Chapter 23

Two days later, on Friday morning, all the grades were announced.

Song Yi's math score was clearly written: 123.

It wasn't bad actually, three points higher than she had estimated, and only two points below the class average.

This time, Song Yi ranked tenth in the class, which was enough to cause quite a stir throughout the entire grade.

It wasn't too bad, as this ranking was considerably higher than Song Yi had expected, almost making it into single digits, which gave her an instant boost of confidence.

Of course, she was still far behind Jiang Yiheng, who ranked first in the grade, and compared to the original owner's previous performance as well.

Song Yi's rankings in other subjects were relatively high in the class, but mathematics alone dragged her entire performance down, as everyone else in the top ten had scored above 140 in math except for her.

Discussions arose around her, with everyone talking about the recent test results.

Song Yi felt troubled, realizing she really needed to work harder at mathematics - in an advanced class, falling behind in even one subject wasn't acceptable.

News of Song Yi's significant drop in performance quickly made its way to the school forum, along with a table showing the top ten scores in Class A.

Post 6: Well, well, this math score completely convinces me that Song Yi wasn't cheating.

Post 7: But these fluctuations in her grades are too extreme - dropping from first to tenth in the grade is quite dramatic.

Post 16: Those commenting above clearly aren't from Class A. Do you even know how competitive Class A is? Barely five people can maintain stable positions in the top ten. While Song Yi's drop is significant, it's actually understandable.

Post 24: It's probably because she's adjusting to a new school and new teachers, which naturally affects academic performance.

Indeed, after the Chen Xue incident, due to misunderstanding Song Yi, the entire forum had become particularly lenient towards her.

Even when she dropped from first to tenth place, they found an excuse for her -

Adjusting to a new school.

Some kind-hearted girls in class even came to comfort Song Yi, encouraging her that she would definitely reclaim first place next time.

She could use the adjustment excuse now, but if she couldn't make it into the top five next time, there would be no more excuses.

The original owner had always been first in the grade, but Jiang Yiheng was simply too difficult to surpass - naturally gifted students were hard to overcome.

So Song Yi set her goal for this semester as -

Second place would do.

Quan Le and Murong Huan came during break time again, both carrying armfuls of snacks.

Quan Le walked in front with a joyful expression, while Murong Huan, despite looking somewhat disdainful, honestly followed behind with his own arms full of snacks.

Song Yi's desk became a mountain of snacks, and she asked bewilderedly, "What are you doing?"

Quan Le: "Encouraging you, cheering you on."

Murong Huan also looked at her seriously and said, "It's just one test result. Eat up! You need energy to study! I believe you'll definitely beat Jiang Yiheng next time!"

Jiang Yiheng, who was solving problems nearby: "?"

No, something wasn't right.

The young man pushed up his glasses, feeling confused, or rather, he couldn't understand Murong Huan anymore.

Repeatedly ignoring him, at some point, it seemed Murong Huan's eyes only saw Song Yi's existence.

Well, it was fine - at least his world had become much quieter.

At noon.

The noon after monthly test results were released was always Class A's fixed time for changing seats.

The desks didn't need to move, but everyone had to pack their things and move to seats corresponding to their new rankings.

Finally getting to leave Jiang Yiheng, Song Yi felt happy.

Although she didn't interact much with Jiang Yiheng, for the sake of her friendship with Murong Huan, she thought it better to avoid any potential misunderstandings when possible.

Thinking about this, if she ranked second in the future, wouldn't she still have to be desk mates with Jiang Yiheng?

Song Yi shook her head, once again changing her goal: forget it, there's no need to be too competitive, third place would be fine too.

Song Yi packed her things in a relatively good mood and moved to her new seat.

But strangely, while the person originally sitting in ninth place had moved their things, the new ninth-ranked student hadn't arrived yet.

Until the entire class had finished changing seats.

Except for beside Song Yi, all other seats were occupied.

The teacher walked to the podium, "Alright students, since the seating arrangements are complete, everyone tidy up, class is about to begin." Sёarᴄh the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Song Yi frowned and looked again at the seat beside her.

Something seemed missing from this class, or rather, someone seemed missing.

Where was her desk mate?

Suddenly, Song Yi's expression froze.

She opened the school forum and found Class A's score table.

Opening it, zooming in, ninth place -

Hang Feng.

Song Yi: "...?"

Help! This is terrible!

She'd rather not have this tenth place ranking at all!!!

Song Yi painfully asked her system, "Is this also the attraction between protagonist halos?"

The system responded enthusiastically [No! This is the result of your hard work! Actually, you're more excellent than you imagine! Keep going! Little Song!]

Song Yi: "..."

Song Yi took a deep breath, trying to comfort herself.

