The Sovereign of the Under-Reality

Monday morning arrived.

Xia Jiuwei woke up early.

After changing into casual clothes, she headed to the university alone.

She knew she couldn't keep drowning in those emotions forever.

At the very least—

she needed to get her life back onto its original track.

Still, the crowded air inside the train carriage made her frown slightly.

When she arrived at the campus entrance, someone stopped her.

"Hey, aren't you a freshman in the Psychology Department?"

Xia Jiuwei stopped and glanced at the person.

"What is it?"

Her tone was flat.

The other student either didn't notice her mood or simply didn't care.

Instead, he immediately asked,

"Do you know a girl named Xiaoyue?"

The moment she heard that name, something flickered in Xia Jiuwei's eyes.

"I do."

The answer was brief.

As if he'd finally found an opening, the student immediately pressed on.

"Then do you know what she's usually like?"

"Why is it that one random post from her can attract so much attention?"

"Could you introduce me to—"

Before he could finish—

the look in Xia Jiuwei's eyes had already gone cold.

A weary sense of rejection rose inside her.

The next moment, the student suddenly stopped.

As though he'd forgotten what he had been talking about entirely.

He turned around and walked away.

Like nothing had happened.

Xia Jiuwei stood there for a few seconds before quietly continuing into campus.

The morning classes went surprisingly smoothly.

Unexpectedly—

she was focused.

Completely focused.

She forced all of her attention into rational analysis.

Dissecting.

Questioning.

Deducing.

Organizing.

Her emotions were pushed somewhere far away.

Even during class discussions, she challenged the professor's conclusions several times.

Her logic was sharp.

Her responses came almost too quickly.

When class ended, even the professor couldn't help approaching her.

"Miss Xia... would you mind coming to my office for a moment?"

She was silent for a second.

"Alright."

Inside the office, the professor flipped through his notes while discussing the arguments she'd raised earlier.

At first, it was nothing more than an ordinary academic exchange.

Before long, however, it became completely one-sided.

She gave him nothing.

Every point was dismantled, reconstructed, and then dismantled again.

Twenty minutes later, the professor finally stopped.

He looked at her with a complicated expression.

"...How does a first-year student understand these concepts at this level?"

Xia Jiuwei paused slightly.

Then spoke softly.

"I'm just not in a very good mood right now."

"So I feel like denying everything."

The office fell silent.

The professor gave a bitter smile.

"Then... what do you think is right?"

She was quiet for a while.

"I don't know."

Then she stood up.

"I should go get lunch."

As she reached the door, the professor's voice came from behind her.

"Can we discuss things again sometime?"

After a brief pause, Xia Jiuwei answered without turning around.

"If you can raise my credits a little."

Her voice remained calm.

Without even the slightest emotional fluctuation.

As though she were simply stating a fact.

Then she left the office.

In a quiet corner of campus, Xia Jiuwei's figure silently disappeared.

The next instant, she appeared inside the manor within the Under-Reality.

Moving leisurely, she walked into the kitchen and brought out a slice of cake that had been prepared beforehand.

Lu Nian'an had left it for her.

Lu Nian'an had once told her—

that when someone was in a bad mood, eating something sweet usually helped.

Xia Jiuwei wasn't particularly fond of sweets.

But whenever she remembered that it had been made by that person,

her mood did seem to improve a little.

She picked up a spoon and scooped out a small bite.

The chilled chocolate mille crepe melted slowly in her mouth.

No dramatic reaction.

No obvious emotion.

She simply sat there quietly, taking one bite after another.

Before she realized it, the entire slice was gone.

The afternoon class was still Calculus.

The same classroom.

The same professor.

The same students.

Only now, there was something else floating through the air.

Whispers.

"Hey, isn't that Xiaoyue?"

"It really is."

"Is she becoming some kind of internet celebrity?"

Xia Jiuwei frowned.

After the fifth period ended—

"Hey, I'm telling you, I've seriously gone viral this time."

