Going home for Chinese New Year, I squeezed onto a bus with three energetic young women.

Zhang Qian took a step back, avoiding Zhang Yan's hand, which was stained with blood from her nose.

That's it?

Is that why she ruined herself?

Is it just out of jealousy, just because no one is there to support her, just to satisfy that ridiculous vanity?

Li Mengmeng, who was not far away, stared wide-eyed and her mouth slightly open.

"Just because of... these?" Li Mengmeng muttered to herself. Although she was a bit cunning now, this kind of pure malice was still beyond her comprehension.

"But Zhang Qian didn't do anything wrong... She's so pitiful."

Bai Li stood behind Li Mengmeng, gently placing his hand on her fluffy head, his tone somewhat heavy.

"This is the malice of student days."

"It doesn't need any deep-seated hatred, or even any decent reason."

Bai Li looked at the trembling blue-haired figure in the arena and slowly said:

"It's too pure, and too vicious. It needs no disguise, no logic."

"It can consist of countless slaps, insults, exclusion, and strange looks from classmates and friends."

"When these things come together, they form a sharp knife."

"It can kill a person's true nature, turn a good person into a bad one, and turn a normal person into a madman."

In the field.

Zhang Qian looked at that pleading face and suddenly smiled.

That smile was so tragic it was heartbreaking; tears streamed down her exquisite makeup, leaving streaks.

Do you know why I didn't resist?

Zhang Qian laughed and cried at the same time, her voice trembling uncontrollably:

"Because I'm not like you."

"I have no parents to support me. My father is a gambler, and my mother remarried, taking me with her. My stepfather is also a beast."

"I ran away secretly. That book... I begged my gambling-addicted father to let me read that book!"

"I thought that as long as I endured it, as long as I obeyed, I could finish my studies, have a good future, and leave that home..."

"But what about you? You threw my schoolbag into the latrine, tore my textbooks to shreds, and spread rumors that I was working as a prostitute outside..."

Zhang Qian's body heaved violently, the fire in her chest burning so intensely that it made her internal organs ache.

What happened next is self-evident to Bai Li.

That girl, who originally had excellent grades and thought she could change her fate through studying, ultimately couldn't survive those long, dark nights.

She was forced to drop out of school and entered society as a minor.

She worked as an apprentice at a barbershop, waited dishes at a karaoke bar, and eventually met Bai Li.

She witnessed the dark side of society far too early.

To survive, she learned to smoke and drink, and dyed her hair blue. She lost her way in society and became what people called a "spiritual young woman."

Although her body was completely healed, her heart was already riddled with wounds.

If it weren't for meeting Bai Li, if it weren't for that encounter at the billiards hall,

Her fate now is likely to remain lost in her own thoughts, ultimately becoming utterly worthless.

"Zhang Yan!!"

Zhang Qian suddenly let out a heart-wrenching scream.

"Smack—!!!"

That slap used all her strength.

The crisp sound echoed in the private room, even drowning out the sound of the air conditioner.

Zhang Yan was so slapped that she slumped back into her chair.

Half of her face swelled up instantly, and her mouth was also broken. Blood mixed with the previous nosebleed smeared all over her face.

"I hate you..."

Zhang Qian maintained the waving gesture, her whole body trembling violently.

"You ruined my life... Do you even know you ruined my life?!"

"If it weren't for you, I'd probably still be a junior in college..."

"I should be sitting in a bright classroom, not like this, knowing nothing..."

"I even... I don't even feel worthy of being played with by my older brother..."

She spoke those last words so softly, yet they felt like a knife cutting into Bai Li's heart.

This sense of powerlessness, this deep-seated inferiority complex stemming from the past, is Zhang Qian's greatest pain in this life.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

Zhang Yan covered her face, not caring how much pain Zhang Qian was in; she only cared whether Bai Li would reveal that secret.

For money, and to avoid being beaten to the point of incontinence by Zhao Gang, she could only repeat those three words like a broken record.

"I'm sorry...it was my fault...please forgive me..."

Looking at the woman in front of her who had no dignity, Zhang Qian's tears fell like beads from a broken string.

She cried loudly, completely losing her composure.

It wasn't because I was sad, nor because I was afraid.

It was because of this apology that was so many years overdue.

This apology should have come long ago in that cold toilet, on that afternoon when the textbook was torn to shreds.

It was so late, so many years too late, that her life had already changed beyond recognition.

