My name is Xiao Ran.

I lied.

How could I possibly stay with a child waiting for their parents? Am I fucking stupid?

But so what?

I’m asking you, so what if I lied?

How interesting. Is there anyone in this world who has never told a lie…

When facing a group of fierce strangers, the ones who bare their hearts to them are the strangest ones.

I’m not stupid. Naturally I know what to do.

In my third year of middle school, my girlfriends and I were “greeting” a newly transferred girl from out of town in the bathroom. We’d already stripped off her clothes and were about to burn her arm with cigarette butts when she suddenly rushed forward and knocked me down.

I’d never been so startled in my entire life.

A transfer student from out of town—what right did she have to touch me?

Seeing her viciously beating me, not a single one of my girlfriends dared to step forward and stop her. My heart went cold at that moment.

This “greeting” ended unhappily.

Over the next few days, things developed strangely.

I discovered the out-of-town girl wasn’t being isolated. Gradually, many of my girlfriends became friends with her. Instead, no one paid attention to me anymore.

Why was this?

What about our sisterhood?

After thinking all night, I finally understood this principle.

Whoever is more ruthless has friends.

But how could I become more ruthless?

The next day, I got on Brother Qu’s motorcycle.

Brother Qu was a prominent figure at the school gate.

He and his many lackeys would hang around our school gate all day. They would always park their motorcycles to the side and stand there smoking. Brother Qu’s bloated figure and wrinkled bald head made him particularly conspicuous in the crowd.

I remember they would occasionally ask passing students for money.

In the entire school, whether teachers or students, not a single person dared provoke him.

Wasn’t he my best target?

When I got on Brother Qu’s motorcycle, I noticed the students at the school gate were all looking at me.

They were envying me.

I could know people from society, but they couldn’t.

I was too smart. I understood this principle at once.

That night we had a great time. Brother Qu found many brothers to drink with me. I drank a lot and didn’t have to spend a single cent. It seemed Brother Qu really treated me as a little sister.

Brother Qu asked me to sleep with him. I agreed without thinking.

The process was somewhat uncomfortable. I don’t want to recall it again.

The next day, Brother Qu brought his brothers to help me vent my anger properly.

That out-of-town girl, those former girlfriends of mine, under the greetings of iron rods and fists, all called me “Sister.”

Brother Qu had said sleeping with him would be comfortable, but the feeling now was ten thousand times more comfortable than that.

Seeing Brother Qu and his crew still unsatisfied after the beating, I thought I understood what they meant.

I stepped forward and tore off those sluts’ school uniforms, letting everyone take photos freely. Then I also carefully selected several photos and posted them to the school forum.

Now you’re big stars. This is what you get for provoking me, Xiao Ran.

From that day on, I was the “king” of the school. No one dared provoke me, and no one dared disobey me.

This was the feeling I wanted.

Unfortunately, happy times are always short-lived.

When I saw my high school entrance exam score of 182, I knew my middle school days were over.

That day I went home. The old man and old woman who usually argued all day were both at home looking worried.

I didn’t understand. It was just an exam, wasn’t it?

182 points—I’d done well enough. What more did they want?

I’d gotten even worse scores than 182 before. I wasn’t worried, so why were they?

“Xiao Ran… what are you going to do in the future?” The old woman cried to me. “You can’t even get into high school. What will you do for the rest of your life?”

“What’s wrong with not getting into high school?” I asked irritably. “I don’t want to go to school anyway. I’m planning to do business with Brother Qu.”

The old man slammed the table hard when he heard this.

“What bullshit are you spouting?!” He said to me viciously. “I’ve long told you not to associate with that Qu Qiang. Is he a good person? You’re only fifteen years old! He can’t even support himself—how could he possibly take you into business?”

“Mind your own business?!” I glared at him angrily too. “Brother Qu is way better than you two. Besides arguing at home, what use are you?”

“You… you…!” The old man pointed at me, his whole body trembling.

I didn’t bother with him anymore and stormed out.

I didn’t plan to come home in the future. I was going to live with Brother Qu.

That summer, I stayed with Brother Qu every day. I ate his food, used his things, spent his money. He had no complaints—he only wanted to sleep with me.

Wasn’t this great?

I didn’t have to give anything and could get so much in return.

I thought that ten-square-meter rental room would be my entire life from then on.

But I was wrong again.

During my third abortion, Brother Qu was arrested.

He was sentenced to six years for intentional injury and robbery.

I lived in the rental room for another half month. When the landlord came to collect rent, I realized I didn’t have a single cent.

My happy life was over.

I couldn’t live on the streets, so I could only return home.

The old woman didn’t blame me. She just kept crying while looking at me.

She said the two of them borrowed a lot of money to pull strings so I could go to a vocational high school in town.

She said I could only rely on myself from now on.

She said I had to learn a skill so I wouldn’t starve for the rest of my life.

She said this, said that, said so much it annoyed me.

Hadn’t I expressed myself clearly? I didn’t want to go to school!

What use was school anyway?

But I really had nowhere else to go.

Brother Qu’s underlings scattered like birds and beasts—I couldn’t contact a single one. I had no money, no place to live, and no one to protect me.

On the first day of school, I still went.

Because the old woman said she’d only give me money if I came to school.

My major was Early Childhood Education.

These three years made me extremely miserable.

After starting vocational school, everyone seemed to have changed. What they competed about wasn’t who had more influence or knew more people in society—they only compared whose phone was more expensive, whose cosmetics were better.

But I had none of those things. My broken phone had been used for four years already.

“What’s your name?” The girl sitting next to me asked.

“Xiao Ran.”

“I’m Chen Ting.” The girl smiled. “Do you like children too?”

“Like… children?”

What kind of bizarre question was this? How could I possibly like children?

I’d had three abortions. Children were what I hated most in this life.

“I guess so.” I nodded with a fake smile.

“Children are just so cute. Since I was little, I’ve wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. I think this job really suits me.”

Chen Ting looked very happy, but I found her disgusting.

What kind of good person was she pretending to be?

Soon, she took out her phone to show me pictures of her little brother. She kept introducing how cute her brother was. Only then did I understand her real purpose.

She was showing off her phone.

I was too smart. I could always instantly see through to the essence of things.

I pretended to cooperate and responded a few times. During break, while Chen Ting was in the bathroom, I knocked her phone from the desk to the floor, then laid on the desk pretending to sleep.

Sure enough, expensive phones are fragile. When Chen Ting saw her phone screen shattered, she looked especially sad.

I comforted her while showing a smile.

Serves you right. Who told you to show off in front of me?