Chen Zhao was completely dumbfounded.
What the heck?
He and Zhao Xiaobai were dating?
Who had dreamed up such ridiculous nonsense? Why were all of you crowding around me?
Xu Lanlan pulled out her phone, tapped a few times, and shoved it in front of Chen Zhao.
"Someone posted this on our school forum. It's already got over a thousand likes and is currently the hottest topic in the whole school—so hot it's practically burning," Xu Lanlan said.
Chen Zhao looked at the phone screen. There was a clear photo of him talking to Zhao Xiaobai by the roadside, apparently snapped by a passerby. Judging by the scene, it must have been taken when he'd run into Zhao Xiaobai at school earlier and they'd talked about the academic competition.
"You're jumping to conclusions based on just one photo?" Chen Zhao was speechless. If a photo could prove two people were dating, he could show them the one he had with the bald principal. Did that mean he was dating the principal too?
"And there's this one." Xu Lanlan swiped on her phone again, showing him another photo.
It had been taken at the milk tea shop by the school gate. Chen Zhao and Zhao Xiaobai were sitting by the window, chatting and drinking. They looked just like a young couple out on a date.
Chen Zhao's head started to ache. He hadn't expected someone to secretly photograph them just because they'd gone out to eat.
"This photo does look a little... suggestive, but we were just having a normal meal. She helped me out, so I treated her to dinner. Isn't that perfectly ordinary?" Chen Zhao explained.
"Then what about this one?" Xu Lanlan swiped again, and another photo appeared.
In the photo, Chen Zhao and Zhao Xiaobai were standing