“We’re medical students. When we study surgery in the future, we’ll be doing live dissections of more than just little rabbits—there will be kittens and puppies too. This is so that we can become qualified doctors one day!” Susan Wright explained calmly, looking straight at Selena Adams, as if she felt no guilt at all. Only her hands betrayed her, instinctively wanting to clasp together. Whenever she got nervous, she would count her knuckles to calm herself. But as soon as her hands moved, she stopped—she was still holding a scalpel in her right hand.

 “Heh, I knew it. Wasn’t it you who broke Little Ear’s leg on purpose before? I always wondered, the rabbit hutch is so small, and there’s a vegetable patch next to it—how could it have broken its leg? You really can’t judge a person by their appearance. You’re too cruel. How can someone like you exist!”

 “I didn’t break Little Ear’s leg.”

 “Tch, but you still cut open its belly.”

 Faced with such an emotional reaction, Susan Wright really didn’t know what to do. In fact, she vaguely felt that Selena Adams wasn’t as emotional and irrational as she appeared. Selena Adams was the one in the class who got along with her on the surface but not in heart. Before, when Susan Wright had a high reputation in class, Selena Adams couldn’t easily show any dissatisfaction. Now that she’d seen the wound on Little Ear’s abdomen and caught her simulating surgery on Abby Brooks, there was no way she’d let this opportunity slip by.

 Still, what needed to be said had to be said, even if it was just for someone else to hear.

 “We’re going to be treating and saving lives in the future. Before we get on the operating table, we need to practice hundreds and thousands of times to avoid making mistakes during surgery. Put away your sympathy, or you’ll have a hard time in surgery class. Experimental animals and pets are different concepts. Even though you all treat these three rabbits as pets, I bought them to prepare for surgery class.”

 Selena Adams had no intention of listening to Susan Wright’s explanation, nor any interest in debating with her.

 “William Williams, you be the witness. Now everyone can see what kind of person you really are, class monitor. Poor Abby Brooks.” Selena Adams threw out these words, glanced at the rabbit on the ground, and turned to leave.

 William Williams didn’t know what to do. He stammered, “Should we, should we take care of Abby Brooks first? Um, maybe you should sew it up?”

 Daphne Morgan had never mentioned her rabbit plan in her letters, but William Williams understood why Susan Wright did what she did. She wanted to be number one too much; she always had to be ahead of everyone else. If there was any way for her to gain an advantage in the all-important surgery class, to win the admiration of teachers and classmates, she would definitely do it. But William Williams also knew that dissecting live animals in surgery class and practicing on small animals during military training were not quite the same. He could understand, but other classmates might not.

 Susan Wright seemed not to hear William Williams’s words, staring blankly at the rabbit. What had just happened was so sudden. She had forced herself to stay calm and explain to Selena Adams, but it was all useless. Now Selena Adams had already left, and by tomorrow—or maybe even tonight—what she had done would be all over the place. Fear crashed over her like a tidal wave, drowning her. The last time she’d felt this suffocating was when she saw William Williams at the military training camp. The beautiful world she had worked so hard to build was now full of cracks, about to collapse at any moment.

 Is there a way? There has to be a way!

 She couldn’t stop Selena Adams. Maybe in the future, she could find a way to repair the rift between classmates, but that would take time. She needed a way to keep herself from hitting rock bottom, to have a chance to climb back up. Her classmates’ opinions of her were important—she’d always worked hard to maintain them—but in the school’s social network, that wasn’t everything.

 “William Williams.” Susan Wright softly called his name. She had never looked him so directly in the eyes, as if trying to see into his very heart.

 William Williams’s heart immediately started racing.

 Susan Wright felt a little more at ease. William Williams might be the only person she could rely on right now. She regretted not getting closer to him before; maybe things would be easier now if she had.

 “William Williams, I think my time as class monitor is coming to an end. With Selena Adams making such a fuss, everyone’s going to gang up on me. Will you?”

 “I won’t.”

 Susan Wright smiled. William Williams had never seen her look so vulnerable.

