Have you ever watched ‘Autumn in My Heart’? Because right now, Mingxi’s situation is pretty similar to that of the real daughter, who is also the villainess and supporting role of the show.

The real daughter who had been living in the countryside has finally been found after many years. However, she realizes that there is a more outstanding, lively, innocent and delicate young lady at home. For the past 15 years, she had completely replaced her.

The only difference is that I am probably more stupid.

Mingxi lamented.

For the past two years, she tried her utmost best to please this family, even to the extent of remembering everyone’s birthdays and preferences.

She carefully massaged her mother’s shoulders, but her mother only gave an expression full of awkwardness. Then, with a simple, “No need,” she stood up and walked upstairs.

One time, she went to have a meal with her family at a hotel and the server accidentally knocked over the soup. When she saw that the soup was about to spill all over her eldest brother, Zhao Zhanhuai, she immediately blocked it with her body. In the end, when she came to her senses, the whole family had hurriedly sent Zhao Yuan to the hospital because a few drops had been spilled on her thigh.

When she pulled out of her dumbfounded state and belatedly realized that a few drops had burned her face as well, the whole family was gone.

Only the 15-year-old Zhao Yuning noticed it the next day.

Mingxi thought that at least her younger brother, Zhao Yuning, would treat her differently. However, half a month ago, there was an incident whereby only one person could be enrolled in the Chemistry Competition. When Zhao Yuning found out that Zhao Yuan wanted to join, he actually went as far as to steal Mingxi’s application form.

Mingxi then lost the right to join the Chemistry Competition. She also gained a small scar on her face and had been wearing a mask for the past year.

The most recent incident was where Zhao Yuan went to have ice cream at Mingxi’s friend’s shop and accidentally triggered her nut allergy, causing her to be admitted to the hospital. The whole family thought that Mingxi was the one behind this incident and refused to believe her despite her explanations—

She was fine with all this.

She was okay.

She wasn’t angry. After all, she wasn’t easily provoked. If she had to fight back, she would. There were quite a few times when the whole family had exploded in anger because of her.

In any case, the textbooks said that even dripping water could penetrate stones, so as long as she works hard for another couple of years, she would definitely be reciprocated.

In the end, she was wrong. When this family finally seemed to be showing signs of accepting her...

She died of brain cancer at the age of 23.

What kind of a sick joke was this? What was the difference between this and fighting various monsters just to die at the final battle because your device crashed?

After her death, Mingxi realized that she was, in and of itself, a tragedy.

She was actually playing a supporting role in a book.

With regards to the life of supporting character Zhao Mingxi, the summary was as follows:

[Lived in a small, rundown town in the North since she was young. When she was 15, she was found by the Zhao family. Later, due to her jealousy toward the female lead Zhao Yuan, she started to put all her effort into stealing Zhao Yuan’s family from her. After finding out that Zhao Yuan and Zhao Zhanhuai harbored romantic feelings for each other, she got her best friend to create a rift between them… In the end, she died due to cancer. After her death, everyone forgave her.]

?

‘Steal’??

Wait a minute. Wasn’t this family hers to begin with? Also, why did it determine that everything she did in her past life was to ‘steal’ the female lead Zhao Yuan’s things?

Why on earth— Just because Zhao Yuan was a child blessed by the gods, a gentle and fragile lily and a lucky lady?

Also, Zhao Yuan had a relationship with her eldest brother Zhao Zhanhuai?

Mingxi’s expression was similar to that of an old man looking at his phone.

She didn’t know if it was because she died in the wrong position or something, but the point was that after the end of her short 23 years of cannon fodder life, she actually returned to her 17-year-old self.

However this time, she had a ‘Female Side Character Support System’.

System: “You were set up to be a villain with a tragic ending, hence your luck would definitely be in the negatives. When you cross the road, you would be hit by a car. When you drink cold water, your teeth would hurt. When you get sick, it would definitely be a terminal illness. But think about it, what if you could secretly turn yourself into an upright person?”

Mingxi’s mind went blank as she spoke, “What do you mean?”

System: “This means that I want you to freeload on another person's luck. You will certainly not be able to obtain luck from the main characters Zhao Yuan and Zhao Zhanhuai, but you can get them from other side characters who are quite popular as well. After freeloading such luck, who knows, your terminal illness might go away.”

Mingxi slapped her thigh, “I get it now. You want me to make friends with characters who are popular and valuable?”

In every book, aside from the main characters, there will always be characters who don’t appear as much but have high values of character settings and popularity.

The more the readers liked these characters, the more she would appear beside them. If she showed herself more and did a few good things, eventually she would be able to freeload on their good luck.

The system was relieved. “As expected of the poor and pitiful supporting character that I had chosen. You are a fast learner.”

Who wouldn’t want to live? Although she was muddle-headed in her past life and lived like an idiot, since a second chance has been given to her, Mingxi would definitely grasp it well!

Furthermore, the experience of constant vomiting, fevers and losing weight after contracting the terminal illness was not something she wanted to go through again.

System: “Also, after obtaining their luck, the injury on your face should recover quickly.”

Mingxi touched the left side of her face with bright eyes.

Because the area that was burnt was not just anywhere but her face, in order to prevent it from leaving a scar, the doctor advised her to avoid being under the sun until her skin was fully healed.

This caused her to wear a mask for a whole year, covering her originally beautiful face.

The system gave Mingxi a ‘List of People Whose Luck Can Be Freeloaded’. Mingxi gave it a glance and realized that there were quite a lot of names on the list.

But it seemed like the return rate of the top few on the list were a little higher. They were Centennial Corporation’s Fu family’s eldest grandson Fu Yangxi, second grandson Fu Zhiyi and the famous Jiang Xiuqiu of the Jiang family.

