Chapter 3: Viral Lies and Broken Scripts

I thought Maddy had settled down, but she surprised me. Suddenly, I was the “low-key rich kid” in class—no matter what I said, no one believed me.

First, there were rumors on the campus forum that someone in our dorm was secretly rich, and they all pointed at me.

Then, Hunter Ruiz—the contrarian—showed up. He’d saved my old avatar and posted it online, giving everyone “proof.”

Then, my dad called, saying he had a Porsche on hand, just happened to be driving near campus, and could let me borrow it for a week to show off to classmates.

What do you mean, “just happened” to be nearby?

It was Maddy who asked you to come, then suddenly said she didn’t need the car!

“Okay, but if I crash it, Dad, you’ll have to sell your kidney to pay your boss.”

“...”

My dad, under threat of losing a kidney, gave up on the idea.

Support +5

My mom told me to run for class committee, even suggested I invite classmates to the mansion she cleans after orientation.

I threatened to call the cops to scare my mom straight—support +4

Very good. Looks like Maddy is determined to stick to her script.

Your Porsche is my Porsche, your mansion is my mansion—check. Next up, “your dad is my dad”?

I’m just waiting for Maddy to give me more chances to boost my support.

Maybe because the first two didn’t work, Maddy didn’t dare try anything else—the “your dad is my dad” scene never happened.

At this point, Maddy’s support rating started to rise—eighteen points at once, now at forty-five.

Because, lately, she started dating Sean Young.

Sean, a sophomore this year, is the most popular guy in the law department and student council president. His family’s ordinary, but he’s good-looking and sharp. In the last life, he clung to Quinn Mason—a total jerk.

Maddy said in her mind, “This is just the beginning. Wait and see—when I break up with Sean, my support will skyrocket!”

She’s happy, and so am I. Finally, time to fight back.

I remembered: last time, Maddy played the naive princess, dated the scheming jerk Sean—he was after her local residency and her sweet, gentle personality, so he dated her while looking for better options.

Her support rose because she was pure in relationships—she didn’t care about status, liked Sean for who he was, not his family.

If she’d just been ordinary, or not so naive, she wouldn’t have gotten such high support.

According to the script, Maddy would be bullied by Sean, have her feelings trampled, then finally fight back and punish the jerk.

“Maddy’s the richest guy’s daughter?” Sean was stunned when he heard.

Hunter Ruiz swore up and down: “Of course! One hundred percent true. If anyone says it’s fake, let them come argue with me!”

Hunter’s a die-hard contrarian—persistent and stubborn.

No matter how much I explained that I wasn’t rich, he wouldn’t believe it. So I flipped it: told him to prove Maddy wasn’t rich.

Then, using his own tricks, whatever he said, I’d accuse him of faking it.

And then... to prove himself, he started following Maddy, snapping pics of her living in a mansion.

Sean and Maddy’s relationship got better and better—or so it looked.

Then, I got a friend request from Sean.

Thanks to Maddy, my “rich kid” reputation was everywhere, and Sean was looking to cozy up to me.

I used this, invited Hunter to grab Starbucks with us, and let Sean “accidentally” find out Maddy was the real heiress.

“So, I’m just a regular kid. I don’t know who started the rumor,” I said, sipping my latte.

Sean’s eyes flickered. “Quinn, that’s really tough.”

I rolled my eyes inside. Before, he always called me “Quinny,” saying, “Since Maddy and the others call you that, you won’t mind if I do, right? Your lotus avatar is so classy—you’ve got taste...”

As soon as we got back from Starbucks, Sean changed his avatar—from a basketball player to a photo of him and Maddy—and posted a nine-photo grid on his Insta story.

All kinds of couple pics with Maddy, captioned: So lucky to meet you in this life, my girl.

I liked it and commented: So much couple content—are you two taking requests?

Before, to avoid hurting his gold-digging chances, Sean kept telling Maddy not to join the student council or clubs—he was the president, didn’t want gossip or attention.

Maddy was happy to stay quiet, pretending to believe him.

So before, they kept their relationship secret.

Sean’s core programming: gold-digging. He’d do anything for it.

This time, he learned early his girlfriend was the real heiress.

So he went all out! Now, he wants the whole world to know. Maddy is his girlfriend!

Sean even found me, saying his girlfriend wanted to focus on her studies and didn’t want her identity exposed, so he asked me to keep it quiet.

Heh, trying to reduce the competition. I get it.

I agreed. Maddy, the little rich girl, only lets you stick around. I’ll play along.

He probably talked to Hunter too, and Hunter didn’t spread it.

Sean, though ambitious, is smart—he never told Maddy he knew her real identity.

As for why he changed so much? Don’t ask—just call it deep love.

When we ate, Sean would rush to get food for Maddy. She liked grilled cheese, so Sean would run across campus after class to buy it and deliver it to her dorm. He brought her chocolate during her period. On her birthday, he set up candles and played guitar on the quad, singing her happy birthday. He learned to draw cartoon portraits for her, drew one, and posted it on the campus confession page. All his friends called Maddy “sis.”

Sean and she wore matching hoodies, used matching water bottles, pens, backpacks... Wherever she was, Sean only had eyes for her. He even opened a TikTok account to post their couple videos.

In the videos, Sean is the perfect, talented boyfriend who only treats the ordinary Maddy well. Anyone who insulted her in the comments, he shot down—he stood by her, no matter what.

As someone who can hear Maddy’s thoughts, I knew she felt like she was eating dirt the whole time.

But she had no choice—she had to keep playing along, and the plot had to go on.

“Maddy, your relationship is so cute!”

“What did Sean get you today?”

“I love every one of your videos!”

The dorm girls kept saying stuff like this. Maddy kept a straight face, but clenched her fists.

Of course, she couldn’t argue, or her sweet, innocent persona would collapse.

And Sean hadn’t done anything wrong—he was all about her.

She’d gone after Sean first. If she broke up, her support would tank.

For the sake of her support, she couldn’t break up—she had to keep playing the loving girlfriend.