Green Plum, Green Plum (10)
“Liked it.”
The system was silent for a long time.
It originally thought that after Xu Jiao entered this world with the identity and memories of the original novel’s supporting female character, her emotions should not be so high and mighty, and she should integrate more with the whole world—
But it seems to have been wrong.
Xu Jiao is too clear-headed. She seems to be able to perfectly control her emotions, knowing when to indulge and when to remain indifferent. Setting aside her adherence to the plot, her way of dealing with people and situations is impeccable.
She took Su Xi to study and change her fate because Su Xi’s life has no impact on the overall plot development of the world. She is even indulgent towards Su Xi.
But as for Shen Yelan…
Although Xu Jiao was not stingy with her gaze, such attention was no different from a scientist observing their test subject.
Xu Jiao still insisted on not interfering too much in Shen Yelan’s life. Otherwise, with her ability, she could easily help Shen Yelan escape from this dire situation.
She could even completely reverse the current predicament.
But Xu Jiao did not do so.
Only when Shen Yelan exceeded her expectations in some way would Xu Jiao show a bit more interest, focusing her attention more to find out the reasons for the protagonist’s deviation from their character.
The system’s main brain was almost overheating but still could not figure out the reason behind Xu Jiao’s compassionate yet indifferent behavior. It could only silently update the data and add a series of question marks in Xu Jiao’s observation diary.
……
Xu Jiao waited for a long time but did not receive the expected content, losing a bit of her patience.
She kindly reminded the system in her mind, “Did you forget something?”
The system asked coldly, “What?”
Xu Jiao: “Her affection level for me. I gave her a piece of bread; should it now be -30?”
System: “…”
It made a puzzled sound, “I recently learned a new word, called ‘masochist.’ Does it refer to someone like you?”
Xu Jiao was startled awake by its astonishing learning ability. She blinked her eyes and reminded emotionlessly in her heart, “Please, is it so hard to download a dictionary?”
The system felt her deep helplessness, paused for a moment, and replied, “No change detected in Shen Yelan’s affection level for you. Current affection value: -20.”
Xu Jiao furrowed her brows.
Strange.
It didn’t change at all.
Really… made her more curious.
Since she was no longer sleepy, Xu Jiao simply sat up, propped her chin with one hand, twirled a pen with the other, and pulled out a set of real English test questions to practice.
Shen Yelan had already finished the red bean bread Xu Jiao had given her. She didn’t rush to throw away the packaging but folded the plastic wrap and put it in her drawer. Taking advantage of Xu Jiao practicing, she secretly glanced at her.
Outside the window, the weather was nice. Although the morning sunlight wouldn’t directly fall from the window, students near the window could still see the striking line of color between the two teaching buildings, like a clean sapphire, clear and captivating.
In the natural light, Xu Jiao’s profile was naturally contoured, with a high nose tip, reminding one instantly of her demeanor when facing those small thugs.
Arrogant and domineering.
As Shen Yelan secretly watched, she thought:
Clearly, she’s a bad student who likes to fight and collects protection fees from weak students, but just a little kindness from her makes me uncontrollably want to get close to her?
Even…
I’ve had those kinds of dreams twice.
……
The two people by the window in the last row of Class 7, while doing their exercises, spent the day daydreaming.
Fortunately, no teacher would call their names. One was a student with a personality too troublesome to mess with, and the other was obviously an absolute goody-goody girl, so the two of them pretended to be busy and got through the day.
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Until school ended—
“Sister Jiaojiao!” Su Xi from the regular class swaggered in with her backpack, walked to Xu Jiao’s side, saw her doing exercises, and boldly leaned on her from behind, asking sweetly:
“What are we eating tonight? Aunt Su’s cooking is so good. I’m hungry. When are we going back?”
Xu Jiao was working on a three-dimensional geometry problem, drawing three auxiliary lines and writing halfway through the proof when Su Xi’s overly bright voice interrupted her train of thought.
Without turning her head, she raised her left hand, pinched Su Xi’s mouth, making her sound like a little duckling with only “mmm mmm” sounds. Then she said carelessly:
“Be quiet for a bit.”
