That evening, everything proceeded according to Mu Yue’s plan. After class ended at ten, the bath attendant and masseuse Qianqian had booked in advance were already waiting for her. Mu Yue hadn’t asked her to arrange this, but she had to admit that she was delighted by the arrangement.
With a needle still in her arm, Mu Yue couldn’t bathe by herself. After enjoying the full range of services, she felt refreshed from head to toe. The moment she lay down on the bed, sleepiness quickly swept over her, and Mu Yue fell straight asleep.
The Top Student had already lost several rounds. The Chick’s beady eyes were brimming with tears, but not because it had lost the games. It was simply moved by its host’s diligence. Who would have thought? This was only the first day since its host had transmigrated, yet she had no fantasies, no anxiety, and no complaints. She had studied for several hours straight! And in the test she took that evening, she had made very few mistakes. Without the help of any learning items, she had genuinely absorbed what she had learned in class that day!
Good grief! It had never seen such a steady and self-disciplined host!
It was now absolutely certain that this host wasn’t the kind of person who was enthusiastic for only three minutes. It had seen far too many people like that. Forget studying like Mu Yue did; they couldn’t even sit through a single class without getting distracted once.
Another round ended, and the “game room” darkened.
“Huh? The host went to sleep this early?” Comeback asked in surprise.
It was only eleven o’clock. Among all the hosts who hadn’t transmigrated to ancient times, who went to bed this early? If it wasn’t past midnight, could it really be called nighttime?
But since the host was already asleep, they might as well disperse. They could play a five-person team game tomorrow.
The other systems left, but Tycoon stayed behind. It glanced at the host again and confirmed that she really was asleep. It couldn’t help feeling a little surprised. This was also the “first” host Tycoon had encountered: the first one who hadn’t waited until after midnight for the daily check-in to refresh.
Even though they all knew they could check in after waking up the next morning, Tycoon’s previous hosts had still insisted on waiting until midnight, especially during the early stages.
Perhaps this host really would be different?
Despite repeatedly warning itself not to get its hopes up, Tycoon still couldn’t help feeling a little expectant.
The next day, Mu Yue woke up at seven. She had slept very well. She felt neither uneasy about having arrived in another world nor too excited to sleep because she had bound herself to four systems. She understood perfectly well how important sleep was.
After waking up, she first checked her phone and saw messages from several people she had marked as priorities. Since she hadn’t replied to any of them all day, the irritation in their texts was obvious. She took screenshots of them one by one, ordered breakfast, then got out of bed to wash up.
Today’s schedule was still packed. In the morning, she would get a new pair of glasses and attend class. In the afternoon, she would continue attending class and pick up Lin Xiaoxiao. The evening would proceed as usual.
Third-year students generally only had Saturdays off. They had two classes in the afternoon before being dismissed, but there was still plenty of homework to do during that single day off. In reality, students had barely any time to relax.
At eight-thirty, Qianqian arrived for work. Mu Yue gave her another task: find two lawyers, one experienced in handling school bullying and the other experienced in handling property embezzlement between relatives.
She didn’t need to deal with either matter today, but she wanted to find the right people in advance and ask about the relevant procedures. That way, it would save a lot of trouble when the time came to handle things later.
Qianqian’s fingers paused on the tablet when she heard the words “bullying” and “property embezzlement.” She only said, “All right,” and didn’t ask anything else. Her employer clearly had no desire to confide in her, so Qianqian naturally wouldn’t be tactless.
Thinking about the expense of hiring lawyers, Mu Yue began her check-in. She chose one hundred thousand yuan. Upgrading the system to Level 1 was the best option. She could open blind boxes later, when she no longer had to worry about money.
After making the arrangements, Mu Yue checked Tycoon’s spending records. There were still several thousand yuan left to spend before she reached one hundred thousand, so she immediately ordered a new laptop for express delivery. One point and one experience point were added to her account.
Now that she had points, she could use the store. One point could buy something, but most of the items were limited-time trial cards, and their durations were extremely short. The shortest lasted only one second, while the longest lasted no more than three minutes. Permanent items required five points, but Mu Yue wasn’t interested in most of them. What caught her eye were the attribute points.
Like in a game, five points could buy one point of Health, Strength, Agility, or another basic attribute. Beauty was more expensive, requiring ten points for one point. There were also other, even more expensive attributes.
