Chapter 5: What A Coincidence, It's You
This translation is originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
The lingering heat of the end of summer still scorched the earth. Ji Xiao observed Wei Qingyu, who was gradually walking away, keenly noticing her strained posture.
As the car passed by Wei Qingyu, it stirred a gentle breeze, slightly lifting the girl's skirt.
A reddish-brown scab remained unabashedly visible on her knee.
Her leg injury, caused by the original owner, hadn't completely healed yet, and now she had to walk to school again.
Ji Xiao couldn't ignore her walking away like this. She commanded the driver ahead, "Stop the car."
Upon hearing the command, the driver promptly brought the car to a smooth stop. A fair hand extended from the black car. Leaning on the car window, Ji Xiao gestured towards Wei Qingyu behind, "Get in."
A trace of suspicion flickered in Wei Qingyu's eyes. She hesitated and remained in place, showing no intention of getting into the car.
After these days of being together, Ji Xiao had become accustomed to this.
Leaning back against the seat, she displayed an air of carefree indifference, like a young master: "I'm in a good mood today, hurry up."
The haughty tone carried a hint of impatience, as if letting her in the car was a sudden whim, a discovery of conscience.
Wei Qingyu temporarily assessed the situation as risk-free and opened the passenger door, sitting inside.
Ji Xiao was somewhat surprised by Wei Qingyu's action, yet secretly relieved, feeling a sense of gratitude. She let her ride in the car without having to sit together in the back seat. Could this be a blessing for not mistreating the female lead these days?
Wei Qingyu's arrival made the already quiet car even quieter.
She sat more upright than the driver, her straight shoulders supporting the white school uniform shirt. Her slender back was covered by long hair, emitting an air of lofty aloofness, like a maple-leaved gentian growing on a steep cliff.
The car's air conditioning lazily circulated, a cold breeze carrying a hint of mint blowing next to Ji Xiao.
She gazed at the receding street scene outside the window, unable to quite understand why the original owner held such animosity towards Wei Qingyu.
Ji Xiao felt being transmigrated in a story was not at all rewarding. Not only did she lack the advantages others seemed to possess, but she also hadn't inherited the memories of the original owner.
"Ai.”
Thinking of this, Ji Xiao sighed slightly.
Wei Qingyu's lowered gaze slightly lifted at the sound, subtly glancing at Ji Xiao in the rearview mirror.
Her black hair, tied in a ponytail, cascaded down from her full head, and her straight nose had a distinct midpoint below the eyebrow, sharp like a knife, exhibiting an Alpha's fierce aura when quiet.
Yet, those slightly lowered pupils seemed to move gently with their owner's thoughts, devising some ways of torture.
A faint smirk flickered in the depths of Wei Qingyu's eyes before she withdrew her gaze.
The car soon stopped at the entrance of the Normal University Affiliated High School where Ji Xiao and Wei Qingyu studied.
Even though it's a public high school, Normal University Affiliated High School is recognized in A City as a gathering place for wealthy children.
Many students in the school are driven by their family drivers, rarely like Wei Qingyu, who walks with her school bag by herself.
At this time, there were already quite a few private cars parked at the gate, creating a long queue as they honked and departed.
Ji Xiao thought it was time to get off, so she picked up her school bag. However, the driver continued driving as if she hadn't noticed, heading toward the spot closest to the school gate.
A set of hazard lights flashed, and a Ford Edge nearby hastily started the car, stepping on the gas and driving away.
Expressionless, the driver parked the car in a spot right in front of the school gate. Ji Xiao felt for the first time how nice it is to be a wealthy person in the top upper-class circle.
After the car was parked, Wei Qingyu didn't wait for Ji Xiao to enter the school together. On her own, she hoisted her canvas school bag, with a graceful posture and walked into the school gate.
A beam of sunlight pierced through the sycamore tree behind her, shining into Ji Xiao's eyes as she got out of the car.
Watching Wei Qingyu's departing figure, it was then that she remembered that most of the money her family is currently spending comes from the inheritance left by her deceased parents.
Her good mood suddenly disappeared.
"Hey, why did Sister Xiao come with Wei Qingyu today?"
A voice, tinged with a hint of teasing, came from behind Ji Xiao.
Ji Xiao turned around to see a girl in a skirt rolled up to her knees, about a palm's length above, smiling and walking towards her with another girl. Her curly long hair, like seaweed, swayed slightly in the wind, vibrant and fiery.
During the summer vacation, when Ji Xiao was catching up on the relationships among the original owner's acquaintances through her phone, she noticed this girl who frequently posted selfies on social media.