Mingxi knew of these three, they were rather prominent personalities in school.

Those further down the list were each year’s hunks and most handsome students. Even the simple-minded monitor of Mingxi’s class, Year Three Class Six, had a rather high position on the list! Mingxi was happy upon seeing this as her relationship with her class monitor was quite good!

…But her monitor was at the 108th spot, and in a bracket behind his name it stated that his return rate was only 0.000001%— Then what was the difference between getting on the list and not getting on the list???

Mingxi suddenly felt exhausted.

She held the life-saving list of names, stood up and poured herself a cup of water to suppress her nervousness. “I feel like what I should do first is to go for a physical examination.”

In her past life, she died at the age of 23. Now she is just 17. What if she hasn’t gotten cancer yet, or she might even be in the early stages of the cancer and can still be saved?

“There is no need for that,” the system said. “I told you that your death due to cancer was not because of your physical health, but because of your luck as a villain. Even if you discover something at the hospital and try to get early treatment, as long as your value of luck doesn’t change, you will still die in the end. Is there a difference between dying due to a car accident and dying due to cancer?”

When Mingxi heard what the system said, she felt a surge of sadness before crying with a loud wail.

So the only way out was this list of names before her.

She heard that Fu Yangxi, who had a return rate of 6%, placing him first on the list, was not someone she should provoke. He was domineering and reckless. If he was placed in another book, he would be the blueprint for iceberg-like school hunks.

However, despite knowing this, everyone still wanted to get close to him due to his identity as the Fu family’s successor.

It would be difficult to even say a word to him.

Mingxi knew to sound out the difficulties and retreat to avoid defeat. She looked down the list. Fu Zhiyi was currently studying overseas and she didn’t hear of any rumors that he was going to come back at all.

As for this Jiang Xiuqiu— Based on what she heard, he seemed like a good guy. She also saw him give a gentle speech on stage last semester. He should be the best candidate for a friend.

But why are the return rates of these two only 2%?!! That’s such a big gap!

Nevermind, no matter how small a mosquito’s legs are they are still meat.

Mingxi decided not to choose a target. Whoever she could pull the luck from, she’ll just do it.

“Coincidentally, weren’t your results ranked Top 3 last week? According to your school’s rules, those who are in the Top 5 can change classes as they wish, right?”

Mingxi understood immediately. “You want me to transfer to the International Class which is full of children from noble backgrounds?”

The system said, “Yes. You can receive some luck by merely being in the same class as these people. Although it's not much, it's better than nothing.”

In A High Year Three, which was the school Mingxi was in, aside from the Normal Class, there were classes such as the International Class, the Evergreen Class and the Gold Medal Class.

The latter two were self-explanatory. They mainly consisted of students who excelled in their studies and were regularly chosen for National Competitions.

As for the International Class, it was a place for noble children who were not keen on learning or expanding their skills.

It was also at this point in her past life that she transferred from the Normal Class to the Gold Medal Class.

One of the main reasons was because Shen Liyao, whom she was arranged to be married to since she was a baby, was in the Gold Medal Class.

In her past life, she was quite thick-skinned and genuinely liked Shen Liyao. After all, Shen Liyao was handsome and outstanding in every way, just that his personality was a little cold.

Furthermore, Shen Liyao treated her the same as he did Zhao Yuan— Of course, he was haughty and indifferent toward the both of them.

But this was also something that attracted Mingxi.

However, she failed to pursue him and nothing happened between them in the end.

Mingxi was too lazy to bother about these things anyway. Currently, what was most crucial was her life.

She already died once. Was her family or Shen Liyao of any importance?

“Alright. I’ll apply for it now. I should be part of the International Class starting tomorrow.”

Mingxi had a strong capacity to act. She immediately walked to her study table and turned on her computer. Then, after making minor changes to her already filled in information, which is to replace the words ‘Gold Medal Class’ to ‘International Class’, she sent it to the Dean via email.

After she was done, she took out a luggage bag and opened it on the floor. Then, she began to pack her clothes in it.

It was at that moment that a series of anxious knocks could be heard from her door. Zhao Yuning spoke in a low voice, “Mingxi jie*, Yuanyuan jie has been discharged from the hospital today and just got home. Why are you hiding in your room? While the whole family is downstairs, you should apologize to Yuanyuan jie. Then this whole allergy incident will be over!”

A few days ago, a huge fight took place at home.

Zhao Yuan triggered her nut allergy at He Yang’s family’s chain store. As He Yang was Mingxi’s friend, her family thought that Mingxi had something to do with this incident.

Mingxi was so angry that she went to He Yang’s shop to check the surveillance cameras. But it was not an easy task. In the end, no matter how wronged she felt, she couldn’t prove her innocence.

This was why Mingxi felt like she was an absolute idiot. How was she going to prove her innocence when she didn’t do it in the first place?

Why did she care so much about how her family saw her in her past life? Why was she so afraid that they would hate her?

In the end, she only managed to wrap a cocoon around herself.

Mingxi zipped up the luggage bag and opened the door.

Zhao Yuning almost fell in. Just as he was about to further advise her, he saw Mingxi’s luggage bag. He immediately pulled a face, “Zhao Mingxi, why are you doing this again? Are you running away from home or staying in school this time? You’ll just obediently come back after a few days anyways. Do you really need to go this far because of such a small matter?”

“This is a small matter?” Mingxi had an indifferent expression on her face. The wheels of her luggage bag almost ran over Zhao Yuning’s foot. “Move!”

Zhao Yuning hastily took a step back. When he saw the expression on Mingxi’s face, he was shocked.

Everyone at home either didn’t like Mingxi or distanced themselves from her. When Mingxi first came home, he was about 13 or 14 years old. Thus, he had the closest relationship with Mingxi.

