Chapter 4After They Forced Me Out of School, the Campus Tyrant Fell into a Ten-Year Depression

Robert wasn't a bad person. At least, I didn't think so before.

At the beginning of the semester, a few students had bullied me for being poor. They’d post passive-aggressive things online, saying the classroom stank of my poverty. I was heartbroken back then. I spent a whole afternoon with my head on my desk, crying.

Robert had walked over.

He gently patted my head and said softly, "It's not your fault."

My eyelashes fluttered. He immediately pulled his hand back and walked away.

When did things change?

It must have been when I offended Melinda, the social queen of our year. I don't know what she did, but soon, the entire class turned against me.

At first, Robert would still message me: "Are you okay?"

Then, he started sending messages and immediately unsending them.

Finally, the messages stopped altogether.

Around that time, I heard a rumor that Robert was trying to win Melinda over.

Suddenly, it all made sense. Love me, love my dog. Hate me, hate my dog.

I thought if I just explained myself, they would leave me alone.

But the very next day, they started demanding the money. They threatened to blow the whole thing up, to tell the school administration, using Robert’s powerful family name to intimidate me.

I had no choice but to ask for time off from my professors and find part-time work off campus. I looked everywhere, but even a manual labor job at a construction site only paid twenty dollars a day. Desperate, I asked some friends from the orphanage, and they got me a job as a waitress at a karaoke bar.

I never thought I would run into them there.

When I walked into their private room, the students, who had been singing and dancing wildly, fell silent.

Robert, holding a glass of whiskey, froze. The disgust in his eyes was so clear it could cut through the darkness of the room.

"Well, well, well, look who it is!"

"I didn't know our little Ivy was a thief by day and a hostess by night!"

My face flushed. I put down the drinks and tried to run out.

"Stop."

Something hard hit the back of my head. Melinda had thrown the remote control at me.

"Did the customer say you could leave?"

I took a deep breath and forced a smile. "Is there anything else I can get for you, ma'am?"

She smirked. "You're here to make money, right? I'm in a good mood today, so I'll help you out."

"One bottle of liquor, one thousand dollars. How about it?"

A thousand dollars. It was a number I couldn't even comprehend. In my budget for all four years of college, my total expenses didn’t even add up to that. It would be a lie to say I wasn't tempted. But I had never had a drop of alcohol in my life.

"What are you waiting for? Don't want it? Well, then—"

"I'll do it." I looked her straight in the eye.

Robert snorted, shooting me a look of pure disdain.

The room erupted with excitement. "Come on, come on, our little escort for the evening, have a seat!"

I knew they were mocking me. But I was used to it. Elementary school, middle school, now college—I’d been through this too many times to count.

As I sat down, Robert shifted two inches away, as if I was something filthy.

I swallowed the lump of bitterness in my throat and opened the first bottle. The strong smell of alcohol made me cough for what felt like an eternity.

That night, I had my first drink.

And I also learned, for the first time, that I was allergic to alcohol.

Half a bottle in, red welts started to break out all over my skin. Suddenly, I was being pushed into someone’s warm body. The room was spinning. I mumbled, "Robert, I feel so sick. Can you get me some water…?"

"Whoa!"

"This is getting spicy!"

"Robert, dude, this girl is really into you! She's in another guy's arms and still calling out your name!"