Chapter 8 — Journey of Love

He quietly set the bottle down. Someone inside the private suite pulled out a game of Truth or Dare. "Are you playing, top student?" someone asked me, looking over. "If you refuse to take a penalty, you'll have to drink." Lu Dinh Chu chimed in immediately: "Let's play, let's play. Whatever she loses, I'll drink in her place." A wave of cheering erupted around the table. Su Ky Tuyet’s expression turned somewhat unsightly, but she joined the game anyway.

The rules were simple: spin the bottle. The first turn went to Su Ky Tuyet, since, after all, this gathering had been organized in her honor. The bottle spun and spun, eventually coming to a complete stop right in front of me. I raised an eyebrow as the cheers grew even louder.

Su Ky Tuyet smiled sweetly. "How about this, classmate Diep? Take out your phone, and I'll pick someone from your WeChat chat list so everyone can see the conversation history from the past week."

I arched a brow. Bringing privacy into it now, are we? I produced my phone. I wasn't entirely sure who Su Ky Tuyet had originally intended to pick, but right at that moment, a new message popped up on the screen. Her face froze, and her finger instinctively tapped on it. It was a message from Tong Minh Xuyen.

I watched the crowd as their eyes instantly glued to the screen. The smile on Su Ky Tuyet’s face shattered completely. "What did Tong Minh Xuyen make an appointment with you for tomorrow?"

"What? Tong Minh Xuyen asked her out?" Someone nearby reacted far more strongly. "I told you that guy was up to no good!"

I found it rather amusing. "Well, that is an entirely different issue altogether."

The game continued, and finally, it was my turn. I looked at the bottle in my hand, gave it a few casual spins, and let it go. The mouth of the bottle twirled around a few times before coming to a precise halt right before Su Ky Tuyet. The commotion around us grew even rowrier. I looked at her with a wide grin. "How about this? I'd like to look through Su's photo album, also just for the past week. I won't share anything with the others, is that alright?"

Su Ky Tuyet didn't quite understand what I was up to, but she handed her phone over anyway. If she wanted to give it, she gave it. She was entirely confident that there was nothing out of the ordinary in her gallery. I skimmed through; the majority of them were just selfies. But my moral standards weren't particularly high to begin with. Right in front of everyone, my finger swiped at lightning speed, immediately opening the folder labeled "Recently Deleted."

With just a single glance, I locked onto the target and tapped it. The very next second, I held the screen right up in front of my somewhat dense, blockhead of an older brother. "Here, didn't you want to know who reported us earlier?"

Right there on the primary display was the exact photograph that had reported Lu Dinh Chu and me. The only difference was that in this unedited version, Tong Minh Xuyen had not been cropped out.

Su Ky Tuyet finally realized what I was doing, but it was too late to stop me. She shrieked, "Diep Cam Hoa, you're not playing by the rules!"

I let out a soft laugh. "Photos in the recently deleted folder were also taken within the past week, so how am I breaking the rules?" I continued, "Besides, the issue right now is who is in the wrong, not the rules of the game anymore. Have you figured out how you're going to explain this yet?"

Beside us, my blond-haired brother froze. His expression shifted rapidly from utter shock to icy coldness. Su Ky Tuyet snatched her phone back, but seeing Lu Dinh Chu’s face grow increasingly grim, she hurriedly spoke up, "Bro... brother, listen to me explain."

Lu Dinh Chu lowered his gaze to look at her. "So, it was you who took that picture of me and Diep Cam Hoa, printed it out, and handed it over to the disciplinary teacher?"

Hearing this, the people surrounding them began to realize something was terribly wrong. One of Lu Dinh Chu's subordinates blurted out in disbelief, "No way, Su Ky Tuyet, was it really you? Brother Lu treated you so well, how could you possibly do something like that?"

"That's right, why would you do that?" I chimed in, making sure to pour a little more oil onto the fire. "If you couldn't win his heart, so be it. My brother bought you countless gifts and called you 'older brother' more times than I can count, yet this is how you act as his 'sworn younger sister'? And you even deliberately cropped Tong Minh Xuyen out of the photo just to make sure he wouldn't get dragged into this, right?"

I had no good intentions, and my tone was far from pleasant. Immediately afterward, she screamed at me, "It's all your fault! On one hand, you seduce Tong Minh Xuyen, and on the other, you keep Lu Dinh Chu wrapped around your finger. Why does everyone always revolve around you?"

This accusation was genuinely laughable. I burst out laughing. "What? You're allowed to play both sides, but others aren't?"

With my objective achieved, I turned to my simple-minded brother. "I'm heading back first. Deal with this however you see fit."

I had barely walked ten meters when my blond-headed brother quietly caught up from behind. "I'll walk you home."

I arched an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to stay and listen to your sworn sister cry?"

"......"

After a long silence, I finally heard Lu Dinh Chu speak. "Actually, I knew she wasn't as innocent as she seemed. But when you like someone... as long as she's happy, that's all that matters. You can't just give up on someone just because she happens to fancy someone else, can you?"

My older brother, with his flashy dyed hair, was actually playing the role of a sincere, unrequited lover.

"Then why did you come out here?"

"I don't mind treating her well, I don't mind giving her gifts, and I don't mind the fact that she likes someone else. But I figured, at the very least, we were friends. The fact that she let jealousy drive her to report us proves one thing—she never once considered me a friend. I'm not that stupid."

I genuinely didn't know what to say to that. My blond-haired brother was really out here living through a pure, tragic youth romance novel.

Along the way back, Lu Dinh Chu radiated an aura of melancholic heartbreak. By the time he walked me to my doorstep, as if suddenly remembering something, he muttered, "What on earth did Tong Minh Xuyen make an appointment with you for? That guy is no good either, you should keep your distance from him."

Naturally, when you have a sister who hangs out closely with your sworn enemy, even your period of heartbreak won't be granted any peace.

"Guess."

"Huh? Diep Cam Hoa, what do you mean by that?"

"......"

Tong Minh Xuyen and I, of course, had academic matters that required discussion. We had arranged to go out on Sunday to look for books and practice exam problems. It was just that now, there was going to be one extra person tagging along.

Tong Minh Xuyen looked at Lu Dinh Chu, who was trailing right behind me. His gaze locked onto him with absolute vigilance as he asked, "Who is your brother..."

"What's wrong? You two are allowed to pursue higher education together, but I'm not?" Lu Dinh Chu wore an intensely disgruntled expression.

I cast a gentle, warning glance at Tong Minh Xuyen. "He's in a bad mood, don't provoke him."

Tong Minh Xuyen: "......"