Not long after Lu Mingxi left, Ji Shu quickly finished tidying up and went to bed. She rarely went to sleep this early, and when she woke the next day, her body felt inexplicably light and relaxed.
The old bruises were gradually fading, and her mental state had improved considerably.
Yesterday’s heavy rain had cleansed the air of Flandre. In the early morning, when she opened the curtains and the window, the damp freshness and the scent of grass filled the room, and the sky looked washed clean and vividly blue.
It was a perfect day.
After reviewing all her homework, Ji Shu took out SAT past papers from previous years and began timing herself as she worked through them.
The SAT exam lasts three and a half hours, with a total score of 350 points, divided into two sections: multiple-choice and essay. The multiple-choice section accounts for 200 points and covers math, physics, and chemistry questions, while the essay section is worth 150 points, including a short essay of 50 points and a long essay of 100 points, the hardest section to score well in.
Ji Shu gave herself two and a half hours to complete two full past exams, excluding the long essay, and scored them according to the grading guidelines. The first set earned her 233 points, and the second 236 points. The perfect score of 250 seemed within reach, based on past years, this could place her in the top 8%, but factoring in the inevitable deductions for the long essay, her ranking would likely drop significantly.
Moreover, she wasn’t very skilled at structuring long essays. Even in the full three and a half hours of the test, she couldn’t guarantee her focus wouldn’t falter, her ADHD, which had plagued her for years in her past life, remained a persistent obstacle.
After organizing her mistakes, Ji Shu felt a headache coming on. She got up, went downstairs to eat, and turned on her silent phone.
She had set a special notification sound for her pinned Line messages, so she could only receive alerts from Lu Mingxi, all other messages went unnoticed. Fortunately, the young duke hadn’t disturbed her the entire day.
It seemed that his hurried departure yesterday had really been due to urgent matters.
Probably something related to the duke’s affairs. Ji Shu recalled the news interview she had seen before.
The novel also included this segment. Next month, Duke Lu Ruqing would host a birthday celebration for Lotus’s COB, Lu Mingxi’s grandfather, at the duke’s estate. Nearly all the prominent aristocratic families of Landon would attend, and the heroine, Ruan Si’an, would apparently receive a special invitation from the young duke himself.
But none of that concerned Ji Shu.
Although her family had earned considerable wealth in recent years through their home furnishings business within Landon’s wealthy circles, they were still far from qualifying to attend such high-level banquets.
Ji Shu now only hoped that the half-month-long preparation for this banquet would occupy most of Lu Mingxi’s time and energy, leaving him little opportunity to bother her.
Seeing no new messages in the pinned chat was the best news she could have.
As she ate and scrolled through Line, she suddenly noticed a developer message she had missed a few days ago.
She quickly finished her dinner, returned to her room, and downloaded the zip file sent by the developer.
Although the other person was still a rookie developer, it was clear that he had strong ideas for the project, his concepts were clever, the structure flowed smoothly, and the work was highly polished. Ji Shu sent some feedback from a user’s perspective and offered a few minor suggestions.
He replied very quickly.
++: 【Okay.jpg】
++: 【Thanks.jpg】
Ji Shu found it interesting that he communicated using only stickers. She chatted with him more and learned that he had grown up alone at Lais, only returning to Landon at school age. He was still young and still a student.
Gradually, he began replying to Ji Shu with short sentences. But he seemed unable to hide much about himself. Sometimes, when Ji Shu asked politely about him, he would answer in great detail, and she had to forcibly change the subject.
Eventually, he even sent her some game demos he had created. Ji Shu promised that she would play them properly when she had time.
He was extremely excited, sending her lots of little cat stickers expressing thanks.
Ji Shu opened the file collection: there were suspense-style visual novels as well as 2D platformers. The games were diverse, some had even won awards at previous GameJams, but without exception, the creator listed was always the same name:
Shining.
Ji Shu glanced at the time, it was late. She closed the files and her desk lamp, deciding to stick to her rare early-sleep routine.