It's okay, it's okay, Hang Feng had barely attended class since the start of school - she could count his appearances on one hand. Even as desk mates, there wouldn't be much interaction; it was practically like having a luxurious double seat to herself.

Song Yi thought this way, feeling slightly more at ease.

Until after the first class, when the chair beside her was pulled out.

Song Yi looked up, saw the black-clothed young man sitting beside her, and was just: "?"

She deeply understood a principle: one shouldn't carelessly raise flags, or they might end up getting slapped in the face.

Hang Feng sat in his new seat, lowered his head to stuff several books into the drawer, and took out a bottle of strawberry milk from his pocket, placing it on Song Yi's desk.

The next second, he simply laid his head down on the desk to sleep.

Looking at the milk on the desk, then at Hang Feng.

After a while, an incredible thought appeared in Song Yi's mind.

Song Yi asked, "Could it be that he's fallen for me?"

[...]

The system was speechless [Host, aren't you aware of what you've been doing lately? Where does this confidence even come from?]

Song Yi answered quite righteously, "I'm just worried, that's all."

After all, according to the original plot, all three of them would fall in love with her.

Song Yi felt she should clarify things, so she poked Hang Feng's arm with her pen and said one word, "Hey."

Hang Feng raised his head to look at her, his eyes showing traces of fatigue, and asked, "What is it?"

Song Yi got straight to the point: "I want to ask you something."

Hang Feng lowered his gaze, "Go ahead."

Actually, he hadn't expected Song Yi to initiate conversation with him today, and was curious about what she might ask.

Perhaps about how coincidental it was that they became desk mates, and how he felt about it.

Or maybe she was concerned about why he had been absent for so many days and suddenly showed up today.

As long as she didn't ask why he had money to buy milk, he could accept any question.

But Song Yi just stared at Hang Feng without speaking for a while.

Being looked at this way, Hang Feng inexplicably felt uncomfortable, even a bit parched.

He dug out a bottle of mineral water from his drawer and took a sip -

"Say, you haven't fallen for me, have you?"

Song Yi's voice suddenly rang out sincerely, and in that instant, Hang Feng choked severely on his water.

"Cough cough cough!"

Hang Feng lowered his head, covering his mouth with one hand, coughing violently.

He raised his head, looking at Song Yi with a complicated expression.

By now, Song Yi had already figured out her direction.

In the original plot, Hang Feng had liked the original owner's well-behaved and sensible nature, how she never said unnecessary things, and maintained proper boundaries. Even with countless opportunities to discover his identity's secret, she never investigated, giving him the utmost respect.

If that was the case, she would do the opposite!

She would be proactive! And disrespectful towards him!

Then Song Yi started rattling off rapidly, "Why aren't you saying anything? Could it be that I hit the nail on the head? Don't tell me you really have a secret crush on me? My dad always says that you can tell where a man's love lies by looking at where he spends his money. You're even willing to squeeze out eight whole yuan to buy me strawberry milk! If that's not love, then what is it?"

Hang Feng: "..."

He opened his mouth and spoke with difficulty, "First of all, I've said many times, I'm not poor."

"Oh come on, stop pretending. I'm a top student too, and I don't look down on poor people," Song Yi looked at Hang Feng with disdain and continued, "Also, why didn't you deny having a crush on me first? Could it be that I really guessed right? Come on, why are you being so wishy-washy as a grown man? If you like someone, just say you like them, if you don't, just say you don't. But I'm sure I'm right - all your behaviors prove that you have a crush on me, and you're too shy to confess because you're poor!"

Hang Feng: "..."

Looking at Song Yi now, he felt like he was Sun Wukong, and Song Yi was the endlessly nagging Tang Monk.

Though he couldn't remember exactly what Song Yi had been rambling about, his head was throbbing unbearably.

Hang Feng tried to make sense of Song Yi's logic and said, "First, I don't like you. Second, you're really noisy."

"Noisy?" Song Yi pointed at herself with an expression that showed she was both amused and annoyed by Hang Feng, "Please, you're complaining that I'm noisy? You're the one with a crush on me, okay? Are you being reasonable at all?"

Hang Feng: "..."

He had finally realized that Song Yi was truly a stubborn person.

From their first meeting, she had decided he was poor, and no amount of explaining had changed her mind.

And now, since she had decided he had a crush on her, it probably wouldn't be something he could explain away easily either.

So—

Hang Feng stood up and fled the classroom like the wind.

If he couldn't win the argument, at least he could escape it, right?

Watching Hang Feng's retreating figure, Song Yi was quite surprised.

She hadn't expected that her casual performance would achieve such good results - judging by how quickly Hang Feng left, he must really be annoyed with her.

