“Why should I help you explain?” Shi Sheng tilted her head, a somewhat cold expression on her face.
Ji Xiaoyu’s face paled. She retreated, her body shaking from the reminder. ‘She was the one behind this in the first place, so how could she possibly help me out? Even though I only bothered her a bit during dance practice, she went and got back at me like this…
As I thought, children from rich families are all horrible people. All of their hearts are twisted beneath their bright exteriors!’
“Tsk. How is your face so thick, Ji Xiaoyu? First you seduced Bei-shao; now you’re sucking up to his sister. Do you really think she doesn’t know about those filthy thoughts of yours?”
Ji Xiaoyu spun around to look at that girl with a ferocious expression. That expression with those tear streaks running down her face created a rather terrifying image.
The girl had been startled, but after coming to her senses she shouted, “Ji Xiaoyu, what are you staring at?!”
Ji Xiaoyu lunged for that girl as if she had been enraged. “You seduced people! I didn’t seduce Bei-shao!”
The two ended up in a catfight, and the surrounding onlookers only managed to separate them after much effort. Shi Sheng watched the fight end as the male lead entered the stage.
Bei Ze had been observing from afar. It looked as if he hadn’t planned on coming over. At first he had turned away, but in the next moment he seemed to have thought of something and went back to pull Ji Xiaoyu into his arms.
The noisy crowd suddenly fell silent. Many people didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly as they looked at Bei Ze.
Bei Ze swept a cold gaze over the crowd before roughly pulling Ji Xiaoyu away with him.
“Heavens, Bei-shao’s gaze looked like he wanted to kill someone!” The moment Bei Ze left, the scared crowd finally let out a heavy sigh of relief.
“Ji Xiaoyu isn’t really going out with Bei-shao, is she?” Someone raised a question, causing a lot of girls to glare angrily at him. ‘There is absolutely no fucking way our Bei-shao would choose that ugly duckling! He’s just playing around with her for a while! After he’s tired of her, he’ll toss her aside!’
As for Shi Sheng, she felt that there was something off with Bei Ze. Every time he saw her he looked pissed off, but he’d always pop back up after a while.
‘Son of a bitch! This male lead’s got something wrong with his head!’
……
Shi Sheng’s daily routine of attending school was very methodical. She noted that the relationship between the male and female leads seemed to be progressing smoothly. Though Bei Ze hadn’t admitted any truth to the circulating rumours, he would always show up whenever Ji Xiaoyu met with trouble and stand up for her.
Shi Sheng was actually quite busy. Whenever she got to a modern world setting, the thing she loved doing most was making money. After all, in a world where killing people was a crime, money was the next best option to solve problems.
Other than helping out with the progress of the protagonists’ relationship, she didn’t really do much. As of right now, the entire school was pretty much convinced that Bei Ze and Ji Xiaoyu were dating.
Ji Xiaoyu had gone from disputing it to remaining silent. Her gaze at Bei Ze was completely different from before. Even though the Ji Xiaoyu from before hadn’t made any moves, she definitely had feelings for him.
“Bei Zhi, the school will be holding programmes to celebrate its anniversary. Are there any you want to participate in?” Lin Yin, the class leader, spoke while writing into the notebook she held.
“No.” Shi Sheng replied without even lifting her head.
Lin Yin’s pencil paused. Pulling up a chair, she sat facing Shi Sheng. “Bei Zhi, you can’t be like this. Our studies are already pretty rigorous, and all I see you do all day is either look at your phone or at a book. You need to relax every now and then…”
Shi Sheng lifted her head slightly and turned the book to face Lin Yin. Lin Yin blinked and took a closer look, whereupon a red blush crept upon her face. Shi Sheng expressionlessly flipped it back.
“B-Bei Zhi… why are you reading this kind of book?” Lin Yin barely managed to stammer out.
“Balancing between work and rest.” Shi Sheng calmly flipped a page. Her answer caused Lin Yin to turn dumbstruck. ‘What does reading this have to do with striking a balance between work and rest?! You’re looking at a porno!!! And a very explicit one at that…
Wait, weren’t pornos banned? Where’d you get it from? The quality looks quite good…’
“Ahem, I’m in the Drama Club. How about you come and join us? Bei-shao’s in it too.” A hint of infatuation appeared in Lin Yin’s eyes when she spoke about Bei Ze.