Having lived with her for two years, he had never experienced such a feeling from her. She looked as if she was throwing cold daggers at him and could not wait to draw a line between them— Mingxi had always tried to please him and their family.

At that moment, Zhao Yuning did not think too much about it.

He got angry too, “Isn’t this just a small matter? Even if Yuanyuan jie’s allergy had nothing to do with you— I believe you, alright? But Yuanyuan jie just got discharged from the hospital. Will you die if you say a few caring words? It's precisely because of your stubbornness that the family can’t get along with you!”

“Since we can’t get along, let’s leave it that way.”

Zhao Yuning was so shocked that he stopped walking. He looked at Mingxi’s figure in disbelief.

When Zhao Mingxi said these words, she didn’t carry any emotion in them. It was a plain and simple statement. Her eyes weren’t red and she didn’t even spare him another glance. It seemed different from those words she used to say out of anger.

Zhao Yuning didn’t know why but a sense of foreboding appeared in his heart.

He followed her downstairs.

When Mingxi pulled her luggage bag downstairs, the family members who brought Zhao Yuan home pulled a long face.

Her father was still at the company while Zhao Mu was filming overseas.

Sitting on the sofa, her mother had a supportive arm around Zhao Yuan who had just been discharged from the hospital. She looked at Mingxi in annoyance, “What are you trying to pull this time? Can’t you just behave yourself for a few days?”

Aside from Mingxi and Zhao Yuan, there were five others in the Zhao family.

Her father was fully dedicated to his job, so he seldom bothered about what happens at home.

Her second eldest brother, Zhao Mu, was a little-known actor in the entertainment industry. He never liked Mingxi, hence he would always ridicule and use abusive language against her. The good thing was that due to his schedules, he was always flying around, so he would only be home for a few days in one year.

Aside from her younger brother Zhao Yuning and her mother who were pretty much always at home, there was also her eldest brother Zhao Zhanhuai who was in charge of a company.

As the male lead, he had an outstanding aura and abstinence, but his personality was still quite gentle. However, after finding out from the system that later on he would have a romantic relationship with Zhao Yuan, Mingxi could no longer look him in the eye.

As her mother didn’t really like Mingxi and Mingxi was too lazy to speak to her anymore, she walked straight to Zhao Zhanhuai and took out two papers. “Help me sign these.”

Zhao Zhanhuai could feel a headache coming. “Mingxi, be reasonable. This time—”

Mingxi cut him off, “Just sign them. I’ll be staying in school.”

Her eyes were clear, calm and indifferent. It was a stark contrast to how she used to cry at moments such as this.

Zhao Zhanhuai keenly noticed that there was something different about Mingxi today, but he couldn’t put a finger on what it was.

“Sign it for her!” Her mother’s face was filled with anger. “She only knows how to create a bad mood at home everyday. If she wants to live in school, let her! We’ve already compensated you for what we owed. What else do you want?”

Zhao Zhanhuai was actually a tolerant person. He never blamed Mingxi. He felt like Mingxi was a child who refused to grow up. Her rebelliousness was all because she wanted to take away the attention the family had on Yuanyuan.

But humans were beings with emotions. The relationship they had with Zhao Yuan for the past 15 years was not something that anyone could take away.

Maybe Mingxi should be allowed to go through some hardships at school. After a while, when she realizes what went wrong, she would obediently return to them.

If she stops trying to take them away from Zhao Yuan, Zhao Zhanhuai could still treat her as his biological younger sister.

Zhao Zhanhuai signed half-heartedly.

There were two application forms, one was to stay in school while the other was to change classes.

He had heard from Zhao Yuan that Zhao Mingxi was always bothering the Shen family’s kid in school. It seemed as if she wanted to transfer to his class.

After he was done signing, Mingxi pulled away the papers and walked out of the Zhao family home with her luggage in tow.

The air in September was a little cold, but all she saw was a field of gold. Mingxi took a small breath and put on her mask. She still had time and she could still change her fate. In this life, she would no longer waste her time on pleasing this family. It was not too late.

When her mother saw her attitude, she was so angry that she felt a headache coming. “Just you wait. This brat will definitely come home crying after a few days.”

As Zhao Zhanhuai was closing the cap of the pen, he felt that something was off. He asked Zhao Yuan, “Didn’t you say that Mingxi wanted to transfer to the Gold Medal Class?”

“Yes, ge*.”

Zhao Yuan who had been silent since just now took her head out of her mother’s embrace. “Mingxi has always been running after Liyao gege*. In school, rumors of what she did… All in all, none of them were good. I think the reason why Liyao gege hasn’t been coming over to our house recently is because he wanted some peace and quiet.”

“Then why did it say that she was applying to transfer to the International Class in the application form?”

Zhao Yuan and Zhao Yuning were shocked. “That’s impossible.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Glossary:

jie - elder sister

gege - elder brother

ge - short form for gege

Leaving the Zhao family home was easier than Mingxi thought it would be.

This solidified the fact that in her past life, she was indeed wrapping a cocoon around herself. The moment she took the initiative to abandon this family, she would no longer have her panties in a bunch due to those negative emotions.

Now, Mingxi only had her mind set on how to save her life. She had a strong capacity to act. The next morning when the procedure to transfer classes was complete, she began to move her books.

The system gave Mingxi a flower pot filled with only soil and nothing else— It was something only Mingxi could see.

“Every time you collect some luck, the buds will grow. Only when the pot is filled with fully-grown plants will the negative energy around you be dispersed. It is only at that moment when your ending will stop being ‘unable to die a natural death’.”

“Furthermore, if you manage to fill this pot to the brim, your luck may even exceed that of Zhao Yuan’s.”

Mingxi asked, “Will this affect the people who I’m freeloading from?”

