By the time Huo Qin finished his work and returned to the hotel, the city lights were just beginning to glow in the evening. It wasn't until the notepad and money were placed before him that he remembered he had played the role of a Good Samaritan the night before.
A blank page of the notepad was now filled edge to edge with writing. It was clear the girl had practiced her calligraphy—her semi-cursive script carried a certain elegance, free of flashy strokes or flourishes, making it comfortable and pleasant to read.
Having done a good deed and receiving the recipient's heartfelt gratitude in return—it wasn't a bad deal, after all.
His eyes swept over the salutation at the top—"The Kind and Handsome Gentleman"—and Huo Qin let out a soft chuckle. He picked up the two hundred and sixty yuan from the table and tucked it into his wallet, considering it compensation for the mental anguish of having to endure a day of being mocked for the bite mark on his neck.
The classroom was filling up with more and more students, and those who saw An Ning in the room couldn't help but steal extra glances at her.
The last time An Ning had shown up in class, she'd been sporting a head of bleached blonde hair, getting scolded by the homeroom teacher with a defiant look on her face, insisting she would never dye it back.
Seeing her with black hair now was genuinely jarring.
Especially how quiet she was… She was bent over her desk writing something—it couldn't be homework, could it?
Now that was a rare sight indeed.
As more people filed in, news of An Ning's outburst in the dormitory spread quickly. When word got around that Shu Xiaoshan and her group had written apology letters that were now posted in the girls' dormitory hallway, those who had initially wanted to gossip about why An Ning had returned to school all shut their mouths.
Unlike the petty squabbles typical at school, An Ning actually had a boyfriend who ran with the underworld.
Those shady characters were capable of anything.
An Ning paid no attention to the eyes lingering on her. She declined Shi Jiayan's offer to copy her homework, figured out what assignments were due today, and started flipping through her textbooks to review formulas and example problems, trying to reclaim knowledge from her past.
She had passed the civil service exam in her senior year and entered the court system right after graduation.
It had only been four years—the math and science formulas were still fresh in her memory.
But this memory belonged purely to her own experience, not to the original owner of this body.
When it came to high school material, the original owner's memory was as blank as a clean sheet of paper.
The original owner had managed to get into high school, so logically her learning ability couldn't have been poor. An Ning sifted through the original owner's memories and found the reason.
The original owner had spent her early elementary school years at a rural school. After transferring to Jiangcheng, she couldn't keep up with the pace and landed in the middle-to-bottom of her class. In middle school, unable to bear everyone constantly comparing her to her stepsister An Xin—saying An Xin was superior to her in every way—she threw herself into her studies with everything she had. In the end, she scored forty points higher than An Xin on the high school entrance exam.
She had thought such a result would earn her recognition from those around her. But who would have guessed that her biological father and stepmother would suspect her of cheating, even spinning conspiracy theories that An Xin's poor performance was because the original owner had slipped sleeping pills into her breakfast.
If it had been anyone else saying those things, it might have been tolerable. But being interrogated by An Jianhua over and over, the original owner's joy turned to fury. She regretted all her efforts and felt like a complete joke.
She thought that if she stopped studying and her grades dropped, An Jianhua would finally understand the hurt he had caused her.
In reality, her behavior only gave An Jianhua new "evidence," confirming his belief that her entrance exam scores had been fraudulent.
When An Ning had investigated the original owner's background earlier, she'd seen the rise and fall of her grades. Combined with inquiries to the old neighbors, she could already guess what the original owner's home life had been like.
Everyone—including the original owner's own parents—had been throwing obstacles in her path as she grew up. Under those circumstances, it was entirely possible for an immature girl starved of love to spiral into any degree of ruin.
An Ning finished her homework before the evening study bell rang. After completing it, she found a blank notebook and began organizing key points for each subject from the first page.
But before she could start, she heard someone call her name.
She looked up blankly, and only after Shi Jiayan in the front row reminded her did she notice the homeroom teacher standing outside the classroom.
