to do."

Her gaze met Bai Xin's, and in the depths of his eyes, there seemed to lurk a whirlpool, trying to pull her in.

Fu Haoyao scoffed.

Just then, the commotion near the entrance grew louder, as if someone was heading toward the activity room. A few seconds later, a group of students wearing Student Council badges pushed through the door, with Cheng Xingzhou—the one hosting today's panel—walking in the middle.

His gaze swept across Fu Haoyao and the others one by one, pausing briefly on Fu Liangxia before shifting away as if nothing had happened.

"Since everyone's here, let's begin."

Cheng Xingzhou walked straight to the center seat and sat down. The Student Council organization members with him mostly took seats on either side, while two others went to one corner to start adjusting the equipment for the livestream.

Next came the distribution of the lie-detector wristbands to the selected participants.

Of course, the panel wasn't a free-for-all. Before each session, the Student Council would collect questions from students about their current troubles or burning curiosities, screen them, and pick out suitable ones for the participants to discuss.

During these discussions, participants were free to ask questions as long as they didn't go off-topic.

Fu Liangxia believed the organizers' intentions were good—probably a way to ensure specially admitted students had a channel to speak up if they were bullied. But they clearly hadn't anticipated just how bored these wealthy scions could get. They couldn't come up with a single question that aligned with mainstream values; the gossip questions, on the other hand, were stranger and more explosive than the last.

From "What's the most expensive thing you've bought?" to "What's the most rebellious thing you've done?" and "Family engagement or running off with your lover?"—the further it went, the more absurd the questions got, even reaching the twisted extreme of "What would you do if you fell for the same person as your best friend?"

Fu Liangxia thought that if she got asked one of these questions, it wouldn't be so much answering for the questioner's benefit as dissecting herself in public. It was instinctively uncomfortable.

But seeing that no one around her seemed to think anything was wrong, she decided to go with the flow and reluctantly accept the strange rules.

Each round's responder was determined by a wheel in the middle, and whoever it landed on had to answer the question drawn on the screen, with others allowed to ask follow-up questions. After a maximum of three questions, it moved to the next round.

In practice, unless it was one of the F4 or a truly explosive topic, almost no one asked anything.

With that thought, Fu Liangxia couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Then, as her gaze swept past Cheng Xingzhou, she suddenly realized his seat was different from the other Student Council members—it seemed he was also one of the possible targets of the wheel.

So Cheng Xingzhou had been selected to participate as well?

But that had nothing to do with her. More than the participants, she was worried about whether she'd draw a question that was hard to answer.

It was probably Murphy's Law. In the first round, the wheel landed on Fu Liangxia, and the question lit up on the screen: "What would you do if your first love found a new girlfriend?"

Okay, that was a relatively safe question.

She breathed a sigh of relief. "I've never had a first love."

At that, Bai Xin turned his head to glance at her, while Bai Yan, seated diagonally across, revealed a thoughtful smile.

Fu Haoyao's eyes lit up, and the low pressure that had been lingering around him seemed to vanish in an instant.

Only Cheng Xingzhou, seated in the center, stared at her expressionlessly for a few seconds before suddenly speaking. "People you've had feelings for count too."

Everyone was baffled, shocked that the president had suddenly spoken up.

What was going on here? These two?

Someone she'd had feelings for—that would be him.

Fu Liangxia had no idea what he meant by that question, but since she was face-to-face with him, she played along, lowering her gaze with a hint of melancholy. "I'd probably be upset."

When Cheng Xingzhou saw the girl lower her eyelids and say those words, something struck his chest like a hammer, caving in a little. The corners of his mouth curved up slightly in tandem with the softening of his heart.

But the very next second, the lie-detector wristband let out a shrill beeping.

She was lying.

Cheng Xingzhou's smile dropped instantly, his face colder than before.

"Ah, seems I'm more open-minded than I thought."

Caught in a lie, Fu Liangxia showed not a shred of guilt. She smiled at the camera, her gaze seemingly piercing through the screen to reach the questioner. "There are plenty of men in the world; you'll always find someone you like more. A first love is just the person who happened to appear when you were first learning to like someone. Strip away the filter you put on them, and they're nothing."

"If they found a new girlfriend, then you find two." She casually held up two fingers.

"..."

Cheng Xingzhou felt he shouldn't have opened his mouth in the first place. She'd always known how to get under his skin.

So that was what she'd done? After confirming he didn't like her, she just went ahead and found two?

The mere thought of that possibility sent a wave of inexplicable anger surging through him.

"Allow me to remind you, dating two people at once is against morality," he said in a low voice.

But Fu Liangxia gave him a baffled look. "It's just a metaphor. You're taking it too seriously, President."

Cheng Xingzhou was at a loss for words—so now it was his fault.

And someone, seemingly eager to add to the chaos, laughed with a dreamy expression. "But it's also possible to date two at once and have it be fine, you know. If they're twins, no one can tell the difference anyway."

Bai Yan blinked.

"Bai Yan." Cheng Xingzhou shot him a glance. "Don't spread such negative energy in public."

The topic was steered back on track by the stern-faced president, and the following questions passed without incident, so calm they were almost boring—until—

The wheel's pointer stopped in front of Cheng Xingzhou, and only then did everyone suddenly realize the president was also among those selected.

"I've been arranged into an engagement by my family, but I already have someone I love and who loves me back. What should I do?" Bai Yan read the words on the screen with deliberate slowness.

Cheng Xingzhou glanced at him. "I'm not blind; I can read."

Bai Yan grinned. "I was just making sure everyone else could see, wasn't I?"

"So what's the president's advice?"

The young man in the center had his top button fastened all the way up, his expression dignified. His gaze swept almost imperceptibly toward a corner before he said coolly, "Fulfill your duty, of course. Since you've enjoyed the benefits of your family, you must fulfill your obligations. As for the one you love... well, to borrow Fu Liangxia's words, there are plenty more where they came from."

No sound came from his wristband, indicating he was telling the truth.

Bai Xin suddenly lifted his eyelids. "And what about you?"

That earned him a light, dismissive glance from Cheng Xingzhou. "I'm the same, of course."

The student who had asked the question, thrilled that the president had answered him, clapped a hand over his mouth, thinking that the president really was on another level—so much more insightful than the rest of them. He was just about to go break up with his secret girlfriend when two shrill beeps rang out from the livestream feed, in perfect sync.