I secretly loved Austin Coleman for six years, and on the day I got accepted into a top university, he told me he liked me, too.

On the first day after school started, he invited me to a hotel close to the campus.

I went there happily, but I was given drugs and passed out.

He locked me inside a room with three strange men for the whole night.

The next morning, short videos filmed from many angles spread everywhere on the school network.

Everyone insulted me, calling me cheap, dirty, and shameless.

After I was expelled from school, my father became so angry that he had a heart attack.

My mother wanted to call the police, but she was pushed by a group of online attackers until she jumped off a building and committed suicide.

Four years later, I met Austin on the street.

He sat in a sports car, holding a young woman, and laughed at me.

“Belle Crawford, weren’t you once the lucky girl everyone admired? Why do you look like a beggar now?!”

He laughed again and threw out a stack of cash. “As long as you kneel and bow three times, all this money is yours!”

Without thinking, I knelt down and bowed my head.

Austin, who had been laughing proudly, suddenly changed his expression.

——

“Belle, you’re putting on a show!”

When I bowed down for the second time, Austin got out of the car in anger and caught hold of me.

His face was darkened, his eyes full of anger.

“Are you doing this on purpose to look weak in front of me? Blaming me for getting revenge on you before?”

“Who doesn’t know your family lives well? Your mom works as a teacher, and your dad works as a doctor. Your life has always been much better than most people’s.”

“You dress like this now, so who are you trying to trick?”

“And where is your pride? Were you not once called a smart girl who never lowered her head to anyone? Why do you not even care about your dignity anymore?”

Austin didn’t understand why he felt so angry. He shook my shoulders wildly, while I stayed still like a wooden doll.

I bent down and picked up the cash from the ground, one bill at a time.

“You were the one who said it, three bows, and the money belongs to me. Thank you.”

Austin froze, his brows pulled together as he studied my face closely.

“Talk! Say something!”

Austin’s voice was very loud, pulling the eyes of people walking nearby toward us.

I stared at him blankly and showed a sad, bitter smile.

“What do you want me to say?”

Four years had passed without seeing him. Those classmates had simply gone off to college, but my family had gone through huge changes.

From being “the perfect child everyone talked about,” a “smart girl” chosen for a top university, I had fallen into a slut everyone looked down on.

Now, four years later, when I think about what happened that night, it still feels unreal.

I had only gone out late with my boyfriend and booked a hotel room. I did not even know how I fell asleep.

When I woke up, my life fell apart.

Those disgusting videos spread everywhere online.

Even my friends, scared of getting dragged into it, blocked me and deleted me that same day, and told reporters they had never known me at all.

I went crazy to find Austin, but he had been sitting in my living room, speaking the truth coldly to my mother.

“If you hadn’t been so harsh back then, leaving Katniss Evergreen no way out at all, how could she have gone home and committed suicide?”

“If that day you had simply looked the other way, Katniss would have passed the test, and she could have believed she had the strength to fight her sickness!”

“But you canceled her result and cut off her last bit of hope to stay alive!”

“Now your daughter has turned into someone everyone curses and looks down on. Now you know what hopelessness feels like, don’t you?”

Hearing Austin say those words himself had felt like lightning striking my head.

So his choice to chase after me had never been because he cared about me. Being with me had only been a carefully planned act of revenge.

All of it had been because my mother had once worked as an examiner and caught a girl cheating during an exam, canceling her qualification.

That girl’s name was Katniss Evergreen.

She was his first love.

Katniss knelt down on the floor, begging my mom to let her go this one time, but my mom refused to listen.

Because she was caught cheating, Katniss was given a zero. After she went back home, she sank into hopelessness and ended her own life.

From that moment on, Austin came to hate my mom. In order to get revenge, he tricked me into starting a relationship with him.

That day, after Austin finished letting out his anger, he didn’t even look at me, brushed past me with a cold face, and walked away.

After he left, neighbors outside gathered together, pointing at my whole family and whispering rumors.

“So this is a genius girl? Acting sweet and well-behaved on the outside, but doing such filthy things behind closed doors. If she were my daughter, I would beat her to death!”

“So shameless. Who would’ve guessed someone so young could seduce men like that, sleeping with three in one night? Toss someone like this into a nightclub, and it would be wild, right?”

“Her mom’s even a teacher. Who would’ve thought she would raise such a dirty daughter? Who would dare let their child be taught by her? Wouldn’t that just be a class that teaches kids to turn bad?”

……

Their mockery and insults were as harsh as they could be.

Those neighbors even followed what was spreading online, causing more trouble. My parents’ workplaces and personal details were all exposed.

My dad got so angry that he had a sudden attack right there and passed away before the ambulance arrived.

My mom was pushed into a dead end by online attackers and, right in front of me, jumped from a building in hopeless pain and committed suicide.

That year, I was eighteen years old.

Austin used only one night to tear my family apart and ruin my whole life.

Austin held onto me tightly, unwilling to release me. I smiled weakly and shoved him away.

“Please step aside. I still have to go earn money.”

