One day, the tyrant's condition suddenly worsened, and all the doctors were at a loss.
In order to keep her powerful backer, Qi Niao used the guise of visiting her to see her for medical treatment.
But just as she got a feel for the tyrant, a cold hand grabbed her waist!
"I've finally caught you, you little liar."
Qi Niao: ? ? !
Chapter 18
As soon as Ruan Yu returned to the classroom, she saw Wen Yun wiping her desk.
She knew that this person would feel bad if he didn't do something for her, so she deliberately lingered in the restroom a little longer, which could be considered as accepting his kindness.
Unexpectedly, this person was too efficient. When she returned, the pink rag was covered with a thick layer of dust, and the table and sides were wet. The water in the basin on the floor was no longer clear.
Langying's desk opens from the top, and at this moment her desk is open. Upon closer inspection, the walls inside are also covered in water stains.
"I'll wipe it myself!" Ruan Yu hurriedly grabbed the rag. "Thank you, Yunyun! You've really gone to so much trouble!"
Wen Yun understood that "care" should be given in moderation, so she left the rag with her, went to the bathroom to wash her hands, and returned to her seat.
It was then that she noticed there was an extra person in the empty seat near the corridor.
Her deskmate, He Sheng, yawned as he held his own schoolbag and offered her his seat. He glanced at the new seat at the back of the classroom, sat down, and slowly asked, "Yunyun, who's that?"
On her way to school, Wen Yun went through the campus-related parts of the original text several times. She knew that He Sheng was also the original owner's best friend. However, He Sheng was very simple-minded and only loved studying. She did not pay attention to forums or private group chats and had no bad intentions. She was just very clingy to the original owner. So she relaxed and explained, "She is Ruan Yu, who was just picked up by my family."
The Wen family elders did not restrict her from revealing Ruan Yu's true identity to outsiders. After all, the Wen family had suddenly brought a grown woman from the countryside and transferred her to Langying Foreign Language School, which had the best educational resources and the most expensive tuition in the entire district. It was all too obvious who this person was, and there was no point in hiding it.
"...Then why are you still so nice to her?" He Sheng asked, puzzled. "You even wiped the table for her. I've never seen you be so enthusiastic towards anyone else."
Wen Yun couldn't very well say that she was trying to survive by being nicer to the reborn protagonist, which would increase the likelihood of him taking revenge. So she simply offered a profound conclusion: "Of course, it's because she treated me with sincerity, so I must reciprocate with sincerity."
Under He Sheng's questioning gaze, she calmly sat down, took out her stationery and biology notes from her bag, and began to memorize the key points.
"Host, do you want to use an item?" the system suddenly asked.
In the past few days, Wen Yun has been trying to find opportunities to share her tea-related wit and build up her tea-related reputation. She even drew three mysterious items, which made her look bad and successfully turned her into the "spendthrift" she used to despise.
Fortunately, her luck isn't too bad so far; all three props are quite suitable for use while studying.
"No rush," Wen Yun said. "I'll attend one or two classes first and see if I can keep up."
After all, she had been away from school for quite some time. Even though she believed in her self-study abilities, she clearly felt the strain when reviewing at home these past few days, especially in math. She needed to be guided by her teacher to learn the problem-solving strategies.
They've just entered their senior year of high school, and it's not yet time to separate them into the college entrance exam preparation classes. The teachers will take into account the students in the middle and lower ranks when they start teaching, which is also an opportunity for Wen Yun.
Soon the bell rang, and it happened to be the homeroom teacher's English class. While the audio-visual education committee member was turning on the computer, she asked Ruan Yu to come up to the stage and introduce herself.
Wen Yun's gaze followed Ruan Yu as she walked onto the podium. She saw Ruan Yu take the marker from the homeroom teacher and write her name on the whiteboard. Her every move was neither humble nor arrogant, and her demeanor was elegant and composed.
"My name is Ruan Yu, nice to meet you."
After a simple sentence, she bowed to the whole class, stepped down from the podium, and returned to her seat, completely ignoring the strange and awkward atmosphere in the classroom.
Fortunately, the homeroom teacher warmed up the atmosphere by leading the applause and saying, "Let's welcome the new students to the great group of political history students with warm applause!"
"The newcomer is so cold, not even saying 'I'm a member of this group from now on.'" Amidst the half-hearted applause, He Sheng rested his chin on his hand and muttered under his breath, "Could she be a real-life version of Homura Akemi?"
Wen Yun wasn't surprised by this. When Ruan Yu volunteered to sit in the last row of the classroom that day, she guessed that Ruan Yu didn't intend to integrate into the group.
