William Williams came down with pneumonia just before the start of school, so he didn’t enroll until the second week of military training. By then, the likable Susan Wright had already been chosen as the temporary class monitor. When she saw William Williams, Susan Wright’s face turned pale. She had never expected that her sister’s classmate, William Williams, who should have taken the college entrance exam a year earlier, would end up as her own university classmate. The world was truly that small. Most crucially, she had already begun to craft her own image; although she hadn’t explicitly stated her background, her easy conversation was enough to make her classmates believe she came from a strict and well-off family. But now that William Williams had arrived, wouldn’t that expose her bluff? Yet William Williams said nothing, acting as if he was meeting Susan Wright for the first time. Susan Wright was suspicious for a while. At first, she thought William Williams hadn’t recognized her, but then she remembered she had visited Shirley Wright’s class a few times. Even if there was a one percent chance that William Williams had never noticed her at school, the names Shirley Wright and Susan Wright differed by only one character, and as sisters, they looked quite alike. How could William Williams not realize she was Shirley Wright’s younger sister?

Susan Wright continued to play her new role with trepidation, carefully observing William Williams, trying to gauge his tone when he spoke to her, and reading the look in his eyes. Gradually, she became aware that William Williams seemed to have unusual feelings for her. After her initial surprise, Susan Wright found it quite understandable: William Williams had dated her sister, and after her sister’s death, seeing her at university, he must have transferred his feelings to her. That must be why he chose not to expose her. Of course, she still had some doubts, such as why William Williams hadn’t shown obvious surprise when he first saw her, but since she thought she had figured it out, she didn’t dwell on these details.

Susan Wright didn’t like William Williams at all; in fact, seeing him made her uncomfortable. She hated the feeling of having someone hold something over her—she had paid a high price for her freedom. William Williams had never shown any intention of using this against her, but a secret is still a secret, a ticking time bomb. For now, Susan Wright had no solution; if William Williams didn’t bring it up, could she possibly do so herself? She even had to occasionally give William Williams brighter, more dazzling smiles to keep his hopes up.

In the guise of Bella Collins, William Williams had been corresponding with Daphne Morgan for quite some time.

Pen pals are a magical way to make friends, and the special pen pal relationship between Bella Collins and Daphne Morgan allowed William Williams to slowly explore the iceberg-like heart of Susan Wright, bit by bit delving into the vast, crystalline world beneath the surface. This magical exchange only amplified Susan Wright’s allure tenfold. William Williams had originally liked Shirley Wright, but after more than half a year of correspondence with Susan Wright, he had fallen hopelessly in love with her. This opportunity was given to him by Shirley Wright; sometimes William Williams thought this must have been what Shirley Wright intended—she entrusted her sister to him. Because of his family’s financial situation, William Williams took the college entrance exam a year late. When Daphne Morgan wrote in a letter that she had decided to apply to the medical university, William Williams also made his decision.

The plan to create a new identity and have everyone accept a brand-new self was something Daphne Morgan had already told Bella Collins about in her letters. So when William Williams saw Susan Wright after school started, he was already prepared for her new role. Of course, from the moment he saw Susan Wright again, he had to restrain his surging emotions. He understood that, even though he had touched Susan Wright’s heart through what was almost cheating, to Susan Wright, William Williams was still a stranger. Take it slow, he thought; he and Susan Wright would be classmates for five whole years. So how could he possibly expose Susan Wright? He understood the reasons behind all this—or at least, he thought he understood Susan Wright’s soft, vulnerable heart, the heart that Shirley Wright had solemnly entrusted to him before she died, and William Williams wanted to care for it forever.

As for Brian Foster, William Williams naturally wouldn’t eat it. The package that Susan Wright shared with everyone didn’t have many pieces; one per person wasn’t enough, so someone had to go without. William Williams knew the situation of the Wen family—it must be even harder than his own. He couldn’t bear to eat the pastries that Susan Wright had saved up. In fact, the Wen family was a bit better off than William Williams remembered, since now, with two daughters, only one remained.

When the Brian Foster was being divided, Susan Wright heard a bit of news: Eddie had died. That was one of the three rabbits she kept, and it happened the very night she took leave from camp.

