“Have you done anything recently that might have made soone hate you?” Rebecca asked.
“Anything?”
Everly thought carefully. Her daily routine was very orderly: classes, then tennis, and the rest of the ti mostly in the library. Nothing seed particularly out of the ordinary… Wait—actually, maybe there was sothing?
“I refused a boy’s confession today… could it be that he’s so full of hate born from love, embarrassed by rejection, that he cursed to be disfigured?” Everly paused at the thought, then quickly dismissed it. “That doesn’t seem likely. Edward isn’t short of admirers. He doesn’t have deep feelings for —he just thought we matched well, so he picked . Even if I refused, he’d only feel a little regret, then quickly move on to the next girlfriend.”
Many of the student couples around Everly followed this pattern. They weren’t deeply in love; they just thought dating was fashionable, and the current partner happened to fit their image, making them look trendy. So naturally, they got together… Simply put, it was like fast food: quick to match, filling, but not very nourishing.
Soone like Edward would never harbor a grudge over a single refusal, let alone try to harm her appearance. Besides, a Monkey’s Paw can only grant three wishes. Unless soone truly hated her, no one would waste a wish on such a trivial matter.
“Could it be a girl who secretly likes Edward?” Misha suggested. “You might not have realized it, but your rejection of Edward probably spread across the school very quickly. Edward has a ton of female fans, maybe one of them is twisted enough to hate you for it and made a wish to disfigure you.”
Misha’s reminder made Everly’s mind click.
That made sense. Edward wouldn’t hate her, but it was entirely possible that one of the obsessive girls who adored the school heartthrob would see her as a thorn in their side. After all, when she thought carefully, the only thing she’d done recently that could provoke resentnt was refusing Edward’s confession.
However, even if she narrowed the suspicion to Edward’s female fans, it didn’t reduce the list by much. Edward was so popular at school that the girls who liked him could form a line stretching from the school gate all the way to the classroom building.
“Do you expect to make a list and eliminate them one by one?”
“There’s no need for that. You know, no wish in this world cos without a price. Even with the Monkey’s Paw, fulfilling a wish always requires paynt—anger, pain, sorrow, despair, or other such emotions. Often, these things are already produced when the wish is granted; they’re just side effects of those disgusting desires. But unfortunately, this ti it encountered you.”
At this, Rebecca proudly raised a finger and pointed straight at the tip of Everly’s nose. “Honestly, you were completely unexpected. Not only did you see through the monkey spirit’s trick, but you even used the drear’s identity to turn the attack back on it. Truly worthy of being my apprentice! The first wish wasn’t completed, and the monkey spirit got hurt. I think it won’t let this slide—it might even try to take revenge on its owner. When you return to school, check carefully if anyone has scratch marks on their face. If you find any, that might be the person who cursed you.”
“Is that so?”
“I think it’s very likely.”
“That’s great.”
Everly was eager to know exactly who was behind her misfortune.
Although it looked like she easily chased the ape away in the dream, the situation had actually been extrely dangerous. If she had been missing even a few of the protective items on her bed, if the ape’s power hadn’t been weakened, or if her mind had been a little foggy and she hadn’t realized the attack was happening in the dream, then if Everly believed the facial injuries were real, her body would have manifested the sa wounds upon waking. That’s the terrifying power of ntal assaults.
Anyone who dares bully her like that is going to get a fist to the face once she finds them!
Of course, considering the wisher still had the Monkey’s Paw, Everly didn’t plan on confronting them directly before the three wishes were used. Otherwise, if they got angry and spent the remaining two wishes on her, she’d be in serious trouble.
So, the next day, Everly simply took a sick day and didn’t go to school.
She wanted to keep a low profile, hoping the Monkey’s Paw’s owner would focus their attention elsewhere. Conveniently, a few days ago, Rebecca had gotten so interesting items from a smuggler from Xia Nation who had recently co to the U.S., and one of them—a shadow puppet effect—was especially intriguing. Everly planned to visit Rebecca’s shop, spend a few days playing there, and have Rebecca help protect her at the sa ti.
As for school matters, Everly fully entrusted them to Misha.
Misha was a talkative girl, bright and confident in appearance, with a wide circle of friends and excellent connections. She was also good friends with the president of the school news club. After only a single day at school, she had already gathered useful intelligence. Bursting into the house, she grabbed Everly’s hand excitedly and told her that the owner of the Monkey’s Paw had already been identified.
“Trust , it’s definitely Jessica!”
“Jessica? You an that Jessica?”
Misha nodded. “Exactly the one you’re thinking of, the remarkable Jessica who even forced our ‘Ice Queen’ to move out of the dorm. After school today, I went to the news club and asked a few friends about any recent incidents. One tenth-grade classmate told that their classmate, Jessica Brown, had spent the night in the dorm. This morning, she woke up with four deep scratches on her face, and disgusting pustules had ford around them. The dorm supervisor imdiately took Jessica to the hospital. Strangely, when asked if a wild animal had entered the dorm and caused the scratches, Jessica denied it—she claid that you had injured her.”
Everly’s eyes widened. “?!”
