Warning: Take a look at the novel’s title. There’s a lot of everyday school life in this story. Really, like… there’s a lot.
*
It all began on the morning of the first official day of school.
The students at Quanzhou Foreign Language School came from all over the province, so most arrived a day or two early to register and move into their dormitories. Jiang Wan was no exception.
Although Jiang Wan had just entered her first year of high school, Quanzhou Foreign Language School offered a continuous six-year programme covering junior and senior high school. As a result, starting her first year of high school wasn’t much different from starting her third year of junior high. She was still surrounded by familiar faces.
Jiang Wan, who had already attended the school for three years, had a dream on the night before school officially began.
In her dream, she sat on a tall chair resembling a throne. The air and ground were filled with shadowy black figures whose faces she couldn’t make out. One after another, they stretched their hands toward her as though trying to snatch something away.
“Give me your beauty!”
“Give me your intelligence!”
“All her friends and family belong to me!”
“Get lost! Get lost! This woman is going to join my harem!”
The sight of countless tentacle-like arms flailing wildly was so absurdly bizarre that if Jiang Wan hadn’t been the main character, she might have taken a picture to commemorate it.
Unfortunately, she was right in the middle of the battlefield, which meant she had no choice but to fight to the death.
Expressionless, Jiang Wan tore apart the limbs resembling black tentacles and fought throughout the night. It wasn’t until the dormitory’s morning alarm rang that her eyes suddenly flew open, pulling her out of the dream.
—Wide awake + dark circles under the eyes.jpg
Radiating a gloomy aura, Jiang Wan finished washing up and changing her clothes. Just as she was about to leave the dormitory, the dorm leader stopped her from behind, looking both amused and exasperated. “Jiang Wan, wait a second. You’ve missed a few strands of hair.”
Yawning, Jiang Wan allowed the dorm leader to press her into a chair. The girl untied Jiang Wan’s hair and gathered it into a beautiful high ponytail. Her movements were gentle, without tugging at Jiang Wan’s scalp even once.
Clearly, she was an experienced hand.
“Didn’t sleep well?” asked the girl from Bed Four, who had lazily finished changing her shoes last.
“Mm…” Jiang Wan sighed. “Had a nightmare. I’m a little annoyed.”
While choosing a hair tie, the dorm leader smiled and asked, “Not used to the new dormitory building?”
Jiang Wan thought for a moment. “Maybe it was my sleeping position?”
“The one with strawberries is pretty,” Bed Four suggested, leaning closer to inspect the jewellery box.
“The candy one is cute,” Bed Three disagreed.
Ignoring both suggestions, the dorm leader selected a hair tie decorated with stars and moons. She secured it in a few quick movements. “All done.”
Without checking the mirror, Jiang Wan stood up. “Let’s go.”
…
By the time they reached the first floor of the cafeteria, Jiang Wan had almost completely forgotten about her nightmare. After all, who hadn’t experienced a nightmare while growing up? It was hardly a big deal.
The cafeteria was bustling with students coming and going, all dressed in identical white shirts paired with blue-and-white plaid skirts or trousers.
Quanzhou Foreign Language School generally had no special dress requirements, except for the flag-raising ceremony every Monday morning, when everyone was required to wear their school uniform.
The uniforms weren’t ugly. It was just that the girls would secretly shorten their plaid pleated skirts to above the knee and replace their shirts with prettier, more refined white blouses. Even the smallest changes could make a considerable difference.
However, some people were naturally born to look good in anything. Even standing in line among similarly dressed students, wearing a slightly loose shirt and a pleated skirt that fell just below her knees, Jiang Wan still stood out at a glance.
During summer vacation, Jiang Wan’s mother had dragged her to get a princess cut. Even with her hair tied into a ponytail, her bangs and the shorter sections framing her face couldn’t be gathered up, making her face appear even smaller.
As something of a celebrity at school, Jiang Wan was greeted several times along the way.
When people called her “Jiang Wan,” she greeted them back. When they called her “Little Wan,” she glared at them instead.
Jiang Wan had a late birthday and had started school early, making her the youngest student in her entire year. As a result, her classmates were particularly fond of treating her like a little sister.
But that was no reason to call her “Little Wan”!
Besides, she wasn’t even short! She was a whole 159.5 centimetres tall!
That extra half centimetre was a matter of pride and absolutely could not be discarded.
Finally, it was Jiang Wan’s turn in the breakfast line.
