A torrential storm destroyed the university athletic track, exposing the body that had been buried beneath the field for three long years.

The remains—rotting flesh and bones—were ghastly and terrifying.

Back then, the daughter of the university president plagiarized my thesis.

When I tried to report her, I was brutally murdered in the President’s Office.

They secretly buried me under the athletic field and lied to the world, claiming I had shamelessly tried to seduce the president for tenure promotion.

When I was “rejected,” I supposedly left in humiliation, never to be heard from again.

They masked my death with the word “disappearance.”

Because of this lie, I carried the infamy of a disgraceful woman, spat on by everyone.

My fiancé even married the president’s daughter, embracing the killer day and night.

Whenever he thought of me, he would only curse bitterly:

“Shameless whore!”

Now, with my remains unearthed, the sins buried by time could no longer be hidden.

“Ah! A body!”

A terrified scream shattered the silence of campus.

In an instant, nearly a thousand people crowded around the shattered track.

Hovering above, I quietly stared at my own corpse.

The body was curled up in a narrow pit, the clothing long decayed and fused with the soil into dark, tattered scraps.

My limbs were twisted at grotesque angles, teeth flashing white in the dirt.

In my mouth, I still clamped down on a piece of rotten fabric—proof of the agony I endured in my final moment.

The dead no longer feel pain.

Yet whenever I remembered the moment three years ago when I was brutally slaughtered, my soul trembled in the air.

“Who is it?”

“So terrifying!”

“Oh my God, we’ve been running on this track every day—and a corpse was buried underneath us? I’ll have nightmares tonight!”

Police officers, forensic pathologists, and crime scene investigators quickly arrived.

They set up a cordon, keeping away the curious crowd.

Wearing gloves, they searched carefully for evidence around the remains.

The Dean of Academic Affairs and the Head of Campus Security also rushed over, questioned by the officers.

The coroner’s initial judgment: the body belonged to a young woman, deceased for about three years.

“Has anyone gone missing at your university in the past few years?”

“Including female faculty or students?”

The two administrators exchanged nervous glances.

“N-no… not that I know of…”

“Shouldn’t… shouldn’t be anyone…”

Their evasive expressions made it clear they weren’t telling the truth.

“This is a homicide! A human life is at stake!” The officer’s tone turned stern.

Finally, the dean hesitantly admitted:

“Three years ago, a young lecturer named Emily Carter disappeared… she was twenty-seven at the time…”

“Why didn’t you report it back then?” the officer barked.

“Because Ms. Carter was already an adult, and we thought she had left on her own out of shame. This was humiliating for the school, so President Richard Miller ordered us not to publicize it… He said school scandals should not be exposed.”

The Head of Security was drenched in sweat, fumbling for excuses.

Still clinging to a shred of hope, he glanced at the remains.

“This… this might not be Emily, right?”

Just then, the forensic team picked up a damaged badge with tweezers.

“A faculty ID was found next to the body. The victim is indeed Lecturer Emily Carter.”

The Head of Security’s face turned ashen, too terrified to speak again.

Floating in the air, I sighed bitterly.

After three years, the truth of my death was finally exposed.

It was pitiful, really. My mother, Margaret, had died early.

My father, Thomas, remarried and ignored me completely.

For three whole years, he never noticed my absence, never wondered if something had happened to me.

To him, it was simply easier not to be bothered.

If the flood hadn’t destroyed the track, I might have remained underground, unknown forever.

When my name was announced, the crowd erupted in shocked exclamations.

“Ah! It’s her?”

“Wasn’t Ms. Carter the one who supposedly seduced the president for promotion? After he rejected her, she left in disgrace… yet she’s been buried under the athletic field all along?”

“Hmph! I said it back then—Ms. Carter wasn’t that kind of woman. There had to be more to her disappearance. Maybe she was killed by that son-in-law!”

“Shhh! Keep your voice down—you want to get expelled?”

“Expelled, so be it! I can’t stand that Daniel Brooks! Youngest professor? More like a wolf in sheep’s clothing!”

“It must have been him. He killed her so he could marry the president’s daughter!”

My soul drifted away, floating into the research building, to a third-floor office.

There sat my former fiancé, Daniel Brooks, appearing serious at his desk.

But just beyond the desk was a far more scandalous scene—

Vanessa Miller, the president’s daughter, hid beneath it in black stockings and high heels.

“Do you feel good, honey?”

“You little temptress, you love playing with fire! What if someone sees us? Wait until we get home—I’ll show you what happens in bed!”

Daniel pretended to scold, but his tone was playful.

