Unfortunately, Mu Yue didn’t manage to earn any villain points this time. From the moment Lin Xiaoxiao returned from the hospital, she had been ranting nonstop about Leng Ming. She was completely disillusioned with him.
The reason, in the end, was that Leng Ming had directed all his resentment at Lin Xiaoxiao. He blamed her for making a mountain out of a molehill. Wasn’t it just that, when she had followed him out that day, one of his friends had made a couple of comments to her? And yet she had actually moved out of his house. After that, she had gone out of her way to avoid him and hadn’t even come to his birthday. If it hadn’t been for her, how could he have been in such a bad mood and gotten into a fight with someone?
“I seriously can’t believe it!” Lin Xiaoxiao still found the whole thing unbelievable. Her voice had practically gone shrill. “Yueyue, I feel like I only got to know him today. Why doesn’t he blame the school for organizing that trip to the cultural museum? Why doesn’t he blame the sun for being so hot? This was obviously his own problem, but the way he tells it, it sounds like I was the one who made him fight someone!”
And honestly, she wasn’t wrong. With this kind of low-level emotional manipulation, the old Lin Xiaoxiao might really have believed that it was her fault. She might have thought that if she hadn’t upset Leng Ming, nothing would have happened to him. She would then have felt guilty and tried every possible way to make it up to him.
But that was the old Lin Xiaoxiao. The current Lin Xiaoxiao had leveled up. She was learning to think for herself instead of blindly believing whatever other people told her.
Although she hadn’t gotten any villain points, Mu Yue listened with great interest. This time, Lin Xiaoxiao hadn’t merely refused to believe the male lead—she had absolutely torn him to shreds. The most devastating line of all was: “I used to think too highly of you. Turns out you’re nothing special. You’re no different from an ordinary person.”
Leng Ming had been a genius since childhood, an outstanding student, the kind of “other people’s child” everyone compared themselves to. Wherever he went, he naturally became the center of attention. Those words struck him right where it hurt. He completely lost his composure and roared at Lin Xiaoxiao to get out, making an utterly undignified spectacle of himself.
Thankfully, neither family’s adults had been in the hospital room at the time. Otherwise, both families’ relationship would have become incredibly awkward.
Lin Xiaoxiao was now completely unburdened. “Anyway, I left in the end. Now, whenever I think of him, all I can picture is the way he screamed at me. He looked so pathetic.”
After finishing her rant, Lin Xiaoxiao suddenly shifted the conversation to the photos taken by their class that day. Their class group chat was discussing them too. Quite a few students had taken photos at the cultural museum, including the teachers who had accompanied them and their homeroom teacher. There were individual portraits, scenic shots, and plenty of group photos.
The class group chat was currently flooded with pictures—ordinary ones, ridiculous ones, and some edited so skillfully they were practically works of art. As everyone chatted, someone suddenly shared a post from H City’s senior-year forum. Most high schools had taken part in the day’s event, and the cultural museum was a great place for taking photos. Almost every student who had gone had snapped a few. The post was simply a collection of photos from the day.
At first, everything was fairly normal. But as more and more handsome boys and beautiful girls appeared, the tone of the post gradually changed. What had begun as a simple photo-sharing thread turned into a popularity ranking.
Seeing how lively things had become, the original poster immediately created a new thread, inviting senior students from different schools across H City to submit photos for a vote. Only the school names would be included—no personal names—and the goal was to choose the most beautiful girl and the most handsome boy.
As everyone knew, students were especially enthusiastic about anything unrelated to their studies. Within less than two minutes of the post going up, beautiful photos from various schools began flooding in.
Lin Xiaoxiao stopped replying halfway through the conversation. Mu Yue guessed that she had either gone to watch videos or gotten busy with something else, so she didn’t continue chatting either. Their class was having a dinner gathering that evening, but Mu Yue had no intention of attending. It hadn’t been easy for her to give herself a break, and she had other plans for the night.
She had booked a high-end bathhouse and was planning to relax properly. The establishment catered exclusively to women. Whether it was beauty treatments, wellness services, or food, it had received excellent reviews. But the service was what people praised most.
