...

A month has passed since that night, and as usual, the girl stayed in the classroom to read while her classmates left one by one as the night grew darker.

Again, she was the only one left. She lifted her gaze from the page, contemplating whether to go back early because the previous event left her scared to be alone in the classroom.

At this moment, a muffled sound came from the corridor outside the window, mixed with some sort of shout, but unfortunately, it was too brief to expand before being suppressed.

What happened? The girl stood up, wanting to go outside and see, but recalling what happened a month ago, her feet stayed welded to the ground.

At this moment, a sound of arguing came through.

"Feng Xiang, you!" The voice sounded gritty, mixed with fear.

Then came the sharp sound of a slap, distinctly audible even inside the classroom.

"You actually brought people from another school—" Before the sentence finished, another slap cut it off.

At this moment, the girl finally summoned the courage and quietly moved her feet, peeking her head out of the classroom to find the source of the sound, and finally, saw several people gathered in a dead corner of the corridor, led by Feng Xiang.

Unlike before, Feng Xiang now stood amongst several unfamiliar figures, whose attire indicated they were not students from this school, some were even societal people.

The person who used to bully Feng Xiang now slumped on the ground, bloodied at the mouth and with two red handprints on the face.

She tried to get up and resist, but the attacking group wouldn't tolerate it, directly kicking her over to the ground, with one dyed-hair girl dragging her by the hair and throwing her to the corner of the wall.

"Sure enough, a piece of trash." Someone jeered and cursed.

Then various foul words came out, those lowbrow descriptions made the girl lying on the ground turn pale; she indeed bullied Feng Xiang, but facing even more rogue outsiders, there was only fear and unease left.

"Don't just look at her current state, Feng Xiang, don't be soft-hearted."

"If you let her find a chance, she will only intensify revenge, being soft is useless, take photos and identity shots, put them online for everyone to witness."

Watching this scene from afar, the girl wanted to say it was wrong, but fear heavily shackled her, making her unable to move, just like that night when she didn't dare to step out the classroom door to save Feng Xiang.

Everything seemed like a reenactment of last time, except this time the main characters switched.

Two hours later, only then did the crowd gradually disperse; they certainly noticed the girl hiding by the classroom door, but they didn't bother her, merely smiled and swaggered off.

After everything ended, Feng Xiang returned to the classroom to get her things, and now that they were alone, the girl finally had the chance to inquire about those people's identities.

"Them...," Feng Xiang inserted her fingers into her short hair, smoothing it a bit, then rolled her eyes towards the girl.

"They are my companions, we are all followers of Lord Hexia."

"Lord Hexia?" The girl was astonished; how could it be, Lord Hexia is such a noble songstress, how could she be associated with such people.

"Hah, you really know nothing about the outside world." Feng Xiang walked past the girl, her fingers gripping her shoulder, the tip slightly sinking into the flesh, causing the girl a bit of pain.

"Just like an ignorant little bunny, seemingly innocent yet actually complicit." She whispered by the girl's ear, piercing the spot in the girl's heart she feared most.

"Oh right, I hit the mark."

"You know, every time you greet me, that false-friendly look disgusts me."

"You know everything, yet pretend not to; you are cowardly but want to show an appearance of kindness to outsiders, fulfilling your hypocritical good conscience. You just want to be a goody-goody in everyone's eyes, with no desire to bear responsibility and pressure."

"I..." The girl's face turned pale, feeling more uneasy and panicked than ever.

"It's fine, I won't hit you, just expressing the thoughts hidden deep in my heart." Feng Xiang lowered her hand, walked past the girl.

"Where are you going?" As Feng Xiang prepared to leave the classroom, the girl pursued with a question.

"Oh, do I need to tell you?" Feng Xiang laughed, then suddenly lifted her head.

"You're curious, aren't you." She didn't just leave, but turned back.

"Almost forgot, we used to live quite close, and used to be grade school classmates."

"Want to come along? See what life I'm actually living, and where those people come from, hehe." Feng Xiang's words were like a devil's jest.

"Don't refuse, even though we've spoken less now, I still understand you; in truth, you admire Lord Hexia quite a bit, because her experiences resonate with many of ours."

"Come on, tonight I'll take you to see for yourself." Pulling the girl's schoolbag abruptly, Feng Xiang half-forcedly led her out of the classroom.

Half an hour later, the two stepped out of the hover car, here was a corner of the city, but there were no bright lights around, seemingly a deliberately crafted dark environment.

Various people wearing eccentric outfits, with avant-garde styles gathered here, some playing electromagnetic skateboards, racing back and forth between buildings, others wielding fluorescent blades, competing in battle grounds to the cheers and screams surrounding them, while some young kids played card duels excitedly beside them, and on a distant abandoned metal dais, a group of vested individuals beat drums, played guitars, singing rock songs. If you listened carefully, you'd find these few songs were all adapted from Hexia's album.

Compared to the glamour under the spotlight, these people seemed to prefer such a dark carnival and release, discarded beverage cans and bottles littered everywhere, some using spray paint graffitiing 'sayings' on walls and floors, while others tattooed symbols of the Night Flower on their bodies, or printed outlines of black moon and black wings on their backs.

If it were merely these, they could only be called a gathering for celebration, but as police cars arrived with rotating lights and issued warnings, these people didn't leave, instead, they became even more excited, as if they found their life's meaning at this moment; some began hurling bottles at the squad cars, then lighting them on fire, spreading flames, others tore open their fluorescent blue and bright purple jackets, pulling out twin daggers from their waists, one blade inscribed with bright yellow 'Hexia', the other with emerald green 'Tilan', brandishing them brightly in the night, drawing cheers and applause.

Then these few rushed forward regardless, hacking down those airborne Riot Control Units, this process was recorded by many on-site with personal terminals, earning cheers of approval. Faced with such an scene, the police were overwhelmed with pressure, firing warning shots, but couldn't really shoot, as they had learned their lesson long ago.

Once shots are fired, the next day various media report on it, saying police injured 'Hexia fans', which is slander and suppression of the renowned songstress of the Four-leaf Crystal Star Domain and even the Southern Star Zone.

Especially in the Four-leaf Crystal Star Domain, because Hexia's lead in the environmental revival movement led to economic growth year after year within the Star Domain, this improvement made 'Hexia' a politically correct figure, spreading any defamation and blemish would attract massive attacks.

"Are you still a resident of the Four-leaf Crystal Star Domain?"

"Do you still deserve to dine at the Jade Skirt?"

"Breathing the air on this planet, what right do you have to criticize that lord?"

"I'm a fan and follower of 'Lord Hexia', do you look down on us?"

Through consecutive questioning, most people didn't dare to openly oppose, and the result is more and more people claiming to be admirers and followers of 'Hexia', wanting to resist all oppression, injustice, and tyranny, employing various means without reservation.

This cool and flamboyant behavior is rapidly expanding among the night owl groups, now within the Four-leaf Crystal Star Domain, any member of this circle, nine out of ten would declare themselves as loyal disciples of the songstress Hexia, holding Hexia's albums, photos, copied quotes, and what they deemed as destined dark-themed songs.

This is simply the coolest, compared to those pretentious sweet songstresses, only such 'real' and 'similarly originated' dark songstress can become their faith.

Since we are all fans of that songstress, naturally gathering together to showcase the reason of our existence, and nobody dares to meddle with us anymore. This is resistance, this is freedom, this is the absolutely beautiful flower birthed in the darkness!