That One Summer

With just seven days left until the college entrance exam, the high school's PA system suddenly crackled to life during the morning break. “My name is Lily Smith. I’m a senior. Before I graduate, I’d like to confess my feelings to my crush.” Inside the classroom, every eye instantly locked onto Jack. The room exploded into rowdy cheers and teasing. Jack felt his face burn as his heart hammered against his ribs. After all, he had spent three whole years cracking jokes to help his childhood friend, Lily, overcome the deep dark pit of her depression. On her eighteenth birthday, she had even initiated their first kiss. “You were the light that pulled me out of the darkness. I hope that once finals are over, I’ll finally get your answer,” Lily’s tender voice continued over the speaker. “I love you, Matthew Fox.” Jack froze. His hand trembled as he crumpled the textbook in his grip. Lily had not confessed to him. It was Matthew Fox, the bad-boy transfer student who had arrived that semester, made Jack's life a living hell, and spread malicious rumors that he had multiple older sugar mommies. Chapter 1 The classroom instantly fell silent. Only the principal’s reprimands echoed from the speakers. A few seconds later, an even louder roar of cheers erupted. Matthew Fox suddenly kicked his desk, stood up, and walked over to Jack Greer with a cold face. “Jack, you’ve been simping over Lily for so long, yet you can’t even keep her around? A public confession sure is childish.” However, Jack could clearly see the villainous triumph hidden in Matthew’s eyes. The gloating gossip of their classmates was like sparks, fueling the fire within him. He clenched his fists and was just about to say something when the principal approached with a stern expression and called Matthew away. For the entirety of the next period, neither Matthew nor Lily returned. Jack blanked out. When the bell rang, he was the first to rush out of the classroom. He had to find Lily to get an explanation. However, when he ran to the track field, he saw Lily picking up the cones on the floor as punishment while telling Matthew, who was also being punished, a joke. The young girl lifted her eyes, meeting his gaze without the slightest unease or panic. As if inspired, she even looked back up at Matthew. “Do you know why Jack is such a funny guy? It’s because he cannot get a proper girlfriend, so he can only act like a joke.” Matthew chuckled, amused. Jack, however, was crushed. Three years ago, after Lily witnessed her mother jump to her death, she suffered from severe depression. After stopping her from doing something stupid for the fifth time, Jack had embraced her distraught self and cried bitterly. “Lily, I will stay by your side. I will make you happy. Trust me, I will help you get better.” He did it. For three whole years, he forced himself to transform from the quiet, reserved guy he used to be to the funny guy who cracked jokes at every turn. He racked his brain, telling thousands upon thousands of jokes and even making fun of himself, finally bringing the smile back to Lily’s face. Yet, in Lily’s eyes, he was nothing more than a joke! That remark about not being able to get a proper girlfriend was a direct nod to the rumors Matthew had been spreading behind his back. Jack walked over stiffly, his voice raspy. “Are you not going to explain yourself?” Lily frowned impatiently. “Explain what?” “I was the one who helped you out of depression. On your eighteenth birthday, we even kissed–” “Oh, please!” Lily interrupted him angrily, her expression mocking. “You act like a fool all day long. Did you really come to consider yourself a savior? As for that kiss, I was just fooling around. You’re not innocent anyway, so why are you acting so needy?” Then, she turned toward Matthew and swore, “I swear, Matthew, you’re the only one I have feelings for.” Jack froze in disbelief, his face deathly pale. Instead of giving him another chance to confront her, Lily reached out to take Matthew’s hand and did not get upset even when he pulled away. Jack stood under the blazing sun as he watched them leave, yet all he felt was cold. For the remaining classes, he could not take in a word. His gaze kept drifting toward Lily, but Lily’s gaze remained fixed in the direction of Matthew, who was lying on his desk, sleeping. Not once did she lift her head to look at Jack. By the time lunch break came around, Jack was leaning against his desk from a pain in his stomach, having skipped going to the cafeteria for lunch. Suddenly, Lily walked over to the front of his desk and sat down facing him. As if nothing had happened, she scooped a spoonful of the packed soup she brought and blew on it gently. “Does your stomach hurt? Have some soup. It will make you feel better. I’ll feed you.” Jack was slightly taken aback and stared blankly at the soup offered to his lips. That was the second time Lily had fed him. The previous time was when he ran out into the heavy rain to perform Michael Jackson’s moonwalk for Lily, and the next day, his fever spiked to one hundred and four degrees, making him delirious. Lily had skipped class to run to his house, scolding him for bringing it upon himself, yet her eyes were bright red as she fed him more than half a bowl of soup, spoonful by