After recalling the steps for the problem, Xu Jiao continued writing, let go of Su Xi’s mouth, and pressed down on the book in front of her, saying:
“If you’re hungry, go back first. Aunt Su knows you; she’ll make you food first. I’ll leave after finishing this set of exercises.”
The remaining students in Class 7 secretly looked up at them. Seeing Xu Jiao allowing Su Xi to mess around and even permitting her to visit her home, many girls showed envious expressions.
The boys, on the other hand, couldn’t help but wonder—
Wow, that’s Xu Jiao’s home. What could it be like?
Only Shen Yelan, sitting next to Xu Jiao, paused midway while writing an English word, the end of the letter dragging out without curving back, looking very odd.
She stopped her pen, pretending to be thinking, but her attention was entirely on the two people beside her.
Su Xi leaned on Xu Jiao’s shoulder, peeking at the remaining half of the exercises she was working on. Feeling a headache coming on, she moved her head back a bit and asked puzzledly, “Why don’t you write at home? Isn’t it more comfortable there?”
Xu Jiao hummed lightly. Perhaps because she was not very guarded with Su Xi, her tone sounded exceptionally close, distinctly different from how she spoke with others:
“Will you let me write at home?”
“Who was it that dragged me to sing karaoke all night last night?”
Su Xi replied sheepishly, “Ha, ha, wasn’t I celebrating escaping a beating?”
Xu Jiao acknowledged with an “Hmm” and then continued, “So, tonight, to prevent you from having too much energy to cause trouble, I’ve already picked out a set of exercises suitable for you. Whenever you finish them, you can go to sleep.”
Su Xi: “???”
Su Xi: “Sister Jiaojiao, are you a devil?”
Xu Jiao nodded mercilessly, “I am.”
Su Xi opened her mouth, wanting to wail and act spoiled, to pull Xu Jiao out of the endless sea of study. Just as she opened her mouth, Xu Jiao anticipated her: “If you dare to make a sound in my ear, I’ll give you another set of exercises.”
Su Xi closed her mouth, silenced.
Xu Jiao gave a sweet reward after the stick: “Now you have a chance. Before I get home, go back and act spoiled with Aunt Su. Let her make you something good to eat, and cherish your last bit of free time.”
Su Xi, feeling heavy-hearted, let go of her, obediently turned towards the door, and as she walked, she thought:
Strange, I wanted to use the chance of going to Sister Jiaojiao’s house to avoid being urged to study. How come I feel… the study tasks have mysteriously increased?
……
In the classroom.
As the VIP listener, Shen Yelan felt as if a lemon tree had been suddenly planted in her heart, making her feel sour and bitter, extremely uncomfortable.
She stared blankly at her half-written English exercise, her mind wandering.
Forty minutes passed just like that.
Xu Jiao finished practicing with today’s homework, packed her things to go home, and suddenly realized that Shen Yelan beside her hadn’t moved her pen for a long time. Curious about what could stump the top student of Class 1, she leaned in.
Warm breath suddenly approached her ear.
Accompanied by a curious voice: “What are you writing that’s so difficult?”
Shen Yelan was startled, instinctively covering what she was writing, only to see Xu Jiao raise an eyebrow, then lose interest and move her gaze away.
English exercise… it’s probably because of a lack of inspiration.
She didn’t remain curious, packed her bag, and left the classroom.
After she left, Shen Yelan lost the heart to continue working on her exercises. She hastily packed her bag, hurried downstairs, but the empty school gate had long lost sight of that person.
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Shen Yelan’s eyes flickered with slight disappointment.
She slowed her pace, reluctantly heading towards her uncle and aunt’s house against the setting sun.
Somewhere around a corner, her bad luck struck again. She heard a voice coming from a deep alley: “Weren’t you quite arrogant last time?”
Shen Yelan stopped her steps, not daring to make a sound.
At this moment, the only thing she should do was stay far away, otherwise, if she encountered some unreasonable fellows, she’d undoubtedly face a warning. After all…
No one could guarantee she’d meet another boss like Xu Jiao.
Just as she was about to turn and leave, she heard a voice from inside: “What, cat got your tongue, Xu Jiao? Hey, I see from your expression that you’re not surprised about getting beaten today. Just as well, I haven’t stretched my muscles in a while…”
Shen Yelan: “!”