“No. Have you ever heard of a Wi-Fi hotspot? You can freeload on their luck and their own luck will not decrease whatsoever.”

Mingxi was relieved.

When she received the pot, she was so overwhelmed with emotion that she purposely tried it on her class monitor. Before leaving her class, she gave him a warm hug.

Her class monitor was shocked.

While Mingxi was hugging her class monitor, her eyes were focused on that pot which was floating on air, as if she was a husband waiting for his wife to give birth.

…In the end, despite having hugged for a whole three minutes, the soil in the pot didn’t even budge.

It was frozen like a photo.

Mingxi was speechless.

The system reassured her, “Your class monitor is rather useless as his return rate is only 0.000001%. You should just place your effort on those who are at the top of the list.”

Mingxi felt unnerved.

This pot was the size of her head. How long will she take to fill it up?! As for the matter of having more luck than Zhao Yuan, she was indifferent about it. She just wants to avoid dying of terminal illness.

With a broken heart, Mingxi took her books and went downstairs with her class monitor to where the Evergreen Class, Gold Medal Class and International Class were.

She was wearing A High’s uniform which was wide and dark. She had black hair which had grown to her collarbones and fair skin. There was a red string around her neck and attached to it was a piece of jade.

There were droplets of sweat on her pale nose. As usual, she had a mask on her face.

Mingxi found it difficult to breathe with the mask on, but she couldn’t just toss it aside.

In her past life, she didn’t listen to the doctor’s advice to wear a mask. Instead, she just put on sunscreen. In the end, there was always a faded mark on her face that even scar-removal creams could not remove.

While it wasn’t obvious from afar, the moment one took a closer look, it was like a small patch of dirt on an otherwise beautiful vase. It was to the extent of making the creator say, “God is so unfair for leaving a mark on perfect things”.

If her face was fully healed, Zhao Yuan would no longer be the prettiest girl in school.

Mingxi felt helpless. Perhaps it was because she was the villain, hence she would always lose to the main character.

In short, she must be patient in this life. Everything can be done after her wound is healed.

*

Shen Liyao was dealing with the gifts which people had stuffed into his table over the weekend. His incomplete circuit board and thick stack of competition workbooks were squashed together due to the presents.

With a loud ‘bang’, the trashcan was brought to the side of his table.

He lowered his eyes and didn’t even bother to look at the presents before sweeping them off his table and into the trash.

Using two fingers, he took a pink colored letter out.

The person who gave this love letter was probably afraid that he won’t even look at it before throwing it away, hence they purposely tied a dead knot with narrow silk and bound it with a gold medal on his table.

Shen Liyao’s cold brows were so furrowed that it could probably squeeze a fly to death.

In the next second, with a loud thud, both the love letter and gold medal were thrown into the trash.

A few people who were leaning by the windows suddenly yelled, “—Isn’t that Zhao Mingxi? She’s moving her things here? Whoa, she actually managed to get into the Top 5!”

Shen Liyao who was pulling out his chair paused his actions.

Ye Bai turned over to him from the window. “Hey, God Yao, do you know what we just saw? Zhao Mingxi is downstairs! She’s really something, refusing to give up until all hope is gone. A whole year of waking up early and sleeping late— just to be in the same class as you. What do you think?”

“Boring.”

Shen Liyao didn’t seem to be affected by this at all. He sat down, lowered his gaze and connected his miniature robot’s circuit board. “It’s a school rule that those in the Normal Class who have achieved the Top 5 in their results can change their class. This is her right. It has nothing to do with me.”

“You guys are about to be in the same class. What are you gonna do when she takes her pursuit one step further the moment she transfers to our class?”

“She immediately moved her things here after the announcement of our results. She’s so quick to take action!”

Shen Liyao’s eyes remained still as he looked down. He said coldly, “I don’t want to be in a relationship.”

Everyone’s tiny flames of gossip were put out by Shen Liyao’s coldness.

Ever since Zhao Mingxi transferred to their school a year ago, she had never taken off the mask. They heard that it was because of an injury on her face which required her to avoid the sun. Even so, no one in the Gold Medal Class was actually interested in her appearance. They assumed that she just looked slightly above average or plain.

They were more interested in the matter of Zhao Mingxi pursuing Shen Liyao. This girl was fierce. She also had perseverance as she climbed all the way to the Top 5 from around 20 Normal Classes just to transfer to the Gold Medal Class.

However, based on Shen Liyao’s indifferent look, they all knew that he wasn’t at the least interested in his family friend.

Ye Bai touched his nose. “But don’t you worry. Even though she made it to our class, if she fails to catch up with us, she’ll still have to return to her original class. She won’t be here for long. If she bothers you too much and it affects your competitions, the teacher will also send her back.”

Shen Liyao furrowed his brows. Just as he was about to say something...

Zhao Mingxi and her class monitor’s figures appeared at the hallway.

“Here they come.” Someone laughed. “God Yao, your days are about to get so much more interesting. Good luck—”

However, before they could finish their sentence, they saw Zhao Mingxi and Class Six’s class monitor walk past their class with her books in tow.

“...”

The Gold Medal Class went quiet for a full five seconds.

Ye Bai was startled. “That’s the International Class up ahead. Did she make a mistake?”

*

What was going through the minds of everyone in the Gold Medal Class wasn’t something Mingxi was concerned about.

When she entered the International Class through the back door with her books, black spots started to appear in her vision and she felt as if she was stepping on cotton.

“This would happen occasionally in my past life too. I thought I had low blood sugar. Wait a minute—” Mingxi suddenly realized, “This couldn’t have been an early symptom of my terminal illness, right?”

