1: Awakening
In a girl’s restroom at No. 1 High School, a girl was cornered in the farthest stall.
She had a slender build and stood against the wall. Though she trembled with fear, her eyes burned with stubborn defiance.
“What the hell are you looking at?” One of the girls shouted at her, then impatiently urged the person beside her. “Wu Jiao, did you hear me? Hurry up and pour it!”
Hearing someone call her name, Wu Jiao snapped back to reality. Her eyes met a pair of deer-like ones from the corner.
The girl was strikingly beautiful, a stark contrast to her worn-out, faded clothes.
In this environment, her presence felt even more out of place, like a delicate white flower blooming alone in the wild.
Wu Jiao was holding a bucket of dirty water, seemingly about to throw it at this little white flower.
“You brain dead? Give me the bucket. I’ll do it!”
A hand suddenly reached out to grab the bucket, but Wu Jiao reacted quickly.
She stepped forward, positioning herself in front of the little white flower, and snatched the bucket back.
Wu Jiao’s actions caught both sides off guard.
A splash echoed.
The bucket tipped over, dumping the dirty water all over Wu Jiao, with much of it splashing back onto the two behind her.
“Wu Jiao, are you crazy?!”
She ignored them, lifting her chin to meet the startled eyes of the little white flower, and flashed her an ingratiating smile.
The little white flower shrank back and averted her gaze, looking even more frightened than before.
Wu Jiao: “…”
A female voice suddenly rang out, growing louder as it approached.
“What are you all doing in the restroom? Are you bullying classmates again? How many times do I have to tell you? Students should focus on studying, not on bullying—”
Zhang Hongli, the head of the senior year grade, stormed in angrily, but her tone shifted mid-sentence:
“Classmate, are you trying to go swimming in the restroom?!”
In the dingy, old restroom, four people stood in the uneven, puddle-filled hollow.
One curly-haired girl frantically wiped her hair with tissue, shooting daggers at Wu Jiao. Another girl, ignoring herself, desperately scrubbed at the stains on the curly-haired girl’s clothes.
Only Wu Jiao stood still. She tore open a pack of tissues, pinched her nose, and offered one to the little white flower.
A sour stench filled the air, wafting from her.
Compared to the little white flower beside her, Wu Jiao looked anything but fresh and pure.
Mo Li stiffly took the tissue. “Th-thanks.”
“No problem. Here, teacher, have one too.” Wu Jiao held out the small pack of tissues.
Zhang Hongli glanced at Wu Jiao, unceremoniously took the last tissue, pinched her nose, and said, “Alright, what are you still standing around for? All of you, come to my office right now!”
Fortunately, the office was empty.
Wu Jiao’s upper body was soaked, and her pant legs were dripping water onto the floor.
Yan Yixin and her sidekick, on the other hand, acted as if they had fallen into a septic tank.
Zhang Hongli had them line up against the wall. Yan Yixin and her companion stood as far away from Wu Jiao as possible, disgusted. Only the little white flower stood obediently in the same row as Wu Jiao.
The little white flower kept her eyes downcast, not daring to look around, wearing the expression of a well-behaved student who had done something wrong and knew it.
But inside, Wu Jiao was overjoyed. Her thoughts were: Thank goodness, the female lead doesn’t hate me yet, which means the male leads won’t come after me. I’m still safe!
Hard as it might be to believe…
Wu Jiao had only just realized that she was originally the vicious supporting character in an NC-17 harem novel.
Not only that, but she had also been bound to a ” Malicious Female Supporting Character Turned Kind Side Character System.” Her act of blocking the dirty water for the little white flower earlier was precisely to complete a task.
A voice sounded in her mind.
「Rehabilitation Task — Prevent the antagonist from harming the female lead and help the female lead out of a predicament. Completed. Morality Points +5.」
「Hello, host. I’m Xiao E, full name the Malicious Female Supporting Character Turned Kind Side Character System. It’s a pleasure to serve you! In the time ahead, your main tasks will be to score 620 on the college entrance exam while completing various transformation missions, and to achieve a morality score of 1,000! Become a kind side character who helps the male and female leads grow closer! Without further ado, please accept the original storyline!」
In an instant, the original plot flooded Wu Jiao’s mind.
The author, Xie Yunliu, had created her solely to stir up mindless trouble, thereby allowing the female lead to smoothly advance the plot with the three male leads.
In this novel, the stupid things she had done included, but were not limited to: bullying the female lead for no reason so the male lead could rescue her; throwing her weight around to oppress the female lead so the male lead could save the day; and inexplicably drugging the female lead only for the male lead to take advantage of the situation.
