Chapter 6

A few seconds later, the phone beeped, the call was over.
Meng Mingzhu had hung up.
Tang Jingdan looked like she’d just swallowed a spider. At this point, she was doomed, Mingzhu was absolutely going to make her pay for this later.
There was no point hanging around. She needed to come up with an explanation for Mingzhu, fast.
Shooting a venomous glare at Yu Linghuan, Tang Jingdan stalked away toward the International Program building.
By now, most of the break was gone.
Yu Linghuan exchanged a look with Meng Xin. "Next class is starting. Let’s get back."
Meng Xin’s face was complicated but she nodded anyway.
Yu Linghuan knew, it must have been a gut punch, hearing her own "family" order someone to bully her.
Nothing she could say right now would actually help.
The system’s restrictions meant Yu Linghuan couldn’t tell Meng Xin, "That’s not your real family. Mingzhu’s body is a stranger’s soul now, nothing more."
For now, the best she could do was stay beside Meng Xin, and make sure those people never hurt her again.
With that thought, Yu Linghuan quietly reached over and squeezed Meng Xin’s shoulder, a silent promise: I’ve got your back.
Meng Xin gave her a soft smile in return.
In the next second, Yu Linghuan suddenly blinked.
She could have sworn she saw a faint, silvery-white halo flicker around Meng Xin.
The light was there and gone in a heartbeat, so brief, Yu Linghuan almost thought she’d imagined it.
But the electronic voice that echoed in her mind proved she hadn’t.
System sounded thrilled: [That was…]
Yu Linghuan immediately asked in her head, "What is it?"
System: [It’s like this: To keep the novel world on track, the main characters usually can’t break from the plot. But that halo you just saw? That means Meng Xin, as the female lead, is showing signs she might break free from the story’s control!]
Yu Linghuan’s eyes sparkled: "So Meng Xin is awakening?"
[No, not yet.]
Yu Linghuan was silent for a second.
Of course not. Awakening was never that easy, she was just getting ahead of herself.
[Right now, Meng Xin’s awakening points are still extremely weak, they don’t even register as a rank yet, and it’s nowhere near enough to escape the plot. But if the points keep rising, ]
Yu Linghuan’s eyes lit up. "If they keep rising, then, "
[Then as her awakening level increases, the plot’s grip on her will get weaker and weaker. She might even get free from the story altogether!]
…
All the way back to the classroom, Yu Linghuan kept turning that idea over: what if Meng Xin really could awaken?
Ever since she’d learned Meng Xin was doomed to lose everything to Meng Mingzhu’s transmigration system, Yu Linghuan had made up her mind to protect her.
Senior year worked perfectly, they’d see each other almost every day, and Yu Linghuan could stay sharp for any shifts from the Mengs.
What happened after graduation? She’d cross that bridge when she got there.
But now, another path was opening up,
What if Meng Xin could actually awaken?
"System," Yu Linghuan asked, "is there any way to boost Meng Xin’s awakening rank?"
[I’m just a cannon-fodder system. That’s out of my league.]
Yu Linghuan: "…Right, I forgot you’re literally the most useless system type."
So, figuring out how to help Meng Xin awaken was something she’d have to keep an eye on herself.
The system protested, [I am not completely useless! My detection abilities are top-notch!]
"Wait." Yu Linghuan suddenly had a thought. "If Meng Mingzhu can’t detect my system, is it possible Meng Xin also has a system I just can’t see…?"
[I get what you’re thinking, but sorry to burst your bubble, cannon fodder systems have the best detection abilities of any system. If there was another, I’d have found it by now.]
Yu Linghuan sounded a little disappointed. “Alright then.”
As soon as she finished talking to the system, the bell for the next class rang.
The period after PE was English. The English teacher handed out a giant vocabulary quiz for everyone to write.
“Pop quiz! I want to see how much you all actually learned this summer. Did you really memorize your vocabulary lists, or did you let it all slip out of your heads?”
Senior Class 1 was one of the two top-performing classes in Langde High’s Gaokao Division, basically, the elite. Everyone in here was a straight-up study machine.
Still, even for high achievers, there were very few students who genuinely loved pop quizzes.
So as soon as the teacher finished, the class dissolved into a chorus of groans.
If it were the old Yu Linghuan, she’d have joined in with the rest of them, sighing and whining.
English was never her best subject. She’d barely looked at the vocabulary lists over summer break.
What had Yu Linghuan actually done all summer? Mostly stay locked in her room gaming, honestly.
She couldn’t help it; back then, the plot had totally messed with her head, leaving her drowning in bad vibes, unable to focus on studying at all.
The only thing that helped was diving into game after game, letting that world take the edge off her own mood swings.
But after everything that happened today, this little vocab test felt like, well, nothing much at all.
Yu Linghuan calmly took the test sheet from the student in front, cleared off the random clutter from her desk, and spread out her paper.
But as her hand brushed the watch box sitting at the upper right corner, she paused.
She clearly remembered tucking the gift from Meng Xin into her desk cubby before PE.
She had even thought it through: the rush back after gym would turn the classroom into a zoo, better to put the watch box away so it wouldn’t get knocked off.
So... how had the watch box ended up back on her desk?
Yu Linghuan thought for a moment, then deliberately shook the watch box a little more than necessary and, playing it cool, glanced casually back.
The next moment, her gaze locked with Li Hongwen’s.
The instant their eyes met, Li Hongwen stiffened, then ducked his head awkwardly and started scribbling furiously on his test.
Yu Linghuan: “...”
She knew exactly who’d messed with her stuff now.
Forty minutes later, the English class ended. Yu Linghuan had left plenty of blanks on the fill-in-the-blanks, and most of her multiple choice answers were pure guesswork.
