Rumors

At first glance, Chen Jun Tian wanted to run up to the girl standing by herself under the wisteria tree but he soon shook off that thought as his gaze carefully analysed her figure. The mysterious female whom he met a few years back looked more mature and had glistening silver hair, whereas the girl under the wisteria tree has black hair so they couldn't possibly be the same person. He then noticed that Wu Yi looked at that girl with a complicated expression but just when he was about to ask his friend about it, the latter hastily dragged him towards the back of the Serene Moon courtyard so he assumed that Wu Yi and the unfamiliar young miss were old acquaintances.

The two young men walked towards an empty table and began to eat as if nothing had happened. They were not the only ones there as the abandoned west courtyard was a popular lunch spots for many of the youths of Yun Lin Academy. Jun Tian did not pay much attention to them but then a certain conversation peaked his interest.

"Yang Yang, since you're in the Alchemy faction, did you know that there is a new beauty in your faction?" Hou Ming Chan of the Southern Wetlands asked his friend while Jun Tian tried to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"First of all, don't call me that." Peng Ming Yang of the Southern River rolled his eyes. He noticed that Jun Tian was trying to listen to them but he did not say anything to the latter. "And yeah, I know that there is a new student in my faction."

"Do you know who she is?" Ming Chan asked curiously because Ming Yang was like a walking encyclopaedia since he always has plenty of information on hand and he knew quite a few interesting things but most of the time, it is completely unrelated to studies. Ming Chan had always wished that his friend was actually a real encyclopaedia as group works would have been a piece of cake for them.

"I've heard from my classmates that she's from one of the side households of the Northern Ranges' Hu clan." Ming Yang spoke as he gave a quick glance at young master Hu who is pretending not to hear anything. "I think her name is Hu Jing Li."

"Hu Jing Li? Northern Ranges' Hu clan?" Ming Chan tried to process the information then suddenly he was hit with realisation. "Is she Hu Wu Yi and Hu Jia Yi's cousin then?" He exclaimed loudly, startling everyone else around them, while his gaze searched for one of the Hu clan's first households' brothers. Wu Yi desperately wanted to burrowed himself a few meters underground but there was no place for him to hide so he still pretended to be oblivious to the situation at hand. Apart from wanting to see the show between Huo Yu Xi and her, he really does not want to be associated with that younger cousin of his as he remembered what happened during their childhood.

"Shhh..." Ming Yang casted a silence spell on his friend since the latter spoke way too loudly but Ming Chan easily broke the spell.

"Guys!" A young man in light grey hanfu suddenly rushed towards the charismatic duo. It was none other than Hui Ming Lang, the young master of the Southern Hills. The three of them were known as the Southern Ming trio throughout the whole academy because their names all contained a "Ming" character and they all came from a Southern prefecture.

"What's the rush?" Ming Yang passed the newcomer a cup of ice tea, in which the latter quickly drank it all in one gulp.

"He Kai was fighting with another junior student again!" Ming Lang blabbered but his friends only looked at him with a unbothered expression. "Wait! I'm not finished yet! You've heard about the newly transferred young lady Hu, right?"

"Yes." Ming Chan and Ming Yang both replied at the same time.

"She made He Kai apologise to the junior student and he did!" Young master Hui exclaimed loudly and this time, everyone who sat near the trio had their eyes wide open in surprise. Some were amazed while others were doubting Ming Lang's credibility because they could not understand how a weak young lady could ever make the arrogant He Kai stoop to that level. Not even Huo Yu Xi whose beauty was comparable to that of an angel's could move his heart. However, Hu Wu Yi knew full well how his dear little cousin could make any man on earth heeds to her simple words.

"Oh and guess who was there as well!" Ming Lang blurted.

"Huo Yu Xi?" Ming Yang suddenly stared straight at Jun Tian and the latter knew exactly what he was thinking. Hearing that name was like having daggers piercing through his heart. Jun Tian could not believe himself that he has wasted an entire year of his life being fooled by her but what happened in the past shall dwell in the past. There was no use bringing it back up.

"She is such a poisonous attention-seeking snake that is not even worth being called a human." Ming Chan spoke up when he noticed where his friend's gaze were directed and gave Jun Tian a look of comfort. "I can not believe that students of the Alchemy faction voted for her to be their faction representative! Unbelievable!"

"Hey, don't generalise us. I did not vote for her." Ming Yang cleared his throat then murmured the rest of his phrases in a very low voice. "She used her family's influences... Her father is the minister of rites."

"No wonder why..." Hu Wu Yi thought to himself as he somehow ended up eavesdropping on the trio's conversation with Chen Jun Tian. Despite not wanting to be in the centre of attention, Wu Yi especially loves to gossip so naturally, he would not let such a hot topic passes by.

"She's faker than Kuan Shu Ji's face!" Ming Chan snapped, startling the other students in the Serene Moon courtyard once again so Ming Yang who was embarrassed by his friend's demeanour, decided to cast another silence spell on him. A stronger spell at that.

"Oh dear, was it necessary to bring up Kuan Shu Ji's face?" Ming Lang felt a chill running down his spine as look of disgust soon plastered on his round face. "It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. What a nightmare!"

"It's not like we can blame her for it." Ming Yang slowly shook his head, indicating that he did not want to continue on with this topic. "Just forget it."

The trio along with Wu Yi and Jun Tian all sighed in unison. Kuan Shu Ji was a young lady from the residence of the grand court architect. She was an innocent and naive child who was also in the Alchemy faction. She was kind and generous to everyone and many students and teachers liked her but she soon became a very problematic student. No one knew for sure what happened to her but from the way she dresses to the way she acts, everything was completely different from before, as if she was a completely new person. She was a talented seductress and many men fell for her mature beauty but one day, someone gave her a poisonous drink because of pure jealousy of the attention Kuan Shu Ji had received from men. The cursed drink ruined her pretty face so she reconstructed her face with forbidden magic even though the grand court architect tried to persuade her not to mess with such unstable magic. Obviously something went wrong when she tried to cast the spell.

Jun Tian felt bad for her because she must have been through a lot of emotional stress when she learned that her peerless beauty has faded but not many people think like him. The other students would always called her names and they even went as far as making false rumours about her until one day last year, she just disappeared and no one knows exactly what happened to her afterwards. Some said that she had committed suicide but Jun Tian preferred to think that she simply transferred to an academy in another region.

People are cruel. One stupid rumour can change a person's life forever. Humans tend to claim that ghosts and monsters are terrifying evil creatures but it is actually them who are the real source of evil. Humans fight, humans hurt and humans kill each other over and over again and yet, they still dare to claim that ghosts and monsters are horrifying. Oh the irony...