The homeroom teacher for Class 9, Grade 11, was surnamed Zhao. From the original owner's memories, Teacher Zhao had frequently called her in for talks during the first year of high school.
By the second year, probably having concluded that she was incorrigible, the one-on-one talks had stopped. Skipping class now resulted in demerits, with a warning that accumulating enough would lead to expulsion.
Given that the original owner had simply disappeared for nearly a month, she could already be notified for dismissal.
Thinking about this, An Ning walked out of the classroom while considering what assurances she could give the homeroom teacher to continue studying at this school.
An Jianhua valued face, which was why he let the original owner keep attending school. If she got expelled, An Jianhua would have a reason, and he most likely wouldn't be willing to find her another school.
Without a guardian accompanying her, even if she could find a school willing to accept her, going through the enrollment procedures would still be difficult.
Teacher Zhao was a woman in her forties with dark skin. The moment she saw An Ning, the deep furrow between her brows tightened.
"Teacher Zhao, I was wrong."
An Ning opened with immediate surrender, offering no excuses or arguments. "Teacher, I want to come back to school and continue my studies. I promise I'll never skip class or play truant again. I won't let you down on the final exams."
Teacher Zhao looked at this troublesome student in her class. Seeing that she was wearing the school uniform and didn't have dyed yellow hair, regardless of whether her promise would hold, at least her attitude was humble and earnest—it didn't give her another headache.
"After you skipped class for a day, I called your parents. Your father said he couldn't control you, that he didn't want to cause trouble for the school, and that he was coming to the school to process your withdrawal."
An Ning was taken aback. She hadn't expected the Jianhua couple to be so eager—how desperate were they to save on her tuition so they could sign An Xin up for another tutoring class?
"Since both your parents have that attitude, I can't very well hold onto your student status and refuse to agree."
Teacher Zhao said this while watching An Ning's expression closely. She saw her freeze for a moment before returning to composure.
That composure didn't look like the self-abandonment of someone who'd heard bad news, but rather the rational thinking of someone who knew this path was blocked and was considering the next best option.
Who knew what she'd experienced this past month—she seemed so much better than the version of herself who wouldn't listen to anything.
Recalling the gossip she'd heard from the dormitory matron, Teacher Zhao didn't continue probing An Ning. "Although I agreed to your parents' proposal, I was busy preparing the monthly exam papers during that time, and then the National Day holiday came right after. I haven't had time to meet your parents, so of course the withdrawal hasn't been processed yet."
Meeting An Ning's bright eyes, Teacher Zhao smiled. She'd thought that after a month without seeing her, An Ning had matured into someone too composed to be a child.
But looking at her now, she was still just a young girl.
"You can come back to class. For skipping class for a month, I'm putting you on disciplinary probation. If you skip class without reason one more time before graduation, you'll be expelled immediately."
After saying this, recalling what An Ning had said about the final exams, Zhao Wen added, "One good final exam paper won't be enough. You have a mountain of major and minor demerits. If you want to clear them all before graduation, you'll need to perform well on every exam from now on."
"Thank you, Teacher Zhao."
For the first time since transmigrating two days ago, An Ning showed a genuine smile.
It wasn't a deliberate act of playing the good student—she genuinely looked the part.
An Ning had ranked dead last in every exam since starting high school. Zhao Wen had overheard students whispering among themselves, saying An Ning had only gotten into the top high school by cheating on the entrance exam.
Though she felt it was unlikely An Ning would cheat given her personality, she still went to ask An Ning's middle school teachers.
After inquiring about An Ning's performance in middle school, she confirmed that An Ning's academic ability was not lacking—scoring last place was just her way of rebelling.
Thinking about An Ning's family situation, Zhao Wen couldn't help but want to give this student a few more chances.
"Alright, go back to evening self-study. This is the last time. If there's anything you don't understand, write it down in a notebook. You can ask the subject representatives, and if they can't help, ask the teachers."
"I know, Teacher."
