Chapter 3: The Cold School Beauty’s Fierce Love
Digging out the location where the Tao family driver parked from the jumble of memories in her head, Tao Ning walked over empty-handed, leaving her backpack behind.
Her mind preoccupied with other matters, and having sent Jin Yue and Lü Xinxi back, she couldn’t be bothered to remember her backpack.
In the original worldline, Tao Ning, not having suddenly died, hadn’t gone to the sports equipment room due to the hassle and went straight home.
The reason was no different from what she had just said. The young miss genuinely felt it was just a notebook; her family had plenty of more valuable things, so she didn’t care.
Yes, the original owner knew about the notebook. The original storyline recorded the original owner’s mindset, which had subtle differences from what happened in reality, but the outcome was largely the same: indifference.
This kind of nonchalance was also a form of arrogance. The more she ignored it in the beginning, the more intensely her emotions would backfire later.
This gave Li Ziyi room to act. After repeated inquiries and still failing to find the so-called gift, one of the girls with a short temper started a fight with Xu Qiuyi.
From verbal abuse to physical assault, it escalated to the point where they wanted to strip Xu Qiuyi and take photos.
The door was locked at the time, and Xu Qiuyi had nowhere to escape. Used to caring for her asthmatic younger sister, she was naturally stronger than the other four. She dodged and retaliated a few times, narrowly avoiding being restrained despite being outnumbered.
The reason it was a “near” thing was because Xu Qiuyi grabbed the golf club, smashed the window, and escaped.
During the escape, Xu Qiuyi’s hand was cut by the broken glass, bleeding profusely. The scar on the back of her hand remained with her for life.
With her bleeding hand, Xu Qiuyi ran, and the other girls, fearing she would tell on them, quickly chased after her.
The commotion was only stopped when patrolling security guards heard the noise, but the outcome of the incident was neither good nor bad for Xu Qiuyi.
The four had deliberately chosen a blind spot in the surveillance coverage, and they all claimed that Xu Qiuyi had broken the glass. She had also fought back, and everyone had injuries, while Xu Qiuyi only had cuts from the glass, no other bruises.
Although Xu Qiuyi was a top student nurtured by the school, her voice was still weak in front of the “young misses.”
Thus, the incident was classified as a mutual fight. The parents of the four girls’ demands for demerits and expulsion were rejected by the school, but Xu Qiuyi was required to compensate for the cost of installing new glass.
Considering that Xu Qiuyi’s right hand was injured and needed stitches, she was exempted from writing a self-criticism letter, but she had to deliver a verbal apology during the flag-raising ceremony.
The school wanted to downplay the incident, intending for her to pay a few hundred yuan as compensation. However, different people have different living environments and perspectives. A few hundred yuan for the glass was just breakfast money for the “young misses,” but for Xu Qiuyi, it was more than a month’s living expenses.
Tao Ning hadn’t been present throughout the entire incident, but her name was mentioned repeatedly, and Xu Qiuyi heard it.
But what truly made Xu Qiuyi resent Tao Ning was the next monthly exam. Her right hand hadn’t healed yet, so she couldn’t take the exam, meaning she couldn’t receive the school’s scholarship, disrupting her subsequent plans.
The time when the original Tao Ning truly became hostile towards Xu Qiuyi was a bit later, at her coming-of-age ceremony two months later.
However, during this period of recovery, because Xu Qiuyi couldn’t take the exam and missed out on the scholarship, she had to find a part-time job after school. She was tricked into a club owned by the Nangong family. After realizing something was wrong and stating her intentions, she tried to leave.
As one might expect, the club manager, having finally found a rare beauty, wasn’t willing to let her go, leading to a conflict.
This led to the second important plot point in the original worldline, besides the school opening conflict – the all-powerful mafia prince descended from the heavens to perform a heroic rescue.
Nangong, who happened to be passing by, helped Xu Qiuyi. This caused Xu Qiuyi, who always held a slight hostility towards everyone and protected herself with sharp barbs, to change her view of the male lead slightly, thus starting the path of early-stage bickering lovers and late-stage heartbreaking romance.
Thinking of this, and then of the lengthy original worldline, Tao Ning shook her head: “Abusive, it’s truly too abusive. I just don’t know why only Xu Qiuyi is abused.”
520: [Oh? How so?]
Tao Ning, fearing she wouldn’t adapt to the new environment, muttered to 520: “The cause of the injury was Nangong’s gift, and later, being trapped in the club… what kind of help is that? Firstly, that club is owned by the Nangong family. Secondly, there’s no law stating that applying for a job means you have to stay and work. It seems like Xu Qiuyi suffered the most, getting a permanent scar on her hand and losing several thousand yuan in scholarship money.”
