When Xiao Yao checked the story background, she couldn’t help but curse.
The system immediately said, “The Number One Beauty of the Space Station should pay attention to her image.”
With a sincere expression, Xiao Yao replied, “Sorry. I was possessed by 666 just now.”
666 was the system’s serial number.
The system: “…Damn.”
The system finally fell silent, and Xiao Yao continued receiving the plot seriously.
This novel was called Secret Crush.
The synopsis looked like it had been written by some shut-in who spent all day fantasizing about beautiful girls. The most obvious evidence was that in the entire world, every girl liked the Male Lead.
Ming Jing, the Male Lead, came from an excellent family, possessed outstanding looks, excelled in both academics and character, and was talented in everything. A single smile or glance from him could captivate countless young girls. He was truly heaven’s favored son.
Lin Xiaotian, the Female Lead, was a stubborn little white lotus who remained pure despite growing from the mud.
Although she came from a poor background, she possessed an unyielding heart. Like the beginning of every sweet romance novel, she and the Male Lead originally belonged to two completely different worlds. After the college entrance examinations, while working part-time at a bar, she was harassed by a customer and was rescued by the passing Ming Jing.
Handsome and gentlemanly, Ming Jing naturally planted the seed of a secret crush in Lin Xiaotian’s heart.
She thought the feeling would remain unrequited forever.
However, Lin Xiaotian never expected that she would meet Ming Jing again at university.
She became the freshman Department Beauty of A University.
Ming Jing was the School Heartthrob of A University.
Only then did she truly realize how dazzling he was. At that school, there was almost no girl who did not like Ming Jing.
Lin Xiaotian knew he was exceptional.
But a young girl’s love was bold and passionate. Despite the enormous gap between their identities, she somehow managed to obtain Ming Jing’s class schedule and stopped him after class.
Ming Jing did not recognize her. He merely nodded politely.
However, that simple gesture appeared particularly offensive in the eyes of others.
As soon as Ming Jing left, Lin Xiaotian was dragged into a restroom.
After that came the usual pattern of various female supporting characters taking turns targeting the Female Lead.
During one incident, while the Female Lead was being bullied, the Male Lead happened to see it and stepped in to help her again.
Lin Xiaotian always studied diligently. The two had encountered each other several times in the teachers’ office, and whenever she looked at him, her gaze would always dart away nervously.
Remembering the girls who had fled in panic earlier, Ming Jing realized that Lin Xiaotian had probably been targeted because of him.
Feeling apologetic, he asked what compensation she wanted.
Gathering her courage, Lin Xiaotian stepped forward and asked for his contact information.
Seeing the fading red handprint on her face, Ming Jing agreed.
At last, the two officially crossed paths.
Then came the classic romance-novel formula.
The Female Lead continued secretly admiring him.
The Male Lead continued shining brilliantly.
When the story was about halfway through, the Male Lead finally realized his own feelings, and the Male and Female Leads officially entered the ambiguous stage before becoming a couple.
But as mentioned before, in this novel, every girl in the world liked the Male Lead.
Thus, countless misunderstandings struck the Female Lead’s face like an endless barrage of slaps.
Unable to withstand them, the delicate Female Lead collapsed.
In this world, Xiao Yao was Lin Yao, the Female Lead’s neighbor.
Timid and inferior, sensitive and malicious, she was like a rat that grew up in the gutter.
She had grown up in the slums alongside the pure little white lotus Female Lead.
Yet instead of developing the Female Lead’s innocent and genuine personality, she had turned out completely crooked.
She was not particularly intelligent and disliked hard work.
Since childhood, she had loved shutting herself inside the house and avoiding the outside world.
When the Female Lead invited her to take a part-time job together, Xiao Yao had refused without hesitation.
Perhaps every rat that lived in the shadows had its own peculiar habits.
Xiao Yao liked spying on people.
She often hid in dark corners and secretly observed those glamorous and successful individuals. Because she was small and dressed inconspicuously, very few people ever noticed her.
Later, she received her first online job.
The task was to secretly photograph a cheating scumbag.
Xiao Yao accepted it.
Perhaps because it was her first time doing covert photography, she was discovered and beaten up.
But afterward, she received a large sum of money.
Xiao Yao had never seen that much money before.
Then she accepted a second job.
A third.
And more after that.
Gradually, Xiao Yao became somewhat famous and earned quite a bit of money.
With that money, she bought herself a portable camera.
In reality, she was a rat living in the shadows.
Online, however, she was a somewhat famous paparazzo.
