She could see the deep sympathy in the eyes of the chief physician and a row of interns.

After all, for a beautiful young woman like her, her right hand was now a useless ornament. Even holding a pen to write might become a luxury.

Xia Zhaoyun’s expression remained unchanged as she went on to the neurology department. After a series of examinations, she received an official medical assessment from the hospital’s vice president, confirming traumatic sensorineural hearing loss in her left ear.

She left the hospital with her back straight, walking for a long time with her lips pressed tightly together before she finally let out a long, heavy breath. Gazing at the sinking sun, she murmured in a voice tinged with sorrow and a strange sense of relief, "I’m shouldering the infamous reputation of a murderer, and now my right hand and left ear are permanently disabled. This should be enough to repay the debt I owe the Song Family for raising me, right?"

"As if being a daughter of the Song Family was ever that simple."

The art troupe of the Zhaoyang Clothing Factory was housed in the ten-story cultural palace at the center of the factory grounds. This building was used for everything from the factory’s morale-boosting performances, rehearsals, and training, to housing the troupe’s unmarried members in its dormitories.

Right next to it was a sports field, and across from that stood the main office building.

By this time, everyone had finished dinner. The men, dressed in jerseys, were shouting to each other as they played ball, while the young women from the art troupe headed to the public bathhouse in groups, carrying their washbasins.

Xia Zhaoyun walked against the current of people. Under a barrage of complicated stares—a mix of gossip, pity, schadenfreude, and disgust—she stared straight ahead and strode into the building. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

After greeting the dorm manager and signing the register, she collected her key, bedding, and other supplies before heading upstairs.

"Yunyun!" The moment she opened the door, before she could get a good look at the dorm, someone lunged into her arms.

The things she was carrying all fell to the floor.

The girl stuck out her tongue sheepishly, then scrambled to pick everything up, piling it all onto the only vacant bed—a top bunk by the window.

Then the girl pulled her down to sit and looked her over from head to toe. Her eyes grew red as they landed on Xia Zhaoyun’s heavily bandaged hand, her swollen cheek, and her split lip.

"How could they be so cruel?"

"So, just because you’re not their own flesh and blood, eighteen years of feelings just go down the drain? How could they hit you like that, and so brutally?"

"Yunyun, you’re a fool. Why did you just stand there and let them? Weren’t you afraid they’d ruin that gorgeous face of yours?"

The girl’s heart ached for her. She treated Xia Zhaoyun like a porcelain doll, afraid to even touch her. As she spoke indignantly, her lip quivered, and she looked like she was about to cry.

Xia Zhaoyun gave a faint laugh, which tugged at the corner of her wounded lip.

This time, she dropped the tough act. Wincing with a sharp hiss of pain, she pulled the chattering girl into a hug. Her voice was laced with exhaustion as she said, "You know me. I’ve wanted to get away from them for a long time. This just gave me the perfect excuse. I thought you’d be buying firecrackers to celebrate for me."

’Just as everyone whispered, she, Xia Zhaoyun, had never been a good person. She didn’t know if she was born cold-hearted or if the Song Family had made her that way, but she couldn’t be bothered with any relationship that wasn’t to her advantage.’

’The friends she associated with were, at the very least, children of division heads, and there was no shortage of the sons and daughters of section chiefs, department heads, and the factory director.’

’She was beautiful, tactful, and an expert at putting on an act, which made those young scions happy to put her on a pedestal.’

’The only person she could be sincere with, the only one Xia Zhaoyun didn’t have to scheme around, was the girl in front of her, He Qingran. They were kindred spirits, both using clumsy masks to hide themselves, their quills always raised to protect the last sanctuary in their hearts.’

"But this is just too pitiful. It’s not like you at all," He Qingran said with a pout, opening a food container and pushing it over. "I knew you hadn’t eaten. I saved this for you."

Xia Zhaoyun clumsily shoved food into her mouth with her left hand.

She hadn’t felt hungry before, but the aroma of the food made her realize she was ravenous. This was a far cry from her usual self, who would practically count each grain of rice. She began to wolf down the food, a sight that made He Qingran laugh even as her eyes welled up.

"Such a good appetite. For someone accused of trying to murder her sister, you sure have a lot of nerve," He Qingran teased, her earlier tension finally easing.

"It’s not like I actually committed murder. People can say whatever they want. They’re the fools for blindly believing one side of the story. Why would I argue with idiots like that?" Xia Zhaoyun said, rolling her eyes.

She was stunningly beautiful, with delicate, perfect features. Her foxy eyes always held a hint of a smile, so much so that even when she rolled them, it was somehow captivating.

He Qingran’s heart pathetically skipped a beat. She said, annoyed, "A good reputation is a powerful thing, you know. Take Huo Sitong, for example. She has a brother who died a hero’s death, so when she stole the fiancé of the neighboring shoe factory director’s precious daughter, did anyone say a thing?"

"But you? That pretty face of yours is a waste. With a reputation that stinks, who would dare marry a viper like you? Oh, that’s right. A certain someone even took on the title of ’villain’ herself, spouting some nonsense about ’a villain takes revenge from morning to night.’ You’re really something, aren’t you!"