Lin Yi got up, brushed her teeth, washed her face, and carefully changed clothes under Yan Jianxing’s gaze.
“Jianxing, I can’t reach my hair. Can you put it in a bun for me?”
“Sure thing.”
Lin Yi stood in front of the full-length mirror, wearing Zhuming Girls’ High School’s summer gym uniform, holding her face in both hands.
Yan Jianxing stood behind Lin Yi, playing with her hair as their reflections drew closer and closer in the mirror.
So close that Lin Yi wondered if her head was resting on something soft and bouncy.
“All done.”
“Not bad at all.”
Lin Yi touched her bun.
“I’ll come to you next time.”
“You said it.”
Yan Jianxing also took the chance to pinch Lin Yi’s smooth cheek. She smelled nice, and Lin Yi really didn’t want to leave.
The two of them left the room together, bought breakfast at the cafeteria, and chatted about recent school happenings while they ate.
After buying water and chocolate for energy at the small shop near the cafeteria, they went to the school track to run.
Because they ran at such a regular time, many girls from other classes, especially the track team athletes who came for morning practice, knew about them.
More and more girls came to run at this hour, and it was hard to deny that many of them came to watch the two beautiful girls run.
Since her reincarnation, Lin Yi had been exercising with Yan Jianxing almost every day except weekends, and studying with Su Kui at noon. Her personal attributes and skills had been marked with “increasing” almost the whole time.
On one hand, the System gave Lin Yi real, tangible feedback. Many people didn’t want to work hard not because hard work was useless, but because they couldn’t see the results of their efforts and gave up right before they paid off.
On the other hand, Lin Yi got an indescribable feeling from improving her attributes. Since it was a win-win situation, of course she would keep going.
Besides, in the process of persisting, she had beautiful girls accompanying her.
Thinking about it, she wondered if she was spending too much time with Jian Shuye.
When she was with Jian Shuye, all they did was offend people. She hadn’t accomplished any real work, and besides money, she got nothing…
Money?
Did she forget something?
During a break, Lin Yi checked her phone and said to Yan Jianxing,
“I just remembered I forgot my homework. I need to go back and get it.”
Yan Jianxing didn’t think much of it and nodded.
“Then I’ll go to the gym to check in first.”
After they separated, the moment Yan Jianxing was out of sight, Lin Yi changed direction and headed to the high school building.
She peeked into her classroom. There weren’t many people inside, and most importantly, the ones she knew hadn’t arrived yet.
She quietly entered through the back door, put down her backpack, grabbed her thermos, and filled it with warm water from the dispenser at the back of the classroom.
Then she used the “Highest Good Is Like Water” skill and walked like an invisible person to the back door of Class 1-2.
Why had her brain already linked money and Jian Shuye?
Think of Jian Shuye, think of money. Similarly, think of money, think of Jian Shuye.
Probably because the tens of thousands of yuan in her bank account all came from a beautiful girl.
It was hard to imagine how a first-year high school girl who had even been ordered to stop her work-study program could have such a “astronomical” amount of money in her account.
Was this a distortion of values, or the tragedy of human nature?
Lin Yi didn’t know, but she felt she was quite successful.
The money in her bank account? Even a recent college graduate might not be able to save that much in a year.
And in her past life, Lin Yi didn’t even have to mention it—she was a “Three Good Student” who couldn’t even make the cut.
The so-called “Three Good Students”: in the early days, “Hello, Uncle Bao”; in the middle, “Hello, Jiejie”; in the late stage, “Hello, Brother Yong.” In any case, her past life was truly a mess.
For the sake of money, she decided to become a juicer and contribute her most precious Clear Mind Black Tea every day.
“I heard Jian Shuye’s seat is the last one by the back door in the first row.”
Class 1-2 didn’t have many people either. Lin Yi stepped through the back door and saw the legendary seat belonging to Jian Shuye.
There was nothing special about it. The desk and chair weren’t new or old, and there was no special device, like a bell that would summon a swarm of black-suited bodyguards.
She looked around, made sure no one noticed her, and placed the thermos on Jian Shuye’s desk.
