That was the cactus Sylvia and I had bought together at the store when we first started high school. We each bought one, and the cacti were meant to symbolize our unbreakable, evergreen friendship.

Mine had long since withered and died from neglect. Hers, however, was so lush that it looked like it could drip with moisture. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there was an indescribable sense of eeriness to that little succulent plant.

As the first mock exam approached, Sylvia honored her promise. She set aside two precious hours every day to help me review key points and go over practice papers.

She explained everything in meticulous detail. I tried desperately to focus, but my eyelids constantly glued themselves shut, no matter how hard I struggled to keep them open.

My mind was a blur. Those formulas and theories looked like incomprehensible scribbles to me. They jumped and spun before my eyes until they smeared into a congealed mess.

"I'm sorry, Sylvia, I…" I pinched my thigh, trying to stay awake.

Sylvia closed the book and patted my shoulder gently. "It's okay. You're too tired. Get some sleep first. We can continue after you wake up."

I practically collapsed onto the desk and fell into a deep sleep.

In my dream, I returned to my middle school days. Back then, I had been a standout student. I won gold medals in national Olympiads in math, physics, and chemistry with ease. In the eyes of my teachers and classmates, I had been a surefire candidate for getting into top colleges.

But all of that changed after Sylvia and I both enrolled in Southend High School. I became drowsy, lazy, and unable to muster interest in anything.

Thinking back to that time, I could now see that it was probably just the beginning of my life being stolen.

As expected, my first mock exam results were disastrous. I became the biggest joke in the entire grade. Jeffrey walked past me with Sylvia beside him, clearly relieved that he had gotten rid of a burdensome friend like me.

My parents called, their voices filled with nothing but disappointment. "We've already found you a job at an electronics factory in the south. Don't bother repeating a year. Just drop out and come back to work."

Dad's voice sounded aged and exhausted. With that one sentence, he condemned my entire life.

I hung up without crying. Frankly, I didn't even have the strength to shed tears.

I started packing my things. I threw the brand-new textbooks and exercise books into a cardboard box one by one.

Sylvia walked over and grabbed my hand to stop me. "Lav, are you just going to give up?"

I laughed mockingly at myself. "What else can I do? I'm useless."

Sylvia cried out emotionally in protest, "You're not! You've just temporarily lost your rhythm. You were so amazing in middle school. I believe you can turn things around."

I thought back to how I used to dominate academic competitions and sweep up gold medals at national Olympiads. How had I ended up in such a state?

Once again, my gaze unintentionally fell on the tiny cactus on her desk. There seemed to be something buried in the soil. One of its exposed corners gave off a faint green glow.

It looked very familiar.

In the next second, I realized it was the emerald pendant my grandmother had given me. I had worn it during the high school entrance exam, believing it would give me good luck and get me into Southend High School.

But after I started high school, it had disappeared. I had searched everywhere for it, but I never found it. In the end, I had no choice but to accept that it was gone for good.

Why was it in Sylvia's cactus pot?

A ridiculous and terrifying thought began to form and take over my mind rapidly. I made an excuse to go to the washroom with my heart pounding uncontrollably against my ribcage.

When I returned, I took advantage of the moment Sylvia went to wash up and walked over to her desk. My hands were trembling as I carefully used a pen to push aside the soil at the base of the cactus.

The familiar emerald pendant finally came into view. On the back of it, a line of tiny rune symbols had been carved in red ochre.

I recognized those symbols.

My maternal grandmother was a somewhat well-known expert in the mystic arts back in my hometown. I had lived in her house for some time as a child, so I knew a bit about these things.

It was an ancient spell for sharing fates. To put it simply, it could form a close link between two people so that their luck and energy became interconnected.

One person's misfortune, fatigue, and illness would be transferred to the other. The one transferring away all the negativity would also gain the other person's energy, intelligence, and even… their life.

So I hadn't been born lazy, and I certainly wasn't some hopeless failure. It turned out that Sylvia had stolen my energy, my talent, and the brilliant life I was meant to have with vicious black magic.

She slept only three hours a day but always had an unlimited reserve of energy. Since the start of high school, she had ranked first every single time and won all the awards. She became the golden girl.

I, on the other hand, had become the fuel for her success. I was the unfortunate soul being drained of all my life force by a malignant parasite.