Bai Li stepped forward, said nothing, but reached out and embraced Zhang Qian, gently patting her trembling back.

The expensive coat was stained with Zhang Qian's tears and snot, but he didn't care at all.

"Cry."

Bai Li patted her back, his voice as gentle as if he were comforting a wronged child:

"Just cry it out. Cry away the Zhang Qian who used to suffer injustice, and from now on... no one will dare to bully you anymore."

Zhang Qian clung tightly to Bai Li's clothes, buried her head in his chest, and burst into tears.

He didn't say anything like "it's all in the past" or "you need to learn to forgive"—that kind of nonsense.

Don't persuade others to be kind to others without suffering.

Without experiencing that desperate, dark night, arbitrarily deciding for the victim to let go of hatred is not forgiveness, but another form of bullying.

He has no right to forgive Zhang Qian for the suffering she has endured over the past few years.

He only gave Zhang Qian one promise: "From now on, I will stay with you."

Zhang Qian buried her face in his chest, her sobs gradually subsiding into intermittent sobs, but she wouldn't let go of his clothes.

After she calmed down a bit, Bai Li gently lifted Zhang Qian's right hand, the one that had hit her.

"Does it hurt?"

Zhang Qian froze for a moment, and tears welled up in her eyes again.

She shook her head, her voice still trembling:

"No...it doesn't hurt."

Bai Li turned around and looked down at Zhang Yan.

"And you?" Bai Li asked Zhang Yan. "Does it hurt a lot?"

Zhang Yan shuddered.

She's terrified of Bai Li right now.

Even without making a move, just by standing there, this man could see right through all her underwear.

The story of the homeless, the story of the underpass, the story of that filthy disease...

"It hurts...it hurts so much..." Zhang Yan dared not not reply, covering her swollen cheek, and said intermittently.

"That certainly deserves pain." Bai Li pointed to Zhang Yan's swollen face: "But these..."

"It's not even a tenth of the bullying you did to Zhang Qian."

Zhang Yan suddenly raised her head, her eyes, swollen to slits, filled with defiance and terror.

"I...I've already apologized!" she mumbled incoherently. "I let her hit me! What more do you want? That was before, we were all kids back then..."

"Small?"

Bai Li smiled.

"If a murderer committed a crime before the age of eighteen, does that mean that person doesn't have to die?"

He leaned forward slightly, staring at Zhang Yan:

"You just said that you want to ruin her because she looks good in a white school uniform, and because the teachers and other male students like her."

"You spread rumors that she's immoral, saying she'll be forced into prostitution. You wrote her name on the toilet wall with those vulgar words."

"Zhang Yan, did you feel particularly good back then? Like you were a judge, labeling others and making them whatever labels they wanted to be?"

Zhang Yan's lips trembled, unable to speak.

That was really great.

She was fascinated by the twisted pleasure of watching the swan being trampled into the mud and turned into a gray, ugly duckling.

"But have you noticed something?"

Bai Li's voice wasn't loud, but it resonated in her ears.

"The false labels you attached to her don't even represent one ten-thousandth of Zhang Qian, but they reveal the whole picture of Zhang Yan."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yan froze completely.

It was as if she had been struck by lightning; her mind was buzzing.

What label?

bus.

Indecent.

Rotten goods.

These words, which she had deliberately created and forcibly attached to that innocent girl,

At that moment, it was like a boomerang, whistling through the air, that pierced back into her own body.

Although Zhang Qian dropped out of school and worked as a waitress and cashier.

But she was clean and tidy.

Although she dressed like a trendy young woman, had dyed blue hair, and smoked and drank,

But she never sold her body for money, never had physical contact with anyone other than Bai Li, and never slept with a homeless man.

Although she felt inferior and was cautious in front of Bai Li, her heart was warm.

And what about yourself?

Zhang Yan looked down at the leopard-print mini-skirt she was wearing.

For designer handbags, for Zhao Gang's Audi that didn't belong to her, for the money she hadn't yet received...

She's already completely rotten.

The stench emanating from his crotch, the bloodstains all over his face.

Who exactly is the dirty thing?

"I am...I am..." Zhang Yan's eyes were unfocused, and she murmured to herself.

She was the monster in that demon-revealing mirror.

She spent years discrediting another person in an attempt to corrupt them.

In the end, she became the most despicable protagonist in the lie she herself had created.