Inside the Honey Sweet Dessert Shop near the gates of Qing University, Jiang Nian sat by the window.
She rested her chin on one hand atop the wooden table, her naturally curly honey-brown hair cascading lazily over her shoulders. Her delicate features stood out strikingly against her palm-sized fair face, making her impossible to ignore.
Her lemonade had already been emptied when a shop assistant hurried over to refill it. The young woman lowered her voice and said, “Pretty baby, that handsome guy over there asked me to give this to you. He said he wants to get to know you.”
A strawberry milkshake was placed on the table alongside a note with contact information written on it.
Jiang Nian froze for a moment before smiling awkwardly. “Actually, I’m waiting for my boyfriend. Sorry, but could you help me tell him that?”
A dimple appeared on her cheek, adding even more liveliness to her already gorgeous face.
The shop assistant stared blankly for a second before snapping back to reality and taking the drink away to explain.
After dealing with the interruption, Jiang Nian returned to staring nervously out the window at the flow of people outside.
After all, this was the first time she was meeting the so-called boyfriend she had just mentioned.
System 999’s childish voice echoed inside her mind.
【Host, don’t worry. The Male Lead of this book is actually a pretty decent person! Even though the Supporting Female Character originally approached him with bad intentions and constantly caused trouble, later on when she couldn’t get him, she started emotionally manipulating him. In the end, he only broke up with her and never retaliated!】
【If this were another novel, the role you replaced would definitely end up driven insane or thrown onto the streets with a miserable ending.】
Jiang Nian silently replied in her heart: That’s exactly why I feel even guiltier, okay?!
Three weeks earlier, Jiang Nian had died after her illness worsened. When she opened her eyes again, she had already been bound to System 999 and transported into the world of a wildly popular campus novel from Tomato Reading.
The price for that second chance at life was simple.
She had to fill in the vacant role of the Supporting Female Character and properly play the Male Lead’s shallow, dramatic ex-girlfriend.
When the Male Lead first entered Qing University, he had already become famous as Jing City’s top scorer. At the same time, he was publicly recognized as Qing University’s campus heartthrob.
As a result, people inside and outside the university constantly tried to dig up his personal information. Confessions and harassment never stopped.
During the second semester of freshman year, there had even been a male student who tried to turn him gay and confessed to him directly.
That was when the Male Lead finally lost patience.
Coincidentally, the Supporting Female Character appeared at that time and proposed that they become a contract couple, acting as shields against unwanted admirers for each other.
After considering it, the Male Lead felt the idea was workable and agreed.
What he never realized was that the Supporting Female Character didn’t dislike relationships at all. She simply thought everyone else was beneath her standards. She had deliberately approached him because she liked that he was a top student and campus heartthrob who never flirted around.
But after spending time with him, the Supporting Female Character discovered that the man was completely immune to both softness and pressure. She used every trick she had, yet he never crossed the line.
Eventually, she started despising him for being boring and frigid. She complained that he was nothing more than a poor bookworm.
All of those frustrations were vented onto the Male Lead.
Originally, the Male Lead only wanted to reduce unnecessary trouble. Compared to dealing with countless admirers, handling just one Supporting Female Character was much more manageable.
But over time, he realized the problem was her character itself, not something that patience could solve.
So he suggested they break up.
Jiang Nian’s task was also very simple.
Within three months, she had to accumulate enough disgust points from the Male Lead and then break up with him.
If the breakup succeeded, she would receive a reward of one billion yuan and be allowed to continue living in this world.
If she failed, the system would no longer sustain her life.
【Ding ding! Detected the Male Lead approaching ahhh!】
【Niannian, the Male Lead has never dated anyone in the past twenty years. He’s a complete untouchable beauty! Tons of suitors were scared off by his straight-man sense of boundaries!】
【As long as you focus on invading his comfort zone, we’ll definitely complete the mission quickly!】
Through the glass window, Jiang Nian saw a tall university student standing at the entrance of the dessert shop.