If the male and female leads were the author’s chess pieces, then she was the chessboard beneath their feet, trampled upon at will.
The male and female leads ultimately lived happily ever after. She might not have deserved credit, but she certainly had put in the labor.
Yet her own ending was extremely tragic.
She didn’t study hard, failed to get into college, her parents died because of her, and a good marriage prospect was ruined by her.
With no way out, she was captured by one of the male leads, locked in a dark room, and tortured until she lost her mind.
Then she was used as a lab rat for drug testing by the second male lead.
And treated like a dog by the third male lead.
Finally, just before her 24th birthday, she died on a cold, snowy night.
She and that stupid author were mortal enemies!
Xiao E: 「Fortunately, you have me now, host. It’s not too late!」
「You’re still just a budding vicious supporting character. You haven’t yet reached the level of mercilessly destroying the flower. You can still be saved!」
「This month’s main quest: Increase your monthly exam score by 100 points and your Morality Points by 50. If you fail, there will be a bloody disaster!」
Current total exam score: 298
Morality Points: -95
Wu Jiao: ???
Why were her Morality Points in the negative?!
Never mind the negative—what the hell was 1000 points about?
Xiao E: 「Hehe, host, before you woke up, you did quite a few bad things for Yan Yixin according to the plot. Those have to count.」
“Couldn’t you have bound me earlier or started me over from scratch? And isn’t this mission difficulty way too high? What kind of ‘bloody disaster’ are we talking? Don’t tell me…”
Xiao E smiled sheepishly: 「It’s literal. To the point where all the blood drains out. Xiao E’s level is just too low; I can only start from here. Host, you’ll have to make do. Have confidence in yourself! Xiao E believes in you!」
Wu Jiao was speechless.
Although Wu Jiao’s parents provided her with decent material conditions, they had secured them by desperately sucking up to the parents of a young lady.
She didn’t have many friends, only the young lady, Yan Yixin.
It wasn’t that others didn’t want to hang out with her, but rather that she only wanted to hang out with the young lady.
Yan Yixin had striking, glamorous features, was tall with a great figure, came from a wealthy family, excelled at piano, calligraphy, and dancing, was sweet-tongued and polite—both adults and children adored her. She was a total “everyone’s favorite” level of popular.
The moment Wu Jiao saw her as a child, she was captivated by her sweet smile, and from then on, she could see no other child.
If she weren’t certain that her sexual orientation was toward the opposite sex, she would have suspected she had special feelings for the young lady.
Zhang Hongli asked, “Talk. What were you trying to do in the restroom?”
Li Rongrong said, “What else can you do in a restroom? We weren’t doing anything.”
Li Rongrong, like Wu Jiao, was also a sidekick to the young lady. However, she was a bit smarter than Wu Jiao and had been in the role much longer. Since childhood, she had managed to get into the same school as the young lady.
Unlike Wu Jiao, whose grades were far too poor. From the start of high school, she had begged and pleaded with everyone until she finally managed to transfer to No. 1 High School in her senior year, upgrading from a part-time sidekick to a full-time companion student, fulfilling her dream of studying alongside the young lady.
Zhang Hongli frowned and asked each of them for their names and class numbers.
She scanned the three of them. “I don’t want to make things difficult for you. Just be honest.”
Li Rongrong quickly spoke up. “It wasn’t us, anyway. Teacher Zhang, why don’t you ask Mo Li? She’s the only one whose clothes are clean.”
At her words, everyone’s eyes fell on Mo Li.
“Mo Li, tell Teacher Zhang. What were they doing in the restroom?”
Zhang Hongli looked gently at Mo Li.
Last time, if she hadn’t suddenly gotten a stomach ache and rushed into this old restroom in the outdated part of the campus, where she heard Mo Li calling for help, who knows how long that child would have been locked in for. When she asked who did it, Mo Li just stammered that she didn’t know.
“I… I… I…”
Mo Li stole a glance at Wu Jiao. Wu Jiao gave her a look that said, “It’s okay, just tell the truth.”
Zhang Hongli noticed this exchange and immediately had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
She said to Mo Li, “Tell the teacher the truth. No one dares to bully you.”
“It wasn’t us, and we’re victims too,” Li Rongrong interjected.
After speaking, she pursed her lips and glanced at Wu Jiao, who quickly caught on.
Wu Jiao mentally gave her a thumbs-up.
[There are four people total. It wasn’t Mo Li, and it wasn’t the two of them. So if it wasn’t me, who else could it be? When will I ever learn Li Rongrong’s way with words?]
