On the way home, Mom cried the whole time. I sat in the taxi, scrolling through my phone. The campus network was blowing up — photos of Zheng Kai being taken away by the police were circulating in every group chat. The class monitor had resigned, and several people who had bullied me posted public apologies.
Mo Wen messaged me: "You're amazing! The whole school is talking about your sister's scandal now. Those suck-ups are scrambling like stray dogs."
I replied with a smiley face and opened the "Transformation Diary" account. Followers had surpassed 100,000. I posted my final update:
*"Day 150. The End. Thanks for all the malice—it was the best weight-loss medicine."*
The caption was paired with a black-and-white photo: the edge of the rooftop at Jinxiu Apartments, a lone bird soaring across the empty blue sky.
When I got home, Grandma had already been rushed to the hospital—she'd had a stroke. Mom numbly packed up Shunshun's room and pulled a cardboard box out from under the bed.
"Yuanyuan..." Her voice trembled. "This is..."
The box was filled with my things: torn-up certificates, shredded school uniforms, broken stationery... At the very bottom was a medicine bottle labeled "Children's Growth Hormone."
Mom knelt on the floor, weeping like a child. I stood in the doorway, feeling a strange sense of calm.
The next day, the local paper ran the headline: *"Famous Mukbang Streamer ZHEN Shunshun Dies of Anorexia; Longtime Bully of Younger Sister."* It featured a side-by-side photo: Shunshun at her peak during a livestream, contrasted with her emaciated frame just before death.
Dad called from Switzerland, his voice hoarse: "Are you satisfied? Your sister's dead, Grandma's had a stroke, Mom's broken..."
"Dad," I interrupted, "Do you remember the puppy you gave me for my tenth birthday?"
Silence hung on the other end.
"It was hit by a car the very next day, remember?" I said softly. "Last night, I dreamed Shunshun told me on her deathbed that she was the one who let the dog out of its cage."
"You're insane..." Dad's voice shook.
Mom stood in the doorway, her eyes swollen: "You're leaving?"
"Yeah, for Shanghai. A sportswear brand wants me as their ambassador." I stuffed the last book into my suitcase. "I've paid six months' rent. That should be enough time for you to recover."
"Yuanyuan..." she choked out, "Mom is so sorry..."
"Doesn't matter anymore." I zipped up the suitcase. "Oh, and Zheng Kai got expelled. Police found videos of him secretly filming Shunshun changing clothes on his computer."
I smiled. "Wanna bet he'll tell the police Shunshun *asked* him to film it?"
Mom's face went deathly pale. I took one last look around the nightmare-filled room and picked up my suitcase.
"Goodbye, Mom."
Outside the apartment complex, a few girls from school who used to mock me were huddled by the gate.
When they saw me, they scattered like startled ghosts.
I walked deliberately toward the one who'd been the cruelest: "Liu Yuting, heard your guaranteed admission to Beijing Foreign Studies fell through?"
Her face drained of color: "You... how do you know...?"
"Lucky guess." I smiled. "After all, the recommendation letter was from Teacher Xi. And he *just* found out you cheated in the English competition sophomore year..."
I leaned close to her ear. "By the way, your boyfriend Wang Lei asked me to dinner yesterday. His hands were *really* restless." Watching her face twist, I laughed and walked away.
The train station buzzed with people.
I bought an iced Americano, snapped a photo, and posted it to my newly created account: *"Next stop: life."*
As I put my phone down, I thought I heard a voice whisper in my ear: *"Mission complete. System disengaged."*
But when I turned around, there was only the crowd of strangers rushing past.