Chapter 19

“3.97 meters,” said a student wearing a red volunteer armband on their left arm.

Did that really fly that far?

Before the measurement was even taken, the physical education teacher and the surrounding students all thought Yan Ning’s jump was much farther than the previous few girls. They didn’t expect it to almost reach four meters, and she was doing a one-legged jump.

As the people around her looked at Yan Ning again, their expressions reflected surprise, almost as if they were looking at a monster.

She completed the jump in front of everyone, giving up one leg, and the girl who had initially started the conversation with her flushed red in the face, unable to say another word.

“Yes! Yes!!” Chen Kai pumped his fists in the air, as if he had won an important competition.

Yan Ning remained the same—calm and good-natured. “This jump’s over, let’s go.”

“Didn’t expect it, you’re actually pretty impressive,” Chen Kai said, walking side by side with Yan Ning toward their class’s area. His tone suddenly became more familiar.

Yan Ning smiled. “My physical stamina is pretty good, these kinds of sports events aren’t much of a problem.”

What she didn’t mention was that her stamina wasn’t just “pretty good”—even among people her age, there were probably few who had more endurance than she did. She was strong in more ways than one, but most of her skills and strengths had no practical use on Earth, or rather, for her current identity.

An ordinary middle schooler repeating a grade—that was her current identity.

Back in the seventh-grade Class 5 area, Qiao Yingxue and Zhao Xiaolu gathered around to ask about the competition results. Yan Ning briefly explained, and both of them felt relieved.

Qiao Yingxue suddenly said, “Ningning, let’s go.”

“Huh? Where to?”

“Let’s practice the performance. You don’t have much time left. The 50-meter and 800-meter events are tomorrow.”

“Didn’t they say we can’t leave?”

“Ningning, you’re so rule-abiding. You participated in the competition, and since the situation was special, I asked the homeroom teacher for leave, and she approved it right away,” Qiao Yingxue said, pulling her up.

Zhao Xiaolu, being the class leader, couldn’t leave early.

Yan Ning and Qiao Yingxue packed up their things and walked from behind the crowd. They made their way around the playground and prepared to exit the school gate through the small playground next to the cafeteria.

As they passed by the high school section, Yan Ning immediately spotted Lu Fengfeng sitting in the last row. Without even seeing his full face, she could tell it was him.

Yan Ning walked over and gently tapped him on the shoulder.

Lu Fengfeng turned around, and when he saw her, a smile immediately appeared on his face. Seeing her with her bag on her back, he quickly understood. “Are you going to practice now?”

Yan Ning nodded and quietly asked, “Can you sneak out?”

Lu Fengfeng nodded. “You guys go ahead, wait for me at the school gate.”

Yan Ning gave an “OK” sign with her hand and continued walking with Qiao Yingxue.

Their meeting was low-key enough, but they didn’t avoid others.

Yan Wan, who had just returned from buying water for Chen Xiaoi, saw Yan Ning talking to a boy and leaving the school with her bag on her back, looking thoughtful.

—

“Ningning, is he the other person you were talking about?” Qiao Yingxue asked.

“Yeah, I thought his image and temperament matched what I had in mind, so I asked him, and he was willing to help.”

“Because you mentioned it yesterday, I did some checking. It seems he broke up with Chen Nuan.” Qiao Yingxue hesitated for a few seconds but decided to say it for Yan Ning’s sake.

“Broke up? Well, that’s normal,” Yan Ning responded calmly after processing the information.

Thinking back to the two times she had encountered Lu Fengfeng, Yan Ning subconsciously felt that breakups might be a normal part of his life. However, she didn’t give it much thought. She had never considered romance and would never interfere with others enjoying the process of being in love.

Perhaps, he also had reasons that others didn’t know about.

Just like her.

Qiao Yingxue noticed that Yan Ning hadn’t responded and grew a little anxious, so she clarified further: “I heard that ever since he transferred to Minghua, his girlfriends have changed one after another, almost every week. The one who stayed the longest was a girl from his grade, and they were together for nine days—less than ten days. After each breakup, he immediately started dating someone new, to the point where every one of his ex-girlfriends holds a grudge against him.”

“That’s pretty impressive,” Yan Ning said, her tone not mocking, simply not taking it to heart.

Qiao Yingxue didn’t expect Yan Ning to be so oblivious.

【Maybe you’re his next target!】

She couldn’t bring herself to say it.

Qiao Yingxue decided to observe Lu Fengfeng more during the practice. If he really had intentions toward Yan Ning, even if it meant dealing with the awkwardness of revealing it, she would protect Yan Ning.

—

Yan Ning remained oblivious. After waiting at the school gate for a few minutes, Lu Fengfeng came out.

The three of them headed to the dance classroom together.

Once they arrived, Yan Ning immediately took out three sets of documents from her bag. “I’ve listed the storyline and the characteristics of the three characters. You can look over it first. After going through it, if everything looks good, we’ll start practicing.”

The performance Yan Ning wanted to create resembled a stage play in form, but the story was short, more like a music video mini-story.

Her approach was to move people with emotions. She had carefully thought about the theme of “beauty” and, from thousands of images and countless memories, selected and distilled the moments that still made her happy, sad, and passionate every time she thought of them. She would break down and reconstruct these trivial, yet personal, moments into a story.

“Is there any problem?” Yan Ning sensed Lu Fengfeng’s gaze on her.

