Episode 46: Mo E

"You... you... how did you end up like this, Mo E?" Ryuu Mufei was shocked by his appearance, barely able to convince himself that he recognized him by his looks.

"This honorable appearance of mine is thanks to none other than you, have you forgotten?" Mo E said as he walked toward Ryuu Mufei. "I'm going to make you, the Ryuu Family Young Master, experience firsthand the hardships I've endured all these years!"

"Hardships?!"

Ryuu Mufei forced his head up to look at that chilling face, suddenly recalling things that had happened around six years ago.

Time rolled back six years, to a not-so-cold winter, located near the bushes behind a building inside a gated school in a certain country.

Because the winter here wasn't cold, it had never snowed. Everywhere was still lush with greenery, and alfalfa grew thickly in the bushes, showing no trace of winter at all.

"No, don't!" Suddenly, a sharp woman's voice pierced the tranquility.

Looking toward the source of the sound, a woman had fallen into that patch of alfalfa, and standing in front of her was a man. The man's expression looked somewhat unhinged, and he was holding a utility knife in his hand.

"Are you going to yell a bit louder? You abusive woman, look and see who's going to come save you!" The man's expression was dazed, his gaze devoid of an ounce of sanity. "Have you forgotten how you treated me before?"

"What did I do to you?" The woman was clearly terrified, tears swirling in her eyes as she sobbed.

"Did you know? Three years ago, I liked you so much! But..." As he said this, the man's emotions grew even more agitated.

It turned out that three years prior, the two of them had been classmates in the same class.

The woman was the pampered young miss of a wealthy family, with a capricious personality. Although usually arrogant toward those around her, her beauty and family background attracted plenty of followers, and this man was one of them. Only, he was a poor kid even worse off than ordinary families. The woman was sweet and cute, drawing a massive trail of followers wherever she went. The man, on the other hand, was plain-looking; although he had squeezed into this elite school through his outstanding grades and always stayed near the top of the class, his reclusive personality—bred from low self-esteem—made him unpopular at school. Yet, as fate would have it, this man had been fond of the wealthy young miss since childhood.

However, because there were so many people pursuing this girl, both male and female, they all shared one trait: their family backgrounds were far better than this boy's, so the insecure boy had never dared to reveal his feelings to her.

Valentine's Day was the turning point in the boy's destiny. That day, the boy secretly stole two weeks' worth of living expenses from home to buy chocolates as a gift for the girl he adored, mustering the courage to confess to her. He figured the worst outcome would simply be rejection. But he never expected the result to far exceed his expectations.

The girl was surrounded by so many people, and when the boy squeezed into the crowd and tremblingly handed over his token of affection, the girl only glanced at it lightly. Clearly, this gift was completely unpresentable compared to the others. Looking at the gift, the girl simply felt that the boy was trying to humiliate her with such a cheap present, so she angrily flung the gift right into his face.

"Trash!"

Just those two words pressed down on him like a massive mountain, making it hard to breathe. Accompanied by the sound of the gift hitting the ground, the boy's feelings were smashed to pieces. Then, the girl turned and left, the boy's chocolates were trampled to a pulp by the pack of the girl's followers, and the boy himself was beaten up, humiliated, and cursed at.

The boy's final sincerity was trampled into dregs. After returning home in despair, his mother learned of the incident.

"Useless!"

The boy was branded with such a stigma.

The boy ran away from home, and in their frantic search for him, both of his parents were struck and killed by a train.

"How about it? Back then, you threw your young miss tantrum and caused me to turn out like this, you have to pay me back!" The man said, stepping closer to the woman with seething rage.

"Mo E! Don't, don't do this! It was my fault before, I really didn't know that would break your heart, I'm sorry!" The woman screamed and cried in terror, desperately trying to shake off the person in front of her. "Don't do this! I'm sorry, I'll pay you money, all right?"

"Forget it, I couldn't care less about your stinking money! Don't use that kind of thing to insult me." Mo E glared fiercely at the woman before him—the one he once loved, yet who had insulted him and changed his entire life. From the bottom of his heart, he despised this method wealthy people used to smooth everything over with money. Looking at the woman who used to hold herself high and act haughtily toward him now collapsed before his eyes, an indescribable complexity stirred in his heart. His nose stung as he raised the utility knife again to threaten her.

"Then what do you want? I'll give you whatever you want!" The woman was extremely anxious, wishing so badly that this was just a dream; if it were a dream, she would wake up soon.

"Oh? Really?" Mo E glared at her and replied, "Well then, I'm going to take your virginity, I'm going to humiliate you just like you humiliated me back then! No, I'm going to humiliate you doubly!"

"...?"

Hearing these words, the woman went blank. She hadn't expected Mo E to actually say such a thing. She was completely doomed; what could someone with no strength to truss a chicken do? Her mind went blank.

Mo E stepped closer and closer to the woman, but just as he took another step forward, a burst of force lunged toward him.