The next day, Lin Shuicheng found out that someone had filed a real-name report against him, questioning the legitimacy of his entrance exam scores.
Even though it was a real-name report, he had no impression of the other person’s name at all. If it hadn’t been for Lü Jian running over to tell him, he wouldn’t even have remembered that yesterday Wang Pinyuan had asked him for his academic records.
Lin Shuicheng was pulled outside by Xu Mengmeng, who took out her phone to check the school’s report handling announcement. Xu Mengmeng asked him, “Xiao Lin, did you offend someone?”
Lin Shuicheng said, “I don’t remember, I don’t know anyone here.”
Someone nearby came over to ask what was going on. After unknowingly learning about the causes and consequences, they secretly came over to take a look. On the other side, just as Ou Qian entered the lab, someone called her over to watch the gossip, whispering, “Lin Shuicheng got reported! They said his scores were fake. The report was filed last night, and the results haven’t come out yet.”
Ou Qian pretended to be surprised, “Ah? How could this happen?”
She was a student from the main campus and had known early on that Lin Shuicheng is now someone close to Fu Luoyin. Transferring from the branch campus was definitely done by leveraging Fu Luoyin’s connections.
She had casually mentioned it at the dinner table yesterday, and immediately someone couldn’t sit still. They probably figured that since they were all from the School of Mathematics, if the report didn’t succeed, they’d still have to see each other in the same lab. So, they had someone else file the report, and no one recognized the name of the person who reported it.
A boy sitting at the table writing a report lowered his head and spoke, “It might not even be that he offended someone. If people have doubts, they can report it directly; there’s nothing more to say about it. He came from the Jiangnan branch, and their undergraduate admission scores are forty to fifty points lower than ours here at the main campus. Tsk. Star University doesn’t have a guaranteed admission system for graduate studies, and we worked our tails off to get in. We certainly aren’t here for the Alliance to spend real money to support certain little white-faced babies.
This guy’s name was An Ruyi, and he was also a student personally brought into the project group by Wang Pinyuan. He was unremarkable in appearance and usually kept to himself. The people in the group didn’t like him much, but his data analysis skills were top-notch, and the project group couldn’t do without him.
Xu Mengmeng said, “Why do you have to be so harsh? The results haven’t come out yet, have they?”
An Ruyi let out a cold laugh, “You’re speaking up for him now, but who knows, the spot that gets taken away might end up being your own. This project started yesterday, and you’re already in your second year of graduate school. How come you haven’t been part of a single project directly supervised by a professor?”
Xu Mengmeng was so angry she almost started cursing, “—What the hell do you know? Is that how you talk to people?!”
Ou Qian quickly pulled her back and said, “Senior sister, don’t get angry.”
Lin Shuicheng glanced at An Ruyi.
He was in the same group as him. The other party didn’t like him, and after a few days, he knew it too.
But he couldn’t be bothered to figure out why the other people didn’t like him. When dealing with each other in the lab, they just handle matters seriously when they meet; there aren’t that many interpersonal relationships to manage either.
The lab door was pushed open, and today Wang Pinyuan arrived fashionably late.
As soon as he entered, the voices in the lab discussing quieted down, and the tense atmosphere that had just been there disappeared.
Wang Pinyuan seemed to not have noticed that the atmosphere was off. When he saw Lin Shuicheng, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, slapped his forehead, and exclaimed, “Oh! I forgot to mention, Xiao Lin, you heard about the report filed against you yesterday,
Lin Shuicheng said, “Yeah, I just found out.”
“Look at my memory. I remembered to ask you for the documents yesterday but then forgot to help you put them up. I’ll do it right now, just wait a moment, okay?”
Wang Pinyuan casually commandeered a computer, and Lin Shuicheng stood by his side, waiting.
Wang Pinyuan spoke with Lin Shuicheng alone about certain matters, while the others all returned to their respective positions to start working, but in reality, they all pricked up their ears to eavesdrop.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ktf ijy kjr rb delfa atja sbe mbeiv tfjg j qlc vgbq.
Coafg j wbwfca, Qjcu Ulcsejc qfgobgwfv jc bqfgjalbc bc atf mbwqeafg jcv atfc abiv tlw, “Cigluta, Wljb Olc, vbc’a ifa atlr wjaafg joofma sbe. Xb yjmx jcv mbcalcef klat sbeg qgbpfma. Ktf qgbpfma qgbqbrji lr lc j ofk vjsr, rb vbc’a yf mjgfifrr.”
“Thank you, Professor,” Lin Shuicheng said.
He returned to his seat.
At this moment, the Star University’s official website report center had already been updated. The report against Lin Shuicheng was marked with bold green letters: The reason for the report has been found to be invalid.
Below that, from top to bottom, were the public records of Lin Shuicheng’s high school graduation scores and his graduate entrance examination scores.
In high school, besides the main subjects, he chose to study physics, chemistry, and computer science. He graduated with perfect scores in both the main and elective subjects. Further attached was a request to assign his undergraduate location to the Jiangnan branch for personal reasons.
First place with a perfect score in the written exam for the graduate entrance exam in the major, and first place in the interview.