A blonde-haired girl hurried over, excitement practically overflowing from her voice.

"What are you talking about?"

Xia Jiuwei glanced at her.

"Huh? You don't know?"

"The whole country's talking about it. Probably half of Asia too."

Xia Jiuwei paused.

"Then tell me what it is."

The blonde girl immediately launched into an explanation as though she'd been waiting for the opportunity.

Her voice was exaggerated.

Excited.

Almost breathless.

By the time the sixth-period Calculus class began, Xia Jiuwei had completely lost interest in the lecture.

She pulled out her phone.

A short article.

A multilingual video.

On the screen, Xiaoyue alternated between Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean.

The content was simple enough.

According to her story—

after entering an "alternate world," she had been deceived and exploited by someone called Girl J.

Mental energy had supposedly been collected as payment.

Worse still, the fees had allegedly been unfair.

The boys only had to pay ten percent of their mental energy.

The girls, meanwhile, had been charged fifty-five percent.

Throughout the video, Xiaoyue repeatedly described it as a form of "systemic exploitation."

At the end, she posted a public statement.

Calling on other "victims" to come forward.

The final line read:

"Girl J, I don't know who you are."

"But I'll make sure everyone sees the truth."

Xia Jiuwei quietly stared at the screen.

Her brows drew together slightly.

It wasn't anger.

It felt more like—

a profound sense of absurdity.

Something fundamentally misaligned.

She scrolled downward.

The comments were spreading rapidly.

Some people agreed.

Some turned it into jokes.

Others began adding their own "details."

And those details were slowly being stitched together into a story.

She opened the post itself.

Hundreds of comments.

Many of them came from people she recognized.

People she had once helped.

People she had pulled out of chaos.

Now they were being woven back into these narratives in an entirely different way.

She stared at the screen for a long time.

Her fingers never moved.

She didn't feel much of anything.

There was only something slow.

Something smoldering.

Burning outward from deep inside her chest.

So...

was this karma?

She put her phone away.

Then looked back toward the blackboard.

The Calculus formulas continued expanding across it.

Everything was normal.

Perfectly normal.

Maybe—

she was the one who had been wrong all along.

After class, the Calculus professor stopped her.

"Do you have a moment?"

Xia Jiuwei wanted to refuse.

But the professor lowered his voice and added,

"It's about Lu Nian'an."

The deliberate seriousness in his tone immediately irritated her.

Still, she followed him.

Her patience was already running thin.

This had better be important.

Inside the office, the professor locked the door as soon as he entered.

Click.

The faint sound made the look in Xia Jiuwei's eyes turn colder.

"Don't be so tense."

The professor smiled.

He even pulled over a chair for her.

"I just want to show you something."

Reaching into a drawer, he took out several photographs.

Every single one featured Lu Nian'an.

Some showed her picking Xia Jiuwei up at the campus gates.

Others captured the two of them leaving together.

A few of the angles looked almost deliberately intimate.

Xia Jiuwei lowered her gaze to the photographs.

Her expression barely changed.

"You already know, don't you?"

"There have been quite a few negative stories about her lately."

The professor paused.

As though waiting for her to understand.

"If these photos get out as well..."

His voice trailed off.

"It won't be good for either of you."

At that moment, Xia Jiuwei felt something strangely familiar.

A scene like this.

A person like this.

She had seen it countless times before.

Normally, she might have entertained the conversation a little longer.

Might even have found it amusing.

But today—

she truly wasn't in the mood.

Snap.

A crisp finger snap echoed through the room.

The next instant, the professor vanished.

Completely.

The office fell silent once more.

Xia Jiuwei remained where she was.

Without moving.

A few seconds later, as though suddenly remembering something, she slowly turned around.

Then unlocked the door.

Several seconds later—

a horrifying scream erupted from inside the office.

The cry sounded old.

Broken.

Chaotic.

Like the wail of someone whose mind had finally shattered beyond repair.

Xia Jiuwei never looked back.

She simply walked away with a blank expression.