After all, in the original text, she made efforts to please the students more than once, only to be met with ridicule and slander.
For Ruan Yu, who has been given a second chance at life, perhaps academic achievements are the only tangible thing that she can firmly grasp.
After the transfer students finished their self-introductions, the homeroom teacher opened the presentation slides and began the lesson.
After listening to today's class, Wen Yun felt that she was not struggling to keep up with the pace, and while she breathed a slight sigh of relief, she began to worry about the math class to come.
Even in the senior year of high school, the long break between the first and second classes still required participation in the morning exercises. When the assembly music started, Wen Yun was still trying to recall the original owner's position. After she found her spot, she couldn't help but look at the front of the line.
The formation for morning exercises is based on height. Although this was established when the classes were divided in the second year of high school, adding a new student to the front row wouldn't affect the overall formation too much.
Wen Yun remembered that the original text mentioned an accident that happened during morning exercises. The accident caused Ruan Yu to fall and injure her arm. For several days in a row, her handwriting trembled, which almost affected her performance in the elective exam.
However, this incident occurred before the October elective exams, so there shouldn't be any problems with the morning exercises for the time being.
Even so, she kept an eye on Ruan Yu as she ran, until she was out of breath and had to look away, falling behind the group and slowly keeping up with her aching back.
What's the person leading the pack doing today?! Running so fast!
Wen Yun was glad that she had been sticking to her morning runs these past few days. Even though she had fallen behind, she hadn't looked too disheveled. After the running music ended, she found Ruan Yu, who was standing alone, in the sparse crowd and quickly caught up with her.
"How are you feeling? Are you adjusting well?" she asked.
"Adapting." Ruan Yu turned to look at her, her forehead covered in fine sweat, but her breathing was steady. "But you, you don't seem to be doing so well."
When Wen Yun inexplicably felt that no one was around, Ruan Yu seemed to particularly like to address her with "you" (formal), perhaps to distinguish her from Wen Yun.
"It seems like one of today's pacesetters is..." Before she could finish speaking, a pack of tissues was suddenly handed to her, the packaging already opened.
"Thank you." Wen Yun quickly took out a bill and wiped her face and neck.
A faint fragrance of green tea wafted into her nose. Although Wen Yun didn't like the "green tea" persona, she quite liked the scent. After wiping away her sweat, she felt much more relaxed.
However, this good mood only lasted until before math class.
After math class, Wen Yun slumped onto the table, feeling like a dead fish.
She suddenly realized why the mysterious item pool contained an item like "I can understand this math lesson perfectly!"
I just spaced out in class and picked up a pen, and then I couldn't keep up at all after that!
"Yunyun, are you alright?" He Sheng rested his chin on his hand, gently poking her arm with his fingers, asking in a tone that was hard to tell whether it was concern or pleasure, "Why did you suddenly collapse? Did you have heatstroke?"
"Mathematics is my lifelong enemy!" Wen Yun wailed inwardly. After collapsing for a few seconds, she struggled to get up and prepare review materials for the next class.
She can only inherit the original owner's memories; she can't inherit intelligence or problem-solving skills, which she can only learn through practice and reflection.
Moreover, she was still undecided about whether to hire a tutor—tutors in wealthy families are required to provide timely feedback on students' learning progress, and if the Wen family elders discovered that a single subject's grades had dropped significantly, it would be really hard to find an excuse!
Fortunately, she was only weak in math; she was generally comfortable with the other subjects. After a full day of classes, she had a good understanding of her current level.
The last class in the afternoon was a computer-based test for selecting elective subjects for the academic proficiency exam. Wen Yun sat in front of the computer, logged into the system, and was once again stung by the "A" grade in mathematics when she was browsing the original owner's past academic proficiency exam scores.
She sighed inwardly, checked the exams for Politics, History, Biology, and English, exited the system, and handed the computer to her classmate who was waiting nearby. As she passed Ruan Yu, she subconsciously glanced at her computer screen and discovered that Ruan Yu had checked the Chemistry exam!
Wen Yun was shocked. According to the "7-choose-3" college entrance examination system, non-elective subjects will end after the final academic examination in the second year of high school. Although students can take the exam multiple times afterward, the school will not provide additional review classes. Students can only rely on their own review, which leads to many students' scores in multiple academic examinations being lower than when they studied intensively.
"Do you want to retake the chemistry exam?" Wen Yun couldn't help but ask on the way home.