I didn't make a fuss or expose Sylvia. Instead, I buried the emerald pendant and smoothed the soil, as if nothing had happened.

Back at my seat, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I saw a pale, haggard face devoid of life staring blankly back at me. Beneath this face, there had once been a vibrant, radiant, proud, and confident soul.

Now, I was going to take back everything that belonged to me.

The next day, I said I needed to go home to take care of some school withdrawal procedures.

Sylvia didn't suspect a thing. She even thoughtfully helped me pack my luggage.

She reminded kindly, "Be careful on the road, Lav. Come back as soon as you're done, okay?"

"Yeah." I nodded, looking at her pretentious smiling face and feeling nothing but ice-cold hatred inside.

I didn't go home. Instead, I called my grandmother and told her about my suspicions. She told me to go to the mystic arts street in an old neighborhood to seek help from her fellow junior practitioner.

Kylian Slade held a magnifying glass and carefully examined the rune symbols I had drawn.

"Where did you see this, Lavender?" he asked solemnly with a very grave expression.

"It was on a friend's protective charm," I lied.

Kylian shook his head and said, "This is no protective charm! This is a very malicious transfer spell. It is also known as 'the misfortune substitute.' It can transfer one person's bad luck, illness, and fatigue onto another.

"The person on the receiving end becomes the substitute who gets all the bad things in life. They will gradually lose their vitality and become increasingly unlucky. This spell had long been banned. I didn't expect someone would still be using it."

Kylian's words confirmed all my suspicions.

"Mr. Slade, do you have a way to undo it?" I asked urgently.

"It's very difficult. Once the contract is formed, it's hard to sever it unless one party dies," Kylian answered grimly.

My heart sank to my stomach.

"However…" he continued. "There are always two sides to everything. Since it's in nature a shared fate, it goes both ways."

"Then can I return my bad luck to her by double or more?" I asked.

Kylian froze for a moment and immediately understood what I meant.

He explained, "In theory, yes. The effectiveness of this spell depends on the proximity between the two parties and the mental state of the substitute. The closer the distance, the stronger the effect. The more exhausted and despairing the substitute is, the more energy gets siphoned away.

"If you can push your mental state to an extreme level of excitement—to the point of overexertion in a short time—then the negative effects from that overexertion will overflow and backfire through the spell. It may double, or even triple, several times over onto the other person.

"It is because she has always been taking and never expected any form of backlash. Her body is like an inflated balloon stretched to its limit. It can't withstand any additional pressure."

I had it all figured out after that conversation.

After leaving the mystic arts street, I didn't return to school right away. Instead, I checked into a hotel and stayed there. For three whole days, I turned off my phone and cut off all contact with the outside world. I forced myself to sleep up to 16 hours a day.

Without that emerald pendant anywhere near me, the overwhelming exhaustion that had plagued me for four years miraculously disappeared. My mind had never been clearer. The study materials that used to give me headaches at a glance now became logical and easy to understand in my head.

In three days, I made up for all three years of the high school syllabus I had missed. That long-lost feeling of mastering knowledge brought tears to my eyes.

I hadn't become stupid. I was still me.

On the fourth day, I returned to school. When I pushed open the door to my dorm room, Sylvia was pacing anxiously inside.

The moment she saw me, her eyes lit up with immense relief and joy. She rushed over to me immediately.

"You're finally back, Lav! I was so worried because I couldn't reach you!"

I noticed that she looked a little pale with faint dark circles under her eyes. These past few days must have been hard on her without me, her personal "power bank".

"My phone died, and I forgot to bring a charger," I said calmly.

"All that matters is you're back." She let out a sigh of relief and quickly returned to her perfect roommate persona.

She went on, "The SAT registration is about to close. Are you really not going to give it another try? Don't you want to stand proudly in the campus of Kilnia College with Jeffrey and me? Imagine standing in the place that will launch you to greater heights in life!"

Sylvia brought up Jeffrey as if it were the most natural thing to say. Her tone was laced with an obvious intent to gloat and condescend while sounding like she was trying to spark some hope in me.

I looked at her and gave a small smile. "Sure. I'll go."

Sylvia froze slightly, probably not expecting that I would say something like that when I was on the verge of being expelled.

