After leaving the hotel, Qiao Man remained silent.
Jiang Sui: “Pfft.”
Qiao Man cast him a gloomy look. Jiang Sui cleared his throat and pretended nothing had happened.
One minute later, Jiang Sui: “Pfft.”
“Enough already. Who do you think I’m doing this for…” Qiao Man said weakly.
Jiang Sui explained: “I just think you’re very clever… pfft.”
Qiao Man: “…” She didn’t want to talk to him anymore.
A week had passed since September began. The nights weren’t as hot as before, and the evening breeze rustled through the swaying tree shadows, as if waving goodbye to summer.
Jiang Sui followed leisurely behind Qiao Man. When they passed by a pharmacy, Qiao Man suddenly stopped, so he stopped too.
“Wait here.” Qiao Man glanced at him and went straight into the pharmacy.
Left alone outside, Jiang Sui watched through the glass as she communicated with the shop assistant. After the assistant brought out several types of medicine, she lowered her head and carefully compared them, finally selecting two.
When she came out with the medicine, Jiang Sui averted his gaze.
“What are you looking at?” Qiao Man followed his line of sight but only saw an empty street. “Take this three times a day. I don’t need to tell you how many pills to take, do I?”
Jiang Sui took the medicine and couldn’t resist adding: “I’m in a 20-year-old’s body now. My stomach isn’t that fragile.”
Qiao Man narrowed her eyes, about to bring up past grievances, when Jiang Sui raised his hands in surrender.
“I’ll take it on time,” he said.
Only then was Qiao Man satisfied.
He accompanied her to the subway station. Just as Qiao Man was about to swipe her card to enter, he suddenly grabbed her arm.
“Something else?” Qiao Man looked at him.
Under the bright subway station lights, she could clearly see the alcohol-induced redness at the corners of his eyes. Anyone who didn’t know better might think he’d been crying.
Young Master Jiang really couldn’t handle alcohol. Every time he drank, he ended up looking pitiful—even more pitiful than the drunken female leads in novels.
“You mentioned before that your next task is to join Gu Hantian’s study group, right?” Perhaps affected by the alcohol, Jiang Sui spoke even slower.
Qiao Man nodded: “Yes.”
“He dislikes you. How are you going to join?” Jiang Sui asked.
Qiao Man: “It doesn’t matter. The one who invited me was Xiao Chen anyway.”
In the original story, Xiao Chen had invited her into the study group because Gu Hantian treated her differently.
Although things had deviated now, since Xiao Chen mistakenly believed Gu Hantian had a crush on her, he would probably still extend the invitation.
Regardless of how she got in, she would join first. No matter how much Gu Hantian disliked her, he wouldn’t kick her out right after she joined in front of the other group members, would he?
The answer was: he was capable of anything.
“Ha-Hantian, what did you say?” Xiao Chen couldn’t believe his ears. The other two group members also looked uneasy.
In the small classroom, Gu Hantian stood radiating coldness, having witnessed Bai Xingyu and Jiang Sui leaving the bar together last night.
Hearing Xiao Chen’s question, he said coldly: “I don’t agree with her joining.”
“Why not?” Xiao Chen frantically signaled with his eyes. “Classmate Qiao Man is excellent.”
“I don’t agree with her joining.” Gu Hantian repeated.
Looking at his cold expression, Xiao Chen suddenly realized he might have been mistaken.
No matter how bad Gu Hantian’s temper was, he had never so bluntly rejected anyone before. If he really had feelings for Qiao Man, how could he possibly embarrass her like this in public?
The atmosphere suddenly turned awkward.
Just as Xiao Chen was racking his brains trying to figure out how to resolve the situation, Qiao Man had already walked up to Gu Hantian.
“What’s your reason for objecting?”
Gu Hantian sat while Qiao Man stood, looking down at him from her higher position.
Gu Hantian lifted his cold eyes indifferently: “No reason.”