One should know that Xu Qiuyi could have earned that scholarship money with her grades. She wouldn’t have needed to find a part-time job with her freshly stitched hand because her sister had a relapse.
520: [Did you really barely pass the written exam?] Your thinking is quite clear.
Mentioning the written exam, Tao Ning put on a mask of pain: “Three years, three exams, I only barely passed the last one. A total score of 500, passing score 460, I got 460.5. That 0.5 was added because of my neat handwriting. Don’t you have my transcript?”
520 thought for a moment: [I think I do.]
After checking, 520 felt something was wrong: [Weren’t the test questions all online? Where did the handwriting score come from?]
Tao Ning sighed and lamented about how difficult the questions were, difficult in the sense that they were ridiculously funny, not tear-inducingly difficult.
According to Tao Ning’s understanding, when people are extremely sad, they don’t cry, they first freeze, then laugh. From laughing while doing practice questions in the middle of the night, Tao Ning understood how devilish the employee selection process in the original world was.
Fortunately, she was considered lucky, barely passing both the interview and practical tests. The examiner’s comment on her was: Too unconventional, not recommended for frequent use, prone to accidents.
There were fifteen teams in the original world, each with its own responsibilities, broadly categorized into three types.
There were the Four Heavenly Kings, the field team with high requirements for combat skills; the five acting teams with high requirements for acting; the office team, which didn’t do fieldwork; and the cleanup team, the gathering place for the unsung heroes.
The Matchmaking Department was jokingly categorized as an acting team, because its members didn’t play villains, supporting characters, golden fingers, or stepping stones. They played matchmakers.
Among the five acting teams, the least discussed was the Matchmaking Department. It was a Buddhist-like department, a gathering place for matchmakers, with low requirements for performance evaluations.
Unlike the performance evaluations of other teams, which were based on task completion scores, the Matchmaking Department’s evaluation was based on task completion percentage.
As long as you worked, made a difference, and moved the progress bar, the task was considered complete.
Performance was calculated based on the percentage, so the Matchmaking Department was laid-back and low-paying.
Because the Matchmaking Department’s job was to bring together fated pairs separated by accidents, most taskers approached their missions with a “if it works, it works, if not, whatever” attitude.
Turning a good couple into a resentful one? The Matchmaking Department didn’t do that.
This laid-back attitude was passed down through generations, to the point where the motto hanging in the Matchmaking Department’s office was: If it works, it works, if not, then separate.
Tasks like pursuing someone did exist, but they were rare.
Even rarer was Tao Ning’s task.
[Task: Break the fated connection between the female lead Xu Qiuyi and Nangong Yunfei.]
This task was truly peculiar. The evaluation requirements were the complete opposite of matchmaking. The connection had to be completely severed for the task to be considered complete, regardless of the progress bar.
If the connection wasn’t completely severed, even if the completion rate reached 99.9%, the red string of fate in the worldline would still pull the two together, resulting in task failure.
Before departure, Tao Ning was pulled into the office for a private lesson with the head of the Matchmaking Department, Zang Hongyu, who gave her countless instructions and only sent her through the time-space tunnel after receiving repeated assurances.
However, a fated connection that derailed to the point where the female lead dissolved the male lead in aqua regia and flushed him down the drain, leading to her arrest and the collapse of the worldline, should indeed be severed.
Closing the task page, Tao Ning pulled herself back from her memories.
She closed her eyes, the back of her head resting against the seat: “As compensation for borrowing her identity, does the original owner have any wishes that need to be fulfilled?”
[Yes!] 520 read out the original owner’s last wish, [In this life, my life is more important than my face, my mom is more important than my life. Liking him was me being blind. Whatever he did to my family, I’ll return it all.]
Tao Ning opened her eyes, a slight curve appearing on her crimson lips: “I accept this task.”
520 gently guided her: [Do you have any ideas?]
Tao Ning rubbed her hands together: “A friend of mine said this kind of thing is easy to handle. Generally, it’s recommended to completely erase one of them from the female lead’s life. In a law-abiding society, send them to Africa to mine. In a feudal society, hire an assassin to eliminate them. In a fantasy world, remember to burn their soul as well, to prevent reincarnation, possession, or resurrection.”
Every aspect was meticulously planned, ensuring no chance of survival, a permanent solution.
520 was dumbfounded: […]
Tao Ning’s voice was gentle: “She also said, to solve the problem from the root. A dead person cannot be resurrected.”
520: […] So, so ruthless!
It quickly flipped through Tao Ning’s graduation evaluation. It clearly didn’t say anything like this. Who wrote “gentle, docile, and adaptable”?
No, calm down.
