Chapter 5

Though it had happened in the blink of an eye, Su Ci’s avoidance still stabbed deep into Yan Can’s heart.

She’d spent the entire morning defending this person, and by noon, when they finally met, the other girl was dodging her like she was some kind of plague.

What was Yan Can, something unspeakable?

Ahhh, so infuriating!

Even though the food was delicious, Yan Can couldn’t bring herself to take another bite.

She swore she would never meddle in that woman’s life or death again.

If she did, she’d be a dog!

Zhang Ru and Yu Ting were sitting across from her, and they’d seen every change in her expression.

They didn’t understand why the young lady had suddenly gotten angry again when everything had been perfectly fine.

She’d even been playing ball so well earlier.

Zhang Ru pushed the yogurt in front of her toward her. “Feeling any better?”

Yan Can glared at her, eyes wide. “I’m not angry.” Someone like that wasn’t worth getting mad over.

Yu Ting glanced at the half-bite of broccoli left in her tray and found it a little odd. Since when did Yan Can like broccoli?

Yan Can said she wasn’t angry, but even a fool could tell she was furious; Zhang Ru couldn’t help sighing and shot Yu Ting a look: Go talk to her?

Yu Ting…

She didn’t dare.

After taking a few bites in a huff, Yan Can slammed down her chopsticks. Zhang Ru and Yu Ting couldn’t exactly keep eating comfortably while watching her glare at them, so they hurriedly forced down a few mouthfuls themselves and set their chopsticks aside too.

Then when they looked up, they saw the young lady carrying her tray away.

The two of them chased after her with their eyes at the same time, and then saw Yan Can sit down across from a girl.

The girl had long, soft black hair draped over her slender shoulders and back; even her figure from behind looked especially slight, and just one side profile was enough to make people unable to look away.

Su Ci was eating when she suddenly felt a heavy pressure. She looked up and saw Yan Can staring at her with a resentful expression.

Her gaze politely lingered on her for a moment before she lowered her head and continued eating.

Yan Can…

Was she planning to pretend she didn’t know her at school?!

“Su Ci,” Yan Can said, frowning, looking very angry.

Su Ci looked up.

Yan Can gritted her teeth and forced herself to stay calm. “You really don’t seem to like me.”

If she hadn’t seen her, fine; but they had clearly made eye contact.

Su Ci frowned and said nothing.

Still ignoring her! That resentful feeling in Yan Can surged again and again.

“Just now in gym class, I saw you and wanted to say hello, but you turned around and left. Why?” The memory alone made her angry all over again.

“Do you hate me that much?”

Not far behind them, Zhang Ru watched the two of them and asked Yu Ting, “Who’s that girl?”

You’re asking me? How should I know? Yu Ting shook her head. But looking at the atmosphere, and Yan Can’s air of intimidation, why did it look like they were about to start fighting?

Come to think of it, hadn’t the young lady’s mood swings been a little too much lately?

“Let’s keep watching for now,” Yu Ting said.

Zhang Ru nodded.

Yan Can, who looked very much ready to brawl, was completely at a loss in the face of Su Ci’s silence.

This person was just too cold.

No response at all to her rapid-fire questions.

She had never seen anyone this silent.

Facing Su Ci’s indifference, Yan Can felt as though her fist had slammed into cotton; the helplessness of it made her want to explode.

She was so mad!

Over there, Zhang Ru and Yu Ting didn’t know what Yan Can had said to that girl, but Yan Can’s face looked even worse than before. Seeing her carry her tray back, the two of them immediately set down their chopsticks and followed after her one after the other.

Though they didn’t know exactly what had happened, Yu Ting keenly sensed that Yan Can’s bad mood was probably related to that girl just now.

After Su Ci finished eating, she returned to the teaching building. But the moment she appeared at the classroom door, the noisy classroom fell strangely silent for an instant.

Realizing something, she pressed her lips together and walked slowly to her seat.

Behind her, the ugly voices surged in like a tide.

“Who doesn’t know Wang Hui is not to be messed with? She actually dared to steal Wang Hui’s boyfriend!”

“Serves her right when she gets dealt with!”

“She looks decent enough, but who knows what she’s really like in private…”

That girl had only spoken halfway when another deliberately shrill voice cut in, “Don’t say it like that! Did you forget? She takes both men and women; even Yan Can from third year was won over by her. Miss Young Lady protects her so much; if we keep criticizing her, she’ll report us to the principal…”

“Hmph, as if this school belongs to her family! If she doesn’t want me to say it, then I’ll say it!”

