A formidable rival, Xu Nian

"You're here~ Yuyou."

"Yeah, Little Ning..."

The girl greeting her was Xu Ning, Lin Yuyou's best friend. They had been in the same class ever since meeting in their first year of high school. Back then, Xu Ning had often been bossed around because she was socially anxious and timid. Eventually, Lin Yuyou couldn't stand watching anymore, and since they shared a dorm room, she had stepped in to help her. In the end, they had become good friends.

Lin Yuyou walked listlessly over to her. "Let's go..."

"What's wrong, Yuyou? You seem a little down. Are you okay?" Xu Ning asked worriedly, noticing her lack of energy.

"Oh, it's nothing. There's just something I can't figure out." Lin Yuyou was still thinking about her older brother's situation. Until she got to the bottom of it, it would keep nagging at her.

"What could possibly be troubling our star student, Lin Yuyou?" Xu Ning teased.

"Sigh~ My brother's love life." Lin Yuyou made no attempt to hide it and said it outright.

"Your brother again? I can tell you really care about him, Yuyou."

Lin Yuyou spread her hands helplessly. "What can I do? He's my brother, so I've got to spoil him~"

"If your brother heard that, wouldn't he make you pay?"

Lin Yuyou planted her hands on her hips, looking disdainful. "No way! He wouldn't dare!"

"Uh... okay, I can see you're really not afraid of him. Oh, and there's these." As she spoke, Xu Ning took several letters out of her bag. "You ran off too fast yesterday. These are from your admirers."

"Thanks, Xu Ning, but you can just throw them away." Lin Yuyou delivered the most heartless words in the gentlest tone.

"Okay, but why don't you meet him, Yuyou? I saw him yesterday, and he was pretty handsome." Xu Ning didn't understand why she so firmly rejected all those handsome, outstanding boys who confessed to her, or why she wouldn't even read the love letters she received.

"Sigh~ Xu Ning, you're still too young to understand. Men are all pigs. You can't rely on them. To put it bluntly, they only want to be with me for my looks."

"I'm pretty jealous of how popular you are..." Xu Ning lowered her head and murmured.

Although her voice was quiet, Lin Yuyou still heard her. She hurried in front of Xu Ning. "I've told you before, haven't I? You'd look good too if you were willing to dress yourself up a little."

As she spoke, Lin Yuyou lifted Xu Ning's thick bangs. "See? You're pretty cute with your bangs out of the way~"

"Ah!" Having her bangs suddenly lifted startled Xu Ning. She hurriedly backed away and covered her head. "Y-Yuyou, you scared me!"

Seeing this, Lin Yuyou sighed. Her best friend was great in every other way, but she was far too timid and lacked confidence. She was clearly envious, yet she always refused to change. Even when Lin Yuyou offered to help, she still wouldn't agree.

Right now, for instance, Xu Ning wore her hair in a low ponytail draped over her chest, with thick bangs and red-framed glasses hiding her eyes. Paired with a white short-sleeved shirt and light blue jeans, the whole outfit was far too frumpy!

Lin Yuyou had previously wanted to take her shopping for different clothes and give her a proper makeover, but upon hearing the suggestion, Xu Ning had looked so terrified that it was as though she had just been told her time was up. The matter had ended there.

"Seriously, Xu Ning, if you really want to change, will you listen to me?" Lin Yuyou offered to help her again.

After considering it very seriously, Xu Ning seemed to reach some kind of resolution. "Okay, I'm going to change!"

Lin Yuyou was delighted. She's finally seen the light! But her joy was dashed almost immediately.

"But the college entrance exams are coming up, so let's wait until they're over!"

Oh, come on! Xu Ning really was still the same old Xu Ning. And here I thought she'd finally seen the light!

"Okay, don't change your mind when the time comes~" Although that was what she thought, she didn't call her out. Being able to say that much was already a big step forward, and she couldn't discourage her.

"All right, enough about that. Let's get going~" Lin Yuyou quickened her pace toward the dorm.

"Ah! Wait for me!" A little slow to react, Xu Ning realized that Lin Yuyou had already gone quite a distance. She called after her and hurried to catch up.

After putting their things away in the dorm, the two hurried to their classroom for evening self-study. Not long after they sat down, a middle-aged man with a bald crown and thin-framed glasses walked into the classroom. His sharp gaze swept across the room, and the noisy classroom instantly fell silent. Everyone lowered their heads, afraid to meet his eyes.

This stern middle-aged man was their math teacher and homeroom teacher, as well as the head of their senior year!