The next morning, she arrived at school as usual. Unfortunately, someone from the duke’s side had shown up, so the young duke attended class perfectly fine.
The first period in the morning was a large math class. Wang Jing walked in carrying a set of test papers and timed them while they practiced. Sighs filled the room. Wang Jing tapped on his desk and coughed a few times: “Finals are coming soon, yet you all are still taking it easy every day. Next semester, you’ll be doing SAT simulations. If you’re scared of small math quizzes now, how will you handle the big exam in the fifth semester?”
The students complained: “We don’t need to start such intense prep this early!”
“Isn’t the final exam still two months away?”
“I went to parties on the weekend and didn’t even open the math textbook… now we’re doomed…”
No matter how much they complained, the test papers were handed out.
Ji Shu flipped through the freshly printed pages. Eight in total, with both basic and advanced questions. The final questions were difficult, but the rest fell within what she considered a normal range.
After finishing, Ji Shu had twenty minutes left to check her work. When she finally looked up, she saw Lu Mingxi slouched in his seat, already asleep.
His arm was propped on the desk, hand resting on the back of his neck. The sleeves of his uniform were rolled up, revealing the defined lines of his arm. His fingers hung naturally, knuckles relaxed. The pink strands near his ear glimmered in the morning sunlight, rising and falling gently with his steady breathing.
Ji Shu turned her head and averted her gaze.
Up front in the first row, Xie Zhoulin had already finished his test. Wang Jing seemed to have taken his paper to grade it early, probably because there was nothing to deduct, he scored it quickly. Xie Zhoulin didn’t even take his paper back, instead attending to other matters at his seat.
Ji Shu wasn’t sure if he noticed her glance, but he slightly turned his head backward.
She quickly lowered her own, pretending to focus on writing and doodling on her scratch paper.
Xie Zhoulin ranked in the top 1% of the school, earning A+ in all subjects since high school. Ji Shu knew it would be nearly impossible to surpass his overall grades, but for SAT scores alone, with some effort, she could barely reach his level.
She did some calculations on her paper: to make it into the top ten of past years’ SAT results, a total score above 334 would be safer. She still had over a semester to study, so the timeline wasn’t urgent, she could plan her study schedule with some flexibility.
Two hours passed quickly.
Even as the papers were collected, the scratching of pens didn’t stop.
Complaints erupted: “There’s no way to finish this! Too hard!”
“I didn’t even understand the last question, are you sure it’s not beyond the syllabus?”
“Can we have a little more time? I could solve it if we did!”
…
Wang Jing smiled and declined, collecting the papers one by one, and slowly walked out of the classroom.
The class bell rang on schedule.
Ji Shu began packing her things quickly.
Lu Mingxi, on the other hand, woke slowly, yawned, and upon seeing her shadow dart out the back door of the classroom, let out a small, amused laugh.
Xie Zhoulin, having finished packing, approached Lu Mingxi’s desk and tapped the surface with curled fingers: “Let’s go.”
Lu Mingxi, clearly used to Xie Zhoulin’s laconic nature, leaned on his desk, lazily playing on his phone and typing without lifting his head: “You go ahead, I’ll be there soon.”
Xie Zhoulin: “……”
Lu Mingxi, worried that Xie Zhoulin might not believe him, lifted his head briefly while typing and raised a hand in assurance. “I really won’t skip the afternoon meeting, don’t worry. Otherwise, you can have Cheng Qiuyuan come catch me.”
Xie Zhoulin glanced at him coldly, then turned and left.
After lunch, Ji Shu went to her afternoon elective class. Recently, several electives were wrapping up, and Ji Shu had just noted down her assignments when she ran into a familiar face.
“Jiang Zhaoming, what are you doing here?”
Ji Shu looked around suspiciously, not seeing Lu Mingxi’s figure and staying on guard. Jiang Zhaoming gave a sheepish chuckle, rubbed the back of his head, and seeing her about to leave, hurriedly stopped her: “The Young Duke asked me to bring you to A09.”