Appendix 1: Application for assignment of graduate student location to the Jiangnan Branch, citing personal reasons.
Appendix 2: Application to transfer back to the main campus, citing personal reasons, specially approved by the principal.
In theory, a student transferring departments needs approval from three levels: the advisor, the department, and the academic affairs office. To actually get the president involved in handling this matter does give off the impression of having connections.
But everyone kept their mouths shut and didn’t raise any further questions.
“Holy crap… he was the top scorer that year! Perfect scores in all subjects, what kind of devil is he? Not only was he the top scorer of his cohort, but he also outscored the second place by more than thirty points… that’s just too…”
“I found it! He was part of the Northern Hemisphere Branches Joint Molecular Biotechnology Club, and there were three papers with his name that year! Even though they were chemistry papers, damn, damn, with someone like him transferring from a branch, what approval do you even need? If I were the president, I’d approve it with my eyes closed! It’s just a matter of whether the Jiangnan Branch is willing to let him go… How come he suddenly switched to studying data ? What a waste.”
“Maybe he’s just doing it out of interest, thinking it’s good to learn a bit of everything while young, you know?”
……
Lin Shuicheng became the focal point of today’s conversation, but he himself didn’t pay any attention.
He bought another flask today. Apart from the one at home, he also placed one in the laboratory. He still paired it with copper sulfate solution to make a light blue storm bottle. The laboratory turns on the heating during the day and turns it off at night. The large temperature difference between day and night would make it easier for crystals to precipitate out.
In the laboratory, only two people had a bad complexion, one of them was An Ruyi.
The other one was Ou Qian.
She glanced over Lin Shuicheng’s grade report and managed to keep a smile for a while, joining others in praising him. However, soon even she couldn’t force a smile anymore.
The grade report also included photos of Lin Shuicheng when he applied to college and graduate school—one from six years ago, and one from now. Lin Shuicheng’s appearance hasn’t changed much in the past six years. His features are undeniably delicate and beautiful, but his demeanor still carries a hint of reservedness and ordinariness. The present-day Lin Shuicheng, however, exudes a sense of calmness and maturity. In the photo, he appears aloof and composed, yet his good looks are so captivating that it’s hard to look away.
Someone quickly took a screenshot and posted it on the Star University forum. The title of the post was: “Does anyone know the guy from the School of Mathematics who got reported today? I want to make an anonymous confession—he’s too good-looking! Does anyone have his contact info?”
Within just a few hours, this post had become a hot topic, with a slew of shocked comments below it.
“I’m not mistaken, right? This is a chemistry expert. I saw him at a chemistry summit a few years ago. Why is he studying data science now?”
“Yeah, I know him. He’s very famous at the Jiangnan branch for being both highly skilled and good-looking. Who’s the idiot that reported him? Hilarious! Does the reporter know he’s up against xxx’s prized student? If you don’t know who xxx is, look it up yourself. I won’t elaborate on how impressive their background is. Even the eldest son of the Fu family specifically transferred to the branch for his undergraduate studies in order to follow xxx. Lin Shuicheng is his personal junior disciple from that same cohort.”
“Please, we don’t understand what you are saying. The brothers and sisters from the Art Department just want to see his photo. Does anyone have one?”
The thread quickly went off-topic, veering from Lin Shuicheng to the Star University’s real-name reporting system, then to a debate over whether chemistry or mathematics is more useful. In the end, it escalated into a fierce battle of immortals between the School of Chemistry and the School of Mathematics for snatching talent, tearing apart hundreds of pages.
Lin Shuicheng also gained some attention at the main campus.
At noon, Ou Qian went to the rooftop to make a phone call.
“Ranran…”
“What’s up? What do you think of that person?”
Ou Qian carefully chose her words and told the other person cautiously, “He’s not someone to mess with. Seems like quite a formidable person. Ranran, are you sure the information you heard is true? Lin Shuicheng doesn’t seem like someone who’d be kept by someone. Is it possible… he’s really Fu’er’s current boyfriend?”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Then, a soft voice asked, “What’s wrong? What happened?”
Ou Qian sent him everything she saw and heard today.
After Xia Ran hung up the phone, he sent a text message for a long time saying, “I knew it. Back then, when I wanted to break up with him, it was because he looked down on me. He likes good students, likes those who are good at studying and obedient. And, I have nothing.”
“Don’t overthink it, Ranran. Over these many years, everyone Fu’er has looked for resembles you so much. You two shouldn’t torment each other anymore,” Ou Qian suggested, “You should come back sooner. Since you care, just come back and start over with him. What’s so difficult about that? Fu’er has always been waiting for you.”
But there was no response from Xia Ran’s end.
Before Lin Shuicheng finished work, he received a message from Fu Luoyin, replying to his message from last night: “Okay.” Apparently, Fu Luoyin didn’t notice the time the message was sent.
Lin Shuicheng: “…”
Fu Luoyin sometimes has this habit of only reading the latest message and often forgets to pay attention to the timestamp.
