Watching as Yu Qian struggled to swallow, Jiang Zheng smirked triumphantly. “Do you really not think that eating on the floor is a bit abnormal?”

Yu Qian forced down the cake in her mouth with difficulty, tilted her head slightly, and seriously countered, “Is it more abnormal than two boys sharing a room in the middle of the night?”

Bai Qiming: “……”

Jiang Zheng: “……”

Did he just meet his match? Jiang Zheng’s eyes gleamed with even more interest.

He scrutinized Yu Qian. Before meeting her, he hadn’t had a good impression of her.

During Uncle Bai and Aunt Wang’s banquet, Yu Qian, Aunt Wang’s biological daughter, hadn’t even attended.

On top of that, he had overheard Aunt Wang arguing on the phone a few times, and those quarrels had only reinforced his bad opinion of Bai Qiming’s stepsister. He had even worried that she would stir up trouble once she arrived.

But now, she seemed…… quite interesting.

Sitting on the sofa, Bai Qiming had watched the entire exchange. He glanced at Yu Qian, and then looked at Jiang Zheng with clear disdain. “The book has been returned. You should be leaving now.”

The implication was obvious.

“Oh, come on, Ah Ming. Your sister hasn’t even kicked me out yet, so why are you rushing me?” Jiang Zheng winked playfully at Bai Qiming before adding, “Back in the day, we used to sleep together all the time. Have you forgotten?”

Yu Qian watched Jiang Zheng’s exaggerated performance and two words surfaced in her mind— So shameless!

“Get lost!” Bai Qiming’s face darkened. He clenched his fists before restraining himself and letting go.

“Alright, alright. Since neither of you want me here, I’ll leave.” Jiang Zheng released his hold on Baibai and stood up leisurely.

Before leaving, he turned to Yu Qian with a teasing smile. “Little Sister Yu Qian, I’ll be off for now. I’ll come find you another day.”

Yu Qian silently lowered her head, pretending to pet Baibai, and didn’t respond.

Seeing the cold indifference from one and complete disregard from the other, Jiang Zheng didn’t feel awkward at all. He swaggered out of the Bai family’s house.

With Jiang Zheng gone, the room instantly fell silent. Bai Qiming looked at Yu Qian, unsure of what to say to this stepsister.

“You……” Bai Qiming hesitated before continuing, “Finish eating and get some rest.”

His gaze fell on the cake on the floor and he barely resisted the urge to call one of the household staff to clean it up. In the end, he simply added, “Don’t eat the part that’s on the ground.”

Yu Qian: “……”

Did she look like someone who would lick the floor?!

“Got it, Brother Ming. Good night, Brother Ming.” Yu Qian didn’t argue and obediently wished him goodnight.

Bai Qiming gave her a small nod before heading back to his room.

Yu Qian looked at the remaining cake while holding the fork, her appetite completely gone.

She scraped the cream off the cake and placed it on a dish on the floor. The moment she let go, Baibai eagerly began eating.

Once Baibai finished, Yu Qian wiped the floor clean with a napkin to prevent anyone from slipping. After tidying everything up, she went upstairs to her room, flopped onto her bed, and buried her head under the blanket, letting out a silent scream.

If she had known, she wouldn’t have come downstairs tonight. What a disastrous conversation.

────ρя


Two days of her uneventful, lazy life passed, and finally, the day arrived for Yu Qian to return to school.

“What?” Yu Qian shook her head, thinking she had misheard. Otherwise, why would she hear her mother saying that she had been transferred to the senior year of high school?

“Mom, just admit you forgot what grade your daughter is in. I won’t be mad.” Yu Qian placed her hands properly on her lap and seriously looked at her mother sitting across from her.

“I didn’t forget.” Wang Hui replied in a gentle tone, occasionally glancing at Yu Qian’s expression. “I know you’re in your second year, but since you transferred schools, I went ahead and moved you directly to the third year.”

“Mom…… may I ask why?” Yu Qian’s smile stiffened.

In the novel, ‘Yu Qian’ was determined to chase after Bai Qiming so she begged her mother to transfer her to the senior year. But she hadn’t said anything! What was her mother doing?

“I just thought that since you have no friends here, you might struggle to adapt to a new school and get bullied. If you’re in the third year, your brother can look after you.”

