Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I studied the bloodstained note on my desk with great interest.

[The prey has returned. The game continues.]

At the end of the message, someone had even drawn a Joker with an eerie smile in black gel pen.

In the time it took me to go to the restroom and come back, this threatening note had appeared brazenly on my desk.

I peeled it off and gave it a sniff.

It smelled raw.

Fresh blood.

But not human blood. More like cat or dog.

Pinching the note between two fingers, I waved it in front of the girl who sat beside me.

“Did you put this here?”

Her face turned deathly pale, her eyes brimming with terror.

She looked almost exactly like Ah Hua, the rabbit Granny used to keep.

I shook my head inwardly and ruled her out.

She didn’t have the nerve.

Then I turned to the two tall, burly boys sitting behind me.

“Did you see who put this note here?”

Neither of them even looked up, pretending to be deaf and mute.

I patted one of them on the shoulder.

“Hey. Did you see who put this note here?”

The boy shot to his feet, his face white as a sheet, and slapped hard at the shoulder I had touched.

As if I’d contaminated him with something filthy.

He glared at me, his lips moving like he was about to say something.

Just then, his deskmate suddenly reached out and tugged his sleeve, shaking his head lightly.

The boy froze for a second, then shot me a resentful look before sitting back down and raising his textbook to block his face, cutting off my line of sight.

I looked around the classroom.

The people who had been watching the show a moment ago all lowered their heads, avoiding my eyes.

Interesting.

My gaze returned to the blood-blurred words on the note.

Whoever could make an entire class isolate me like this…

The mastermind behind this game seemed to have quite a bit of influence.

The corner of my mouth lifted. I crumpled the note in my hand.

So they liked playing hunter, did they?

Fine. I’d play with them to the end.

I picked up a pen and added two characters beneath the message-

[Morons!]

Then I stuck the bloody threat note on the public bulletin board downstairs.

People came and went there all day. I guaranteed everyone would see it.

My name is Nan Ying.

I am the adopted daughter of Nan Lan, the Gu King of Nanjiang.

I am also her only successor.

I have a twin younger sister named Chen Wan.

We grew up together in an orphanage.

When we were seven, we were adopted by different families.

Nan Lan took me to Nanjiang, where I learned the Gu arts and inherited her mantle.

My sister was adopted by a couple with the surname Chen and lived in Licheng.

Nanjiang and Licheng were thousands of miles apart, so we usually could only keep in touch by letter.

My sister sent one letter every month, usually arriving in Nanjiang near the end of the month.

In her letters, she shared every detail of her high school life with me.

She said that once she got into university, she would come to Nanjiang to visit me.

But last month, my sister’s letter never arrived.

On the fifth of this month, I received a letter from her adoptive parents, Mr. and Mrs. Chen.

They told me that my sister had suddenly suffered a mental breakdown. The night she returned home from school, she jumped from the balcony of their apartment.

A note had been stuck to the head of her bed, the handwriting delicate and pretty.

[Sis, Dad, Mom, I’m sorry. I can’t hold on anymore.]

I couldn’t believe it.

In her last letter, my sister had excitedly told me that she had won first place in a math Olympiad competition and earned extra points for the college entrance exam.

She had been full of hope for the future. She said that when it was time to choose a university, she wanted to pick one closer to me.

How could she suddenly have a mental breakdown and try to kill herself in just over a month?

My brows drew tight.

My sister was a boarding student and could only go home once a month.

During that time, something must have happened to her at school.

I told Mr. and Mrs. Chen to keep the news sealed, and to tell outsiders only that my sister was recuperating at home.

Then I asked my adoptive mother for leave, temporarily halted my advanced Gu arts training, and took an overnight train to Licheng.

On the day I returned to school, I removed the silver ornaments covering my head, took off the Miao clothing I’d worn since childhood, and removed the bronze bell from my ankle.

I changed into my sister’s clothes, shouldered her backpack, clipped on the hairpin she often wore, and took the bus to school.

No one noticed anything wrong.

My identity was special. Afraid of causing trouble for me, my sister had never told anyone she had a twin older sister.

She had always been so considerate.