If you ask what fears pgued Lu Lingyue during his college days, the list was long.

  He dreaded waking up early for css, feared exams, dreaded having the teacher call on him duriures—and, well, even worried about the girl he fancied falling for someone else… Scratch that st ohough;

  like a resple peony in full bloom, Lu Lingyue had never once experienced romantic feelings.

  But if there was ohing he feared above all, it was humans.

  Since childhood, Lu Lingyue had suffered from severe social ay.

  Iing with others—regardless of their age ender—filled him with dread, with women being especially intimidating.

  Today marked his first time stepping out in cospy for a photo shoot, and he’d attracted a curious crowd.

  Among the onlookers were ughing, chattering children apanied by their parents, and a few teenagers whispering among themselves.

  Overwhelmed, Lu Lingyue’s ay fred up all ain.

  Humans… they were just too terrifying!

  In truth, his social phobia had its roots in the bullying he endured during middle school.

  Unlike some victims who were beaten by gangs, Lu Lingyue was subjected daily to a torrent of verbal abuse by a group of boys.

  They mocked him for never leaving home and beled him a freak—insinuating that he was an orphan.

  Soon, their jeers escated into eous rumors: some cimed, “Lu Lingyue killed his own parents,” while others whispered, “He’s always bringing girls home just to harass them.”

  At first, Lu Lingyue was oblivious to these cirg tales.

  It wasn’t until oeful dinner—when his sister, Lu Xiaoxue, actally knocked a bowl off the table, pelling him to front the nonsehat he realized the truth.

  That’s when he learhose boys had been spreading lies and verbally tormenting him.

  He did try to stand up for himself, but in the end, one man’s strength was no match for a barrage of fists.

  Bruised and battered, Lu Lingyue could only limp home.

  All Lu Xiaoxue did upon seeing him was click her tongue before firmly shutting the door.

  Just whehought things would tio sour, three days ter, to his utter astonishment, the very boys who had bullied him rushed over to apologize oernoon.

  “We’re sorry,” the worst offender said, scratg the back of his head with an air of feigned innoce, “we were only fooling around. We never meant to hurt you.”

  One by ohe others offered their half-hearted apologies.

  But Lu Lingyue couldn’t five them.

  For a middle schooler, the sting of words be as cutting as a razor’s edge.

  “Hey, why are you so full of yourself? If it weren’t for your sister Lu Xiaoxue, we wouldn’t have bothered ing to apologize in the first pce!”

  the ringleader snapped as he noticed Lu Liurning to leave.

  “Lu Xiaoxue?” he muttered, as if surprised that his seemingly indifferent sister had actually been bag him up.

  “Hey, did you hear that?!” one of his ies chimed in. “Fet it—just for Xiaoxue’s sake, we won’t hold it against you,” the leader added before he and his ckeys walked away.

  Watg their retreating backs, Lu Lingyue loo front them and demand an expnation.

  Yet wheurned home that day, Lu Xiaoxue nontly remarked, “They won’t be seen at school tomorrow.” Anxiously, he pressed, “Why?”

  That was the first smile Lu Xiaoxue had shown him in all their years together.

  Her pink lips curved ever so slightly as she replied, “Because… I killed them.”

  After uttering those chilling words, she turned and walked back to her room, leaving Lu Lianding there, stunned uhe silent glow of the moon.

  Was she really telling the truth? Could she have actually killed those boys?

  It seemed impossible—after all, they were nearly twice her size!

  How could she, on her own, have taken them all down?

  For days, Lu Lingyue agonized over the mystery, never uanding why those bullies had suddenly vanished from school.

  And whenever he inquired about them, Lu Xiaoxue’s answers always skirted around the truth.

  “Well, as long as they’re gohat’s all that matters,” was her usual reply.

  “Then why did you help me?” Lu Lingyue demanded.

  They hadn’t been close before—she had no obligation to stand up for him.

  With a cool detat, she answered, “Because I hate men.”

  Uhe dark night, Lu Xiaoxue’s blue eyes shimmered with an uny light, and a near-maniacal smile spread across her face. “Especially those worthless, degee men.”

  While Lu Liood in the shadows away from the moonlight, Lu Xiaoxue basked in its gentle glow, exuding a bewitg allure.

  It was the first—and only—time Lu Lingyue had ever witnessed such a terrifying side of her.

  From that moment on, he regarded her as truly fearsome—capable of even murder!

  After those bullies disappeared, Lu Lingyue’s life gradually returo its usual calm, and Lu Xiaoxue never again shoeculiar behavior.

  Over time, he began to bury those painful memories, fetting about the boys who had tormented him. Yet while one choose tet, the body’s instinctive reas remain.

  Lu Lingyue was left with sting trauma—a crippling social ay.

  At school, he deliberately kept a low profile, rarely left home, and avoided crowded pces.

  Whenever he was surrounded by people, his body would involuntarily begin trembling, and the echoes of those brutal insults—“You’re a monster!,” “No wonder your parents don’t want you!,” “Your parents never went overseas—they just didn’t want to live with someone like you!,” “Have you heard? Lu Lingyue is always up to no good with girls at home…”—would reverberate in his mind until he felt utterly paralyzed, sometimes nearly fainting.

  Even now, after spending the entire summer at home, today Lu Lingyue had stepped out twice.

  And amid the ceaseless chattering of onlookers, his social ay fred up once more.

  “Hey, little loli, what’s wrong with you?”

  Jie Shuangning, who’d been busy adjusting his camera angles, quickly stopped and rushed over to che him.

  In that moment, Lu Lingyue could only feel the relentless barrage of insults eg in his mind, robbing him of any ability to think—as if he were trapped in a quagmire with no escape.