Chapter 3

In the end, He Xiaorui didn’t move out. No other room would take her, and there was no way she could afford to rent a place off campus.

She stayed with us in Room 2406.

And Wen Yanan and the others began subjecting her to almost constant humiliation and abuse.

Even now, those incidents remain burned into my mind, so vivid that it feels as though Xiaorui and I endured them together.

I still remember waking in the morning

and seeing froth floating in Xiaorui’s cup.

Wen Yanan had spat into it.

I still remember Guo Yingying and Liu Lingling dumping their leftover takeout straight onto Xiaorui’s bed, right in front of her.

As she poured it out, Yingying said, “Trash belongs where the trash lives.”

I still remember them all suddenly getting up in the middle of the night, pulling Xiaorui out of bed, and dragging her out of the room. Then they locked the door, leaving her outside in nothing but her underwear for the entire night.

I don’t know how she endured it. I tried to help her, tried to persuade Yanan and the others to stop, but I was afraid.

Afraid they’d start bullying me, too.

I tried telling our class adviser in private.

But you know how it is. At a shitty vocational college like ours, the advisers couldn’t care less.

All she wanted was to smooth things over without taking sides.

Of course. An internet celebrity, an official’s daughter, and Wang Fang, our dorm representative, who was supposedly related to one of the school administrators.

Why would our adviser want to offend people like that?

Things went on like this for perhaps two months.

I remember it was the Saturday of the second week in April.

He Xiaorui’s birthday.

That Friday, Wen Yanan suddenly announced that she’d been wrong to bully Xiaorui for so long over a baseless rumor.

If Xiaorui was willing, she’d like to take her out for a birthday meal on Saturday, as an apology.

He Xiaorui showed no reaction.

I didn’t believe Yanan and the others had suddenly developed a conscience either. Awkwardly, I said I had something to do that weekend and wouldn’t be coming.

I didn’t want to watch them bully Xiaorui.

I went home that weekend. When I returned on Sunday evening, He Xiaorui was the only person in the room.

She was curled up on her bed, her face pale. Her phone lay beside her, playing Empresses in the Palace.

I knew something bad must have happened to her, but I didn’t dare ask.

I switched on my computer at my desk and wasted some time doing nothing in particular. Just before lights-out, I climbed into bed to play on my phone.

Xiaorui and I both had top bunks. After the lights went out, the others still hadn’t returned.

I drifted off with my phone in my hand.

Sometime around the middle of the night, I suddenly felt someone pressing down on me.

I opened my eyes and found He Xiaorui there.

She was staring blankly at me.

For no reason I could explain, her stare frightened me a little. “Xiaorui, what’s wrong? It’s so late.”

She looked at me and said something utterly bewildering.

“Li’er, is that any way to address me? I am Noble Consort Xi of the Great Qing, of the Niohuru clan!”

What was she talking about?

Was she… joking?

“Xiaorui, are you all right?” I asked hesitantly.

He Xiaorui said nothing. She only looked at me.

A cold sweat broke out on my back. I tried to sit up, but she held me down.

“Don’t be afraid, Li’er,” she said softly.

Her face was very close to mine. By the light from outside, I could make out her expression.

It was her. And yet, somehow, it wasn’t.

She seemed possessed, transformed into someone else. There was something in her face I’d never seen there before.

Something that, for reasons I couldn’t explain, felt powerful.

And just like that, I seemed to stop being afraid.

Then, in a tone completely unfamiliar to me, she said each word slowly and distinctly:

“Listen well. Her Highness is about to take her revenge on those wretched serving girls!”