“She hit me first! And I never pushed her at all!”

I rolled up my sleeve, revealing the large bruise on my arm.

Mom and Dad exchanged hesitant glances. “Are you sure you didn’t draw that on yourself?”

My brother frowned at that moment.

“Even if you didn’t, you must’ve gotten it from fighting at school. Stop trying to frame Mingzhu!”

A dense wave of pain crashed over my heart, turning my blood to ice.

Everyone demanded I apologize to Gu Mingzhu.

I had no choice but to lower my head.

Because I knew no one would listen to me—not even with evidence right in front of their eyes.

Watching the triumphant glint of pride in Gu Mingzhu’s eyes, I felt numb to the familiar sense of grievance.

Back in my room after dinner, I saw a message from Grandma.

She’d only just learned to use her old phone, so she typed slowly, with plenty of typos.

But seeing her string of concerned messages, my nose twitched, and tears spilled uncontrollably down my cheeks.

Once, when human traffickers were about to sell me as a child bride after passing me around,

Grandma had happened to witness it. She’d spent all her savings to take me away.

She’d raised me bit by bit, relying on those few acres of farmland.

Every day, she walked more than ten kilometers to sell vegetables in the city.

Even so, she’d insisted on sending me to school.

She’d said girls needed to study more—to get out of that place someday and go somewhere wonderful.

And I’d never let her down. I wasn’t the “simpleton” my parents and brother made me out to be.

I’d scored 631 on my high school entrance exam, missing a perfect score in math by just one point. I could’ve gotten into a pretty good high school.

But I didn’t want to burden Grandma any longer. So I’d chosen the technical secondary school instead.

It covered all my tuition and fees, and I could learn practical skills to get a job and earn money as soon as possible.