She’d always thought she had a decent head for studying, otherwise she wouldn’t have made it into Langde High’s top class in the Gaokao Division.
If this pop quiz had been in any other subject, she might have skated by on leftover smarts from freshman and sophomore year.
But vocab was vocab, if you didn’t put in the time, you just didn’t know it. No room for bluffing.
She’d just have to set aside time later to catch up on everything she’d missed over the summer.
The bell rang. At the end of each row, the last person collected the papers.
Meng Xin, as the English class rep, was tasked with gathering all the quizzes for the teacher and carrying them to the office.
The classroom buzzed with voices as everyone dove into post-exam discussions, especially around Yu Linghuan’s desk, it was always a hotspot.
But today, they weren’t crowding around Yu Linghuan. They were here for her desk mate: Song Congqian.
Song Congqian was the top-performing guy in class. This semester, homeroom had assigned him and Yu Linghuan as seat partners.
“Study god, did you really finish fifteen minutes early? I swear, you didn’t even pick up your pen after that!”
“Unreal, you really are a legend. The rest of us are just here to make up the numbers.”
“I totally guessed on a bunch, hey, did you pick D for the last one? Please tell me you picked D?”
“This quiz was cruel! I guessed on half the multiple choice. How’d you do, Yu Linghuan? Uh, wait, where’d she go?”
The speaker looked around and realized Yu Linghuan had vanished from her seat, heading toward the back of the classroom.
That direction was, Li Hongwen.
Seeing Yu Linghuan walking over,
Li Hongwen flashed a moment of panic across his face.
He chewed on his lip, but tried to play aggressive first: “Yu Linghuan, what do you want? About what happened at lunch, I only let it slide because I didn’t want drama. Don’t push your luck!”
Yu Linghuan didn’t answer. She just pulled out the watch box. “Seen this before?”
Li Hongwen’s eyes darted away, glancing nervously. “Why would you ask me about your stuff?”
That wandering look, between the lines, Yu Linghuan’s suspicions were now confirmed.
“During lunch break, I put this watch box in my desk cubby,” she said evenly. “But after PE, I found it had moved. Li Hongwen, that was you, right? You touched my stuff when I wasn’t here.”
Li Hongwen instantly raised his voice in protest: “Of course not! Why would I even care about your things?”
But the way he blustered, louder than usual, gave away his guilty conscience.
The argument drew the attention of half the class.
The group clustered around Song Congqian stopped comparing answers and looked over at the commotion.
For his part, Song Congqian just stayed out of it, pulling out a book and quietly reading. Drama wasn’t really his thing.
Yu Linghuan narrowed her eyes at Li Hongwen’s blatant bluff. “You’re really sticking with that story?”
Li Hongwen: “...Of-of course!”
Yu Linghuan: “You know there’s a camera in the classroom, right? If you won’t admit it, I’ll just tell the teacher you stole my stuff. When they check the footage, things won’t stay as simple as they are now.”
Li Hongwen: “Don’t talk nonsense! When did I ever steal your things?”
Yu Linghuan: “Help yourself to something that isn’t yours, what else would you call it, if not stealing? If you think you have a good excuse, we can go to the security office and discuss it there.”
Now Li Hongwen really started to panic.
Langde High had the best tech in the city. To keep exams and students safe, the camera footage was crystal clear.
Sure, it wasn’t exactly easy for students to see the security tapes, but knowing Yu Linghuan, seeing how determined she looked, she’d absolutely raise hell until someone checked the monitors.
At that thought, Li Hongwen’s tone softened, scrambling for a defense: “I... I just wanted to have a look, that’s all! It’s not stealing! Even if you make them check the tapes, they won’t be able to pin anything on me!”
Yu Linghuan’s lips curled. “So you admit it, you snuck over and touched my stuff while I was gone, right?”
Li Hongwen’s expression darkened.
“...So what if I did?” He tried to bluff it out. “I told you, it was just to look. I didn’t do anything else.”
With that, a few students started to exchange loaded glances.
Even if he hadn’t technically stolen it, it was still not cool to mess with someone else’s things, especially expensive things.
And the only reason Li Hongwen admitted it at all was because Yu Linghuan mentioned checking the cameras. Bad look for him.
Some students began whispering behind their hands.
“What, was Li Hongwen hoping to try it on for size since it looks expensive?”
“I mean, just looking at the box, that’s probably an R-brand. That’s serious money.”
Li Hongwen seemed to realize what everyone was thinking. And since he cared a ton about his reputation, he was starting to feel seriously embarrassed.
If he didn’t come up with something justifiable right now, how was he supposed to show his face here the rest of the year?
He hesitated a few long moments, then tried to own it. “I didn’t mean anything by it! I just thought the watch box looked kinda fake and didn’t want you getting ripped off, so I checked it out for you!”
Honestly, during the first period of PE that afternoon, Li Hongwen had been obsessing over that R-brand watch box on Yu Linghuan’s desk.
So about seven or eight minutes before class was over, he faked a stomachache to ask if he could go back to the classroom early.
PE class wasn’t that strict, so the teacher didn’t ask any questions and let him go.
He went back, played with Yu Linghuan’s watch box for ages, even googled tips online for spotting fakes.
But he wasn’t an expert, just a guy who liked fancy things, so after all that research, he still couldn’t decide if it was real.
He even lost track of time, and only hurried back to his seat when he heard footsteps outside, forgetting to put the box back where it belonged.
His excuse was only half a lie, really, there was a grain of truth to it.
With a “good” reason now, Li Hongwen sounded more confident.
“Yu Linghuan.” He straightened up. “Where’d you even get this watch? How much did you spend? Was it new or second-hand? If I actually saved you from getting scammed, you should thank me!”
At that, Yu Linghuan couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Wow. Some people really had skin thicker than armor.