Her name is Qi Qi, she is an Alpha and the original owner's best friend.
The girl beside her was Fang Yiming, also an Alpha and a close friend of the original owner, second only to Qi Qi.
"Is there a problem?" Ji Xiao asked, using the original owner's tone.
Qi Qi: "Of course not. I've advised you before. Can't you be a bit nicer to her? You're an Alpha, at least show some compassion?"
Ji Xiao agreed crazily in her heart.
Why didn't the original owner listen to Qi Qi's advice and treat Wei Qingyu better? Then she wouldn't have to live in constant fear and anxiety.
"We're having class placement exams soon. How's your review going?" Qi Qi asked.
"Just like that." Ji Xiao said perfunctorily.
The original owner didn't care about the exams at all. She only found out about the class placement exams yesterday evening after seeing the class notice. There wasn't enough time to review.
There are four subjects in total, including Chinese, Math, English, and Integrated Science/Humanities, all squeezed into one day for the exams.
Because there was no essay in the Chinese exam, the results and rankings would be out the next day. The top thirty-five students in Ji Xiao's science class would enter the experimental class, the so-called elite class, while the remaining students would be evenly distributed among the remaining twelve science classes.
It was quite similar to the high school in her original world.
This translation is originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
Ji Xiao who was far away from home, experienced some sense of familiarity with this world for the first time.
Fang Yiming: "This time, they're ranking the exam room based on last year's comprehensive science scores. Guess who's the first in one of the exam rooms?"
Qi Qi replied, "What's the point of guessing? Except for Wei Qingyu, who else could it be? She always ranks first in every exam. Her overall scores are definitely at the top!"
Fang Yiming: “If you say it like that, there's no suspense."
Qi Qi: "There's definitely no suspense. Every time, she's at least fifty points ahead of the second place. Let's guess who might be sitting in the first seat of the second exam hall."
Ji Xiao silently listened to their conversation from behind, thinking to herself: The female lead is indeed the female lead. Even if she was tormented by the original owner, she still managed to top the grade in exams.
The three of them stopped chatting as they reached the stairwell of the teaching building. Qi Qi and Fang Yiming's exam rooms were on the second floor, while Ji Xiao's was on the first.
Qi Qi stood on the stairs, patting Ji Xiao's shoulder, saying, "Sister Xiao, do your best this time. Don't end up at the bottom of the list again."
"Okay." Ji Xiao waved her hand and turned, heading towards her own exam room.
She thought to herself: Wouldn’t it be very shameful for a high school reserve math teacher to be last in the class test?
Glancing at the exam room allocation list on her phone, she arrived at the door of Class 1-1.
She wondered if she was too early because there was only a white canvas bag placed on the first seat in the first row of the exam room.
Puzzled, she glanced at her own exam room on her phone, and took a step back, intending to check the class sign hanging in front of the classroom.
Unexpectedly, her back bumped into something soft.
Ji Xiao instantly realized the awkwardness of her actions. Just as she was about to turn around and apologize to the person she bumped into, she felt as if two knives were pressing against her back, a hint of mint piercing her spine, sending chills down her spine.
Suddenly, the white canvas bag on the first seat in the first row seemed oddly familiar.
When she turned her head, she saw Wei Qingyu holding a glass, looking at her with cold eyes.
The atmosphere became even more tense than before.
Embarrassment turned into an abrupt gust of wind, slapping Ji Xiao's face.
"What a coincidence, it's you," Ji Xiao smiled, trying to ease the awkward atmosphere.
Wei Qingyu, interpreting Ji Xiao's smile as a mockery of the recent incident, saw her face darken further.
"Unfortunately." She replied expressionlessly.
Then, she passed by Ji Xiao and sat directly in her designated seat for the exam.
A draft blew from inside the classroom to the outside, chilling Ji Xiao's heart.
The word 'sorry' got stuck in her throat, unable to be spoken.
Ji Xiao felt as if she had stepped on another one of Wei Qingyu's landmines.
After a while, the exam room gradually filled up with students, and the exam began in an orderly manner.
The original protagonist in the book was an idle and perverse person, exhibiting yandere* behavior. Ji Xiao, unsurprisingly, sat at the last seat in the exam room. She looked up towards the other end of the classroom where Wei Qingyu, still maintaining her straight posture, sat.
*Yandere behavior is a term originating from Japanese culture and is used to describe a character archetype that depicts someone who initially appears loving, gentle, or kind but eventually demonstrates obsessive, possessive, and sometimes violent tendencies towards someone they are romantically interested in.
