7
Pei Jiamu, oh Pei Jiamu. Why did you have to provoke her when you had nothing better to do? Were you bored?
Wu Jiao felt exhausted.
On second thought, he probably was just bored.
Pei Jiamu came from a wealthy family. Not only were his parents outstanding, but he also had an impressive older brother.
As the second child in the family, he had grown up pampered and ungoverned, so naturally, his behavior was just a tiny bit more uninhibited and daring than the average person’s.
He was extroverted, generous, and easygoing. A bunch of guys from his school and other schools called him “bro” and jokingly referred to him as “the young master.”
The young master wasn’t modest either—he knew he had it good, so he accepted the title.
The young master and Si Xiuyuan had known each other since childhood. You could say they had seen each other in diapers.
In middle school, their parents took them to a banquet, where they met the young princess, Yan Yixin.
Yan Yixin fell for Si Xiuyuan at first sight.
Back then, Yan Yixin didn’t dislike Pei Jiamu. In fact, she kind of liked him.
Little Pei Jiamu looked like a doll, as pretty as a girl.
Yan Yixin loved everything beautiful and dazzling. At that age, her sense of gender wasn’t fully developed, so she mistook Pei Jiamu for a girl.
Because the Pei family had hoped their second child would be a daughter, after little Pei Jiamu was born, his family turned a blind eye and raised him like a girl.
When little Pei Jiamu, wearing a pink tutu, played behind little Si Xiuyuan, Yan Yixin wasn’t happy.
When Yan Yixin, dressed in a princess gown, performed dances, songs, and piano for everyone, little Pei Jiamu was playing with a Rubik’s cube with little Si Xiuyuan.
Yan Yixin felt a sense of threat from little Pei Jiamu.
She didn’t like him anymore.
So, she started opposing him at every turn.
Whatever he had, she wanted it too. Whatever he could do, she had to be better at it. She wanted Si Xiuyuan to play only with her.
When the three of them were together, she and Si Xiuyuan were always the ones praised, while Pei Jiamu was always the one scolded.
Yan Yixin strutted like a victorious white swan. But damn it, he didn’t care at all—he even made faces at her.
It was like punching a pile of cotton. Facing Pei Jiamu, all Yan Yixin felt was deep frustration.
Pei Jiamu had always been aware of Yan Yixin’s hostility toward him, but he didn’t like her either, so whatever.
The two of them simply didn’t get along.
It wasn’t until they grew older that Yan Yixin one day found out that Pei Jiamu was actually male.
She felt a bit regretful, thinking she had blamed the wrong person.
But Pei Jiamu proved that she hadn’t.
Adolescent boys were at their most dangerous—he didn’t care if someone was male or female. If he wanted to run them over, he would.
At some point, Pei Jiamu started surpassing Yan Yixin in everything.
First in height, then in academic performance, and finally in everything.
Violin, foreign languages, horseback riding, archery—he was far better than her in every single one.
Pei Jiamu swayed his head proudly in front of her, showing off. “What’s wrong, Miss Yan? Why aren’t you smiling? How come you lose to me in everything? Brother Xiuyuan is going to laugh at you.”
Yan Yixin thought no one knew she liked Si Xiuyuan.
How on earth did he figure it out? The princess still hadn’t been able to understand it to this day.
The only thing she had figured out was that she hadn’t hated the wrong person.
Pei Jiamu deserved to die!
……
Wu Jiao sighed.
As the princess’s loyal sidekick, how could she not know about all this?
She was just too insignificant to leave a trace in the princess’s memories.
When the princess was crying out of frustration from Pei Jiamu, she was the one handing her tissues, patting her back, and comforting her nonstop.
When the princess was provoked, she was the one who stepped up to confront him.
Wu Jiao had lost count of how many verbal battles she’d had with Pei Jiamu. She had even gotten physical with him… and used her mouth.
Last week, the princess lost badly to him in a chess match, so Wu Jiao bit Pei Jiamu’s hand.
[Pei Jiamu, oh Pei Jiamu, can’t you find something to do? Do you really have to walk right into the princess’s line of fire to be happy?]
Wu Jiao’s eyes locked onto a target.
