After My Roommate Dumped His Online Boyfriend on Me - Chapter 5

But heaven had never favored me.

On my first day as an intern at Inspiration, I met the other intern.

Ying Chen.

I hadn’t seen him at all on the day of my interview.

The comments lit up. The people who’d been muted were back with new accounts.

[Heh. Cannon fodder won’t get to swagger around much longer. The system has started correcting the plot.]

[Hogging our male lead for this long. Disgusting. Another second of looking at you makes me want to puke.]

[Why is the one above spewing such filth? Was getting muted not enough punishment?]

[Nyah, nyah. You think I can’t make an alt when I get muted? Cannon fodder’s a thief. A thief!]

[Defending cannon fodder? Your mom’s dead, your dad’s been sold, your older brother jumped, your little brother ******]

…

The word “thief” covered my vision, stabbing at me until I felt dazed. I could barely stay on my feet.

The few comments speaking up for me either got swept away almost instantly or came under a collective attack.

“Mu Shengxia? Mu Shengxia! Is this your attitude on your very first day?”

The director was staring at me in displeasure across the meeting room.

Ying Chen reacted fast and took the folder from his hand.

“Zhang-ge, you can leave it to me. I’ll have it back to you before we finish today.”

The director looked at him with undisguised approval.

“You’re the same age, yet some people are too stupid to understand what they’re told.”

Once we left the meeting room, Ying Chen quickly made himself familiar with the other colleagues too.

He darted around with the folder like a little rabbit.

“Xin-jie, I don’t understand this part. Could you take a look?”

“Hao-ge, I heard you’re good with this element. Could you see whether this direction works?”

Our colleagues were warm and patient with him.

Even though a lot of his questions struck me as the sort only an idiot who hadn’t attended a single lecture would ask.

The whole office was positively cheerful.

I stood at my desk, utterly out of place.

Ying Chen deliberately came over. His smile was innocent, but he couldn’t hide the smugness in his eyes.

“Mu-ge, could you make coffee for our team?”

“I know you’re the nicest.”

There were at least eight people on his team.

The break room had a coffee machine.

If I agreed, I’d have to put down all my own work to make coffee for those eight people.

I didn’t even have to think. “Why don’t you do it?”

Ying Chen waved the folder that had originally been intended for me. “Our team’s swamped. Nobody can spare the time. You don’t seem all that busy. Help us out, won’t you?”

With that one line, he put me in a position I couldn’t climb out of.

The eyes around us turned my way.

Quiet. Covert. Enjoying the show.

I pressed my lips together, got up without a word, and went to the break room after all.

Ying Chen immediately called around the office. “Could everyone tell me how they’d like their coffee?”

“Thanks, Xiao Chen. You’re such a help~”

Outside, everyone was getting along beautifully. A young man who’d been quiet the whole time came into the break room for a tea bag.

I moved aside automatically.

But as he passed, he stopped.

His voice was so low that only the two of us could hear.

“Hi. I know this doesn’t feel good.”

“But that other intern who came in with you seems to have a special relationship with our big boss. The one who hasn’t shown his face in a long time.”

“He wore jewelry the boss designed to his interview. The boss has never sold those pieces to the public.”

“So, for your own sake, you should go along with him.”

“That’s what everyone else is doing.”

Jewelry?

For some reason, I thought of the brooch Fang Jindong had given me.

I’d kept it in the wardrobe in my dorm room all this time. I’d never taken it out.

“Can I ask whether he wore a sunflower gemstone brooch to his interview?”

The young man stood in the break room doorway. He looked at our colleagues chatting away outside, then at me, and said nothing.

That one look was enough. I understood.

When I came out with the coffee, Ying Chen was nowhere to be seen.

In my hurry to find him, I collided head-on with someone at a bend in the corridor.

“Slow down when you’re walking around the office… Xia-ge?”

Clutching my aching forehead, I looked up in disbelief. “Fang Feng?”

The collision had hurt Fang Feng too. He rubbed his shoulder.

“Xia-ge, how are you so strong when you’re so little?”

I was still in shock at seeing him.

“What are you doing here?”

“Working. Don’t tell me you still don’t know…”

“Mu-ge!”

“Oh, Mr. Fang! You’re here too?”

Ying Chen’s voice came from behind me, cutting Fang Feng off.

Mr. Fang?

I frowned. Before I could ask, I caught sight of the painfully familiar sunflower gemstone brooch on his collar.

I strode forward and grabbed his arm.

“Ying Chen, did you steal my brooch?”

He instinctively covered his collar, stiffening his neck as he argued.

“Mu Shengxia, d-don’t make wild accusations!”

“How can you prove it’s yours?”

The comments exploded.

[What do you mean, steal? If cannon fodder hadn’t deceived the male lead, that brooch would’ve belonged to our Chen-baby!]

[Exactly. He got it by lying, and now he thinks it’s his?]

[Just wait. Once the male lead knows cannon fodder was lying from the start, he’ll have to cough up everything and give it back to our Chen-baby.]

The comments were right.

My resolve collapsed.

Like a drowning man clutching at a straw, Ying Chen grabbed the hem of Fang Feng’s clothes and began his tearful complaint.

At first, he kept his voice low, afraid the others would hear.

Then he got so caught up in his performance that he didn’t even notice everyone nearby could hear him.

“Mr. Fang, I don’t know why Mu-ge dislikes me so much.”

“Back in the dorm, he was always showing his hostility in little ways. I really don’t understand. If you want something, go earn it yourself. You can’t think that just because you have something, nobody else is allowed to have it.”

“Boo-hoo. Nice people always get bullied…”

Fang Feng raised an eyebrow and let him go on. He looked perfectly happy for the show to get bigger.

More and more people gathered around.

More and more spoke up for Ying Chen.

“So young, and already so vicious. If you don’t have something, you just take it?”

“They used to be roommates? Poor Xiao Chen, stuck with such a backstabbing roommate.”

“We’ve seen Xiao Chen wearing that brooch before. How do you prove it’s yours?”

I stood in the middle of the crowd, unable to defend myself.

I didn’t have the matching ring on me either.

Last time, afraid I’d lose it, I’d put it back in the jewelry box and asked Fang Jindong to keep it safe.

I’d wear it again when I saw him.

“I…”

I’d barely opened my mouth before the tears began to fall.

Damn this body that cried on its own.

“Is there no work to do today? Why are you all standing around here?”

A familiar voice came from beyond the crowd.

“The big boss… Oh my God. The big boss is here.”

“I said he’d come see the intern today. Mu Shengxia’s done for. He picked a fight with the boss’s future husband.”

“Exactly. Walked straight into the line of fire. He even said the brooch was his.”

“Shh… stop. Stop talking. The boss is looking over.”

I lifted my blurred, tear-filled eyes.

Fang Jindong was right there, outside the circle of people.