She ordered sweetened milk, golden sponge cake, and pumpkin porridge. Just as she lowered her head to look for her campus card, she suddenly heard a strange voice.
The voice sounded neither male nor female, neither old nor young. It carried no trace of human warmth as it announced: [Female protagonist Jiang Wan has been identified. Mission issued: Help Jiang Wan out of a difficult situation once. Completion reward: 2 Jiang Wan Favorability Points.]
The contents of the announcement were far too strange.
Jiang Wan immediately raised her head, alert, only to discover that nobody around her seemed to have heard the peculiar voice.
“Five yuan and thirty cents,” the cafeteria worker announced after quickly calculating the price in her head.
Coming back to her senses, Jiang Wan reached for her card. After searching twice, she realised her campus card was missing.
This was hardly a new occurrence for Jiang Wan. Unperturbed, she glanced around for one of her roommates nearby. Just then, a student standing behind her spoke. “You’re a first-year high school student.”
Jiang Wan turned around and saw a male student she didn’t recognise.
When their eyes met, he raised a hand and lightly brushed his bangs aside, curling one corner of his mouth into a smile.
Jiang Wan: “…”
For the first time in her life, she had witnessed a textbook example of a devilishly charming smirk.
The cafeteria was incredibly busy during breakfast, with plenty of students who had woken up late and were rushing to their classrooms.
Not wanting to inconvenience anyone, Jiang Wan remained silent for two seconds before nodding. “I’ve lost my card. Thank you.”
The boy elegantly slipped two fingers into the breast pocket of his shirt, drew out his meal card, and stepped forward to pay the five yuan and thirty cents for her.
He carried himself with the elegance of someone pulling out an exclusive Centurion Black Card.
Jiang Wan was so embarrassed that she wanted to dig a hole in the ground with her toes. All she wanted was to get away from this guy as quickly as possible.
She studied his face, trying to memorise it. “Which class are you in? I’ll pay you back when I get the chance.”
The boy curled his lips into another smile. “No need. It’s only a few yuan. Consider it a chance to make friends.”
Jiang Wan: “…”
What was wrong with this person? Why did he talk so strangely? Had he just watched some ridiculously overdramatic anime and decided to imitate it? And wasn’t he afraid of pulling out his hair if he kept brushing it back so forcefully?
Just as Jiang Wan was using every ounce of self-control to suppress the urge to make a sarcastic remark, the strange voice sounded again: [Mission completed. Reward: 2 Jiang Wan Favorability Points. Current accumulated favorability: 12 points. Host, please keep up the good work.]
Putting the two announcements together, Jiang Wan immediately looked up at the boy in front of her.
He was leaning against the breakfast counter in what he apparently considered a suave pose. Ignoring the strange looks from the students behind him, he seemed completely immersed in his own shampoo commercial as he forcefully swept his bangs aside once more.
There was less than half a metre between them. Jiang Wan watched with her own eyes as several strands of hair detached from his scalp under the force of his violent movement. Obeying gravity, they silently drifted downward toward her breakfast tray.
The entire scene seemed to shift into slow motion.
Jiang Wan reached out to pull her tray away in an attempt to save it. The strange boy widened his eyes and reached out to catch his falling hair.
A student farther back in the queue stared in shock, eyes wide.
In the end, Jiang Wan was a step faster and dragged the tray toward herself. More than half the milk in her bowl sloshed out with a splash.
—Nevertheless, she should have escaped the falling hair’s attack range.
That would have been true if the strange boy hadn’t made one desperate attempt to grab the hair in midair, creating a sudden gust of air that sent the strands drifting in a different direction.
Under the watchful eyes of the cafeteria worker and the students behind them, the short strands of hair landed with perfect accuracy in Jiang Wan’s bowl of milk.
They might even have had hair follicles attached.
Strange boy: “…”
Cafeteria worker: “…”
Random student: “…”
Amid a silence so mortifying it could have made anyone wish for the ground to swallow them whole, Jiang Wan calmly and firmly pushed the entire tray back toward him. “It’s yours.”
Then she took out six coins and placed them beside the tray. “Keep the change.”
—Fortunately, she still had the coins she’d received as change from buying a drink at the vending machine yesterday.
After doing all this, Jiang Wan, who had completely lost her appetite, left the breakfast line and rejoined her roommates.
“Where’s your breakfast?” the dorm leader asked in confusion.
“It got contaminated,” Jiang Wan said mournfully. “Don’t ask. I don’t want to remember it. Share some of yours with me.”