Before returning to the classroom, An Ning paused. Thinking about the level she could actually achieve, and worried that Teacher Zhao might be too shocked when the exam results came out, she couldn't help but remind her, "Teacher Zhao, I'm very smart. Next month's exam, I might do better than you could ever imagine."
Teacher Zhao was amused by An Ning.
"I know you're smart, but study hard and don't talk big. This time, with a string of zeros on your score sheet, you're ranked dead last in the whole school—you dragged down Class Nine's average."
With that, Teacher Zhao waved her hand to shoo An Ning back to the classroom.
When Teacher Zhao called An Ning out of the classroom, everyone in the class craned their necks to watch, especially Shu Xiaoshan, whose neck was stretched the longest.
She thought that with An Ning acting so tough in front of her, she might not even be able to continue her studies.
But moments later, An Ning left the classroom the same way she came back in—she didn't look like she was about to be expelled at all.
"Who knows what that witch Zhao is thinking, keeping someone like that in the class."
Shu Xiaoshan muttered under her breath, then was suddenly slapped hard on the shoulder.
She was startled, and her scream earned a glare from the discipline monitor.
"What did you hit me for?!"
Shu Xiaoshan turned her head and whispered angrily at Shi Jiayan.
"What's so heroic about talking behind someone's back? If you've got the guts, say it out loud so An Ning can hear you."
Shi Jiayan raised her hand, pointing her index and middle fingers at her own eyes, then at Shu Xiaoshan's eyes. "I'll be watching you."
"Lackey."
"A stinking rat spreading rumors in dark corners, can't stand someone like me, a righteous warrior."
Shi Jiayan's deskmate couldn't help but laugh.
The three of them got louder and louder, and the discipline monitor didn't just roll her eyes this time—she slammed the table. "Quiet! Do you want your names written down or what?!"
The three of them shut their mouths.
Before turning her attention back to her books, Shi Jiayan secretly glanced in An Ning's direction.
She wondered why she'd never noticed before—An Ning had a particularly serene quality about her. Watching her focus intently on her reading made Shi Jiayan's own heart calm down as well.
Though she wondered if An Ning could even understand what she was reading so seriously, since she'd been dead last for years.
During the break after the first period of evening self-study, An Ning saw the string of zeros Teacher Zhao had mentioned.
She had assumed that since the original owner wasn't at school and hadn't taken the exam, there wouldn't be any monthly exam rankings.
All she could say was that Teacher Zhao was a good teacher—even though the original owner wasn't there, she still counted her as part of Class Nine, including her in the average score calculation.
"Before, she could at least score a few dozen points. This time, our class's average is going to be worse than Class Five's again."
"Forget it, don't talk about it."
"Why can't I talk about it? I'm not spreading rumors about her. The scores are posted on the wall—isn't that just the truth?"
The girl who spoke was a class cadre in the class. Unlike Shu Xiaoshan, she wasn't afraid of An Ning. She pulled her hand away from her friend who was holding onto her arm and said, "I have nothing nice to say about people who hold the class back."
The girl didn't name anyone, and those around her assumed An Ning would just pretend she hadn't heard.
But who would have thought—An Ning, who had already finished checking her grades and was about to reach her seat, turned around and looked at the girl who had spoken. "There won't be a next time."
Meeting An Ning's eyes, the girl froze for a second, then rolled her eyes dramatically. "Scoring in the teens isn't anything to brag about either."
An Ning didn't promise her anything. She withdrew her gaze and sat back down in her seat.
"Don't mind what they say. Ningning, think of it this way—no matter what score you get next time, it'll be a huge improvement compared to this time."
Shi Jiayan optimistically tried to comfort An Ning.
"An Ning, if there are any questions you don't understand, you can ask me."
The one who spoke up was a gentle male voice. When he saw An Ning look at him, a trace of fluster appeared on his face. He pressed his lips together briefly before continuing, "After all, I'm the class monitor. I should help my classmates."