The spotlight burns like acid on my skin. Thirty years of filth, hunger, and spit couldn’t prepare me for this glare.\n\nChains rattle on my wrists, not because I’m dangerous—but because they want the world to see me as a beast. Above me, a massive screen flickers with my brainwave scan, pulsing red with 'EMOTIONAL SUPPRESSION DETECTED.' My siblings sit in the VIP gallery, dressed in power suits, their faces carved from ice.\n\n'Begin memory extraction,' says Liang Wei, my brother, the prosecutor. The needle pierces my temple. A flood of images erupts on screen: blood on the floor, my father whispering, 'Let her take the blame… save them…'\n\nThe crowd gasps. My sister Mei Lin stands, trembling. 'Stop the feed!' she shouts. But it’s too late. The truth is already bleeding into the light.\n\nThe judge leans forward. 'Do you still deny your crimes, Shen Xia?'