520 remembered that Tao Ning said it was her friend’s suggestion, not her own idea. It would be normal for Tao Ning’s friend to say such things, but a newbie pushing themselves too hard could easily lead to failure.
During the system’s long silence, Tao Ning also thought of her own transcript and humbly asked 520: [Is this not good?]
In Tao Ning’s view, 520 was also her senior. That system had guided several newbies, and she was its first host.
When in doubt, ask a senior. It was much better than blindly guessing.
520 racked its brains to put it mildly: [Then… what did Team Leader Zang say?]
Zang Hongyu was the head of the Matchmaking Department.
Tao Ning said, “Team Leader Zang couldn’t refute it, but she told me to listen less to those overachievers from the Four Heavenly Kings.”
520 wiped the nonexistent cold sweat from its brow: [I agree with Team Leader Zang…]
Tao Ning nodded, her attitude sincere: “Oh…”
520 was greatly relieved. The seniors had said newbies were difficult to handle, but this one seemed quite obedient, listening to everything.
The graduation evaluation wasn’t inaccurate.
Seeing a fleeting scene at the street corner, Tao Ning called out to the driver: “Uncle Liu, stop the car.”
520: [Eh? Didn’t you say it wasn’t urgent?]
Tao Ning said, “Different situations require different solutions. You can’t apply formulas to everything.”
Xu Qiuyi, carrying her backpack, was walking down the street, her eyes reflecting the passing cars. She seemed to be looking at something, but in reality, she wasn’t focused on anything.
Suddenly, a Rolls-Royce drove past, creating a gust of wind. Xu Qiuyi’s eyes flickered, recognizing the license plate number.
No one in the school didn’t know Tao Ning’s unique license plate number. Even if Xu Qiuyi didn’t pay attention, she had heard it so many times that it was hard not to remember.
However, today, Xu Qiuyi uncharacteristically glanced at the car a few more times, a hint of curiosity in her eyes.
Having been independent from a young age, Xu Qiuyi was very sensitive to people’s malice and goodwill. She hadn’t reacted at the time, but now, thinking back, Tao Ning’s arrival seemed to have been an attempt to defuse the situation.
What puzzled her was precisely Tao Ning’s attempt to defuse the situation hidden beneath her annoyance.
The young miss was arrogant, willful, and had nothing to do with kindness.
So why?
Was it a new way to torment her?
The young miss excelled at skipping classes and playing games. Locking someone in the equipment room and threatening them wasn’t something she could come up with, and there was no need for her to waste time on such things.
As she was thinking, she saw the car slowly stop and reverse towards her.
For some reason, Xu Qiuyi stopped, waiting in place and pondering Tao Ning’s motives.
Was she planning to mock or warn her?
The car window slowly lowered, revealing Tao Ning’s face, her eyes filled with confusion: “What a coincidence, Xu Qiuyi. Why are you walking home today? Where’s your bike?”
Ming Rui had offered Xu Qiuyi many favorable conditions to entice her to enroll, covering almost all tuition and food expenses, but this didn’t include accommodation.
Even if the school had included accommodation in the enrollment conditions, Xu Qiuyi wouldn’t have chosen to live on campus. Most of the students living there came from wealthy families, and not only were their living habits vastly different, but their values were also different.
Besides, sometimes, some things couldn’t be avoided even if you tried to. She preferred to cycle to school every day.
Ming Rui High School was ridiculously large, with complete facilities, resembling a secluded manor. The nearest bus stop was a half-hour walk away.
Coupled with the distance and inconvenient transportation from her home, Xu Qiuyi rode her bicycle to school. She had once been photographed by a student journalist for the school newspaper, even sparking a trend of cycling to school for a while.
However, because the sun was too strong, almost no one could match Xu Qiuyi’s heat tolerance and resistance to tanning, and they all regretfully gave up.
Tao Ning had seen that photo, in her memories.
A beautiful girl riding a bicycle against the wind, her backpack in the basket, the rising sun behind her like a halo.
Light and wind chased her skirt, a cinnabar mole between her eyebrows, her long hair fluttering, a picture of dazzling youth.
It was this photo that solidified Xu Qiuyi’s title as the school beauty, bringing her fame as well as countless envious gazes.
Looking at her hands, Xu Qiuyi said matter-of-factly, “I went late, and my tire was punctured. I can’t ride it, so I can only push it to be repaired tomorrow after school.”
Hearing this, Tao Ning’s eyes widened: “I didn’t do it.”
Xu Qiuyi chuckled: “I know, it’s not the first time it’s been damaged.”
Tao Ning gripped the car window with both hands, her eyes slightly raised: “Not the first time?”
Xu Qiuyi nodded: “Yes.”
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