“It was. What else did you think it would be?” System: “The author of this novel cared about logic and foreshadowing too, alright? No matter how hated the villain was they couldn’t just kill them off with a random illness. They would definitely use detailed sentences like ‘Zhao Mingxi suddenly felt unwell’ or ‘the bruises on Zhao Mingxi’s legs didn’t fade even after a long time’ to prepare and hint the readers.”

“...” Mingxi no longer had the energy to chat with the system. With her books in her arms, she swayed into the class. Aside from the darkness in her vision, there were also pale light spots lying on different seats.

System: “Those are luck. The brighter they are, the higher they are on the list I gave you.”

Like a drowning fish, Mingxi rushed toward the brightest spot without thinking twice.

After collapsing on the seat, she released the books she was holding, allowing it to fall all over the floor.

Without thinking any further, she rested her head on the table, faced the source of bright light coming from her right and took a deep breath.

Unexpectedly, the slight smell of rosin with a hint of Chinese herbal medicine mixed in it filled her nostrils. Like a rush of fresh air entering her brain, it immediately soothed the uncomfortable sensation that Mingxi was feeling.

As for the pot in front of her, a tiny, thin and weak seedling appeared shakily. It wasn’t even a centimeter long and looked like it was only a tenth of a complete bud— Nonetheless, this caused Mingxi’s eyes to widen and she almost cried out of joy.

“What is this?! Why did the first one suddenly appear?” she asked the system in delight.

System: “Look who’s seated beside you.”

Mingxi raised her head.

The whole of the International Class went dead silent. Everyone’s eyes were on her.

Everyone was watching when this unfamiliar girl with a mask entered their class with her books. Without even greeting them, she dipped her head and rushed toward the second last row of their class and sat down!

When she was done, she even took a sniff out of Fu Yangxi.

Amidst the shock, someone said, “F*ck, you’re so brave.”

Someone with a low voice reminded, “The one beside you is Xi ge and you dared to sniff him. When he wakes up you’re done for.”

Xi ge = Fu Yangxi?

Mingxi immediately looked to her right.

What she first saw was the back of someone’s head, covered with red spiky hair which screamed ‘I’m the boss’.

The young boy was slouched on the table. He had on a pair of silver noise-cancelling headphones and was hugging his sports jacket. He was taking a nap with his back facing her. He was at least 188cm tall, and she knew this because his legs were all curled up underneath the table. His black, long-sleeved outfit made his pale neck stand out more. There was a thin niello skull chain around his neck.

From Mingxi’s point of view, she could only see half of his face. There was a tiny mole at the end of his right eye. He looked ethereal despite his slightly furrowed brows, as if he was a walking unruly and undefeatable young urban migrant.

The words ‘violent and dumb beauty’ immediately appeared in Mingxi’s mind.

Someone asked, “Who are you? No one has ever sat there before!”

Mingxi turned her head to look at that person and answered, “I'm Zhao Mingxi and I’ve just transferred here from the Normal Class. Why can’t I sit here?”

“Do you have a death wish?” That person was stunned. “Have you ever heard of the Fu family’s young master?”

Oh, the school hunk.

Anyone who dared to sit beside him would definitely be threatened before being forced to run errands for him.

But Mingxi was eager to help Fu Yangxi run errands.

If she did it often enough, wouldn’t an abundance of luck go to her?

Since she was going to die no matter what, Mingxi didn’t feel like a dumb 17-year-old child could bring as much of a threat as a villain’s bad luck.

Mingxi took the opportunity again and secretly sucked in a deep breath, continuing to absorb the value of luck on Fu Yangxi.

Although the amount was only as much as her fingernail and its effects were very minor, when she saw the pale white light which was surrounding him cross over to her, she felt hopeful.

She remained calm as she picked up her books from the ground. “Alright, I got it. But since there’s nowhere else I can sit, I’ll just sit here first.”

The students of the International Class were shocked.

While there were quite an amount of people who tried to get closer to Fu Yangxi, it was the first time that someone did it like this masked girl with her attitude of ‘nothing to lose’.

She even continued to sniff him.

Like a cat, she sniffed Xi ge.

Oh my God.

Due to the commotion, Fu Yangxi stirred awake.

When Fu Yangxi woke up, no one dared to even murmur another word. They were all waiting for Fu Yangxi to blow up in anger.

Fu Yangxi took off his noise-cancelling headphones and threw it on the table. He ruffled his hair listlessly. The action looked so soft.

Then, he reached into his drawers to look for something. With his eyes closed, he took out a few white bottles. She didn’t know if they were vitamins or something, but a few pills fell out on his hands.

With the brightest gaze similar to that of someone seeing a Wi-Fi hotspot on the street, seeing an iced watermelon during summer or seeing the most expensive cat in the cat café, she handed him the water on his table.

“Thanks.” As Fu Yangxi just woke up, his voice was a little hoarse.

He drank a mouthful of water with closed eyes before swallowing the pills.

It wasn’t until after he had swallowed them that he noticed Mingxi’s existence.

Fu Yangxi reacted by standing up abruptly. As he was tall and had long legs, the table behind him was almost knocked over. He gave Mingxi a condescending look. Pulling a face, an aura of ‘strangers beware’ appeared around him. “Who is this girl? What is she doing beside me?”

Everyone in the International Class thought, obviously she’s here to pursue you.

Patiently, Mingxi explained to her best future Wi-Fi hotspot, “I am Zhao Mingxi. I’ve just transferred here from Normal Class Six.”

Fck, everyone thought. She actually worked hard to get into the Top 5 just to transfer here.*

It must’ve been hard for her to study and revise till late at night.

Wow, how much does she like him?

Fu Yangxi had clearly thought about this as well, hence he felt slightly uncomfortable. He refrained from spilling the curse words that were at the tip of his mouth, but he still appeared furious. “Change your seat. No one has ever sat beside me before.”