Well, this was the male lead before her, and she was supposed to be a delicate little white flower swaying in the wind.
As the little white flower, all she needed to do now was appear wronged and pitiful. Everything else could be figured out later.
After staring at him for a long time, only one thought remained in Qiao Man’s mind: to hell with being a little white flower.
In her 27 years of life, Ms. Qiao Man had never been so openly defied by anyone. This so-called male lead Gu Hantian was clearly incompatible with her.
“So, are you practicing absolute monarchy in this study group?” she asked with elegant dignity.
Xiao Chen gasped sharply and hurried to mediate: “Well, you see…”
“If you admit it, I can choose not to join,” Qiao Man smiled. “After all, you’re the heir to the Shenhai Conglomerate. The entire Jing Da is under your family’s control.”
Xiao Chen: “Um, Classmate Qiao, that’s not exactly…”
“I refused because your grades are terrible,” Gu Hantian spoke coldly, his star-like eyes imposing. “You’re not qualified to join our group.”
Xiao Chen silently closed his mouth.
Qiao Man hadn’t expected him to actually provide a reason. After pausing, she looked at the other two people present: “What was my ranking last semester?”
The bespectacled girl, who was the academic monitor, quickly found the record: “There were 178 students in the South Campus, you ranked 35th. After merging both campuses with 413 total students, your ranking became 182nd.”
“All four of us are in the department’s top ten,” Gu Hantian said lightly.
Qiao Man: “…”
So the female supporting character had been so focused on scheming to break up the male and female leads that she completely neglected her studies, right?
Wait, that wasn’t quite accurate—there was no male lead at the South Campus back then! Why hadn’t she studied?!
Xiao Chen couldn’t stand awkward atmospheres. Seeing that no one else was speaking, he coughed twice and stepped forward.
“Well, sorry about this, Classmate Qiao. It was my fault for inviting you without consulting the others… There are still many people without groups. Maybe you could form one with others?”
Qiao Man looked at him coldly. Xiao Chen shivered under her gaze and could only offer an awkward laugh.
As the awkward atmosphere intensified, Gu Hantian stood up and walked out, with Xiao Chen and the others quickly following.
“Wait.”
Qiao Man’s voice suddenly came from behind. Though annoyed, Gu Hantian still stopped.
Qiao Man lifted her chin: “There’s an exam on Friday. If I can make it into the top ten, does that mean I can join the group?”
Gu Hantian turned back, looking at her with mockery.
“Classmate Qiao, here’s the thing,” Xiao Chen explained. “This exam is set by professors from the North Campus, so it’ll be relatively more difficult. You might not have reached last semester’s…”
“Afraid?” Qiao Man stared directly at Gu Hantian.
Gu Hantian sneered: “If you can make top ten, not only can you join the group, but I’ll let you be the group leader.”
“Deal. It’s settled then.” Qiao Man walked away with her head held high, like a proud little goose.
Xiao Chen watched her retreating figure sympathetically and sighed after a moment: “What a mess.”
Although only five people were present during this conversation in the small classroom, since one of them was a big mouth, the news spread throughout the school in less than half an hour.
“After seeing Xiao Chen’s post earlier, I thought Gu Hantian liked Qiao Man. Didn’t expect he was really just helping to clarify things.”
“That Qiao Man is something else. With such poor grades, she still had the nerve to ask to join an elite study group. No wonder she got rejected.”
“Looking at it this way, Gu Hantian is actually quite decent. Even though he doesn’t like her, he still asked his friends to help clarify things.”
The murmurs continued behind them as Jiang Sui calmly walked to the checkout counter, paid for his items, and left with two bottles of yogurt.
Bai Xingyu had been waiting outside the supermarket under the sun for what felt like ages. When she saw he only bought two bottles of yogurt, her young mistress temper immediately flared up.
Jiang Sui: “I took care of you all day yesterday, and you called out Gu Hantian’s name in your sleep.”
