During the week of her suspension from school, Long Qi spent three days with Jin Yiken. The things they could do together were always monotonous and straightforward. She kept Bai Aiting’s gaze etched in her memory, and took revenge on him again and again—revenge for Long Xinyi’s greed, for the fat boy’s shamelessness, for Zhuo Qing’s hesitation, for the gossip of their classmates—all of it directed at him.

After he left each time, she would sit alone in the armchair by the window of her suite, gazing at the city view. She’d open a can of beer, light a cigarette, and scroll through the comments on the campus network specifically cursing her. She’d note down each ID and play a game of “which coward in class does this ID belong to.”

Finding out what Jin Yiken did after leaving her was simple—just check Bai Aiting’s campus network status. Their image had long been sculpted by her into that of a perfect couple, loving on campus and romantic off campus, so much so that even teachers were willing to indulge them.

Two hours later, Bai Aiting’s new post was a solo photo of Jin Yiken, head bowed as he opened a can of cola—he never touched alcohol at Bai Aiting’s side.

There were still faint red marks on his cheek, prompting Bai Aiting’s caption: Got scratched by the house cat again.

Long Qi had once asked, “Doesn’t she ever wonder where all those red and purple marks on your body come from?”

He answered, “She doesn’t understand.”

To Jin Yiken, Bai Aiting was a proper marriage prospect. His grandfather liked her, so throughout his three years of high school, he maintained the principle of never removing a single piece of her clothing. But Long Qi was different. He liked Long Qi, but women with personalities too distinct and looks too striking weren’t suitable to marry into the family—his grandfather would flay him alive. So with her, he was a rogue and a scoundrel, but with Bai Aiting, he was a gentleman boyfriend. For instance, the red marks on his face that Bai Aiting attributed to their house cat—to Long Qi, that was nothing but a cheap joke.

Before closing the webpage, she posted a new status update. One word: Meow.

The seven days passed quickly between part-time work doing magazine shoots and runway shows. On Monday, she slowly walked up to the teaching building as the morning self-study bell rang. Two class representatives from her class were rushing downstairs to turn in homework, chatting as they went: “Did Long Qi spend those suspension days working like crazy to make money? She’s on this magazine cover again.”

“How can someone be that beautiful? It’s so annoying. Why doesn’t she care about her career trajectory? She should at least rein in her temper a bit, or else she’ll have plenty of scandalous history later.”

“She doesn’t care about that.”

The three encountered each other at the staircase landing. The two female class representatives yelped in fright. She looked at them lazily. They trembled as they circled past her, and then Long Qi continued upstairs while the two girls scrambled down in panic.

The classroom had already entered the quiet atmosphere of morning self-study. The homeroom teacher wasn’t there. Long Qi entered the classroom as usual, except this time she didn’t hear the female class monitor’s routine roll call. After taking her seat, she casually glanced at that position, didn’t see the class monitor, but saw someone else instead.

Her arrogant demeanor subtly restrained itself in an instant—a wondrous momentary reaction when an unexpected scene collided with an uncontrollable situation. There was a crisp snap at the tip of her heart, and her body moved sluggishly.

There were rustling sounds in the classroom. Her deskmate was looking up at her, but her attention for one second, two seconds, three seconds, was entirely focused on that position.

Someone had taken the female class monitor’s seat. That person was Dong Xi.

Only now did she realize that the seating in the class had been rearranged. Her deskmate was a male student originally from another class. After glancing at Long Qi once, he obediently lowered his head. Long Qi nudged his chair leg with her foot. He looked at her hesitantly.

“Classes were reorganized?”

“Yes… classes were reorganized…”

“According to grades?”

“Yes…”

She sat down, pondered for a long time, then asked again, “Then why would Dong Xi be in this class?”

Her deskmate’s expression showed some surprise, as if he thought she should have known. He answered haltingly, “Wasn’t it because that time you… got her test paper wet… causing one of her subject scores to be invalidated?”

After hearing him finish, she rapidly recalled the environment in that split second seven days ago when she stormed the exam room and kicked the fat boy’s desk. At the time, the fat boy was in the corner, she was in front of his desk, the proctor was at the podium, Bai Aiting was in the center of the classroom, Jin Yiken was in the seat ahead of Bai Aiting, Zhuo Qing was by the window, and Dong Xi…

Dong Xi was next to the fat boy.

When Long Qi kicked the desk, the students in the exam room indeed had the collective illusion of standing up, but there was one person who didn’t stand or get involved. That person was Dong Xi, who was right nearby. The milk tea from the fat boy’s desk splashed onto her exam paper. Her pencil case and calculator were knocked to the floor, and she had crouched down to pick up her things.

Oh.

This was the reason she had dropped from the honors class to the regular class. Their class’s female monitor had risen in rank and transferred to the advanced class, while she slid from first-tier to third-tier, plummeting hard into the regular class. This was the main reason.

Long Qi looked over again. Dong Xi was quietly taking notes. The long hair by the side of her face was tucked behind her ear. Her pen tip moved lightly. No resentment, no irritation, undisturbed by worldly matters.