Ji Shu paused. She remembered that A09 was where the Chief’s restaurant and lounge were located. Except for the first to third floors, which were administrative, floors four to nine were all for Chief activities.
What was he taking her there for?
Jiang Zhaoming explained, “Monday is the Chief meeting. The Young Duke said you should go take the meeting minutes.”
Ji Shu understood. “Doing menial work? Doesn’t your student council have anyone else?”
Jiang Zhaoming scratched his nose. “I’m not really sure… let’s just go there first?”
Ji Shu’s mood was a little complicated. “…Fine, let’s go.”
She started walking and opened her navigation. Jiang Zhaoming hurried up and offered, “I can carry your backpack for you!”
“No need.”
It took nearly twenty minutes to reach A09.
The building was old, with red-brick walls covered in lush ivy. Towering paulownia and oak trees swayed gently in the afternoon breeze, sunlight casting dappled patterns on the ground, and the air carried the fresh scent of green leaves. A golden-edged floor plaque was embedded in the gate, gleaming with antique charm.
Ji Shu walked inside, and Jiang Zhaoming pressed the elevator button for the seventh floor.
She glanced at the floor labels beside the buttons.
The fourth floor was the Chief restaurant, the fifth floor the gym, the sixth floor for entertainment and activities, and the seventh floor had the meeting room, screening room, and lounge. The eighth and ninth floors were unlabeled, likely gardens or rooftop areas.
The door opened, and Jiang Zhaoming led her inside.
Unlike its classic and historic exterior, the interior was stylish and modern, low-key yet bright and luxurious. Ji Shu recalled that the Chief positions at Flandre had always been five in number, with each term lasting three years. A few years ago, one of the five had been a special student selected from admissions, and after that person left, the fifth position remained vacant until this year. The fourth Chief, Chi Nianxing, had gone abroad for career development, leaving only three current Chiefs.
These three occupied a vast campus area and rich activity spaces. As Cen Xuan had said, power really was a valuable thing.
Even though, on the surface, they were all students at the same school, sitting seemingly equally in the same classroom, behind the scenes, all the resources quietly tilted toward the other side of the scale.
Class, power, money, each weight accumulated bit by bit, like deeply ingrained beliefs.
But Ji Shu had no interest in any of it. She didn’t belong here in the first place, and had no intention of commenting on the system of another country.
Everything she experienced was just a story. All she had to do was wait until the plot ended.
By then, whether she could leave this world or not, at least she could leave this school, the place that had brought her to a deadly ending.
Nothing more.
【-system-】
【Plot Progress: 9%】
Ji Shu expressionlessly closed the system and stepped out of the elevator.
The conference room was spacious and bright. The other two were already waiting inside. Another unfamiliar face was busy setting up computers and playback equipment.
Lu Mingxi lounged lazily on the sofa, playing on his phone. Hearing the door, he lifted his eyelids slightly, saw her face, and let out a light snort through his nose. “Here?”
Xie Zhoulin was working at the table. When he saw her, he paused briefly, then quickly understood. He closed his laptop and led her in.
Ji Shu greeted him and put down her backpack. Xie Zhoulin called over the boy working with the equipment and had him teach her some of the tasks and precautions.
Ji Shu leaned over the table, black hair falling by her cheeks, carefully taking notes with paper and pen. Xie Zhoulin pulled out the chair behind her, and she sat down.
The boy introduced himself: “I’m Cheng Qiuyuan, part of the student council. I usually handle student council tasks with the president, and also take some notes for the Chief meetings. If you need anything, you can find me on the first floor of the administrative department in A09.”
Ji Shu nodded.
He showed her how to fill out some forms, then whispered to her, “Don’t worry, the president won’t make you work for nothing. If you participate in recording the Chief meeting, you’ll get full marks for the extracurricular activity section.”
Ji Shu was genuinely surprised.
