Ruan Mei sat down in a daze.
Chu Wanji, sitting in the front row, suddenly turned his head and asked her:
“Is there anything you don’t understand?”
Ruan Mei was startled, and quickly replied:
“No, I was just spacing out… I’m fine.”
Chu Wanji pushed up his glasses, a faint smile appearing on his face:
“If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask me directly.”
Ruan Mei nodded gratefully.
During the break, Ruan Mei held her book, but her thoughts had drifted a hundred thousand miles away.
In fact, it had been a long time since she transmigrated, and she wasn’t the type with an exceptional memory. Many of the original novel’s contents she had read were now blurry in her mind, but one thing she remembered very clearly: the original “Ruan Mei” was the person the male lead found and then ran over with a car to kill.
This meant that, for whatever reason, the person who caused her death in the original story was actually the male lead.
Ruan Mei scratched her head, suddenly realizing that for a long time, she had been attributing the problem to Fang Zhishui, but in reality, it had little to do with her.
In the original work, the original “Ruan Mei” was eliminated by the male lead because she kept causing trouble for Fang Zhishui. This indicated that the key issue was the male lead’s problematic character that he would resort to such a method to solve his girlfriend’s problems.
So, if she were to accidentally step on the male lead’s toes now, might she also be eliminated by him? Given the male lead’s arrogant demeanor, that was actually possible.
Thinking of this, a cold sweat broke out on Ruan Mei’s back.
Hesitantly, she tapped the back of Chu Wanji’s seat with her pen.
Chu Wanji immediately turned around, a slight smile on his lips, and adjusted his glasses as he asked:
“What is it? Is there something you need?”
Ruan Mei organized her words for a while before slowly asking:
“If, hypothetically speaking, there was a person, let’s call him Person 1, who fell in love with another person, let’s call her Person 2. Person 1 severely disciplined Person 3, who was Person 2’s enemy, for Person 2’s sake. In this case, who exactly should the severely disciplined Person 3 hate?”
Chu Wanji looked up and pondered for a long time, then looked at Ruan Mei with a firm gaze:
“Person 3 should call the police.”
Ruan Mei:
But the whole thing hasn’t even happened yet!
Chu Wanji said earnestly:
“We live in a society governed by the rule of law. For incidents like the one you described, everyone should use legal means to resolve them, instead of dwelling on personal hatred.”
Ruan Mei: That makes so much sense, I can’t even refute it!
Perhaps her dejected expression was too obvious, as Chu Wanji pushed up his glasses, and his tone softened:
“However, it also depends on the situation. Some things the law cannot judge, such as emotional problems. At that point, I think if Person 3 cannot let go of the hatred, they should seek revenge on Person 1. In the entire scenario, Person 2 is completely blameless. On the contrary, Person 2 is quite pitiful, being bullied by Person 3 on one side and loved by a twisted person like Person 1 on the other. If I were them, I would definitely be unhappy.”
After Chu Wanji finished speaking, he pushed up his glasses rather unnaturally and smiled, nodding at Ruan Mei.
“You’ve made a very valid point… I was previously blinded by one thing and failed to address the main issue, always evading it…”
Ruan Mei fell into deep thought, missing Chu Wanji’s eager and expectant look.
“So, are you… Person 2?”
Chu Wanji’s voice rang out.
“No, I’m Person 3,” Ruan Mei sighed, replying.
“Then is there anything you need help with? You must tell me. I am the class monitor, and I have an obligation to help every student with their problems, so please don’t hide anything, okay?”
Chu Wanji’s tone was sincere, and the gaze he gave through his lenses was extremely earnest, filled with a young girl’s ardent longing.
Unfortunately, Ruan Mei didn’t notice any of this. She kept her head down, her gaze wandering, staring at the desk, contemplating the questions that had just arisen.
She slowly began to understand that her previous way of handling the transmigration was flawed. She had been trying to escape escaping the plot, escaping the female lead, even escaping her true identity.
But in reality, life required facing things head on. If she was going to establish herself in this world, she needed to have her own circle of life and friends, and she also needed to bravely face all the truths.