spoonful. A sudden pang of sadness hit him, and he said in a low voice, “Lily, you–” “Have the soup first.” Lily interrupted him, her tone remarkably softer. Jack was about to speak but stopped himself. In the end, he suppressed his emotions and did as he was told. In order not to spoil the mood, he quickly finished a bowl of soup. Lily finally put down the spoon. “Jack, I added a little something into the soup.” Chapter 2 Before Jack could even process what had just happened, he froze. Matthew walked into the classroom surrounded by a few classmates, sighing dramatically. “Lily, I lost the bet. I really did not expect you to actually feed Jack laxatives. I now believe that you have no feelings for him whatsoever.” As he spoke, he looked at Jack with a frustrating mix of disappointment and anger, scolding, “An entire bottle of laxatives! Could you not taste it? Are your taste buds messed up?” Lily smirked. “Even if I fed him poison, he would swallow it like candy.” Jack stiffened in absolute disbelief as an unbearable, twisting pain erupted in his stomach. Cold sweat instantly covered his body. The mock examination was crucial. Yet, he spent the entire afternoon running to the bathroom in embarrassment. Those mocking eyes and the stern, reproachful gazes of the invigilators stripped him of his self-esteem. By the end, he was so exhausted that he collapsed in the hallway on his way back to the classroom. Meanwhile, Lily leaned against the doorway of the classroom, watching him with a careless smile. “You couldn’t even handle running to the bathroom twenty-seven times? Jack, you are truly useless.” The girl’s voice sounded as if it were coming from very far away. At that moment, Jack finally realized that no matter how tough he was, it didn’t matter because it still hurt. When he woke up again, it was already the next day. The nurse informed him that the laxatives had worsened his stomach ulcer. Jack looked toward the doorway, dazed. Was it Lily who brought him here? “By the way, it was your homeroom teacher who brought you here and paid the medical bill in advance for you. She asked me to remind you that you need to recover quickly so you don’t miss the college entrance exam.” The tiny, pitiful glimmer of hope in his heart was crushed. Indeed. Lily had fed him a whole bottle of laxatives and watched coldly as he suffered. How could she possibly care whether he lived or died? His phone rang nonstop from the seniors’ group chat. Matthew had boastfully announced in the group chat, which had no teachers in it, that he was going to treat everyone to dinner before the college entrance exam to relax and to celebrate that he was no longer single. The attached image showed two hands with fingers interlaced. At a single glance, Jack recognized the girl’s hand in the photo. On the skin between her thumb and index finger, there were two side-by-side black dots that looked like a snakebite. It was Lily’s hand, and the thought of it filled him with pain and resentment. He could not understand it. He and Lily had known each other for eighteen years. Why had her attitude toward him changed so much after his one week away from school? However, he could not get through to Lily on the phone. He had been blocked, and the messages he sent were also rejected. He stared at the screen, his eyes dimming with sorrow. At that moment, a call from Mrs. Dunn, the Greer family’s housekeeper, came through. “Mr. Jack, your mother brought a man home.” Jack’s heart sank, and he rushed home immediately. However, never in a million years did he think he would see Matthew in his home! “Jack, this is your stepfather, Quentin Fox, and his son, Matthew. From today on, the father and son will move in to live with us.” Jack stared intently at his smiling mother and yelled, “Sarah, my father is not dead yet! Tell them to get out!” The smile on Sarah White’s face froze, and her expression quickly darkened. “The chemotherapy has reduced your father to a shadow of himself. He should be glad that I haven’t divorced him! “As for Quentin and Matthew, I won’t acknowledge them officially before your father dies. However, if you make a scene out of this, do not blame me for cutting your father’s chemotherapy fees!” Jack could not believe it. He watched as Sarah and Quentin made their way upstairs, his blood running cold. “Are you surprised, Jack?” Matthew leaned in close to him and challenged him with a smile. “Have you not noticed that the two of us look somewhat alike? I’m actually seventeen months older than you.” Jack’s eyes widened as he snapped his gaze toward Matthew. Matthew’s smile faded, and his eyes were filled with intense hatred. “You stole my mother and the love that I should’ve received since childhood, so it’s only fair that I take away everything you treasure, including your reputation and the Lily whom you love.” Unable to hold it in any longer, Jack delivered Matthew a vicious kick. “Ah! How dare you kick me!” Furious and exasperated, Matthew raised his fist and charged forward. “Do you know why Lily treats you differently now? It’s because I slept with her. I’m her first, so she naturally trusts me unconditionally. That is why she couldn’t even tell when I used an alternate account to impersonate you and made her think it was you who posted her mother’s