Chapter 2 — The Watch of Retribution

She must have taken it on a whim. At first, perhaps her only intention was to frame me as a thief. But she could never have anticipated that the watch would be so exorbitantly expensive, directly pushing me to the absolute edge of despair.

I felt the hard rectangular shape hidden beneath my pillow. Slipping my hand in, I retrieved my phone and quietly launched the hidden security camera application. Every single second of what had just transpired in the dorm room had been successfully recorded. I immediately initiated a cloud backup. Combined with the digital copy of the ledger video I had secured earlier, I set everything to transmit automatically to multiple external repositories.

Once the confirmation prompts flashed green, signaling a successful transfer, I finally closed my eyes. Little Lily, let us see how you manage to escape destruction this time around.

The following morning, the moment the formations were assembled, the atmosphere on the grounds felt profoundly wrong. Lead Coach Aaron stood atop the elevated platform with a face as dark as a gathering storm, while several assistant coaches murmured anxiously among themselves a few paces away. The academic counselor hurried over, sweat pouring profusely down her temples, her complexion rendered a terrifying, ghostly pale.

"Attention everyone! Fall in!"

Aaron’s voice boomed fiercely through the loudspeaker, plunging the entire parade ground into an instantaneous, suffocating silence.

"My watch has been stolen from the locker room."

His gaze swept across the assembled rows like a whetted blade. "That watch is valued at two million six hundred thousand."

The crowd erupted in an instant. A collective intake of sharp breaths rippled through the ranks. Two million six hundred thousand. This was no petty theft; this was a major criminal offense carrying a guaranteed prison sentence.

"I have already reviewed the security footage. Last night, only a select few individuals passed near that building."

Aaron’s eyes turned glacial. "As of this moment, the entire campus is sealed. We will be conducting a thorough, unannounced dormitory inspection. Until these results are made public, no one is permitted to leave the grounds."

The counselor, accompanied by a handful of coaches, immediately sprinted toward the residential blocks. The waiting that followed was agonizingly protracted. The sun climbed steadily higher in the sky, and the parade ground remained so dead silent that the rhythmic breathing of the neighboring classes could be plainly heard.

Roughly an hour later, the counselor came running back, gasping heavily for air, clutching a transparent evidence bag in her trembling hand. Inside the bag rested a luxury timepiece, glinting coldly under the sunlight. Aaron snatched the bag from her grip, his expression so grim it seemed water could be wrung from it.

"Where was it found?"

The counselor wiped her brow with the back of her hand, then slowly raised her arm, pointing a trembling finger directly at me.

"Underneath Chloe’s pillow in dormitory three hundred and two."

The parade ground fell into a profound, absolute deathly hush. Then, an uproar of deafening proportions exploded.

"Good god, it was actually her!"

"She was just disciplined by the coaches yesterday, and today she steals his watch? Is this some kind of unhinged revenge?"

"Has she gone utterly insane with poverty? Over two million, and she actually had the audacity to touch it!"

"I always said she didn't look like a decent person from the very beginning."

Little Lily covered her mouth in feigned shock, stumbling backward out of the formation as if unable to believe her own eyes and ears.

"Chloe... how could it possibly be you?"

"No matter how desperate you are for money, you simply cannot resort to such despicable crimes..."

The utter disbelief in her eyes, the profound heartache etched across her features—her performance was so flawless it belonged on a stage. Victoria immediately stepped forward to corroborate the narrative.

"Coach! We can personally vouch for this!"

"Late last night, with our own eyes, we saw Chloe slip down from her bed and stealthily sneak out of the dormitory!"

She paused for dramatic effect, her throat bobbing as she swallowed. "When she returned... she was clutching something that flickered brightly in her hand."

Ruby nodded frantically beside her. "Yes, yes, exactly! At the time, we thought she was just holding her phone, but we never imagined it was the instructor's watch!"

I stood rooted to the spot, listening to their rehearsed accusations pouring down upon me like blocks of melting ice. The academic counselor lunged forward, grabbing my arm so hard her fingernails dug deep into my flesh.

"Chloe! You have disappointed me beyond words!"

"How on earth did our academy end up harboring a student of such utterly depraved moral character?"

"I have already notified your parents. They are on their way here right now!"

A deafening roar echoed inside my head. My parents. In my past life, it was precisely this phone call that they received. They had driven through the dead of night to reach the school, only to encounter a catastrophic collision on the highway.

I violently wrenched my arm free from the counselor’s grip. "Do not call my parents!" I screamed. "I did not steal anything!"

"You still dare to fabricate excuses?!"

Aaron strode forward until he was towering directly over me. His gaze was fixed on my face as though he were looking at a pile of municipal refuse.

"The stolen item was recovered straight from your bed, and your roommates witnessed your actions firsthand. What else could you possibly say in your defense?"

"A malicious, venomous woman like you is nothing short of a public disaster."

He turned his head toward the counselor. "Expel her immediately and hand her over to the police. I want her to rot behind bars until her bones wither away."

Flashes erupted all around us as numerous onlookers raised their phones to capture the spectacle.

"I have already told you, I did not steal it!" I thrust my hand into my pocket. "I have undeniable proof! Inside my dorm room, there is a hidden—"

Before the sentence could leave my lips, Little Lily suddenly lunged forward, wrapping her arms tightly around my waist.

"Chloe! Please, stop agitating yourself!"

"Just kneel down and beg the coach for forgiveness now! Maybe you can still plead for leniency through proper channels!"

She wept with such heart-rending devastation, yet her fingers clamped down mercilessly upon my wrists, her sharp nails piercing deeper into my skin. The sudden wave of pain forced me to instinctively loosen my grip.

My phone slipped from my fingers, tracing an arc through the air before landing with a sharp slap directly into a half-filled bucket of filthy mop water that the custodian had left nearby. The screen flickered once and went permanently black.

Little Lily gasped aloud. "Oh! Chloe, I am so sorry, I truly did not mean to..."

She covered her mouth with her hand, but deep within the corners of her eyes, a flash of frantic, triumphant glee flickered brightly.

Aaron looked down at me from his elevated height, the corners of his mouth curling upward into a cruel, mocking sneer.

"What is the matter?" he asked coldly. "Intent on destroying the evidence?"

"Chloe, your pathetic little parlor tricks are utterly worthless in my presence."

He flicked his wrist dismissively. "Call the authorities. Take her away."

Several male students from the student union lunged forward, seizing my arms and violently twisting them behind my back. A wave of sharp agony tore through my shoulders as I was forcefully shoved down to kneel upon the red synthetic running track.