Someone sitting in the audience, playing on his phone, suddenly stood up and looked around left and right.
The girl next to Pei Jiamu was startled and quickly asked with concern, “What’s wrong, president? Is your stomach hurting that badly?”
Pei Jiamu pulled out his earbuds, patted his ears, shook his head, and realized the voice he’d just heard was gone.
He thought he’d heard that little follower dog Wu Jiao whispering in his ear.
Hallucination. Definitely a hallucination.
Pei Jiamu let out an “ow,” clutched his stomach in mock pain, and sat back down.
“It still hurts a little. It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll be okay after sitting for a bit.”
Scattered across the audience were students from various classes who weren’t doing the exercises.
Most were girls on their periods, some were students who were sick and couldn’t participate, and then there was Pei Jiamu, who wasn’t sick but pretended to be.
He faked illness almost every day. The teachers could tell, but since his family had donated a library to the school, they didn’t say anything.
Pei Jiamu wasn’t lazy. He just thought the morning exercise movements were too ugly and looked ridiculous when performed.
See that girl at the back of Class 7? She was jumping around like a ghost.
Good thing it was daytime. If it were night, she could randomly scare a passerby to death.
Pei Jiamu clutched his stomach, holding back laughter, and pulled out his phone. He zoomed in and recorded the girl doing the ghostly dance.
Because he realized—it was Wu Jiao.
Pei Jiamu was shaking with laughter, tears about to stream down his face.
Wu Jiao quickly spotted the person she was looking for in the audience.
He stood out. Other students were either holding vocabulary books or regular books to read, but he was blatantly holding his phone.
The school had a clear rule: International division students could bring phones to school, but students in other classes were strictly forbidden.
The boy was staring at his phone, mesmerized, a silly grin occasionally appearing on his face.
Wu Jiao suddenly remembered.
In the original plot, Pei Jiamu aggressively pursued the female lead. When his advances were rejected, he tried to use his body to win her heart.
The original text went like this:
[Unlike Si Xiuyuan, whose feelings were like a damp wall hidden from sight—moist and concealed—
Pei Jiamu was like a sensitive, fast-acting motion-sensor light. Whenever Mo Li passed by, he would light up high for her, regardless of the time of day, trying to catch her attention.
He seized every opportunity to painstakingly learn all kinds of tricks and positions, more diligently than he ever studied for the college entrance exam.
And all his efforts were just to please her, to try to keep her body, to make her stop for him, even for a moment.]
Wu Jiao was speechless.
[What a pervert. He dares to look at that kind of stuff in public. If I had his dedication to learning, people would praise my skills too. Tsk tsk.]
Pei Jiamu was startled. He immediately pulled out his earbuds, but the voice was still right in his ear—
[That kind of stuff—watch it at home, or at least when no one’s around! So stupid. How can someone like him be a male lead? Why would Mo Li even like him?]
Wait—what stuff was he watching?!
What female lead? Male lead?
Explain yourself!
As soon as the morning exercises music stopped, the students on the field scattered like stars across the sky.
Pei Jiamu stood up, but Wu Jiao was no longer in sight.
Over there, predictably, the princess had already found Wu Jiao.
“Wu Jiao, wait. I need to talk to you.”
The princess whispered a few words in Wu Jiao’s ear.
Xiao E: [Triggered transformation mission—Refuse vicious behavior, be friendly to classmates, be a virtuous student! +5 morality points.]
The princess wanted her to dirty up Pei Jiamu, but she wasn’t that kind of person anymore.
She had turned over a new leaf.
But she couldn’t completely fall out with the princess either. Her family’s business still depended on the princess’s family.
Wu Jiao: “Can I skip these five points?”
Xiao E: “Of course—NOT!”
“Got it? Now go.”
Yan Yixin urged her, so Wu Jiao had no choice but to move.
Damn you, Pei Jiamu! Why did you have to go and provoke her for no reason?
Just thinking about how things like this would keep happening in the future made Wu Jiao grind her teeth with anger.
If she’d known, she would have bitten him harder last time.
The long break was thirty minutes long. Some students used this time to go back to the classroom and work on problems, some gathered in small groups to play basketball and exercise, and others drifted between the school convenience store and the bakery.