Mu Yue closed the store. She had eighty-six thousand yuan left in her account. That money would be easy enough to spend. A pair of glasses and two pairs of good shoes would use up more than half of it, and two outfits wouldn’t be enough to wear. She also needed to stock up on nutritional supplements and skincare products. The chilblains on her hands were especially troublesome; after the air conditioner had been turned up during class the previous night, they had become both itchy and painful.
After calculating everything carefully, she realized that even eighty thousand yuan might not be enough. She would buy new clothes tomorrow, but she also needed to reserve twenty thousand yuan, since some lawyers charged by the hour.
Meanwhile, at No. 7 High School, hardly anyone was still talking about the “Young Miss.” Most students were eager to go home on Saturday. The topic being discussed most was the upcoming Qingming Festival holiday. According to rumors, the three-day break would be cut down to a single day.
The Qingming Festival was still more than half a month away, but it was also the nearest long weekend. For third-year students, who had only one day off each week, that holiday was extremely important. Unfortunately, this year Qingming fell on a Wednesday, an awkward position right in the middle of the week, so there was a high chance they would only be given one day off.
Lin Xiaoxiao was also wailing about it. Leng Ming’s birthday was next month, and she had already planned to ask Mu Yue to accompany her during the Qingming holiday to choose a birthday present. She also wanted to learn how to cook from Mu Yue. By then, she hoped to make Leng Ming a meal and a cake herself.
Every time she imagined the expression Leng Ming might show upon receiving them, Lin Xiaoxiao rested her chin in both hands and couldn’t help smiling. But her smile soon turned melancholy. She knew her own abilities. If they only had one day off, she probably wouldn’t be able to learn in time. Perhaps she could learn a little every weekend instead?
Days off always passed especially quickly. When the final class ended, the classroom filled with excitement. Some students were making plans to play basketball, others were arranging ranked matches or planning to see a movie. Lin Xiaoxiao was packing up as well, but just as she was about to leave the classroom, she received a call from Mu Yue.
When she heard what Mu Yue was saying, she couldn’t believe her ears. “Huh? Yueyue, you want the homework? And all the test papers handed out this week too?”
Because she was so shocked, her voice had risen a little too loudly, and the other students in the class heard her. Someone immediately let out a mocking laugh. They didn’t say anything, but their meaning was clear: the student who ranked near the bottom of the class had skipped half a week of school, and instead of being happy about it, she actually wanted the homework?
Lin Xiaoxiao’s face grew slightly warm as well, feeling as though she was being mocked too. She realized that she probably shouldn’t have reacted that way. At the very least, her tone shouldn’t have been so exaggerated. Yueyue only had poor grades; that didn’t mean she didn’t want to study.
She hurriedly told Mu Yue that she understood and that she would go ask the teacher for a copy right away. When she reached the teachers’ office, she immediately spotted Leng Ming. His homeroom teacher from Class One was speaking to him with a broad smile.
When he saw her enter, Leng Ming glanced over once, then looked away. Lin Xiaoxiao felt a little disappointed, but she didn’t forget why she had come. She found her own homeroom teacher and asked for a copy of the test paper.
The homeroom teacher looked a little surprised, then said with relief, "Great, it's good that you're willing to put in the effort. We still have one semester left, work hard, and even the impossible might turn into something achievable."
Noticing the gaze Leng Ming cast over, Lin Xiaoxiao opened her mouth, but did not say that this was not what she wanted. She only quietly mumbled a "Thank you, teacher" before leaving the office.
She waited outside for a moment, and from the corner of her eye she spotted Leng Ming walking out. Lin Xiaoxiao squatted down to pick up the exam papers that had spilled onto the ground, when a pair of sneakers stopped right in front of her. The boy had one hand tucked in his pocket, making no move to offer help. He looked down at her, with undisguised disdain on his face: "Clumsy as can be, can't even hold a few exam papers properly?"
"Since you're set on studying, come find me tonight, I'll tutor you."
Lin Xiaoxiao immediately forgot the slight unhappiness she felt after hearing his first remark, and agreed with a bright, delighted expression.
"I'd advise you not to let him tutor you." Mu Yue met Lin Xiaoxiao, and the moment they saw each other, Lin Xiaoxiao shared the whole story of Leng Ming offering to tutor her.