Seriously, why was a high school student’s hair falling out as readily and without hesitation as that of a balding middle-aged man?!
Her roommates exchanged bewildered glances. In the end, however, they thoughtfully refrained from asking further questions and shared their breakfasts with her. Meanwhile, they began discussing the military training scheduled to start the following day.
As Jiang Wan listened, she casually picked up a carton of milk. Just as she was about to insert the straw, someone stopped her.
“Jiang Wan,” the dorm leader said sternly, pressing down on her hand. “Drink that instead.”
Jiang Wan glanced at the bag of soy milk, which was still warm, and protested unhappily, “Of course you should drink something cold in summer.”
The other two roommates immediately united with the dorm leader. “No. Your period is about to start. Drinking something cold will give you menstrual cramps.”
“Exactly. It’s either today or tomorrow, isn’t it? Do you want a stomachache?”
Jiang Wan: “…”
Why did all of you remember it so clearly?
“Look, it’s sweetened soy milk, not the plain kind,” Bed Four coaxed.
Jiang Wan pursed her lips and reluctantly twisted open the cap of the soy milk bottle.
Her roommates relaxed and returned to their earlier conversation.
“Most of them are people we already know,” the dorm leader said. “But the students from Yuhang should have transferred in by now, right?”
The other two roommates raised their eyebrows, exchanging knowing looks. “Ah, Yuhang.”
“Yuhang” referred to Quanzhou Foreign Language School’s second campus, officially known as Yuhang Foreign Language School.
Any two middle schools located near each other were bound to be compared, let alone a main campus and a branch campus, whose very names implied a hierarchy.
Although the students from Quanzhou and Yuhang didn’t attend classes together, the two sides were practically sworn enemies whenever the other school came up in conversation.
Quanzhou students considered Yuhang students a bunch of nouveau riche show-offs, while Yuhang students thought everyone at Quanzhou was pretentious and acted morally superior.
However, regardless of what the students thought, Quanzhou selected the thirty highest-performing graduates from Yuhang’s third-year junior high classes every year and transferred them into the main campus’s new first-year high school cohort.
“That guy over there,” the well-informed, exceptionally sociable dorm leader said, pointing nearby. “He transferred to Quanzhou after placing first in the placement exam. He’s pretty famous. I think his name is Lin Chengyan.”
The first year of high school had only just begun, and students hadn’t yet been divided into arts and science streams. Everyone in the year took the same examination papers, including the placement exam.
Since the purpose of the examination was to sort students into different groups, the questions naturally had to be challenging enough to distinguish their abilities.
After finishing the placement exam, Jiang Wan had found the papers prepared by the school rather interesting. Whoever had managed to place first must have been quite a flexible thinker.
Naturally, her curiosity was piqued, and she turned to look in the direction the dorm leader was pointing.
—Balding. It was the balding guy.
Jiang Wan immediately shut her eyes and turned away to avoid triggering her PTSD, pretending she hadn’t heard or seen anything.
Poor grades could be improved by studying harder, but there was no saving baldness.
Once the Goddess of Hair Follicles decided she didn’t love you anymore, that was the end of it!
…
At the first flag-raising ceremony of the new semester, the students appeared somewhat listless and disorganised, as though they hadn’t quite shaken off the leisurely atmosphere of summer vacation.
Because of her height, Jiang Wan stood near the front of the formation, particularly close to the flag-raising platform.
As she walked toward her class’s formation, she suddenly noticed that the person standing at the very front of the neighbouring Class Four looked rather familiar.
The person even waved confidently at her. “We meet again, Jiang Wan.”
Jiang Wan blurted out, “Bal—”
At the critical moment, she forcibly swallowed the rest of the word and managed an awkward but polite smile.
Lin Chengyan: “…”
Lin Chengyan said, “I forgot to introduce myself earlier. I’m Lin Chengyan. I transferred here from Yuhang after the placement exam, and I’ve been assigned to Class Four.”
He raised the Class One-Four sign he was holding.
Jiang Wan nodded casually, with no desire to continue talking to him. She turned and prepared to join her own class’s formation.
But Lin Chengyan wasn’t willing to let her go. He stretched out a hand to stop her and said smugly, “And I placed first among all the Yuhang students in this placement exam.”
Lin Chengyan had clearly spoken only one sentence, yet for some inexplicable reason, Jiang Wan heard his voice in two separate audio channels.