Mingxi knew this wouldn’t be an easy task. She shuffled against her seat, refusing to move. If she wanted to change seats, she would’ve done so ages ago. But with a glance, she saw that the luck on Fu Yangxi was the most prosperous one out of everyone in the International Class— As long as she continued to sniff it out of him for a few days, a few buds could grow in the span of ten days to half a month.

“Asking me to leave would be equivalent to asking me to die.”

Mingxi thought of this in her mind, but she suddenly felt that the whole class had gone quiet.

She raised her head and saw that everyone’s jaws were dropped as they looked at her in shock.

Fu Yangxi’s ears instinctively flushed red. With a flustered and exasperated tone, he said, “What- What did you say?”

Fck. *She realized that she had uttered her thoughts out loud.

“Take her books and get her to move.”

The moment Fu Yangxi coldly huffed out these words, the International Class’ homeroom teacher rushed in angrily with her books. Once she entered the class, her eyes were scouring the room until it landed on Fu Yangxi.

Mingxi abruptly recalled what had happened here.

The original novel focused mainly on Zhao Yuan, Zhao Zhanhuai and her while the plots regarding Fu Yangxi were little. But Mingxi remembered that in her past life, it was precisely the day after Zhao Yuan was discharged from the hospital when the posters in front of the school gates were put up, criticizing the International Class students who had participated in the motorcycle race over the weekend.

Of course, it was impossible for someone with Fu Yangxi’s status to be punished, hence the names on the list belonged to rather irrelevant students.

However, since the homeroom teacher was glaring at Fu Yangxi, this definitely had something to do with him.

As expected, in the next second, the homeroom teacher walked over angrily and tossed them a copy of the newspaper. “Fu Yangxi, look at what you’ve done!”

The newspaper landed in front of Mingxi so abruptly that her eyelid twitched. She took a glance at it and realized that due to this matter, A High made it to the news. Their homeroom teacher’s bonus was probably taken away, hence her anger.

It seemed as if a lot of people in their class knew about this as they all immediately went quiet.

Fu Yangxi cuffed the edge of a chair with his leg and sat down boldly. He took the newspaper in his hands and gave it a brief glance before laughing, “Madam Zhang, what year is it? You’re still reading the newspaper?”

The homeroom teacher was absolutely furious as the veins on her forehead popped, “You really think that no one can control you? Go and run 30 laps now! If you refuse, I won’t do anything and wait at the office until your parents come!”

The smile on Fu Yangxi’s lips disappeared. He stared at the homeroom teacher, and just as he was about to say something, Mingxi who was beside him stood up with a screech.

“Can I run in his place?”

The students in the International Class were holding their breaths to begin with, but now with this, all their jaws had collectively dropped to the ground.

System: “The return rate of luck in exchange for hard work is the highest. If my calculations are correct, after you’re done running, there should be at least three new buds.”

Mingxi was so overwhelmed that she almost fainted. Her eyes brightened. 30 laps meant 12 kilometers, and this was how much luck was she going to earn?!

The hand that Mingxi had raised was shaky and anxious. She suddenly felt that it wasn’t that hard to reach a whole pot of luck. Perhaps she could really escape the destiny of a terminally ill female supporting character!

But everyone aside from her was thinking, f*ck, does she like him that much?

There were quite a number of people who attempted to get closer to Fu Yangxi, but honestly, the girls who truly liked him were few and far in between. They either did it because of money or because of the Fu family. Aside from these, the most people did was to send him love letters and chocolates. This was the first time that someone did something to this extent.

They weren’t the only ones who were staring dumbfoundedly. This was also the first time that Fu Yangxi had seen such a spectacle in all his 17 years of life.

He had seen people who were afraid of him, people who were trying to suck up to him, and even people who said that they liked him, but he had rarely ever seen anyone who was truly willing to do something for him.

Fu Yangxi finally turned and gave Mingxi a good look. The young girl’s figure was slender and her skin was as pale as jade. The trembling hand that she had raised was as small as an onion— She was clearly afraid of the 30 laps that even her hands were shaking, yet she still volunteered.

The homeroom teacher was seething in anger and such emotions were quickly directed at Mingxi. “Fine. You go. If you don’t finish them, you’re not allowed to come back to class!”

“Alright!” Mingxi shot out like an arrow.

—Was she so afraid that the homeroom teacher would continue to punish Fu Yangxi or take back her words that she actually ran out without even thinking twice?

Ke Chengwen who was seated in the last row picked his jaw up from the floor and gave a pat on Fu Yangxi’s back, “Xi ge, my God, where did you pick up this girl? She’s absolutely—”

As he couldn’t find a better word to describe it, Ke Chengwen could only use basic words, “Smitten with you.”

Fu Yangxi was looking out the window at Mingxi’s retreating figure. He was trying his best to appear cool and collected, but he couldn’t stop his ears from flushing red.

He lowered his gaze and licked his lips to control his joy and delight.

“Sigh,” He appeared to have a headache, “I can’t help that I’m so charming.”

“I can’t actually let her run 30 laps, how embarrassing would that be for me?” He spoke slowly, “Send someone to the gym to replace her.”

“...”

*

The news of what happened in the International Class was as if it had grown legs as it spread to the whole school quickly. The Gold Medal Class received the news right after class had ended.

A boy rushed in. “Breaking news! God Yao, you’re free! I heard that this time, Zhao Mingxi requested to transfer to the International Class!”

Due to Shen Liyao, the Gold Medal Class heard a lot about his most avid pursuer, Zhao Mingxi. Thus, when they all heard this, they looked back at him with shocked expressions.

Ye Bai asked, “How is this possible???”

That boy said, “Also, it looks like she’s changed her target now— She seems to be going after Fu Yangxi. The International Class said that she got punished to run laps because of Fu Yangxi.”

“...”

