Shen Yi lay sprawled across her desk, staring intently at the two new transfer students.
The boy who seemed like a potential domineering CEO type was called Lu Mingyuan.
The girl was named Zhao Shumin.
The former's name sounded exceptionally familiar.
Shen Yi kept drawing circles on her paper, trying to remember where she had heard it before.
Finally, the tip of her pen snapped and was crushed under excessive pressure. Shen Yi slowly lifted her gaze to look at the boy with the arrogant expression.
She seemed to remember who this guy was now.
She had a fiancé.
Arranged by Song Guanyan.
His surname was Lu, his family background was profound, and they were old family friends of the Song family.
When she was very young, Shen Yi vaguely learned from the television that a fiancé was someone you could marry in the future.
During those dark, sunless days of the past, this vague notion had once been a faint flicker of fantasy in her heart.
If she could marry that "fiancé," could she escape all of this?
Yet the reality was that Lu Mingyuan had never once looked at her properly.
Back then, Shen Yi didn't understand why someone she had never met would harbor such natural coldness and aversion towards her.
Now she understood.
So, he and Song Yi had known each other all along. Childhood sweethearts, growing up together, innocent and close.
Running into so many old acquaintances in a row.
Shen Yi couldn't help but sigh.
Why does happiness always descend upon the bitches.
And why do the bitches always descend upon me?
Lu Mingyuan was sensitive to people's gazes and instinctively glanced in Shen Yi's direction.
Their eyes met.
Shen Yi didn't dodge or avoid it; she smiled at him.
Her smile made his face feel a little warm, and a strange, inexplicable awkwardness flitted through his heart.
Why is she smiling at me?
Does she like me?
Puzzled, he turned his head and asked Song Yi beside him, "Who is that girl?"
Song Yi pouted unhappily. "Her name is Shen Yi. I... I don't like her."
Lu Mingyuan said decisively, "Then I won't like her either."
After saying that, the odd feeling in his heart didn't dissipate. "I feel like she looks familiar."
A child's memory is limited, but Lu Mingyuan had been clever since he was young. He was always quick to keenly detect problems and was happy to help Song Yi solve her troubles.
"Familiar?" Song Yi tilted her head, unconcerned. "What's so familiar about her? Her personality is so bad, and her clothes are so tacky."
Lu Mingyuan didn't reply.
He tried to examine Shen Yi more carefully, wanting to retrieve matching information from his memory bank.
Shen Yi immediately propped up the textbook on her desk, blocking his line of sight.
This action, however, provoked Lu Mingyuan's rebellious streak.
He stood up and walked over to her.
As a future domineering CEO, he was well-versed in the principle of 'if the mountain won't come to Mohammed, then Mohammed must go to the mountain.' He stopped by Shen Yi's desk, drawing the simultaneously wary gazes of Shen Xun and Chen Jiaojiao.
"What do you want?" Chen Jiaojiao immediately blocked the front of Shen Yi's desk. During the time Shen Yi hadn't been at school, she had suffered no small number of underhanded tricks from this scoundrel Lu Mingyuan.
"Have I seen you before?" Lu Mingyuan ignored Chen Jiaojiao, placed his hand on her desk, and got straight to the point.
Very familiar.
Yet he couldn't remember.
"I've certainly never seen you," Shen Yi looked at him as if he were absurd and stated firmly, "Don't try to claim some connection with me!"
Lu Mingyuan was momentarily speechless by her tactic of shifting blame.
She must have some narcissistic personality disorder or something.
For generations, his ancestors had been either wealthy or noble, with intricate connections spanning politics, business, and the military, accumulating who knows how many generations by the time it reached him.
If anyone was trying to claim a connection, it was more likely her.
In an instant, he lost interest in probing further.
Wasting time on such a self-important person was utterly pointless.
With a cold face, he turned around crisply and returned to his seat.
Song Yi was still chattering in his ear about how terrible Shen Yi was. He absentmindedly agreed, but his thoughts were somewhat adrift.
Even though he didn't want to delve into it, he still felt a bit of curiosity in his heart.
He kept tapping his desk, thinking, where on earth had he seen her before?
Shen Xun was also frowning. After the other boy left, he looked steadily at his sister:
"Does he know you?"
"Of course not," Shen Yi said. "I grew up in an orphanage before. How could I possibly know someone of his status."
Chen Jiaojiao: "Then maybe you met at the orphanage." She was a girl full of whimsical ideas.
Shen Yi said, "Not likely. Maybe he just felt like coming over to act crazy in front of me."
There had been no shortage of such people in her past life.
Acting like lunatics in front of her for no reason, bullying her a bit, then going to fawn over Song Yi with a nicer face.
Using all their sneaky tricks on her.
Those damn privileged elites!!
Shen Xun gave a soft "hmm," thoughtful.
He didn't think it was simply a matter of acting crazy.
Although he didn't understand matters of human emotion, judging solely from body language, when that boy looked at Shen Yi, his fingers tapped unconsciously, his face was tense, a bit defensive, yet also somewhat relaxed.
Very contradictory.
That person had definitely seen Shen Yi before.
"Why think about him?" Shen Yi didn't need to look to know her brother was pondering again. She randomly ruffled his face. "It's not important."
Whether he recognized her or not was utterly unimportant; only family was most important.
During her daily routine at school, Shen Yi typically listened to one class and slept through the next.
The other students studied very seriously.
These future young masters and misses had to grind hard or they'd be outdone. Shen Yi had no royal throne to inherit at home, so she just slept.
The teachers turned a blind eye to it.
If the child wanted to sleep, let her sleep, as long as she didn't cause trouble.
Shen Wenta hadn't come to school for nearly a month due to a broken arm and being sick, but his girlfriend, for some unknown reason, would often come to the classroom to find her to play with after class.
She also frequently brought Shen Yi some very cute little accessories.
"Xiao Yi, do you like it?" Pei Wanyan came again that day, waving a custom-made doll in her hand, her smile flawless.
After refusing a few times and finding her still persistent, Shen Yi simply took it and thanked her: "Thank you, sister."
Pei Wanyan was actually quite annoyed too.
She didn't understand why her boyfriend wanted her to keep an eye on this little girl?
When had Shen Wenta's restless need for control shifted from her onto his sister?
Calling it a need for control wasn't entirely accurate either.
Shen Wenta was a rather insecure person.
Prone to suspicion and excessive neuroticism.
Although Shen Wenta had promised to send her gifts, thinking about it, it still felt very unpleasant.
Was she some nanny he hired?
She had no issue with Shen Yi personally; it was just that Pei Wanyan also needed to confirm her own uniqueness.
During another video call, the girl half-coaxed, half-probed:
"Who is more important, me or your sister?"
"You." Shen Wenta answered quickly. Then, as if thinking of something, his thoughts drifted for a moment. "Why compare yourself to her?"
Did Pei Wanyan think that Shen Yi was... very important to him?
This realization sent an extremely peculiar feeling flitting through his heart.
Pei Wanyan spoke half-jokingly, but her tone held seriousness: "After all, I'm your girlfriend, isn't it normal to feel insecure? A sister is always a sister, but a girlfriend can be replaced anytime, right?"
Shen Wenta almost blurted out a "right."
