Chapter 04

“You must have some kind of relationship with the school bully! Am I right?”

Two days had passed since sharing a dining table with the school bully, but Yang Min was still brimming with curiosity. She seized every opportunity to question Qin Xiaoxiao.

“Xiaoxiao, Qin Xiaoxiao, don’t ignore me…”

“Tell me about it! I promise I won’t tell anyone!”

Qin Xiaoxiao paused from writing down vocabulary words. “Class is over, why are you still sitting here?”

“Stop dodging the question! Talk about the important stuff!”

Qin Xiaoxiao propped her chin on her hand and looked at her deskmate. Telling her was absolutely out of the question. With her gossip-loving mouth, if she revealed her relationship with Ji Wenchen now, it wouldn’t take half a day before the entire grade knew about it.

“Just a normal classmate relationship.”

“I don’t believe it!” Despite her excitement, Yang Min still kept her voice low. “He invited you to sit with him, and before leaving, he even said, ‘I’m off.’ How could that be a normal classmate relationship?”

“Jiang Zhousi was the one who saw we didn’t have a seat and invited us to join their table, not Ji Wenchen,” Qin Xiaoxiao said. “As for that ‘I’m off,’ it wasn’t directed at anyone specific. It could’ve been meant for Jiang Zhousi or maybe even for you.”

Yang Min shook her head. “It couldn’t have been for me. The school bully doesn’t even acknowledge me. We’re not close at all.”

“What are you guys talking about? What bully?” Tao Lei, who was sitting in front of Yang Min, turned around.

“Turn back, turn back. What does our conversation have to do with you?”

Tao Lei grinned cheekily. “How could it not involve me? We’re classmates. We should communicate more for harmonious coexistence.”

“Who wants to communicate with you?” Yang Min rolled her eyes.

“Fine, then don’t ask me questions or borrow my homework in the future.”

“Ah, you’re so petty…”

With Tao Lei interrupting, Yang Min’s focus was successfully diverted.

Qin Xiaoxiao lowered her head, chuckled softly, and continued jotting down vocabulary words.

Next week was the monthly exam. To be honest, she was a little nervous.

In her previous life, Qin Xiaoxiao’s biggest source of anxiety during her school days had always been the various exams, big and small. Even after ending up in a novel world, she couldn’t shake off this habit.

Apart from a set of basic after-class exercises, the school didn’t dare to distribute extra materials or practice questions. All the subject teachers could do was provide reading lists, and motivated students would buy the materials on their own.

The original owner of this body definitely didn’t belong to the self-motivated type.

This weekend, Qin Xiaoxiao took the reading list and went to the bookstore.

In the section for senior year science supplementary materials, the shelves were filled with a dazzling array of books. Qin Xiaoxiao carefully compared the titles and publishers as she selected the ones she needed.

Biology, Top Student’s Study Guide… Qin Xiaoxiao muttered to herself as she searched the bookshelf.

Found it.

However, someone was blocking the shelf, making it hard to reach. Qin Xiaoxiao softly said, “Excuse me, could you please move aside?” as she looked at the person.

He seemed to be a high school student as well, wearing silver-rimmed glasses with a clean and handsome face.

“Ah, sorry.” The person awkwardly stepped back a few paces, and the book in his hand closed during the hurried movement.

《Top Student’s Study Guide, Senior Year Biology.》

Qin Xiaoxiao unintentionally caught a glimpse of the cover of the book in his hand.

After retrieving her book from the shelf, Qin Xiaoxiao didn’t linger there and headed straight to the next section of supplementary materials to continue her search.

A few minutes later, after finding all the books she needed, Qin Xiaoxiao went downstairs to check out. There were quite a few people buying books on the weekend. Coincidentally, the boy with glasses was standing in line right in front of her.

Beep—

The cashier scanned the last book for the boy with glasses. “That will be 52 yuan in total,” the cashier said. The boy reached back into his backpack with one hand.

After fumbling around for over ten seconds, he awkwardly withdrew his hand and turned back, looking embarrassed. “Sorry, my wallet’s gone. Could you… help me pay first? I’ll transfer the money to you as soon as I get home.”

Qin Xiaoxiao let out a light “uh,” and the boy quickly added, “I’m not a scammer, really…”

“Sure.” Qin Xiaoxiao placed the books in her arms on the counter and said to the cashier, “Add it all together.”