Everyone went silent for five seconds.

“What’s up with Zhao Mingxi? Shen Liyao, is she doing this on purpose?” Ye Bai refused to believe it.

How could she be pursuing Fu Yangxi when she had never even seen him before?

But aside from this, what could be the reason for her transfer to the International Class? She finally entered the Top 5 and obtained the chance to change classes, yet she didn’t come to the Gold Medal Class.

It won’t be as easy for her to get into the Top 5 again next month.

“It’s none of your business.”

Shen Liyao unconsciously looked out the window. There was no one on the tracks as punishment laps were usually done at the indoor gym.

However, when Ye Bai looked over at him, he quickly looked back at his work.

For some reason, his expression appeared to be even more cold and rigid than it ever was before. “Go back to your seats.”

...

12 kilometers may sound like a lot, but it was merely a small matter of running your legs and lungs to the brink of death.

If it wasn’t because it was related to a matter of life and death, Mingxi wouldn’t understand why in the world was she trying so hard. She continued to run lap after lap with sweat barreling down her whole body.

When a boy from the International Class came over and said that he wanted to replace her, she rejected him nonchalantly.

The boy then ran back and repeated what had happened to the rest of the class.

The moment class ended, the whole of the International Class was in an uproar.

By the time it reached Fu Yangxi’s ears, it had already become the story of how the new transfer student had gladly volunteered to run laps for him. She was even running with a joyful smile on her face.

Never in Fu Yangxi’s 17 years of life had he ever seen a pursuer who was this passionate and obvious.

The small red bird in his heart puffed out its chest and happily shook its feathers. However, on the surface he still appeared annoyed. He slammed the table and yelled, “Are you all done with your gossip? What a bunch of nosy men.”

Fu Yangxi’s admonishment caused the noise in their class to pause for a short while.

Jiang Xiuqiu had been absent for the past few days as he was down with the flu. When a fellow student called him to share the gossip, he laughed so hard that he couldn’t stop coughing. In the end, he couldn’t help but to call Fu Yangxi.

“No way. You guys must be mistaken. Maybe the transfer student just has something to ask of you— You’re saying that she likes you?” Jiang Xiuqiu laughed. “What would she like about you? Your bad temper? Your resting b*tch face? Or could it be how your young urban migrant hairstyle reminds her of a dog? Also, aside from the fact that you’re rich...”

“If you don’t know how to speak properly then sew your mouth shut!” Fu Yangxi pulled a long face. After hanging up, he tossed his phone into his desk drawer angrily.

He was happy, and the transfer student was overwhelmingly passionate.

But Fu Yangxi didn’t naturally come to the conclusion that the transfer student was here for him.

He was 80% sure that she was here for the money.

Fck.*

Fu Yangxi kicked the chair beside him gloomily. After the transfer student returns, he plans to give her a sum of money and ask her to leave him alone.

*

On the other side, after Mingxi was done with the 30 laps, she felt utterly exhausted. Instead of returning to class, she headed straight to her dorm room, took a shower and went to bed.

It was almost 11.30a.m. when she woke up.

The moment she opened her eyes, she saw that there were three complete buds in her pot!

It was green, sparkling, crystal-clear and shaky as it swayed under the electric fan.

In addition to the little buds that Mingxi got from furiously inhaling Fu Yangxi’s luck, she had about 3⅕ buds now.

Mingxi quivered in joy. She quickly got out of bed and rushed to the bathroom to look at the mirror.

The small dark patch on the left side of her pale face had faded substantially. If she wasn’t looking at it so closely in the mirror, it was barely noticeable.

Mingxi said, “With this speed of recovery, I’ll be able to rid myself of the mask very soon!”

System: “Of course. The unfortunate things that you had to go through was related to the negative luck of being a female supporting character. The moment you absorb some positive luck, everything will go smoother for you.”

Mingxi felt inspired. So long as she worked hard enough, the fate of an evil female supporting character could be changed!

After burning a huge amount of calories due to all that running, Mingxi was hungry. On the way to the canteen, she was still thinking about what she could do to absorb the most amount of luck in the shortest time.

This Fu family’s young master was truly one to be reckoned with. She was lucky with the incident of their homeroom teacher punishing her to do laps, else he would have definitely asked someone to move her books away.

Without this incident, it was highly possible that her books would have been coldly thrown into the trash.

Mingxi wasn’t angry. After all, she did want to ask for a favor from him.

She just felt frustrated— What could she do to get closer to him?

Mingxi quickly thought of the one thing she was best at: cooking.

For the past 15 years before she was found by the Zhao family, she had always cooked and took care of her grandmother. It was a common occurrence for her to return the ingredients given to her by her neighbors in the form of delicious dishes.

From around the age of 7 to 8, there were already people complimenting her cooking.

After she was found by the Zhaos, in order to quickly assimilate into the family, she would often cook a few specialty dishes for them.

Although her mother was a picky eater, she never said anything about her cooking.

As for Zhao Yuning, he was always the one who wanted seconds. Sometimes he would even ask her to make more so that he could eat them at school the next day.

Looks like she was gonna have to go to He Yang’s shop to get some ingredients.

As Mingxi finally had an idea, her steps were lighter and quicker.

*

The gossip about the incident that occurred this morning at the International Class also reached the ears of Zhao Yuan and her friend E* Xiaoxia.

ray note: E is pronounced like 'uh'

Zhao Yuning walked over from the side with Year Ones to eat with Zhao Yuan. He sat beside them.

While the siblings were shocked when they heard about this from E Xiaoxia, they didn’t think that Zhao Mingxi had truly changed her target of pursuit.

What kind of joke was this? Everyone knew that she liked Shen Liyao.

They have seen how she would always doll herself up and come down from the second floor with bright sparkly eyes whenever Shen Liyao came over to their house.

