“What is it?”
Yu Chen didn’t turn around. He simply shifted his deep blue eyes to look at Lu You, showing no intention of moving closer.
Lu You raised his wrist with the light-brain on it and asked, “Should I project it on the screen? Though I have to say, it’s a bit inappropriate for public viewing, even though I don’t think you’re that kind of person.”
“Go ahead,” Yu Chen frowned. “What could I possibly have that’s inappropriate?”
The only thing Yu Chen couldn’t let others know was his relationship with Yun Xunlan. But that was because Yun Xunlan preferred to keep it private, and Yu Chen respected his lover’s wishes. Besides, Yu Chen was certain that whatever Lu You had wasn’t related to him and Yun Xunlan—otherwise, even someone as composed as Lu You wouldn’t be able to maintain his current calm demeanor.
“Alright, I’ll project it then.”
With Yu Chen’s permission, Lu You immediately displayed the chat logs from his light-brain for all the guards to see. He explained: “Ten minutes ago, someone with the ID ‘Evelyn’ sent me a lot of chat records between her and you. She asked what my relationship with you was and if I knew you were ‘this kind of person.’”
The chat logs showed messages from someone with a solid blue profile picture and the username “Lanlan’s.” The messages were sexually harassing Evelyn.
At first, the messages boasted about the sender’s supposed skills in bed—claiming they could satisfy anyone and promising that sleeping with them would be worth it. The vulgar language was utterly obscene. When Evelyn firmly rejected them, the sender’s tone shifted dramatically, resorting to extremely malicious insults and curses aimed at humiliating Evelyn.
Fu Yanxi burst out laughing as soon as he read the part where the blue-profile sender bragged about their “bedroom skills”: “This chat log has to be fake, right? There’s no way Yu Chen is like this. Don’t you remember what Zhou Shun called him?”
—A novice.
Yu Chen remained expressionless, his blue eyes sweeping over Fu Yanxi without saying a word.
Feeling equally insulted, Song Tingxiao immediately shouted: “Of course it’s fake! The second half of the chat log where they’re cursing does have a slight resemblance to our Brother Yu’s style, but Yu Chen wouldn’t curse like this—and he definitely wouldn’t curse Evelyn.”
As Fu Yanxi had said during an earlier argument between Zhou Shun and Yu Chen: While Yu Chen might lack refinement in some ways, he would never insult someone without reason. He wouldn’t drag their family into it or curse someone online just because they failed to hook up.
Ji Bai was equally puzzled: “None of us have taken leave recently—where would we find time to hook up?”
Gui Yan nodded in agreement: “Even if we did take leave, we’d all be at Elianxia Dessert Shop lining up for ice cream. No one would be hooking up.”
—Wasn’t that exactly what happened last time they had leave?
“Hey, I got one too,” Lou Di said after tapping her light-brain twice. “Is this person mass-sending these messages? Check if you guys received anything.”
Following Lou Di’s suggestion, everyone checked their Starnet private message inboxes and discovered that this user named “Evelyn” had sent similar chat logs and messages to almost all the guards.
Song Tingyan analyzed: “Yu Chen’s followers and fan list are hidden—this person probably mass-sent these messages to accounts that left comments in Yu Chen’s comment section.”
“That seems right,” Zhu Shuiqin nodded. “I didn’t receive anything.”
Zhu Shuiqin was also mutuals with Yu Chen on Starnet but hadn’t interacted with any of the guards. She was the type who silently observed without liking or commenting on posts. If she needed something, she would send private messages directly—so Evelyn hadn’t targeted her.
But even without Zhu Shuiqin, the speed at which rumors spread wouldn’t slow down.
Evelyn’s method of spreading rumors was clever—she targeted people directly or indirectly connected to Yu Chen first. In this situation, as long as one person doubted Yu Chen’s character, it would inevitably impact his real life.
“It’s not just Yu Chen’s comment section,” Lu You said, raising his eyes with a serious expression. “I just asked around—accounts that interacted with me in my comment section also received these messages.”
“She even posted publicly to call you out. This isn’t looking good,” Fu Yanxi said as he clicked into Evelyn’s profile page. Surprised, he added: “People in her comment section are saying they also received sexually harassing messages from you—men and women, omegas and betas. The only group missing is alphas.”
Gui Yan gaped in shock: “Yu Chen, am I going to see a PDF about you in the gossip group tonight?”
“Oh my god! Yu Chen, Zhou Shun is defending you in Evelyn’s comment section,” Song Tingxiao exclaimed, his eyes wide. “Zhou Shun said he’s vouching for you with his own integrity, claiming you’re still a virgin—a clean and upright alpha. He said he believes in your character and that you wouldn’t do such a thing. He even advised Evelyn to stop spreading rumors because if she doesn’t, your temper will make you truly curse her out. Oh, and he’s already reported her to the authorities.”
Yu Chen: “…”
“I think I know who this is,” Yu Chen said as he opened his light-brain and showed the guards the threatening message sent by “San’er Lacks Calcium No. 2,” which read: “Just wait—you’re done for.” He then explained the whole story of how he had argued with this person.
Lou Di was furious: “Damn it! What a scumbag! Daring to insult the Third Highness—send me their profile link, and I’ll curse them too! If my account gets banned, so be it—I can’t hold back!”
“If it really is them, I don’t think reporting them will help. This person is definitely not from the Galactic Empire,” Lu You said with a frown. “Lou Di, if you curse them today, you’ll end up as a PDF tomorrow.”
Lou Di asked: “Then what should we do?”
Yu Chen’s expression turned cold and stern as he replied in a frosty tone: “I’ll post a public statement to clarify things.”