The rabbits were kept by the vegetable patch near the camp, in a makeshift wooden hutch surrounded by a bamboo fence. Eddie was always sickly—she had broken her leg before and had been listless for days, so her death wasn’t exactly a shock. But military training life was so dull, and Susan Wright’s rabbits were beloved by her classmates. These future doctors hadn’t yet developed the nerves of steel that come from seeing life and death every day, especially the girls, who were particularly saddened by Eddie’s death.

Instead, it was Susan Wright who comforted the most upset classmates. But once the topic of Eddie came up, everyone’s feelings while eating the Brian Foster became complicated, and the treat lost its appeal. She had brought back something delicious, but her beloved pet had died, and she still had to force herself to comfort everyone. With this in mind, almost everyone felt a bit sorry for Susan Wright.

What happened that night made William Williams feel as if some invisible hand was pushing him and Susan Wright closer together. After lights out, a little after nine, the camp was already resting. William Williams was walking down the path to the camp gate—he was on guard duty at ten, for four hours. As he turned a corner along the path, he saw a shadowy figure, half-hidden by a tree, facing away from him.

William Williams didn’t hide his footsteps. As he saw the person, the person heard him too and turned around—it was Selena Adams. Selena Adams made a shushing gesture and beckoned him over.

William Williams walked over quietly. Selena Adams pointed toward the vegetable patch. Looking over, he saw, besides the starlight and moonlight, a patch of unusual glow, with a dark figure crouched beside it. William Williams watched for a while before realizing someone was squatting there, and the glow was from a flashlight.

“Who’s at the rabbit hutch?” William Williams asked in a low voice.

Selena Adams snorted a laugh and said, “Our Class Leader, of course.”

There was a complicated, hard-to-describe tone in Selena Adams’s voice, which made William Williams inexplicably tense. He asked, “Susan Wright? What’s she doing there?”

“Who knows.”

William Williams was suspicious—if Selena Adams didn’t know, why was she spying here?

“Feeding the rabbits?”

“Let’s go see!”

Selena Adams strode forward, with William Williams close behind. The crouching figure, back to them, suddenly stood up at the sound, but after squatting so long, her legs were numb and she staggered. Selena Adams broke into a run, charging straight up, but suddenly let out a sharp scream.

“Susan Wright, what are you doing!”

“Keep your voice down, it’s late.” William Williams was afraid of attracting the instructors. He slowed down, and when he reached them, he couldn’t help but gasp.

The pale flashlight beam illuminated a patch of blood.

The flashlight was propped up with bricks, lighting the ground in front of the rabbit hutch. A rabbit lay there, motionless, its belly cut open with a large gash, dark red organs still twitching. Nearby was a sheet of newspaper, lined with scissors, forceps, tweezers, and other tools. In the wind, there was a low whimper—the last rabbit in the hutch, crying out in fear. The scene sent a chill down their spines.

Susan Wright was wearing rubber gloves on both hands, a scalpel in her right. Her face was in shadow, hard to make out. Selena Adams hunched her shoulders; she had half expected this, but seeing it with her own eyes was still frightening.

“What are you doing?” she asked again, her voice lower than before.

“What are you two doing here?” Susan Wright shot back.

“I’m on guard duty tonight, ran into Selena Adams on the way,” said William Williams.

“I just wanted to see what you were up to, Class Leader. I really didn’t expect this.” Selena Adams had recovered, her voice not loud but full of force.

“I…” Susan Wright hesitated, which was rare for her. “I didn’t raise them just for fun, as pets.”

“So you raised the rabbits just to torture and kill them? If I hadn’t gotten suspicious about the wound on Eddie’s belly, I’d never have guessed you were such a freak! That wound was festering, and killing Eddie wasn’t enough—you’re after Abby Brooks now!”

At this, Susan Wright felt a bit of regret. A few days ago, she had tried her first surgery on a rabbit. Because the sedative wasn’t strong enough, Eddie woke up after the first cut, and she had to hurriedly stitch up the struggling rabbit, with disastrous results. This time, she had brought some ether from home, and tonight she had only planned to test the anesthesia, but after anesthetizing the rabbit, she changed her mind and operated. Eddie had just died, so how could she have been so careless? Maybe things had been going too smoothly lately. Although this wasn’t exactly wrong, being discovered by her classmates—she knew it would never be accepted.