“Is she purposely doing this to aggravate Liyao ge?” While Zhao Yuning had a plate of food in his hands, he couldn’t bring himself to eat it. “The food from the canteen is so f*cking bad.”

Zhao Yuan gave him the meat on her plate. As she chewed, she sighed, “Sometimes Mingxi is just really childish. Be it the matter of being angry with Liyao gege or her sudden departure from home, Mom is actually really worried— Yuning, did she tell you when she would come home?”

“Who cares? She can return whenever she likes!” Zhao Yuning said in a fit of anger. “She did this multiple times, and was there ever a time when she didn’t come home?!”

“Don’t be angry,” Zhao Yuning advised. “You’re the closest to her, so why don’t you go and talk to her? If not, when she returns, we’ll just all admit that the matter of my allergy had nothing to do with her.”

Zhao Yuning huffed in annoyance, “I won’t go this time. Jiejie, don’t bother to do so too. Yesterday, I saw that her clothes were still in her closet. The clothes that Mom bought her were all left behind. This means that she never intended to stay in school for long. I just know that she’ll return after a few days with her tail between her legs!”

Despite his words, when Zhao Yuning glanced at the plain looking plate of food, he felt extremely anxious.

Previously, he would either sneak out of school to eat or he would eat from the lunchbox brought to school by Zhao Mingxi.

The food that Zhao Mingxi made was absolutely delicious. Everyday before the end of their fourth period in the morning, Zhao Yuning would rush to the canteen in anticipation of the good food from her.

It could be said that a day without Zhao Mingxi’s lunchbox meant a day without his soul.

Previously, when Zhao Mingxi argued with either their family or him— No matter how bad their fight was, she would never forget to bring the lunchbox.

After the siblings quarrel, they would sit together again in an awkward manner. Then by the end of the meal, their frustrations would have all disappeared.

But today, Zhao Mingxi acted out of the ordinary. She didn’t show up!

Zhao Yuning kept on looking toward the entrance to the canteen. However, he didn’t see Mingxi at all although it was already close to the end of lunch time!

Where did she go? Zhao Yuning thought.

Did she have something to do hence she didn’t come to have lunch? Did she forget to bring him lunch? Or she did remember, but purposely chose not to bring him his lunch out of anger?

All in all, it was too unusual!

Zhao Yuning was so dejected that he almost broke the plate with his chopsticks.

E Xiaoxia was still laughing beside them. “The gossip of her running laps has already reached us in the Evergreen Class. All this just to provoke Shen Liyao? But the line formed by the amount of people who are going after Shen Liyao could go all the way out to the other school. There is no way that he could possibly notice her! If she wants to pursue God Yao, not to say that she should have Yuanyuan’s visuals, but she should at least look like the neighboring school’s Kong Jiaze.”

“What nonsense are you spouting?!” Zhao Yuning couldn’t contain his anger any longer. He tossed his chopsticks to the ground. “You should take a piss and use it to look at your reflection first.”

E Xiaoxia was shocked. It was then that she realized that she had a slip of the tongue. Although the relationship between Zhao Yuning and Zhao Mingxi was so-so, he was still Zhao Mingxi’s younger brother.

“I’m sorry.” E Xiaoxia was quick to apologize.

Zhao Yuan said, “Don’t say such things about Mingxi. Let’s just eat.”

Zhao Yuning glared once at E Xiaoxia before going quiet.

As for Zhao Yuan, she couldn’t help but to think of Zhao Mingxi’s face— E Xiaoxia had never seen Zhao Mingxi’s appearance from two years ago when she first came to the Zhao family home.

She looked way better than Zhao Yuan did.

Zhao Yuan’s beauty was pure and pitiful, like that of a pretty daughter of a humble family.

As for Zhao Mingxi, her beauty could be clearly seen even from afar, and her features were amorous and delicate.

On that day when Zhao Mingxi came to their house, the instant everyone saw her, they found it hard to look away.

It was also at that moment when Zhao Yuan felt a slight sense of danger.

Of course, this all came to an end when she was burned a year ago.

As there was now a mark on her beauty, she was no longer perfect and this was a cause of relief for Zhao Yuan.

While she was lost in her thoughts, her ears picked up on Zhao Yuning's words. “Zhao Mingxi?”

Zhao Yuan and E Xiaoxia turned to look.

Mingxi was walking into the canteen from the entrance. She still had a single-use mask on.

Zhao Yuning assumed that she was delayed by the running laps matter, hence she didn’t come to the canteen. His eyes first travelled to Zhao Mingxi’s hands— It was actually empty with no lunchbox in sight.

Zhao Yuning suddenly felt a little depressed.

This was the first time after a fight with Mingxi jie that she didn’t bring a lunchbox for him. Looks like Mingxi was really angry this time.

Zhao Yuning was wondering if he should be the first to apologize. After all, yesterday when Mingxi left home he did say some pretty awful stuff to her.

Their relationship was always the best out of everyone else. As the things he said yesterday were quite spiteful, it was no wonder that Mingxi was angry.

While he was hesitating, Mingxi walked closer.

Zhao Yuning was a boy who couldn’t just put his ego aside easily. Nonetheless, he grit his teeth and with a surge of bravery, he stood up.

“Mingxi jie,” he started. “You—”

However, before he could speak, Zhao Mingxi acted as if she didn’t see him at all as she walked straight past him.

?

Zhao Yuning felt as if someone had just given him a hard knock on the head. As he couldn’t react in time, the shock only came to him half a second later.

When he finally turned around, Zhao Mingxi was already by the window.

She took up a plate and filled it with food. When she turned back, their eyes met. However, she quickly averted her gaze and walked to another corner before sitting down alone.

Zhao Yuning’s expression went stiff.