Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I have no memories from before I was six. As far back as I can remember, I was already living in an orphanage.

I didn’t know who I was, much less where I had come from.

The children at the orphanage didn’t like playing with me, because more than one of them had been frightened to tears by me.

They saw me talking to empty air when I was all alone.

They couldn’t see my friends.

Only I could.

Because my friends were ghosts.

…

When I was ten, I was finally adopted.

They were an elderly couple with kind faces.

They treated me like their own daughter, leaving early and coming home late to collect scrap for recycling, earning a meager income to put me through school.

One evening, they came home holding a puppy only a few months old.

My adoptive father awkwardly pushed the puppy into my arms. “Ah Yuan, you’re lonely at home by yourself, so we found you a companion.”

My adoptive mother asked carefully, “Ah Yuan, do you like it?”

I looked up at them and tugged the corners of my mouth into the kind of smile everyone liked. “I like it. Thank you, Mom, Dad.”

“As long as you like it. As long as you like it.”

I named the puppy Ah Huang.

And so it became my first companion in this world.

A living companion.

I thought life would go on that way.

But when I was twelve, my adoptive parents were crushed by a large truck while collecting scrap. They died on the spot.

I went to the police station to handle the paperwork, went to the hospital to sign the forms, and saw them off to be cremated.

From beginning to end, I didn’t shed a single tear.

I heard the neighbors whispering among themselves. “That child Jiang Yuan is cold-blooded and cold-hearted. Old Jiang and his wife were so good to her, and now that they’re dead, she didn’t even cry.”

“There’s something evil about her. Maybe she was the one who brought death down on them!”

I closed the door, shutting out the sounds of the outside world.
After I graduated from junior high, the admissions office of a prestigious high school contacted me.

They wanted me to enroll as a special admissions student.

First, because my grades were excellent.

Second, because my background was tragic enough.

Tragic enough for them to advertise it widely and showcase the school’s efforts toward achieving fairness in social education.

I stroked Ah Huang’s smooth fur while my old friends chattered noisily in my ear.

“Ahhh! Yinghua High School! I died in a car accident right outside the middle school gate!”

“Tch. My son went to Yuan’an High School next door. What’s so great about that?”

“Ah Yuan, Ah Yuan, say yes! I want to see what a rich kids’ school looks like too!”

I shifted my eyes, focusing on a certain point in the empty air.

“You want to go see it?”

“I do!”

I nodded. “Then I’ll go take a look.”

…

The day I enrolled at Yinghua High School, it was raining.

Luxury cars lined the school gate, and bodyguards got out to hold umbrellas over the boys and girls in the back seats.

They wore exquisite, beautiful uniforms, their faces filled with arrogance.

Holding an old black umbrella and wearing slightly worn clothes, I stood by the entrance, keeping out of the way.

Even though we had entered the same high school, I was out of place with everything here.

“Young Master Yu is here!”

“Move, move! Hurry up!”

A burst of commotion drew closer.

Someone rushed toward the school in a panic. As he passed me, he shoved me aside without a second thought. “Where did this beggar come from? Get out of the way!”

I fell to the ground, my arm scraping hard against the pavement. A sharp sting shot through me.

I was just about to get up when a pair of obviously expensive leather shoes appeared in front of me.

I looked up.

The unruly-looking boy suddenly let out a laugh. “Since when does our school enroll beggars?

“Hey, is this really a place you should be?”

He gave a contemptuous snort, turned, and walked into the school.

His leather shoe stepped on my hand as if it were planted on a stone.

My luck was terrible.

On my first day, I had run into the one person at Yinghua High School nobody could afford to provoke.

Yu Mingsheng, the universally acknowledged school tyrant.

He was the son of the richest man in Hai City. His uncle was in politics, and his family background was illustrious.

Even in a school full of wealthy young ladies and young masters, he still swaggered around unchecked.

And poor students like me, admitted only because of our excellent grades, naturally became toys for them to amuse themselves with in their free time.

That evening, a girl walked timidly over to me.

She asked in a small voice, “Jiang Yuan, I lost my wallet. Can you help me look for it?”

I glanced at her without speaking. Like me, she was also a special admissions student.

My old friends were already shrieking in my ear.

“Ah Yuan, don’t go! She wants to hurt you!”

“That’s right, that’s right! She’s rotten!”

I shook my head at her. “I’m not going.”

She froze, and a flash of panic crossed her eyes.

I shouldered my backpack, walked past her, and turned to leave the classroom.

But the next second, a pair of hands reached out from behind me and clamped over my mouth…

Several girls dragged me by force up to the rooftop.

Someone was already waiting there.

The girls hurriedly said, “Young Master Yu, we’ve brought her here. Can we… leave now?”

Yu Mingsheng had a cigarette between his lips. He waved lazily. “Get lost.”

“Thank you, Young Master Yu!”

They scrambled over one another to flee the rooftop.

I looked at the rich kids in front of me and retreated step by step.

“Go. Make her behave first.”

I was kicked to the ground. They beat and kicked me without the slightest mercy.

I shielded my head with my arms, and it felt as if a ball of fire were burning in my chest.

My heart beat faster and faster. Something was screaming in my mind.

Fight back!

Why aren’t you fighting back?

Faintly, I seemed to hear my old friends’ voices too.

“Jiang Yuan’s Malice Value is rising…”

“Is she about to remember?”

“The Underworld King placed a seal on her. She won’t remember…”

Someone kicked me in the head, and blood gushed from my nose.

Seeing my face covered in blood, the abusers finally lost interest.

After they left, I took a moment to recover, then limped down from the rooftop.

I rented a room in an alley not far from the school.

It wasn’t big, but it was enough for Ah Huang and me to live in.

Hearing my footsteps, Ah Huang got up from the doorway and came to greet me, wagging its tail.

The strange feeling that had been lingering inside me finally faded away.

I crouched down and let Ah Huang throw itself into my arms.

“Ah Huang, good boy.”