Green Plum, Green Plum (17)
“You little poor thing.”
Under the blazing sunlight.
The swaying shadows of the trees cast large, uneven patches of shade at the edge of the playground, creating cool spots for the students. Even the deepest parts of the shade became coveted spots.
Xu Jiao sat on the parallel bars under the shade, her hands resting at her sides, her slender legs dangling lightly in the air. Her new white sneakers stood out even in the dimmer area where the sunlight wasn’t as strong, as if she was the coolest person in the world.
The dark school uniform pants slightly rode up due to her sitting position, revealing clean socks that reached her ankles and a glimpse of a black tattoo. Only a small part of it was visible, sparking endless imagination in the onlookers.
Several lively girls from Class 1 gathered under a nearby tree. One of them nudged her companion with her elbow and whispered, “Hey, look at Xu Jiao’s right foot. Is that a tattoo?”
“Seems like it? I heard she got her ears pierced in high school and even got into fights. Having a tattoo is not surprising.”
“Her skin is so fair. From this angle, that tattoo on her foot looks really nice. Does anyone know what pattern it is?”
“I wouldn’t dare to ask. Hey, didn’t Shen Yelan from our class sit next to her in Class 7 for a few days? Go ask Shen Yelan, maybe she has seen it, since this semester, Class 7 and Class 20 have swimming classes together.”
“Good idea!”
Realizing this, the girl scanned the surroundings and soon spotted her target under another tree. She quickly crossed the scorching area between the two trees, walked up to Shen Yelan, squatted down with her arms around her knees, and said:
“Hey.”
Shen Yelan looked up from her book, calmly gazing at the newcomer, silently asking what was the matter.
“Do you know if Xu Jiao has a tattoo on her foot?” the girl asked.
Shen Yelan’s eyes shifted slightly to the side. Then, she moved her lips and slowly uttered three words: “I don’t know.”
The girl immediately showed a hint of disappointment, “Ah, I wanted to ask if you’ve seen it, and if so, what it looks like. But never mind, you’re such a bookworm, you wouldn’t understand.”
The girl left disheartened.
In place.
Shen Yelan still maintained her posture of looking up from her book. Who knows how long she stayed like that before she lifted her eyes towards the direction of the parallel bars.
The scorching wind carried the smell of the plastic track, the combination of sun-baked plastic particles and sweat was particularly unpleasant. The sunlight even added another layer of rich nuance to it with its heat.
But Shen Yelan was unmoved; her gaze passed through a few people who were stretching their muscles after a long run and fell unhurriedly on the figure on the parallel bars.
To be precise, it fell on the person’s right foot.
A voice echoed in her ear again.
“Little liar.”
A figure identical to the one on the parallel bars stood by her side, a faint smile on her face, bending slightly, and in a tone almost affectionate, lightly scolded her.
Shen Yelan didn’t even turn her eyes towards that side, calmly thinking:
Hallucination.
This is fake.
Sensing her indifference, the person standing beside her leaned closer, almost touching her ear, speaking in a breath that almost sprayed on her ear, she heard the other person say in a seemingly cold yet flat tone, an extremely seductive sentence:
“You’ve seen my tattoo, why lie?”
After a pause, the person beside her let out a mischievous chuckle. The sound passed through her ear canal, directly hitting Shen Yelan’s heart, like a light feather falling to the ground, stirring up a bit of dust.
Then, Shen Yelan heard her say, almost like a breath of orchids: “Not only did you see it, but you also bit it, didn’t you?”
Upon hearing this—
Shen Yelan’s pupils contracted sharply.
She abruptly closed the book in her hand, stood up, and took big strides towards the teaching building, as if staying there for another second would cause a big joke.
The voice that had just exposed her inner thoughts followed her like a shadow, laughing behind her, “Can’t take it anymore? I haven’t even said the worst.”
Intentionally provoking Shen Yelan, the person behind her dragged out her voice, tormenting her, “Your dreams, aren’t they more intense than what I said? For instance, last night…”
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At that moment, Shen Yelan happened to walk to the shaded area behind the teaching building.
It was class time, and the non-physical education classes were all in their classrooms. Class 1 was practicing running, and now the teacher had given them free time. In principle, as long as Class 1 students didn’t disturb other classes, they could wander around the campus.
She stood by a small bamboo grove in the school, smelling the faint fragrance and a refreshing coolness, her voice steady:
“Shut up.”
Shen Yelan stared straight at the face in front of her, identical to the one in her heart. Her deep black eyes hid extreme repression. Because she suppressed that madness, her face instead showed a calmness like a still water.
She said, “You fake.”
Upon hearing this, the “Xu Jiao” in front of her smiled, not angry, just tilting her head to look at her, with a seemingly innocent yet cruel expression, teasingly said to Shen Yelan:
“The one on the playground just now was real. Why didn’t you go?”
Shen Yelan’s eyes half-closed, her gaze only stayed on the ground in front of her. The school had paved the road with small square white tiles, using blue ones as stripes. Each small tile had irregular bumps, extending from her eyes to out of sight.
She didn’t answer this question.
But the other party didn’t give up, “Speaking of which, you know I’m fake, why keep me around? You passed by the hospital a while ago, but in the end, you didn’t go in, did you?”
“Shen Yelan, you know why I can still wander in front of you, don’t you?”
“Because you, poor thing, can’t reach that person, so you keep me, this delusion. You like seeing me tease you, satisfying your unattainable inner self, don’t you?”
Shen Yelan’s eyelashes trembled. She spoke again, still those two words: “Shut up.”
But somehow, her voice was a bit hoarse now.
Like a string tightened to the extreme, it would snap with a little force, carrying an inexplicable sense of fragility.
