Aotu World: Everyone Suspects I’m Pretending to Be Obedient

Starstruck Pretenses: Her Lies Wreathed in Rose Thorns On the first day the blonde girl A Rui Xing set foot in Aotu Academy, she knew she didn't belong beneath its gilded domes. Her canvas bag was fraying at the seams, yet when An Muxiu steadied her, her sleeve acquired just the right hint of cedar. Her lunch was hard, dry rye bread, but she smiled as she arranged the star-shaped gummies Jin had given her into the shape of a galaxy. She couldn't afford the club fee, but when Lei Shi's motorcycle roared by, she "accidentally" dropped a rusty gear, earning a question over the wind from the back seat: "Hey, want to learn how to fix an engine?" Everyone thought it was a perfect performance. An Muxiu remembered how pale her lips looked when she was anemic, not knowing the color came from lipstick mixed with pearl powder. Every problem Ge Rui solved for her concealed a carefully engineered 0.3-second window for eye contact. On the backs of the seventeen challenge letters Jia De Luo Si tore up, she'd drawn tiny crowns in chili oil. Then Kai Li's lollipop flicked off her third pair of colored contacts, and starlight burst from behind the shattered lenses. "Little liar." The witch's laugh was sweet as poisoned honey. "For whom are the real stars in your eyes shining?" As all the lies began to resonate... A Rui Xing lifted her face beneath the rose window and let the true starlight burn through every disguise. "Are you going to pass judgment on this poor girl from the slums, whose mouth is full of lies? Or..." She crushed her last pair of contacts, letting starlight spill like a galaxy. "Will you dance with me at this decadent masquerade?" "Every bit of pity you gave me was a trap whose radius I measured in advance." "I just want to survive."