18
Pei Jiamu said one thing but did another—he obediently complied.
His legs spread apart as told. A Xiao Embarrassed, he covered his crotch with one hand.
Wu Jiao caught sight of his movement, felt her face heat up, and awkwardly looked away.
[I’m not Doraemon! Besides, it’s not like I haven’t seen it before. Is that really necessary?]
Pei Jiamu: ?
Wait—what has she seen before?!
It wasn’t yet time to gather for the group photo, so the two who had just entered sat down and started chatting.
Girl: “I heard Si Xiuyuan was forced to hand over his class monitor position to some girl. So annoying. Now I’ll never get a chance to talk to Si Xiuyuan again.”
Guy: “I heard about that. The girl isn’t even good-looking, and her grades are bad. No idea how she got the position.”
They weren’t speaking loudly, but their voices were clear enough for the other two to hear.
Obviously, they were talking about Wu Jiao.
Wu Jiao paused for a moment, silently adjusted her glasses, and lowered her head, her thoughts unreadable.
Pei Jiamu heard it too.
His reaction was even bigger than Wu Jiao’s.
He snapped his head up, his expression unpleasant. “Who are you talking about? Who’s ‘some girl’?”
His sudden change in demeanor startled the two.
Neither of them expected Pei Jiamu to care about the person they were gossiping about.
The guy looked a bit embarrassed. “No one. We were just chatting casually.”
The girl also felt awkward. “President, we’re sorry. We shouldn’t have said that.”
Pei Jiamu sneered at the guy.
“Casually badmouthing someone behind their back—you must think you’re pretty hot stuff, huh?”
“I—”
The guy tried to say something, but the girl stopped him.
Knowing he was in the wrong, the guy shut up. The atmosphere dropped to freezing point.
Seeing this, the girl quickly pulled him toward the door. “President, we’ll step outside for a bit.”
As soon as they left, Pei Jiamu crouched down and reached a hand under the table.
“They’re gone. Aren’t you coming out?”
Wu Jiao hesitated for a moment, then placed her hand in his.
With one hand helping her out, Pei Jiamu used the other to shield the edge of the table so she wouldn’t bump her head.
Noticing this small gesture, Wu Jiao looked away, a little uncomfortable.
She could handle Pei Jiamu when he was being difficult, but when he acted normal, it threw her off. He was too… presentable.
Her heart was beating a little fast.
A bit shy, she said, “Thanks. For just now.”
“What’s there to thank?” Pei Jiamu took the camera from her hands, determined to play it cool. “You saved my camera. I’m paying you back.”
Wu Jiao: “…”
He had clearly helped her, but he still had to be stubborn about it. Why did he have to be so tsundere?
[With Mo Li, he’s so soft. With me, he’s so hard. So double-standard. Go ahead, be hard all over—the hardest part of you is your mouth anyway.]
What is she saying?! AHHHHHH!!!
Pei Jiamu wanted to scream. He really wanted to scream.
As Wu Jiao thought this, her eyes unconsciously drifted downward.
Pei Jiamu quickly held the camera up in front of him and said with a straight face, “Wu Jiao, let me be real with you. I can hear every single thing you’re thinking! So can you please have some restraint? What are you thinking about all day?!”
“What am I thinking about?”
Wu Jiao genuinely had no idea what he was talking about.
She wasn’t thinking it?!
He wouldn’t even dare to think something like that! And she—a girl—how could she?!
Pei Jiamu was so flustered he couldn’t speak, but Wu Jiao pressed on relentlessly. “Go on, tell me what I was thinking. Why aren’t you saying anything? Is it because I wasn’t thinking anything? Listen again!”
[Pei Jiamu Pei Jiamu Pei Jiamu, idiot idiot idiot, Pei Jiamu Pei Jiamu Pei Jiamu, childish childish childish.]
“You’re insulting me.”
Pei Jiamu looked annoyed.
Wu Jiao: “Really? Or are you just guessing? Listen again.”
[Pei Jiamu Pei Jiamu Pei Jiamu, like you like you like you, like you the most.]
Wu Jiao deliberately teased him: “Listen again? What was I saying?”
“Wait—why are you blushing—”
Before he could finish, Wu Jiao choked on her words.
The playful, bickering atmosphere came to an abrupt halt.
Wu Jiao had never seen Pei Jiamu’s face turn so red. Almost in the blink of an eye, he looked as if someone had colored him with a marker.
“Don’t ever say stuff like that to anyone!”
Pei Jiamu dropped those words and ran off without a trace.
Wu Jiao stood there dumbfounded.
Wait—could he actually hear her thoughts?
He had to be guessing!
