As soon as Xue Jiao entered the door, she saw Li Sitong sitting on the sofa with a gloomy face, as if a storm was about to break.

The surrounding atmosphere was filled with low pressure and faint sadness.

When she walked through the doorway, Li Sitong suddenly turned around, clearly surprised: “You’re back so early?!”

In the past, every time she went to the Gu family, she would stay for several days before being urged to come back.

Xue Jiao understood why she was upset. No mother would like her daughter to have close contact with two people who had deeply hurt her, yet that was exactly what Gu Xuejiao used to do. Every time she returned from the Gu family, she would always argue with Li Sitong for some time.

So Xue Jiao nodded, put down her backpack, walked to Li Sitong, and crouched down to look into her eyes: “Mom, I don’t like Dad.”

She spoke very seriously, looking straight at the woman on the sofa.

Li Sitong was stunned, then slowly opened her mouth: “W-why?”

Her voice was hoarse and soft.

“Because they wronged you, and they’re not people who truly care about me.” A face that resembled Li Sitong’s by thirty percent was particularly sincere at this moment, her large eyes looking directly at her, full of warmth and apology.

Li Sitong sat motionless, as if petrified.

“Wuu—” She grabbed Xue Jiao in a hug, pressing her head against her chest, and burst into loud sobs.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Cheng Shuo rushed out of the room in a panic, and moments later Cheng Mingze also came downstairs.

“Sitong, what’s wrong with you?” Cheng Shuo looked at the sobbing Li Sitong with concern and anxiety, pacing back and forth.

Cheng Mingze narrowed his eyes: “Gu Xuejiao, did you make your mom angry again?”

Xue Jiao: “…”

She patted Li Sitong’s back: “Mom, don’t cry anymore.”

“Jiaojiao—you’ve grown sensible—my dear daughter!” Li Sitong continued crying.

Cheng Shuo: “…”

Cheng Mingze: “…”

So wasn’t Gu Xuejiao causing trouble again?

——

Xue Jiao and Cheng Shuo finally managed to comfort Li Sitong. Probably because she was so moved, when she learned that Xue Jiao hadn’t eaten yet, she immediately went to the kitchen herself, prepared a table full of dishes, and insisted on watching Xue Jiao eat.

Xue Jiao looked at the two dishes in front of her, whose colors weren’t particularly appetizing, along with a bowl of white rice…

If she remembered correctly, Li Sitong… was a disaster in the kitchen!

She swallowed: “Um… Mom, you should eat too.”

“No, no, I just want to watch you eat!” she said while frantically adding food to Xue Jiao’s plate.

“Uncle Cheng and brother, would you like some late-night snack?” Xue Jiao was still struggling.

“No need! At my age, eating too much at night isn’t good!” After saying this, Cheng Shuo slipped away.

Cheng Mingze saw that something was wrong and immediately wanted to go upstairs, but was grabbed by Li Sitong, who was in a good mood: “Mingze! You’re still growing. Come, come, have some!”

Li Sitong pressed him down at the dining table and went to get another bowl of white rice.

“Eat, eat, eat, have more!” Li Sitong smiled as she continuously added food to both her and Cheng Mingze’s plates.

The two made eye contact for the first time, and both saw sympathy in each other’s eyes…

——

After dinner, Xue Jiao returned to her room and diligently did her homework. There was quite a bit of weekend homework, but most of it was exercises from the textbook and workbooks.

She had already completed the textbook exercises during class breaks, which had been Xue Jiao’s habit all along.

After the teacher finished teaching in class, she would use the break time to do practice exercises, partly to strike while the iron was hot and consolidate what she had just learned, and partly to free up more time after class to complete additional practice.

The material wasn’t difficult, as Xue Jiao had already mastered it and was just reinforcing it during her second time learning. So she spent a little over an hour completing all the math exercises, then did most of the physics problems before going to bed.

Lying in bed, she made a study plan for the holiday period and then closed her eyes.

“Ding—” Her phone rang.

Xue Jiao casually glanced at it. Lin Zhihua.

Though she hadn’t planned to look, Xue Jiao picked up the phone and opened it—it was a picture, an image of a panda holding bamboo.

Her eyes brightened, thinking of the serious man standing in front of the claw machine. Her lips involuntarily curved into a smile as she replied—

[Wow!! You got it! Awesome/Thumbs up.]

The response was almost instantaneous—

[Yes.]

Xue Jiao: “…”

How could she continue the conversation with someone so aloof?

