Chapter 5 Cause of Death

“Have you heard? Li Yanyan actually hit Miss Xu!”
“I bet she won’t dare come to school anymore!”
“If she does, Xu Yuan will make her wish she hadn’t!”
Students slung limited-edition designer bags over their shoulders, whispering as they scrolled through the hottest post on the school forum.
Then, turning their heads, they saw Li Yanyan herself, straight shoulder-length hair draped casually, a look of disdain on her face as she walked by.
She still appeared serene, but the gentleness was gone—what remained was an air of proud aloofness.
Dressed in the custom uniform of Capital University, the pleated skirt giving way to slender legs sheathed in black stockings, she stepped into the vast lecture hall.
Her desk was scrawled over with layers of obscene insults.
Inside her drawer, her homework and textbooks had been torn to shreds.
Last night, she had carefully read through that notebook, every page chronicling how the original Li Yanyan went from being bullied by Xu Yuan, to being ostracized by her class, to finally becoming the target of the entire school’s abuse.
It was horrifying.
Xu Yuan had led the campaign with silent treatment, verbal abuse, and even physical violence.
What was recorded was likely just the tip of the iceberg.
This was where the scars on the original owner’s body had come from.
A classmate, thickly made up, deliberately dumped a pile of assignments onto her desk.
“Help us with these. If you dare refuse, Li Yanyan, you know what we can do.”
Zhong Huayan pressed her fingers to her brow, exasperated, and then let out a cold laugh. Though she had once been the daughter of the richest family, she had never bullied the weak.
With effortless ease, she swept the mountain of assignments onto the floor.
“Haven’t you read the forum? Do you want to get hit too?”
She arched an eyebrow, her defiance casual yet sharp, and the entire classroom—save those few girls—was stunned into silence.
Everyone was more convinced than ever: the coward had changed completely.
“Just wait, Xu Yuan won’t let you off! She lost face yesterday in front of her idol.
Don’t come crying and begging on your knees like before!”
Yesterday? Idol?
Could Xu Yuan’s ‘idol’ be Fu Yanyan…?
Suddenly, Zhong Huayan understood why the original had become a target of school bullying.
Xu Yuan was jealous but didn’t dare act out directly, so she found someone else as a scapegoat.
Within minutes, the incident had spread across the entire Capital University.
Everyone speculated that Li Yanyan, who dared to hit Xu Yuan, who smashed a bottle of red wine worth hundreds of thousands yet showed up unscathed, must have found herself a patron and was being kept by some wealthy man.
The art teacher entered, accompanied by several nervous temp workers carrying a painting.
“Class, I brought this over from the museum. Whoever can tell me the history of this famous painting will win a ticket to a celebrated artist’s exhibition.”
Everyone looked up as the painting was unveiled.
Delicate roses wound around gray architecture; two lovers embraced, the entire work suffused with a melancholic blue hue.

The room fell silent—this was an artwork known to very few.
Unless someone had attended countless exhibitions since childhood and had a prodigious memory, there was no way to answer.
After five minutes of dead silence,
“If no one knows, I’ll just explain—”
“It’s a piece by the painter Burne-Jones, titled ‘Love among the Ruins,’ created between 1870 and 1873. The lovers’ emotions in the painting are the last sanctuary in a crumbling world.”
Zhong Huayan answered first, her English flawless, her gaze confident and assured.
The teacher froze, pushing up his glasses. “It seems… Li Yanyan, you have a real interest in art. You’re absolutely correct.”
Damn, impressive!
Is this really the standard of our bottom-ranking class? Everyone was dumbfounded.
“But this painting is a forgery.”
Shock rippled through the room again, but no one dared contradict her.
There was an aura about her—so self-assured, so precise—that only true prodigies possessed.
“This painting couldn’t possibly be in a museum.”
The teacher flushed with embarrassment as he stepped down from the podium. “This is the genuine article. Just because you’ve seen a bit of the world, you shouldn’t be so arrogant.”
The students began to murmur:
“You’re just a nobody with a little knowledge.”
“Some people really think they’re qualified to judge art. Could you even borrow a painting like this? So full of yourself!”
Zhong Huayan raised a brow. She knew well—the real painting was in the Zhong family’s private collection. She’d bought it on a whim and left it there to gather dust.
“The canvas material is wrong. There are traces of ‘titanium white’ pigment in this piece, which didn’t exist in the context of the original’s creation. You can check the museum’s stamps or inscriptions for confirmation—this is a forgery.”
Immediately, everyone surged forward to examine the painting, staring at her as if she were a ghost.
How did she spot the titanium white so quickly…? Why couldn’t they see it?
The teacher, face burning, fumbled for dignity.
“Ahem, perhaps the museum staff made a mistake.”
“Teacher, don’t forget my ticket to the exhibition.”
The entire school buzzed with the news—every art teacher had used this painting, and not a single student had doubted its authenticity!
The forum, already in an uproar over Li Yanyan, now spawned new theories: perhaps her family had fallen from grace, but she must have come from money and seen the world.
By evening, the school’s students were being picked up by their drivers one after another.
Zhong Huayan glanced at the note in her hand: [Li Yanyan, if you want to know Xu Chuyin’s secret, wait for me on the fourth floor of Dormitory 2.]
Xu Chuyin?
The illegitimate son of the Xu family, Xu Yuan and Xu Yaosheng’s younger brother?
Could the original Li Yanyan have liked Xu Chuyin…? Her instincts told her it was likely.

She tucked a knife into her handbag. Those despicable kids—she’d beat them to a pulp.
After finishing a cigarette, she headed towards the dormitory.
When she reached Dormitory 2, she found the building utterly deserted.
As she walked up to the fourth floor, suddenly—the door was locked from the outside!
For a moment, she was lost in a daze, memories flickering of being trapped in a fire, the door locked, the lights suddenly going out, the entire building empty.
“Xu Yuan, I’ve really overestimated you. If you have the guts, come out and talk!”
In the silence, she could hear the hushed voices outside the door.
“No one’s been in this building lately. I’ve already bribed the right people. Leave her locked up for three days and nights.”
“Sis, last time we pushed her from up here, I checked—she had no heartbeat.”
“Maybe it was just shock. The hospital said she lost her memory. After the way she beat me up and embarrassed me in front of Fu Yanyan, I’m going to make her pay!”
Zhong Huayan recognized the voices: Xu Yuan and Xu Chuyin!
The Xu family—vicious, every last one of them.
This was no longer simple school bullying. This was attempted murder.
The original Li Yanyan hadn’t simply fallen into a coma—she’d been pushed to her death.
She had only survived because Zhong Huayan’s soul had crossed over, reigniting her heart and sending her into a coma.
She took out her phone to call for help…
The dialing tone reached the ears of the girls outside.
Xu Yuan shouted, “Ha! Li Yanyan, you brute! You beat me up!
Your poor relatives from the countryside are useless, and the principal’s already taken my parents’ bribes!
Three days locked in here, you’ll faint from hunger before long!”
She stared at her phone, pausing before dialing her family’s number.
Instead, she let her fingers move by muscle memory, entering a different string of numbers.
A minute later, a deep, hoarse voice came through the line.
“Li Yanyan?”
“It’s me.”
“Explain. How did you get this card’s number?”
His voice was so low and rough, you had to listen closely to catch it.
“That’s not important. Fu Yanyan, come save me.”
“Where are you? I’ll send my assistant—”
“I want you to come in person. Didn’t you say you’d take care of me?”
The line was silent for a moment… and then, with a crisp click, the call ended.