The original student had stopped participating in extracurricular activities long ago because of bullying issues, and most clubs had been dropped last semester. Extracurricular activities were an important measure of a high school student’s development and engagement, and many top university applications valued this section highly.
Ji Shu had originally thought her extracurricular score would be zero.
Gradually, her inner resistance began to fade.
Just with her back to Lu Mingxi, she felt his gaze linger on her, faint but persistent. Ji Shu felt slightly uncomfortable. She didn’t want to turn around to meet his eyes, so she pretended not to notice anything.
Suddenly, the sound of a door opening and footsteps came from behind.
The footsteps hesitated for a moment as the person entered, almost as if pausing to consider.
But soon, Xie Zhoulin looked up and toward the newcomer. He was unusually surprised, and Lu Mingxi immediately straightened from his lazy posture.
He widened his eyes. “You’re here today? Didn’t you say you weren’t coming?”
Ji Shu heard a low, youthful voice respond.
“…Just picking something up.”
The voice was clear and young, slightly muffled and awkward, with a faint mechanical tremor, whether deliberate or clumsy, it made the speaker sound unaccustomed to speaking aloud.
Ji Shu lifted her head from her notes but didn’t have time to see the person’s face before he brushed past her like a gust of wind.
The boy was tall and slim, hands in his pockets, wearing an unbuttoned uniform over a blue hoodie, the hood pulled tightly over his face.
He passed by Ji Shu without pausing, heading straight into the lounge at the back of the conference room. He opened the door, turned his back to the others, and began searching for something.
Lu Mingxi stood and called out to him: “Hey! Chi Yaoxing, since you’re here, why not start the meeting too?”
The figure didn’t seem to hear him and gave no response. After a few minutes, he apparently found what he was looking for on the sofa, turned on the TV, put on headphones, sat down, and started playing Ace Attorney with a controller.
Lu Mingxi let out an incredulous laugh.
He leaned back into the sofa, crossed his legs, lifted his chin, and pointed toward the boy playing the game. Turning to Xie Zhoulin, he reported, “Playing games, and he has to do it right in front of us, does he want a beating? He’s getting more and more lawless.”
Xie Zhoulin said, “Still not as bad as you.”
Lu Mingxi snorted, uninterested in his phone, walked to the table, pulled out a chair, and sat diagonally next to Ji Shu.
He tapped his fingers on the table and raised an eyebrow. “Anyway, everyone’s here. President, shall we start?”
Xie Zhoulin didn’t refuse. He sat opposite Lu Mingxi, opened his screen, and projected the presentation slides.
…
The meeting lasted about three hours, and Ji Shu’s notes and summaries filled nearly twenty pages.
Besides feeling even more exhausted than after the math exam, Ji Shu’s main thought was this: the chief students really had a lot of power. Because they controlled significant assets and had ample trust funds, they could decide on campus donations themselves, giving them considerable influence over the maintenance, repairs, or construction of most campus buildings.
From the library and stadium to the swimming pool and music rooms, the number of facilities and the choice of brand partners were all preliminary decisions made by them, which were then submitted to the school for approval.
After Ji Shu printed out the materials, she handed them to Xie Zhoulin. He flipped through a few pages and praised her: “Well done.”
Ji Shu: “Thank you.”
Lu Mingxi glanced at her: “I was the one who gave you this chance and brought you here. Why don’t I see you thanking me?”
Ji Shu: “…Thank you too.”
Lu Mingxi muttered something under his breath and lazily leaned back into the sofa. Even though his eyes were fixed on the screen, he occasionally lifted his eyelids, glancing sideways at Ji Shu as she moved busily.
Xie Zhoulin had her print two more copies, one for Lu Mingxi and one for Chi Yaoxing.
She carried the documents over and handed them to the person lounging on the sofa.
Lu Mingxi slowly took them and flipped through a few pages. Most of the meeting had actually been introductions and presentations by Cheng Qiuyuan and Xie Zhoulin, he had mostly only made the final decisions. What surprised him more than the work itself was how seriously Ji Shu approached it.