Wu Jiao wouldn’t deny that Pei Jiamu was smart, and he knew her well enough. It would be perfectly normal for him to use reverse psychology to deduce her behavior.
The things she said in her head were nothing more than two types: insults and compliments.
One, insults. Pei Jiamu thought she was cursing him out in her head and didn’t want to hear it anymore.
Two, compliments. Pei Jiamu couldn’t believe that such nice words had actually come from her.
It all depended on how she chose to interpret it.
Just like those pseudoscience cold-reading tricks—believe it or not, it’s up to the listener.
Wu Jiao shrugged.
At the entrance of the No. 5 Teaching Building lobby.
When Wu Jiao saw Pei Jiamu again, all the student union members had already gathered and were spontaneously arranging themselves into formation. Pei Jiamu stood at the front, adjusting his equipment, looking no different from usual.
Except that now and then, he would look up and glance toward a certain spot in the crowd.
Wu Jiao was on the taller side among the girls, so she resolutely stood at the very edge.
Unfortunately, the girl talking next to her was the same one from the meeting room earlier—she recognized her voice.
The girl shot her a look, said nothing, but there was resentment in her eyes. Wu Jiao’s smile didn’t help.
Quite a few girls had gathered to fix their hair and makeup. Some had even powdered their faces and put on lipstick.
The girl whispered something, and then the other girls all glanced at Wu Jiao.
One of them said in a catty tone, “She’s not even that good-looking. I was expecting someone pretty.”
Wu Jiao pushed up her glasses and quietly moved one step away.
Cao Haotian was the academic committee representative for Class 7 and also a student union member. As soon as he arrived, he spotted Wu Jiao in the crowd and, without a word, stood behind her.
The girls stood in the front row, the boys in the back. Cao Haotian was tall, so the two ended up one in front of the other.
It was loud and chaotic. Cao Haotian had to lean down slightly to speak near Wu Jiao’s ear so she could hear him.
Cao Haotian: “Class monitor, you got here early. When I got to the classroom and didn’t see you, I figured you’d already come over.”
Wu Jiao: “I didn’t have anything else to do, so I came early. Didn’t want to be late.”
Their heads were very close together. From a distance, it almost looked like they were about to kiss.
Pei Jiamu clicked his tongue in annoyance, waved his hand to signal everyone to get ready, and only then did the two separate.
Pei Jiamu: “I’m ready over here. Everyone, find your spots, and we’ll get started. I’ll count down from three and press the shutter. It’s a five-second self-timer, three shots automatically. We’ll pick the best one. Remember to smile.”
“3, 2, 1—”
In no time, Pei Jiamu counted down and simultaneously sprinted toward the group.
He stopped right next to Cao Haotian. “Buddy, make some room for me. I’m taller than you, wouldn’t look good in the back. Thanks.”
He was fast—sprinting and stopping in one fluid motion, with only three seconds gone.
As for the last two seconds—
He lowered his gaze.
Wu Jiao felt the back of her head tug backward, her hair fanning out in the breeze.
Her hair was so silky that it caught the glasses perched on her nose, sending them sliding off.
It all happened too quickly.
Click, click, click—the photos were taken, and the group dispersed.
Wu Jiao whipped her head around, puffed out her cheeks, and shot Pei Jiamu a fierce glare.
But he just gave her a peace sign.
A peace sign, my foot! She knew it—him running off earlier wasn’t a good sign. He had no intention of letting her off the hook!
Wu Jiao was a bit angry.
The photos they just took were probably really ugly.
Just thinking about how they would be hung at the student union entrance for everyone to see, and how someone might say the same kind of nasty things about her like that guy did earlier, Wu Jiao felt a flicker of hurt.
Without a word, she picked up her glasses and walked away.
Sensing something was wrong with Wu Jiao, Pei Jiamu’s smile vanished instantly. Before he could say anything, Cao Haotian beat him to it and stopped him.
Displeasure showed in Cao Haotian’s eyes. “President, that was pretty rude to a girl.”
With that, he left too, leaving Pei Jiamu standing alone.
A few girls clamored to see the photos, but Pei Jiamu wasn’t in the mood. He brushed them off.
He pulled up the photos and zoomed in, the center of the image landing on Wu Jiao.
The sunlight was beautiful today. The girl’s bare-faced complexion was fair, a faint smile playing at the corners of her lips. Even the wind seemed to favor her, gently tousling her hair.
She was truly pretty—prettier than anyone, not at all what they had said about her.
He wanted her to know that, but he had gone about it the wrong way.
Pei Jiamu didn’t know what to do, he had made her angry again. What should he do?
……
Though Wu Jiao was upset about the photo incident, that feeling was quickly shoved aside by something even worse.