Mm, the service provided by male technicians.
Of course, everything officially offered there was perfectly legitimate; no illegal activities took place on the premises. Customers and employees were free to contact each other privately, though, and no one else had any right to interfere.
Mu Yue hadn’t even graduated from high school yet, so naturally she wasn’t going there for any additional services. She was simply going to take a bath, get a massage, have a meal, enjoy some beauty treatments—and, at the same time, feast her eyes a little.
She had heard that the male “models”—no, male technicians—there tended to have a clean-cut, innocent look. They weren’t greasy or overly slick, making them very easy on the eyes. With eyesight as bad as hers—she was severely nearsighted—it was only right that she look at a few things beneficial to her vision.
On a more serious note, the points shop also carried an item that could adjust one’s eyesight instantly. It was painless and required no surgery, but cost one hundred points. Mu Yue could actually afford it, but she had never bought it, mainly because she was too lazy to keep up the disguise.
The original owner of this body had eyesight worse than 800 degrees, and she was already this close to the gaokao. Where would she find the time for surgery or recovery? Once her eyesight improved, she wouldn’t need glasses anymore. Without any kind of disguise, that simply wouldn’t do. She had heard of people with mild prescriptions of one or two hundred degrees recovering their eyesight, but she had never heard of anyone with vision worse than 800 degrees doing the same. As for disguising it, her options were either to keep wearing glasses or switch to contact lenses. It was too easy to tell whether glasses had prescription lenses in them, while colored contacts were harder to detect—but what if she forgot one day? What if someone happened to notice on that very day?
Mu Yue didn’t like leaving anything to chance. Once the gaokao was over, she would be free to go wherever she pleased. If her nearsightedness disappeared then, people who knew her and saw her again would simply assume she had undergone surgery. It would be safe, convenient, and free of hidden risks.
While Lin Xiaoxiao was rallying the entire class to vote for one of Mu Yue’s photos on Tieba, Mu Yue herself had already arrived at the bathhouse.
As soon as she arrived, someone came out to greet her and led her to a private bath reserved for one guest.
She had booked the luxury package, which cost 88,000 yuan and included one meal and an overnight stay. Although it was indoors, the bath had been decorated to resemble an enchanted forest from a fairy tale. There wasn’t the slightest hint of tacky, nouveau-riche extravagance—only a fresh and elegant atmosphere. Even the path from the entrance to the bath was paved with rounded pebbles, while both sides were decorated with natural-looking plants, some real and some artificial. Unless one looked closely, it was impossible to tell them apart.
Putting everything else aside, the visual appeal of this private bath was flawless. The lighting and atmosphere were equally exceptional. It was probably the sort of place where almost any photo would turn out beautifully.
And that was indeed the case. When the attendant showing Mu Yue around introduced the facilities, she mentioned that quite a few internet celebrities had come there to take photos.
Besides that, the moss-covered stream rocks arranged around the bath were also real—the mushrooms on them and the fruit hanging from the trees were all edible. The rocks, however, were not.
There would be room service later, and Mu Yue could choose whether to eat at the table in her room or in the bath.
Dinner consisted of Chinese and Japanese cuisine, with Japanese food being the specialty.
Mu Yue went with their recommendation: Japanese food, to be enjoyed while soaking. By the time she finished her meal, she had soaked for long enough and could move on to the other services.
While getting into the bath, Mu Yue took a look at the establishment’s other luxurious pools. She had to admit, they really knew what they were doing when it came to design. Besides her forest-themed room, there was a lotus pond modeled after Sendai, a plum-blossom grove, a spring flower bath, an extravagant golden palace, and a European-style statue pool…
No wonder the place had such excellent reviews. Just looking at the pictures made her fall in love with nearly every one of them. She was already wondering which one to try next time.
The mushrooms on the stream rocks were actually boxes of foie gras disguised as mushrooms. The fruit on the trees was real, and the branches were real too, though they had been kept remarkably fresh. The ingredients in the Japanese dishes were incredibly fresh, and the sea urchin was especially sweet.