As if she had completed some secret mission, she let out a sigh and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
“Guilty conscience?”
“Mmph!”
Before Lin Yi could even make a sound, Jian Shuye blocked her mouth with a book.
She had appeared at the back door of the classroom, her steps as light as walking on cotton.
The morning light slanted across her profile. The corner of her uniform shirt was lifted by the wind, and her bangs hung over her forehead, partially hiding her eyebrows and accentuating her straight, delicate nose and jawline.
Luckily she intervened; Lin Yi didn’t disturb anyone.
Jian Shuye’s eyes were slightly lowered. Her figure was slender, like a white magnolia just emerging from the morning mist—clean, untouched by the dust of the world.
After seeing the thermos Lin Yi had placed on the desk, she understood the purpose of this pitiful girl in front of her and lowered the book.
Lin Yi leaned against the wall, inching her way step by step, while mouthing the words:
‘I’m~going~now~’
“Hold on. This is for you.”
Jian Shuye handed the book in her hand to Lin Yi. Lin Yi took it, not sure what she meant.
She looked down. The title was Model Training Tutorial (2nd Edition), a guide on how to pose more attractively.
‘What does this mean, Hacki Night?’
‘Do you want me to flaunt myself in front of you?’
‘How insulting!’
[Detected Task Opportunity: As a light novel protagonist, you’ve recently been self-optimizing very successfully. Now it’s time to test the results. Make a beautiful girl leave a deep impression on you! Time Limit: Use all your wits to leave a deep impression on a beautiful girl with Charisma of at least B. Reward based on the girl’s Charisma rank and the depth of the impression.]
‘What does this mean, System?’
‘Are you suggesting that I improved myself just to please beautiful girls?’
‘What’s the difference between that and being a model for Jian Shuye?!’
Jian Shuye smiled lightly and traced a finger on Lin Yi’s arm.
“Go home and study it carefully. I’ll be busy these next few days. Once the club recruitment fair is over, I’ll check your progress.”
Lin Yi smoothed the book and tucked it under her arm.
“If you’re busy, what are you doing?”
“Going into seclusion to draw.”
Jian Shuye didn’t mind explaining.
“I’m planning to draw a short manga to show how incompetent the Manga Research Club is.”
Lin Yi muttered,
“I thought you’d make me draw it.”
“I thought about it, but it seemed unrealistic.”
“Thank you so much for underestimating me and not giving me extra work.”
Lin Yi was genuinely grateful for Jian Shuye’s arrogance.
A few classmates trickled in through the front door of Class 1-2. They saw Jian Shuye and Lin Yi chatting together and started observing from the sidelines.
Lin Yi’s ears began to turn red, and she felt uncomfortable.
“Um, if there’s nothing else, I’ll get going…”
“Yeah.”
Jian Shuye put down her backpack and gave Lin Yi an order to leave.
“Go ahead.”
“Sure.”
“Wait.”
“What?”
“I might not come to class during my seclusion.”
Jian Shuye pointed at the thermos.
“Deliver this to the club room at the same time every morning. Someone will come to get it.”
Lin Yi nodded. She was more than happy to make the delivery somewhere else. She was especially afraid of unfamiliar environments, especially other classes.
It felt like falling into a carefully prepared trap.
Before she left, she frantically blinked at Jian Shuye, but Jian Shuye acted as if she hadn’t seen anything and turned around to open the thermos.
This was a standard Charisma Rank A beautiful girl.
‘Tch. Looks like my charm isn’t even as good as Clear Mind Black Tea. How sad.’
‘I’ll temporarily downgrade Jian Shuye to the Nation’s Number One Beautiful Girl.’
Unable to complete the task on Jian Shuye, Lin Yi left the Class 1-2 classroom. Just as she was thinking about how to weasel out of delivering Clear Mind Black Tea every day, she turned and bumped into a girl.
“Ah…”
“Hmm…”
Lin Yi held her forehead and looked up. She was at the back door of Class 1-1.
The person she had collided with was Feng Chuyue, who was walking with her head down and not watching where she was going.