Like every successful person who has benefited from the era's dividends but attributes them to their own efforts, Xue Lian believes in the law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak, and spends his entire life pursuing the privilege of trampling on the weak. He absolutely cannot accept having a son with a weak character.

Empathy is a sign of incompetence, as is dwelling on past tragedies. Even though Xue Jing was a child, stress-induced trauma is not allowed.

Seeing a psychologist is tantamount to admitting that Xue Jing is a flawed, inferior product. Feng Yun studies Xue Lianwu like reading a textbook, so she chooses to keep her son's condition a secret as much as possible. She tries every means to improve his health, hiring nutritionists, enrolling him in summer camps, and finding various training classes to strengthen his physique. But apart from that, Xue Jing has never received any meaningful psychological counseling.

Aside from Feng Yun's line, which she's probably said a million times, "Just pretend nothing happened. Isn't everything fine now? Why keep thinking about the past?"

Seeking advantage and avoiding harm is a survival instinct; those who frequently look back and invite trouble do not deserve sympathy.

Gradually, Xue Jing, like Feng Yun and Xue Lianwu, also began to wear a mask.

The first thing I do every morning when I wake up is walk to the mirror and practice how to smile at my parents. When I have nightmares, I get up and go for a run until I'm completely exhausted, which allows my mind to clear.

"I thought things were getting better, but after I went to university, the environment changed drastically when I moved into the dormitory. I started having trouble sleeping all night. When my insomnia was severe, running didn't help, and I often had thoughts of self-harm."

I happened to see a flyer on the bulletin board and called a college student psychological support hotline. Although the person on the other end did not know what he had experienced, they followed the exposure therapy method and firmly persuaded the teenager to face his fears.

So during his freshman year, on a weekend near winter break, Xue Jing carried a large bundle of paper money and flowers for grave sweeping and wandered around the cemetery for a long time before finally finding the tombstones of Li Shulan and Xue Ting.

Perhaps it was divine punishment, but before he had finished burning the paper offerings, he was kicked to the ground by several distant relatives of Li Shulan, who had also come to pay their respects to the deceased.

His clothes were torn, Xue Jing was covered in dirt, blood seeped from the corner of his lips, and his eyelashes were soaked. He covered his head and said sorry many times, but the angry adults tore up all the flowers and paper money he had brought and trampled them under their feet. In the wind and ashes, they kicked him to death and shouted with satisfaction: If he really felt sorry, he should die.

Because it was he who deserved to die back then, not Xue Ting.

Xue Ting is the rightful heir to the Xue family; she is the one who deserves to be showered with love and affection. And Xue Jing? Like his mother, he is a usurper, a criminal who steals others' wealth, and deserves to be torn to pieces.

So that day, Xue Jing stumbled back to his dormitory, took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and then went to the rooftop of the second teaching building.

On a cloudless winter afternoon, the sun was blinding, but Xue Jing walked along the road, hunched over and coughing, feeling that everything around him was dark and oppressive. The dark clouds in the sky hung so low that they seemed to be pressing down on his spine, making it impossible for him to lift his head.

At the age of eighteen, Xue Jing was determined to give back the life he had stolen. If the pampering the Li family talked about meant living in a mansion, driving luxury cars, and doing his best to pretend to be happy in a house always full of servants, then he didn't really like this kind of "preferential treatment" for surviving.

If he had a choice, he wouldn't want to become a tool his mother used to blackmail his father for promises.

If he had a choice, he would gladly take the place of eight-year-old Xue Ting and enter the gas-filled room.

If he had a choice, he wouldn't want to become someone whose body is rotting and whose wounds cannot be cleaned.

Unfortunately, he had no choice; his acting was never as good as his parents'.

The space in which the boy lived was like The Truman Show, but what was more terrifying than the movie was that his world was real, and there was no curtain or studio outside the sky for him to escape from.

So he decided to destroy his product, which had failed the quality inspection.

It was Sunday. After entering the second teaching building, Xue Jing walked up the stairs towards room 508. If he was lucky, there wouldn't be many people in room 508, and he could climb out of the window and jump off the rooftop without any hindrance. However, if he couldn't do it in room 508, it wouldn't matter; he could always go to classroom 1.

My roommate told me that the view from the rooftop at Liyi in the height of summer is amazing, perfect for enjoying an ice-cold beer with a girl you like while feeling the evening breeze. Unfortunately, he won't be able to wait until summer, and he doesn't have a girl he likes.

Not only that, he will also be letting down the school's cleaning staff. If his brains are splattered all over the place and blood flows everywhere, then he will be truly sorry.

Xue Jing was so focused on getting to his destination that he didn't notice the huge X-shaped display stand downstairs. Just as the time came to 2:30, he was swept away by a sudden surge of people and deviated from his original path as he reached the second floor.

The students around were chattering excitedly, and everyone was walking quickly toward the "small auditorium" on the fourth floor, their steps solemn and clockwise, as if they were on a devout pilgrimage.