Their year head, Lu Xingfa, was known for being strict. Not a single student in their year wasn't afraid of him. With his bald crown as well, everyone privately called him Mo Shengfa-"Don't Grow Hair."

After making a round, Mo Sheng-no, Lu Xingfa didn't continue on to inspect another class. Instead, he suddenly spoke. "Xu Nian, Lin Yuyou, and Xu Ning, you three, come to my office!" With that, he walked out.

Once the demon king left, everyone began discussing why he had suddenly summoned those three. The three whose names had been called stood and left the classroom. Lin Yuyou was unbothered. She hadn't done anything, so she wasn't afraid at all. Xu Ning, by contrast, looked rather nervous, wondering whether she had done something wrong. Xu Nian, who went with them, remained expressionless.

The three arrived at the office door, and Lu Xingfa waved them inside.

They stood in a row in front of him, waiting for his verdict. He wasted no words and got straight to the point.

He took three forms from his desk and laid them in front of them. "I called you here to ask about your preferred universities."

He tapped his knuckles against the desk, a hint of anger in his voice. "I want to know if you three are deliberately trying to infuriate me. You're all in the top five of your year, especially you two, Xu Nian and Lin Yuyou-one of you ranks first, the other second. But what did you put down as your target university? All three of you chose Jiangcheng University!"

Lu Xingfa was referring to a survey the school had handed out a few days earlier to learn which universities each student was aiming for. Everyone had been given a form to fill out. Lin Yuyou and Xu Ning had both put down Jiangcheng University, but she hadn't known what Xu Nian had chosen.

Hearing that Xu Nian had chosen the same university as her, Lin Yuyou looked puzzled. She had thought he would go to Tsinghua or Peking University... Wait, something's not right!

As though something had occurred to her, Lin Yuyou eyed him warily. He outperformed her in every school exam, saddling her with the title of eternal runner-up, which she could never shake off. So she did resent him somewhat.

It wasn't that she was petty, but three years! For three whole years, she had fallen just a few points short of him every single time, as though he were toying with her. Who could put up with that?!

So Lin Yuyou believed Xu Nian had chosen the same university because he wanted to keep beating her!

People are truly sinister!

Lin Yuyou stopped listening to her homeroom teacher altogether and glared fiercely at Xu Nian instead.

Seeing that Lin Yuyou wasn't listening, Lu Xingfa flew into a rage and slammed his palm on the desk. "Lin Yuyou! Didn't you hear what I said?!"

Lu Xingfa's booming voice startled both Lin Yuyou and Xu Ning.

"Sir, please don't be angry. She must have her own considerations for making this choice."

Xu Nian, who had remained silent all this time, finally spoke his first words. Unexpectedly, he was speaking up for Lin Yuyou.

Lin Yuyou hadn't anticipated this. She hadn't expected her formidable rival to help her.

Naturally, hearing this only made their homeroom teacher, Lu Xingfa, angrier. "She might just be fooling around, so that's one thing. But you, Xu Nian-I simply cannot understand why you're joining in this nonsense, no matter how much I think about it!"

"How is it nonsense? Jiangcheng University is a key university too..." Hearing him call her choice nonsense, Lin Yuyou pouted and complained under her breath.

"It's not that it isn't good. It's that you have better options!" Lu Xingfa explained earnestly. "You could choose better universities. You could leave Jiangcheng, see the wider world, and broaden your horizons!"

Lu Xingfa truly was giving serious thought to their futures. Though he was usually very strict, he actually treated his students quite well. He was only saying all this because he didn't want to watch them waste their talents.

"And you, Xu Ning..." Lu Xingfa was about to say something to Xu Ning, but seeing how utterly nervous she looked, he swallowed his words. "Sigh~ Forget it. Go back and give it some more thought." He waved them away to continue their evening self-study.

After the three left the office, Xu Ning let out a long breath. "Phew~ That scared me to death. I thought I was going to die."

"That was already too much for you? You still need to work on your courage, Little Ning~" Lin Yu teased beside her.

Xu Nian, walking beside them, suddenly asked Lin Yuyou, "Lin Yuyou, are you really going to apply to Jiangcheng University?"

Although she didn't know why he was suddenly asking, Lin Yuyou still answered confidently, "Of course!"

"Okay, thank you." Xu Nian thanked her with a calm expression.

"Oh, right, thanks for speaking up for me earlier. You may be my enemy, but I still have to thank you!"

Hearing her thanks, Xu Nian said, "You're welcome," then strode ahead and left.

Seeing him leave just like that, she couldn't help muttering inwardly, What a strange guy.

What she didn't know, however, was that as he left, a smile had appeared on that perpetually expressionless face.