At 188 centimeters tall with long legs and strikingly handsome features, he was impossible to overlook. Combined with his model-like physique, even a simple T-shirt made him stand out from the crowd.
He lowered his gaze to check his phone, seemingly confirming the shop’s name before finally pushing open the door.
“Jingle—”
The wind chime above the entrance rang crisply as the Male Lead, Lu Zhiheng, stepped inside.
The shop was small, and after sweeping his eyes around once, Lu Zhiheng quickly locked onto his target.
In just a few steps, he arrived before Jiang Nian. The moment he sat down, he asked, “Student Jiang Nian, you said you had something important to discuss. What was it?”
Lu Zhiheng’s voice resembled warm winter sunlight—clear and gentle. It wasn’t overly deep and still carried traces of youthful energy.
Looking at the handsome face suddenly so close to hers, and hearing how polite he sounded, Jiang Nian momentarily had no idea how to start causing trouble.
—It was honestly hard to lose her temper at a face this beautiful!
But the enormous “0” displayed on the mission panel instantly filled her with urgency.
This was already the second week of their contract relationship.
Yet the progress bar still sat stubbornly at zero.
She had finally managed to invite the Male Lead out today, so she absolutely had to work hard and act annoying!
“How many times have I told you not to call me ‘Student Jiang Nian’ anymore?” Jiang Nian muttered softly. “Am I your girlfriend or just your ordinary classmate?”
There were no empty tables left when Jiang Nian arrived earlier, so they were sitting at the bar seats by the window.
Lu Zhiheng could only sit beside her, though he still deliberately left enough distance between them for another person to stand in between. They didn’t look close at all.
Jiang Nian herself had never dated in her twenty years of life.
But even if she had never eaten pork, she had still seen pigs run.
A man who kept others at arm’s length like this definitely hated people getting too close to him, questioning him, or clinging to him!
Pretending it was accidental, Jiang Nian leaned closer toward Lu Zhiheng.
The faint scent of gardenia perfume on her body drifted through the air, silently invading his personal space.
Lu Zhiheng instinctively tried to move away. His shoulders and back stiffened almost imperceptibly, and even his breathing became slightly unnatural.
—He disliked being this close to other people, especially women.
But just as he moved, Jiang Nian’s hand lightly rested on him.
Warmth seeped through the fabric beneath her palm, soft like a fluffy cloud.
The next second, she leaned even closer. As she turned her head, several strands of hair mischievously brushed against the edge of his ear, leaving behind a tingling itch.
Lu Zhiheng’s entire body froze.
A trace of shock flashed through his eyes, and the fingers resting at his side unconsciously curled slightly. For a moment, he forgot to react altogether.
Jiang Nian didn’t notice anything strange about him. She merely leaned near his ear and whispered, “You don’t want our secret getting exposed either, right?”
After saying that, she straightened up and blinked at him like a sly little cat, the corners of her eyes curving into a faint smile.
For some reason, even something slightly despicable like mutually using each other as shields against admirers…
Sounded strangely intimate when it came from her mouth.
Lu Zhiheng looked at her sparkling eyes.
The itch left behind by her breath near his ear still lingered, but the discomfort he usually felt whenever someone crossed his boundaries quietly faded away.
So Jiang Nian had only been worried that they might expose themselves.
After all, they had agreed beforehand that unless necessary, they didn’t need to meet privately. But if they appeared near each other’s schools, they had to act like a real couple.
And now they were sitting in a small shop right outside the university gates. There were too many people around watching. It really was necessary to be careful.
Jiang Nian looked at Lu Zhiheng’s thoughtful expression and became convinced that her little threat had definitely annoyed the Male Lead.
She took a sip of lemonade.
Then she heard System 999 play a celebratory sound effect inside her head. Fireworks even exploded across the floating subtitles before her eyes.
【Congratulations, Host! Male Lead Lu Zhiheng’s disgust value has increased by 1!】
【Current disgust value: 1.】
【A small step for Host is a giant leap toward winning one billion yuan and achieving freedom! Please keep up the good work~】