“Hehe, even though we’re married now, I still think sneaking around in your office is the most exciting. Remember back when you were dating Emily? We used to sneak around like this too, back when you didn’t even have your own office. Strangers would walk in—it was such a thrill!”

As Vanessa reminisced shamelessly, Daniel’s face twisted in disgust at the mention of my name.

“Don’t bring up that shameless woman! Makes me sick!”

Overcome with desire, he grabbed Vanessa and pressed her onto the couch.

“I can’t wait until tonight—I want you right here, right now!”

But before their lust could consume them, a knock sounded at the door.

The police had arrived.

“Emily Carter is dead?”

“Her body was buried beneath the athletic field all this time?”

Both were shocked—one with genuine surprise, the other with guilty panic.

After all, it was Vanessa who had killed me.

And while Daniel hadn’t laid his hands on me directly, he was complicit.

Daniel and I had met while studying abroad in the UK. We fell in love, and I had stronger academic achievements than him. I could have stayed overseas with a promising career.

But for love, I returned to the United States with him, and we both applied for teaching positions at the university.

At first, everything seemed fine.

Until I discovered Daniel’s affair with Vanessa, then still a senior student.

Vanessa was lazy, never attending classes, spending her days partying. With her father protecting her, no professor dared fail her.

But she wanted more—graduation, a faculty position.

To make it happen, she needed forged transcripts and a polished thesis.

The easiest path was stealing an unpublished paper.

She set her sights on mine—freshly completed but not yet submitted.

When I confronted her, she wielded her father’s authority to intimidate me.

I refused to yield and threatened to report her academic fraud.

That was when Richard Miller strangled me in his office.

And together, they buried me under the athletic field.

To cover their crime, they spread lies—claiming I had tried to seduce the president for tenure, then disappeared in shame.

Three years passed in a blur.

With my stolen thesis, Vanessa secured a faculty position.

Her true motive for killing me wasn’t only plagiarism—it was also to steal Daniel away.

Now they were married.

With his father-in-law’s support, Daniel was promoted to Associate Professor, the youngest in the entire university, basking in his undeserved glory.

Behind his back, however, colleagues sneered, calling him “a shameless opportunist” and “a kept man.”

The adulterous pair arrived at the scene where my body had been found.

Vanessa, guilty and fearful, dared not approach.

Daniel stepped closer, took one look at my remains—and vomited violently.

“Professor Brooks, we heard you and the victim were once engaged. What was your relationship like?”

“The victim disappeared three years ago. Why didn’t you report it? Instead, you married someone else?”

“Now that Emily Carter’s body has been discovered, what do you have to say?”

The officers fired questions relentlessly, suspicion thick in their voices.

In many past cases, when one partner is murdered, the other is often the prime suspect.

Naturally, Daniel was at the top of their list.

Hearing the implication, Daniel erupted like a wronged man in an old tragedy.

“What do you mean? You suspect me? You think I could kill someone?”

“I’m a PhD who studied abroad!”

“I’m an intellectual! This is an insult to my integrity!”

“I don’t know why Emily died, but it has nothing to do with me! I always thought she had just disappeared!”

“Besides, our relationship was already strained before she vanished. She was too sensitive, always paranoid—it exhausted me! Since when is breaking up a crime?”

Vanessa joined in, feigning outrage.

“Yeah! Are you trying to pin this crime on us just because you can’t solve it?”

“That bitch’s death has nothing to do with Daniel!”

“They were already breaking up! I wasn’t some mistress—we were in a real relationship!”

But she was lying.

She had known all along, shameless and vile.

“That woman wanted tenure and tried to sleep with my dad. He rejected her, and she stormed out. Who knows if she had some secret lover outside? Maybe she was killed during an affair!”

“Oh, and three years ago, the athletic field was under renovation. A lot of construction workers were there. Those men were desperate, you know—maybe they did it! Used her, killed her, then buried her!”

Having regained her composure, Vanessa worked hard to clear her name and mislead the investigation.

Back then, when father and daughter decided to bury me under the track, it was partly because the site was hidden and safer than disposing of my body elsewhere.

But also because, if suspicion ever arose, they could blame the transient construction workers.

Those laborers were hard to track, often moving across the country with incomplete records.

The police could never realistically identify each one.

Without concrete evidence, the officers could only question them routinely.

Just as they were about to take my remains to the forensic center for further autopsy, a furious shout pierced the air.

“You bastard! You killed Ms. Carter!”

“You heartless traitor!”

A handsome young man broke through the crowd and punched Daniel squarely in the nose.