“Brother Yu, will that even work?” Ji Bai asked worriedly. “There will still be people who won’t believe it.”
Yu Chen said: “I know.”
He didn’t care how others viewed him—he only needed one person to believe him. The question was whether Yun Xunlan had seen this yet.
And had Yun Xunlan seen it?
He had.
After Yu Chen left the dormitory, Yun Xunlan got out of bed and went into the bathroom. Just as he splashed some cold water on his face, his Starnet account (a secondary account) received the chat logs sent by Evelyn.
After reading just a few lines, Yun Xunlan frowned: “My baby isn’t like this.”
—Didn’t he already know what Yu Chen’s bedroom skills were like?
The first time was bad—and short.
The second time lasted longer but honestly wasn’t much better in terms of technique—it relied entirely on natural talent and endurance.
But none of that mattered. What mattered was that Yu Chen simply wasn’t that kind of person.
Yu Chen was an alpha who would tell people messaging him privately to have some self-respect—and he was also an alpha who liked men.
Claiming that he would actively seek out omegas and betas for hookups? Who would believe that?
“Exactly, your baby isn’t that kind of person—otherwise, why would you two have waited until last night to make love?” The system chimed in. After expressing its thoughts, it couldn’t help but lament: “Yu Chen now hesitates even to say an oath to you. If he were the type of person described in the second half of those chat logs, we’d already be dominating the frontlines together.”
Yun Xunlan clicked into Evelyn’s profile and saw the post calling out Yu Chen. The comment section was filled with people insulting him, and the number of comments was steadily increasing. Since Yu Chen didn’t have a dedicated PR team to monitor and filter these malicious remarks in real-time, once they were posted, they wouldn’t easily disappear.
The system sighed: “I’m so jealous.”
“What’s there to be jealous about?” Yun Xunlan’s face remained expressionless as he closed his light-brain and murmured softly: “…It shouldn’t be like this.”
—He could accept being insulted himself, but he couldn’t accept the insults being directed at Yu Chen.
Because it was wrong.
Just like how he knew Mu Xingyu had insulted him before, even though it helped him complete his daily tasks and saved him, Yun Xunlan would never think Mu Xingyu’s actions were justified.
Yun Xunlan raised his head, brushed aside the silver hair falling over his forehead, and stared into the golden eyes of his reflection in the mirror. Apart from those golden eyes, his appearance was identical to his past life—even down to the silver hair that reached past his waist.
So whenever Yun Xunlan looked in the mirror, he could never tell whether he was seeing his past self or his present self.
Or perhaps, what he saw wasn’t himself at all—
The figure in the mirror smiled and parted its lips, but the voice that emerged carried the mechanical monotone of the system: “Do you like Yu Chen because he saved you?”
“You don’t even ask me if I like him,” Yun Xunlan replied with a smile of his own. “You just ask why I like him?”
The figure in the mirror leaned closer to Yun Xunlan, its voice gradually merging with his own: “Don’t I know you?”
“Then why ask? You should already know the answer,” Yun Xunlan countered. “If you don’t know, then you don’t understand me.”
With that, Yun Xunlan left the dormitory.
Today’s guard rotation didn’t assign Yu Chen to follow Yun Xunlan closely.
However, during lunch, Yun Xunlan asked Ni Chun to invite Yu Chen for a private meal at the open-air garden dining pavilion on the second floor of the cafeteria—a space reserved for couples or spouses at the base. Each pavilion was a private and secluded area. Unless Yun Xunlan intended to publicly reveal their relationship as lovers, why would he invite Yu Chen there for lunch?
Ni Chun emphasized: “There’s no mistake, Major Yu Chen. His Highness specifically invited you to dine there.”
As soon as those words were spoken, Fu Yanxi’s envious and jealous gaze pierced through like eight blooming plum blossoms.
Yu Chen’s first reaction was also to glance at his fellow guards since Ni Chun hadn’t made any effort to conceal this conversation—everyone had heard it.
Seeing Yu Chen looking their way, Fu Yanxi trembled with anger: “Stop showing off! Hurry up and go see His Highness! How can you keep His Highness waiting?”
“Brother Xi, don’t cry.” Gui Yan walked over with a choked-up voice and patted Fu Yanxi’s shoulder. “The Third Highness is kind-hearted—he must have seen what happened with Yu Chen being falsely accused and wants to comfort him.”
“Of course! I know that! Why else would the Third Highness want to see Yu Chen? Oh—maybe for tutoring too.” Fu Yanxi replied matter-of-factly before turning to Gui Yan. “And I’m not crying—you’re the one crying!”
Gui Yan refused to admit it: “I wasn’t jealous… I was just choked by chili powder.”
Yu Chen: “…”
It wasn’t just Gui Yan and Fu Yanxi—other guards also believed that Yun Xunlan’s private meeting with Yu Chen was meant to comfort him. They nodded at Yu Chen encouragingly and said: “Don’t feel bad. We all know you’re innocent. We’ve already crowdfunded to hire the best lawyer for you.”
Yu Chen raised an eyebrow, smiled faintly, and sincerely thanked his colleagues: “Thank you.”
He then headed to the second floor and entered the innermost garden dining pavilion, where Yun Xunlan was seated at a round table laden with an array of delicious dishes.
As soon as the silver-haired youth saw him, a smile bloomed on his lips—more beautiful than the bouquets filling the pavilion. Using a tone of long-awaited anticipation, he called out: “Baby.”
T/N: apologies for the delay T_T
Imagine slandering someone but they’re so trustworthy even his enemies defend him 💀