After paying, Qin Xiaoxiao opened her backpack and stuffed her books inside.

“Thank you,” the boy with the thin-rimmed glasses said, following Qin Xiaoxiao. “Can I… add your QQ or WeChat? You know, to… pay you back…”

Qin Xiaoxiao smiled and asked, “Do you have Alipay?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Then just note down my Alipay account, and you can transfer the money to me later.”

“Uh… okay.”

Qin Xiaoxiao recited a string of numbers. “Don’t you need to write it down?”

“I can remember it.” The boy accurately repeated the phone number back to her.

“Alright.” Qin Xiaoxiao was a bit surprised, but she wasn’t interested in awkwardly chatting with a stranger. She nodded and was about to leave.

“Um!”

“Is there something else?”

The boy scratched the back of his head, revealing a slightly embarrassed smile. His brows and eyes seemed to carry the warmth of early spring—clean and handsome.

“I’m Yan Yangcan, studying at First High School. What about you?”

Yan Yangcan.

The second male lead from the original novel. A well-known handsome top student at First High School, he transferred to Second High School slightly later than the female protagonist. Drawn to her soft and innocent charm, he tutored her in her studies and did numerous things for her. In summary, he was the quintessential gentle and devoted second male lead.

As she thought about it, a boy this good-looking wouldn’t possibly go unnamed in the original novel.

She just didn’t expect him to be the second male lead.

Running into an important character just by casually visiting a bookstore—should she call it luck?

“I’m at Second High School,” Qin Xiaoxiao replied without giving her name. “I need to head back now. Goodbye.”

Speaking of which, when she had read the available chapters of 《The Cool and Arrogant School Bully Falls for Me》, Qin Xiaoxiao had felt that Yan Yangcan was one of the more normal and less overly dramatic characters in the novel. She even somewhat admired him.

But now, as someone living in the story, Qin Xiaoxiao had no desire to interact too much with the second male lead.

Likewise, she didn’t want to get entangled with the first male and female leads either.

The reflection of Qin Xiaoxiao’s face appeared faintly on the glass of the bus window, blurry and hazy, as though veiled by mist.

She sent a text message to Ji Wenchen, using the excuse that she was worried the teachers might find out, and politely asked him not to reveal their relationship at school.

Her wording could be described as exceedingly respectful and polite.

Even by the time the bus reached her destination, there was no reply from him.

Yan Yangcan returned the owed money and sent a friend request on Alipay, which Qin Xiaoxiao ignored.

The bus stop was still two to three hundred meters away from the old residential area where Qin Xiaoxiao lived.

As she walked, Qin Xiaoxiao noticed a familiar figure at the entrance of the nearby market.

She walked straight over.

“Mom.”

Feng Xiuling, who was bent over arranging fruits, turned around with a face full of surprise. “Xiaoxiao, w-why are you here?”

Qin Xiaoxiao stepped forward, intending to help Feng Xiuling arrange the oranges, but Feng Xiuling stopped her. “Let Mom do it. You—you should go home and study.”

“I went to the bookstore to buy some study materials and stopped by to check on you.”

Feng Xiuling was practically overwhelmed with surprise. She had been selling fruit at her stall for several years, and her daughter had never visited her even once. She was somewhat aware that her daughter looked down on her for being unrefined. Sometimes, when her daughter saw her selling fruit from a distance, she would either take a detour or pretend not to see her.

Now, her daughter was actually coming over to greet her and even intended to help out.

Ah Hui was right, her daughter had grown up and become much more sensible…

Qin Xiaoxiao was unaware of Feng Xiuling’s inner thoughts.

In fact, Qin Xiaoxiao’s appearance in her original world bore about a 60% resemblance to the “Qin Xiaoxiao” in this world. Similarly, her parents in the original world were about 40–50% similar to “Qin Xiaoxiao’s” parents here.

Three years ago, Qin Xiaoxiao’s parents, who were nearing fifty, still looked younger than the parents described in the book. Especially “Qin Xiaoxiao’s” mother, Feng Xiuling, whose years of hard work and toil were etched into her face, making her appear seven or eight years older than her actual age.

Every time Qin Xiaoxiao saw Feng Xiuling’s weathered face, she felt a dull ache of heartache.

“There’s a lot of dust here. You don’t need to help, and you still have to go to school this afternoon. Hurry home,” Feng Xiuling urged her daughter repeatedly to go back.