The only downside was that eating alone while soaking alone was a little boring, even though there were staff members attending to her the whole time.
Since she hadn’t even graduated from high school, inviting a guy over would have been inappropriate. If only she’d known, she would have brought Lin Xiaoxiao along.
Once the novelty wore off, Mu Yue stopped after eating about seventy percent of her fill. She still had a massage later, and being too full would make it uncomfortable.
After putting on a yukata, she had one of the staff dry her hair before leading her to the massage room. It was separate from the bath area, since the latter was humid and filled with steam.
When she came out, she entered a hallway. The hallway was a shared public area, and Mu Yue happened to run into two girls who had just finished bathing as well.
They looked like regulars, each with a male attendant following behind her. Mu Yue glanced at them and gave a slight nod. The rumors had been confirmed.
“Does Fang Baiwei really think she’ll get through the gaokao smoothly? Ha, dream on!”
“Xinxin, what are you planning to do? You mustn’t do anything foolish for my sake! Besides, it might all be a misunderstanding.”
“Hah! Who told her to bully you? You’re going to be my sister-in-law someday. If she bullies you, it’s the same as bullying me! Besides, with her background, where does she get the nerve to act superior to you? Illegitimate sons and daughters like her are the worst!”
“Ah, it’s not as though she had a choice…”
What on earth was this? Mu Yue had originally only been passing them by, but the conversation was so overflowing with juicy gossip that her head turned before she could stop herself.
The male attendants following the two girls blocked her from view, so they didn’t notice Mu Yue. They had already entered a room, and since there was some distance between them, Mu Yue couldn’t hear what was said afterward.
Fang Baiwei.
As Mu Yue selected her next service from the list, she mulled over the name.
The true heiress in the story about the true and false heiresses was named Fang Baiwei. Judging by that conversation, there was little doubt that this was the female protagonist.
In this novel, Mu Yue was nothing more than a passerby. All she needed to do was get into A University. She had skimmed through very little of the novel’s plot, so she hadn’t expected to run into one of its important characters so soon.
After choosing her project, Mu Yue took another look at the novel. At this point in the timeline, the female lead had not yet returned from rebirth.
This girl named something-Xin and the false heiress had indeed succeeded. On the day of the college entrance exam, they cut up the true heiress’s admission ticket, preventing the female lead from taking the exam.
Naturally, the female lead had been devastated and heartbroken at the time, but it wasn’t as though she had reached a dead end. She could simply study for another year and retake the exam.
But then came the truly disgusting part.
The false heiress was successfully admitted to university, yet she had already arranged for people at the high school the female lead was supposed to attend. That repeat year became the beginning of the female lead’s despair. She was bullied, humiliated, and slandered. Her classmates called her a slut, indecent photos of her spread throughout the school, and she was eventually expelled.
The female lead never connected any of it to the false heiress—not only because the false heiress was no longer in the same city, but also because whenever her parents and family looked at her with disappointment or scolded her, the false heiress would defend her. She would even defy their parents and take slaps on the female lead’s behalf. The female lead had believed they were truly sisters.
The wealthy parents felt that the female lead had thoroughly disgraced the family. They tossed her abroad like garbage. Alone in a foreign country, unfamiliar with everything around her, she sank even deeper into despair.
And even that wasn’t the end.
Somehow, the false heiress obtained a pervert’s contact information and drew his attention to the female lead. The female lead was imprisoned overseas for four years and subjected to countless inhuman torments before ultimately dying a miserable death.
“...” After only a few chapters, Mu Yue’s fists had clenched and unclenched several times, her entire face scrunched up in outrage.
She’d thought the girl was just an ordinary scheming green-tea type, but she was actually this vicious and ruthless?
Mu Yue couldn’t help glancing toward the wall separating her from the next room. The girl she had just seen really had looked like nothing more than a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old. She wasn’t some ancient monster in disguise, was she?
Mu Yue continued reading.
After the girl died, she was reborn. She returned to the very day her admission ticket was cut up—the day of the college entrance exam.
