"You've gotten even thinner, child. Did you not eat properly during summer break?"
Lin Dongmei spoke while pulling fifty yuan and two brand-new pens from her pocket, then forcefully pressed them into Ye Ruoxi's hands.
"Take it! This is from me—a thank-you!"
"You're a role model for our Xiao Yang."
"High school textbooks and materials are expensive—don’t deprive yourself."
"And these pens—our Xiao Yang saw you using one last time and loved it. I bought extras, so here are two for you. Consider it borrowing some of your top-scorer’s luck!"
Ye Ruoxi wanted to refuse.
But Lin Dongmei was stronger, and far more insistent.
"If you don’t take it, you’re looking down on me!"
Ye Ruoxi’s fingers curled around the money and the two pristine pens.
Something inside her chest burned faintly.
"Thank you, Auntie," she murmured.
"What’s there to thank? We’ll be counting on you to guide Xiao Yang at school."
"That boy’s not as quick as you—just knows how to grind through things the hard way."
Lin Dongmei patted her son’s back.
Su Yang flushed, scratching his head with an awkward chuckle.
He looked at Ye Ruoxi, wanting to say something, the way he used to in middle school.
But the words dissolved before they left his lips.
The girl before him seemed unchanged from her junior high days.
And yet, everything about her felt different.
She was taller, thinner.
Her chin sharper, her lips pale.
But her eyes—amid the noisy crowd—were like two quiet black stars, impossible to meet directly.
Looking at her, he felt an inexplicable ache, and something else, something warm…
---
The fifty yuan and the two pens didn’t stay with Ye Ruoxi for long.
Zhang Cuilan found them the moment she got home.
"Well, well, Ye Ruoxi. Young as you are, you’re already cozying up to boys for money?"
Zhang Cuilan pinched the bill between her fingers, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Was it Su Yang? Or some other stray mutt?"
Ye Ruoxi didn’t bother explaining.
She just wanted the pens back.
Lin Dongmei had bought them specifically for her.
Zhang Cuilan saw right through her.
With a sharp snap, she broke both pens in half right in front of Ye Ruoxi.
Then tossed them into the trash.
"Let me make this clear. I raised you. Every single hair on your body belongs to me."
"You want money? Earn it with your labor!"
Ye Ruoxi stared at the shattered pens in the bin. Her heart turned colder.
But she said nothing.
---
High school was more demanding than junior high.
By day, Ye Ruoxi was a sponge at school, absorbing knowledge voraciously.
By night, she became an emotionless machine, working tirelessly at home.
Zhang Cuilan had grown lazier with her spicy noodle stall.
Instead, she’d taken on piecework from relatives—trimming loose threads for a local garment factory.
Piles of clothes, reeking of chemical dyes, cluttered their tiny living room.
Every day after school, Ye Ruoxi sat before that mountain of fabric.
Snip. Snip. For two or three hours.
Until her vision blurred and her fingers stiffened.
Her reward? Just enough money from Zhang Cuilan for the next day’s meal.
High school life was tense.
Ye Ruoxi grew even quieter than before.
She sat perpetually in the classroom’s corner.
An isolated island.
Her lunch was always a cold steamed bun.
And a bowl of cafeteria soup, nearly devoid of vegetables.
Around her, classmates buzzed about celebrities, video games, and fledgling romances.
Those belonged to another world.
One that had nothing to do with her.
---
The first monthly exam results sent shockwaves through the grade.
Ye Ruoxi was first again.
And her scores? Nearly perfect in every subject.
Su Yang remained second.
Staring at the names on the rankings, separated by an uncrossable gap, he felt something new: helplessness.
He couldn’t catch up to her.
No matter how hard he tried.
She didn’t belong here.
She belonged somewhere far beyond.
Their homeroom teacher, a young woman fresh out of college, admired Ye Ruoxi’s brilliance but noticed her isolation.
She wanted to help her integrate.
"Study groups!" the teacher announced. "Top students will assist those struggling."
Her first pick was Ye Ruoxi.
"Ye Ruoxi, as our class’s top scorer, you’ll lead Group One. Alright?"
Every eye turned to that corner.
Ye Ruoxi stood.
"Teacher, I decline."
Her voice was soft but firm.
"I don’t have the time."
Then she sat back down.
The classroom fell dead silent.
Then came the whispers.
"Who does she think she is? Just because she scores well?"
"So arrogant."
"What a freak."
The teacher’s face flushed with embarrassment.
Su Yang watched Ye Ruoxi’s rigid posture, his chest tight.
He knew it wasn’t arrogance.
She simply had no energy left—for anything beyond surviving.
---
The ostracism grew sharper after that.
At lunch, girls would stroll past her table, voices loud.
"Look, the genius is eating her sad little bun again."
"Fairies like her survive on dew, don’t they?"
Ye Ruoxi never reacted.
She just lowered her head further.
Eat faster. Finish this bun.
Then solve two more problems.
If she could just escape this place, it would all end.
---
Then came the 800-meter run in gym class.
For most girls, it was a nightmare.
For Ye Ruoxi, it was torture.
Years of malnutrition and exhaustion left her weaker than most.
She gritted her teeth and ran.
Crossing the finish line, her vision blackened. She nearly collapsed.
Staggering back to the classroom, she slumped at her desk, too drained to move.
Sweat soaked through her uniform.
She just needed to sleep.
Just for a moment.
Around her, classmates chattered and laughed.
But she fell into a heavy, dreamless slumber.
Su Yang sat nearby, watching.
Her thin shoulders, trembling faintly.
The pallor of her face, drained of color.
He thought of everything she’d endured these past two years.
The cruel taunts.
The solitary figure at the cafeteria’s free soup station.
His mother’s words:
"Son, Ruoxi’s a good kid. A kid who’s had it hard. Look out for her at school."
Something swelled in his chest—anger, sorrow.
And another feeling, one he couldn’t name.
The urge to shield her.
Suddenly, he understood.
What he felt for Ye Ruoxi wasn’t just neighborly concern.
Wasn’t just classmate camaraderie.
It was something deeper.
A deeper, more intense emotion seemed to take root and grow within his heart.
He noticed how thin her school uniform was.
The window was open, and the autumn wind drifted in, carrying a faint chill.
He hesitated for a long time.
His fingers clenched, then loosened.
Finally, he stood up.
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
