Chapter 4: The Last Meal

As the neighborhood villainess, Gu Qianqian had a routine of tormenting Lin Feiyu. She used Lin Feiyu’s money. She swiped her meal card.

After eating her fill, she kicked over Lin Feiyu’s plate and tore the girl’s clothes. Then she’d cross her arms, all laughter and mockery, while the white-lotus heroine cleaned everything up in tears.

Meanwhile, Gu spending her own money? That had hurdles. She wasn’t a favorite at home, and she had an elder brother above her.

This was a world of threats and thin resources. A family with no skills and no connections floated at the edge of starvation.

And for people at the bottom, there was little proper entertainment. At night, the only fun was trying to make babies.

That was the worst blow to a poor family. The little they had had to be directed toward a chosen few.

Gu Qianqian’s family chose her brother. She was the one cast aside.

The only reason she could attend Wind City Academy was that the original Gu Qianqian had fought hard at home. She made so much noise her parents finally scraped up some money. They agreed to support her for three years.

It wasn’t wisdom. It was a push from the neighbor Auntie Wang, who didn’t care what became of her. The auntie’s one cruel question: “Why is your brother favored while you are not?”

So she went to war at home. Her parents gave in at last. But once at the academy, Gu Qianqian found she had almost nothing for meals, and no matter what she said, the family would give no more.

To put food in her stomach, she turned her eyes to soft white-lotus Lin Feiyu.

Yelling at her, beating her, taking her meal card, that was the small money.

From time to time, Gu dragged a few fair-weather friends to corner Lin in the washroom. They’d squeeze cash out of her for clothes and everyday goods. What they didn’t get in cash, they took by force, then added punches and kicks.

Walking behind Lin now with those memories flooding back, Gu had no mind for a tempting figure ahead. That mess was usually good for a fantasy.

She was in deep trouble!

If someone treated her like that and she grew strong one day, wouldn’t she slice that person into pieces? And what about this female lead, who had died and come back dark?

Yet looking at Lin now, no shadow seemed to sit in her. She still smiled, able to lure and charm.

“Host, don’t be deceived by that disguise,” the system cut in. “Lin Feiyu has already crafted a thousand and one deaths for you in her mind.”

That’s horrific! (°Д°).

Gu gulped hard.

“Jerk system, think of a way!”

“Host, I told you already, as soon as it gets bad, grab her…”

“Get lost.” Gu blackened her face and blocked the system. That thing always fanned the flames, loving to see the world burn.

***

Wind City’s canteen was no small hall. It sat in a long row of buildings, five floors high, making all three meals for the whole academy.

The food came in cheap and dear.

Cheap ones were hard, dry grain that filled your stomach and tasted like dirt. Dear ones had variety, taste, and refinement.

The canteen wasn’t luxurious, but it was clean. In this ruined world, supplies remained plentiful in wilderness, but only if you took risks. That drove prices up steeply.

As a rule, when Gu used Lin’s card, she stayed away from the pricey choices.

Sustainable living, right?

But now…

Chilled thornbud salad, sour-vine stem tossed in hot sauce, stone-moss jelly, stir-fried demon tripe…

There was meat and soup, cold and hot. Their fragrance rose and filled the nose, making your fingers twitch.

This single meal cost a whole gold coin!

Damn that rich girl! Damn all the rich!

Gu had eaten little good food before. And since crossing over, what she had seen was nothing like this world’s fine dishes. Seated across from Lin at the moment, she didn’t bother to hide her greedy swallows.

Eyes from all around followed her.

Two girls of different ages, both good-looking, sharing a meal made a pleasant sight, something worth stealing a glance at. And besides, how many could order such a spread in one go?

Some even whispered if they were daughters of some powerful clan. Wind City did take in such daughters, after all. Those young ladies usually brought private cooks and ate in suites. They seldom appeared in this common hall.

“Why don’t you eat?” said Lin, and she very kindly picked dishes into Gu’s bowl one by one.

Moved?

Gu dared not make a move.

