CHAPTER 576: CHAPTER 576: HUMILIATION AND ANGER

Ariel squinted her eyes, her gaze at the girl was sharp, and her words were piercing, instantly turning all the sympathy the girl had just received into accusation and distrust.

"Why aren’t you crying now? Isn’t this your forte? Is it because you’ve run out of tears to shed, or are you too guilty to cry? Should I have my sweetheart buy you some eye drops to moisten those dry eyes?" Ariel said sarcastically.

Someone in the crowd compared the girl’s current state to before and was surprised to find they were exactly the same, instantly gasping, and the look of amazement and pity in their eyes for the girl was gone.

The emotions the girl had just brewed were easily shattered by Ariel, and her momentum to go all out was easily disrupted by Ariel’s words. Now, it seemed she couldn’t even begin to cry.

Feeling the unkind stares from the people around, the girl took a deep breath and blinked her somewhat dry eyes, saying, "I don’t know why you have such a huge misunderstanding about me, but I haven’t done the things you just accused me of. I won’t admit to things I haven’t done. I can apologize for knocking down his book, but I won’t admit to any other unfounded accusations that have been placed on me."

The girl’s expression was firm. Things had reached this point; if she admitted her previous actions were to deceive their trust, she believed she couldn’t leave here unscathed. She didn’t want to bet on that possibility.

Ariel had a knowing look on her face, which sent a chill down the girl’s spine, but she couldn’t understand why Ariel suddenly laughed.

"Alright, then just apologize for knocking down my sweetheart’s book."

The girl thought there might be a fierce battle between her and Ariel, but unexpectedly Ariel seemed so reasonable. For a moment, her already busy mind had one more question to deal with, leaving her somewhat confused. She subconsciously apologized to Xu Ke as per Ariel’s words.

But what she didn’t realize was that she had made a blunder. Once you decide to lie from the start, you must continue lying; otherwise, contradicting your own statements means if someone stirs the pot, every word you’ve said will become a lie, and your credibility in the public’s eyes will significantly decrease.

Sure enough, as soon as the girl apologized, a few who understood things clearly changed their expressions and looked at the girl with a very hostile expression. They felt their kindness had been exploited and deceived.

"Hmph, I thought you were honest, but it turns out you’re really lying and deceiving. What poor judgment we had to help someone like you." said someone in the crowd.

The voice wasn’t too loud or too soft, just enough to be heard by those gathered around.

People are prone to follow the crowd. Seeing someone say this, they couldn’t help but ponder, and some, with the hints from their companions, realized what was going on. The look in their eyes toward the girl became hard to explain. Some who hadn’t reacted from start to finish saw everyone glaring angrily at the girl and didn’t want to be out of place, so they also put on an expression as if they, too, had been deceived, looking at the girl with accusatory eyes.

The girl was somewhat afraid of everyone’s stares, "Why are you all looking at me like that? Can’t we just talk directly? Is this necessary?"

Faced with the girl’s plea, the crowd, once deceived, finally chose not to believe another word the girl said.

Ariel looked at this scene with satisfaction, leaning close to Xu Ke’s ear with a smug expression, saying, "Didn’t I do well?"

"Superb!" Xu Ke praised Ariel’s actions and kissed her on the cheek to express his gratitude.

The two of them looked at the girl surrounded by the crowd, quietly withdrew from the crowd, and ran out of the museum.

Neither of them were saints. They had no magnanimous feelings of repaying grievances with virtue, nor did they care how the girl would cope with the backlash from those she’d fooled after they left.

There’s a saying, self-inflicted misfortune is unforgivable. If she hadn’t harbored any crooked thoughts at the time, she wouldn’t be facing such a situation now.

They exchanged glances and smiled knowingly.

Leaving the museum, Xu Ke led Ariel to check in at another place.

The main content of their date today was to visit various sights in Yunzhou, but until now, they’d only completed the museum visit, still having several more spots yet to explore.

As the two were heading to the next attraction, they were stopped.

It was a young boy who stopped them.

The boy was a part-time student, and Xu Ke and Ariel were the first couple he’d proactively stopped in a long time.

"Hello, do you need a portrait? It’s drawn in a cartoon style." The boy looked a little shyly at the two of them, speaking a bit stutteringly.

"Do you want to?" Xu Ke wasn’t particularly adamant about it; whether they had a portrait drawn wasn’t significant to him, so he mainly listened to Ariel’s opinion.

Under the boy’s hopeful gaze, Ariel nodded.

The boy instantly lit up, looking incredibly happy, "Thank you for trusting me. Don’t worry, I’ll finish quickly, and these cartoon portraits are especially fun. You’ll definitely like them." The boy said as he set up his tools.

Xu Ke didn’t have any expectations for a non-existent artwork, thinking the boy was just using a sales pitch. But Ariel was quite trusting in his words and held some anticipation for the portrait he mentioned. After all, it was her first time appearing in the same frame as Xu Ke in a cartoon form, so how could she not look forward to it?

"Please make us look good, and if the drawing isn’t nice, we won’t pay you." Ariel said with a smile.

The boy blushed at Ariel’s smile, even his ears turning pink, "Don’t worry, this portrait is free. No, no payment needed."

"Really? Thank you!" Ariel said with a smile.

Ariel’s smile turned the boy’s face red again, so much so that he didn’t even dare to glance at Ariel, only blinking his slightly moist eyes at Xu Ke, trying to maintain a serious demeanour, not realizing how it only made people want to scream and commit a crime.

Seeing this, Ariel rolled her eyes at Ariel, trying to stop her from being overly charming.