Pei Jiamu looked around for Wu Jiao but couldn’t find her, so he gave up.
Compared to the strange voice he had heard earlier, he had more important things to do.
He had loved sweets since he was a child. Whenever he was at school, he would go to the bakery every long break to buy a box of donuts and a carton of sweet milk.
Yan Yixin couldn’t stand seeing him, so she always sent Wu Jiao and Li Rongrong to the bakery to buy desserts.
She herself would follow behind Si Xiuyuan, pretending to run into him casually so she could chat with him for a bit.
But today, Yan Yixin gave up one of the few opportunities she had to talk to Si Xiuyuan in a day. Instead, she followed far behind Wu Jiao.
The princess wanted to watch with her own eyes as Wu Jiao messed with Pei Jiamu. Wu Jiao had no idea.
The last time with the water incident, she had felt that Wu Jiao was acting strange, like she had become a different person.
This time, she not only wanted to get back at Pei Jiamu but also test Wu Jiao’s loyalty.
Even though it was crowded, Pei Jiamu walked through the crowd with his hands in his pockets, as lazy as ever, still standing out like a tall, lush tree—people around him instinctively parted to make way.
Wu Jiao blended into the crowd behind him, followed him into the bakery, and bought a cup of milk tea.
Relying on his height advantage, Pei Jiamu made quick work of his purchase. He also paid for a thin, frail girl who had been pushed to the back.
Just as he stepped out, something strange caught the corner of his eye, and he immediately turned his head back.
Well, well. You seek it high and low, only to find it right under your nose.
He had been looking for Wu Jiao, and here she was, delivering herself to him.
Wu Jiao had a milk tea straw between her teeth as she checked her watch, pacing anxiously outside the bakery.
What was this guy up to?
“Hey, Wu Jiao, what are you doing?”
Just as she figured enough time had passed and she could pretend she had done everything and go report back, a familiar voice stopped her.
The next second, her eyes met Pei Jiamu’s.
[Run, run now! Pretend you didn’t see me!]
Seeing Pei Jiamu walk toward her, Wu Jiao immediately took off running.
“What are you running for? Afraid I’ll bite you? Don’t worry, I’m not a dog. Dogs bite people, but people don’t bite dogs.”
Pei Jiamu closed the distance in three long strides and stood in front of Wu Jiao.
Blocked, Wu Jiao fell silent. “…”
Pei Jiamu frowned and asked her, “What’s going on? What did you say?”
Wu Jiao didn’t want to get tangled up with him. She had better things to do—like solving more problems.
She played dumb. “What did I say? You’re the one who said you don’t talk to dogs.”
Pei Jiamu: ?
Had she lost her mind? She was so desperate she wasn’t even sparing herself?
[Dude, sparing me means sparing yourself! Just go already. I really don’t want to bully you!]
He heard her thoughts again.
Pei Jiamu felt like he had discovered a new species. He slowly bent down and stared at Wu Jiao’s face.
She called this bullying him?
Meanwhile, Wu Jiao heard the princess’s thoughts: [Why isn’t Wu Jiao doing anything yet? What are they talking about? So wishy-washy. Get closer and take a look. I really suspect she’s changed sides.]
Wu Jiao’s heart jumped.
[Oh no. Is my acting so bad that the princess is suspicious of me? No, no, I have to think of something!]
Then Pei Jiamu heard:
[What are you staring at me for! Say something! Hurry up and argue with me! Don’t you like calling me a dog? Hurry up and call me a dog! Say whatever comes to mind! What’s with the silent treatment?! Why can’t you let out a single fart when I need you to talk?!]
The look in Pei Jiamu’s eyes grew more and more amused.
Oh? Yan Yixin was watching them?
What the hell was wrong with this girl, begging to be insulted like that?
Well, he wasn’t going to give her what she wanted.
Today, he really wasn’t going to insult her. On the contrary, he was going to be perfectly nice to her.
Wu Jiao decided to just go for it.
The two of them were standing by a wall. Yan Yixin had to be looking at them from the direction facing her.
That meant Yan Yixin could only see Pei Jiamu’s back, not his face.