Soft sunlight streamed through the glass window, casting a faint golden hue upon her aloof figure. She was earnestly focused on answering the exam, her thick eyelashes slightly curved upwards, blinking delicately, showcasing a refined beauty.
Such an outstanding person shouldn't have endured the cruel torment inflicted by the original character in the novel.
Ji Xiao sighed lightly, the fear in her heart towards Wei Qingyu mingled with a touch of sympathy and pity.
Ji Xiao had smoothly handled the first three subjects in the exams. The content taught in high school in this world was quite similar to her original world. The classical poems in Chinese remained the same, English listening exercises were identical to 'the price of a shirt is nine pounds fifteen pence,' and the problem-solving methods in mathematics were still the familiar steps.
In her original world, Ji Xiao had always been an exemplary and diligent student. She couldn't accept the original character's poor grades. Determined, she planned to make up for it by leveraging her experience tutoring her classmates in education courses over the years.
However, when it came to the Integrated Science exam, Ji Xiao was stuck.
What stumped her wasn't physics, nor chemistry, but biology, a subject she couldn't comprehend despite helping her biology major roommate with lesson preparations.
[Xiao Ming's father is a Beta colorblind, carrying the colorblind gene BaOCc, while his mother is an Omega, possessing the recessive colorblind gene Oabcc. Is there a chance for Xiao Ming to differentiate into an Alpha? What's the probability of Xiao Ming's sister being colorblind? Please provide the reasoning behind your answer.]
Ji Xiao felt her brows twisting into complicated knots, still unable to understand the question.
Why did the genes become so complicated when adding ABO blood types to biology?!
As the sun set in the west, the dusk made Ji Xiao's silhouette particularly desolate.
Her grand ambition to redeem herself was shattered by the biology exam.
"Why does it look like you didn't do well on the exam?" Qiqi put her arm around the dejected Ji Xiao and pressed her down, nearly causing her to stumble.
"Don't be too frustrated, I didn't even attempt the last two math problems," Fang Yiming comforted.
Ji Xiao glanced at Fang Yiming, saying, "In Biology, I estimate my score might be in the single digits."
Fang Yiming and Qi Qi were dumbfounded. They knew that Ji Xiao was not good at studying, but they didn't expect that she would be so bad this time.
Qi Qi could only dryly console her: "There's no need to be so pessimistic."
Ji Xiao forced a bitter smile, realizing that her performance in Biology might even be worse than the original character's.
She waved to the two and slipped into the car waiting to pick her up. As the driver saw Ji Xiao getting in, she immediately started the car.
Ji Xiao hesitated for a moment, noticing there were only her and the driver inside. She gestured, "Wait for Wei Qingyu."
"Miss Wei just walked back a moment ago. Do you want me to go after her?" the driver asked.
When Ji Xiao heard the driver's words, she inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.
Feeling a bit off now, she really didn't want to face this formidable character. She waved her hand, signaling to the driver that they could head straight home.
In reality, Ji Xiao's villa was quite close to the school, only a ten-minute walk away. Considering the traffic during rush hour, Ji Xiao decided to get out of the car, coincidentally encountering Wei Qingyu walking towards her from behind.
Her walking posture was still a bit labored, and there was a small layer of fine beads of sweat on her forehead along the way.
Ji Xiao's bad mood has eased a bit, and now seeing Wei Qingyu like this, she feels a little sorry.
Recalling what happened in the morning, Ji Xiao remembered she still owed Wei Qingyu an apology.
So, as both of them stood together at the door, Ji Xiao, with a hint of the original character's arrogance, said, "Hey, about this morning, sorry."
Wei Qingyu was startled for a moment. In the short half year since she came to Ji's house, she had only heard Ji Xiao stubbornly argue, never once apologizing to her.
Recalling the events from the morning, was Ji Xiao not teasing her on purpose at that time?
The accidental contact made the scent of peach brandy stealthily waft in the late summer heat.
Wei Qingyu's assumptions about Ji Xiao were wrong for the first time. Momentarily unable to respond, she wordlessly pushed open the door and walked into the house.
"Xiaoxiao is back?"
At that moment, a deep Alpha male voice came from inside the house.
Ji Xiao looked up to see a well-built man standing in the living room, directly facing the entrance.
The man was dressed in navy blue pinstriped trousers, and a neatly tucked light grey shirt, giving off an imposing and successful professional appearance.
Before Ji Xiao could recognize the person in front of her, Wei Qingyu took the initiative and greeted the man: "Hello, Uncle Ji."
