Jiang You was drinking a carton of milk through a straw. Listening to her three little followers chat was actually quite interesting, but when she suddenly heard the girl’s words, she choked. "COUGH, COUGH, COUGH..."
The three girls immediately grew nervous, patting her back to help her catch her breath, one of them handing her a silk handkerchief. "Sister You, are you okay?"
"I’m fine." Jiang You took the handkerchief, wiped her lips, and tossed the finished milk carton and the handkerchief into the trash can.
"Sister You, you think I’m right, don’t you?" Yu Lin said with a happy smile. "Sister You is so beautiful, she’d be a perfect match even for the Imperial Crown Prince."
"Yeah, yeah!" The other two followers chimed in, praising Jiang You to the high heavens. "Besides, Sister You is a female with A-level spiritual power. She’s gorgeous and has great fashion sense. What kind of male beast could possibly resist?"
The corner of Jiang You’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.
’The original owner’s confidence in seducing the male leads must have come from the flattery of these little followers.’
’They had way too much faith in her; she didn’t even have that much confidence in herself.’
"Mhm, haha, yeah," Jiang You replied nonchalantly.
She had also discovered that it wasn’t too important for her to maintain her character persona around these relatively minor characters, but she couldn’t completely break character either.
The support system was mainly focused on her maintaining her persona around the main characters.
Jiang You didn’t refute her followers’ flattery, because "she"—the character she was playing—was just that confident.
The group walked on, not noticing a tall, thin boy not far behind them.
A boy, also wearing a Rose Liss school uniform, walked up to the trash can Jiang You had just used. He reached inside and picked out the milk carton she had thrown away and the silk handkerchief she had used to wipe her lips.
This person was none other than Zhou Yu.
He had a head of jet-black hair, the bangs on his forehead still nearly covering one of his eyes. The lower half of his face was snow-white and strikingly beautiful, like a cold, damp, handsome ghost.
Even the rose-red school uniform couldn’t conceal the cold, detached aura about him.
Zhou Yu’s long, slender fingers clutched the milk carton she had drunk from and the handkerchief she had used to wipe her mouth. His vivid red lips seemed to curve into the faintest of smiles.
"HAHAHA! Look! This scholarship student is actually digging through the trash!" an exaggerated laugh rang out.
Zhou Yu was quickly surrounded by several boys from Rose Liss.
The students of Rose Liss Noble School were all either rich or noble, and the class hierarchy was sharply defined.
Every student’s uniform had a rose brooch of a different color, representing their status at the school.
The brooch colors, from highest to lowest rank, were gold, purple, red, and gray.
Only the scholarship students’ rose brooches were gray.
Jiang You’s brooch was purple, and her three followers’ were red.
As for the gold rose brooches, only the F4 had them.
Don’t ask Jiang You why only the F4 had gold brooches. It was because Yun Shangran, the author of this brainless Mary Sue novel, had made such a brainless setting.
’Probably to highlight just how awesome the F4 were.’
"I really don’t know what the school was thinking, letting a pauper like this in." Several Rose Liss students surrounded Zhou Yu, looking him up and down. "He’s tainting the very air of our school with the stench of the slums."
"Exactly!" the group laughed and jeered.
"Hey, you. Come lick my shoe clean. Do that, and forget this trash can—I’ll let you dig through the trash at my house," Lin Jie said, arrogantly sticking out his leather shoe.
A follower, quick to take the hint, kicked Zhou Yu in the back of the knee.
Caught completely off guard, Zhou Yu dropped to one knee.
His expression was grim. As he tried to get up, several people instantly rushed over and held him down, breaking into mocking laughter. "Hurry up, hurry up! Young Master Jie’s shoes are more expensive than that garbage in your hands!"
Jiang You thought she shouldn’t have come back. ’Is this really a scene that a villainess like me is supposed to witness?’
’This kind of salvation scene should be for the female lead.’
’If a villainess like me shows up, won’t it just make things worse?’
’As a villainess, she naturally couldn’t be the one to offer salvation.’
So, Jiang You glanced at Zhou Yu with a blank expression, then averted her gaze and walked straight ahead.
The only reason she had come back was because she’d forgotten her hair clip. If she had known she would run into this, she would have just forgotten about the stupid clip.
Outside of completing her missions, Jiang You didn’t want to encounter anyone from the main cast.
As Jiang You walked past, Lin Jie and his cronies subconsciously turned to look at her.
For a moment, their gazes, dark and unreadable, landed on Jiang You’s excellent curves.
"AH!" Lin Jie was suddenly punched, knocking him to the ground.
The boy who had been pinned to the ground had somehow broken free. He’d ferociously grabbed Lin Jie by the collar, slammed him against a wall, and was now ruthlessly punching him in the eye, one fist after another.
Zhou Yu’s eyes were dark and intense.
’These people looked at her with such disgusting eyes. They all deserved to be blinded.’
Lin Jie saw the boy’s thick, dark, and icy gaze and, for some reason, felt a surge of fear.
"Quick, help me!" Lin Jie’s eye throbbed with excruciating pain.
’This guy is fighting like he’s trying to get himself killed!’
His followers snapped out of it and rushed to help, kicking Zhou Yu away before ganging up on him.
Zhou Yu fought back with the same reckless abandon, but he was outnumbered. In the end, it turned into Lin Jie unilaterally beating him.
"Xiao Yu!" a girl’s voice called out.
The female lead, Zhou Yan, rushed over and grabbed at Lin Jie and the others. "What gives you the right to hit people!"
"Well, look here. Another broke scholarship student." Lin Jie grabbed Zhou Yan by the hair and threw her down next to Zhou Yu. "We’re not just going to hit him; we’ll hit you, too. Like sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong?"
"I’m going to expose you!" Zhou Yan glared at them furiously.
Lin Jie and his group burst out laughing as if they’d just heard the funniest thing.
"Go ahead. Expose us and see what happens. If you want your family to be ruined, go right ahead and expose us!" Lin Jie sneered, but the movement accidentally pulled at his wound, and his expression turned ugly. "Shit. Beat these two stinking paupers to death."
Just as the followers were about to move, a voice boomed, "What are you doing!" The dean of discipline stormed over. "The opening ceremony is about to start! What’s all this commotion?"
There were outsiders coming for the opening ceremony, which was the only reason the dean had bothered to intervene.
"Sir, this scholarship student was completely out of line. He beat us up like this! You have to punish him severely," Lin Jie said, walking over to the dean’s side.
"You two, go clean the bathrooms for a week." The dean glanced at their brooches and issued the order without a second thought.
The boy on the ground was covered in footprints. He rose to his feet with extreme slowness. Beneath his messy black hair, one of his eyes was bleeding so badly he could no longer see out of it. Step by step, he walked toward the dean of discipline.
The dean’s eyelid twitched. "What... what are you doing? As a scholarship student, you have no right to object!"
"Who told you to come over?" Zhou Yu asked, the words gurgling through the thick blood in his throat.