“Look out.” Jing Lan reacted quickly, flinging out her arm to deflect the dark shape.

The object bounced several times on the ground before being caught by a pair of pale, slender hands.

“Mind your own business.” The nursing school students all wore identical uniforms — but this particular student had gold thread trim sewn along the edges of her sleeves and embroidered floral patterns at the collar, every detail announcing her status and wealth.

Yan Qing vaguely recalled that her name was Shi Yutong — the daughter of Marshal Shi of the Shi Family, and a close friend of Yan Qin’s. Like them, she also attended the nursing school, only two years above them.

Yan Qin was standing right beside Shi Yutong at this moment, staring at Jing Lan with vicious eyes. “You ugly creature — get out of the way.”

If Jing Lan hadn’t interfered, that throw would have been more than enough to leave Yan Qing with some real physical injuries. Yan Qin had put considerable force behind the throw of that basketball.

Though Jing Lan was somewhat frightened, she didn’t back down. One hand gripped Yan Qing’s wheelchair tightly, positioning herself as a shield.

Shi Yutong tossed the basketball idly in her hands and let out a cold laugh. “What happened today is a lesson for you. You’d do well to understand your place. A crippled illegitimate daughter, dreaming of marrying my second brother — a toad lusting after swan meat. Keep dreaming.”

“Let’s go.” Yan Qin linked arms with Shi Yutong, turning to taunt Yan Qing as she left. “You’re so good at going to tattle on people — why not go tell the Marshal all about Yutong, or run to your so-called betrothed Second Young Master and throw yourself at him for sympathy? Let’s see if he’d spare a second glance at a cripple like you.”

Only once the two had walked far away did Yan Qing say quietly, “Jing Lan, are you alright?”

“I’m fine — it hurt a little just now, but it’s already better.”

“Thank you.” Yan Qing smiled, her composure entirely undisturbed.

Jing Lan sighed. “Yan Qin is your own blood sister, yet she joins with outsiders to bully you like this.”

She didn’t understand — why weren’t sisters supposed to support one another? Was it simply because they were born into a prominent family that they had to be ranked into those above and those below?

Jing Lan didn’t understand the ways of the great houses. In her world, siblings were flesh and blood — not people to be coldly bullied and trampled upon.

But what could she know of the truth that once you entered a great household, you were in as deep as the sea?

~

After dinner, everyone assembled in the classroom to wait for the evening lesson.

Jing Lan turned around and spread a newspaper open in front of Yan Qing. “Yan Qing, look — there’s a water ghost in the Liao He eating people. It’s terrifying.”

Before Yan Qing could read it properly, the class monitor appeared at the doorway and called out: “Yan Qing, the teacher wants to see you in her office.”

“Is it about the exam?” Jing Lan said anxiously. “Teacher Zhang takes this examination result especially seriously — she’s probably about to lose her temper again.”

Yan Qing didn’t think it was about the exam — but since a teacher was summoning her, there had to be some other reason.

It was just before class was about to start, and the corridor was very quiet. Only the soft sound of the wheelchair rolling across the floor drifted through the stillness.

Teacher Zhang’s office was at the bend near the end of the corridor. Yan Qing had only just rounded the corner when someone behind her shoved hard on her wheelchair. Immediately to her left, a wide door was flung open, and she — chair and all — was pushed into that classroom.

A sharp click — the sound of the door being locked from outside. Then came the laughter that followed: “Someone died in this classroom, you know — and they died horribly.”

“Lock her in there for the whole night — she’ll probably be scared to death. Ha.”

She recognized the voices — Shi Yutong and Yan Qin. Yan Qing couldn’t help but furrow her brow. The sheer pettiness of these two was, truly, something to behold.

Very soon, those irritating voices grew distant, fading away — until there was nothing left but the sound of wind pressing against the windows with a low, hollow moan.