I had a shoulder bag slung over my back and was humming a little tune as I cycled across the road.
Suddenly, an elderly woman collapsed in front of my bicycle.
She looked rather mean, her face covered in wrinkles like the grain of an ancient, withered tree.
Worried something might happen to her, I hurried over and helped her up.
Instead, she tried to extort me, claiming I had knocked her down and demanding compensation.
01
My name was Luo Jiaojiao, and I was a senior at Jinling University.
The days leading up to graduation were always busy and tightly packed. I had found a company off campus where I could intern. Fortunately, my faculty still allowed me to live on campus, saving me the cost of rent.
Yes.
I was not particularly well-off. My parents had died in a car accident when I was little.
But I had never struggled growing up. Thanks to my good grades, outstanding students like me had access to a whole range of scholarships, including the Royal Scholarship, the Empire Talent Award Scholarship, and the Qingyun Award, which spared us worries about making ends meet.
Although I was an orphan, I had never experienced the fickleness of human affection or the coldness of the world growing up. This was a perfectly normal, friendly world.
Until that day.
02
I finished doing my makeup and getting dressed as usual, then stood before the mirror, looking myself over from every angle.
I wore a plain-colored, embroidered Song-style fitted top, very fashionable that year, and a horse-face skirt cinched tightly at the waist. With my hair swept up and secured with a hairpin, I looked dignified and elegant, graceful and refined.
"Jiaojiao, you're gorgeous."
Laughter rang through the room as several girls brimming with youthful