“Who asked you to care! Ugly freak!”
The woman’s delicate face twisted with anger.
Bang!
She shoved Shi Yin’s hand away, and in the scuffle, Shi Yin was thrown onto the cold floor, a large red patch instantly forming on her leg.
The sharp pain jolted Shi Yin awake.
She sat up abruptly, breathing heavily. The air conditioning in the room was just right.
Yet the girl on the bed had fine beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
In the darkness, she fumbled for her phone and turned on the screen.
3:40 a.m.
Shi Yin let out a breath and calmed herself before slowly lying back down, but the scene from the dream had chased away any lingering drowsiness.
Chengguang High School.
Today was the day for the senior students to return and collect their graduation certificates.
The summer wind swept heat into the classroom, and the cicadas’ droning made one’s heart feel restless.
“Shi Yin, long time no see. Which university did you apply to?”
A gentle male voice sounded behind her. Shi Yin turned to look and saw a young man in a white shirt walking toward her, his eyes crinkled with a smile.
Lin Zhiyan was the class monitor of Class 3, Grade 12. Though his grades weren’t top of the class, getting into a first-tier university would be more than enough for him.
Shi Yin thought back to the name she’d just seen on the bulletin board.
Lin Zhiyan—560 points.
Barely below average in this key high school.
Of course, Shi Yin was only slightly better than him, sitting somewhere in the middle of the class.
Just barely scraping into a lower-ranked 211 university.
“Linchuan University.”
The girl’s voice was calm, showing little interest in this well-liked class monitor.
Though Lin Zhiyan had intended to flaunt his charm, the sight of Shi Yin’s face rather soured his appetite.
That was because the girl before him looked exactly as she had before the college entrance exam—so plain that once she blended into a crowd, she could never be found again.
Unlike the “college freshman glow-up” that girls typically underwent after the gaokao, while the school today was full of girls wearing makeup and pretty dresses, Shi Yin still kept her pre-exam look.
A round face, thick black-framed glasses that covered most of it, heavy bangs, a simple loose white T-shirt with baggy jeans, and a low ponytail as unstylish as unstylish could get.
Not a single feature worth remembering.
Ordinary—that was Lin Zhiyan’s only evaluation of Shi Yin.
But recalling their three years of high school, he had exchanged words with everyone in class except this girl, who had always been dull and quiet, rarely interacting with him.
Lin Zhiyan was about to say more when the clique of girls chatting by the window called him over—
“Class monitor! Come over here! Let’s add each other on Yinfu!”
“Me too! Thinking about how we’ll all go our separate ways after graduation makes me a little sentimental.”
“Come on, let’s take a group photo together.”
Lin Zhiyan’s attention was instantly drawn away. But even though they were graduating, he still refused to abandon his gentle, reliable class-monitor image, giving Shi Yin a mild smile: “Take your time looking around, then. I’ll go on ahead.”
But the girl he had dismissed as plain and ordinary, after watching him leave, had a faint, almost imperceptible chill flash through those unremarkable eyes behind her glasses.
She had seen it.
Above Lin Zhiyan’s head floated something glowing red—like the letter of a failing grade on an exam, marked in red ink.
A capital F.
Shi Yin’s gaze swept over the other classmates in the room.
Whether it was the two or three girls who had just called Lin Zhiyan over, the sleep god dozing in the corner, or the “troublemakers” playing video games—
Without exception, the failing letter was marked above each of their heads.
It was as if some fantasy novel had suddenly descended into reality.
Shi Yin couldn’t see above her own head.
But she wasn’t stupid—she was bound to have the same red letter above her head as well.
【Yinyin, trust me, I can change all of this for you.】
【The deepest desires of your heart—the Goddess System can make them all come true.】
【As long as… you pay a little price, that is.】
A sweet little girl’s voice suddenly sounded by her ear, near yet far, carrying a hint of bewitchment.
Outside the window, the sun was still scorching enough to dry a person out. The air conditioning was running in the classroom, and the cool breeze blew against the back of Shi Yin’s neck.
The voices around her remained as noisy as ever, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Shi Yin showed no sign of anything unusual, but neither the red-marked F nor the little girl’s voice was her imagination.
It wasn’t until the “click-clack” of high heels came from the doorway and a woman pushed the door open—the homeroom teacher of Class 3 of Senior Year, followed by two boys carrying diplomas—that Shi Yin finally came back to her senses and returned to her seat.
The little girl’s voice didn’t appear again after that; only the red-marked F remained conspicuous.
So did the homeroom teacher at the podium and the two boys holding their high school diplomas.
