I turned to Sally as she sobbed quietly at the side. The corners of my lips twitched.

“What proof do you have that the baby you’re carrying is mine?”

The crowd abruptly fell silent. The people who held up their phones to stream the whole thing instinctively turned their cameras to Sally. They were waiting for her answer.

A flash of panic crossed her face, but she quickly drowned it out with another wave of tears.

“Proof? You’re asking me for proof? Don’t you remember anything that night at the hotel?”

“Which hotel and which night?” I calmly pressed as if we were talking about the weather.

“What’s the room number? Where’s the booking record? Or…”

I casually glanced at her belly.

“Can you produce anything that proves we had physical contact? Is there anything that shows I have a biological connection to the child you’re carrying?”

Right then, a trace of embarrassment crossed Sally’s face.

“How am I supposed to explain something like that? Isn’t the baby itself proof enough?”

William frowned and also thought that I had gone too far with my line of questioning.

“Chris, you’re being unreasonable! These are deeply private matters. How can Sally possibly provide concrete evidence for everything?”

“So, you can’t provide any evidence, huh?”

I raised an eyebrow and my voice. Then, I swept my eyes across the raised phone cameras.

“She’s saying that her claims are enough to decide who the father is.

“By that logic, I can point to any male student present or even you and claim that the baby is yours, correct?”

“Nonsense!” William exploded with rage.

I smirked and finally stopped holding back my own anger.

“Mr. Anderson, before you accuse me of being unreasonable, why don’t you stop and think for a moment? You’re forcing me to take responsibility for her claims without concrete evidence. Is that fair to me?”

As soon as I finished speaking, Sally added, “You want evidence, right? Fine!”

She took out her phone and showed us several screenshots.

“These are the tickets from when you asked me out to the movies. This is the receipt from when you took me out for food. And this is the record from the first time we booked a hotel room together…”

She paused for a moment and lowered her voice. However, everyone present could still hear her. “The baby I’m carrying came from the third time we booked a room. Honey, even at this point, you still won’t admit it?”

No wonder she had repeatedly asked me out since that meeting. It looked like she had planned to set me up all along!

I glanced at her so-called evidence, and the corners of my lips formed a cold smirk.

“It’s just a few random tickets and receipts, plus some booking records that anyone can forge. You expect me to be a fool and take the blame? No way.”

“My god! This guy is despicable! He’s the one who demanded proof. Now that she’s shown it, he’s still denying everything!”

“Trash! It’s clear that he’s trying to get laid and walk away scot-free!”

As the crowd’s opinion skewed completely, Sally’s tears began to spill again.

“Honey, how could you slander me like that?

“I understand that there’s a huge difference between our family backgrounds. You may think that I’m not good enough for you, but our baby is innocent!”

William stepped in front of Sally without hesitation, and his tone was heavy with disappointment.

“Sally’s a girl. Do you really think she would sacrifice her own reputation and dignity just to falsely accuse you?!”

William shook his head in anguish. It was as if he were looking at a hopeless case of fallen youth.

“I thought you were just young and afraid of taking responsibility. But now, it’s clear this is a matter of character. You can’t tell right from wrong, and you blatantly twist the truth. No university should ever tolerate a student like you!”

He took a deep breath, as though he had finally made up his mind.

“This is an extremely serious case. It’s no longer just a private relationship dispute. It’s a major violation of university rules, and it has damaged the university’s reputation. You are to offer Sally a sincere apology and take responsibility as a man at once. Otherwise, I’ll contact the university’s administration and pursue severe disciplinary action, including expulsion!”

Sally revealed a triumphant grin behind William.

She tugged on the hem of William’s clothes and gently said, “Mr. Anderson, please don’t be like that. He’s just being careless right now. I’m sure he’s a good person at heart. As long as he acknowledges me and our baby, I don’t need an apology from him.”

Her display of generosity instantly won everyone’s sympathy. At the same time, she effectively nailed me to the pillory as an ungrateful villain.

Public opinion on the internet went viral, and Samuel’s gaze was filled with concern. I knew that it would be useless to reveal my gender at this point.

The people followed the crowd, and they would assume that the denial of my gender was nothing more than an excuse to dodge responsibility.

Not only would I fail to clear my name, but my gender and sexual orientation would also become juicy gossip.

So, I took a deep breath and decided to escalate things.

I turned around and faced the camera nearest to me. “Fellow students and netizens, this whole situation has caught me completely off guard. Frankly, it’s absurd,” I calmly said.

Pausing for a moment, I swept my gaze across the crowd of people with different expressions on their faces.

“At this point, I know any hollow explanation will sound weak in the face of the alleged victim and her so-called evidence. In that case, I’m willing to prove my innocence in a more scientific and straightforward manner.”

I turned to Sally and stared at her calmly, but my gaze carried a quiet authority.

“Sally, since neither of us can convince the other, let’s go to the hospital. We’re going there right now without further ado. We’ll do a prenatal paternity test. Let science tell us if I’m really the father of the child you’re carrying.”

Sally’s face instantly turned pale, and she blurted out, “N-No way!”

Her refusal was so abrupt that it instantly drew everyone’s attention. Even William turned to look at her in confusion.

I pressed the issue further.

“Why not? Isn’t this the most direct way to find out who’s lying? Sally, you’re being diffident.”

Before the crowd’s watchful gaze, Sally’s eyes darted away. She subconsciously twisted the hem of her clothes as well.

She seemed to steel herself after some time.

“Fine. Let’s go. Chris, you made me do this! If the results come back and prove that the child is yours, you need to take full responsibility. You have to admit your wrongdoing in front of everyone!”

Her reaction caught me off guard. But that flash of guilt had not been an act.

So, I smirked and agreed without hesitation.

With that, the farce moved from the counselor’s office to the most authoritative testing facility in the city.

It was not just the students who showed up after catching wind of this. The media and local online influencers came with their cameras and microphones too. They crowded the hospital’s hallway.

No one wanted to miss out on fresh gossip.

While waiting for the test results, the media closed in on me.

“Chris, do you feel nervous?”

“Why don’t you believe Sally? Are there any irreconcilable differences in your relationship that make you reject the child so strongly?”

“You insist on resolving the issue through a paternity test. Don’t you think that’s cold and hurtful?”

I looked at the reporter who seemed the most eager for a reaction and calmly shot back, “What if I told you I’m a woman? Would you believe me?”

The reporter froze for a second before bursting into laughter with the rest of the crowd. His tone dripped with obvious mockery.

“Chris, are you really going to make things up and deny your own gender just to dodge responsibility?”

I smirked and said nothing more.

Since they only believed what they wanted to believe, I would just wait for the results.

The truth would eventually come out.

The seconds seemed to crawl by, and the air in the hallway grew heavy with tension.

Sally kept her head down, and her expression was unreadable. William, on the other hand, paced back and forth nervously. Meanwhile, Samuel stood firmly by my side.

At last, the testing room door swung open. The doctor then came out with a report in his hand.

They instantly focused their cameras on him.

The doctor scanned the crowd before finally resting his gaze on me and Sally. He handed us a freshly printed test report.

On the very last page, one line stood out in stark clarity.