The other channel was saying: [I understand how these rich, beautiful, top-student girls think. Once she hears that, she’ll definitely see me in a new light and become determined to compete with me. Eventually, she’ll be conquered by my abilities and charm and become one of my admirers!]
Jiang Wan: “…”
What. A. Fucking. Idiot.
A student standing farther back asked curiously, “Then how many points did you score?”
Lin Chengyan gave a disdainful snort and raised his chin, practically looking down his nose at everyone. “The full score was six hundred. I got five hundred and seventy.”
In the second audio channel, Lin Chengyan was laughing triumphantly: [Just wait and see, System! She’s about to be stunned by how outstanding I am!]
The student behind him made a disappointed sound. “Oh.”
Lin Chengyan didn’t notice. He stared at Jiang Wan, his expression practically urging her to comment on his score.
Jiang Wan couldn’t hold back any longer. She asked bluntly, “Five hundred and seventy? Which subject did you lose so many points in?”
The student behind him answered seriously, “Probably the final maths problem, right? That question was definitely beyond the syllabus. I couldn’t solve it.”
Lin Chengyan: “…………But I came first,” he emphasised.
“Five hundred and seventy…” Jiang Wan thought for a moment before saying without the slightest attempt at tact, “That would probably put you around eleventh or twelfth here. Better luck next time.”
“…” Lin Chengyan forced a smile. “Is that so? Looks like I’ll have to show my true abilities next time. What about you, Jiang Wan?”
Before Jiang Wan could answer, the student who had interrupted earlier shook his head solemnly. “I’d advise you not to humiliate yourself.”
The dean of students, holding a microphone, interrupted their conversation. “Those of you who still haven’t found your class formations, hurry up! Do you need me to ask the police officers to come and show you the way?”
Jiang Wan, who ranked first in every subject, promptly fled the scene.
Stay away from idiots and enjoy a wonderful life.
Once the flag-raising ceremony officially began, Jiang Wan took advantage of the crowd to discreetly pull her phone from her skirt pocket and search for: System, missions, female protagonist.
Search engine: Did you mean “romance novels about transmigrating into books”?
Jiang Wan blinked and tapped the result.
She was a fast reader. After opening several pages and browsing through them, she had a general understanding of the situation. She switched off her phone screen and began thinking.
Most ordinary minors would consider asking someone else for help at a time like this. However, given the way Jiang Wan’s family operated, she had always made her own decisions while growing up. She only turned to others when she encountered something she felt she couldn’t resolve on her own and genuinely needed assistance with.
Jiang Wan mentally reviewed the current situation, then swept her gaze toward the flag-raising platform.
For the first flag-raising ceremony of a new semester, the student chosen to deliver a speech would naturally be someone particularly outstanding in some respect.
For example, the person currently delivering a speech without referring to any notes was Yue Mingshi, Jiang Wan’s childhood friend of ten years and next-door neighbour.
Although Yue Mingshi had the kind of face that made him look as though he could devour children whenever he frowned, to Jiang Wan, he was practically her fifth guardian, ranking just behind her parents and older siblings.
Jiang Wan excelled at almost everything. If one absolutely had to point out a flaw, it would be that her ability to take care of herself in everyday life was somewhat lacking.
From minor mishaps like forgetting her keys to major ones like losing her wallet, Jiang Wan had gradually grown accustomed to such incidents, and so had everyone around her.
Yue Mingshi was one of those people who had grown accustomed to looking after Jiang Wan ever since they were little. Other people were afraid of him, but Jiang Wan wasn’t afraid of him at all.
Since this was something happening at school, if she wanted someone to discuss it with, Yue Mingshi, who was one year above her, would be the most suitable person.
Jiang Wan stared at Yue Mingshi as her thoughts wandered, then noticed that his gaze had also fallen on her.
He continued delivering his speech in an unruffled voice, but his brows slowly drew together. Jiang Wan could practically see the words ‘What are you looking at?’ written across his face.
Amused, Jiang Wan smiled at Yue Mingshi and made her decision.
Better not tell Yue Mingshi just yet. The semester has only just started, and he’s already pretty busy juggling several responsibilities.
…
The moment the flag-raising ceremony ended, Lin Chengyan immediately turned around to find Jiang Wan and talk to her.
Unfortunately, Class Five stood between Classes Four and Six. Although Lin Chengyan was less than ten meters away from Jiang Wan, getting across was extremely difficult.
Besides, the moment the discipline director dismissed the students, Lin Chengyan had already lost his chance.