Su Ci pressed her lips together and looked at her seat. On the pure white chair, a pool of red ink had collected.

It must have been splashed not long ago; the large puddle was still dripping downward.

There were all kinds of voices and expressions in the class; some were kicking her while she was down, some were watching the show, but more of them were invisible.

Of course, there were also people who felt sorry for her.

For example, her deskmate Zhou Yuanyuan. She had witnessed the whole incident with her own eyes: two girls from the second year barged in swaggering, glared at her threateningly, then poured a bottle of red ink onto Su Ci’s chair.

They also put some unknown powder into Su Ci’s thermos.

Perhaps because she had suffered bullying before too, she sympathized with Su Ci and wanted to comfort her, but she didn’t dare.

She was afraid that if she went over, that group would bully her too.

She was a special admissions student; her family had no money and no power, so she really couldn’t afford to go against those young masters and young ladies.

But under the pressure of her conscience, when Su Ci picked up her water bottle, she gave her a look.

…

In the next few days, Yan Can didn’t run into Su Ci again. After all, they weren’t in the same year and didn’t attend class in the same building, so the chances of bumping into each other were low.

If she didn’t go looking for her on purpose, it was hard to meet her in ordinary daily life. On top of that, Yan Can had recently heard that a new private kitchen had opened near the school and the food was good, so she’d been eating there these days and hadn’t even gone to the cafeteria, making the chance of running into Su Ci even smaller.

As long as she didn’t run into that person, Yan Can was mostly calm.

If only she didn’t have to study those awful math problems, it would be even better.

Damn it, why were the classes here all so hard?

Back in her original world, she had at least been a top student; after entering this place, she’d instantly become a failure.

Last week, on the placement exam, she had actually come in fifth from the bottom in the class!

It had shocked everyone.

Because of that, even her mother, who had never cared about her studies, called her across the world in a rare video chat after hearing her results. “Can-can, are you feeling unwell?” Otherwise, how could she have scored like this?

Even Ji Yun, who was usually preoccupied with her grades, had found an excuse for her. “Yan Can, have you run into any difficulties lately? You can talk to your teacher.” Otherwise, how could her performance have plummeted so badly?

Yan Can…

Was it possible that she just didn’t know how to do the problems?

If this kept up, people were definitely going to get suspicious.

Yan Can decided to study properly. She was going to get serious.

The moment school let out in the afternoon, Yan Can turned down an invitation from her two friends to hang out and went home to study like crazy.

Sitting at her desk, she had just taken out her math textbook when, for some reason, Su Ci came to mind.

She hadn’t heard anything about that person in a long time.

Right, after all, the original body and the female lead barely had any interaction.

If not for breaking the loop, she wouldn’t have forced a connection with Su Ci at all.

The test paper spread out on the desk still hadn’t had a single question done. Yan Can stared at it, then glanced at the time in a daze; half an hour had already passed.

She had actually spent half an hour thinking about random nonsense.

Biting her lip, she picked up her pen and started checking her work again.

Half an hour later.

Looking at the crumpled ball of scratch paper, Yan Can felt a little defeated again.

So hard!

The afternoon temperature was pleasant; the window was half open, and the breeze felt comfortable.

A wave of drowsiness hit her. Yan Can glanced at the time and thought that she’d close her eyes and rest for ten minutes, then keep grinding after she slept a bit…

“Yan Can…”

“Yan Can…”

Yu Ting waved a hand, trying to wake the person who had suddenly dozed off in front of her.

The person holding her tray properly blinked; her dazed eyes slowly came back into focus.

The sounds around her rushed back into her ears.

“Yu Ting?”

Yan Can blinked, looking utterly confused.

Wasn’t she at home just now…

How…

The scene before her was familiar.

This was the school cafeteria. She looked at the broccoli in her tray, bitten only halfway through. “What day is it today?”

Weren’t they just angry a second ago? Why all of a sudden… Yu Ting found that Yan Can had been acting frantic so often lately. “It’s the 7th, Monday. What’s wrong?”

Even though she had guessed it, she still wasn’t willing to accept it. “September 7th?”

