The next morning, Cixi woke up feeling better. She had food in the refrigerator, and the quality of the meat, fruits, and bread was truly exceptional. For once, she ate a proper breakfast and even packed a sandwich for lunch.
Today was the last day of the month, and tomorrow her salary would be deposited into her account, which gave her a small sense of relief.
Before she left her apartment, she examined the coin Cassian had given her. In the daylight, the details were clearer. A five-pointed star was carved into the metal, each point stretching in a different direction. In the centre of the star was the symbol of a scythe. On the other side, faint writing curved across the surface in what looked like an ancient language she could not read. The coin was heavy, and it looked precious for an unfamiliar reason.
She slipped it into her wallet, foolishly hoping perhaps her runaway luck would finally notice her and come back into her life.
Carrying new hope in her heart, she walked toward the bus stop, ready to face the challenges life threw at her.
*
When Cixi stepped onto the college premises, she noticed something was different. Almost every student she passed was glued to their phones, some with wide eyes, some with smirks curling at the corners of their mouths. The closer she got to the main building, the more people looked up at her with expressions that filled her with dread.
Some rolled their eyes. Some girls spat on the ground where she walked by. Others laughed outright at her. One or two mouthed the word whore at her. Men's eyes were filled with lust as they moved from head to toe.
A strange, cold fear gripped her heart, sending a warning. They had always watched her being bullied before, yes, but from a distance, as if it were a show. But they had never looked at her openly, with disgust and contempt, before. So what happened?
She didn't know the reason and decided not to risk going to her locker. The thought of running into Silvia and her friends there made her stomach clench.
Her temple still throbbed where she had hit the locker the day before, and her split lip stung when she brushed her teeth that morning. And she certainly did not have the strength for another encounter.
So she headed straight for her classroom and slipped into the last corner seat, as far from everyone as she could manage.
To her surprise, Silvia and her usual entourage walked into her classroom a few minutes later.
Her heart slammed against her ribs in sheer fear. 'Why are they here?' The question rang in her mind like an alarm. She swallowed hard. Her fingers curled into fists on her lap, and all the colour seemed to drain from her face. She wanted to stand and flee, but her legs refused to move.
"Stinky Cixi! You thought we wouldn't find you?" Silvia's disgusted laughter echoed through the nearly empty room as she headed straight for the back row.
Ronny snorted. "We need to change her name to Whore Cixi. I think it suits her better!" And they all laughed at her.
Cixi struggled to form a word in anxiety. So she tilted her head almost instinctively, hoping a teacher would walk in and save her. When she saw no one coming, she finally dared to speak. "I… I do not want any trouble," she said quietly in her thin and quivering voice. Sweat began to bead along her spine and on the back of her neck. Her body and mind were already on alert for what was coming next. Only if she knew.
"You don't want any trouble?" Silvia repeated her words mockingly, glancing at her friends, and they all burst into laughter louder than before. "You should have thought of that before sending your manager a video of yourself masturbating to seduce him." And once more, they all laughed at her vulnerability.
Cixi felt as if someone had knocked the breath out of her. What did Silvia just speak about?!
Seeing her puzzled and ashen face, Ronny pulled out his phone and tapped the screen, turning the volume up.
Cixi's eyes widened in horror, and her body began to tremble the moment the audio reached her ears. A woman's breathless moaning and whimpering filled the classroom, laced with a voice that sounded… like hers. Crying out seductively. Calling Nelson's name.
Silvia took the phone from Ronny and placed it on Cixi's desk, angling the screen so Cixi could not avoid it.
"You found a good way to become famous and rich, stinky Cixi! Look! Your dream came true. Your video has already millions of clicks," Silvia maliciously delivered the news. "You became famous within a few hours. Or should I say, Whore Cixi, who went so cheap that she tried to seduce a married man? Her manager!"
Silvia's words refused to register in Cixi's ears. She was too focused on the video and the woman on the screen, whose face she was watching. The same long black hair. The same pale grey eyes with the same figure as hers.
The woman had no shred of clothing on her, touching herself shamelessly while looking at the camera. The woman moaned Nelson's name again and again and begged him to fuck her, saying how much her body was 'dying to feel his dick inside her'. Vile and filthy words spilled from the woman's mouth... words Cixi had never spoken in her life.