Several girls from Classes Four and Five had already rushed forward and begun chatting affectionately with Jiang Wan.
Surrounded by the crowd, Jiang Wan had glossy black hair, red lips, and pearly white teeth. There was a small beauty mark beneath the corner of her eye, and the slightly upturned tip of her nose gave her a distinctive appearance. Her combination of features was unforgettable after a single glance.
Lin Chengyan couldn’t help thinking, Isn’t she exactly the archetypal tsundere young lady from anime?
The System issued a notification.
[New Mission Detected: Jiang Wan is feeling unwell. Host, find an opportunity to approach her, express your concern, and give her a bag of warm milk. Completing the mission will earn you 2 Favorability Points.]
[Got it, got it.] Lin Chengyan casually accepted the mission in his mind, only to discover that Jiang Wan had looked up at him at the same moment.
Lin Chengyan confidently told the System, [See? She keeps looking at me. She definitely cares about me a lot.]
…
Jiang Wan had originally been frowning and pressing a hand against her lower abdomen, wondering whether the sudden, faint cramp she’d just felt was her imagination or a sign that her period was approaching.
Before she could reach a conclusion, she heard Lin Chengyan’s System issue a new mission.
Feeling unwell. Warm milk.
Jiang Wan raised her head in disbelief—and, more than anything, she felt angry.
Does that perverted System attached to him actually spy on women’s private bodily matters?
While Lin Chengyan was still looking around for warm milk, his System spoke again.
[Mission Failed. …Current Favorability Points from Jiang Wan toward the Host: -50. Host, please work hard to complete your missions.]
Only -50??
Even as anger burned inside her, Jiang Wan thought incredulously, I really am such a good person.
Lin Chengyan was equally incredulous.
“How is that possible?!”
The students passing nearby jumped at his outburst. They hurriedly went around him, casting strange looks in his direction.
At that moment, Jiang Wan disregarded the faint cramping deep in her lower abdomen and looked around. Eventually, her gaze settled on a cap that someone had apparently left behind on the spectator stands beside the sports field.
She hurried over, picked up the baseball cap, and turned around just as Lin Chengyan approached with a bag of warm milk, attempting to salvage the situation.
“Jiang Wan, you don’t look very well…”
Jiang Wan interrupted his nonsense with a deeply sorrowful expression.
“Student Lin Chengyan, here’s the thing you asked me to help you find.”
The girls who had followed her looked curiously at the cap in her hand.
“Why would you need to wear a cap at school when there’s nothing going on?”
Lin Chengyan accepted the cap, looking utterly bewildered himself.
Tears glistened in Jiang Wan’s eyes.
“This is what Student Lin Chengyan uses to cover his bal—ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up something so painful for you. Please take your cap and don’t lose it again. You already have so little… You need to take good care of it. Try not to stay up too late, and eat more black sesame seeds.”
One after another, everyone’s gaze began drifting toward the top of Lin Chengyan’s head.
Lin Chengyan flew into a rage out of sheer embarrassment.
“I’m not bald!!”
Jiang Wan took the lead. “Yes, yes, of course. You’re still young. It’s all right.”
The others nodded sympathetically.
“That’s right, that’s right. We didn’t see anything. Hurry up and put your cap on.”
Lin Chengyan was so furious that he practically jumped up and down. Lowering his head, he vigorously ran his fingers through his hair.
“Look! Look carefully! Would a bald person have hair this thick—”
Halfway through his sentence, the words suddenly caught in his throat as though someone had seized him by the neck.
Because at that very moment, Lin Chengyan realized that his fingers had actually pulled a small clump of hair straight out of the back of his head.
It had come out effortlessly, even more easily than plucking feathers from a chicken after scalding it in hot water.
Lin Chengyan slowly brought his hand in front of his face and stared at the clump of hair, too shocked to speak.
A gentle breeze blew past at just the right moment. The black strands slipped from Lin Chengyan’s palm and drifted toward the ground, leaving his hand empty—as though foreshadowing the equally empty scalp awaiting him in the future.
The evidence was irrefutable.
Premature baldness at such a tender age.
Lin Chengyan: “…”
The students watching: “…”
Jiang Wan sighed and said compassionately, “We didn’t see anything.”
The surrounding students immediately nodded like chickens pecking at grain.
“Right, right, right! We didn’t see anything! We’ll keep your secret!”
Lin Chengyan: “…”
What the fuck? How is this scientifically possible?