Xia Shuran was so startled she nearly dropped her phone.
She had a black birthmark the size of a mung bean on her lower back.
It had faded as she grew older, leaving only a tiny speck in the middle, looking like a small mole.
Even her mother didn’t know about it anymore after she grew up.
Xia Shuran bit her pale lips hard, her heart sinking into an ice cellar.
Her nerves twisted, forcing her thoughts to sharpen.
She remembered what her classmate in Italy had once told her—
that some local landlords installed cameras in their tenants’ rooms, and she should be careful.
Back then, they were at a party, everyone going wild.
Xia Shuran had assumed it was just a peculiar drunken prank typical of Southern Europeans.
Now she realized—her landlord in Italy had a sleazy demeanor and often squeezed into the narrow elevator with her, a specialty of the country.
His obese body reeked so badly that Xia Shuran nearly gagged several times.
He had installed a camera in her room and uploaded the footage to a small website, where Chi Yu had seen it.
So that’s how it was…
Having pieced together the full story, Xia Shuran’s fear shifted from the unknown to the settled.
The latter was worse, because there was no changing the situation now—whoever had seen it had already seen it.
After the fury came endless shame, humiliation, and helplessness, flooding her chest.
Xia Shuran’s face turned deathly pale. How could any girl accept being secretly filmed and having thousands upon thousands of people browse those images online?
Xia Shuran took a deep breath, trying to calm herself internally. Handle what’s in front of you first, one step at a time.
Trembling, she typed a message to Chi Yu:
[Fine. Wait for me.]
Xia Shuran slowly stood up. She was going to buy a knife.
Back in the dorm, Jiang Xiaoyue, heartbroken that her goddess hadn’t taken her along, had converted her sorrow into appetite and was nearly five packs of duck feet into her snack binge.
Just as she was about to open a sixth pack, Chen Feifei snatched it away.
Before Jiang Xiaoyue could even react, Chen Feifei spoke first:
“I told you this morning—I have a super, super, SUPER important party this afternoon.
Don’t eat smelly snacks in the dorm! My perfume now smells like duck!”
Jiang Xiaoyue scratched her head, only then remembering.
Chen Feifei had indeed come to the dorm early in the morning, made her bed, and then kept yapping on and on about some racing club or something.
Jiang Xiaoyue roared inwardly: Heaven above, judge the loyal! Can’t even let a person eat now?! Is there no justice left in this world?!
The next second: “Fine, then I’ll go eat outside.”
With that, she tiptoed over, grabbed a bag of chicken and duck feet, and headed out.
“Eat, eat, eat—that’s all you know how to do! You’re a pig!”
Su Yao laughed. “Come on, Feifei, you know Xiaoyue. It’d be stranger if she went a day without eating.
Where are you headed this afternoon? Aren’t you going to the class meeting?”
Chen Feifei waved her hand and sat back down in front of the mirror, starting to apply foundation.
“Oh, forget it, I’m skipping it. This afternoon’s gathering is worth ten class meetings—no, a hundred.”
Su Yao kept asking what kind of gathering it was.
Chen Feifei, of course, wouldn’t say. She’d had to beg Xu Yanxi for ages just to be allowed to go.
Aside from people in that circle, almost no one knew—not a whisper had leaked out.
Chen Feifei had only caught wind of it because Xu Yanxi mentioned it in passing: Chi Yu had set up a sports car club in the western outskirts of the capital.
Apparently, he’d been planning it for a long time.
Last month, the mountain in the western suburbs was finally completed, and today was the club’s grand opening.
She’d heard the mountain road had been closed off to serve as a racing track—Chi Yu had bought the entire mountain.
In other words, the whole mountain was land he’d developed, the roads he’d built, and he’d even constructed a villa estate on top.
The rich really did whatever they pleased.
The aloof, cool-hearted idol ordinary people saw was, in private, someone who threw money around like water.
Sometimes, when Chen Feifei looked at Chi Yu, she felt a sense of dissonance.
This afternoon, she’d be joining them for street racing, and tonight there was a pool party.
Word had it that every spoiled second-generation heir in the circle would be there. She had to look stunning—maybe she could hook one!
Xia Shuran went to a large supermarket and lingered in the kitchenware section for a long time.
She carefully selected a sharp, slender meat cleaver.
The supermarket clerk kept pushing the sale:
“Miss, you have excellent taste! This knife is special—it’s imported from Germany.
The blade is razor-sharp. Whatever meat you have, it’ll chop it up fine, mince it to bits.
I guarantee that as you slice, you’ll feel no resistance at all—pure silk-smooth cutting.”
“What about human flesh?”
“Ah.”
Xia Shuran carried the plastic bag with the knife back to the dorm.
Along the way, she scared off countless guys who’d wanted to approach her.
As she was going up the stairs, she happened to run into Chen Feifei, who was on the phone.
“Yanxi, I’ll wait for you at the school gate, okay? I’m so touched, babe—you’re even driving over to pick me up yourself.”
“Huh? I can’t get in on my own? Ah, hahaha…” She laughed awkwardly. “Okay, okay, I’ll be right there.”
Only after the other party hung up did Chen Feifei put her phone away.
She looked up and saw Xia Shuran—cold-eyed, indifferent, holding a knife.
She was so frightened her pretty face went pale. She shuddered, her body going limp against the wall.
She thought Xia Shuran looked like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre killer right now.
God, she’d only made a few snide remarks—that didn’t deserve death, did it?!
“You… you, what are you doing?!”
Xia Shuran said nothing, continuing up the stairs with the knife in hand, the distance between them closing with every step.
Chen Feifei pressed her entire back against the wall, her carefully styled hair and makeup now completely ruined.
Her legs had gone weak with fear, and she stammered out a long string of words in a panic.
“I-I-I apologize, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I was wrong, I was wrong, I shouldn’t have run my mouth.”
“What arranged marriage? The truth is Xu Yanxi confessed and got rejected on the spot. I’m not Chi Yu’s wife’s bestie either—I was just showing off. I’ll never do it again.”
“I shouldn’t have provoked you. I’ve regretted it for a long time. If you’d just told me earlier that Chi Yu had feelings for you, I would’ve treated you with nothing but respect.”
“Please don’t do anything stupid—killing someone means paying with your life!”
“Wuwuwu, I’m so miserable. I’ve got kids to raise and elders to care for.”
Xia Shuran walked up to her side.
Chen Feifei’s face had gone completely pale. She didn’t dare breathe too loudly, her face crumpled in a tearful grimace as she shook her head slightly left and right, begging Xia Shuran.
Xia Shuran gave her a cold glance, then brushed past her and walked on.
Chen Feifei slid down the wall to the floor, still shaken, staring intently at Xia Shuran’s retreating back, terrified she might turn around and give her a stab.
Only when Xia Shuran’s figure disappeared into the stairwell did Chen Feifei finally let out a deep breath and slowly recover.
Not daring to waste a single moment, she stood up and bolted down the stairs with a speed she hadn’t even mustered for an eight-hundred-meter sprint, as if a ghost were chasing her.
Chen Feifei wept and sighed inwardly—from now on, in front of that she-devil Xia Shuran, she would keep her tail between her legs and stay out of trouble.