"I have Mandarin and Classical Chinese and Korean and I can read anything that uses hanzi and I'm the fastest in my school." She's not unprepared. She's not-- the people with the very shiny enchanted clothes, or anything, but she wasn't stupid, she worked for her slot, she's not-- she has a chance she has to have a chance she has to believe she has a chance--

She's absolutely doomed. 

"...you're very pretty and they already think you're a whore, I'd suggest making use of it to find someone to protect you. Other freshmen won't want much beyond kissing but if you can handle sex a junior is better. Enclaver if you can, they have more spare resources to throw your way. Don't have PIV, if you get pregnant you'll probably die. --I don't suppose your idol mom taught you to do plumbing."

"I'm not a--"

Meng Yao is really really tired of people who are outraged by the prospect that they might be his mom.

"I suggest you get over that. You can't really afford to have scruples in here."

Sun Lei bites down, hard, on her tongue.

"I. Yes. Thank you gege."

"Do you know what your affinity is?"

"...no. Should I?" 

"Everyone with a chance of survival had their parents hire a diviner when they were eight to figure it out and they've been spending the past six years figuring out how to best use it to stay alive."

She cannot cry. She cannot cry in public, she cannot be someone who cries in public. 

"Then," she says, and her voice is not shaking, because she cannot be someone who cries in public, she is not Nie Huaisang of Shanghai, "I guess I'll have to figure it out fast." 

"I ended up on Shanghai's maintenance track because our apartment was crap and our landlord didn't care so I've been fixing things since I was seven years old. And then from there a Shanghai enclaver took an interest in me and-- I could have survived even without Lan Xichen falling in love with me. But it's the useful skills that matter. And the magic, and the wealth, and the connections."