The cheerful look on Lin Xiaoxiao's face faded away.
Mu Yue continued, "If you want tutoring, you can study with me. I've hired a tutor, that teacher is really..."
"That's not the same at all! Leng Ming is the top student in the entire grade, he even turned down the guaranteed university spot, all the teachers say he's a shoo-in to take the top score in this year's college entrance exam!" Besides, this was a chance for her to spend time alone with him!
Lin Xiaoxiao sized up the car, frowned and said unhappily, "Is this the car you were talking about? Why didn't you tell me anything about it? Are we even good friends anymore? I even went out of my way to argue with other people for you..."
Mu Yue had come to pick Lin Xiaoxiao up right after finishing her IV drip. Even though she was a side character who only served to push the plot forward in this campus romance novel, the female lead truly considered the original host her friend, and would step in to help her out when she had problems — though the results of those help attempts varied. Mu Yue had taken over the original host's role as the female lead's best friend, and of course she would help Lin Xiaoxiao improve her grades if that was what she wanted.
Besides, professional matters are best left to professionals, that's far more efficient.
What could she possibly learn studying with the male lead? Learn to be wrapped up in his scent? Learn to have her hair brush against the back of his hand? Learn to lock eyes with him and end up kissing without even thinking about it?
Lin Xiaoxiao was never really focused on studying in the first place, how could she possibly concentrate on her books when she's right next to the male lead? The original plot was exactly the same: under Leng Ming's tutoring, Lin Xiaoxiao barely scraped past the undergraduate cutoff line. The novel never went into details about it, but plenty of side descriptions made it clear that the school she got into was a lousy, unaccredited diploma mill, with an admission score that was the absolute lowest among all third-tier undergraduate colleges.
But Mu Yue had missed one point: at this stage, Lin Xiaoxiao was already head over heels for Leng Ming, and would not listen to anything that could get in the way of her romance.
From Lin Xiaoxiao's point of view, her best friend should be happy for her, that she got to spend more time with Leng Ming, especially over something as positive as studying. But instead, Mu Yue was telling her not to take tutoring from him. If she thought about it lightly, Mu Yue just didn't want her to spend all her time on a guy. If she thought about it deeper... could it be that Mu Yue also had a crush on him?
Tsk! Mu Yue leaned back slightly, deciding not to bring up that topic with Lin Xiaoxiao anymore, and shifted to the topic Lin Xiaoxiao had just brought up: "It all happened out of the blue, I didn't mean to keep it from you. Alright, what do you want to eat tonight? I promised to treat you to a fancy meal earlier."
Lin Xiaoxiao's expression softened, and she started talking about what she wanted to order with Mu Yue. Soon, the two of them were chatting and laughing again, and before long, Lin Xiaoxiao was bringing up her aloof heartthrob once more.
She said she already told Mrs. Leng that she would have dinner with Mu Yue tonight and wouldn't head home until later, and that when Leng Ming found out about it and learned the dinner was at a hotel, he called her.
"He even yelled at me!" The girl beside her hung her head, pretending to be annoyed, but a faint blush rose on her cheeks. "He called me an idiot, said it's not safe for me to come to a hotel for dinner alone, and I had to explain it to him for ages."
Mu Yue massaged her temples. "He yells at you and calls you names, and you're not upset? And this isn't the first or second time either, right? It feels to me like he doesn't respect you at all."
Novels always love to write about how cold the male lead is, how he keeps everyone at a distance, and pair that with a dumb, sweet female lead as the heroine. Then the male lead can call her a pig or a stupid woman every other sentence, and keep calling her clumsy nonstop.
Mu Yue never found any of that sweet or endearing, or whatever they tried to pass off as "affectionate". All she saw was rudeness and emotional manipulation.
"How could that be?" Lin Xiaoxiao looked at Mu Yue curiously. In the past, whenever she talked about Leng Ming to Mu Yue, Mu Yue would look at her with nothing but envy. What was wrong with her today? But Lin Xiaoxiao didn't think too much of it, her eyes were full of nothing but giddiness. "I know he does it for my own good, he's just worried about me. Oh, you just don't get it!"
Mu Yue: "Ugh, fine. I can't reason with people who are completely blinded by love."
