Chapter 4

Luke looked at Rachel.

“Rachel, you're just too kind. That's why Nancy walks all over you.”

Her eyes filled with tears, but she forced a smile.

“As long as it helps the kids back in the mountains, Nancy can treat me however she wants.”

That only made the others pity her more.

“Nancy, turn your account back on right now, or get out of our class. We don't want a cold-blooded person like you as a classmate.”

I curled my hands into fists. I hadn't done a single thing. I'd only taken back what was mine, and somehow it was my fault.

“I didn't force Rachel to kneel. And my money is my business, not yours to decide.”

Then I glanced at the snakes coiled on them and couldn't stop myself from saying it again.

“Snakes are cold-blooded. They can't be tamed. And these ones are highly venomous. If they bite you, the chance of dying is very high.”

Luke let out a cold sneer.

“Nancy, I think you're just jealous of Rachel, so you're standing here spitting lies.”

Rachel spoke up, all wounded innocence.

“Nancy, these snakes pay for the school fees of the children in my village. When you smear me like this, you're destroying their only hope.”

The others just kept toying with the snakes in their hands, unbothered.

“Ha, these little snakes are so gentle, so obedient. How could they bite anyone?”

“Rachel, don't worry. We're not going to listen to Nancy's nonsense.”

I gave a cold laugh. I only hoped they'd still be this loyal to Rachel after a snake sank its fangs into them.

In the days that followed, Rachel's snakes were a hit. Everyone was buying them.

I was resting in the dorm when a sharp pain shot through my neck.

I reached back and yanked. It was a little rat snake.

I let out a breath. At least it wasn't venomous.

The scare made me fling it to the floor, and my roommate shoved me aside.

“Nancy, what do you think you're doing?”

She scooped the snake up like it was something precious.

Anger flooded through me.

“Who said you could bring a snake into the dorm? Your snake bit me. What if it had been venomous?”

Rachel came back right then and cut in.

“Nancy, a tamed snake doesn't bite. Unless you abuse it and corner it, then it strikes.”

My roommate glared at me.

“Nancy, so this is what you really are, a monster wearing a human face. You even abuse snakes. Those stray cats that died so horribly at our school, that was all you, wasn't it?”

One line from Rachel, and suddenly I was the one abusing snakes.

The dorm door was open, and the words drew a crowd fast.

“Holy crap, all those stray cats on campus skinned alive, that was you? Do you even have any humanity left?”

“Too bad the one that bit you wasn't venomous. Dying from it would've just been justice.”

I took out my phone and started recording.

“Do you have proof? If you don't, this is slander.”

Every one of them went quiet.

“We'll find the proof, and we'll get trash like you thrown out of this school.”

I didn't bother with them. I just packed my things and filed to become a day student.

That night, after I got home, my mother suddenly got a call.

“Hundreds of people bitten by venomous snakes? I'll be right there.”

She hung up and turned to me.

“Nancy, a lot of students from your school have been bitten. The hospital's short-staffed, and you know the antivenoms. Come with me.”

I nodded.

At the hospital, the lobby was full of people lying everywhere.

Luke and my classmates saw me and asked, stunned,

“Nancy, what are you doing here?”

I said coldly,

“My mother is a snakebite specialist.”

The moment they heard it, they lit up.

“Nancy, hurry, get your mom to save us!”

I shook my head.

“They can't be saved.”