Struggle Life in the 1970s

This rumor came out of nowhere and no one took it seriously at first, but people couldn't help talking about it after dinner. After all, from ancient times to the present, dirty rumors about women can easily cause people to smile ambiguously, let alone a rumor about a beautiful woman.

Chu Ye learned this from his roommate, "What should I do, Xiao Ye? They are spreading more and more outrageous things. I believe you are not that kind of person. When you clarify, take me with you. I will testify for you!"

Roommate Chen An was so anxious that she was furious. Although she had only known Chu Ye since she came to this school, the time they had spent together made her believe that Chu Ye was not the kind of person the rumors said. She knew that Chu Ye was a very good person and often gave her guidance when she had a headache preparing for class, and also helped her a lot in daily life.

It was true that Chu Ye had a partner. They all saw Mu Jiajun when they were moving the luggage. The two of them looked so handsome and beautiful standing together. If they didn't know they were a couple, they still had a desire to get to know them. Now that they knew about it, they were filled with blessings for them.

"Let's go! Let's go and clarify the rumors. Those who spread the rumors are going to get sores in their mouths!" Chen An put his hands on his hips angrily. Looking at Chu Ye's calm appearance, he became even angrier and was about to pull Chu Ye out.

"Okay, calm down. I'm not in a hurry. Why are you in a hurry?" Chu Ye was amused by her appearance and quickly patted her back to help her calm down.

"They are all saying bad things about you behind your back! How can I not be anxious? You just let them continue to talk?" She rolled her eyes, feeling a little disappointed.

Chu Ye quickly begged for mercy and pulled the person to sit down. "It's not that I'm not anxious, but it's useless to be anxious now. Think about it, if you go out to clarify now, where will you go? To the office? Or the cafeteria? Or pull people on campus and tell them not to spread rumors anymore?"

"Well, you can't just let them say whatever they want. You have to think of a solution." Chen An took what he said to heart. After she calmed down, she felt that her method was inappropriate, but she couldn't just leave it alone, right?
"I believe you and know you are not that kind of person, but others don't understand you. Even though these are rumors, you can't guarantee that someone will spread them and actually believe them." She frowned, her eyes full of worry.

Chu Ye knew these words in her heart, but she also knew that facing these rumors, running to prove herself in anger was the most foolish behavior. Even if a person had ten mouths, he could not stop other people's speculations. It was even possible that if a person ran to prove his innocence, others would think, "It's just a small matter, why do you have to mobilize so many people?" Maybe it was because there was really such a thing that made them so anxious.

"Rumors don't come out for no reason. Even if someone saw me with a guy, they would at most speculate about our relationship, but it wouldn't be so unpleasant." Chu Ye believed, "There must be someone behind the scenes who is deliberately saying this."

Chen An's eyes widened. She thought about it carefully and felt that this guess made sense. "Who would have done such a thing?"

Chu Ye actually had some vague guesses in her mind, but she was not sure. In this kind of situation, if you can't find any evidence against the other party, the other party could easily say that you were framing her, or even bite back. She had to think of a way to make the other party reveal their true colors.

"Don't be anxious. Don't make it public for now. Tell the people in the next dormitory too. You don't have to help me clarify it now. I will think of a solution these days." Chu Ye said comfortingly.

"Then you have to hurry up. This kind of thing will become more difficult to explain the longer you delay." Chen An advised.

The next day, Chu Ye found a few reliable students in the class and asked them to do one thing. That is, when they heard someone say bad things about Teacher Chu during breaks or after meals, they should ask who heard it from and then come back to report to her. She would give her a candy for each report.

The four students gladly accepted this task that only the five of them knew about. After only half a day, Chu Ye had given out nearly fifty candies. She also pieced together the changes in the spread of the rumor from the information she collected, and at the same time locked on the original source of the rumor - the intern teacher's dormitory.

In this way, she had a target candidate in mind. Chu Ye's face turned cold and she thought of a countermeasure almost instantly.

