The alternate personality stared into Zi Xi's eyes, and the smile on its lips gradually turned cold.

Do you think I appeared out of nowhere?

"That cowardly fellow didn't even dare to resist! If it weren't for me, he would have been trampled into the mud by those people long ago!!!"

His voice was low and tinged with sarcasm.

Zi Xi was stunned.

The alternate personality's fingers unconsciously caressed the sheets, but its gaze seemed to be looking through her, towards a more distant place.

Do you know what he went through in junior high school?

The alternate personality's voice suddenly turned somber, like a dull knife slowly cutting open a scabbed wound.

“Those local students…”

"They called him a sour, stinking poor wretch and stuffed his leftover lunchbox into his desk."

He stared out the window, but his eyes seemed to pierce through time and see something.

Zi Xi unconsciously held her breath.

"I deliberately hit him on the back of the head with a basketball during PE class, and then ambushed him at the school gate after school and made him lie on the ground..."

"They even called him a beast, a son of a bitch."

His fingers unconsciously traced the bed railing.

As the last word was spoken, the metal railings creaked under the strain.

"And what about him?"

"He would just silently pick up his schoolbag, dust it off, and go home."

The alternate personality's lips twisted into a grotesque arc, and laughter squeezed out of its throat, sounding like rusty gears rubbing against each other, sending chills down one's spine.

Zi Xi was startled to feel a sharp pain in her palm. She looked down and saw that her fingernails had dug deep into her flesh, leaving four crescent-shaped blood marks on her fair skin.

She hadn't expected it, and it wasn't mentioned in the plot, that Xue Xunzhi had ever experienced school bullying.

News reports suddenly flashed through her mind: top students jumping off buildings, transfer students dropping out of school due to depression...

No matter how strong a soul may be, it will eventually crumble like a dam hollowed out by ants when faced with day after day of humiliation and violence.

"Back then..."

“He would hide under the covers and cry every night, but he didn’t even dare to cry out loud.”

The alternate personality's voice suddenly softened, as if afraid of waking something.

Zi Xi felt as if an invisible hand was gripping her chest.

“When his grandparents asked him, he just shook his head.”

"He's an idiot, he doesn't even dare to complain, but it's also possible that complaining is useless."

"Then, I appeared."

He spoke casually, but a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes. Suddenly, he laughed, a laugh that sent chills down one's spine.

"I arranged to meet those bastards in the alley."

"They will repay him tenfold for the harm they have inflicted upon him."

His fingertips tapped lightly on the bed railing.

Zi Xi's pupils dilated slightly, and her breath hitched.

"This has blown up."

"The parents went to the school demanding an explanation. Although the teachers didn't believe he did it—after all, how could a good student like Xue Xunzhi hit someone?—the school, under pressure from the parents, tried to gloss over the matter by making him confess during morning exercises…but he ran away again."

He suddenly laughed out loud, but a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

How ridiculous! The victim is the one who has to apologize.

"Unfortunately... I'm not that weak and incompetent fool."

The alternate personality tilted its head, a hint of crimson flashing in its eyes.

“I called the police and stole my grandma’s phone… I put it in the inside pocket of my school uniform, cut off a piece of the fabric, and live-streamed the whole thing.”

"Those parents want to protect their children? Then I'll let the whole country see what kind of people their precious sons are, and what kind of social scum they've raised!"