Though Lin wore a gentle smile and the table was full of bounty, Gu had the creeping sense this was her final meal before the executioner’s blade.

Could one even swallow a last supper? It tasted that way, too.

Just the thought of the torture waiting for the girl raised Lin’s spirits. The delight made her order more.

Since the girl was dying anyway, a nice meal before the end did her no harm.

Lin held no pity in her heart. It was the thrill of toying with prey that moved her. The sweeter Gu’s last hours, the worse she would feel at night.

She would, no doubt, go raving and crying, scratched raw by unbearable pain. Then her stomach would twinge with memory of this rich food while she waited, trembling in the dark.

“What is it? Not to your taste?” asked Lin. “Or is your palate too used to hard bread and cheap soup to like better food?”

Gu fixed her eyes on the table, silent.

That strange hesitance pushed Lin’s suspicion deeper.

Perhaps it was not decent to kill a person before learning what she was being secretive about.

She shook her head and sneered inside. What did a secret matter? Once dead, they never crawl back.

Her own case, though, made her doubt the rule. A good chance to sound her out.

“Gu, you are strange today.” Lin picked another chunk of meat and set it in Gu’s bowl. “Usually, when the dinner bell rings, you grab my card and rush to queue, eating like a hog. It never even pads your frame. Such waste of my money…”

“Then, with the meal done, you bring hot soup to pour over my head, and chortle with those two-faced girlfriends of yours.”

“Aren’t you doing that today? Or have you saved some new torture for me? Hmm?”

Gu timidly lifted her head. She could not understand why, hearing the girl enumerate each bullying she had committed, something in her chest ached for Lin.

Would this pretty thing have turned cold and dark if people had not hurt her so much?

This lovely soul, in a past life gentler than soft water, more pitiful than fallen petals, had been forced into the dark by every cruelty.

Who knew what she had both suffered and now remembered? If Gu’s death was fixed, could she at least soften some hatred before it ended? Though none of this mess was ever her doing.

She cursed herself inside. Fool! You bend your heart at every pretty face. Why worry about her when you’re dead? I’d be happier if the whole world came down with me!

“I…” Gu stopped, and cast her eyes low.

There was no one more pitiable in that room.

That posturing enraged Lin even more.

Pitiable? Who here was really pitiable? Who was the one being pushed around and roughed up all this time?

You think acting like a broken flower will rescue you? Gu Qianqian. You turn my stomach.

“I just feel… I did wrong…” said Gu.

Lin was still a moment. Then she let out a mocking breath, a dash of anger to her voice. “Wrong? You? What exactly are you wrong about?”

“I… should not have bullied you…” Gu had no courage to meet her gaze. “I keep thinking… it’s true now. I treated you unfairly. I spent your money, I hit you, I cursed you. Lin, I apologize.”

The words were sincere, and also survival instinct. If there was no way out, then seemed now still worth one attempt?

Lin slammed her palm on the table, making Gu flinch. She leaned nearer, and Gu could see, too clearly, the paleness of her skin and the frozen stars in her eyes.

“No. You aren’t wrong. And you don’t owe me apology, Gu Qianqian. I will be frank with you. This meal: whether you want it or not, you will eat it, to the last bite.”

“The injury you gave me, not to be settled by any of your sorries.”

Yes!! She really intends to kill!

Gu’s hope, thin as it already was, dissolved altogether. She had known that since she was found, red-handed, at the stairwell.

Then, two coarse voices from the side sliced in.

“Oh! Oh! Isn’t that Miss beauty, our class rose Lin Feiyu?”

“Ha ha! Yu Ni, look. It might be ‘class rose’ no longer; the whole town says she will be queen of school roses.”

“And the future queen, how come you are serving yourself alone such a pile of fine food?”

“Huh? Gu? so you’re in it too! You false little thing, feasting good without calling us girls?”

“You argue with them? Just sit the hell down!”

Before Gu’s bewildered eyes, one shoved Lin aside and dropped onto the seat, and the other kicked the heroine hard before sitting with her friend.

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