The next morning, after class, Chu Ye returned to the office pretending to be worried. The fourth-grade math teacher was a female teacher named Wang, who sat next to Chu Ye. Seeing that Chu Ye was not in good spirits, she asked her what was wrong.

When Chu Ye heard her concern, he seemed to want to say something but hesitated. After a moment, he shook his head and said it was nothing. Teacher Wang frowned, thinking that she had encountered difficulties and was unable to speak up. He kindly said a few words to comfort her. He wanted to say something else, but when he heard the bell ring, he told Chu Ye not to think too much and hurried to the classroom.

At this time, the only people left in the room were Chu Ye and Zhou Wenlong who was sitting diagonally opposite her.

Before the rumors about Chu Ye started, Zhou Wenlong would still deliberately appear in front of her from time to time. Sometimes in the office, even when he could do something himself, he would deliberately call out to Chu Ye, wanting Chu Ye to come and help, so as to create space for the two of them to work together.

In response, Chu Ye treated him coldly and did not indulge him at all. Zhou Wenlong did not get angry either. He smiled every time he saw Chu Ye, which made many teachers in their school see through his thoughts.

But starting from some day, Zhou Wenlong suddenly stopped paying attention to Chu Ye and would not talk to her on purpose. There was even one time when Chu Ye had to negotiate with him about a class change, and he rolled his eyes and his face was full of impatience.

Although Chu Ye felt that this person was a little strange at the time, she did not think much about it. However, ever since Zhou Wenlong's attitude turned cold, rumors about her began to spread in the school.

But today, Chu Ye sat there, and unlike her usual practice of burying her head at her desk preparing lessons and writing lesson plans, she looked absent-minded, with worry on her brows, and then her expression became increasingly depressed.

Zhou Wenlong, who was sitting across from her, could clearly observe her changes. He saw that Chu Ye was particularly unhappy now, which was very different from her usual appearance. The beautiful woman's worried look was particularly distressing. If it was in the past, he would definitely go forward to take good care of her, but now? He sneered in his heart. What's the use of something that doesn't belong to him, no matter how good it is?

He was observing secretly with an indifferent expression, but he didn't know that all his actions were seen by Chu Ye. Seeing that he was indifferent, Chu Ye was suddenly filled with grief, and her original sorrow turned into bean-sized tears that fell, and then, sobbing sounds were heard in the office.

Zhou Wenlong couldn't pretend to be unaware of this. He stopped what he was doing and said stiffly, "Comrade Chu, why are you crying for no reason?"

Hearing this, Chu Ye sobbed non-stop. When Zhou Wenlong gradually lost his patience, she looked up. Some of her hair was wet and stuck to her forehead. Her cheeks were red from crying, and her expression was more lively than usual. Her eyes were red, and tears were about to fall. "I'm sorry, I just feel so sad."

Her tone was no longer as cold as usual, and Zhou Wenlong heard it sounded a little more aggrieved. Then Chu Ye said, "I'll go out now and not disturb you at work." After that, Chu Ye pretended to get up, but Zhou Wenlong quickly stopped her, "Hey, Comrade Chu, who do you think I am? How could I watch my colleagues being wronged and not help them?"

His eyes kept falling on Chu Ye's face, and his heart was filled with joy. Although he didn't know why Chu Ye had such an emotional breakdown, the scene before him was really rare.

Hearing his words, Chu Ye's eyes were filled with gratitude. She wiped the tears from her face, trying to make herself look fragile yet strong. "Thank you, Comrade Zhou. It turns out you have a good heart. I was always rude to you before."

"Well, how can I say that? That didn't happen. I was too reckless at the beginning and made you misunderstand me. It's okay. Just know that I, Zhou Wenlong, am not a bad person in the future." He said frankly, as if Chu Ye's previous misunderstanding of him was just a passing cloud.

Chu Ye's eyes were full of gratitude, which made his heart swell, and he softened his voice unconsciously, "Comrade Chu, you can tell me if you have any difficulties, and I will do my best to help you solve them."

