Chapter 1 – Sorry, She Really Is a Terrible Student QAQ…

The weather in September still carried the restless heat of midsummer.

After the morning classes ended, the student cafeteria at Yinghua International School became lively.

Lin Chuge and her best friend Xu Luoluo sat by the window. The golden sunlight poured through the glass, landing on Lin Chuge’s distracted face. Even the two braids tied at the back of her head drooped listlessly, lacking energy.

Xu Luoluo had been eating diligently for some time before she finally noticed her friend’s poor appetite.

She lifted her head and asked, “Chuchu, why aren’t you eating?”

Pulled back from her wandering thoughts, Lin Chuge lowered her eyes to the barely touched food in front of her. She sighed and shook her head. “Not hungry.”

Even a fool could tell she was troubled.

“What’s wrong? You’re so upset you don’t even want to eat?”

Faced with Xu Luoluo’s concern, Lin Chuge didn’t know how to explain her bad mood.

In the past, if something made her unhappy, she would have already complained about it to Xu Luoluo at least eight hundred times by now.

But this time…

Lin Chuge truly didn’t know how to begin.

It was her own slowness.

During the two months of summer vacation, she had had many dreams. She didn’t take them seriously, assuming they were just ordinary dreams—after all, dreams didn’t need to make sense. But strangely… some parts of her dreams had actually come true!

Yesterday, when her homeroom teacher, Mr. Xue, brought a transfer student into their class, she immediately sensed something was wrong.

Maybe those dreams weren’t just dreams.

Because this transfer student had the same name, the same face, and even the same background as the person from her dreams—coming to Yinghua on a full scholarship, tuition waived, all because of excellent grades.

It was ridiculous.

Utterly ridiculous.

After school yesterday, she dug out her diary and looked at the entries she had written for fun about those dreams. Then, that very night, she dreamed again—this time of her family falling apart, being abandoned by everyone, and dying miserably on the streets…

Based on those summer dreams, she realized she was actually living inside a novel.

That novel was called After Rebirth, I Became Everyone’s Favorite.

And the heroine wasn’t her. It was the transfer student she saw yesterday—Shen Xueyao. She herself was just the foolish, vicious supporting character whose sole mission was to set off the heroine’s brilliance. She would single-handedly ruin her family’s business, drive away all her friends, and in the end, be left destitute on the streets, dying a miserable death.

If Shen Xueyao hadn’t really appeared as a transfer student, Lin Chuge would never have believed such a thing possible.

But now that her dreams were becoming reality, how could she not believe?

The biggest problem was—

She was only a sixteen-year-old high schooler. Wasn’t life throwing too much at her?

Thinking of this, Lin Chuge let out a heavy sigh.

She pushed aside her tray, propped her chin in her hand, and looked at her friend. “Luoluo, have you ever thought about the future?”

Xu Luoluo scooped up another bite of rice and ate. “Like what?”

Lin Chuge said, “Like if your family lost everything—no money, not even a house to live in.”

Xu Luoluo: “…”

She glanced at Lin Chuge’s serious expression, fell silent for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing, as though she had just heard the funniest joke. “Chuchu, seriously? Are you sleepwalking? How could you say something like that?”

Lin Chuge: “…”

Faced with her best friend’s unserious attitude, she puffed her cheeks. “I’m being serious, not joking.”

Xu Luoluo looked horrified. “And that’s not a joke?”

Lin Chuge frowned, and Xu Luoluo continued, “Do you even know how rich your family is? You could literally sleep on stacks of money every night, use a new pile every day, and still not run out!”

Lin Chuge was speechless.

But in her dream, she really had ended up penniless and homeless—pathetically miserable!

“You’re just worrying over nothing,” Xu Luoluo said. “Besides, your parents adore you. Their favorite thing is giving you houses. I bet your stack of property deeds is already big enough to play cards with. How could you possibly have nowhere to live in the future? Unless you’re stupid enough to let someone trick you out of all your houses. Actually, since we’re such good friends, why don’t you let me be the first one to trick you?”

She stretched out her hand toward Lin Chuge, grinning with a raised brow.

“Come on, let me scam a house off you first, just for practice.”

Lin Chuge looked down at her outstretched palm, then thought of the pile of property deeds sitting in her room’s safe. She had to admit—her friend’s words made a lot of sense. Reasonable, logical, and very convincing.

Her family really was that rich.

And she was the Lin family’s only child, the sole heir. Even if it weren’t Xu Luoluo, anyone else would probably say the same thing: no matter how wasteful she was, it would be nearly impossible to squander it all.

“You really think I’m stupid!”

Lin Chuge slapped her friend’s palm away. After a pause, she said, “Then let me ask you another question.”

Xu Luoluo withdrew her hand with a mischievous smile. “What is it?”

Leaning forward slightly, Lin Chuge lowered her voice. “What if we were living in a novel?”

Xu Luoluo: “And then?”

“That’s it,” Lin Chuge said. “What would you do?”

