Chapter 4

I looked up at her.

"I know you've calculated it very clearly. I'll pay you back. Borrow forty-five, return fifty, five dollars interest. Your rule. Give me a total amount, I'll pay it all back later."

Her face turned red. "You dare talk back to me?"

"You—" She suddenly stood up and slapped me across the face.

The professor stood there stunned, opening her mouth but saying nothing.

"I raised you this long, and this is how you talk to me?" She was panting, her hand still shaking. "Look at yourself. Since childhood you've been inferior to others. You don't talk, people don't like you. Which neighbor likes you? Which relative likes you? Besides spending my money, what else can you do?"

I covered my face. I didn't cry.

I just looked at her.

She became uncomfortable under my gaze and looked away, her voice turning cold: "What are you looking at? From now on, one comment equals ten cents."

She slammed the door and left.

The professor handed me a tissue. I didn't take it.

"Go back and rest for now." She said.

I walked to the dorm door, pushed it open. Madison and the other two were all there.

They saw my face and froze simultaneously.

Madison frowned. Riley said quietly "What happened to you?"

"Nothing." I climbed into bed and pulled the curtain shut.

Soon it was time to post another video.

This time, I didn't go block people in the cafeteria, didn't post on my feed begging for comments, didn't register burner accounts.

I sat on my bed, opened the front camera, and pressed record.

Ten seconds. But I didn't say a single word.

In the frame, the swelling on my left cheek had gone down, but there was still a faint red mark.

I looked at myself and suddenly felt very tired.

I stopped recording. No editing, no music. I uploaded it directly.

After posting, I threw my phone on the bed and went to take a shower.

When I came out of the shower, I found my roommates surrounding my phone.

"Come look! Your video went viral!" Riley's voice was shaking.

I walked over and saw the number on my phone.

99 comments! Eventually it climbed to 500!

Madison said, "This is just two hours."

Sophie held the phone up to me: "Look at the comments."

"She didn't say a single word, but I feel like I heard everything."

"I get it, it's that feeling of being crushed by life to the point where you don't want to talk."

"I don't know what you're going through, but I hope you keep going!"

I stared at the screen, my eyes starting to burn.

I scrolled down. More and more people were encouraging me.

"Why are you crying?" Madison handed me a tissue, her tone fierce, but her eyes were also red.

I wiped my eyes and said nothing. Looking at the ten thousand plus comments, I didn't screenshot it for my mom.

A week later in the afternoon, I had just come out of the classroom building when I saw someone standing outside the dorm building in the distance.

It was my mom.

When she saw me, she smiled—a rare occurrence.

"Oh, finally you're here!"

She jogged over and grabbed my arm.

"I heard from the neighbor's daughter, your video went viral! Three million views, right? Two hundred thousand followers, right?"

I didn't say anything.

"You should thank Mom!"

She patted my shoulder.

"If Mom hadn't forced you to make videos, would you have this success today? Mom still has foresight, right? When you were little I said you weren't as good as others, wasn't it all for your own good? If I didn't push you, could you have achieved anything?"

I stood there, staring at her blankly.

"Hurry up and see how to make money. The neighbor's daughter said you can take sponsorships, tens of thousands per post! From now on Mom won't have to work anymore. You'll support me!"

"I already deleted the video account." I said coldly.

"What?" She shrieked.