Although he regretted saying this the moment he said it, he secretly cursed himself in his heart, but when he saw Chu Ye's eyes full of trust, he still forced a smile.

"Then I'll be frank. Comrade Zhou, have you heard any rumors about me at school recently?" Chu Ye asked cautiously, as if he was afraid of being disliked after speaking out.

"No." Zhou Wenlong denied it immediately without thinking.

Chu Ye felt a chill in her heart when she heard his answer. She had already found out that the rumor originated from them. She also asked those students she trusted to ask other male teachers in internship. The result was that these people had heard about it more or less. Then, since Zhou Wenlong was with them every day, it was impossible for him not to know about it.

Unless, he is the one who spread the pornographic rumor, so he is now denying that he has never heard of such a thing. He thought that in this way others would not be able to trace it back to him, but he didn't know that the more he did so, the more suspicious it would be.

She was thinking about her next plan in her mind, and Zhou Wenlong pretended to be puzzled and asked, "What rumors are there in the school recently?"

Chu Ye looked worried again, as if he was about to say something but hesitated. Finally, he seemed to have made up his mind, "Comrade Zhou, it's really embarrassing to talk about this."

"I don't know what happened these past few days, but someone at school actually said that they saw me shopping with several different boys." She seemed to be driven to desperation, and her eyes became red again. "Some people even said that I got my boyfriend through improper means. I don't know who spread this rumor, it's really driving me crazy."

After saying this, tears welled up in her eyes and she looked stubborn, which made Zhou Wenlong look distressed.

"How could such a thing happen?"

Chu Ye nodded, tears as big as beans slid down her cheeks, "I don't know what to do now, Comrade Zhou, you have to believe me, I have never done that kind of thing, these are all rumors."

Chu Ye seemed to be grasping at the last straw. He told Zhou Wenlong about his grievances and tried hard to make him believe him, which made Zhou Wenlong feel itchy.

He sighed in embarrassment, "I believe you, but I can't help you in your situation. Everyone in the school knows that you treated me coldly some time ago."

He pretended to be generous, "Of course I am a man, I won't take such things to heart, but if you ask me, you are the same, looking for a partner before graduation, I don't know if he knows you well, it's not good for you, you see, he can't help you when you encounter difficulties in school."

Zhou Wenlong's tone was quite regretful, and he shook his head as he spoke, as if he felt it was not worth it for her.

Chu Ye also took his words to heart and nodded from time to time to show his agreement. Zhou Wenlong became more and more excited as he spoke, from choosing a spouse to major issues of family and country, and he spoke eloquently. Chu Ye also supported him and listened carefully. After all the conversation, the relationship between the two of them was invisibly strengthened.

For three days, Chu Ye would reveal to him the troubles she was experiencing because of this matter from time to time, and would ask for his help if there was anything. She also said that she was helpless here and had many misunderstandings about Zhou Wenlong before, but now she realized that Zhou Wenlong was a trustworthy person.

During this period, she also expressed her disappointment in the relationship, which made Zhou Wenlong feel very happy.

After dinner that day, Zhou Wenlong was going to the playground to digest his food, but he was found by Chen An. She hurriedly pulled Zhou Wenlong aside and asked anxiously, "Did Chu Ye look for you this afternoon?"

"No." Zhou Wenlong looked puzzled.

"She's gone! We originally agreed to go to the cafeteria to eat after class, but I haven't seen her yet. I just asked several people, and one student said he saw her walk out of the school gate and turned left!" Chen An jumped anxiously, "She has been in a bad mood these days. Do you think she will do something stupid?"

"No, no way?" Zhou Wenlong was infected by her emotions, and panic surged in his heart. "I'm going out now. You said she went left, right? I'll look for her along the way, and you go and notify others."

Zhou Wenlong ran out of the campus and soon disappeared, so naturally no one knew that Chen An, who had been in a panic, calmed down after he left. She turned around calmly and walked towards the political education department without calling anyone.

(End of this chapter)