The homeroom teacher was usually a stern middle-aged woman, but now that the college entrance exam had come to an end and everyone in Class 3 of Senior Year had done well, she had put on light makeup, a smile on her lips, looking much gentler.
“Class monitor and course representatives, hand out the diplomas.”
This might be the last time everyone gathered in this classroom. Looking at the students seated below, the homeroom teacher couldn’t help but say with emotion, “Today is our very last class meeting.”
“Once you’ve received your diplomas, you may never see each other again.”
“I wish you all the best of luck in everything you do, and may all your wishes come true.”
“Oh, right—during these three months of summer vacation, remember not to play in the water. We’re all grown-up kids now; I shouldn’t need to remind you about drowning prevention, should I?”
…
Partings always come with sentimentality. Quite a few girls in the class wiped away tears, while the boys held it in a little better.
Those pretty, well-dressed girls with excellent grades even refused to leave at the end, crowding around the homeroom teacher for photos, showing their affection.
Shi Yin was the first to leave.
She opened her umbrella, diploma in hand, the canopy pressed down so low it seemed she wanted to hide her entire self beneath it.
It was break time now, and the first- and second-year students were all in the corridors looking down.
Envious glances came their way.
Envy that the seniors were finally free, free to play to their hearts’ content.
Most of the people holding umbrellas around her were girls, so Shi Yin blended in without standing out.
Just as she walked out of the school gate, familiar sounds of playful banter came from behind her.
“Class monitor, you and Xu Qing have finally made it official.”
“You’ve got to treat us to a meal, right?”
“How about we hit the KTV first, then go eat?”
Shi Yin turned her head and happened to catch sight of two boys and two girls.
One of the boys had his hand on the waist of a girl in a small camisole—it was the class monitor, Lin Zhiyan.
And that girl was the prettiest girl in the class.
Xu Qing.
Xu Qing had fair skin, and today she wore only a pink plaid camisole with a pair of hot-girl shorts, her exposed legs slim and straight.
She held a small handheld fan in one hand and held Lin Zhiyan’s hand with the other, smiling with particular delight.
The guys and girls egging them on nearby were the couple’s followers.
Zhang Shiqi and Wang Peng.
Shi Yin stood beneath a tree, unnoticed by anyone.
She quietly sized up the four of them.
Quite a few people at the school gate were also watching this little group of four.
After all, one of the couples really was a handsome boy and a beautiful girl.
It wasn’t until the four of them got in a taxi and left that Shi Yin finally withdrew her gaze.
She walked slowly to the bus stop.
There were plenty of students waiting at the stop. Shi Yin folded up her umbrella and found a corner, and only then did she recall the scene she had just witnessed.
For once, a flicker of vivid emotion crossed her face.
Head lowered, with the sultry heat pressing in around her, the corner of her lips curled into a faint, almost imperceptible trace of mockery.
If this were a campus romance novel, then Lin Zhiyan and Xu Qing would be the undisputed male and female leads.
One gentle and handsome, the other beautiful and charming.
And Shi Yin would be that invisible background character.
But was it really like that?
The reason Shi Yin avoided Lin Zhiyan was that although he seemed gentle and dependable on the surface, behind the scenes—aside from Xu Qing—he had flirted with basically every pretty girl in class.
In other words, he was a player who spread his warmth to everyone.
During her three years of high school, Shi Yin had run into Lin Zhiyan more than once out on dates with different girls.
However, because Shi Yin was so ordinary—the kind of person who disappeared into a crowd—he had never once noticed her.
Thanks to this invisible constitution, she knew plenty of gossip about her classmates.
“Ding-dong!”
The arrival of the bus pulled Shi Yin out of her thoughts.
After dropping in her fare, she walked straight to the innermost seat of the last row.
The cool shade of the bus brought some relief to her small face, which had been steamed by sweat while waiting.
She took wet wipes out of her pocket and leisurely wiped the sweat from her forehead, face, and the tip of her nose.
The bus wasn’t exactly crowded, but it wasn’t packed either—at least no one was fighting Shi Yin for the last row.
Looking around, the red text that had appeared above the heads of the classmates she’d seen earlier had vanished.
In other words, from the moment Shi Yin stepped out of the classroom, she hadn’t seen it again.
Shi Yin clutched her diploma tightly.
Was it just her imagination?
【Of course not! Yin-yin, I’m here to help you. The Goddess System will give you everything you desire.】
【Absolute beauty, the center of attention, the envy of everyone around you.】
【Yin-yin, this is your deepest desire.】
【Activate the Goddess System.】
【You—you are the Goddess.】
【Content warning: The female lead is not kind and virtuous. She is somewhat dark, exquisitely self-interested, and will stop at nothing to achieve her goals. Dog-training literature.】