In a cramped single room on Jiu You Academy's dormitory hill, Nicholas woke early.
The sky was not yet fully light when he climbed out of bed. Wrapped in his quilt, he sat in a corner of the bed and peered through the blurry window at the dark sky outside. He looked exhausted.
On the gray stone desk beside his bed lay an open copy of the Beta Town Post. Even in the faint light from the window, he could clearly read the bold headline on one page—Weekend News Roundup: Fishman Protest, Scholarship Student Suspected of Murder, Jiu You Academy Student Speaks His Mind.
Not far from the Post lay a folded copy of the First University School Newspaper, which also carried a substantial report. Its headline, though, was far more carefully worded than the provocative, suggestive one in the Beta Town Post—Sephrano and Friedman Speak Out in Succession: Both Are Watching This Student.
Both newspapers had clearly been read over and over. Fine creases covered the pages, and many passages and words had been underlined in red.
At last, Nicholas let out a long breath and muttered a curse.
"Goddamn it."
He was the student "Friedman and Sephrano were watching" in the school newspaper, and the Jiu You student who had "spoken his mind" in the Beta Town Post.
That was no good thing. Not with public opinion the way it was now.
Nicholas did not think he was any better than Zheng Qing at weathering this storm of public opinion. He had transferred schools three times, his grades were ordinary, and he had no honors to his name. Things looked bleak for someone as insignificant as him.
"You just voiced your opinion at the wrong time, in the wrong place... This has nothing to do with you." Liu