affairs online as a joke– Ah!” During the scuffle, Jack and Matthew lost their balance and crashed into a one-foot-tall antique porcelain vase, shattering it all over the floor with a loud crash. With Matthew and Jack falling onto the broken pieces, blood instantly covered their bodies. Lily happened to witness that scene the moment she walked up to the door. She immediately rushed into the room, slapped Jack hard across the face, and shoved him back. Jack stumbled back onto the cabinet, hitting his head. His vision turned dark, and blood trickled down his brow. Through his blood-stained vision, he watched as Lily helped Matthew up and looked at him like he was an enemy. “Jack, I just got together with Matthew, and you couldn’t wait to lay such a heavy hand on him? He is your half-brother from the same mother!” The words half-brother from the same mother tore Jack’s heart to pieces. Lily knew that Matthew was his mother’s illegitimate son? Hearing the commotion, Sarah and Quentin rushed out of the room. Jack watched quietly as Lily and Sarah surrounded Matthew in a panic, caring about his wounds and calling an ambulance. Not a single person even glanced at him. He suddenly burst out laughing. However, as he laughed, he felt as though he were being suffocated by a plastic bag, leaving him so breathless that he staggered and collapsed onto the floor. It was not until the house fell silent again that he struggled to his feet, leaned against the wall, and dialed a number. “Professor John, I will no longer take the college entrance exam to stay in the country. If the medical school where you teach still welcomes me, can you agree to one condition of mine?” Chapter 3 The breathing on the other end of the line grew heavier. “Is that true? Jack, you have an extraordinary talent in medical research. As long as you enroll, every condition can be negotiated!” After Jack hung up, an admission letter from the Hopkins School of Medicine arrived in his email inbox. A recommendation letter for a private hospital was also attached. Studying medicine had always been his dream. Yet, the first time he was offered a spot at that top-tier medical school, he turned it down so he did not have to be separated from Lily. Now, however, he had decided to leave with his severely ill father. The wounds all over his body were bleeding profusely. In the end, he went to the hospital. Right after the wound on his head had been treated, a hand grabbed the wound on his arm, and the pain turned his vision black. As if unaware of it, Lily dragged him toward the upper floor. “You’re the reason Matthew got hurt. He’s losing a lot of blood right now. He needs a blood transfusion, and you’re giving yours to him!” “I’m not going!” Both exasperated and furious, Jack pried open her fingers one by one. Lily felt the pain and suddenly let go. However, in the very next second, she grabbed his neck, forcing him to lower his head as her lips pressed against his. “Aren’t you in love with me? As long as you save him, after graduation, I can sleep with yo–” Jack froze, quickly realizing what Lily meant. He pushed her away and slapped her face in an uncontrollable rage. “You’re a young woman! Don’t you know what self-respect means? Or is it simply because I have feelings for you that you think you can humiliate me without any regard for my feelings?” He looked heartbroken, yet he spoke clearly, “Lily, starting today, I am no longer in love with you!” Lily paused for a moment, then looked as if she had heard a funny joke. “No longer in love with me? Fine. If you can do that, sure. However, right now, Matthew needs your blood! “Anyone with basic medical knowledge knows that transfusing blood with incompatible blood types can be fatal!” Lily, however, did not believe him and had men forcibly drag him over to draw his blood. It was not until the doctor confirmed Jack was not lying that she released him with a stone-cold expression. Lying in the ward, Jack closed his eyes bitterly. He had more wounds than Matthew did, yet Lily seemed blind to them. He found it ridiculous that he had devoted eighteen years of his life with such sincerity and spent three long years changing who he was for Lily. He also felt that his father’s hard work had been for nothing. Fortunately, after being diagnosed with cancer, his father, Ian Greer, feared that he might suddenly pass on and that Jack would suffer if he gained a stepfather in the future. With that in mind, Ian quietly transferred all his private assets kept hidden from his wife to Jack, so Jack was not short of money. Jack opened his eyes and booked a plane ticket to depart on the day of the college entrance exam. After dressing his wounds, he rushed to the oncology-specialized hospital where Ian was located and finalized the specific details for the international transfer. To prevent Ian from seeing the scars all over his body, he took a peek through the door of the hospital room, gritting his teeth in silent despair. That night, neither Sarah, Matthew nor Quentin returned home. However, Jack was more than happy to enjoy the peace and quiet. The next day, he took a leave of absence from school, packed his and his father’s bags, and mailed them overseas. On the third day, he wore a long-sleeved shirt to school to cover the wounds on his