Bai Xingyu: “…”
Jiang Sui sighed: “How heartless.”
Bai Xingyu’s anger instantly deflated.
Jiang Sui took a sip of yogurt and glanced toward the teaching building.
“Is the Economics Department having an exam the day after tomorrow?” he asked.
Bai Xingyu replied irritably: “How would I know?”
Jiang Sui: “You called out Gu Hantian’s name.”
Bai Xingyu: “…”
Ten seconds later, she answered reluctantly: “Yes.”
Jiang Sui nodded and said nothing more.
Ever since being rejected from Gu Hantian’s study group and declaring she would rank in the top ten, the classroom would instantly fall silent whenever Qiao Man entered. The chattering and laughing students would immediately stop.
Except for some large lectures, most courses continued in the small-class format from the South Campus, so Qiao Man’s classmates remained the same group.
When she walked in, everyone exchanged glances, sharing gossip through their eyes, but no one approached her.
In the original story, the female supporting character had good relationships with everyone. But after Gu Hantian’s gaze shifted from favorable to disgusted, the interpersonal dynamics had spiraled out of control like wild horses.
Qiao Man didn’t mind being stared at and casually returned their gazes.
Jia Xin and Yi Yuanyuan quickly lowered their heads, silently using their books to save the seats beside them, afraid of being associated with her.
She was perfectly content with the peace and quiet, finding a corner seat for herself. When the class bell rang, she immediately began taking diligent notes.
After two classes ended, everyone left chatting and laughing. Someone deliberately passed by her desk and exclaimed in surprise upon seeing her neat notes.
“Qiao Man, you’re studying so seriously.”
That single remark drew everyone’s attention.
Qiao Man calmly put away her notes, but the next moment her ballpoint pen fell to the ground and broke.
Ever since Gu Hantian rejected her from the study group, she’d been losing money – this was already her third broken pen and second ruined notebook.
Looking at the broken pen, Qiao Man felt annoyed and retorted: “Shouldn’t students study seriously?”
How pretentious.
That was everyone’s first thought.
But her response was so straightforward that it made the original speaker seem overly dramatic.
Feeling embarrassed, that person deliberately said: “I don’t really like studying. I only ranked 20th in the South Campus last semester. Since you study so seriously, Qiao Man, your grades must be better than mine, right?”
Jing Da was a demanding institution where exam results were always publicly posted.
Everyone had already known about Qiao Man’s past grades when she declared she would make top ten. Asking now was just to embarrass her.
But Qiao Man showed no reaction, simply gathering her books and standing up: “Please move, you’re blocking my way.”
That person’s face immediately turned red.
“Manman, don’t be like that,” Jia Xin spoke weakly. “Zhou Feng was just concerned about you.”
Zhou Feng? Oh right, I remember now—there was someone like that in the original story who had mutual feelings with Jia Xin.
Qiao Man raised an eyebrow slightly, not bothering to waste words with them.
Jia Xin was completely ignored and feeling awkward when Yi Yuanyuan suddenly spoke up: “Manman, I know you’re in a difficult position right now and feeling upset, but Gu Hantian is a really good person. Even if you don’t do well on the exam, he won’t laugh at you.”
Jia Xin was surprised that Yi Yuanyuan would speak up for her, since she usually pretended not to see these situations before.
Qiao Man was also somewhat surprised, but when she saw Gu Hantian passing by outside the window, she understood everything.
She originally wanted to retort, but the words caught in her throat as she remembered her innocent, delicate character setting.
No—to ensure the plot develops smoothly and to return home sooner, she couldn’t go ooc.
Qiao Man took a deep breath and rebutted as non-confrontationally as possible: “If you praise Gu Hantian like that, will he add you on WeChat?”
Gu Hantian passing by outside the window: “?”
The rest of the class: “…”
After three seconds of silence, Yi Yuanyuan ran off with reddened eyes.
A rare look of confusion appeared on Qiao Man’s face.