Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The lab was unusually noisy because Xiao Xu had arrived.

This legendary upperclassman was only a junior, yet he had already taken first prize in all kinds of competitions.

Everyone crowded around him.

Everyone except me.

I worked on my experiment while listening to their chatter.

“Senior, I heard you’ve never had a girlfriend. Is that true?”

Xiao Xu gave a soft “Mm.”

His voice was cool and distant, plucking at some string deep in my mind.

“Then have you never fallen for anyone before?”

The moment those words left her mouth, the lab went quiet.

Everyone was waiting for his answer.

Xiao Xu stood a head taller than the rest of them. The early spring breeze stirred the fine ends of his hair.

“I have.

“When I hated her, I wished she would hurry up and disappear.

“But when she really did disappear, I spent every last bit of strength I had trying to find her.”

I calmly studied my experiment as if I hadn’t heard a thing.

Someone couldn’t resist gossiping. “Was that person Shen Yuan? I heard you’ve been pursuing Shen Yuan lately, Senior.”

Xiao Xu didn’t answer.

Speak of the devil.

Shen Yuan happened to push the door open right then, smiling brightly. “Sorry, Xiao Xu. I’m late.”

Everyone started hooting and teasing them.

I looked up for a moment.

Shen Yuan was beautiful, the universally acknowledged campus belle.

That face of hers filled me with nostalgia.

Because she looked seventy percent like the me from my previous life.

But in the end, she wasn’t me.

She wasn’t the last princess of Daxu, Xiao Lanting.

I looked nothing like I used to now, except for my eyes.

To keep Xiao Xu from noticing me, I wore nearsighted glasses every day.

Shen Yuan was the exact opposite.

Aside from her eyes, every part of her resembled me.

A very long time ago, Xiao Xu once said to me, “Your Highness’s eyes are truly beautiful.”

I said, “Then look at them a little longer.”

Xiao Xu lowered his head and knelt in obeisance. “How could this humble servant be worthy of looking directly into the princess’s eyes?”

But later, he killed my imperial father and turned the palace into a sea of blood.

I was taken hostage and locked away deep inside the palace.

When I cried until these eyes went blind, all he said was, “Lan Ting, you’ll stay with me, won’t you?”

The ringing of my phone pulled me back from my thoughts.

I held up the phone and slipped out through the back door.

“Lan Ting, are you coming home for the break-”

My mom’s voice was loud. My heart lurched, and I looked up toward Xiao Xu.

His back was to me. He probably hadn’t heard.

By coincidence, my nickname in this life was Lan Ting.

My dad loved calligraphy, but his own writing was honestly terrible. Since his idol was Wang Xizhi, he gave me this name.

I said, “Mom, I’m at school. Use my real name.”

“What does it matter? It’s not like anyone else can hear.”

“What if they do?”

“Fine, fine, fine. Student Gu Yu, are you coming home for May Day or not?”

In my previous life, my consort mother died early, and my imperial father had a strange and violent temper.

Fortunately, in this life, I had been born into an ordinary family with gentle, adorable parents.

After I finished the call with my mom, I suddenly felt a sharp gaze boring into my back.

At some point, Xiao Xu had appeared there, standing alone three meters away.

“Just now-”

He parted his lips carelessly.

“What did your mother call you?”