Li Rongrong had long been annoyed with Wu Jiao.
As a sidekick who knew how to read the room, Li Rongrong thought Wu Jiao was an idiot. If it weren’t for the young lady being kind-hearted and willing to let her hang around, Li Rongrong would never speak to that idiot.
After Li Rongrong finished speaking, Yan Yixin gave her an approving glance. That glance was like a meaty bone, making Li Rongrong’s mouth buzz with excitement.
Li Rongrong lied without missing a beat: “Wu Jiao wanted to bully Mo Li and throw water on her. We were trying to help a classmate, but then Wu Jiao threw the water on us instead.”
Well… that explanation could work. The water on them did, in fact, come from her hand.
The little white flower was about to say something when Zhang Hongli stepped in front of Wu Jiao and asked, “Wu Jiao? Which class is yours? Who’s your homeroom teacher? Tell me, what’s going on here?”
Xiao E: 「Host, here come more points!」
「Triggered Rehabilitation Task — Admit your mistake, be an honest and upright student! Upon completion, Morality Points +5. You’ll have 10 points now! 10 points can be exchanged for a mind-reading function.」
Wu Jiao remained silent for a while, and Zhang Hongli had already mentally prepared herself for a lengthy argument.
But to her surprise, Wu Jiao had a very good attitude. She lowered her head and said, “I wanted to bully my classmate. I’m sorry.”
As soon as she finished speaking, a flicker of surprise passed through Yan Yixin’s eyes. Li Rongrong, who had a whole speech ready, was forcibly silenced.
Mo Li, on the other hand, widened her eyes and turned her head to look at Wu Jiao.
The girl beside her was much taller. Her high ponytail was a bit loose, and her uniform, wet against her skin, was uncomfortable, so she had rolled up her sleeves and pant legs. She looked like she had just come back from transplanting rice seedlings in the fields.
The look was objectively hard to evaluate, but on her, it seemed oddly… whimsical.
Very cute.
Especially her long eyelashes. From the side, they looked like two butterflies.
Wu Jiao had an excellent attitude: “Teacher Zhang, I was wrong. This has nothing to do with them. If you’re going to punish anyone, punish me.”
Xiao E: 「Congratulations, host! Your Morality Points are now -90!」
Earning 10 points was that easy. So, reaching 1000 points didn’t seem so hard after all.
Wu Jiao thought happily about the bright future ahead.
[I’ll just admit it. Mo Li knows the truth. She probably won’t blame me, and she certainly won’t go telling the male leads. From now on, I’ll be a good side character forever, cheering and applauding for their love. There’s no way I’ll die such a miserable death! I’m so smart!]
Zhang Hongli hadn’t expected Wu Jiao to fess up so readily. The office fell silent for a few seconds.
“Teacher Zhang, I’ve finished correcting all the test papers for Teacher Song. Is there anything else you need me to help with?”
A gentle, warm male voice sounded. The few people in the room, each lost in their own thoughts, were immediately distracted.
Zhang Hongli turned around and saw a tall, fair-skinned male student smiling at her. Only then did she remember, there was someone else in the office.
As it happened, he was in the same class as Wu Jiao and Mo Li.
The boy was a familiar face to the entire school’s faculty and student body. He had been asked by his homeroom teacher to stay in the office during this period to help correct test papers.
The spot where he was sitting happened to be completely blocked by a pile of test papers and a computer, so none of the others in the office had seen him.
The moment the male voice appeared, Wu Jiao recognized who it was.
Just hearing the voice was enough to conjure up the face of a handsome guy. Who else could it be but a male lead?
She mentally recalled the plot.
[Isn’t this Si Xiuyuan, one of the male leads? He uses the persona of a gentle school heartthrob to get close to the female lead, but in reality, he’s the opposite — a total psycho. On the surface, he smiles as sweetly as can be, but behind the scenes, he’s completely unhinged. In the original plot, it was like this — when Si Xiuyuan and Mo Li had a fight, he got upset and brought up old grudges. He personally caught Wu Jiao to vent his anger, locked her in a dark room, and eventually drove her insane.]
When the couple had a fight, why take it out on her?
Was she just part of their game?
Wait, that’s not the point.
The point is —
Why was Si Xiuyuan here?!
Had he heard everything just now?!
At the thought, Wu Jiao’s entire body stiffened, and a chill began seeping up from the soles of her feet.
She slowly turned her neck, only to look directly into a pair of smiling, amorous eyes.
He was smiling at her.
It was over. She was dead for sure.
**