“But I’m only in my second year!”

“What’s the problem? You were always at the bottom of the class anyway, so second or third year doesn’t make much of a difference. I’m not forcing you to study hard— just finishing school is enough to make me happy.”

Hearing her mother’s reasoning, Yu Qian felt a lump of frustration in her chest. Who could she blame?

Only herself.

She used to deliberately fail important exams just to provoke her mother. As a result, her mother was now convinced that she was a hopeless student and no longer had any expectations for her academics.

“Qianqian, all I ask is that you finish high school properly. If you can’t get into university, that’s fine. With our family’s wealth, you can just go abroad and get a diploma. Either way, you’ll be taking over my company in the future, so your degree doesn’t really matter.”

Wang Hui’s words were domineering, but after hearing them, Yu Qian could only swallow her frustration.

She was truly lucky that their ancestral tomb had been properly placed. Otherwise, with her mother’s extreme spoiling, she would have turned out completely rotten.

Speaking of which, apart from not having time to accompany her, her mother had always indulged her in every way. Whatever she wanted, her mother would give it to her.

In the end, Yu Qian accepted the fact that she had suddenly jumped from her second year of high school to her third year.

Originally, whether she was in her second or third year didn’t matter much to her, but now it had a huge impact!

Her goal in this life was to get into Peking University together with Wang Jiajia and help her avoid a certain scumbag.

According to her initial plan, two years of review would give her a great chance of getting into Peking University. After all, before transmigrating into this novel, she had been in her third year of university and had already passed the CET-6 exam. Her language scores were decent too.

She only needed to work a little harder to improve her math.

But now, her mother had completely disrupted her pace. Getting into Peking University in just one year was way too much pressure!

With grief and indignation, Yu Qian pulled out her phone and opened the group chat [Fairy Squad].

【It’s Yu, Not She: From now on, please address me as Senior!】

【Yuyuyu: ……】

【Gorgeous Lady: This person has gone mad, someone drag her away.】

【It’s Yu, Not She: My mom transferred me to the third year of high school!! From now on, I’m a grade above you guys.】

【Yuyuyu: ……】

【Gorgeous Lady: ……】

【My Husband is Lei Shen: Qianqian…… you’ve gotten arrogant.】

Yu Qian vented her frustration to her friends about her mother’s arbitrary decision. However, to her surprise, not one of the three stood by her side.

Fang Yan even bluntly pointed out that she had a CEO position waiting for her to inherit anyway. Infuriated, Yu Qian spammed the chat with a flood of emojis.

But ranting was one thing. By the next day, Yu Qian still set her alarm early, ready to begin her second experience as a senior in high school.

Her mother led her to the homeroom teacher as if she were dropping off a preschooler.

The homeroom teacher’s surname was Xu, a middle-aged man in his forties who wore black-framed glasses. Surprisingly, he still had a full head of thick hair.

For a teacher like him, seeing transfer students who were academically weak yet skipping grades was nothing new.

Hengcheng^[1]Constant Success High School was a private institution backed by several major financial groups, boasting an extremely strong faculty. The students who studied there were all either from rich or powerful families, and they generally fell into two categories.

One type was the naturally gifted and hardworking, while the other was simply there to pass the time. The teachers there didn’t solely focus on increasing the school’s college admission rate, and the teaching style was more flexible.

The two adults quickly finalized the arrangements, and soon, Yu Qian was handed over from her mother to Teacher Xu.

“Yu Qian, the next period happens to be my math class, so I’ll take you to the classroom now so you can get familiar with the environment.” Teacher Xu said warmly.

“Alright, thank you, Teacher.”

Seeing how polite and well-mannered Yu Qian was, Teacher Xu nodded in satisfaction.

Following behind him, Yu Qian walked all the way to the leftmost teaching building, stopping at the entrance of Class 1.

“Everyone, return to your seats. We have a new classmate joining us today. Let’s get to know her first.” Teacher Xu announced as he entered the classroom.

Yu Qian stood quietly beside him, letting everyone’s eyes sweep over her.

“Ah Ming, isn’t that your stepsister? Why is she transferring to the third year?” Jiang Zheng, sitting behind Bai Qiming, poked him in surprise.