CH 1

Rays of light shone through the dark curtains, bringing with them the faint sense of afternoon.

An alarm sounded, shaking the wooden tabletop with the phone’s vibrations. The light sleeper still lying in bed reached over and fumbled with the controls until the sound receded.

The room was silent.

After awakening from a short lunchtime nap, Yu Xing stared at the beige ceiling, eyes half-open and half-closed.

She got up after a minute, mind completely at ease. She picked up a half-full glass of cold water and drank it to soothe her throat; with the onset of autumn, the air had been very dry as of late.

Grabbing her glasses, Yu Xing entered the bathroom and washed her face, and after she dried off, she started to prepare for the day ahead.

She lowered her bangs until they covered the entirety of her forehead like thick curtains; she put on thick glasses that obscured her eyes and rested heavily on her nose as if a mountain; she smoothed out her hair until it hung limply on both sides of her face…

Even if one-third of her face was left exposed, the old thick-framed glasses still managed to completely steal the show, drawing away all attention and becoming her most defining feature.

Yu Xing stared into the mirror.

How ugly.

She raised her hand and roughly slapped herself several times on both cheeks to rouse her spirits.

With a straight face, Yu Xing adjusted her expression into a serious and dull sort of look then exited the bathroom, satisfied with herself. She made her bed, wore her jacket, and fetched her notebook, all in one fell swoop.

When she opened the door to her room, she saw another door on the opposite side of the hall.

There were two bedrooms in the small suite, each one having a bathroom. There was a small sofa and a coffee table in the common area, but no kitchen– due to the safety risks, meals were handled by the school cafeteria.

If you looked at other schools in Sijiu City, few of them had this sort of configuration.

Yu Xing walked out of the dorm. As the door closed behind her, she stood still and let out a deep breath.

She had been there for a little less than two months, and yet she was still not used to it.

How else can one explain that this was a place filled to the brim with money?

The air in Lintian Private Highschool was certainly like no other.

—

Classes started at 2:15; Yu Xing walked from the girls’ dormitory to the sophomore building, and her fellow schoolmates in Class 3 slowly filled the room.

It was normal for them to not arrive yet, those rich kids had a lot of things to ‘work on’ every day, and studying was one of the many things that they were uninterested in.

Just like in their student housing– regardless of which dorm it was, about half of the rooms were vacant most of the time. For example, Yu Xing’s own two-room dorm only had her as its occupant. The rest of her schoolmates only occasionally lived on campus, and from time to time returned late or did not return at all.

After preparing her things for her afternoon class, Yu Xing got out a pen and a duty file notebook. As time passed, people entered the room one by one waiting for class to start, while she got ready to leave the room.

A leg came from behind and kicked the foot of her desk.

“Hey–”

—

Leaving the sophomore building behind and leaving those people even farther behind, Yu Xing checked her phone as she walked through a corridor covered with autumn greenery.

In her unread messages, there was a message from her aunt checking in on her. 【How was your lunch? Did you get along well with your classmates?】

Behind the dark-framed glasses, her eyes softened for a moment.

Yu Xing typed a reply word by word. 【I was completely stuffed! I really enjoyed the restaurant's food today, I ate two whole bowls!】

As for the latter question…

【I got along well with everyone, and just now another student lent me an exercise book! I was very grateful, I thanked her in my heart!】

Her aunt was probably waiting in front of the phone, as a reply came only seconds after. 【That’s good, take care of yourself.】

Her next message did not forget to scold her. 【Next time, say thank you to people in person.】

Well…

Yu Xing’s expression remained unchanged as she replied:【Okay.】

She glanced up and saw that she was already at the end of the corridor, so their short conversation would have to come to an end.

【Class is starting soon. I’ll talk to you later, Auntie.】

【I’ll miss you! =￣ω￣=】

She put away her phone and sped up, walking through a large sports field. The ‘long and arduous journey’ was difficult to complete, and it took a while for her to reach the school gates.

Translator's Note:

hi! i'm meowchat, your resident translator for ISTG (yes, i did choose the acronym myself), and i'll be updating every week at sunday 12 pm GMT+8, maybe twice a week at random if i'm feeling like it :>

i hope you all enjoy this novel as much as i did!