Zhang Ru took a sip of the yogurt Yan Can had just pushed back over. “What’s wrong with September 7th?”

She’d looped again?

Why?

Could it be that the female lead had lost hope and killed herself again?

Yan Can looked toward the corner, and just like in the previous loop, Su Ci was still sitting alone, quietly eating.

“You two go back to the classroom first.” She picked up her tray and left.

Zhang Ru: “You’re not eating?”

She stood up to follow.

Yu Ting stopped her, chin tilting as she pointed her toward the other side.

Zhang Ru looked over and saw Yan Can sitting across from a girl they didn’t know.

“Who’s that girl?” She’s pretty.

Yu Ting shook her head. “No idea. Let’s eat first.”

Su Ci was eating when she sensed someone approaching, but she didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until someone sat down across from her, and the intense gaze on her made it impossible to ignore, that she looked up.

Yan Can said, “Su Ci, want to talk?”

Su Ci was a little baffled, looking into her eyes without speaking.

Yan Can wasn’t meeting her for the first time. She knew Su Ci didn’t talk much; she was basically a mute gourd. Whatever she asked, this person probably wouldn’t answer.

But it was precisely this mute gourd who determined her fate.

To stay alive, Yan Can gritted her teeth and went all in. “Su Ci, be friends with me.”

Even as cold as she was, there was still no way for Su Ci to hide the confusion in her eyes right now. Perhaps because she was so confused, unlike in the last loop, she didn’t stay silent. “Why?”

Why?

Of course it’s because you’re the female lead and you decide my fate.

Naturally, she couldn’t say that.

Why did this person want to be friends with her?

Su Ci suddenly remembered the morning, when this person had stood up for her.

But why? Before the rooftop incident, this person had inexplicably asked her to spend her birthday with her. Back then, she hadn’t understood why she’d approached her.

Before that, they had barely interacted at all. No, there had been one time, a long time ago, when this person had given her a glucose tablet while she was having low blood sugar…

Su Ci’s light brown eyes were fixed tightly on Yan Can’s, as if she were trying to see the answer she wanted in them.

Yan Can thought of many excuses in her head, but for some reason, under that stare, she lost every one of them.

Her mind tangled into a mess of threads, and in the end, she blurted out, “Because you’re very important to me.”

Su Ci said nothing. There was no expression on her face either. She put down her chopsticks and looked ready to leave.

Yan Can blinked. What did that mean?

But whatever it meant, Yan Can still followed after her.

…

Su Ci walked unhurriedly. Yan Can trailed behind her, looking at her slim back while sorting through and analyzing what had happened in the last loop.

Because she had broken the loop, she had stopped caring about the female lead and had spent that week living without a care in the world, until the afternoon of September 15, when she once again entered the loop.

That meant something had happened to Su Ci that afternoon too. Was it another fall from the building? Or some other method…

Without a scene location, this was really troublesome.

Wait—she suddenly realized something very serious.

Was it that as long as the female lead lost hope and killed herself, the loop would happen again?!

Yan Can’s face went pale at the thought.

If that was the case, even if she stopped the female lead on September 15, it would be no different from drinking poison to quench thirst.

So the root of it still had to be changing the female lead’s state of mind…

Yan Can was thinking so hard that she didn’t even notice the surprise on the faces of several students along the way as they saw her.

The two of them stayed silent the whole way. Su Ci didn’t speak, and she also didn’t tell Yan Can not to follow her, so Yan Can just trailed after her like a little tail, all the way to the floor where Class 2-1 was located.

If she kept following…

Su Ci looked up toward the classroom and stopped.

Yan Can hadn’t been paying attention to the road and bumped straight into Su Ci. She rubbed her nose and said with some resentment, “Why’d you stop so suddenly?”

Su Ci turned to look at her, her tone cool. “How long are you planning to keep following me?”

Knowing that her fate was now tied to the female lead, and not knowing for how long it would stay that way, Yan Can was currently exuding a faint air of despair.

She felt hollowed out.

With a sigh, she said, “Su Ci, isn’t it good to just live well?” Isn’t being alive better?

A flash of surprise crossed Su Ci’s normally calm face; after a moment, it returned to stillness, as though that brief flicker of emotion had only been Yan Can’s illusion.

Pressing her lips together, Su Ci looked into her eyes. “Yan Can, it’s better if you stay away from me.”

After that, she left without looking back.