“Well, I only got a C in chemistry, which is too low,” Ruan Yu said softly. “If I don’t retake the exam, I will lose a lot of opportunities when filling out college applications later.”
"Should we hire a tutor for you?" Wen Yun asked. "You should have finished your course last October, right? The last academic exam was in April, which is quite a long time ago."
“Okay, thank you, Yunyun.” This time, Ruan Yu did not refuse.
So as soon as Wen Yun got home, she told her parents about it and also reminded them to hire piano and painting tutors.
She could tell that the Wen family elders were really busy. Since she came into this world, she hadn't eaten with them more than a few times. The two tutoring sessions for interest projects that were agreed upon on the first night hadn't come yet. She didn't know if they had forgotten because they were busy, or if it was for some other reason.
"It will definitely be arranged this week!" Wen's mother assured Ruan Yu with a smile. "Before, I mentioned that Xiaoyu was not adapting well to the new environment. I was thinking of waiting until she was more comfortable before she started practicing the piano and learning to paint. There's no rush."
Wen Yun: "..."
“Mom is so thoughtful.” Before she could speak, Ruan Yu took the initiative to speak, “Thanks to Yunyun’s company, I have now fully adapted to my new home.”
Sensing her protectiveness, Wen Yun quickly said, "It's what I should do. We're family, no need to be so polite!"
With Ruan Yu's problem of hiring a tutor resolved, Wen Yun began to worry about herself again.
Even though she has the system as her little cheat code, she can't always draw the mysterious item that says "I can understand everything in this math class!" or other items related to helping with math review.
Besides that, she hasn't unlocked the higher-level shop yet, and the system hasn't provided a specific way to unlock it. When asked, the answer is always "the conditions for unlocking it are not met yet."
After thinking it over, she actually thought of Ruan Yu.
-
Ruan Yu had a feeling that the person was hiding something on their mind today and hadn't told her anything.
There were no exams or extra classes scheduled for evening self-study at Langying School, so they didn't have to attend. Therefore, after hearing that person's request to "have a talk" after dinner, she didn't hesitate to take the person to her room and politely asked, "Are you having any problems? Can I help you?"
Faced with such a perceptive protagonist, Wen Yun's heart skipped a beat, but she still admitted with a wry smile, "There really is. I'm having trouble finding a direction for my math review, so I need to ask you for advice."
Ruan Yu thought for a few seconds, then went to the bookshelf, found a set of test papers, quickly flipped through them, tore off a sheet, and handed it to Wen Yun.
Wen Yun took it, somewhat bewildered.
“This is a set of basic test questions, but the questions are very typical, examining your weaknesses from a basic level,” Ruan Yu explained. “You have one hour to complete it, whenever it’s convenient for you, and I will grade it for you when you’re done.”
Wen Yun was overjoyed and immediately said, "It's convenient right now!"
Afraid of being caught by the housekeeper who knew the questions if she went back to her room to work, she simply stayed in Ruan Yu's room, using her writing desk, pen, and draft paper. After setting the alarm, she calmed down and worked through the questions one by one.
Ruan Yu sat on the edge of the bed with history review materials in her hands, holding a fluffy Rena bear in her arms. She looked like she was reviewing history, but in reality, she was secretly watching the person who was concentrating on doing the questions.
These days, she occasionally has nightmares, dreaming about many things from her past life, as well as some of her past expectations about life in her new home.
Her adoptive parents passed away early. Apart from her grandparents, she only had an aunt who was away doing business for a long time. Every few years, the aunt would come back to the village to see her, bring her gifts from the city, and inquire about her academic performance.
Over the years, her impression of her family remained a faint, beautiful outline. That's why, after coming to the Wen family, she placed her hopes on her real blood relatives.
Unfortunately, her experiences after coming to the Wen family in her previous life shattered her beautiful dream.
Whether it was divine intervention or not, she actually had such an opportunity.
Even if only one person changes, it is still an enemy who once wounded her all over.
Even though she had repeatedly warned herself from the beginning that she should be wary of the current Wen Yun and not let her guard down just because the other party's personality had changed drastically.
However, based solely on an absurd speculation about "possession," coupled with the discrepancies in their lives and behaviors, she was able to quickly discard all past pain and disregard everything to distinguish that person from Wen Yun.
Like a drowning person grasping at a straw, even knowing its fragility, they are unwilling to let go.
Even if all of this is just wishful thinking, a fleeting and absurd dream of hers.
-
Wen Yun was extremely nervous while working on the set of questions in her hand.
Compared to the example problems in today's math class, these questions on the test paper are actually not difficult at all, and are within her ability.