Chapter 21

Over the next two weeks, after careful observation, Yan Xiao became absolutely certain, Qiu Li was not the same as before.
He acted the same toward everyone else, but with her, his attitude had completely changed.
If not for the ever-rising “hatred points” the system kept reporting, proof that he still secretly disliked her even while smiling, she might’ve actually believed he’d grown a conscience and decided to stop targeting her.
At first, it threw her off. But as the notifications kept rolling in, faster and higher each day, she began to enjoy it.
No effort required, and the points just kept coming? She must be Heaven’s favorite child. What was there to complain about?
Everything was perfect…until March.
That’s when she attended a classmate’s sixth birthday party with her parents, and her good mood came to an abrupt end.
The party was filled with kids her age, all laughing and playing together. Since most of the six- and seven-year-olds would be entering elementary school after summer break, their conversation naturally drifted to which schools they’d be attending, whether they’d end up in the same class, and so on.
Yan Xiao wasn’t interested in their chatter and was quietly playing by herself when she suddenly heard someone mention Qiu Li’s name. Her ears perked up immediately.
“He’s going to Yanwen! And he’s even going to take the gifted class exam!”
“What’s the gifted class?”
“He dares take that exam?”
“No way he’ll pass. He’s not Qiu Yan!”
“Yeah, right! Even my parents aren’t planning to make me take it”
Yan Xiao shot to her feet.
Right!
She’d been so busy basking in her point-earning spree that she’d completely forgotten about this huge, looming issue, school advancement.
Qiu Li was in the senior kindergarten class, which meant after the summer, he’d move on to elementary school. She, on the other hand, was only in the middle class. She still had another year before she could move up.
That meant, two whole years at separate schools.
Two years of rarely seeing each other. Their homes were far apart too; she might not even see him once a week.
At that rate, her score-earning speed would plummet! One entire year might not even match a single week right now!
Absolutely not.
The more she calculated, the more anxious she became. Finally, Yan Xiao stopped trying to calculate at all and repeated one phrase over and over in her heart: She absolutely would not allow this to happen!
After that, she couldn’t pay attention to a single activity at the birthday party. Every game, every song, every round of cake-cutting, none of it reached her. Her entire mind was consumed with one thing: survival.
There was no way to stop Qiu Li from enrolling in school. Even if she tried, no one would believe her reasoning; everyone would think she was being ridiculous.
It was her mission to raise the villain’s hostility points. Her job to secure her own survival. So it was up to her to find a way to keep them in the same school.
After thinking through all possible options, she came to only one conclusion: she had to go to elementary school with him.
With her level of knowledge, never mind first grade, she could probably skip straight to middle school if she wanted! (That one time she failed to solve his test questions was just because those weren’t part of the standard curriculum.) The real problem was…how could she convince her parents to let their barely four-year-old daughter, she wouldn’t even turn four until May, enroll in elementary school?
At the moment, that seemed harder than earning points.
All the way home, she sat in her booster seat with her little brow furrowed, turning over plan after plan in her head. The more she thought, the deeper the frown grew.
Her first idea, taking the same gifted class exam as Qiu Li, was immediately rejected by her own logic.
After the blow to her pride last time, she’d secretly searched up a few practice tests online. In a calm state of mind, she could tell she wasn’t completely hopeless, but she could also feel the difference. The IQ gap was crushing.
Genius was something written into your DNA. She didn’t have that.
Even if she could cram hard enough to pass the entrance test, she’d never keep up afterward. She’d just humiliate herself, and worse, damage her precious self-esteem. That route was impossible.
Which left only one option: the ordinary path.
She was too young for first grade. By regulation, schools wouldn’t accept her. But the school Qiu Li was going to, Yanwen Academy, had stood proudly for over a century for one reason: adaptability.
In addition to its gifted and regular programs, it also had an international class.
And the international class didn’t have an age requirement.
Her eyes lit up. That’s it! She’d convince her parents to send her to the international class!
Finally, a plan that might actually work. Her little face relaxed at last, only to find both her parents staring at her from the front seats.
“What?”
Her mother, Chen Ziyi, burst out laughing. “What were you thinking about? You’ve been frowning since we left the hotel. I just made a bet with your dad to see how long it’d take you to snap out of it.”
She held up her phone, where a timer glowed. “Thirty-two minutes. I win.”
“…”
“Your dad now owes me a month of foot massages.”
“…”
Yan Xiao blinked. Her parents were thirty years old. How were they still this childish? Who even made bets about things like this?!
“Sweetheart,” said her father, Yan Hao, at a red light, putting on his most pitiful tone, “what were you thinking so hard about? You made Daddy lose to Mommy again.”
She tilted her head, deadpan. “You lost because you bet. What does that have to do with me? Did I force you to gamble? No. You made your own problem. Don’t push the blame onto me. I’m small, I can’t carry your pot.”
Her parents looked at each other, and burst into laughter.
Yan Xiao just stared, speechless. Adults are so weird. What’s even funny about that?!
They laughed until tears streamed down their faces.
“Thank you,” her mother gasped between laughs, “for giving me such a wonderful daughter.”
“And thank you,” her father replied, grinning, “for letting me meet my daughter.”
“???” Yan Xiao blinked. What are you people even talking about?!
When the laughter finally subsided, her father wiped his eyes, still chuckling. “So, sweetheart, what were you thinking about?”
“Hmph!”
She didn’t get their joke, but she knew they’d been laughing at her. So she turned away with a dignified pout.
Her father grinned wider. “Oh? Now you’re mad at Daddy?”
Her mother chimed in gently, “Xiao-xiao, what’s going on, baby? You can tell Mommy. Maybe I can help?”
“Eh”
Yan Hao had just started to speak when one sharp look from his wife made him swallow the rest of his words.
Yan Xiao had actually been about to explain, but watching them, she changed her mind.
They’d definitely turn it into another bet. So she kept quiet.
When their little girl stayed silent for too long, both parents sobered up, thinking she might actually be upset.
At last, she muttered four solemn words: “Thinking about life.”
The car filled with laughter all over again, laughter that lasted all the way home.
When they finally stopped, she stood before them, serious as a judge, and announced, “I don’t want to go to kindergarten anymore. After summer break, I’m going to elementary school.”
Her parents, who had just been uploading pictures of their daughter’s “cute moments” to the family group chat: “…”
[Ding, points increased.]
“!!!”
He’s thinking about me again? At this hour? In the middle of the night?
Probably muttering curses about her under the covers!
“Ah-choo!”
Before she could ask her parents what they thought of her declaration, she sneezed.
She rubbed her nose. See? He’s totally drawing little curse circles around my name right now.
All the more reason to get into the same school. She’d worked too hard for this progress, she couldn’t let it go to waste!
“Anyway,” she declared firmly, “I’m going to elementary school. That’s final. I’m going to bed. Goodnight, Mommy, goodnight, Daddy, muah~”
With that, she spun on her heel and marched to her room, leaving two utterly bewildered new parents staring at each other in the living room.

At Shengyi Garden.
After finishing his math lessons that evening, Qiu Li was packing his bag when he found a watercolor pen.
He recognized it instantly, it was Yan Xiao’s.
He didn’t know how it had ended up in his bag, but he was about to set it aside to return the next day when he paused, then slipped it into the pencil holder on his desk instead.
Before pulling his hand away, he touched the sparkler she’d given him, still resting there, carefully preserved.
He stood there smiling to himself for a while before finally going to wash up and get ready for bed.

Author’s Note:
First day of school, seeing Qiu Li at the gate again: !!!!!
System: [Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding]
Yan Xiao: !!!!!!