“Hmm, one question: is there no romantic line between the male and female leads in the story?” Lu Fengfeng pointed to the character he would play—the male lead—and the female lead, which was the role Yan Ning would portray.

Actually, he referred to himself as the male lead because there were only three characters in total. Yan Ning’s character was the female lead, Qiao Yingxue was the second female lead, and by default, he became the only male lead.

“Hmm, their relationship is one of ruler and subject, with no other entanglements,” Yan Ning explained.

“I’d like to give some personal advice,” Lu Fengfeng said. “If the goal is this competition, I think adding a romantic subplot in addition to the ruler-subject relationship would resonate better with the audience.”

“Why? I think the loyalty of the female lead to the male lead is enough to capture attention,” Yan Ning said, puzzled.

Lu Fengfeng sighed quietly, “It’s too thin. Complex emotions create complicated situations, and everyone empathizes with different points. It’s like some people like mint candy, some like strawberry candy, and some like durian candy. If you only offer mint, those who prefer strawberry or durian won’t stop for you.”

“But even if you buy every flavor of candy and put them all together, there are still people who don’t like candy at all. In my mind, mint candy is the best in the world. I just want mint,” Yan Ning said.

“Pfft—” Lu Fengfeng couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He hadn’t expected the usually wooden Yan Ning to say something so cute.

Lu Fengfeng’s impression of Yan Ning could be summed up in four words: “wooden beauty.”

The first time they met under the cherry blossom tree, a glance turned his head. Her rare air of elegance made him take notice. But from then on, every encounter, one after another, made him feel that Yan Ning was well-behaved, gentle, but lacking in personality.

She reminded him of his first girlfriend after he transferred to Minghua, the one who was rumored to have stayed with him the longest.

A typical, reserved, obedient girl—neither outstanding nor completely transparent, gentle yet without distinctive features.

Lu Fengfeng had never met such a girl before, so he was extremely curious.

They were together for nine days. At first, his curiosity grew, but as time went on, the relationship became more and more mundane, until his heart started to feel empty.

But then, that girl did something that surprised him—she cheated on him with a boy from the class next door, and then dumped him.

He had thought that Yan Ning was similar to her. He had always believed that everyone was basically the same.

People tend to like the new and get bored of the old. They are fickle, shallow, and have high expectations…

After Lu Fengfeng mentally labeled Yan Ning as a “wooden beauty,” he saw a promotional photo of her participating in the competition. On her right wrist, she wore several valuable pieces of jewelry, one of which was clearly not jewelry but a suppressor.

The material and design of that suppressor were notorious in the galaxy, as it was only forcibly worn by criminals after their arrest. It was used to suppress their overly strong mental powers for easier management.

What kind of person is she? Why would she be wearing something like that? And why is she here?

This was the first time Lu Fengfeng had taken such a strong interest in someone.

Today, she surprised him again.

When she said, “Mint candy is the best in the world,” he suddenly became very curious—if she had mint candy, and then strawberry, watermelon, and mango candies appeared, would she still be as determined as she was today?

It was a rather malicious thought, but he was very curious about the outcome.

At this thought, Lu Fengfeng’s smile grew even brighter.

Yan Ning was confused, feeling that she hadn’t said anything funny.

Qiao Yingxue, sitting aside, observed the way Lu Fengfeng looked at Yan Ning and felt uneasy. This boy with such a bad reputation must have set his sights on Ningning!

Because Yan Ning insisted, the script remained unchanged without adding any unnecessary storylines.

Both Lu Fengfeng and Qiao Yingxue had a natural talent for acting, and their expressions and emotions were perfect after just a few takes.

Step by step, by the afternoon, the basic movements and scenes were all set. They just needed Gu Han’s work to be finished, then they could add the background and adjust the overall effect.

—

After a day of practice, the three of them separated outside the dance studio, and Uncle Zheng came to pick up Yan Ning.

Tang Minrou had left again this morning, leaving only three children at home.

As Yan Ning was heading upstairs, Yan Wan was coming down the stairs. Seeing her smile gently, it seemed like there had never been any discord between them.

“Why are you back so late, Ningning?”

“Just had some things to do.” Yan Ning had been busy all day and didn’t have much time to talk to Yan Wan. But remembering her previous experience, she still replied.

“Preparing for the next round of the competition?” Yan Wan continued, “Is Ningning good at dancing?”

It turned out that Yan Wan knew she had gone to the dance studio and still asked like this, implying she wasn’t worried about Yan Ning catching on.

Yan Ning began to wonder what Yan Wan was thinking. If she wanted to make trouble, she shouldn’t have asked—she could have done it behind her back.

Asking on purpose, was she trying to show off her capabilities? Or was there another consideration?

“I’m not really good at it. I don’t have any skills to show off, just dancing randomly.”

No matter what Yan Wan thought or did, Yan Ning wanted to maintain the image of being weak until 007 was fully operational. If Yan Wan thought she was practicing dance, Yan Ning didn’t want to argue.

“I’m tired, I’m going upstairs.” Without waiting for Yan Wan to respond, Yan Ning dropped the words and went straight upstairs.

Yan Wan didn’t mind her, continuing to go downstairs. The system’s voice then sounded: “Master, why did you let her know about the surveillance?”

Yan Wan poured herself some water and slowly headed upstairs. “Even if she comes back from the dance studio every day, it doesn’t mean she didn’t go somewhere else beforehand. Did you test if she’s lying?”

“Uh—” The system’s voice hesitated.