After returning from the hospital, Mom went straight into Zhen Shunshun's room.
As I passed by, I heard her rummaging through something—probably that photo album rescued from the rooftop.
At dinner, Mom asked me, "Yuanyuan, why did you suddenly become afraid of water when you were six?"
I put down my chopsticks. "Because someone pushed me into the pond but claimed I slipped."
Mom's hands began to tremble. "Y-you... why didn't you say anything at the time?"
"I did," I said, looking directly into her eyes. "You said Shunshun was so well-behaved. How could she possibly lie?"
Mom's tears fell onto the tablecloth. This was the first time she'd cried for me, but unfortunately, it was ten years too late.
Two weeks after Zhen Shunshun was hospitalized, the school suggested she take leave to recuperate.
"The doctor says she's already under 35kg," Mom said wearily, rubbing her temples. "Her organs are starting to fail... but they can't find the cause..."I silently ate my healthy meal. My weight had dropped to 60kg, with a body fat percentage of 18%, nearing athlete levels. Mo Wen said the school track team wanted to recruit me.
"Yuanyuan..." Mom hesitated before speaking. "Could you... Go see her? The doctor says... she keeps calling your name."
I put down my fork. "Okay."
The city mental health center felt like a prison. Passing through three iron gates, I saw Zhen Shunshun in the activity room.
She was curled up in a wheelchair, like a skeleton draped in skin, soft pads bound around her wrists to prevent self-injury.
"Sis."
She slowly looked up. Her eyes were frighteningly large in her emaciated face. "Here to... mock me?"
I sat down opposite her. "Mom asked me to come."
"Liar!" she shrieked. "You stole my system! Give it back!"
An orderly restrained her agitated shoulders. I leaned forward, speaking in a voice only she could hear: "That system that could transfer weight?"
Her eyes widened, her cracked lips trembling. "Y-you... really..."
"I don't know anything," I said, leaning back in my chair. "I just know that doing too many bad things brings retribution."
She started laughing hysterically until the doctor arrived to administer a sedative.
As I was leaving, Mom stopped me in the corridor. "What was she saying about some system just now?"
"The ramblings of a disturbed mind," I shrugged. "She said I stole some system of hers."
Mom's expression became complicated. "Yuanyuan... if you know anything that could help her..."
"I'm not a doctor," I said, turning to leave.
The next day, Teacher Xi Shengyang called me in for a talk. "Zhen Yuanyuan, someone has reported that you and I have an improper relationship."
I looked up, stunned. "What?"
"The school has investigated; it's pure slander," he said, pushing a document towards me. "But I'm being transferred out of this school."
At the bottom of the document, in the space for the complainant's signature, was Zhen Shunshun's handwriting.
"How did she end up in the hospital...?"
"Her father handed it in for her." Xi Shengyang smiled bitterly. "Never imagined my first time meeting her parents would be like this."
Only then did I remember that father who was always away on business trips, when had he come back?
"Teacher, I'm sorry..."
"It's not your fault." He tidied up his desk. "Keep it up, you're excellent. You'll become even more outstanding!"
Leaving the office, I saw Zheng Kai sneaking around at the corner of the hallway.
I walked straight over: "Did you do this?"
He shook his head in panic: "Not me! It was Shunshun... Before she went into the hospital, she gave me the materials and told me to hand them to her dad when he got back..."
"Why help her?"
"She... she has something on me." His face turned deathly pale. "Back in middle school... I stole some class funds once, and she saw me..."