Austin let go of my sleeve and stood there blankly, watching me remain on the street, staring empty-eyed at the people walking back and forth.

Some men passed by without even looking at me. Others, oily, shameless older men, let their eyes crawl over me, looking me over with greedy interest.

“How much for a night?”

“Six hundred.”

The man shook his head after smacking his lips. “Your hands are very rough. That price is high.”

I quickly grabbed him. “It can be lower.”

The man smiled, rubbed his chin while checking me again, then nodded.

“Alright. Then come with me. If tonight feels good, I might think about keeping you around for a long time…”

The man’s hands started moving in a dirty way around my waist.

I forced myself to bear the sickness, putting on a false smile. Just when I was about to go with him, someone suddenly pulled me hard. I crashed down onto the ground.

Before I could respond, Austin’s fist slammed into the pervent man’s face.

“You filthy old pervert! Touch her again and see what I do!”

Austin’s face was red with anger that was almost taking over him.

“Where did this brat come from? You dare hit me?!”

“I hit you, so what? Get out of here!”

I wanted to step forward to stop it, but Austin roughly pressed me against the wall, his eyes burning with anger.

“Belle, do you have no self-respect at all?”

“You graduated from a top university. No matter how badly you need money, you wouldn’t sell yourself for only a few hundred, right? Don’t you feel ashamed?”

I looked at him, a bit confused, showing in my eyes.

“A graduate from a top university? Me?”

It seemed Austin didn’t know that, after everything that happened that year, the university no longer kept me.

The young woman sitting in the sports car grew upset and jealous, questioning Austin with clear annoyance on her face.

“Tell me the truth, who is this woman?”

Austin glanced at me. “An old acquaintance.”

I lowered my head, eyes cast downward, feeling completely miserable inside.

I wanted to wait for Austin to loosen his grip on his own, but he didn’t move at all. I frowned and pushed him away.

“You scared away my client.”

I stayed by the streets for three nights before I finally found such a client.

“Client?”

Austin coldly laughed. “Belle, you’re unbelievable. You have arms and legs; what kind of job can’t you do? Did you really have to come out here and trade your body?”

I looked far ahead, my mind empty. Yes, during these four years, the thing I heard most was exactly that: you have arms and legs, what kind of job couldn’t you do?

Everyone stood on their moral ground, judging me and yelling at me.

But they had no idea that I had tried everything.

A girl who had just graduated from high school at eighteen. For over ten years, I had focused on studying and saw the world with simplicity and innocence.

My parents had given me a very comfortable life when I was young; I had never worried about money at all.

But in one night, both of them died.

Just to stay alive, I took endless part-time jobs, serving food, clearing plates, washing people’s hair, and feet.

I even worked three jobs every day.

Still, the money was never enough.

No place wanted to give me a normal job. Nobody would choose someone with only a high school diploma, and even less someone with a bad name following her.

Even when I pushed myself until I was worn out, even when I worked until I could barely stand, the small pay from odd jobs was still far from enough to take care of Tanya and me.

You may wonder, who was Tanya?

She was a child I rescued. She had a disability and was left behind by her parents on a main road. When I came across her, she was almost run over by a big truck.

That day, I had wanted to lie down on the road too and let my life end there.

But that child smiled at me.

I struggled for a long while, but in the end, I chose to keep living and to raise her.

Thinking about this made me suddenly become anxious. I had been away for so long; Tanya must be longing for her mother.

“Please step aside. How I sell myself is my own matter; it has nothing to do with you.”

“Austin, your life is so good. It really makes others feel bitter. The next time you see me, just act like you never did. Otherwise, I’m scared I won’t be able to stop myself from pulling you down into the dirt with me.”

I gave a small, bitter smile. Right when I was ready to turn and leave, Austin caught my hand.

“Belle, look at yourself now. Where is even a sign of the smart girl you once were?”

“If your parents could see this, see the daughter they cared for so much turned into a woman standing on the street, they would probably be angry enough to die again!”

I froze, then suddenly started laughing.

I laughed until tears came out.

Would they really see it?

If they could see it, then why didn’t they come back to life to help me?

Something felt off about Austin. He actually left his girlfriend behind and pulled me into a mall to buy clothes.

I stood by the clothing shelves, feeling awkward and uncomfortable.

“No need. These clothes cost too much. I can’t pay for them.”

Austin suddenly lifted his head and stared at me in surprise, then quickly frowned.

“Belle, can you stop acting?”

“When you were in high school, anything you wore without thinking cost more than this. Putting on a show like this just makes people annoyed.”

I showed a bitter smile. That was the past.

The past and the present were two totally separate lives.

Austin stayed as controlling as always. He frowned, stopped asking what I thought, and straightaway pulled a bright yellow dress set from the hanger, telling the shop clerk to have me try it on.

I shook my head.

Austin looked slightly angry. “Don’t act ungrateful. I remember you once liked yellow the most, like a sunflower.”

That also belonged to the past, back when I lived freely under my parents’ care, surrounded by plenty of friends, like a glowing little princess.