body. Yet the moment he stepped into school, he noticed the strange looks his schoolmates were giving him. Chapter 4 Jack had a bad feeling about it, and it stayed that way until an unfamiliar female schoolmate blocked his path in the hallway. “The nerve you have to show up in school? Someone as shameless as you should be expelled!” He was utterly baffled by her words. “What do you mean? Make it clear.” “You’re quite the actor. No wonder Matthew always used to say that you couldn’t live without your sugar mommies. It turns out your father is just a kept man after all. Everything about the two of you has spread online.” “Don’t you dare say another word about my father!” Frightened by his aggressiveness, the girl fell silent and slunk away to the side. Jack suppressed his anger and went online. A post titled “The Unknown Secrets of High School Heartthrob Jack and His Father” was pinned right at the top of the Reddit homepage. The post not only falsely accused Ian of using underhanded schemes to break up Matthew’s parents, but it also claimed that Sarah was not Jack’s biological mother. It stated that he was an illegitimate child who had stolen Matthew’s life. There were even several explicit private videos of Ian. However, those videos were AI-generated. Ian was suffering terribly from cancer and was far thinner than the person in the videos. Furthermore, he had lost all his hair long ago due to chemotherapy! As for the most explicit video, the man in it had been swapped out. Although the footage was somewhat blurry, a face that looked almost identical to Jack’s could be made out. Jack’s breathing grew heavy, but he tried his absolute best to remain calm. “I will find a professional to verify that the video is fake, and I will report this to the police to clear the names of my father and myself!” An innocent person had nothing to fear. Even though his hands were shaking with rage, he immediately searched for professional agencies that could authenticate videos. However, in the very next second, his phone was snatched away. Lily stepped in front of him nonchalantly, blocking his way. “I thought you were just afraid of your identity as an illegitimate child being exposed, which was why you didn’t want Mrs. Greer to acknowledge Matthew. I never thought you’d actually be… so wild and unbridled.” Almost everyone in the school knew that he and Lily were childhood friends who knew everything about each other, so her remark confirmed the authenticity of the post. Jack looked at her in disbelief. “What nonsensical garbage are you talking about? Give me back my phone.” He reached out to grab it, but Lily moved nimbly, making it impossible for him to catch it. During the struggle, the buttons on his shirt popped open, suddenly exposing the scars all over his body to the crowd. A playful smirk curled up at the corner of Lily’s mouth. “Yet you still claim the video is fake? Then how do you explain these scars on your body?” Her intentionally raised voice instantly turned Jack into the target of everyone’s accusations. Now, even more vile words and insults surrounded him. “You know that this is…” Jack paused abruptly. Meeting Lily’s cold, playful eyes, he connected the dots. “It was you?” His voice was dry and raspy. Lily smiled without a care, then leaned in close to him and whispered, “That’s right. I made the post, and I generated the video using AI. Your father bullied Matthew’s father, and you hurt Matthew. I had to stand up for my boyfriend.” Boyfriend. Jack staggered back two steps. Just to stand up for Matthew, Lily made up a story out of thin air, causing him and Ian to be humiliated and vilified online? “Lily, you’re unbelievable!” Jack was so angry that his clenched fists shook. Lily’s expression turned cold. Just as she was about to say something, Jack’s phone rang. Seeing that it was a call from the hospital, he grabbed Lily’s arm tightly. Taking advantage of her pain as her attention shifted, he snatched his phone back. The moment he answered, he heard terrible news from the other end. “Mr. Greer, your father has suffered a sudden, life-threatening condition due to emotional distress. We need a family member’s signature to go ahead with resuscitation, but we can’t seem to reach your mother!” Jack panicked. Ignoring everything else, he rushed toward the hospital. Yet, right at the door to the hospital, he was stopped by Matthew and several thugs. Those thugs gave Jack no opportunity to react or call for help. They rushed forward, struck the back of his head with a club, and shoved him into a van. He was pushed onto the stage of an auditorium, his arms pinned by the thugs so that he could not move. In the next second, the pitch-black surroundings lit up. Chapter 5 The stage lights were so bright that Jack could barely keep his eyes open. “Jack, because of you, I was in the hospital for two days, and I’ve fallen behind on my studies. I’m under a lot of pressure right now with the college entrance exam,” Matthew said as he twirled a pocket knife in a carefree manner, sitting in the front row of the auditorium. “I heard that your sickly father needs a family member’s signature to resuscitate him. How about this? As the funny guy in school, I will let you go if you can make me laugh. What do you say?” “Are you insane? My father’s life is in danger, and you want me to tell you jokes to make you laugh?” Jack was frantic with anxiety. