Stepdaughter of a wealthy family? The little darling of a Beijing tycoon

As if touched by the deepest hatred, the female ghost's cold yin energy surged instantly, and the surrounding air became bone-chillingly cold.

Her once pretty face was now twisted into a hideous grimace, her eyes blazing with overwhelming resentment as she glared at Shen Jingshu. Her voice was shrill and hoarse, each word dripping with blood: "It was her! It was Wang Xuemei! She killed me! I want revenge! I want her to pay with her life!"

Before she finished speaking, the female ghost's body surged with malevolent energy. She turned around and was about to float out of the washroom, as if she had gone mad to seek revenge on Wang Xuemei.

Shen Jingshu remained expressionless, flicked her finger, and a calming talisman flew out and steadily entered the female ghost's body.

A golden light flashed, and the female ghost, who had been furious and enraged just moments before, instantly lost her malevolent aura. Her restless soul gradually calmed down, and her ferocious face returned to its original appearance.

Two lines of bright red tears slowly flowed from those empty eye sockets, a shocking sight.

"Calm down, speak slowly."

Shen Jingshu's tone was calm, yet carried a convincing power: "Since I've asked you, I intend to get involved in this matter. Tell me the whole story, and I will help you get justice."

Li Xiao trembled, looked up at her, his voice filled with despair and hope: "You...you can really help me? You can really make Wang Xuemei get what she deserves?"

"I mean what I say." Shen Jingshu nodded. "Tell me, what exactly did she do to you back then?"

The female ghost closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, her eyes were filled with bitterness and hatred. She slowly spoke: "My name is Li Xiao. Ten years ago, I was also a spirited student at Peking University. The year I entered the university, I happened to meet Wang Xuemei, who had just graduated and been assigned to teach at Peking University. We were her first class of students."

At that time, Wang Xuemei had just graduated from school and was only a few years older than us. She had a youthful, bookish air about her and was especially kind to us.

She always smiled and said that we were teachers and students in class, but friends outside of class, and told us not to be formal and to just call her Sister Xuemei.

She was always kind and caring towards us, and we got along well with her. She was like a gentle and kind older sister, and we all liked and trusted her from the bottom of our hearts.

But no one could have imagined that beneath that gentle and approachable mask lay a heart of extreme sycophancy and cruelty.

She secretly disliked girls with outstanding looks, and any female classmate who was pretty and popular would be targeted and harassed by her in secret.

At first, we all thought we were just being paranoid and had misunderstood her intentions, since she always had a smile on her face and showed no sign of malice.

The longer you spend time with her, the more certain you become that her targeting is all intentional.

She is incredibly tolerant of boys, but extremely picky about girls; the more outstanding a girl is, the more obvious her nitpicking becomes.

Not only that, she also particularly enjoyed being surrounded and fawned over by her male classmates, always intentionally or unintentionally keeping everyone on the edge of their seats, making all the boys in the class fawn over her.

Over time, most of the boys in the class developed feelings for her and were willing to flatter and fawn over her.

There was one exception.

He was a boy like me, who studied hard in a remote mountainous area and got into Peking University.

He was upright and aloof, neither currying favor nor pandering to popular tastes. He refused to fawn over Wang Xuemei like others would, and instead always maintained an appropriate teacher-student distance.

Shen Jingshu asked softly, "So, what's your relationship with this male classmate?"

A mixture of bittersweetness and tenderness welled up in Li Xiao's eyes, and her voice choked with emotion:

"He is my boyfriend. We've been in the same class since high school, supporting each other all the way. We would study together after school, staying up all night to do practice problems. We made a promise long ago—to get into Peking University together, and then we could be together openly and honestly."

"He came from a poor family like me, but he was handsome and tall, and became the new campus heartthrob of Peking University as soon as he entered the school. Countless girls pursued him, and people would block him every day asking for his contact information, but he always refused them directly, making it clear to everyone: he has a girlfriend, and that person is me."

"Relationships are allowed in universities, and we had long since openly declared our relationship. Life was peaceful and sweet. But then, Wang Xuemei fell for him."

At this point, Li Xiao's resentment began to resurface:

"I caught her confessing her feelings to my boyfriend in private, and he rejected her on the spot, even explicitly stating my existence. I happened to witness that scene. Wang Xuemei's face turned ashen, as if she had suffered a great humiliation. As she left, her eyes were filled with venom, staring intently at the two of us."

"We initially thought it was a minor matter and that it would be over soon. Who could have imagined that from that day on, she would completely hate us?"

"She didn't target my boyfriend; instead, she dumped all her malice on me. Before long, all sorts of dirty rumors started circulating wildly at school, with detailed descriptions, slandering me for having a chaotic private life and being ambiguous with several male classmates at the same time. There were even a lot of deliberately spliced ​​and maliciously fabricated intimate photos to intentionally ruin my reputation."

"When the rumors started, I immediately stood up to clarify. My boyfriend also stood firmly by my side and testified clearly that I was with him almost every moment during those days, so there was no way those absurd things could have happened."

Li Xiao's voice suddenly trembled, and the yin energy around him surged again, but it was no longer pure malevolence; instead, it carried a heart-wrenching despair and icy coldness:

"But she actually went so far as to destroy me with her own hands just to break us up!"

"That year, it was nearing winter break, and the campus was already deserted. She forged my boyfriend's handwriting, left a note, and asked me to meet her in the grove behind the school. Foolishly, I thought it was a romantic date with my boyfriend and happily went to the meeting place. But when I got there, I found that my boyfriend wasn't there at all. Waiting for me were a few rich kids who usually idled away their time!"

"I recognized them immediately—those were Wang Xuemei's loyal sycophants! I instantly knew this was a trap set for me. I turned to run, but found my escape route completely blocked. It was just before the holidays, and the local students had all gone home long ago. The grove was deserted; I was utterly helpless!"

"Right there in the woods, I was forcibly assaulted and bullied by those men. They took countless obscene photos of me, and before leaving, they viciously threatened me: 'You must break up with your boyfriend immediately, or these photos will be plastered all over the campus, ruining my reputation!'"

"I was furious at the time, and with my last bit of strength, I picked up my phone and called the police. But justice is the hardest thing to find in this world."

"The grove was in a remote area with no surveillance cameras, so the police could only retrieve footage of me walking into the grove alone. What's even more insidious is that those rich kids insisted that I had asked them to meet, and they also slandered me for being promiscuous and having been having an affair with them for a long time."

"When the police came to the school to investigate, Wang Xuemei, as my homeroom teacher, was naturally among those questioned. In front of the police, she pretended to be heartbroken and subtly 'revealed' that she often saw me getting very close to those male classmates and behaving inappropriately."

"With just that one sentence, I was firmly accused of 'lacking self-respect.' Everyone preferred to believe her, the 'confidante,' rather than me, the victim who was being bullied."