“Yes! So what if I’m a dog? I’m the princess’s most loyal dog!”
Wu Jiao suddenly burst out, startling Pei Jiamu. Fortunately, he kept his composure and didn’t show it.
This wasn’t a thought—she was actually shouting at him.
And she wasn’t done.
Even though his lips hadn’t moved, she acted as if he were arguing back and added, “Yes! I’ll follow the princess to the death! If you don’t like it, come and hit me!”
Pei Jiamu raised an eyebrow, a strange smile forming on his lips.
Was this girl actually insane today?
Quite a few students were drawn by the commotion. Those in the know, upon hearing the words “the princess,” immediately looked toward Yan Yixin in the crowd, their faces full of anticipation for some drama.
Yan Yixin: [Idiot. Can’t you keep your voice down? So, embarrassing!]
It turned out that when the princess was embarrassed, her toes also curled in discomfort, but that didn’t stop her from running away.
Yan Yixin quickly grabbed Li Rongrong and fled.
Wu Jiao let out a breath of relief.
“Alright, alright. I’m leaving.”
Acting was exhausting.
Wu Jiao was thinking, why didn’t Pei Jiamu have an Abnormal Male Lead Transformation System?
If he did, it would save her so much trouble.
“Leave?”
A strong arm wrapped around Wu Jiao from behind, looping around her neck and forcing her to stop.
“What are you doing? Let go of me!”
“You said all that nonsense to me, and I haven’t even settled the score with you yet. And you want to run?”
Wu Jiao felt the arm pressing against her throat.
“I’m sorry, sorry, sorry,” she said three “sorrys” in a row, though she didn’t mean a single one. “Can you let me go now?”
Pei Jiamu wasn’t stupid. He could tell she was just brushing him off.
He didn’t let go. Instead, he pushed her forward, and the two of them looked like they were filming a suspect arrest scene.
“If saying sorry solved everything, what would we need the police for?”
“But I’m just an innocent little dog! I’m a dog—why are you, a human, making such a big deal over me?”
Wu Jiao had already lost her patience. Just thinking about how her precious time wasn’t being used to absorb knowledge filled her with guilt.
For the first time, she started missing Si Xiuyuan.
Where Si Xiuyuan was, there was only the comforting presence of knowledge.
Dealing with Pei Jiamu was more of a headache than babysitting a child.
The best way was to use his own words against him until he had nothing left to say.
“You—”
Pei Jiamu was about to laugh in frustration.
“Back when I called you a dog, you actually bit me. Now that I don’t call you a dog, you’re volunteering for the role. Wu Jiao, I feel like I’m meeting you for the first time.”
Suddenly, he leaned over from behind her. She felt a heat against her back.
Body heat that wasn’t hers seeped through the fabric of her clothes.
Pei Jiamu wrapped his arms around her from behind in a back hug and whispered in her ear:
“You seem really into being submissive.”
Submissive?
The letter M?
Oh…
M?!
Wu Jiao cursed herself for understanding instantly. She also cursed herself for knowing exactly what kind of things this guy would do later.
When Si Xiuyuan officially became Mo Li’s boyfriend, Pei Jiamu’s eyes turned red, and he used every means possible to keep Mo Li.
[I’m into being submissive? Are you kidding? You don’t even know how submissive you’re going to be! You’ll strip naked, tie yourself up, cry, and offer yourself like a dog to someone else’s girlfriend, kneeling on the bed and calling her master!]
“What?!”
Pei Jiamu was horrified.
No way. Absolutely no way!
While Pei Jiamu was distracted, Wu Jiao stomped hard on his foot. The arm around her neck immediately loosened.
She turned back and shot him a fierce glare. “Use your time on something useful! And stop watching that kind of stuff!”
Pei Jiamu’s face twisted in pain. He hopped up and down on one foot, but the culprit had already fled without looking back.
“Don’t run! Explain yourself! Hey, hey! What kind of stuff am I watching?! Come back! Explain!”
“I don’t want to talk to you anymore. Look out for yourself!”
Wu Jiao left those words behind and disappeared.
Last time she bit him and ran. This time she stomped on him and ran!
She really was a dog!
**