Mu Yue’s first thought was: The female lead is incredible. She was reborn on the day of the exam, before she’d even had time to recover emotionally, and she still managed to get into a top-tier university!
Mu Yue had spent months cramming herself to death, even with cheats on her side, and she still didn’t dare say for certain that her score would stay above 550.
Stop!
Don’t think about it anymore. She didn’t want to think about anything related to studying today!
If the female lead hadn’t been reborn, then after seeing such a tragic plot, Mu Yue, as a normal person, would definitely have helped that pitiful eighteen-year-old girl. But the female lead would soon return after being reborn. If Mu Yue did anything unnecessary, she might instead interfere with the female lead’s chance to rise from the ashes.
After thinking it over, Mu Yue directly called on the systems and asked them about it. Their answer was exactly what she had expected: it was best not to interfere with the plot before the protagonist’s rebirth, lest something unforeseen and uncontrollable happen.
Besides, even according to the original plot of that novel, the true heiress’s tragedy did not truly begin until her repeat year. Right now, she was merely neglected at home. Compared with everything that came later, this barely even counted as a problem.
Soon, four male technicians and servers, each with his own distinctive charm, arrived.
Mu Yue’s face brightened once again. As for the true heiress, she would simply play the role of an amused spectator and wait for the heroine to be reborn and start wreaking havoc. That was all she needed to do.
For now, she would enjoy her own life.
Even at a time like this, she didn’t forget about Lin Xiaoxiao. She asked the four young men whether she could take some photos. After receiving their permission, she snapped several pictures and sent them to Lin Xiaoxiao—not for any particular reason, but simply to raise her standards of beauty.
Leng Ming was no longer an option, but she still had to guard against Lin Xiaoxiao finding another one in the trash.
Lin Xiaoxiao didn’t reply immediately. Instead, she was completely immersed in her enthusiasm for canvassing votes for Mu Yue. This was no longer merely an individual competition—it had become a battle between schools!
Mu Yue had already made a name for herself at No. 7 High School. What Mu Yue didn’t know, however, was that Lin Xiaoxiao wasn’t the only one working behind her back. Comeback had also secretly gone online.
That’s right—the person who had posted Mu Yue’s stunning photos on the forum was it!
The photo it had taken showed Mu Yue by the lake beneath a willow tree, raising one hand to shield her face from the dazzling sunlight filtering through the leaves. The lighting, atmosphere, natural feel, outfit, makeup, and her overall state were all top-notch. Among the countless photos enhanced with filters and Photoshop, Mu Yue’s picture stood out. Her vote count surpassed that of several class beauties from No. 7 High School by an overwhelming margin, making her the current pride of the school.
And the best part was that some talented person had even paired the photo with a poem. Just like that, it gained an air of sophistication. It might not guarantee first place, but at the very least, Mu Yue had become well-known among several high schools.
“Willow threads droop, mirrored waters reflect her radiant grace;
She stands amid the misty light, as if a figure from a painting.”
Even after the May Day holiday had ended, Lin Xiaoxiao still couldn’t forget those lines. After reciting them, she clasped her hands to her cheeks and said to Mu Yue, “Yueyue, listen to how beautiful that is! I wonder which genius wrote it—how are they so good at praising people? Waaaah, I’m jealous of their talent! I’m definitely going to study Chinese properly!”
Mu Yue, who had only just found out what Lin Xiaoxiao and her classmates had been busy with over the holiday, was speechless. “You people really are bored…”
Still, she had to admit that the compliment was on a much higher level than the usual ones.
The commotion lasted only a few days. Soon, they had no time for such things anymore—the final mock exam before the college entrance examination was about to begin.
Mu Yue’s study assignments had already been refreshed after her previous results came out. This time, there were many more tasks, including achievements, challenges, and even a main quest.
1. Score at least 580 points on this mock exam: 50 points.
2. Challenge: Exceed her previous highest score in three subjects: 50 points.
3. High-Level Scholar: Score at least 75 out of 100—or 125 out of 150—in every subject: 300 points.
4. For every tier of the college entrance examination admission cutoff she clears, gain 100 points, up to a maximum of 400 points.