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he glared at Matthew. At that moment, a figure appeared at the entrance, backlit by the sun. Jack immediately thought that help was here. “Lily, my father is in critical condition and needs a family member’s signature! Please tell Matthew to let me go. My father is running out of time!” His eyes were bloodshot, and he spoke in a frantic, incoherent manner. Lily stayed silent for a moment. Then, she sneered. “That’s your father. What does that have to do with me?” Jack’s breath hitched. “How can you say such a thing? Have you forgotten how he used to make you delicious food and bring you surprises when we were kids?” “Enough!” Lily suddenly flew into a rage. “When you posted the incident of my mother jumping off a building onto the internet as a joke, did you ever consider that my mother also loved you like a son?” Her chest heaved as her furious voice echoed through the empty auditorium. Jack froze, remembering how Matthew had told him about creating a fake account to impersonate him online. However, no matter how Jack tried to explain, Lily refused to believe him. Instead, she sat down next to Matthew and began flirting with him. “Haven’t I stood up for you? Are you not satisfied with that?” “Of course not. Revenge must be taken personally to be satisfying. What? You can’t bear to see him like that?” “Are you jealous?” “Yes, I am jealous.” The next second, Lily grabbed Matthew by the collar and kissed him! Jack turned pale. While Ian was on the brink of death, Lily not only refused to help him, but she even… It felt as though a large hole had been gouged into his heart, and the excruciating pain made it difficult for him to breathe. Just then, the hospital called again. Before he could answer it, the thugs snatched his phone away. He shouted in anger and desperation, but no one paid him any attention. Ultimately, for the sake of Ian’s life, he had no choice but to compromise. Jack stood on the stage, enduring the humiliation, frantically telling jokes while filled with anxiety. However, Matthew clearly intended to make things difficult for Jack, and nothing could satisfy him. He even had men bring out a pile of foul-smelling clothes and cheap cosmetics. “Put those on. As long as you dress yourself up to look disgusting enough, I will consider it a pass.” There was no clock in the theater, so Jack had no idea how much time had passed. All he knew was that Ian was waiting for him to save his life! Without much thought, he began pulling those clothes over his body, dry-heaving from the stench. While he haphazardly smeared eye shadows of various colors across his face, Lily sat there coldly, admiring his pathetic state. Finally, after he had put on a bunch of layers, Matthew pointed his phone at him and snapped pictures for a long time before smiling and saying that it was truly disgusting. Satisfied, he wrapped his arm around Lily’s shoulders and walked out with the gang of thugs. Jack did not dare waste another second. He picked up his phone from the floor and sprinted toward the hospital like a madman. He did not even have the time to take off those clothes. He ran with all his strength, praying over and over that Ian would hang on! However, when he finally rushed to Ian’s hospital room, he saw the nurse covering Ian’s face with a white bedsheet. Suddenly, the world fell silent. All he could hear was his own heavy breathing, and his feet felt heavy. With trembling hands, Jack slowly lifted the white sheet. Ian’s eyes were closed, looking as though he were asleep. Yet, when he took Ian’s hand, it was ice-cold. His father was dead. “Dad!” A desolate and hopeless wail tore through his throat. He sat motionless outside the mortuary until daybreak. In the reflective glass, the various hues on his face blended together, and paired with his hollow eyes, he looked exceptionally terrifying. He had placed countless phone calls to Sarah, but none went through. It was not until another call was rejected that a text message arrived from her. [Your father’s passed away, that’s all. It’s not a big deal. Just take the corpse to the crematorium. Quentin and I are going to get married right after we spend some quality time together, so do not bring us bad luck.] Jack stared fixedly at that text message. Ian was dead, yet Sarah claimed it was not a big deal and told him to cremate the body as he pleased. She just could not wait to marry another man so soon. The hand gripping the phone suddenly went limp. After that, he returned home in silence and washed himself clean. Jack spent an entire day handling Ian’s funeral arrangements. Caressing Ian’s tombstone, he realized that in just three more days, he would have been able to take Ian away from this place. Now, however, he would be leaving alone. He sat leaning against the tombstone for a long time until he received a text message from his homeroom teacher, Miss Clara, requesting to see him at school, after which he rose to his feet numbly. Chapter 6 In the teacher’s office, Miss Clara’s expression was grave. “There have been some bad rumors about you in school recently. Those videos are clearly fake, so we’ll set that matter aside