Chapter 1: Hero

The sun rises  high over the Fusang, and human affairs are as fine as hair. A common man, enraged by injustice, grinds away the ancient blade within his chest.”

In a class where even the boys were more inclined to sentimental melancholy, Shi Yue was the only girl who favored heroic poetry.

When the bell rang for the end of class, Shi Yue would always sit alone, properly in her seat. She wasn’t studying, nor was she sleeping, nor did she converse with anyone; she simply propped her chin in her hand, lost in thought.

She didn’t have many friends at school, which had nothing to do with her taste in poetry. It was purely because there were always terrifying rumors circulating about her in class: for instance, that Shi Yue had a terrible temper, spoke harshly, or even that she had killed someone.

Shi Yue’s temper was not volatile. She treated people with neither flattery nor arrogance, nor had she ever spoken rudely to anyone, as she rarely conversed.

But she had indeed killed someone.

Shi Yue was not inherently bad. From elementary school, she had been well-behaved and sensible, studying diligently. Her shadow was never among the students kept after school for poor grades. However, Shi Yue had one extreme trait: a fierce hatred of evil. Whenever she discovered petty theft, cheating on exams, or bullying, Shi Yue couldn’t bear to watch.

Shi Yue’s father had practiced some leg and foot martial arts in his youth, intending to make a name for himself. Later, an accident injured his leg, forcing him to settle down with a security guard job. Perhaps longing for action, he began teaching his elementary-school-aged daughter how to wield a sword and staff. Then, on one occasion, while standing up for a bullied classmate, Shi Yue accidentally stabbed one person to death and injured another. One dead, one wounded—the incident was too big for the school to cover up.

Because Shi Yue was only eight years old at the time and had not reached the age of criminal responsibility, they merely paid compensation. However, the deceased was a child of the same age, and the impact was too negative. Shi Yue’s family could no longer remain, so they moved to Huangzhou City, far from their hometown. Yet, even in this unfamiliar place, whispers and fragments of the story followed them. Shi Yue could only become more withdrawn and silent.

Fortunately, by the time she reached high school, Shi Yue had finally learned to be law-abiding and stopped causing trouble altogether. If she saw a classmate being bullied, she absolutely wouldn’t intervene. If teachers showed favoritism, she pretended not to see. If she heard classmates planning to cheat on an exam, she’d cover her ears and feign sleep. On her way home from school, if she glimpsed older students robbing others, illegal vendors openly selling forbidden materials like adult magazines to students, or street vendors being extorted by local thugs… she would turn a deaf ear to it all, simply heading home with her head down. Even if a classmate was in trouble right before her eyes, she wouldn’t help, fearing it would invite disaster.

Her mind repeatedly replayed the misfortune that followed their move: her already frail mother’s condition worsened, eventually leading to her death in a foreign land.

She still remembered standing silently with her father before her mother’s coffin. Only a few of her father’s relatives came, symbolically. Her mother’s relatives, however, were all present, and immediately upon arrival, they mercilessly berated her father. He stared straight at the dark marble floor, silent as a stone statue. Shi Yue had never seen her father like that; she didn’t dare make a sound.

It was drizzling that day. Her father held an umbrella, holding her hand as they watched the coffin slowly lowered into the ground. Then he looked at her. She thought he would blame her, but he only wiped away the tears welling in her eyes and said, “Let’s go.” Behind them, her grandmother finally broke into sobs, and everyone around went to comfort her. Her grandfather glared at her father’s retreating back as if he wanted to kill him. Shi Yue didn’t dare to look back, nor make a sound, only clutching her father’s hand tightly, finally escaping. Days passed, then years, but the gaze from behind Shi Yue seemed to never disappear.

Now a high school student, having come so far, she couldn’t cause her father any more trouble. She had to endure.

“Ah—!!!”