 “You won’t, but others will. The rest of my college life is probably going to be tough. I hope that when it’s time for real surgery class and they have to do live dissections themselves, they’ll forgive me. William Williams, will you help me? You’re probably the only one who will.”

 With these words, Susan Wright was almost openly acknowledging William Williams’s feelings for her.

 “Of course, I will.” William Williams felt all the blood in his body rush to his face.

 Susan Wright took a deep breath and went over the idea she’d just had in her mind again. This was the only plan she could think of. If it worked, she might still have a little room to survive in the future.

 “There’s something I need to do. It’s not exactly aboveboard, but it’s not sneaky either. William Williams, please help me. Otherwise, I really don’t know what to do.”

 William Williams nodded vigorously.

 The counselor, Harold Rogers, spent four days a week with the sponsored class. That day, when he returned to the camp, he was carrying a cage with two little rabbits. At the gate, class monitor Susan Wright was waiting for him.

 “Thank you, teacher.” Susan Wright reached out to take the cage.

 “Oh, it’s nothing, don’t mention it. I’ll help you take them to the rabbit hutch. But how did two of them die all of a sudden when you were taking such good care of them?” The day before, Susan Wright had called Harold Rogers at the office and asked him to buy two little rabbits. Harold Rogers said there was no need to buy them—there were plenty of experimental animals at the school, so taking two was no problem.

 “Oh, right, here are the books you wanted. Isn’t it a bit early for you to be reading these?” Harold Rogers put the cage on the ground and took two textbooks out of his bag for Susan Wright.

 Susan Wright took them—one was "Systematic Anatomy," the other "Regional Anatomy." She held the books with the covers facing out.

 “I’m just interested in medicine, otherwise I wouldn’t have applied to medical school.”

 Not far away, William Williams and a few other classmates saw this scene and exchanged glances.

 “Let’s go, there’s nothing more to say.” said Selena Adams.

 “I can’t believe Teacher Jin actually…”

 William Williams breathed a sigh of relief. At least he hadn’t let her down. This was what Susan Wright had asked him to do—make sure that when she got the new rabbits from Teacher Jin, other classmates saw it. Now, the classmates who saw it naturally assumed that Susan Wright was practicing dissection on the rabbits with the counselor’s knowledge and support. The few students present all felt stifled, but no one was foolish enough to go argue with the counselor.

 Just yesterday morning, Susan Wright had handed over the rabbit Abby Brooks, which had been chilled in cold water overnight, to the military training class leader. The class leader was a glutton who had long said it was a waste to feed rabbits vegetables instead of eating them. When Susan Wright told him the rabbit had died from a serious injury and blood loss, he happily gave it to the kitchen staff to add to lunch. Coincidentally, some classmates saw this too.

 As a result, the way the students looked at the instructor and counselor changed. In the minds of the sponsored class, the instructor, counselor, and Susan Wright were all in it together.

 From beginning to end, no one told the military training class leader or the counselor what Susan Wright had actually done to the rabbit.

 William Williams was deeply impressed. Even when everyone was furious and the situation was so dire, Susan Wright had managed to pull the teacher onto her side. If anyone had told Harold Rogers the whole truth, Susan Wright would have been completely ostracized. She wouldn’t just lose her position as class monitor—she might even end up on the blacklist.

 Now, he and Susan Wright shared a secret. It was a good start, William Williams thought.

 3

 Susan Wright climbed up bit by bit, seeing a glimmer of light, feeling she was about to make it out. That incident at the end of military training had stripped away all her aura. For a long time afterward, no matter how hard she worked or how well she performed, everyone still saw her as ruthless and untrustworthy, not someone to get close to. She even approached Matthew Mitchell, the worst student in the class, offering to help him study so he could get out of the review group, but he refused.

 Sometimes, Susan Wright felt that at least she had William Williams. If not for him, she probably wouldn’t still be class monitor. Being isolated wasn’t unfamiliar to Susan Wright, but having someone to keep her company made things much more bearable.