If she couldn’t escape, at least she should counterattack with a beautiful stance!
Ruan Mei frowned and slapped the table, startling Chu Wanji.
“What’s wrong?”
Ruan Mei looked up at Chu Wanji, her eyes clear, and her tone relaxed:
“Nothing, I just made a decision. Thanks to you for guiding me through this confusion. I really appreciate it. I’ll treat you to bubble tea another day!”
Chu Wanji:
“Ah, ah, bubble tea? I, I’ve never had it. You, you don’t need to…”
Ruan Mei looked at him strangely and couldn’t help but smile brightly:
“Why are you so nervous? It’s just bubble tea, it’s nothing. Although my family is poor, I’ve earned money from my part-time job, so I can afford to treat you.”
Looking at Ruan Mei’s smiling face, Chu Wanji felt his face heat up. He quickly turned his head back and vigorously pushed up his glasses.
Ruan Mei turned to look in the direction of Fang Zhishui. Since she had decided not to run away anymore, she planned to let everything take its natural course.
That weekend, Ruan Mei requested a leave of absence from the mall and went to the city center hospital for a full physical examination by herself.
The results: Top-Tier Alpha! Possessing super strong physical fitness, five senses ten times stronger than the average person, and a reaction speed fifteen times that of a normal person and this was without any deliberate training!
Ruan Mei clutched the examination report. Although she had a premonition, it still took her a long time to control herself and not jump up in surprise on the spot.
She stared at the results on the paper, unsure whether to feel joy or sorrow.
After thinking for a long time, Ruan Mei took a picture of the report and sent it to Fang Zhishui.
After sending the message, Ruan Mei let out a long sigh while looking at Fang Zhishui’s profile picture.
Fang Zhishui was currently the only one who knew Ruan Mei had differentiated. Ruan Mei felt she really couldn’t avoid her. In the current situation, Fang Zhishui didn’t seem hostile towards her and had even been very caring, so Ruan Mei could try to be friends with her.
After all, if the male lead insisted on setting a trap for her, she would just confront the male lead directly. Whoever messes with her, she would directly mess back, instead of running around.
Ruan Mei walked from the hospital while thinking about this. After only two steps, she received a video call from Fang Zhishui.
In her haste, she accidentally pressed the disconnect button, opened her mouth wide, spun around twice, then carefully tidied her hair while looking at her reflection in a nearby shop window before cautiously picking up the phone.
Fang Zhishui had indeed called again, but this time it was a voice call, no video.
A small hint of disappointment flashed through Ruan Mei’s heart. She answered the call, her voice slightly trembling:
“Hello?”
“Where are you now? How are you feeling? Do you need any help?”
Fang Zhishui’s voice was anxious, an anxiety Ruan Mei had never heard before, as if she feared something might happen.
“What’s wrong? I’m outside the hospital. Is something going to happen? Why would you need to help?”
Ruan Mei glanced to the side, finding nothing unusual. There were few people on the winter street.
“As soon as you were diagnosed with this status, you might be targeted by someone with intentions in the hospital… Forget it, you don’t need to know these things. It’s good that you’re fine. Which hospital? I’ll come over immediately.”
A surge of warmth flowed through Ruan Mei’s heart, but she still refused:
“You don’t need to come over. I can handle these things myself. However, I still need to trouble you to keep it a secret at school. I will tell some key people, but I don’t want to become the center of attention.”
Fang Zhishui readily agreed on the other end:
“No problem.”
Ruan Mei walked on, crushing a fallen leaf under her foot. The dappled sunlight fell, and she squinted, watching it. The apprehension in her heart gradually dissipated. She couldn’t help but say to the person on the phone:
“Fang Zhishui, thank you for everything you’ve done for me all this time.”
Fang Zhishui seemed to pause on the other side, and after a while, she said:
“Thank me for what?”
Thank you for not becoming my enemy as you did in the original story thank you for extending a helping hand to me for various reasons and most of all, thank you for choosing to keep my secret when you learned it, becoming my only comrade in difficult times.
