Replying with "1" to everything had become a habit of mine over the past few years.
In the class group chat, Rachel Gilbert, the class academic officer, tagged @everyone:
"When my sister ran off years ago in a fit of temper, she said Mom and Dad couldn't even sell their blood fast enough to cover half a designer bag. Now that she's just been reunited with us, she's already forcing them to sell a kidney for cash."
"If you've got the guts to own it, just reply '1'!"
In my past life I'd been in the middle of class and, out of habit, blindly fired back a "1."
Rachel screenshotted it instantly and posted it everywhere, along with a faked record of my massive spending.
During the break, in a hallway packed with students, she blocked my path in front of everyone, her eyes rimmed red.
"Mom and Dad have been selling their blood for years, their bodies are already wrecked, and you still want to force them to sell a kidney for money. How can your heart be so cold?"
Last time, I'd tried desperately to explain that the two of us had nothing to do with each other, and she'd twisted it into me being ashamed of a poor family and refusing to claim my own kin.
The whole school decided I was a selfish, cold-blooded ingrate.
I was cursed at from every direction, my savings picked clean by her schemes, and then they stripped me bare and drove me to jump off the academic building.
After I died, she pinned a celebration post to the top of the forum:
【The vampire is finally dead. The family is free at last.】
When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the loudest moment of it all.
I threw my textbook straight into her face.
"You want to be my sister? We happen to share a last name and I don't recall you thanking me for it."
1
Rachel's eyes went red.
"Mom didn't dare go to the hospital even when she got sick, all so she could pay your tuition!"
"The family needs money urgently, and you won't even admit your own family exists."
Last time she talked circles around me until I couldn't get a word in, and my classmates were all certain I was a money-grubbing ingrate.
I'd thought time would wash it away. Instead the rumors only got worse.
Rachel picked the book up off the floor and held it out to me.
"Lillian Gilbert, I'm begging you as your sister. Mom's illness really can't wait any longer."
"I know you love money more than anything. Then let it be a loan, okay? I swear I'll sell my own blood to pay you back."
The students around us erupted at once.
"She doesn't even care whether her own parents live or die, and now she's turning it around on Rachel."
"She's always carrying designer stuff. Turns out she's been sucking her parents dry."
I pressed the record button on my phone and captured every word as evidence.
"You say I'm your biological sister. What proof do you have?"
"Don't tell me it's because we both have the last name Gilbert. I could laugh just saying it out loud."
Rachel wiped at her tears.
"I know you won't admit it. But can you really stand to let Mom die in agony in a hospital bed?"
"I thought about getting a paternity test, but the few hundred dollars it costs could buy Mom a box of painkillers instead."
The accusations around us swelled instantly.
"Is she even human? Her mother's practically dying of pain and she's still pretending she doesn't know her."
"Going to the same school as someone like that makes me feel dirty."
Rachel pulled a stack of papers out of her bag.
"Lillian, I know you blame me for airing our family's dirty laundry."
"You ran up three hundred thousand dollars at luxury stores in one month! These are the records of every transfer Mom and Dad sent you."
"Back home in the countryside they won't even let themselves eat meat, and you're draining the blood out of them!"
I had just reached out to take that statement.
When someone suddenly grabbed my wrist.