How could it be Xu Jiao!
She spaced out for a moment, then heard small sounds of chaos from inside, including the sharp sound of shoes scraping the ground, dull thuds, a girl’s scream, and someone shouting, “What are you standing there for, get in!”
Shen Yelan clenched her fists, feeling saliva fill her mouth, her mind occupied by three words:
What to do?
Su Xi had been sent away by Xu Jiao long ago. Recently, those little bad girls weren’t around her either. Could she, alone, win a fight?
Should she call the police?
No, no, these bad students hate snitches the most. Doing that wouldn’t save anyone but would bring more trouble.
As Shen Yelan was at a loss, she suddenly noticed a pile of discarded red bricks stacked at the edge of the alley.
They were left over from when the school renovated the wall, often picked up by those delinquent teenagers for fights. Many broken bricks were scattered around, but some whole ones remained.
Shen Yelan’s gaze involuntarily focused on them.
……
Amid scattered wails.
A tall boy with a lip ring pressed a girl’s hand to the ground, his large palm tightly holding down her pretty face, spitting out, “Damn, I didn’t expect someone so good-looking to hit so hard, huh? Keep it up, move again and see what happens?”
Nearby, a girl crouching with her hands on her stomach and her forehead against the ground shouted, “Bro! Beat her! Don’t let her leave here today!”
“Shut up!” The boy’s face darkened, thinking that if it weren’t for this fake sister’s provocation, he wouldn’t have nearly been beaten by a woman today. His face twisted as he met Xu Jiao’s cold gaze and sneered:
“You look at me like that again, I promise I’ll gouge out—”
“Bro!” A sudden panicked shout came from afar.
The boy turned around, only to be enveloped by a shadow. Before he could react, a hard brick smashed into his face without hesitation.
Xu Jiao winced on his behalf.
But she didn’t miss the opportunity. She kicked the man in a sensitive spot, sending him sprawling. She saw Shen Yelan, who had thrown the brick and looked like she’d lost her soul, reach out her hand:
“What are you standing there for? Run!”
Shen Yelan, startled by her shout, raised her hand dazedly and grasped Xu Jiao’s palm. They sprinted desperately into the depths of the alley, running through the area around the school until they emerged onto a bustling street.
Seeing that Shen Yelan was about to dash onto the road, Xu Jiao quickly grabbed her around the waist. Maybe it was due to her good physical condition, but even after running such a long distance, she was only lightly panting. She couldn’t help but laugh:
“Alright, alright, they didn’t chase us.”
Shen Yelan’s lips were pale, and she was gasping for air. She stared blankly at Xu Jiao, her eyes vacant.
After finally catching her breath, her first words were: “I, I just now… that person…”
Xu Jiao’s face had a light flush from the exercise. Seeing Shen Yelan so flustered, she habitually soothed her in a soft voice: “It’s alright, it’s no big deal. He deserved to get hit.”
“But you, where did you get the courage to hit someone?”
Shen Yelan stared at her blankly, also wondering:
Yeah, how did I end up doing something like that? Could this be what they mean by ‘getting darker by being near ink’?
“Shen Yelan’s favorability towards you: -50,” the system chimed in inopportunely.
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Xu Jiao: “…”
The smile on Xu Jiao’s face suddenly froze as she looked at Shen Yelan.
Still dazed, Shen Yelan was suddenly pushed against the wall by Xu Jiao in the bustling street. Xu Jiao’s hand rested on her waist, and her other hand’s fingertip lightly lifted Shen Yelan’s chin, making her look into her eyes—
“Tsk.”
“You must really dislike students like me, right? So why did you come to save me?”
Shen Yelan, suddenly so close to her, felt Xu Jiao’s breath on her face and nervously closed her eyes, squeezing out a sound from between her teeth like a mosquito’s buzz:
“I don’t… dislike you…”
Her chin was lifted higher.
Xu Jiao’s tone was commanding, leaving no room for doubt: “Tell the truth.”
Shen Yelan bit her lip, cautiously opening a slit to look at her. She was both confused and nervous, her heart pounding as if it would jump out of her throat. After a long moment, her voice trembling:
“Really… really don’t dislike…”
She looked like she was about to cry:
“Li… like.”
Yes, she liked her.