5. Successfully gain admission to a first-tier university: 500 points.
These tasks, including the ones related to the college entrance examination, had all been issued at once. At first, the Scholar system had been extremely stingy, giving only ten points for completing a task while deducting a hundred for failure. But now that she thought about it, the tasks might be difficult, yet the rewards were actually quite generous.
With so many points laid out before her—and with her still paying things off in installments—Mu Yue would have to work twice as hard if she wanted to claim them all.
The mock exams quickly tightened the students’ hearts as their break came to an end. With the college entrance examination drawing closer and closer, the seniors in their final year of high school began their last all-out sprint. Swept up in the atmosphere, even the students with the poorest grades in the class had buried their heads in their books and started studying hard.
Lin Xiaoxiao was one of the most diligent among them.
She had done terribly on the last mock exam. Not only had she never studied seriously throughout high school, but she had failed to master even some of the material from middle school. Her foundations were so weak that her score was only enough for an ordinary vocational college—and not even a particularly good one at that, just a second-rate institution. A good vocational college was no worse than some third-tier universities.
Now that she had finally gathered her mind, Lin Xiaoxiao began working hard as well. She did not have enough time to relearn everything from the beginning as quickly as Mu Yue had, nor did her abilities allow for it. Her tutor’s advice was to adopt a strategy of intensive practice: solve problem after problem, relentlessly. As long as she practiced enough different types of questions, she was bound to encounter some of them on the college entrance examination. This method worked for the vast majority of students.
After the mock exams, Mu Yue applied to study at home. The tutors’ pay was increased several times over, and the tutoring staff expanded from two people to five, essentially becoming a full tutoring team. Every day, the exercises she completed were marked that same day. The tutors would then carefully explain and analyze the types of questions she had gotten wrong, making sure she thoroughly understood and mastered all the relevant concepts.
Lin Xiaoxiao continued attending school. Mu Yue’s tutoring fees were simply too expensive, and Lin Xiaoxiao was already embarrassed to keep taking advantage of her generosity. Besides, Mu Yue was the one paying for everything, and the tutors’ pace was primarily based on Mu Yue’s level. Lin Xiaoxiao might not even have been able to keep up if she attended the lessons.
Still, every week Mu Yue gave her a set of practice papers. Lin Xiaoxiao would complete them in her spare time and return them the following week for the tutors to mark.
Lin Xiaoxiao’s progress was visible to everyone.
One day, she went to the teachers’ office because of a question on one of the papers. She had gotten the paper from Mu Yue, but had become stuck halfway through solving one of the problems. Her classmates were all busy with their own studies, and she did not want to take up anyone else’s time, so she went to the office to ask a teacher for help.
The teacher first explained the problem to her. After making sure she understood it, however, the teacher did not immediately return the paper. Instead, they glanced over the questions Lin Xiaoxiao had already completed. The teacher’s smile was one of genuine delight.
“Student Lin, see? Hard work really does pay off, doesn’t it? Your performance over the past two months has been excellent. I believe you’ll be able to hand in an answer sheet you can be proud of on the college entrance examination. Keep it up!”
At that moment, Lin Xiaoxiao’s eyes suddenly grew hot. She nodded emphatically.
“Yes! You’re right. I know. I’ll keep working hard and do my best! Thank you, Teacher!”
She walked out of the office with the paper in her hands, never noticing that Leng Ming was standing in front of the homeroom teacher’s desk in Class One.
The scene seemed to overlap with a certain day in the past, yet it was completely different from that day.
Back then, she had come to get a set of papers for Mu Yue. She had not wanted to do the homework at all. When the teacher praised her, she had pretended to be modest in front of Leng Ming, deliberately failing to mention that the papers were for Mu Yue and allowing him to assume that she was the one who intended to do them. She had wanted Leng Ming to think she was a diligent girl, too.
But now, she no longer needed to prove herself to anyone.
She was living for herself—and working hard for her future.
