Chapter 1: Falling off a Cliff

High above the clouds, the cliffside was buffeted by gusts of wind.

Chu Muyue stood on the very edge of the precipice, watching as tiny pebbles crumbled away and plummeted into the bottomless abyss below.

"Hong Yushi! You... what are you doing!" Chu Muyue’s voice trembled as she questioned the girl standing in the middle.

Turning her head to watch the small stones disappear into the void, her delicate, beautiful face was filled with fear and terror.

Hong Yushi, dressed in expensive casual sportswear, stepped between two other girls.

With a sinister smile on her face, she gripped a thick branch in both hands and thrust it toward Chu Muyue’s chest.

"Chu Muyue, do you know how much I hate you? I wish you were dead!" Hong Yushi gritted her teeth, glaring fiercely at Chu Muyue.

Chu Muyue shook her head, looking at Hong Yushi in disbelief. "Why? I have no grudge against you, why do you hate me!"

Hong Yushi glared at Chu Muyue with jealousy and hatred. She was the daughter of a corporate president, her family was so wealthy, and she was so beautiful.

Before she met Chu Muyue, she had been the center of attention for all the boys at school since she was a child.

But ever since they entered middle school and Chu Muyue arrived, all the boys had begun to revolve around her, while she could only watch from afar.

That glory was something that should belong to her alone! How could it be given to such a poor, lowly little brat!

"How can someone with a lowly status like yours have such a beautiful face!" Hong Yushi shouted at Chu Muyue, filled with anger and resentment.

This was what Hong Yushi hated most: that Chu Muyue came from a poor family yet possessed such a beautiful face.

Chu Muyue truly could not imagine that Hong Yushi would want to kill her for such a reason.

"Hong Yushi, you... do you know that this is murder? Murder requires a life for a life!" Chu Muyue shifted her feet back a little further, but she nearly lost her balance and fell off the cliff. Suppressing the fear in her heart, she reminded and warned Hong Yushi.

"A life for a life? Who would know that you were pushed by me? Do you have any proof?" Hong Yushi looked at Chu Muyue mockingly.

"Xie Jiarong! Huang Yaru!" Chu Muyue turned to look at the two girls standing behind Hong Yushi.

"Don't bother calling them; they won't say anything. If they did, they would be accomplices!" Hong Yushi looked at Chu Muyue triumphantly, the branch in her hands digging into her chest. "As long as I say you fell by accident, who wouldn't believe it?"

"You... you actually dare..." Chu Muyue grabbed the branch Hong Yushi was thrusting at her with both hands.

She couldn't bring herself to believe it as she looked at Hong Yushi; she never expected her to be so bold as to actually commit murder.

"Why wouldn't I dare! Chu Muyue, have a safe journey!" A triumphant smile appeared on Hong Yushi’s face as she let go of the branch Chu Muyue was holding.

Having already lost her footing and relying on the branch to keep from being pushed off the cliff, Hong Yushi letting go was, for Chu Muyue, the same as being pushed off the cliff by her own hands.

Chu Muyue felt her body lose control as she tipped backward into the bottomless abyss.

"Ah!" A desperate scream escaped Chu Muyue’s lips as she glared with hatred at Hong Yushi, who stood triumphantly at the edge of the cliff.

******

Time traveled through the link between two worlds. In the icy river water, a figure gradually sank toward the dark riverbed. As a pair of pitch-black eyes closed, a flash of relief crossed them, followed by a flicker of regret and unwillingness.

(End of chapter)