“Ji Xiaoyu’s there too?”
“En.” Lin Yin’s expression dimmed upon hearing that name.
“Would you let me join even if I won’t do any work?” Shi Sheng asked this question seriously.
“Ah?”
……
In the end, Shi Sheng still joined the Drama Club. Of course she wasn’t actually doing anything—she was just there.
That was fine, though, because Lin Yin was the Drama Club’s president, and Shi Sheng still had the status of being Bei Ze’s younger sister even if he two of them didn’t really speak much to each other at all.
The celebration held for this academy of elites was quite special. Every club had to come up with some kind of programme, and the Drama Club had chosen to perform the play Snow White.
These kinds of fairy tales didn’t really interest Shi Sheng. If she were to try and write one, all that would come out would be some dark and twisted mockery of a fairy tale.
A day before the celebration, they held a dress rehearsal..
“Bei Zhi, I’m really sorry. The rehearsal is starting soon, so could you help me grab some clothes?” Lin Yin looked apologetic. “We need the clothes by tomorrow, but the place they’re held at now is a bit far away, so could I trouble you?”
Shi Sheng took her legs off of the back of her chair and lifted her head to look at Lin Yin. “Place.”
“President, President!” Right when Lin Yin was about to speak, someone else spoke up. “Ji Xiaoyu’s going, so you don’t have to get someone else!”
“Ji Xiaoyu?” Lin Yin was surprised. “But it’s so far away. How come she wants to go?”
“Ji Xiaoyu volunteered when she heard us speaking about it just now.”
A hint of a smile tugged at Shi Sheng’s lips. ‘I knew plot-sama was strong.’
In the original storyline, Bei Zhi had plotted for Ji Xiaoyu to go. The crucial point wasn’t actually the fetching of the clothes but the sudden downpour that occurred on the way back.
This downpour would allow Ji Xiaoyu to develop feelings for Bei Ze, who had been out there to run an errand and had ended up getting trapped together with her.
‘See? I didn’t do anything but Ji Xiaoyu ended up picking up this task on her own. I knew the leads are fated to meet no matter how far apart they are!’
……
In the suburbs, Ji Xiaoyu hugged a large bag while stumbling unevenly through puddles, feeling regret and grievance in her heart.
Had she known the place was so far, she wouldn’t have gone. And when she had arrived, she had been so stunned by the surroundings that she had forgotten to get the taxi driver to wait for her.
She had remembered that she needed to ask him to wait only after she had already left the manor with the clothes. At that point the car was already long gone, so she could only walk ahead on foot to see if any passing cars would be willing to give her a lift.
She hadn’t expected a heavy downpour to strike before she had even gotten far. There were no cars she could hitch a ride from, or even any places in which she could hide from the rain.
“Ah!” Ji Xiaoyu slipped and fell into a puddle. The bag in her hand opened, causing the beautifully bright clothing to fall out and get smeared with mud. Ji Xiaoyu fumbled with the clothes, trying to stuff them back into the bag, but the more she moved the more upset she felt.
She suddenly flung the clothes to the ground and stomped on them, as if to vent. Mud flew everywhere. “They must’ve done it on purpose! They deliberately let me run this far because they looked down on me! They looked down on me! So what if they’re rich?! Why the hell did they have to come all the way here to order some clothes…”
When Ji Xiaoyu had finished venting, her chest heaving, the rain cooled down some of her anger. Looking at the dirtied clothing on the ground, she finally began to feel a bit nervous and afraid.
When she had received the clothes just now, she heard the assistant say that every single one of these was worth more than RMB1,000. And, more importantly, they were to be used tomorrow.
‘I can’t shame myself in front of Bei Ze!’
Ji Xiaoyu picked up the clothes and shoved them into the bag. She hoisted the bag, which was now at least twice as heavy as before, and continued moving onwards.
‘I have to get these clothes clean by tomorrow. I’m not going to let them laugh at me!
They might look down on me now, but one day they’ll only feel envy and jealousy!’