Qin Xiaoxiao had no choice but to obediently head home.

…

The next day, Ji Wenchen finally replied with a text.

It was ridiculously concise—just a single “Hmm,” without even a punctuation mark.

***

The monthly exams were held on Thursday and Friday. At Second High School, students were assigned to exam rooms based on their rankings from the previous test.

In the exam room, Qin Xiaoxiao saw Ji Wenchen, whom she hadn’t seen for a few days. What surprised her was that the school bully’s seat number was ahead of hers.

“Qin Xiaoxiao’s” grades were average in the class, which suggested that the school bully’s grades in the final exam before his break from school weren’t bad at all.

In other school novels, the “school bully” is always depicted as a delinquent with terrible grades. Why was the “school bully” in this novel so unconventional?

A few days later, the monthly exam results came out. Although the homeroom teacher praised Qin Xiaoxiao as one of the students who had made progress, she still felt a bit disillusioned:

Out of 59 students in the class, she—a model student essentially retaking high school—only ranked 35th. Worse yet, she was outperformed by a school bully who barely paid attention in class!

—Ji Wenchen’s total score for the monthly exams ranked 30th in the class.

Feeling defeated, Qin Xiaoxiao spent even her breaks analyzing the exam papers.

“Yang Min, do you know how to solve this question?” Tao Lei asked, holding a test paper as he turned around.

Yang Min was munching on an apple and reading a magazine. “Nope.”

“You didn’t even look,” Tao Lei said, resting his elbow on the edge of her desk. “Take a look.”

Yang Min glanced at the question and scoffed, “Are you kidding me, Class Monitor? You’re asking an underachiever like me?”

“It’s just… I’m terrible at physics!”

“Then ask Qin Xiaoxiao. She’s the physics class representative.”

With that, Tao Lei turned to Qin Xiaoxiao. “Physics Rep, I have a question I’d like to ask you.”

“Uh, sure,” Qin Xiaoxiao replied.

Tao Lei shifted from turning his head to the left to turning it to the right, moving a bit closer to Qin Xiaoxiao. At the same time, he felt a little more nervous.

Although they had been in the same class for more than a semester and had sat as front-and-back desk mates for nearly a month, Tao Lei had never spoken to Qin Xiaoxiao before. In the dormitory, the boys often brought her up during their late-night chats. Everyone paid attention to this beautiful classmate—or rather, no boy in the class could ignore her presence.

Because of their adolescent pride and shyness, few boys dared to take the initiative to start a conversation with Qin Xiaoxiao.

Having taken this step, Tao Lei felt pretty impressive in the moment.

“Which question?” Even her voice was so pleasant… huh? Oh… Tao Lei hastily pointed to a question.

This question wasn’t even wrong. Out of consideration that he was a classmate and a kind front desk mate, Qin Xiaoxiao politely asked, “Which part specifically don’t you understand?”

“Uh… just the last two options are a bit confusing.”

Qin Xiaoxiao explained her understanding to him. “Got it now?”

“Umm, umm!” Tao Lei nodded enthusiastically.

Qin Xiaoxiao handed the paper back to him.

“There’s one more, one more,” Tao Lei said as he flipped to the back of the test paper. “This one, this one—I don’t understand it either.”

Qin Xiaoxiao lowered her eyes and softly read the question, simultaneously organizing her thoughts on how to explain it.

She quickly sketched a diagram in her notebook. “First, this is a parallel plate capacitor. According to the work-energy theorem…”

Yang Min, the self-proclaimed underachiever, finished her apple, wiped her hands, and leaned over to listen. Though she didn’t understand much, she couldn’t help but notice how pleasant her deskmate’s voice was and how charming she looked while explaining the problem. She also noticed that Tao Lei wasn’t entirely focused, as his eyes frequently wandered to her deskmate’s profile.

Hmph. Yang Min curled her lips, thinking, What a distracted and ulterior-motived class monitor.

Yang Min grabbed the apple core wrapped in a tissue and got up to throw it into the trash bin at the back.

As she casually glanced somewhere, she was nearly startled out of her wits.

The school bully wasn’t napping in the classroom anymore? And he was even looking in her direction? No, no, no—he was staring at her deskmate, Qin Xiaoxiao, who was explaining the question to Tao Lei…

??? What was going on?