She was just being an overconfident girl! The power of self-confidence for the win!

System: [...]

It couldn't understand, but it was utterly shocked.

Song Yi was in a good mood and took out her phone to browse the school forum for a while.

What she saw gave her quite a shock.

[Shen Yujing is back! He walked through the school gates by himself!!! [Picture]]

Song Yi: *insert surprised old man in subway meme*

Just when she finally got rid of one annoying person, another one comes back. How troublesome.

That's what Song Yi thought, but the forum had a completely different reaction.

1L: Wuwuwu Shen Yujing is so handsome!

4L: That eyesore of a wheelchair is finally gone, I'm so relieved to see Shen Yujing standing again. Although he's handsome, seeing him in a cast all this time really affected his image...

7L: Now that Shen Yujing's leg has healed, I'm willing to return the title of Saint Slee's most handsome to him [dog head emoji]

11L: Hahaha can the people above have some shame!

...

The entire forum was filled with a harmonious atmosphere of laughter and joy. Many of Shen Yujing's fangirls were ready to hang welcome banners for his return, but Song Yi frowned.

No, something wasn't right.

Putting aside whether yesterday's standing had worsened Shen Yujing's injury, it hadn't been that long since his leg was put in a cast. How could he possibly be walking normally now???

This didn't make sense!!!

The System spoke softly [Host, have you read any wuxia novels?]

Song Yi: "?"

[Have you ever seen a male protagonist in a wuxia novel actually die from falling off a cliff?]

Song Yi: "I don't understand, speak plainly."

[For male protagonists, they all have luck on their side. They can face setbacks, but once they hit rock bottom, they'll bounce back immediately]

[So in other words, Shen Yujing's leg could break, but even if the situation worsened - where others might end up with a permanently damaged leg or become lame - he would turn misfortune into blessing and recover completely]

Song Yi: "What about me?"

[What?]

Song Yi: "Aren't I the female lead? Why don't I have that kind of luck?"

She remembered that the original owner had a bad ending.

[In old-school Mary Sue settings, the male lead's halo makes him stronger, allowing him to overcome difficulties. The female lead's halo is attractiveness, allowing her to attract the male lead to help her overcome difficulties.]

Song Yi: "...?"

She had a thousand curse words she didn't know where to begin with - this kind of trashy halo was worse than having none at all.

Well, no point arguing with this old-school Mary Sue world.

But at this moment, Song Yi had a bold idea.

Bouncing back from rock bottom?

If she were to make Shen Yujing hit his head against a tree, where a normal person might become stupid, would Shen Yujing become smarter?

System: [Please stop those dangerous thoughts!!!]

"I'm just joking," Song Yi said as she put down her phone and returned to her studies.

System: [...]

It felt that its host didn't seem to be joking at all.

Well... let's deal with it later.

*

After the monthly exam, everyone would face something more important—

The grade trip.

The entire school was excited about this event, with discussions buzzing everywhere.

This was a special feature of Saint Slee Academy. After the second monthly exam of each new school year, there would be a three-day trip, aimed at helping everyone relax and better face their upcoming studies.

However, this trip required a fee, and top students typically didn't participate.

Song Yi looked at the destinations the school had chosen in previous years - the fees ranged from five thousand to over ten thousand yuan. Why waste money on this when it could be better spent elsewhere?

So Song Yi hadn't included the grade trip in her plans at all and hadn't submitted a registration form, focusing instead on her studies.

Until Murong Huan approached her and said, "I asked around, this year's grade trip has two people per room, and we can room with students from different classes. Let's go together."

Song Yi shook her head in refusal, "I'm not going."

Murong Huan, who rarely faced rejection, asked unhappily, "Why? It's only once a year, it would be such a shame to miss it."

Song Yi's answer was honest, "No money."

Murong Huan didn't mind at all, "I'll pay for your share."

Song Yi put down her pen and looked at Murong Huan seriously, asking, "Are we friends?"

Murong Huan nodded without hesitation, "Of course, why else would I come to you?"

Song Yi smiled at her and said, "Since we're friends, we should be equals. This money might be small change for you, but for me and my family, it's a huge expense. I can't accept benefits without reason, so I can't agree."

Murong Huan was stunned for a moment but ended up saying nothing.

*

At noon, in the student council.

Murong Huan, Quan Le, and Shen Yujing sat facing each other in a triangle.

Murong Huan repeated her earlier conversation with Song Yi, then ran her fingers through her long hair in frustration, saying, "What should we do?"

Quan Le stroked his chin, "What she said makes sense though, this is a tough one."

Shen Yujing took a sip of water from his cup and asked, "I understand the reasoning, but why did you come to me?"

"Yeah," Quan Le also asked curiously, "Why did you come to us?"