"Really? That's great, Lav!" She quickly snapped out of it and grabbed my hand excitedly. "Don't worry, I'll definitely help you! We'll both be top scorers!"

I let her hold my hand and maintained my fake smile. "Thank you, Sylvia."

"We're best friends. There's no need to thank me," she responded.

I thought darkly, "Best friends, indeed. My dear Sylvia, I have specially prepared a surprise of a lifetime for you. I hope you'll accept it with gladness and enjoy it thoroughly."

I reverted to being the sleepy slacker once more. In fact, I was even worse than before. I slept through classes every day, and I lay slumped over my desk during breaktime. I looked like I might collapse at any moment when going to the cafeteria to eat.

Sylvia was very satisfied with my performance after my so-called renewed determination. She thought my efforts had just been a short-lived burst of motivation and that I had quickly relapsed into my old habits.

That made her even more at ease as she siphoned more energy from me. She continued sleeping only three hours a day and spent even more time getting close to Jeffrey.

Their relationship progressed rapidly. Soon, they seemed to have gone beyond being ordinary classmates.

Whenever Jeffrey ran into me in school, his eyes were filled with undisguised contempt.

He mocked, "You should know your place, Lavender. Don't end up falling asleep at the SATs and turning in a blank paper. You'll drag down our school's top college admission rate. Tch! I don't get why the school management would allow this. Didn't they say you have to repeat a year?"

I kept my head down and said nothing, looking like a defeated loser. Jeffrey snorted in satisfaction and walked off with Sylvia.

Sylvia glanced back, giving me a helpless and apologetic look.

I watched their retreating backs with not even a trace of emotion stirring in my heart. They were nothing more than just two clowns.

I began to ask Sylvia for help on and off with problems I encountered in our studies.

"Sylvia, I just can't figure this one out. Can you take a look at it, please? Also, how do I apply this formula?"

The questions I asked were all the most basic, simplest ones.

Each time, Sylvia answered me patiently on the surface. However, she failed to hide the trace of annoyance and superiority deep in her eyes. She enjoyed this feeling of superiority. She relished the moments when the former genius looked up to her admiringly like a fool.

The more she enjoyed it, the more she lowered her guard.

During the third mock exam, I lived up to expectations by scoring another disastrously low grade. Even the principal came to talk to me personally. He tactfully suggested that I repeat a year or consider studying abroad.

He advised, "Hear me out, Lavender. Sometimes, making the right choice is more important than working hard."

Holding the report card with laughably low scores, I returned to the dorm.

Sylvia was on the phone, her voice sweet and lively. "Don't worry, Jeff. I ranked first in the city again for the third mock exam. I can guarantee I'll definitely be the top scorer on the SAT.

"Mm-hmm… Once we both get into Kilnia College, we'll go meet your parents."

After hanging up, she saw the scores on the report card in my hand.

She covered her mouth in feigned surprise and remarked, "Oh my, Lav. How did you score so low? It's okay. The third mock doesn't matter. Maybe you'll perform splendidly during the real exam."

She was comforting me with her words, but the look of glee in her eyes was about to spill forth.

I crumpled the report card into a ball and threw it into the trash. "I don't want to take the exam anymore. I feel like giving up."

For a split second, Sylvia's expression showed absolute delight. Still, she quickly hid it and replaced it with a look of pained concern.

"Lav, how can you say that? You've already come this far," she said.

I said in a choked voice, "I really can't keep going…"

Then, I folded my hands and sat hunched over my desk. My shoulders trembled slightly, as if I were crying.

I sounded dejected as I said, "I'm useless. I accept my fate."

Sylvia comforted me. "Don't lose heart, Lav. You've already registered for the exam. You should at least give it a try!"

She walked over and patted my back gently. "By the way, if you really mess up on the SAT, what do you plan to do next?"

"I don't want to repeat a year. I'll just take up work at the electronics factory in the south as my dad has arranged for me," I said what I had rehearsed long ago.

Sylvia fell silent for a moment before speaking up softly. "That works too. Everyone is destined for different things, I guess. Maybe working in a factory is the best outcome for you."

I lay on the desk as my lips curled up into a cold smile that went unnoticed.

In my heart, I swore, "Sylvia, not only will I take the SAT, but I will also personally watch you fall from your pedestal."