Leng Ming walked silently out of the office. Out in the corridor, that clumsy girl who could barely manage to carry a few exam papers was nowhere to be seen.
The day before the college entrance examination, all the high schools in H City were closed for the day. There were no regular classes, but the students still came to school for the familiarization session and the class meeting. “Familiarizing themselves with the examination venue” certainly did not mean they could enter the rooms ahead of time. It mainly meant learning the routes—especially for students who had been assigned to take the exam at another school.
The class meeting consisted of the same pre-exam preparations that had been repeated countless times, along with reminders about staying healthy and watching their diets. They were warned not to end up with an upset stomach during the college entrance examination. The female teachers even shared their experience regarding menstruation. Finally, they were told to relax and not become overly nervous.
No one knew whether the students were nervous, but many of the parents certainly were. Superstitious rituals were also particularly common over the past few days. No matter how speechless the students looked, their parents were determined to carry them through.
Mu Yue went as well. The class meeting did not last very long. She had already put in all the effort she could, and there were only the two remaining parts of the college entrance examination left on her academic agenda; she had already completed the other three tasks.
She truly was not nervous. After all, she had already taken the exam once before and had experience. But she could tell that Lin Xiaoxiao was extremely tense. Even worse, Lin Xiaoxiao’s father was more nervous than she was. His entire face was pale, and cold sweat kept pouring from him despite the sweltering heat. Mu Yue could not even decide whether to calm Lin Xiaoxiao first or her father.
If Lin Xiaoxiao had still been getting her old grades, Lin’s father naturally would not have had much to worry about. But now, his daughter had a chance of getting into a good university. How could he not be nervous? He was afraid that she would do poorly and become discouraged and upset. He had seen all the effort she had put in over the past few months. He was proud of her, but at the same time, his heart ached for her.
His daughter had truly grown up.
Mu Yue could not stand watching the two of them tremble anxiously in front of her. Nor did she let Lin Xiaoxiao go home and continue fretting with her father. After persuading Lin’s father to leave, Mu Yue took Lin Xiaoxiao straight to the bathhouse they had visited last time. They would not be eating out today, but there was absolutely no problem with taking a soak and getting a massage.
Besides…
Lin Xiaoxiao watched one handsome man after another walk into the room. Her face quickly grew hot, and her eyes began to lose focus.
“Yue… Yueyue, wh-what is this…?”
She swallowed. Was she really worthy of enjoying something like this?
She suddenly remembered that during the May holiday, Mu Yue had unexpectedly sent her several videos of handsome men. She had assumed Mu Yue was sharing short videos of some boy band and had not paid them much attention. But had it actually been this kind of thing?!
Ahhh! How could she possibly deserve such a generous, open-minded, and sharing-oriented best friend?
She swore that she would never allow anyone to defy Mu Yue—not even herself!
That night, when Lin Xiaoxiao went home to sleep, her dreams were filled with one “Miss,” “Classmate,” and “Young lady” after another, while the cool, delicate fragrance of plum blossoms lingered all around her.
On the day of the college entrance examination, Mu Yue stepped into the examination room with a calm heart.
Before leaving, Lin Xiaoxiao checked her belongings more than ten times. After finding the exam room, she also located the restroom. Thanks to Mu Yue, she had slept well the night before. Though she was still somewhat nervous, once the exam actually began, she realized it was not as frightening as she had imagined. She could trust herself.
Meanwhile, Fang Baiwei, who was taking the exam at No. 7 Middle School, had lost the clear, timid look in her eyes when she woke that morning. All that remained was boundless hatred and ruthlessness. At that very moment, she was leading a teacher to the girls’ restroom, where they caught a girl in the act of maliciously cutting up someone else’s admission ticket.
The examination officially began. Mu Yue, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Fang Baiwei all sat in their assigned seats.
There were two empty seats in the exam room, both belonging to girls: one to Xinxin, and the other to Fang. Xinxin had cut up Fang’s admission ticket, and the two had gotten into a fierce struggle. The police were escorting the brawling pair away from the examination area so they would not disturb the other candidates.