Lin Shuicheng also has a bit of this habit sometimes. When he’s busy, he quickly scans and replies with just a glance. When he was an undergraduate, he was once grabbed by the collar by a female classmate of the same year who questioned him, “Are all you men really only capable of seeing the latest message, huh?!”
When Fu Luoyin sent the message at this time, Lin Shuicheng felt a bit happy.
Although yesterday had already passed, Fu Luoyin’s reply probably also meant that he wouldn’t be coming back tonight either.
Lin Shuicheng didn’t feel like cooking, so on his walk home, he bought rice noodle rolls and spicy fried potatoes from a street vendor. He took his time eating when he got home. The rice noodle rolls were simple, made with eggs and shrimp, with a light and delicious taste.The fried potatoes had a stronger flavor; with each bite, the outside was crispy while the inside was tender, bursting with aroma.
The Chief ran over to freeload for food, so Lin Shuicheng picked out all the shrimp for it.
Today, he finally managed to trim the Chief’s nails. After washing up early, he went to bed, holding the cat in his arms, with a study video playing on his tablet.
Just as he was feeling drowsy, Lin Shuicheng suddenly heard the door to his home being opened—Fu Luoyin was back.
His first reaction was to turn off the light and lie down, hurriedly pressing the tablet screen off and turning over to pretend to sleep.
The bruises on his body hadn’t fully healed yet, and any larger movements still caused pain. He was scared of being tossed and turned by Fu Luoyin again.
As soon as he turned off the light, Fu Luoyin came in.
Seeing that he was asleep, Fu Luoyin didn’t go to him but went to the bathroom to take a shower first. The bedroom was dark, and Fu Luoyin didn’t turn on the light even while showering.
The pervasive darkness and the silent tenderness within it left Lin Shuicheng feeling a bit dazed.
The bathroom door closed, and the person inside came out and went straight to the bed, hugging him from behind and gently biting his ear.
“Pretending to sleep, huh? I saw the light in your room as soon as I came back.”
Lin Shuicheng spoke in a low voice, “No, I was asleep. You woke me up again.”
“Didn’t you say you were having dinner with classmates?” Fu Luoyin found this somewhat amusing. When he came back, he saw the uncleaned food containers on the table. Coupled with Lin Shuicheng pretending to sleep, he realized that his little lover could actually lie.
Thinking of this, his voice turned a bit cold: “Where did you run off to?”
“Check your phone yourself. Look at when I sent you the message.”
Hearing this, Fu Luoyin took out his phone and realized it was from yesterday.
He felt a bit more satisfied, leaned over to look, and found that Lin Shuicheng seemed extremely aggrieved, refusing to turn and look at him. He then laughed softly again.
“Then how about I let you take a bite?” Fu Luoyin held him tightly with no relaxation in his grip. Lin Shuicheng knew there was no escaping today. Sure enough, in no time, Fu Luoyin pulled him over.
“Aren’t you the one who likes to bite, like a little kitten?” Fu Luoyin’s voice, hoarse and slightly cold, was filled with suppressed emotion and desire. He held Lin Shuicheng’s head firmly. “Go ahead, bite.”
Lin Shuicheng cried again, and Fu Luoyin was increasingly stimulated by his tears, the bedroom remained unlit, but the commotion didn’t settle until early morning.
Translator’s Rant:
This translator forgot to translate a critical author’s note in the last chapter. I am really sorry for that. You can go back and check it. Thanks.
Additionally, I have added the note as follows:
Author’s Note for Chapter 06
While writing, I discovered a small timing bug and will fix it tomorrow. Previously, Xiao Lin met Xiao Fu after graduating with a bachelor’s degree. They have been together for two years. Now, Xiao Lin has been transferred to the main campus for graduate studies and should be at least a second-year graduate student. However, I originally intended for Xiao Lin to be a first-year graduate student. I will standardize it to: “They have been together for two years. During this time, Lin Shuicheng has been switching majors while staying at the branch as a teaching assistant and has transferred to the main campus for the first year of graduate studies this year.”
The Ending
With this, “Wrong Image” has come to an end. I think by now everyone has guessed who the two protagonists are being substitutes for. And, that there are no feelings whatsoever between them. And, that they both apparently don’t know about each other other than their names. However, what bugs me is that did Lin Shuicheng never know that his ex-boyfriend had a younger brother, or did he never care even in his relationship with Chu Shihan. But, considering his “bother-me-not-as-the-only-thing-that-bothers-me-is-the-cowcat-and-the-crystal-bottle” personality, I don’t think so.
I’m sorry to say I’ve committed the same crimes as xiao fu and xiao lin… not checking timestamps 🤭
Thank you for translating, and adding the new authors notes!
Still looking forward to Fu Luoyin finding out. XD XD XD
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR BEING AWESOME!!!
My gosh this is such a nice read, I really excited to see the hurt and pain.
.
Also i think there a mistake where Wang Pinyuan said this same paragraph twice:
“Wang Pinyuan seemed to not have noticed that the atmosphere was off. When he saw Lin Shuicheng, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, slapped his forehead, and exclaimed, “Oh! I forgot to mention, Xiao Lin, you heard about the report filed against you yesterday, right?”