Nam had never imagined that one day he would become the most famous student at Nhan Hoa High School. It seemed that nearly every student in the school, both boys and girls, would whisper and glance at him whenever he walked past.

  Nam never wanted this kind of attention. He had always been a quiet, reserved person, slightly introverted. He preferred blending into the crowd rather than standing out. In fact, Nam truly cherished the silence and peace of being an invisible presence in his old classroom.

  As a transfer student at Nhan Hoa High School under a scholarship program, Nam only wished to keep a low profile, focus on his studies, maintain his excellent academic record, and perhaps collect a few more national awards from his 11th-grade year until graduation.

  But life never gives us exactly what we want. Ever since Nam unintentionally became the first person to discover the corpse of Hoang Anh Tuan, his life had turned a new page—one that was far from ordinary.

  He still vividly remembered that morning in early September. Nam left his rented room at 6:30 AM, when the sun was already high in the sky, radiating its bright heat. After over a month of living in Nhan Hoa Town, Nam had grown accustomed to the coastal climate. The salty scent of the sea no longer bothered him.

  As he walked through a deserted street corner, he suddenly caught a faintly strange scent mixed with the ocean breeze. The smell… it was metallic, sharp—like iron.

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  Squelch…

  Nam’s shoe stepped onto something sticky. Lifting his foot, he looked down at his white-soled sneakers in shock.

  Blood… So much blood!

  Nam couldn’t believe his eyes. Just ahead of him, a 10th-grade student, Hoang Anh Tuan, lay on his back, arms spread wide like the wings of an eagle.

  Blood gushed from his throat, which had been torn open into a gruesome, gaping wound. The crimson liquid soaked his white school uniform, pooling beneath him in a dark, glistening puddle. Blood had even splattered onto the walls surrounding the alley where his body had fallen.

  Nam had never imagined that a human body could spill out so much blood.

  Tuan’s handsome face—the very face that had made so many female students swoon—was now an unnatural shade of gray. His once captivating, mysterious black eyes, framed by long lashes, had become dull and lifeless. Death had transformed the boy into something eerily beautiful, like a Greek statue, his straight nose and thin lips frozen in time.

  Hoang Anh Tuan had only enrolled in 10th grade this August, yet within a month, he had won over nearly every female student in his year with his charming smile and gentlemanly demeanor. Even girls from the 11th and 12th grades were infatuated with him. Rumor had it that a fan page dedicated to him had been created by his admirers on Facebook.

  And speaking of his heart…

  The most horrifying detail Nam noticed was the gaping hole on the left side of Tuan’s chest. His heart was missing—ripped out completely. Judging by the scattered, mangled flesh around the corpse, it had likely been crushed into an unrecognizable mess.

  Nam nearly gagged at the sight of the torn remains strewn across the ground.

  Whoever had committed this brutal, monstrous act… could not have been human.