He could observe that even during extended periods of work, when maintaining focus was difficult for her, she remained careful and diligent.
It took her more effort and time than most to sustain concentration.
Yet the work was still completed perfectly.
Lu Mingxi flipped through the materials silently, no longer interested in the screen. He locked his device and stared heavily at Ji Shu as she walked toward the inner room with the documents.
Chi Yaoxing didn’t look up from the game, nor did he reach out to take them, so she placed the materials on a side table.
Ji Shu glanced at the screen. When she had arrived that afternoon, he seemed to be on Chapter 1 of the third game. Three hours had passed, and he was still stuck on that chapter. The in-game clues appeared to have made no progress, the controller moved the character back and forth over the options, unable to make a choice.
It was as if his mind wasn’t on the game at all.
She said nothing, simply put the materials down and pushed the door open to leave.
She exhaled, rubbed her sore neck, and met Lu Mingxi’s gaze. She quickly averted her eyes, not seeing the faintly probing depth hidden in them.
The screen went dark as Cheng Qiuyuan began shutting down the equipment. The lounge lights went off soon after, and the boy lowered his head and pushed the door open to leave.
Ji Shu checked the time. It was already 5:30, normally, she would have been sitting at the dining table by now.
She returned to her seat, tidying up her things as she spoke to Xie Zhoulin: “President, shall I head off first?”
Xie Zhoulin didn’t lift his head. He was finishing up the last tasks and, sounding casual, said, “Let’s go together.”
Cheng Qiuyuan walked over and explained to her: “Since it’s ending a bit late, the President usually drives us out of the school. It’s getting dark without us noticing, just hop in for a ride.”
Although slightly embarrassed, Ji Shu was indeed tired, so she didn’t refuse.
As they went downstairs together, dark clouds were gathering on the horizon, and the wind was picking up. The leaves of the sycamore rustled, and the chill carried the dampness with it.
Chi Yaoxing sat in the front passenger seat, Cheng Qiuyuan and Lu Mingxi took the back, and Ji Shu opened the door and bent down to sit in as well. With one extra person in the back, it was a bit cramped, even though Ji Shu tried to keep distance from Lu Mingxi in the middle, her thighs and arms still inevitably brushed against his.
His expression seemed unchanged, and he didn’t shift away, as if he hadn’t noticed at all.
In the confined space, Lu Mingxi’s strong perfume was especially noticeable. The rustle of fabric and occasional knocks of limbs made Ji Shu uncomfortable. Her knees warmed slightly, she glanced at the tightly bundled Chi Yaoxing in the front and pulled up her hoodie, turning her head toward the window.
The sky darkened rapidly, and soon large raindrops pelted the car window, blurring the view. The headlights of oncoming cars lit the road ahead.
Xie Zhoulin lifted his eyes, glanced at her through the central rearview mirror, and asked, “You didn’t bring an umbrella, right?”
Ji Shu hesitated for a moment before realizing he was asking her.
She replied with a hesitant “yes.”
“There’s a folding umbrella under your seat. Take it for now, and just return it to me tomorrow.”
Ji Shu reached down and indeed felt a cool umbrella.
As she gripped the handle to pull it out, she accidentally brushed against Lu Mingxi’s calf. He didn’t move his leg aside, so she had to maneuver carefully, pressed against his cool calf and knee, to get it out.
The school gate came up quickly. Ji Shu pushed open the car door, opened the umbrella, and stepped out, saying thank you to the front seat before walking toward the driver.
The rain intensified immediately. Ji Shu folded the umbrella and got back in, watching the BUGATTI’s headlights fade into the rainy night. The rain blurred everything around her, the wind howled past, and the school’s spires, clock towers, and star coordinates gradually disappeared from view.
The heat and chill mixed together, and the warmth she had felt pressing against her knees in the car quickly dissipated.
Ji Shu looked out the window.
She suddenly realized that in Flandre, during the height of summer, the long-delayed, unpredictable rainy season had finally arrived.