Ruan Mei’s throat moved. She smiled and said:
“Just for everything you’ve done for me.”
She looked up and saw the sunlight scattering down, the view golden and bright. At the same time, she heard a light chuckle coming from the phone, like a small feather tickling her ear through the receiver.
“Hehe… You’ve done a lot for me too. Thank you too.”
Ruan Mei panicked for a moment, and for some reason, she directly hung up the phone.
She stood still, hopped twice, and took a few steps forward, only to hear the owner of a steamed bun stall next to her say with a smile:
“Little girl, did something good happen? You’re smiling so happily?”
“Ah? I’m smiling?”
Ruan Mei touched her face and found the corners of her mouth were almost at her ears; she was smiling a bit exaggeratedly.
But… she absolutely couldn’t stop it.
After returning home, Ruan Mei placed the examination report directly in front of her grandmother.
Her grandmother looked at the report, remained silent for a long time, then slowly raised her clouded eyes to look at Ruan Mei, appearing to have aged several years in an instant.
“How long has it been since you differentiated?”
Ruan Mei honestly replied:
“A little over three months.”
Her grandmother nodded, and surprisingly, she did not blame Ruan Mei. She only said softly:
“The packed lunches I made for you before, you probably weren’t eating enough, were you? From now on, I’ll steam more rice for you, and we’ll buy more meat to keep your body strong. Study hard. With such talent, your path in society will be smoother than others it’s a good thing.”
Ruan Mei looked at her grandmother’s worried face and forcibly suppressed the questions in her heart. Perhaps when her grandmother was ready to speak, she would naturally find out. If her grandmother didn’t want to say, no amount of asking would make her reveal it.
As time approached the final exams, Ruan Mei was intensely busy preparing a return gift for Fang Zhishui while also needing to study. She ended up taking two extra days off from Sister Chuang’s place each week.
Fortunately, since differentiating as an Alpha, Ruan Mei had been full of energy, only needing to sleep four hours a day. All her other time was spent studying, making the gift, and working, truly becoming a master of time management.
And so, on the Friday of the week before the final exams, Ruan Mei officially sent a message to Fang Zhishui:
[Are you free this weekend? Want to go out?]
During the class break, Fang Zhishui looked up at Ruan Mei and their gazes met.
Ruan Mei showed her a smile, tinged with anticipation and excitement, mixed with shyness and uncertainty, her eyes seeming to hold sparkling waves.
Fang Zhishui raised her hand and made an “OK” gesture, her lips curving into a smile.
Ruan Mei breathed a sigh of relief and sent over the strategy document she had researched.
In this document, she had already planned the entire afternoon’s itinerary, including the times and locations for shopping, studying for competitions, having afternoon tea, and having dinner, even including taxi routes and everything.
She added one last line:
[To thank you for the gifts you sent me before, I also have a gift to give you!]
She thought it over and over, then remembered that Fang Zhishui would be a Top-Tier Omega in the future, while she was a Top-Tier Alpha. It was fine now while Fang Zhishui hadn’t differentiated, but what if Fang Zhishui differentiated later and thought Ruan Mei was romantically interested in her?
Ruan Mei quickly added a reassurance:
[I’ll bring my homework, and I hope you can bring some competition questions too. This is just a homework exchange session between classmates, nothing else! I like boys!]
Ruan Mei actually hadn’t dated before. She felt she might be bisexual, but there was no need for Fang Zhishui to misunderstand now, so it was better to be firm.
Fang Zhishui replied quickly:
[Nothing else? I’m quite disappointed.]
Ruan Mei looked at her phone, and her heart skipped a beat.
She quickly typed and sent back:
[Hahaha, you’re so humorous.]
Fang Zhishui also replied:
[^_^]
Ruan Mei patted her chest, feeling that tomorrow’s outing ahem, homework exchange session might not be as simple as she imagined…
The date is prepared!
Because there will be a clip update tomorrow, I will update at eleven o’clock tomorrow night (11.11). Everyone, please be patient! Mwah to everyone!