Xu Luoluo laughed. “What else could I do? Eat when I’m hungry, drink when I’m thirsty. Chuchu, your idea isn’t even new. The novels I read are full of transmigrations and rebirths. Even if it’s true, so what? If we get sick, it still hurts. If we get hurt, it still bleeds. If we don’t eat, we’ll still starve. Isn’t it all the same?”

“Look at all those heroines in novels who changed their fates through hard work!”

She raised a fist at Lin Chuge. “We can do it too!”

Lin Chuge, seeing her friend’s fiery passion, whispered, “But what if we’re not the heroines?”

Xu Luoluo immediately shot back, “No!

“Of course we’re the heroines!” She looked at Lin Chuge meaningfully, speaking with all seriousness. “Everyone has their own life. In our lives, we must be the absolute main characters. No one can change that.”

It made sense. It really made sense.

Lin Chuge nodded earnestly, enlightened. “I get it now!”

She had been restless and agitated by all those confusing thoughts.

Now, after hearing Xu Luoluo’s words, she suddenly felt clear-headed, as though she had found a way out.

Even if this really was a novel world, even if she was a supporting character, that didn’t mean she had to accept it unconditionally.

Her life was hers to control!

So what if there was a heroine?

She had already dreamed of much of the future. It was practically foresight. Would she really be afraid of one so-called heroine?

The most absurd thing of all was that in her dream, she ended up miserable simply because she was a terrible student!

Did that make sense? Was that even reasonable?

Her dreams lacked logic. That novel probably lacked logic too.

But no matter what, she would find a way to ensure she and her family did not meet such a tragic end.

Lin Chuge silently firmed her resolve.

Xu Luoluo smiled at her. “So, you understand now?”

Lin Chuge clenched her fist. “I’ll walk the heroine’s path—until there’s no path left for the heroine!”

Xu Luoluo: “…”

After a long silence, she said, “That’s… not quite what I meant.”

Lin Chuge blinked. “Why not? Is that wrong?”

Xu Luoluo: “…Not exactly wrong, either.”

Looking into Lin Chuge’s eager eyes, she gave up arguing. “What I mean is, the most important thing is to be happy. As long as you’re not breaking the law or crossing moral lines, you should just live however you like.”

“Ah, enough of that. Hurry and eat your lunch.”

She pushed Lin Chuge’s tray back toward her. “If you don’t, your food will get cold.”

Suddenly enlightened, Lin Chuge’s mood lifted. “Yes, ma’am.”

She smiled at Xu Luoluo, finally lowering her head to eat her teriyaki beef rice with focus.

·

After lunch, Lin Chuge and Xu Luoluo returned to their Class 2, Grade 11 classroom.

The moment Lin Chuge walked in, she noticed Shen Xueyao sitting by the window in the back row, head bowed as she studied and wrote.

Most students hadn’t yet returned.

The classroom was quiet, and Shen Xueyao seemed especially so.

After all, she had entered Yinghua, the city’s best private school, purely on academic merit. To call her the “top of the top students” was no exaggeration. In her dreams, Shen Xueyao was not just academically outstanding—it was much more than that.

At first, others had been unfamiliar with her and somewhat distant.

Later, everyone liked her, admired her, followed her. All were captivated by her charm.

Even Pei Du, Yinghua’s most popular male idol with legions of admirers.

And even her own childhood sweetheart—the top student and school heartthrob, Song Bonian.

Capturing Song Bonian would have been impressive enough.

But to also win over someone like Pei Du, that “flower on the highest peak,” was truly incredible.

Comparison was cruel.

But liking someone wasn’t something that could be forced.

So it was best she start with studying hard.

As the saying went, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

If she began working hard now, it wasn’t certain she would always be worse than that girl.

If one day, she could surpass Shen Xueyao in grades…

Everyone would surely look at her differently!

Returning to her seat, Lin Chuge thought of this, glanced once more at Shen Xueyao’s back, and decided to imitate her. She pulled out her math book from her desk—only to accidentally bring out the freshly handed-back exam paper as well.

The paper fell to the floor.

On the score column, a glaring red 37 stood out.

Lin Chuge: “…”

Sorry, she really was a terrible student QAQ.

Just then, Xu Luoluo, who sat in front, turned around to talk to her. Spotting the paper, she bent down and picked it up.

Seeing the score, she slammed the desk angrily. “Chuchu, how could you keep such a high score from me?!”

“I only got 20 this time, and you nearly doubled me.” She lowered her voice, suspicion in her eyes as she stared at Lin Chuge. “Weren’t we supposed to be study-slackers hand in hand, for life?”

“At this rate, won’t you pass next time?”

“Chuchu, be honest—are you planning to abandon me and leave me to be the only slacker?”

Lin Chuge: “…”

Maybe that was exactly why she could only score this much.

Taking her paper back from Xu Luoluo, she looked down at the score again, then slumped over her desk in despair. With grades like hers, where even a thirty-something score was considered “lucky,” was there really any hope?