Gilded Tears

In the iron grip of a global trafficking ring, sixteen-year-old Lian is plucked from a dying village and thrust into an elite urban academy that masks a brutal selection floor. When her only friend is murdered, Lian stages a desperate act of public grief — cradling the body in the hallowed hall, daring the shadowy Chancellor to silence her. He spares her, not out of mercy, but because killing a mourner would crack the school's porcelain facade. Now trapped inside a gilded cage where lessons conceal auction rosters, Lian must weaponize her trauma and navigate a labyrinth of student collaborators, corrupt guardians, and blood‑soaked loyalty tests. Every classroom is a rehearsal for the adult world’s darkest commerce. On the razor’s edge between survival and rebellion, she discovers that the only way out is to burn the script from within.