Her stomach twisted. She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. "It's not me. It's fake. I have never done anything like this. It's not me," she cried, her voice rising along with the panic.
Cixi lurched to her feet and snatched the phone from the desk, hurling it to the floor. "It's not me!" she shouted, desperate for people to believe her. "I don't know who that woman is!" she repeated desperately. "I swear it's not me!"
But Silvia and her friends had no interest in her claims of innocence. They were there because they loathed her and took pleasure in tormenting her for their own amusement.
Ronny stooped to pick up his phone and checked it for cracks. "Bitch! That was a gift from my girlfriend," he snarled. His hand shot out, grabbing a fistful of Cixi's hair and yanking her head back. "You are getting too bold, Whore!" Pain exploded across her scalp, but she was past feeling it clearly. "Why pretend to be innocent when we have all already seen your whoring nature?" he hissed at Cixi. "Did you lack single men so much that you had to go after a married man? Is your pussy aching that badly for a dick so much?" Ronny's eyes turned dark as they fell on Cixi's lips.
"It's not me," Cixi insisted, still clinging to the one truth she had. "It's really not me."
"It's not you?" Silvia tilted her head and smiled coldly. "Really?" Cixi nodded frantically, her hair still trapped in Ronny's grip.
Silvia's gaze slid to Ronny, and a slow, ugly idea bloomed in her eyes. "Ronny, we need proof if it's not her," she purred. "Take her clothes off and let's see if her body looks different from the woman in the video. Let's see if she has a beauty mark on her left breast… and down there where she was pleasuring herself."
Ronny and the others burst into vulgar laughter at Cixi's predicament, and a wave of pure terror washed over her face.
"You can't do that!" Cixi shouted, her raw emotions spilling over in the classroom. "That's assault! I will go to the police! You can be arrested for it. I will report everything you have done to me to them until now! How much mental and physical torture I have suffered because of you guys, I will tell the whole world and expose you guys to the media. So you had better be careful what you do next. I am not going to stay quiet anymore." Cixi desperately hoped her warning would be enough to make them back away, and they would leave her alone. But life wasn't always fair.
Kevin, Silvia's boyfriend, stepped forward with a mocking calmness obliterating Cixi's tiny flicker of hope. "You already made yourself public property when you sent that video," he said contemptuously. "His wife found out, and she posted your video online for everyone to see your true face." His words landed like blows. "And guess what?" he continued, almost politely. "You have already lost your job. And very soon, you might lose your scholarship at this college too!"
Cixi stood there, hair trapped in Ronny's fist, tears blurring the room, as she felt her life quietly being stripped away from her piece by piece over a sin she had never committed. "What have I done to you guys that you hurt me so much?" Cixi screamed, her voice breaking as tears streamed down her face. She truly did not understand why they kept pushing her further down each day, as if her life had not already been cruel enough.
"Keep your crocodile tears to yourself, Whore!" Silvia sneered, rolling her eyes. "No one here is fooled by you."
Another male stepped closer, his mouth twisting in disgust. "Come on, guys. Let's tear her clothes. Then we will all see if it's really her in the video."
Cixi's breath caught in her throat, and before she could react, Ronny's fist tangled harshly in her hair and yanked her head back. Pain shot through her scalp, and for a second, her mind went blank. She looked around desperately, searching for something—anything.
Her eyes landed on a pencil lying on her desk.
Without allowing herself to think, she grabbed it and drove it straight into Ronny's hand, causing him to bleed. He howled in pain and immediately released her hair. The pencil clattered to the floor as he clutched his bleeding hand.
Cixi didn't waste another second. She snatched her bag and swung it wildly at the others, catching her bullies off guard.
While they staggered back in shock, she ran.
She ran out of the classroom, out of the building, not stopping until she reached the street. Her tears would not stop. They blurred her vision as she boarded the bus, ignoring the curious glances around her.
Instead of going home, she went to the company first.
By the time she reached her company, her eyes were red and swollen, and her hair looked messy. She looked like a broken doll. Every time someone looked at her, she felt as though they had seen the video—a girl who looked exactly like her.
She had to speak to Nelson.
She had to tell him it wasn't her.
Her hands trembled as she pressed the lift button.