Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“Wow,” said the system. “You should have seen his face. It was terrifying.”

In tears, I flipped back and forth through my books, making up the knowledge I had missed.

“This is all your fault.”

“Everything is your fault.”

“You cold-blooded machine.”

“You don’t know what love is!”

“Ha,” the system said flatly. “I am a machine, so you’re right about that.”

“You’re awful! Why did you have to choose me?”

I studied and wept.

“Heh-heh.”

“…”

It made me so mad.

I turned my fury into fuel and studied savagely all night.

Sure enough, Wei Yan was angry the next day.

I had barely taken out my homework when he glanced at it and said coldly, “Copied it?”

“I did it myself.”

He scoffed and skimmed two pages.

“What, a sudden change of heart? With a brain like yours, studying is a waste of time.”

Whispers began around us.

“Xue Ruanruan has been working so hard lately.”

“It’s an act.”

“What could she possibly learn?”

“Wasn’t she near the bottom in the last monthly exam?”

My face turned scarlet. “M-my mom promised me a reward if I got better grades!”

It was a lie.

Mom didn’t care about my grades at all.

Wei Yan arched a brow, looking amused.

This was humiliating.

“A-actually, I don’t like studying at all. Studying is exhausting.”

That wasn’t quite true either.

The others lost interest in me.

I tugged Wei Yan into the corridor. Holding his books, he didn’t look my way. His lazy gaze rested somewhere in the distance.

I bit my lip and gently pulled at his sleeve, softening my voice.

“Wei Yan… don’t be mad. I didn’t mean to do that yesterday.”

The boy glanced sideways at me. A nasty smile tugged at his mouth.

“You want me to stop being mad? Fine.” His eyes dropped to my chest. “Wear pink tomorrow.”

“Huh?”

My face went up in flames.

So domineering.

I loved—

“Why doesn’t he wear pink?” the system cut in. “You’re not agreeing to that.”

I was about to nod when our homeroom teacher appeared.

“Xue Ruanruan, good timing. Come to my office too.”

Wei Yan and I went in together. He set down the homework and left, while I remained standing by the desk.

Our homeroom teacher was a woman in her forties who wore thin-framed glasses. Since my grades had always been awful and I routinely failed to hand in homework, she had often singled me out—making me stand during class and copy passages as punishment after school.

The nasty woman was going to scold me again.

She must be about to tear apart my tragic romance and say I was holding Wei—

“Ruanruan, I’ve noticed that you’ve been paying close attention in class and taking your homework seriously.”

She pulled my book from the stack and looked through it.

“This is excellent. Today’s work is another improvement over yesterday’s. I can see that you truly intend to learn.”

“Your foundation is weak in a few areas. Bring your test papers to me after school when you have time, and I’ll help you go through them.”

What?

I stared at her.

She took a sip from her thermos and looked back at me. The corner of her mouth lifted in a faint smile.

“It is never too late to start.”

She raised a hand and patted my head.

Her palm was a little rough too. Her fingertips grazed my forehead, making it itch—and somehow making my heart itch with it.

I went rigid.

Ms. Chen withdrew her hand. “You can go.”

I covered my face as I walked out of the office.

Sunlight poured through the corridor windows, dazzlingly bright.

My face felt hot.

Something had taken root in my chest. It climbed through me in a tingling, numbing vine.

What a strange feeling.

No teacher had ever praised me.

At my old school, they had only thought I was pretty and stupid. In the Jiang household, Uncle Jiang cared only about Jiang Zhan’s grades, while Mom cared only about whether people found me lovable.

No one had ever smiled like that because I had tried.

All I had done was turn in my homework.

I hadn’t even earned better marks on a test yet.

But she had already noticed me.

I pressed a hand to my chest. My heart seemed to be beating faster.

Could it be…

Did I like women too?

“What is wrong with you?” the system asked.

“But this is so strange,” I whispered. “Why am I this happy? And…”

I hesitated.

“I want to study even more now. What if I really do like women?”

The system was silent for three seconds.

“You don’t.”

“Then why?”

“Because someone acknowledged you.”

Was that all?

I thought it over, lowered my head, and scuffed the floor with my shoe.

Then I wanted her to acknowledge me again.