When she reached the subway entrance, it was exactly rush hour for school dismissal and the end of work. The long passageway was full of people and wind. As she walked, she put on her earphones to listen to music and opened her phone’s network to access the campus network.

The pad of her index finger slowly slid across the screen. The page was filled with votes about “whether Long Qi will be on the broadcast Monday.” Later, she scrolled to Bai Aiting’s latest updated status. Her originally half-hearted steps stopped, and she squinted to look.

The status was updated at three twenty-five and eight seconds. One line of text: “Thank you for the milk tea on a tiring afternoon.” Attached was a photo of her posing together with an unopened milk tea cup.

The comments below had already exploded. Most were likes from girls at the school, and quite a few first-year junior girls fawned: “Senior you’re so beautiful, and the handsome senior treats you so well!”

Long Qi pulled down one earphone, switched the page to the status posting section, selected a photo from her gallery to upload, and her fingertip rapidly typed on the screen keyboard. She pressed send.

Within one second, the status was generated on the campus network. She put on her earphone and continued walking, while all the students of Beifan High School refreshed to see this new message at almost the same time.

Status person: Long Qi.

Status content: A photo—a hand clearly belonging to her fiercely gripping what appeared to be a male student’s shoulder blade area. The force was so great it clawed five red marks into the male student’s skin. The male student’s skin tone also formed a strong contrast with her deep maroon nail polish. The visual effect was ambiguous yet shocking.

Attached text: Three twenty-five and eight seconds.

Anyone with a bit of experience could guess what circumstances this photo was taken under.

New message notification sounds continuously came from her pocket. Long Qi leaned against the subway station wall waiting for the train. Only after listening to one complete song did she leisurely take out her phone to check messages. Right at this moment, Jin Yiken’s message also arrived.

He hadn’t added her as a friend. He probably saw the status forwarded by his buddies, but only used the private message board to send her one line: “Satisfied?”

Jin Yiken was a scumbag, a very handsome rich scumbag. Her relationship with him was paid. The reason for this arrangement wasn’t that he couldn’t pick up girls, but that he felt underground affairs were thrilling, and they had to be with her specifically to be thrilling. He always spoke lazily—if something could be said in three words, he would never use six. So these three words meant: “Are you satisfied with your counterattack? Were you satisfied with me at that time?”

She replied with a slap emoji.

He replied: “Come over tomorrow afternoon.”

She typed: “Not coming, you’re out of money.”

He replied: “I’ve got money.”

The train and Jin Yiken’s phone call arrived together. Her school uniform skirt hem lightly lifted. She turned off her phone and tossed it into her bag. A male fan next to her who recognized her was itching to move forward to ask for an autograph, but was startled back by her preemptive middle finger. The subway happened to stop. A large wave of people flowed out. She got on the subway.

On the opposite seats in the car were several girls from the same school. Except for the girl on the far right who was quietly reading a book, the other girls chatted in small groups. Long Qi made eye contact with this row of girls. They suddenly stopped chatting, their expressions deeply guarded. She glanced at the empty seat on the far right. Just as she was about to go over, one of the girls next to the empty seat happened to look up. The two saw each other.

Long Qi’s footsteps paused because of this. That row of girls looked at her as she suddenly stopped.

The subway doors closed behind her. The train slowly started. The car swayed. After a second of hesitation, she turned her head to look at other seats and ultimately sat in the empty seat opposite this row of girls.

Right across from her, the girl with a book resting on her knees was Dong Xi.

There were three most famous girls at Beifan High School: the beauty Long Qi, the wise woman Bai Aiting, and the talented woman Dong Xi.

All three had beautiful faces with different temperaments. Thus, each was represented by their most prominent trait. Long Qi was beautiful enough but rough, with a poor reputation. Bai Aiting combined talent, sentiment, and beauty in one body, but her official tone was too heavy—not pure. Only Dong Xi was clean like a blank sheet of paper. She was the student with the best grades but had no dealings with the student council. The friends around her were model good students on an assembly line. What interested her seemed to be only studying and reading books. She never cared about school votes and rankings. Her personal campus network account had permissions set year-round. Her friends remained in the single digits and she was satisfied with this status. She was one of the “Three Beifan Queens” whose name was mentioned in gossip the least.

People couldn’t bear to say a single harsh word about her.

The atmosphere in the car became somewhat subtle. Dong Xi continued to read with her head down, but the row of girls next to her couldn’t act natural. All their faces bore a kind of taboo feeling of “how unlucky to run into this person.” But when Long Qi lifted her eyes to scan over, they all lowered their eyebrows and pressed their lips together, presenting an appearance of fearing to provoke trouble.

Dong Xi quietly read her book. Throughout, she never looked a second time nor participated in the chatting of the girls beside her. The atmosphere around her entire person was completely separated from this car. Her fingers lightly turned pages. The ends of her hair hanging from her shoulders brushed finely with the paper pages, neither floating nor restless.

The subway reached a certain station. Long Qi got off. The girls got off with her, only she was in front and they were far behind, with passengers and commuters between them.

Just as she put on her earphones, she suddenly heard a thud of collision and girls’ screams behind her. She turned her head and saw a tall, thin man who had snatched their bags running fiercely in this direction. One girl fell to the ground—couldn’t tell who it was. The man’s fierce and malicious expression frightened away passersby on both sides of the passage. Panicked screams and the sound of swift footsteps spread from far to near.

She quickly lifted out her right foot.

The man was running too fiercely and urgently to brake in time. With a “poof,” he tripped over her right ankle! Long Qi stepped back two steps when he fell flat on his face. When he tried to spring up, she used her foot to step on his right hand gripping the bag. He howled. The subway security guards from behind arrived in time to subdue him.

She picked up the bag.

In the chaos, she walked over at a uniformly accelerated pace. The girl who fell on the ground was always blocked by the crowd so her face couldn’t be seen. She walked while staring at that spot. Only when some people moved away did she finally make out the appearance. The girl’s face was unfamiliar. Dong Xi was squatting beside her calming her shock.

The uniformly accelerated pace changed to uniformly decelerated. The hand gripping the bag also imperceptibly loosened. She walked to the front of the several people. Dong Xi and the girl lifted their heads to look at her.

Long Qi held out the bag.

The girl was stunned for a long moment before hugging the bag. A group of girls looked at each other in dismay. Only Dong Xi gently reminded: “Say thank you.”

“Thank you…”

Long Qi put both hands in her garment pockets, using some force. Her garment shoulders were made to droop downward. She turned and walked away. The frightened girl continued to be comforted by the people around her in the back.