After becoming class monitor, Wu Jiao’s morality points had been growing at a satisfying rate. That day, after finishing up class duties, she returned to her seat and unscrewed her water bottle—only to notice something wrong.
Someone had tampered with her bottle. Something had been added to the water.
She dumped it out and quietly listened in on her classmates’ inner thoughts.
Yan Yixin had sent someone to do it.
It suddenly clicked—the small ladies’ bag Si Xiuyuan had been holding at the restaurant that day had looked familiar.
What a coincidence. Yan Yixin had been there that night too.
Wu Jiao started to feel anxious.
But what could she do?
She couldn’t just go up to Yan Yixin and say, Your Majesty, someone is trying to harm your servant—you must serve justice!
Yan Yixin never showed her face, but she never missed a beat either—dead mice appeared in Wu Jiao’s desk, her notebooks were deliberately smeared, her desk and chair were coated in glue.
These things that had always seemed so far away, things she thought only happened in novels, were now happening to her in real life.
Wu Jiao did her best to stay calm and deal with these things, but her efforts backfired.
Yan Yixin only got worse.
One day after the extended break between classes, Wu Jiao suddenly got her period.
She had come prepared and ran to the bathroom near the sports field, only to get trapped inside a stall.
Wu Jiao almost laughed out of sheer frustration.
So this was all the young lady was capable of—just the same boring tricks over and over.
But she wasn’t as lucky as Mo Li. She waited a long time, and no one came to let her out.
Yet just before the start of the third period, Wu Jiao showed up at the international department.
“…She’s probably crying her eyes out by now.”
Yan Yixin, who had been laughing and chatting with her friends, saw Wu Jiao and her smile vanished.
The people around her also stopped, turning to look at her with strange expressions.
As if they were seeing her for the very first time.
And at that moment, the same question was running through everyone’s mind—They had prepared for everything. How did she get out?
“Were you waiting for me?”
Wu Jiao smiled and greeted them. Getting no response, she smiled again and walked away.
The next day, after the extended break, Zhang Hongli, the head of the senior year, spoke over the school’s public address system.
“School-wide announcement: Wu Jiao from Class 7, Grade 12, is hereby cited for damaging school property—breaking one pane of glass in the restroom. Due to her voluntary reporting and good attitude in admitting fault, no demerit will be recorded.”
The moment the announcement crackled over the speakers, Si Xiuyuan, standing at the front of Class 7’s formation, curved his lips slightly. Pei Jiamu, up in the stands, furrowed his brow. Not far away, in the small grove of trees, Gao Tianchi stopped in his tracks.
Wu Jiao herself didn’t react much.
She was thinking—
[Combining electromagnetism with kinetic energy theorem is really hard.]
After Zhang Hongli finished speaking, the formations disbanded. On her way back to the classroom, quite a few people sized up Wu Jiao and whispered among themselves.
[How ridiculous. Someone like her can be class monitor? Then I can be president of the whole school!]
[She smashed a glass pane. I feel like she’s a bit unhinged. Such a weirdo.]
[I heard she’s hard to get along with. Aside from her own class, a lot of people don’t like her. Stay away from her.]
…
I don’t want to hear this. I’m so tired.
Wu Jiao tucked her vocabulary book under her arm and ducked into the small grove of trees, finding a bench to sit down on.
She opened her vocabulary book but didn’t turn a single page for a long time. Before long, droplets of water splattered onto it, smudging the handwriting.
Xiao E’s voice was very soft: [Host… I’m sorry. Xiao E can’t help you.]
“It’s not your fault. Why are you apologizing? I’m not crying. I’m fine.”
She sniffled and roughly wiped away her tears with her sleeve.
Xiao E fell silent, not knowing what to say to comfort her.
Without this redemption system, being a villainess might not have been such a bad thing in a situation like this.
At least she wouldn’t have to feel this sad anymore.
“It’s okay to cry if you need to.”
A hand suddenly appeared, offering a packet of tissues.
Wu Jiao froze. She looked up through her tear-blurred eyes but couldn’t see the person clearly.
He wasn’t wearing the school uniform—just all black. He was tall, blocking most of the light above Wu Jiao’s head.
Then she heard him ask something completely out of the blue: “Do you like cats?”
“Cats?”
The remaining tears in her eyes streamed down her cheeks.
Wu Jiao finally saw him clearly and stared at him in disbelief.
The question was so sudden, so utterly unlike something that would ever come out of his mouth.
Her sadness was abruptly interrupted.
The boy grew uncomfortable under her gaze, looked away, and nodded.
He asked again: “Do you like cats?”
Cats?
Wu Jiao blinked.
**