Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Sister, I'm scared. I never want to go to school again!"

"Sister, save me!"

"They forced me to take videos, Sister. My life is over!"

"You should live a good life with Mom, as if I never came to this world..."

......

"No, Sister, no!!!"

After a scream, I woke up from my dream, gasping for breath as I looked around my familiar bedroom. My back was completely soaked.

The scenes in the dream were so real that they kept stimulating my nerves, making me both alert and dizzy.

My sister, who died a year ago, begged me to save her over and over again in the dream. In the end, her desperate eyes showed no sign of life as she jumped from the sixth floor of the school, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't catch her.

"Hurry up and come eat breakfast! Today is your first day at the new school. What time is it already!"

Mom's voice pulled me out of the shadow of the nightmare.

I'm Emma Chen, born into a single-parent family. Mom raised my sister and me by doing manual work.

Today is my first day transferring to the new school.

I got up a bit late, so I quickly put on my shoes and changed into the new school uniform.

"You're going to a new school today, and you still don't know how to set an alarm? If you're late, the teacher won't have a good impression of you," Mom said as she handed me my schoolbag, chattering on.

"I know! I'll ride my bike fast, I won't be late," I said, bending down to put on my shoes at the door, with a scallion pancake in my mouth. I stood up and tightened my high ponytail.

Before leaving, I waved goodbye to Mom and glanced at the portrait of my sister hanging on the wall behind her.

It has been a year since my sister passed away. Over the past year, I have had repeated nightmares, and I even feel the pain my sister endured as if it were my own.

Every time, I can see the despair in her eyes at the moment she left, and the overwhelming hatred in her gaze...

I should have noticed that something was wrong with my sister earlier. I should have known what kind of bullying she was suffering at school.

"Ding ling ling" — the morning reading bell rang.

"Good morning, classmates. I'm sorry to take up your morning reading time to introduce a new classmate, Emma Chen," Mr. Chen said, pushing up his reading glasses and gesturing for me to enter the classroom.

"Come on in, Emma Chen. Say hello to your classmates."

When I stepped into the classroom, I made a point of straightening my back. A new school, new classmates — I needed to make a good first impression.

"Hello everyone, my name is Emma Chen. Please take care of me from now on!" I gave a sweet smile to the crowd below, hoping my smile would show them that I was a sunny, lively, confident, and very easy-going girl.

"Let's all clap to welcome Emma!"

A round of applause broke out from the audience.

I looked up at all my new classmates. Almost everyone had a curious look on their face, and a few even had dull expressions — I knew that wasn't a sign of welcome.

Staring at those classmates with dull expressions, I couldn't help but mutter to myself that the academic pressure of the third year in a key high school was really overwhelming, making the students so numb from studying.

"Emma Chen, you can sit next to Chloe He. There's an empty seat over there," Mr. Chen pointed to a seat in the third row from the back. Sitting there was a quiet girl with black-rimmed glasses and thick bangs, which made her look a bit clumsy and boring.

"Okay, teacher," I replied, walking quickly and lightly to my seat and putting down my schoolbag.

After seeing me settle in, Mr. Chen left a message: "Study on your own during morning reading class," then went back to the office.

"Hey, hey, hey!" A chubby boy sitting one seat away on my left waved the tip of his pen in front of my eyes. "Classmate, which high school did you transfer from?"

When the chubby boy asked this question, people around me put down their books and looked at me.

It seemed that the third-year life here was really boring — even such a trivial question made everyone want to listen in and join the fun. Especially the two girls sitting in front of me; they even turned around and stared at my face intently.

I didn't look back at them, because such scrutinizing glances really made me uncomfortable.

I opened my schoolbag, took out the Chinese textbook for morning reading, and put it on the desk. I had to say, this Chinese textbook was really thick. Touching the thick spine on the left side, I thought to myself that it must hurt a lot if someone was hit with this thing.

After putting down the book, I turned my head and casually replied, "Chengnan City No. 1 High School."

As soon as I said "Chengnan City No. 1 High School," the whole class erupted in excitement.

The chubby boy stopped spinning his pen, stared at me with wide eyes, and said in amazement, "That's the best high school in our city — a five-star one! Why would you want to transfer to our four-star high school? You must have good grades, right?"

This high school was not bad either. Although it was only four-star, it was still a key high school.

"My grades are bad. I was almost expelled for being at the bottom of the class, so I transferred," I didn't even bother to look at the chubby boy's expression, because I knew that as soon as I said this, they would definitely think I was a student with poor grades and an arrogant attitude. Otherwise, why would I transfer to this remote school — which was far from the city center, almost in the suburbs — downgrading from a five-star to a four-star?

There was only one five-star high school in the city, and five four-star ones. The one I was attending now was the most remote and the worst among all the four-star high schools.

But what I said was actually the truth. Since my sister passed away when I was in the second year of high school, my grades had been declining steadily.

I didn't know if it was because the nightmares affected my sleep quality, which in turn caused my grades to drop, or if the third-year curriculum was just too difficult for me to keep up with.

The chubby boy wanted to ask more questions, but when he saw the Chinese teacher walking in, the whole class instantly stopped their noisy gossip and turned to reading in unison.

I also opened my Chinese textbook. Since it was my first day here, I didn't know which chapter they were on, so I looked up to see which page the two girls in front of me had opened.

But those two seemed to have a lot to talk about. They opened their books to cover their faces and whispered to each other behind the books, not even realizing that their books were upside down.

I couldn't help but want to laugh, but I didn't like to mind other people's business, so I didn't remind them. Instead, I turned to my deskmate, who had been quiet and hadn't said a word since I arrived.

"Hi, classmate. Which text are we supposed to memorize today?" I leaned over to check the page number, but she seemed a bit nervous — maybe she was a socially anxious girl.

She looked up, but not at me; instead, she stared ahead and whispered quickly, as if the words were burning her tongue, "Page 58, recite 'Man Jiang Hong'."

I also glanced at the teacher in front. The Chinese teacher seemed like a gentle person — why was she so scared? What a timid girl!

"You mean 'Man Jiang Hong' on page 58?" My voice was much louder than her faint one. It didn't attract the teacher's attention, but it did draw the attention of the two chatting girls in front.

They turned around and stared at my deskmate. I also followed their gaze to my deskmate, wanting to confirm with her if it was really "Man Jiang Hong" on page 58.

"Y-yes... i-it is," she stammered, even more nervous now that she was being stared at by three people. It seemed she really was socially anxious.

Watching her trembling with evasive eyes, as if there were nails on the chair making her fidgety, I shifted my gaze to the textbook. I thought it was better not to look at her anymore — otherwise, I was afraid she might get so nervous that she'd have an epileptic fit.

"Okay, thank you, classmate," I said, finding page 58 and starting to read aloud in a loud voice. My voice was the loudest in the whole class, making me look like an enthusiastic class activist.

"...The shame of Jingkang still remains unavenged. When will the hatred of loyal subjects be erased!... With lofty aspirations, we hunger to eat the flesh of the barbarian invaders; in cheerful talk, we thirst to drink the blood of the Xiongnu... To face the imperial court!"