Perhaps because the novel’s author wanted to further emphasize the Male Lead’s irresistible charm, Xiao Yao, like the Female Lead and the other female supporting characters, also fell in love with the Male Lead.
But her love was twisted.
Before liking the Male Lead, she had already liked many other people.
All of them shared one common characteristic:
They were exceptional.
Xiao Yao had secretly photographed many influential figures.
Those were all people she had once liked.
She followed them.
Secretly photographed them.
Then anonymously posted the photos online.
Her affections came quickly and disappeared just as fast.
Xiao Yao enjoyed the process.
She liked them.
Yet she also envied them.
She firmly believed that nobody was truly perfect.
No matter how outstanding a person appeared, there would always be a dark side hidden from public view.
To get close to the School Heartthrob and capture that unseen side of him, Xiao Yao went to great lengths to become a certain female supporting character’s follower.
She came up with countless terrible ideas, including but not limited to drugging people, framing others, and dressing provocatively to offer herself to the Male Lead.
The female supporting character trusted Xiao Yao deeply and regarded her as a military strategist.
Xiao Yao did not care how far the female supporting character and the Male Lead progressed.
She only wanted to drag the Male Lead down from his pedestal.
It was also because of this cannon fodder character’s existence that a female supporting character who could originally have been described as daring to love and hate ended up being cursed by readers to an extreme degree.
In this world, Xiao Yao’s mission was simple:
Secretly photograph the Male Lead.
Photograph him smoking.
Photograph him drunk and behaving improperly.
Photograph him fighting.
Encourage the female supporting character to drug him.
Then secretly photograph the Male Lead and the female supporting character lying intimately in the same bed.
Finally, during the last covert photography attempt, she would be discovered by the Male Lead and could then make her glorious exit from the story.
Xiao Yao felt that the mission was incredibly easy.
Assigning it to her was almost a waste of talent.
However, the system sneered.
Flipping through Xiao Yao’s résumé, it said, “Your previous mission success rate never exceeded thirty percent. How exactly do you have the nerve to say something like that?”
This was the first collaboration between Xiao Yao and Cannon Fodder System 666.
Both were famous losers in the Space Station, and neither thought highly of the other.
Xiao Yao glared angrily at the floating sphere in the air and declared fiercely,
“Just wait and see.”
666 could not be bothered arguing with her anymore.
It directly activated the teleportation.
The next second, Xiao Yao’s vision blurred, and the scene before her changed.
The room was extremely shabby.
There was only a bed and a computer desk.
A faint moldy smell lingered in the air.
The curtains had remained closed for years, blocking out sunlight, making the room dark and oppressive.
Any normal person would have felt depressed after living in such an environment for a long time.
Xiao Yao stood up and examined her surroundings.
She soon discovered that the entire wall behind her was covered with photographs of various men.
Some were kissing different women.
Some were participating in group parties.
Others were stepping on people beneath their feet while slapping them with contemptuous expressions.
All the photographs had been taken from hidden angles.
Beneath each photo were a date and a name.
They were probably the photographs secretly taken by the original owner.
After glancing at them with little interest, Xiao Yao walked to the computer desk and sat down.
The computer was an old model from several years ago.
It emitted a buzzing sound during startup, but it still functioned well enough.
Using the original owner’s memories, she logged into QQ.
The notification icon at the bottom showed 99+ unread messages.
Friend requests had completely flooded the inbox.
Many people had found her through recommendations from others.
Xiao Yao had come here to complete a mission.
The only person she needed to follow was the Male Lead.
Therefore, she immediately clicked the button to reject all requests.
The computer was too old.
It froze again while clearing the messages.
Watching the loading circle spin endlessly on the screen, Xiao Yao sighed softly.
As she casually turned her head, she caught sight of herself in the mirror beside her.
The face reflected there was her own.
The original owner, Lin Yao, had suffered from chronic malnutrition and a completely reversed sleep schedule.
Her skin had been sallow, dark circles hung beneath her eyes, and she looked gloomy and ordinary.
It was the very definition of a cannon fodder face.
But Xiao Yao was the Space Station’s famously beautiful deadweight.
Although her abilities were average, her face was undeniably top-tier.
To help mission workers adapt more easily, the Space Station automatically replaced the original character’s appearance and name with those of the transmigrator after entering a world.
Coincidentally, the original owner was socially anxious.
She had rarely left home since childhood, and even after growing up, she always wrapped herself up completely whenever she went outside.
Very few people had ever seen her true appearance.
As a result, Xiao Yao seamlessly took over her identity.