When Ji Nian opened her eyes again, she wasn’t on the street outside Chen Mo’s company.
Suppressing a wave of nausea, she glanced around and confirmed she was inside a bathroom stall.
Outside, the chatter of many voices made her headache worse.
"System? System??"
She called out several times but received no response. Pressing her lips together, Ji Nian finally pushed the door open and stepped out.
As she moved, she belatedly realized she was wearing the uniform of S High School.
The familiar scent of Hermès air freshener and the vanity mirror with its built-in ring light greeted her.
But the face reflected in the mirror wasn’t the one Ji Nian knew.
Her once meticulously cared-for curls, regularly treated to maintain their luster, now looked dull and frizzy, the ends brittle and yellowed, tangled messily down her back. Yet that wasn’t the most shocking part.
The real horror lay in the other half of her face—covered in gruesome, scarlet scars.
No wonder her breathing had felt heavy earlier. When she raised her hand, she realized she’d been wearing a mask.
So that’s how it was…
Ji Nian leaned closer to the mirror for a better look.
If she focused only on the untouched side, it was still the face she’d known for eighteen years.
But the other side…
Up close, it was even more horrifying. A patch near her hairline was completely missing, the hair follicles likely destroyed by the burn.
"Tch…"
Ji Nian vaguely understood now.
The next step was confirmation.
She walked out of the bathroom, where a crowd had gathered.
From their conversation, they were trying to drag Ji Nian out for Gu Xiuyuan, who couldn’t enter the women’s restroom himself. But it seemed he’d refused, though they were still insisting.
Before they could finish, someone emerged from the bathroom.
The moment they saw her face, their expressions twisted with varying degrees of disgust. One girl even turned away, muttering under her breath, "If you know you’re hideous, at least have the decency to keep your mask on. So shameless."
"Compared to me, you’re the one who needs a mask. Your foul mouth stinks from all the way over here."
Ji Nian tossed the crumpled mask she’d been holding at the girl and shot her a sidelong glance.
But then she froze.
Because the girl now red-faced with anger from Ji Nian’s retort was someone she recognized.
Shen Qingtang’s deskmate.
After a brief pause, Ji Nian shifted her gaze to another figure—the boy surrounded by the crowd, his icy eyes burning with unmistakable fury.
For a moment, she felt dazed.
It had been so long since she’d last seen Gu Xiuyuan in the S High uniform.
But this version of him was different from the one she knew.
His hair was slightly longer, his handsome face cold as frost, his eyes filled not just with anger but also disdain and revulsion.
An expression Ji Nian had never seen directed at her before.
Gu Xiuyuan remained silent, but someone spoke for him.
"Ji Nian, have you no shame? You’ve always been jealous of Shen Qingtang, pulling all kinds of underhanded tricks, and she kept forgiving you! Instead of being grateful, you tried to kill her this time!"
"Ugly people love causing trouble. I don’t want to share a school with a murderer."
"How can she be so thick-skinned? Rumor has it the Ji family disowned her, yet she still dares to show up here."
Faces twisted with malice—all familiar to Ji Nian.
Amid the hostility, she snapped back to reality and faintly recalled a long-forgotten plot.
"Either withdraw from school yourself, or I’ll have someone escort you out."
Gu Xiuyuan’s voice cut through the noise, and the crowd instantly fell silent.
Ji Nian smirked inwardly. The system had really done her dirty, dropping her into this mess.
If she wasn’t mistaken…
She’d somehow entered the original novel’s world and taken over the protagonist’s body.
Was this a parallel universe?
From what she remembered of the system’s explanation, the current plot should be around the time Ji Tingzhou planned to officially announce Shen Qingtang as the family heir at a banquet, even changing her surname. The original protagonist had overheard this while hiding outside the window.
Years of neglect and the trauma of her disfigurement had left her introverted, timid, and psychologically twisted.
When Shen Qingtang came to her, "sharing" the news as if it were something to celebrate, the original protagonist finally snapped. She used all her savings to hire a group of thugs, luring Shen Qingtang out under Gu Xiuyuan’s name.
Her plan had only been to delay Shen Qingtang and make her miss the banquet.
But the thugs got reckless, making inappropriate advances and leading Shen Qingtang to believe they meant to kill her.
Luckily, Gu Xiuyuan arrived in time to save her.
Meanwhile, the original protagonist’s clumsy scheme quickly unraveled, and she was exposed. The Ji family cast her out.
With nowhere else to go, she returned to school as usual.
And now, this was the scene where Gu Xiuyuan forced her to withdraw.
The original protagonist wasn’t blameless—she’d let jealousy poison her heart.
But the punishment was undeniably harsh.
If I remember correctly, after dropping out of school, she went to work, planning to earn enough money to return to her studies someday. She had resolved not to place her hopes in anyone but herself—yet in the end, the male lead targeted her, leading to her death.
Stepping back from this plotline, Ji Nian was remembered.
"No need, I'll go myself."
The group, who had initially intended to use some forceful measures, froze at her light, almost casual remark.
This was nothing like the usual Ji Nian, who spoke haltingly, word by word, always keeping her head down and avoiding eye contact.
Her back was straight now, her expression composed as she faced them with her scarred face. It was only then that the others noticed she actually had strikingly beautiful dark green eyes. The unburned side of her face, though sallow, was delicate and lovely.
Ignoring their reactions, Ji Nian slipped one hand into her school uniform pocket, glanced around to orient herself, and stepped past them.
As she walked by Gu Xiuyuan, she even shot him an amused look and muttered, "Look at you, all tough and scary."
Gu Xiuyuan, who hadn’t even spared her a glance before, hesitated, his eyes lingering on her: ?
[Are you really… going to… drop out?]
As she walked, Ji Nian heard the familiar voice, crackling with static.
[What’s going on? How did you dump me into the original novel’s world?]
The system’s voice came through again: […static… I’m low on energy… need to rest… before I can… send you back…]
The noise made Ji Nian’s ears itch.
[Don’t worry… time there… is frozen… nothing will change when you return…]
[Got it. Stop talking, my head hurts.]
Though she still had questions, she couldn’t stand the distorted, glitchy voice any longer.
[Of course I’m dropping out. You think I’ll stick around to be ostracized and isolated?]
The original Ji Nian wasn’t a murderer, but she had been the one to hire those thugs. Even if she claimed she never meant to hurt Shen Qingtang, no one would believe her—they’d just call it an excuse.
The best way out of this mess was to step away from it entirely.
Besides, Ji Nian herself was still reeling. She needed time to process everything.
