Chapter 1

My phone chimed.

A friend request.

Hi! It’s Meng Yuan, from the year below!

I showed Xu Lang the request.

“I gave her your contact card,” he said. “She really likes you and asked me to introduce you.”

I accepted.

A message arrived almost immediately.

Hi!

I’ve been pestering Lang forever to let me add you!

Aah, I’m so happy I get to cuddle up to a soft, sweet-smelling beauty!

Did she take me for a fucking idiot?

Plenty of people had my contact details. Why did she have to go through my boyfriend?

“Her family’s not well off,” Xu Lang went on, “but she works really hard. She’s inspiring. A lot like you.”

I smiled at him.

“Really? Then I’ll have to look out for her.”

“It’d be great if you became friends. She’s a new recruit in the publicity department, helping me out. We’ll probably be seeing a lot of her.”

So that was how it was.

I opened my chat with Meng Yuan and replied.

Hi there!

Xu Lang has a party this Saturday. Want to come?

Xu Lang was a year ahead of me.

When I first arrived at university, he was already a campus celebrity.

A wealthy family. A handsome face.

Men like him never lacked admirers.

Naturally, I’d managed to date him because I’d won the genetic lottery.

But it wasn’t just my looks.

I’d seen his group chat with his friends.

One of them had put it very neatly.

Of all the girls around Lang,

the ones prettier than Su Ying don’t have her academic credentials.

The ones with better credentials aren’t as pretty.

She’s found a loophole in the system.

Wealth, academic achievement, good looks: three intersecting circles, none entirely overlapping.

Those circles floated above everyone else, controlling most of the resources and deciding whose voice counted.

To get into them, you needed at least one of the three.

With two, chances were you’d be playing life with cheat codes.

I’d learned that back in school.

The lesson hadn’t been pleasant.

Back then, I wore black-framed glasses and a ragged fringe, and lived in an oversized school uniform washed almost white. One look told you I was poor.

The girl who shared my desk was from a fairly rich family. She was pleasant to everyone and had become the centre of the class shortly after term began.

One day, a group of girls gathered around her, suggesting ideas for her birthday dinner.

I stayed out of it, head down over my homework.

But she smiled and invited me.

Honestly, I was rather overwhelmed.

I went to the second-hand market especially to find a reasonably presentable outfit for the dinner.

The gift, of course, was brand-new. It cost more than everything I was wearing put together.

But when I happily held it out to her, she didn’t take it.

She looked me up and down, gave me the suggestion of a smile, and said quietly,

“I didn’t think you’d actually come.

“Su Ying, you need to learn to take a hint. Don’t force your way into circles you don’t belong in.”

She glanced at my gift.

“That present… costs less than the cover charge for one seat here. Surely you’d be embarrassed to sit down and eat?”

If she’d stopped there, I could have let it go.

But she just had to keep biting.

The next day at school, I discovered I’d been frozen out.

I felt miserable about it for an hour.

Because an hour later, I’d thought of a way to get back at her.