Suddenly, a scream erupted, drawing the attention of all the students. Shi Yue didn’t look up; she didn’t need to see to know what was happening. As dismissal neared, students became restless. There was a boy in their class, quite tall, yet incredibly timid. He was usually quiet and particularly afraid of insects. It was odd for a big boy to shriek at swarming termites, and his cries had disturbed their evening self-study sessions several times. Since then, some classmates would deliberately tease him for fun, which usually involved startling him, putting bugs in his desk, or mocking him. Such oddities were rare.

Clearly, this was the same routine. Shi Yue was already too lazy to even look. She just waited for the teacher to finish speaking, then slung on her backpack and slipped into the stream of students leaving school.

“No one even helped that boy…” The thought involuntarily surfaced in Shi Yue’s mind, but she immediately recognized her error. “No, no, that kind of person deserves to be bullied. So timid, is that normal?”

Resolutely dismissing the urge to meddle, Shi Yue decided to review what she had learned today. However, the news broadcast on the subway was too noisy for her to concentrate.

The news was the same as always: the Pseudo-Yan court, entrenched in the north, had once again attacked a city in the Great Chu Kingdom. Last month, their spies infiltrated Huangcheng but were wiped out in the suburbs of Mochang Lake District in Huangzhou City. This time, they attacked another city of the Great Chu Kingdom, Fanzhou, using drones. In response, His Majesty the Emperor of Great Chu once again publicly reiterated: The Great Chu court is the sole legitimate orthodox power, and the small Northern Yan court should work together with Chu to end the standoff between the North and South, rather than acting perversely.

Wave after wave, then came a local news report: Qian Xuweng, chairman of Huangcheng Jinli Group, accused a resident named Chen Mouqu from Youchang District of spreading rumors online, maliciously fabricating evidence that Qian Xuweng bribed officials, intentionally murdered, and forcibly took women, then, playing the victim, falsely accused Qian Xuweng of hiring others to threaten his personal safety. Upon investigation, it was confirmed that Chen Mouqu had indeed been assaulted, but there was no evidence linking the assailants to Qian Xuweng. Qian Xuweng’s lawyer stated that Chen Mouqu’s actions of inciting cyberbullying and making false accusations constituted defamation, disruption of court order, and other crimes, and he must face legal punishment.

Shi Yue leaned back in her seat, dozing, recalling the “unified prosperous eras” described in textbooks: no wars, no poverty, no corruption, and no people of the northern and southern kingdoms fighting each other, but rather a scene of flourishing prosperity and a strong, wealthy nation… She truly envied the people who lived in those times.

Perhaps the news anchor’s voice had a hypnotic effect; Shi Yue, unusually, fell asleep on the subway.

…Shi Yue seemed to be back in that classroom from long ago. In the classroom, Shi Yue was actually fighting with two older boys. It turned out that these two often bullied younger students. Once, Shi Yue’s close friend was also extorted, and when Shi Yue heard about it, she was furious. She immediately chased them to their classroom seeking revenge.

In the struggle, Shi Yue’s two fists were no match for four hands. Students around them gathered, trying to pull them apart. In a moment of desperation, Shi Yue’s peripheral vision caught sight of a student sitting quietly in a corner, peeling an apple. Without thinking, she walked straight over, snatched the student’s knife, and turned to swing it at one of the boys, striking him squarely in the neck! The stab wound from the knife tip didn’t seem deep, but the amount of blood was significant, staining her small hands crimson. The surrounding students who had intended to break up the fight scattered immediately, screaming incessantly. The other older boy was no exception; he turned to flee, stumbled, and fell backward, his head, by sheer coincidence, hitting the sharp corner of a desk. He instantly lost consciousness!

Seeing both boys on the ground, Shi Yue stopped. The hallway echoed with various screams, “Murderer!” and “Help!” Yet, Shi Yue remained unusually calm.

She vividly remembered her thoughts and feelings at that moment. Not only was there no panic in her heart, but even her anger had dissipated. She looked down. At her feet lay a shattered vanity mirror, likely dropped by a frightened student. Her reflection in the mirror was also fragmented, her expression neither sorrowful nor joyful, but rather—