Chapter 284: Mockery
Yuan Keqing and the other students continued their tour.
On the way, Yuan Keqing’s classmates never stopped praising Tan Mo.
“I’m shocked that Tan Mo excels in both Language and History and can even answer a difficult question set by Professor Yue.”
“She really is a genius.”
“I had always heard about geniuses, but I had never seen any before. I wasn’t expecting that I would see one today.”
“I only knew about Tan Mo after I watched the Tulip Awards ceremony. She entered Beijing University when she was only 15, and in two short years she has already accomplished so much. As expected, geniuses can accomplish so many things.”
“Yuan Keqing, why have I never heard you mention such a capable cousin before?”
“That’s right. It’s been some time since the Tulip Awards ceremony ended, and you haven’t mentioned anything. What a low profile you’ve been keeping.”
“Does your cousin tutor you?”
“With such a capable cousin explaining things to you, you probably won’t have problem entering Beijing University, right?”
“That may not be true. Tan Mo is a genius and is naturally formidable, but she may not be able to teach what she knows. Even if she teaches, normal people may not be able to keep up with her thoughts.”
“That is true. I guess Tan Mo hasn’t been able to teach Yuan Keqing. Otherwise, Yuan Keqing’s grades wouldn’t be so bad.”
Yuan Keqing’s features were stiff from anger.
While her grades were not at the top, they weren’t that bad.
She was around the class average. Why were they acting as if they were so terrible?
“This probably is because even if there is a master gamer at home, it is not possible to help a rookie player level up.”
Yuan Keqing’s expression got even darker from anger.
She was having to listen to the sarcastic comments of these people.
“But Yuan Keqing, why is there such a large difference between you cousins? Does that make you stressed? Your relatives must compare you. They probably say that your cousin is a genius who has entered Beijing University, while you are not only still in high school, but your grades are also only average.”
Yuan Keqing was about to explode from the jibes which came one after another.
“Of course not,” Yuan Keqing forced a smile and answered, “after all, there are few geniuses. If we compare ourselves to geniuses, which one of us here would win? My family naturally knows this too.”
“Ah! Whose genes are good in your family? You and Tan Mo are related by blood, but why didn’t you inherit anything?”
Someone else said sarcastically, “Not only did you not inherit anything, but your grades are also lousy and can’t be compared to normal people’s.”
“While they are related by blood, do not forget that she only has the genes from her mother’s side. She does not have genes from the Tan family.”
Another classmate said, “It is possible that for Tan Mo, the genes from the Tan family played a vital role.”
“That is true, I saw that her brother walked the red carpet with her during the Tulip Awards ceremony. The netizens found from the credit list of ‘Legend of Wei and Jin’ that her brother was the assistant director.”
“After Tan Mo’s identity was revealed, some curious netizens found that Tan Mo is the youngest in the family and has three older brothers. All of them entered the best schools for their fields with high grades. Although they were not as exceptional as Tan Mo, among their schools and teachers, they were highly praised.”
Everyone probably had had enough of poking fun at Yuan Keqing and got bored with the subject. They then started to talk about the gossip they saw online.
SIGH! “Don’t we have Tan Mo’s cousin here with us?” A classmate laughed. “Why are we looking at online gossip? If we want to know anything, we can ask Yuan Keqing. She definitely would know more than the netizens.”
“Forget it. Who knows if what Yuan Keqing says is truthful? The things that Tan Mo’s friend said earlier were entirely opposite from what Yuan Keqing had said.”
Someone snorted. “If you ask Yuan Keqing anything, would you dare to believe what she says? Don’t you think that it would be embarrassing if you told what you learned from Yuan Keqing to someone else and that person said that it wasn’t true?”
“I…I did not lie.” Yuan Keqing defended herself anxiously.
While these people were speaking, one after another…
She didn’t say anything because first, she was unable to interrupt.
But now if she didn’t say anything or explain, she would appear pathetic.
These people were making fun of her.
And now, they were saying that she was a liar.
Now she must say something.
She could not let them say that she had slandered Tan Mo on purpose.
Then she would be at fault.
No one would trust her no matter what she said in the future.
“It is evident that Ming Yeqing was lying!” Yuan Keqing was almost crying from being wronged. “Tan Mo is my cousin, wouldn’t I understand her?”
“But Ming Yeqing is also Tan Mo’s friend.” A classmate explained, “As Tan Mo’s friend, he knew he had to stand up for Tan Mo. As Tan Mo’s cousin, why did you make such malicious remarks about Tan Mo?”
“I…I wasn’t making malicious remarks! I just don’t lie and have always said the truth. I will not say good things about her and lie to others just because Tan Mo is my cousin,” Yuan Keqing wiped at her tears, aggrieved.
In the past, these people would not be as against her.
They had always been civil with each other.
Everyone came from families with some standing.
They had had the mindset of mutually benefitting one another, even if they did not truly like one another and sometimes plotted against each other behind their backs.
However, they were at least polite and amiable on the surface and maintained a practiced fake smile.
They had never acted like this and directly made cutting remarks.
Yuan Keqing thought that it must be because these people had known about Tan Mo’s background from the Tulip Awards ceremony.
Which was much better than the Yuan family’s…
Plus, she had gone against Tan Mo earlier.
These people therefore were on Tan Mo’s side and were against her in a bid to get in Tan Mo’s good books.
It was funny to her because these people had not even spoken to Tan Mo before.
Tan Mo did not even know who they were.
And these people are already so eager to please Tan Mo?
Yuan Keqing looked down slightly and pursed her lips.
She was thinking that she had miscalculated.
She should not have been so quick to go against Tan Mo.
She had originally wanted Tan Mo to be embarrassed in front of the crowd and destroy her reputation at Beijing University.
Even if she could not destroy it completely, she wanted to at least let her reputation take a deep dive.
To no longer be like before when she was being praised by all.
She did not expect that she would not succeed this time.
If Tan Mo had had the slightest hesitation or made the smallest mistake in solving that question…
She would have succeeded.
However, who knew that Tan Mo would answer everything correctly.
These classmates of hers are from wealthy families in business and always had the habit of steering according to the wind.
They’d observed that she and Tan Mo were not close and that there was a large gap between the Yuan family and the Tan family