“Xu Jiao” walked up to her step by step, raised her hand, and placed her fingertips on her chin. Although there was no real feeling, Shen Yelan involuntarily lifted her head slightly, looking closely into the other’s smiling eyes.
“Want me to shut up? Easy, just wave your hand lightly, or choke me—”
The other intentionally lowered her voice, as if sharing a secret, but the words she spoke were particularly terrifying.
Shen Yelan closed her eyes tightly, retreated half a step in embarrassment, her breathing became heavier, as if the voice had split her into two halves, one clamoring to destroy this counterfeit, the other desperately stopping her.
“Counterfeits have no reason to exist.”
“No, you can’t hurt her. If you dare to touch her today, if you can’t tell her apart from Sister Xu Jiao someday, will you kill Sister Xu Jiao too?”
Two voices argued incessantly in Shen Yelan’s mind.
She shook her head hard, constantly reciting those required ancient poems in her heart, trying to calm herself down, otherwise the voices would only get more chaotic.
Calm down, Shen Yelan.
You can’t become a lunatic.
……
“Detected blackening value of the female lead… 20.”
Back near the playground.
Xu Jiao’s leisurely posture paused slightly. Then, she sat up straight, jumped down from the parallel bars, stood steadily on the ground, squinted her eyes, and her gaze swept over every corner of the playground in the golden sunlight.
As expected, she didn’t see Shen Yelan.
If she remembered correctly, this person was around here earlier. Did she encounter someone again?
Xu Jiao showed a thoughtful expression as she walked out, asking in her heart:
“Is she not in danger this time either? System, this won’t do. You used to issue tasks for the smallest things, asking me to save her. Now the female lead has blackened twice under your nose, and you have no reaction?”
System: “…”
It answered calmly, “Because this system can only detect events that pose a threat to the female lead. As long as the events are within Shen Yelan’s capability to handle, they won’t be detected and naturally won’t require your assistance.”
Xu Jiao laughed coldly and asked again, “Then explain to me, what is this blackening value?”
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System: “This value detects the deviation in the protagonist’s personality from the original work. The greater the deviation and the more it leans towards evil, the higher the value, and the harder it is to achieve the HE (Happy Ending) achievement, thus moving us further from our goal of modifying the ending.”
Xu Jiao was silent for a few seconds, then patiently asked, “I mean, explain to me why Shen Yelan is blackening!”
Compared to Xu Jiao’s confusion, the system remained very calm, almost leisurely, “Sorry, unable to detect specific reasons, please continue to work hard, host.”
Xu Jiao: “…”
Trash.
She cursed silently in her heart. At the same time, she headed towards the classroom, thinking that if she guessed right, Shen Yelan should be using her free time to solve problems.
Sure enough—
When she returned to Class 1, she saw the familiar figure solving problems.
It was Shen Yelan.
Xu Jiao leaned against the wall by the back door, casually picked up a bottle of drink from her desk in the last row, twisted off the cap while looking around. No matter how she looked, she couldn’t figure out why this person blackened while solving problems.
Could it be…
The problems were too difficult?
Made Shen Yelan cry? Made her despair about studying? So she wants to take revenge on society?
Xu Jiao took a sip of peach soda, tasting the carbonated flavor on her tongue, quietly watched Shen Yelan for a while, suddenly asked in her heart, “How much does she like me?”
The system reacted quickly this time: “90.”
Xu Jiao pondered silently.
90.
How to help Shen Yelan reduce her blackening value without increasing her affection?
……
After lunch break.
Shen Yelan went out to get a cup of hot water. When she returned to her seat, she found an extra small note on her desk, with a few twisted sentences written on it:
“Are you sleepless at night? Are you still troubled by unresolved knots? Are you haunted by it, seeking the final answer within your heart?”
Shen Yelan: “…?”
Who is playing a prank again?
She looked around, finding everyone either sleeping or solving problems, no one seemed so bored.
Moreover…
Class 1 students couldn’t write such ugly characters.
She glanced down and saw the second sticky note: “I have all the content you want :)” with a smiley face at the end.
Shen Yelan frowned even more.
She casually threw the note into the drawer and continued solving problems, ignoring the occasional strange voice in her ear.
Until that night.
Shen Yelan, due to her emotional turmoil, had some insomnia. She wanted to rest well but was afraid of dreaming about those strange things again, aggravating her inner desires.
She tossed and turned for a while, suddenly remembering those small notes during the day.
Maybe there were some healing quotes in them, she thought.
With her good memory, Shen Yelan recalled the content of the note, took out a new phone from under her pillow—the previous one was damaged in a fall, and Dong Qing who was responsible, feeling guilty, replaced it with a new one. Now she could use the internet on her phone.
After typing line by line, Xu Jiao took a deep breath, watching the webpage slowly load, waiting for it to present some phrases like “You see darkness, you are darkness, you always yearn for light, you are also light.”
A few seconds later—
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The webpage popped up.
The sections inside were diverse, randomly glancing, one of the contents was:
“National Mathematics Olympiad Past Papers”
Her eyes moved slightly, seeing the adjacent “Interesting Physics Principles in Life,” “A Thousand Must-Memorize Ancient Poems,” “Simulated CET-4 and CET-6 English Listening”…
Shen Yelan: “…”
She threw the phone back under the pillow, continued tossing and turning.
……
In the master bedroom.
2 AM.
The system’s voice woke Xu Jiao from her sleep: “Detected blackening value of the female lead, 25.”
Xu Jiao didn’t even open her eyes, drowsily responded with a “Hmm,” and went back to sleep. In her hazy consciousness, the system’s content slowly entered her brain.
After a while, she suddenly reacted, her voice in the room both complaining and shocked:
“No way?!”
“What kind of difficult problems is she solving?!”