Pushed and shoved by the crowded people, Xue Jing had already missed several corners in the opposite direction. The stairs leading to the fifth floor were right on his right. He only needed to rudely shove aside the two girls wearing glasses next to him to leave the crowd smoothly.

Just as he was hesitating about whether he should be so impolite to the lady, two sharp-eyed senior students from the Chinese department spotted Xue Jing, who was much taller than the students around him, from behind the crowd and immediately called his name across the crowd.

The two had just finished lunch and were still basking in the Chinese Department's resounding victory over the Law School that morning. They squeezed their way to Xue Jing's side, each grabbing one of his sleeves and exclaiming in unison, "Xue, you're here to watch the debate too?"

"A debate competition?" Xue Jing was puzzled. He first shook his head, but then, afraid of offending his seniors, he nodded again.

"Hey, no surprise. We even beat those law students this morning, so how could we possibly lose to those amateur players from the foreign language department this afternoon?"

"If it were an English debate, they might have a chance of winning, but this is a Chinese debate!"

The two chatted and laughed, acting as bodyguards to help Xue Jing squeeze into the multimedia classroom.

In the front row of the classroom, the friends and family of the Chinese department debaters had already occupied the three rows of seats with the best view. As soon as the senior student who was adjusting the microphone saw Xue Jing, she immediately waved to him with surprise.

The senior student was not tall and wore tortoiseshell glasses that made her look like an old scholar, but her friendliness was inversely proportional to her size. She persuaded Xue Jing to join the Jida Debate Club like an old Taoist priest, saying that he could serve as the face of their next promotional display.

"Look, this time the face of the store is their freshman from the Foreign Languages ​​Department. Putting aside their debating skills, we have to admit that the girl is indeed very photogenic. See all these boys behind her? They're all here for the display stand."

"The display stand? Sorry, I didn't notice."

Xue Jing's pale face turned toward the stage in the direction indicated by her senior. The debaters on the stage were taking their seats one after another. Two rows of tables and chairs were arranged in a V-shape around them. As the figures moved around, the view unfolded like a curtain, and Ha Yue's name and the large promotional image behind her immediately came into view.

In the photo, she has bright, beautiful eyes, her hair is tied up high, revealing her smooth and full forehead.

"Yes, it's a promotional display for the debate! The topic is quite difficult this time. They just drew lots, and our affirmative side has a good advantage."

Suddenly, Xue Jing's gaze shifted, not because of Ha Yue's exquisite face as the face of the group, but because he saw the topic of the debate.

Does the law of the jungle apply to modern human society?

Like a pre-arranged emergency intervention, a debate about the value of life was taking place right below Xue Jing's rooftop, where he was about to speak quietly.

When the four debaters from the Department of Chinese Literature used a series of interconnected logical lines to apply Darwin's theory of evolution to the history of human development, repeatedly emphasizing that survival of the fittest is natural selection, the regular team from the Department of Chinese Literature still lost to the team from the Department of Foreign Languages ​​in the final vote.

The debate was exceptionally brilliant, with intense questioning and rebuttals. However, in the midst of the fierce competition, what ultimately helped the School of Foreign Languages ​​achieve an overwhelming victory was Ha Yue's calm and moving closing statement.

Ha Yue was almost off-script when she glanced at the cardstock in her hand and looked around at the audience.

She said that the greatest productivity of human society comes from cooperation, and the great changes in human civilization come from helping the weak. In a small town in southern Georgia, a fossil of an old man with only one tooth was unearthed. 30,000 years ago, a young man in Indonesia survived for 6 to 9 years after undergoing amputation surgery and was carefully cared for by his peers.

Without the concept of equality for all and the right to live, humanity would not have entered modern society, nor would it have a future.

Xue Jing, who originally intended to find an excuse to leave halfway through, watched the entire debate, which lasted one hour and twenty minutes, intently from the audience. After the host announced the votes, he was unable to go up to the rooftop. Instead, he asked his senior for a schedule of activities for the debate club and carefully filled out the application to join the club when he returned to his dormitory that night.

From then on, he listened to every single one of Ha Yue's sixteen debates, until his curiosity about her reached its peak. Until he lost all interest in going up to the rooftop, until his will to live grew stronger and stronger.

It was just a coincidence, and the specific details are even more unclear. It sounds extremely pretentious, but he was indeed saved because of Ha Yue.

"I still remember the look on your face when you said that everyone has the right to live." Nineteen-year-old Ha Yue was so dazzling. Standing there, she was like a pine tree, without the slightest hesitation or wavering. Her eyes were firm and confident, full of a clear and bright light.

Every time she stepped onto the debate stage, she was so passionate, like a fledgling eagle spreading its wings, wanting to change the world with her own strength. He admired her courageous enthusiasm and looked up to her clear thinking and never-give-up attitude.

That light had once dispelled the gloom surrounding Xue Jing, and now he wanted to return that light to her.

Every suicide is a form of social homicide.

Love can't save people, but he thought that in this chaotic, indifferent, and materialistic society, she could save herself by rowing her own boat.

He had to hand her the broth; it was his duty, his responsibility.