"Uh..."

On this question, Murong Huan looked at Shen Yujing, holding back the words "because she likes you," and instead said, "Because Song Yi is quite introverted and doesn't have many friends, and she seems to not really dislike you."

Shen Yujing maintained a calm expression on the surface, but inside he was practically bursting with joy.

Sure enough, even to outsiders like Murong Huan, Song Yi seemed to have a better relationship with him.

Then Murong Huan said to Quan Le, "As for you, I think you're very... smart, yes, that's it, smart."

Quan Le was also satisfied with Murong Huan's explanation because he too thought he was very smart.

With both of them successfully convinced, the three continued their discussion.

Quan Le: "Obviously, the key issue here is that Song Yi has no money, but she's unwilling to accept help from others."

Shen Yujing said, "That's simple. Why don't we slip 100,000 yuan into her backpack tomorrow? Surely she can treat herself to a trip with some unexpected windfall."

Quan Le: "..."

Only a "genius" like Shen Yujing could come up with such a brilliant solution.

Murong Huan responded wearily, "I think she'd probably get scared and call the police."

Shen Yujing fell silent.

Since Shen Yujing's suggestion was too "reliable," Quan Le continued with his analysis, "To resolve this issue, we actually can't approach it through Song Yi directly."

Murong Huan and Shen Yujing nodded together, waiting for him to continue.

Quan Le blinked and said, "Then it's simple. We can cover the special student fees for the entire senior class, saying that since it's the final year, the school doesn't want to make exceptions and hopes everyone can participate together."

"That won't work," Murong Huan objected. "If we do that, those who've already paid will feel unfair. Even though everyone can afford it, nobody likes to feel disadvantaged."

Shen Yujing raised his hand, "I've got it. Listen to me."

"Why don't we think about this differently - could we choose a less expensive location for this trip?"

Quan Le clapped his hands, praising, "That's a great idea! You're quite clever!"

Murong Huan nodded in agreement, "This might work."

The three quickly reached a consensus.

Since all three families had varying degrees of controlling interest in Saint Slee Academy, that evening they each went home to discuss the matter with their parents.

The next morning, Saint Slee Academy's forum had a new pinned announcement about the senior class trip.

In short, because this was the seniors' last collective trip, the school decided not to leave any student behind and hoped everyone could enjoy the trip together.

However, since it was a collective event with the school covering travel and accommodation costs, the destination had changed.

In previous years, they usually went abroad, but this year it was... jungle exploration???

This news left many students bewildered.

[Is this year's senior trip really going to be this basic? I don't get it [breaking down]]

1L: Right? This is supposed to be a Saint Slee Academy class trip, but it sounds more like a spring outing at some ordinary public school.

6L: So disappointing, I had such high hopes.

11L: I've never been to any jungle in my life. Is it even safe? I don't want to go.

17L: Protest! Protest!!!

...

The forum was in an uproar until—

Shen Yujing posted on his social media.

Shen Yujing: Helped design some game elements [Picture]

He attached photos of handwritten cards with encouraging messages.

When this post was shared to the forum, the entire tone suddenly shifted.

[Eh??? What did Shen Yujing make? Prizes?]

[Ahhh! Can I get a blessing card written by Shen Yujing himself? I can't wait!]

[Games? I'm in, I'm in! I love playing games!]

[Wait, if the whole grade has to participate, doesn't that mean both Shen Yujing and Jiang Yiheng will be there? Ahhh!!!]

[That's right! Shen Yujing and Jiang Yiheng haven't participated in the past two years!]

[I heard there will be lots of group games. Does this mean I might get to interact with God Jiang up close?]

[Suddenly, jungle exploration doesn't sound so bad]

[To the person above, I'm going to buy equipment right now. I'm going to show off my skills during this adventure and make Shen Yujing fall in love with me!]

Aliali: 673eb950c4f3f33ac4ee7f08

[Dream on! My bodyguard used to specialize in this field, I'm going to stay up all night learning from him!]

...

As everyone inexplicably became competitive, Song Yi watched these puzzling comments on the forum with confusion.

Were Shen Yujing and Jiang Yiheng really that appealing to them?

Weren't they just ordinary high school boys who happened to be somewhat wealthy and decent-looking? Was it just because they had main character energy?

In her daze, Song Yi recalled scenes she'd read in novels before.

Like how the male leads would walk down a path with two rows of girls welcoming them, screaming frantically: "Prince X! We love you! Like mice love rice!"

Imagining this scene with either Shen Yujing's or Jiang Yiheng's face replacing the "prince," Song Yi suddenly felt goosebumps all over her body.

How terrifying! Stop, please stop!

She couldn't think about it anymore - she'd have nightmares.