Faint sobbing could be heard from the restroom after school, mixed with some cursing.
Jin Mingzhen quietly walked inside and spoke through the door, “They’re gone. You can come out now.”
Song Enya quickly wiped away her tears and pressed her ear against the door panel, listening for a while.
Only after making sure that Yin Meiyan and her group had truly left did she open the door and step out.
Outside, Jin Mingzhen’s face was covered in heavy makeup, with bright red lipstick smeared from the corner of her mouth all the way to her ear.
Song Enya, clutching her clothes soaked in dirty water, froze for a moment. “You…”
Jin Mingzhen gave a light smile, as if this were nothing out of the ordinary.
She walked straight to the sink and began removing her makeup.
Water gushed through her fingers and was then splashed haphazardly onto her face.
The mixture of colors made her look even more disheveled.
Sniffling, Song Enya also walked to the sink, took off her clothes, and began washing them.
“Don’t you think they’re going too far?” she said bitterly, scrubbing her jacket vigorously.
Jin Mingzhen replied lightly, “But what can we do? We’re D-Sequence.”
“D-Sequence?” Song Enya looked at her in confusion.
She wiped the tear stains from her face forcefully. “Are you talking about the ranking on that screen?”
“That’s even more unreasonable. I just transferred here and haven’t taken any exams yet. Why would they assume I’m D-Sequence?!”
Jin Mingzhen looked at her and smiled. “Enya, can I call you that?”
Song Enya nodded and turned her head back to continue scrubbing the clothes in her hands.
“Enya, that screen isn’t a ranking of academic performance.”
Song Enya paused her movements, then heard her say, “It’s the Power Sequence.”
“What… Power Sequence?” Song Enya’s eyes were filled with confusion.
“It seems you really don’t understand anything. I’m curious—how did you even get into our school? Di’an International is a place outsiders fight tooth and nail to enter. Why were you able to get in?”
“Well… I was just lucky. The school saw my academic record.” Even as she said this, Song Enya’s expression didn’t look like that of someone who had merely been lucky. There was a faint hint of pride in her eyes.
Jin Mingzhen gave a light smile, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
“It doesn’t matter how you got here. What matters most is how to survive here.”
Song Enya finally put down the clothes in her hands, somewhat amused. “Survive? You’re exaggerating. No matter how rich their families are, they’re just a bunch of teenagers. It’s not like they can eat us alive.”
Her expression wasn’t very serious.
In her heart, she had experienced far more than these rich kids. After all, she had been in the workforce for many years, having worked countless jobs and endured hardships beyond measure.
Having endured so much over the years, a group of pampered, arrogant young masters and misses wasn’t enough to make her tremble in fear.
“You’re underestimating Di’an International, and you’re underestimating them too.” Jin Mingzhen could tell from her expression.
The person before her thought the students of Di’an International were merely wealthy.
But the reality was far more than that.
“Whatever you say. But I’m more interested in what you mean by D-Sequence.” Song Enya was more curious about this.
Back in the classroom, Yin Meiyan had also written “D-Sequence” in her notebook to mock her.
Whatever this sequence represented, it was clear they all took it very seriously.
Seeing her change the subject, Jin Mingzhen didn’t press further for an explanation.
“Initially, the Power Sequence was indeed just an academic ranking system, a standard used by the school to evaluate all students. But gradually, it took on a hierarchical meaning. Those in higher sequences are inherently superior to those in lower ones, so they can do anything to the lower sequences, who cannot resist. You know our school is a famous elite institution, right?”
Song Enya nodded.
The renowned Di’an International was a place people in Zhongdu would fight tooth and nail to get into.
Jin Mingzhen continued, “There are three types of people in our school. The first are those with power and influence, who also excel academically, like Jing Yuanxi and Kong Shixuan, whom you saw on the screen.”
Song Enya thought for a moment but couldn’t immediately recall their faces.
She hadn’t been here long enough; the only ones she remembered were Yin Meiyan and her group.
“The second type are those with power and influence but poor academic performance, like Yin Meiyan and Jin Mingzhu.”
Song Enya rolled her eyes in disgust.
She couldn’t understand how such disrespectful, ill-behaved children could exist, and on top of that, they were born into privilege!
It was so unfair!
Jin Mingzhen noticed her expression and calmly continued, “The third type are scholarship students with no power or influence but excellent grades, like you and Ren Haitang.”
“Huh? Aren’t you one too?” Song Enya asked curiously.
After all, with her disheveled appearance, she wasn’t much better off than them, was she?
“Me? I’m different from you… I’m an illegitimate daughter.”
“Ah… an illegitimate daughter?” Song Enya muttered quietly, “Rich people really have it all, even terms like ‘illegitimate daughter.'”
But being the daughter of a mistress couldn’t be easy either. With those arrogant and domineering people around, an illegitimate daughter would only be bullied, regardless of whether she was at fault or not.
Thinking of Ren Haitang and seeing Jin Mingzhen in front of her, Song Enya suddenly felt a sense of shared hardship.
At least she had company on this path of being bullied.
“For someone like you, with no power or influence, you’re immediately assigned to the D-Sequence as soon as you enter the school. And once your ranking is fixed as D-Sequence, everything about you in this school must remain D-Sequence. This means your daily evaluations, treatment, and status will always be inferior. Because D-Sequence is the lowest rank.”
Openly dividing people into different classes within a school—this was nothing but a rationalization of bullying!
Only a madman would agree to such a thing!
Song Enya felt that this school was filled with strangeness.
Despite being the best school with an incredibly high admission rate to prestigious universities, it allowed students to act so recklessly!
But…
“Since there’s that big screen, it means the sequences aren’t actually controlled by you.”
“So, as long as I don’t score in the D-Sequence range in the next evaluation exam, I won’t be in the D-Sequence, and they won’t be able to bully me, right?”
Jin Mingzhen laughed, “You’re too naive. I told you, your identity is fixed from the moment you enter. They won’t allow you to escape this sequence.”
“Do you want to know why Yin Meiyan and the others have such high sequences?”