Misha, clearly speechless, spoke with a slightly sarcastic tone: “I think she hates you imnsely. At first, she refused to give up her ‘dark magic’ experints in the dorm—probably partly to gross you out on purpose. After you were forced to move out, she got insanely jealous when Edward confessed to you, and didn’t even hesitate to use the Monkey’s Paw to curse your face… Luckily, you’d already moved out, so you have an alibi. Otherwise, if she accused you like that, the dorm supervisor might actually have suspected you.”
“But why does she hate ?!”
Everly felt utterly wronged.
She could swear to the heavens that she had never been rude to Jessica in any way. Even when she tried to persuade Jessica to stop her superstitious activities, she did it gently, careful not to hurt Jessica’s fragile feelings.
Misha shrugged. “Maybe it’s because you’re smart, good-looking, and popular among classmates. That’s enough to make soone jealous.”
“Just that?”
“Mm-hmm. That’s plenty. You know, sotis you don’t need a real reason to hate soone.”
“…”
Well, Misha was right.
Everly decided to stop overthinking and focus on other matters. “Is Jessica in the hospital now? How’s her face—any chance of recovery? Do you think she might use the second wish to fix her injuries?”
Misha shook her head. “I don’t know. It was too late when I asked my friends, so I just went straight ho… If you want, I can go with the news club friends tomorrow when they interview Jessica.”
“Huh?”
“You see, ‘Unknown Beast Appears in School Dorm, Scratches Girl’s Face’—isn’t that huge news? The dorms are old and falling apart, and students have been calling for renovations for ages. Now, Jessica’s attack is the perfect excuse to get the administration to pay attention to improving the dorms. So the news club friends are rubbing their hands in anticipation, they want to make this a big feature for the school newspaper and put it on the front page! They’re going to the hospital to interview her tomorrow. Since Jessica doesn’t know , I can go check things out for you.”
Everly thought about it and realized it was a good idea.
For various reasons, her staying at Misha’s house had been kept quiet. At school, they were like any other classmates, rarely interacting, so no one knew that Misha was her close friend. But—
“Jessica still has the Monkey’s Paw, so just in case, take these with you.” While saying this, Everly opened her backpack and pulled out several new items she had just gotten from Rebecca.
“Okay, I’ll be careful.” Influenced by Everly, Misha was also cautious by nature. She didn’t refuse, accepting the protective charms and talismans Everly handed her.
…
The next day, Everly anxiously waited at ho until nightfall. When the streetlights ca on, Misha finally arrived, dragging her tired body out of the taxi.
Thank goodness, Misha looked fine—she hadn’t suffered any harm.
“You won’t guess what happened to today!” Seeing Everly waiting outside, Misha ran up, grabbed her hand, and practically bubbled with excitent and gossip.
“Hey, girls, dinner’s ready. If you want to share stories, why don’t you do it at the table? If you don’t mind, you can even bring and your Grandpa Georgia, we’re both curious about what happens next,” said Grandma Marianne cheerfully.
“Oh, dear Grandma, of course we don’t mind,” Misha said, letting go of Everly and leaning forward to plant a sweet kiss on her grandparents’ foreheads.
And so, the conversation moved from outside to the dining table.
Misha had left for the hospital after school in the afternoon with her friends from the news club.
She posed as a photography assistant, sticking close to the classmate handling the cara. Together with two others, the group of four drove to the hospital and, following the information given by their teacher, located Jessica’s hospital room.
Jessica, at that ti, was throwing a fit.
The doctors examined her scratches and tested the pus from the infected blisters around them. They told Jessica that the blisters were just a fungal infection, easily treatable, but the scratches on her face were so deep that even the most skilled doctor might leave scars. If she cared about that, she could consult a plastic surgeon for better solutions.
Jessica couldn’t accept the possibility of being disfigured. Once the doctors left, she kicked her parents out of the room and raged, throwing the bed sheets, blankets, and pillows to the floor, knocking over cabinets, yanking down the curtains, and stomping on them in a frenzy.
Snap! The news club mbers happened to arrive at the hospital room door at that exact mont. Peering through the wide-open doorway, they saw the scene. The mischievous photography classmate couldn’t resist raising the cara and snapping pictures of Jessica in full fury.
Misha was stunned by her classmate’s audacity. She shrank back quietly into the crowd.
It quickly beca clear that Jessica cared a great deal about her image. One mont she raged like an angry lioness on the prairie, and the next, when she glanced outside in the direction of her classmates, led by Leo, Jessica instantly suppressed her anger. Clearing her throat, she turned to the four students outside and gave them a grim smile, distorted slightly by the scars on her face.
“What are you doing here… are you visiting ?”
Leo, embarrassed to admit the real reason, nodded sheepishly.
“Thank you, co on in,” Jessica said.
Receiving their affirmation, she looked unusually delighted, repeatedly inviting her classmates inside. Only Misha, walking last, noticed that when Jessica’s gaze swept over her parents cautiously standing outside the door, her originally gentle expression suddenly turned fierce and ruthless.
“Mom, Dad, why are you just standing out there? Co in too,” she urged in a sweet, cloying tone that sharply contrasted with her true expression.
“Ah… okay,” her parents, who seed timid and hesitant from outside, exchanged a glance and stepped into the hospital room.
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