She herself may have forgotten when she started to become expressionless.

I started to hate school and I hated smiles.

Because when you laugh, you never feel happy.

There was a slightly hunched figure in the school.

With her head down and a standard bob haircut, she walked very lightly, like a silent ghost in the corridor outside the classroom.

It seemed they had reached their destination, and their steps stopped in front of a classroom.

Class 3, Grade 8.

Looking up at the classroom sign, Xia Lian's eyes dimmed slightly. She then patted her cheeks, forced herself to cheer up, and tiptoed, trying to sneak into the classroom through the back door.

"Oh, I knew you'd come in through the back door today."

A mocking voice came from behind the door.

Before she could react, Xia Lian felt a heavy kick from behind, and she crashed into her desk.

The desk she bumped wobbled a few times before falling to the ground along with her, scattering the books from the drawer all over the floor.

Xia Lian was kicked so hard that she felt dizzy and lightheaded, and it took her a while to recover. She looked incredibly disheveled.

"Hahaha! You can even fall to the ground like that? You're such a piece of trash." The girl who kicked her down showed no remorse whatsoever. Instead, she stood next to her and stomped hard on her book with the sole of her shoe, grinding it into it.

Seeing her book treated that way, Xia Lian's eyes trembled slightly, but she didn't dare to make a sound. She just patted the dust off her clothes and forced a smile.

"It hurts so much... Yoon Jin."

"Tsk, don't call me by my name." Yin Zhen spat on her with displeasure, as if it was an insult to have her name spoken by her. "I just kicked you, so your clothes got my shoe soles dirty. I used your book to wipe them, no problem?"

After saying that, she took two steps forward and looked at Xia Lian with a mocking gaze.

Xia Lian maintained that forced smile, and even though her eyebrows began to tremble slightly, she didn't dare to utter a single word of rebuttal.

"No, no objection..."

Seeing her forced smile despite being terrified, Yoon Jin's expression gradually darkened, as if she had seen something filthy.

"That laugh is disgusting, you bitch."

After saying that, she didn't linger and returned to her seat, stepping on Xia Lian's books.

Although the whole thing caused quite a commotion, the classmates seemed to take it all in stride, and not a single one of them tried to stop it.

They either pretended not to see it, or kept their heads down reading their books, and some even went so far as to praise Yin Zhen, who had just kicked them.

"Sister Zhen! That kick you just made was so cool!"

"Exactly! I've wanted to kick her for ages, but you beat me to it."

"Her smile is disgusting every day. She can still laugh even after being kicked. She's so shameless, haha!"

She spoke very loudly, without any attempt to conceal her voice, and some people even wanted to see how Xia Lian, who was sitting in the back, would react.

Xia Lian gently straightened her desk and chair, squatted down to pick up the textbooks that had been trampled and dirtied, but her face still wore that forced smile, as if she couldn't hear anything they were saying.

Even though her brows drooped down in fear, the corners of her mouth never relaxed. Her eyes were already dull and lifeless, and her forced smile revealed a faint sadness.

Just as Xia Lian was about to sit down, she felt a sudden chill on her bottom, and at the same time, a faint stench wafted from below.

"Oh, by the way, you have a can of expired milk in your drawer. I'll treat you to it! Don't be shy!" Two playful voices came from the front row.

"I might have accidentally let it out, I'm really sorry, hahaha."

Amidst the clear voices of morning reading, there were a few snickers. The students sitting in front of her looked on with obvious amusement, and it was often more than one person bullying her, without any attempt to hide it.

Xia Lian's pants were soaked through, and the chair and table reeked of nauseatingly expired milk.

She stood there silently for several seconds, pursing her lips, before she started to move. She reached into her drawer, pulled out a milk can from it, wrapped it in a plastic bag, and threw it in the trash can. Then she started looking for something in her bag.

This became a habit she developed later: she would always keep a second set of clothes in her schoolbag.

"Tsk, to still be laughing even in this state, how heartless."

"He might have a mental problem, we shouldn't stoop to his level."

"This is no fun, let's stop now, in case the teacher comes later."

Seeing that Xia Lian still didn't react, the people in the front row hastily ended the conversation, but their disgust was even greater, as if she had done something heinous.

Xia Lian left the classroom with her head down, and as usual, she hid in the toilet and quietly changed into a second pair of pants. When she returned, the smell under the table had not dissipated; in fact, it had become even stronger. Even after wiping it off, the smell remained.

Without the slightest hesitation, she went straight back to her seat, took out her books as if nothing had happened, and her eyes were as dark as a dead pool.

She didn't know how much time had passed before get out of class ended, but instead of going home like the other students, she went to the office.

Her homeroom teacher wanted to speak with her.

Upon entering the office, the homeroom teacher smelled a faint odor. When she realized that the source of the odor was the girl in front of her who was forcing a smile, the homeroom teacher sighed once again.

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