for a moment. Although you usually do not take things seriously, your grades have always been excellent. I don’t understand why you would destroy your own future.” As she spoke, she pulled up Jack’s college application form on the computer screen. “I don’t recall you applying to community colleges. Why did you change them from the top universities you’ve chosen? The deadline has already passed. Is this a joke?” Jack looked at the screen calmly. His password was Lily’s birthday, and only Lily knew it. That was likely her trying to make Matthew happy. He had forced himself to crack jokes for three years to cheer Lily. Yet, all it took was seven days apart for Lily to make him the laughing stock and win someone else over. However, he could not care less anymore. Miss Clara was still trying to figure out a way to fix the situation for him. “Miss,” he suddenly spoke, his voice raspy. “I won’t be taking the college entrance exam anymore.” The next second, a familiar voice came from the doorway. “You’re not taking the college entrance exam? Are you planning to scrub toilets instead?” Lily sneered, handed Miss Clara a workbook, and walked out. Ten minutes later, Jack left the office as well. Everywhere he went, he was pointed at and mocked, but he reacted as if he heard nothing. He was like a soulless, walking corpse, his eyes dead and emotionless. Even when Matthew intentionally stood in his way, he merely stepped around him. He intended to return to the classroom and gather his belongings so that he could leave school until he moved overseas. However, his indifference infuriated Matthew instead. “Jack, who do you think you are? I told you to give me that bracelet that matches Lily’s. Are you deaf?” Matthew lost his temper, picked up a stainless steel water bottle off a desk, and smashed it hard against Jack’s head. The wound that had just scabbed over after being pushed and cut by Lily ripped open once again. Blood dripped down his expressionless face and fell onto his black clothing. Suddenly, the classroom fell silent. Lily, who was walking to the door holding a freshly filled water bottle, sensed immediately that something was off. She rushed inside, stood in front of Matthew, and without asking about the situation, splashed the entire bottle of water onto Jack’s face. “What kind of fuss are you kicking up again?” Kicking up a fuss? He no longer had the strength to kick up a fuss. Jack raised his hand calmly and wiped away the blood and water on his face. Then, from his pocket, he took out that bracelet and placed it on the desk. Those bracelets were a gift from their families when they went on a holiday together when they were eight years old. Even if Matthew had not fought him for it, he did not intend to keep it anyway. After packing the last of his books in his bag, he bypassed the people in front of him and walked out without saying a word. Lily, on the other hand, was taken aback. Jack had always had an endless supply of jokes and a smile on his face. When had he become so… so quiet? However, she quickly believed that Jack was just playing hard to get, and unfortunately for him, she did not fall for that trick. With forty-eight hours left until the college entrance exam, the seniors’ group chat kept buzzing continuously. Matthew’s party had begun, but Jack did not go. Instead, he cleared out anything belonging to Ian and himself from their home. During that time, Matthew sent many provocative messages. There were even photos from earlier of him being forced to dress in disgusting outfits, which were now projected on the large screen at the party. He glanced at them before immediately deleting them. Lily also sent a message for the very first time. “Jack, everyone’s here at the party. What are you playing at? Come over now.” He did not reply, nor could he reply. Lily seemed to have forgotten that she had blocked his contact. With twenty-four hours left until the college entrance exam, Jack lay calmly on his bed. His social media feed was flooded with posts from Matthew, nine photos per post, and every single photo featured Lily. Jack suddenly remembered that he had also once taken a photo of Lily using a Polaroid camera. He had handed the photo to her with a cheerful smile and said, “We should take more photos while we’re young! That way, when we are eighty years old, we can still use them to date people online!” At that time, Lily had torn the photo to pieces and thrown it into the trash can. “I do not like taking photos.” As it turned out, she did not dislike taking photos; she simply disliked him. In this one-sided relationship that had begun at an age he could not even remember, he had lost miserably. On the day of the college entrance exam, Jack received a video along with a very long document. His eyes, which had been hollow and lifeless for several days, finally showed some emotion again. His breathing hitched, his eyes watered, and his hand holding the phone trembled. Suppressing the overwhelming emotions in his heart, he quickly replied to that number with a message. [Contact a lawyer and file a lawsuit immediately.] He was going to make the murderer who killed his father get the justice he deserved. As the plane took off, he leaned against his seat, closed his eyes, and never looked back at that city again.