She could only send—

[Goodnight.jpg]

There was no movement from the other side for a long time. Xue Jiao put down her phone, lay down properly, and closed her eyes.

On the other end of the phone—

“Chen Yan, send me some popular emoticons currently in use.”

“…”

Chen Yan hung up the phone with a bewildered expression, and then looked at his empty phone…

In his normal communication with the boss, they hardly even used punctuation marks, let alone emoticons…

Almost immediately, he called Tan Qi.

Tan Qi also hung up the phone with a perplexed expression, but since Secretary Chen had told him to send them over in three minutes, Tan Qi quickly forwarded the emoticons he had collected on his phone.

So, Lin Zhihua received the following emoticons—

[Idiot.jpg, Let’s break up for three seconds you sub.jpg, Kiss kiss.jpg, Let you show off.jpg…]

Lin Zhihua: “…”

Just as Xue Jiao was about to fall asleep, her phone rang again. She reached for it and took a look.

[Goodnight.jpg]

It was the latest version of elderly emoticons—a huge rectangle with a colorful background featuring an enormous moon that sparkled, along with two massive, glittering words: Good Night.

Xue Jiao: “…”

——

Sunday evening, Xue Jiao was sitting on the balcony memorizing vocabulary when Li Sitong walked in looking distraught.

Xue Jiao looked at her in confusion, thought for a moment, and still asked with concern: “Mom? What’s wrong?”

Li Sitong walked up to her and looked at her.

Compared to half a month ago, Xue Jiao had almost completely changed her appearance. The previously exaggerated, alarming look was gone, replaced by a clean, pure image. Her face resembled her own by thirty percent, with the remaining seventy percent becoming increasingly delicate.

A pair of big eyes looked up at her, both obedient and sensible, delicate and fragile, evoking sympathy.

Li Sitong hugged her head and pressed it against her chest.

“Jiaojiao… will you always be this sensible… from now on?”

Her voice was soft, tinged with sadness.

Xue Jiao hesitated, then slowly opened her mouth: “Yes…”

She extended her hand and gently patted the woman in front of her: “Mom, what’s wrong?”

Li Sitong consistently avoided showing her vulnerable side to her children, so she just shook her head slightly.

Today, she had gone shopping with a girlfriend, wanting to buy a couple of suitable outfits for Xue Jiao, who had recently been well-behaved and sensible. By coincidence, she encountered Wu Wanjun in a boutique for socialites.

A beautiful dress was hanging in the window display, and the sales assistant was holding it up for Wu Wanjun to see. Several ladies around her were saying that Gu Shiyun would look good in it.

Li Sitong didn’t know where she got the courage, but she rushed over and questioned Wu Wanjun about why she knew how to buy suitable clothes for her daughter, but only bought mature and gaudy clothes for Jiaojiao.

How did Wu Wanjun respond?

She continued to smile gently and said things that seemed fine on the surface but, upon careful listening, were full of disdain for Xue Jiao.

She was furious at the time.

The middle-aged woman beside Wu Wanjun also said something that pierced her heart—

“Li Sitong, you’re a woman who has failed at life. Your man didn’t want you, abandoned you, and you can’t even raise your only child properly!”

She indeed hadn’t raised Xue Jiao well, she knew that. She was the laughingstock of this circle. Even after marrying Cheng Shuo, everyone was still waiting to see her fail!

She tried hard to live in the Cheng family, tried to be good to everyone, but the elders still preferred the sharp-tongued Liu Yazhen over her.

Not just because she was remarried, but also because—she didn’t know how to raise a child.

“Jiaojiao, always be good… don’t be like before anymore. I don’t expect you to be outstanding, just… just don’t make trouble.”

She spoke very softly. Xue Jiao roughly understood why she was upset.

Much of the content from that book was still in her mind. Li Sitong had been ridiculed many times because of her daughter Gu Xuejiao. After being mocked, she would come home, see Gu Xuejiao’s messy appearance, get angry, and they would have a big argument.

Xue Jiao sighed slightly: “Mom, I can do more than just not make trouble, I can also… become your glory.”

In her previous life, she couldn’t even become someone else’s glory. In this life, she would continue to work hard, for herself and for… this woman who loved her but didn’t quite know how to express it.

Li Sitong suddenly released her and hurried back to her room. Xue Jiao knew she was crying.

“Hey—” Li Sitong closed the door, and another voice appeared.

Xue Jiao looked up to see Cheng Mingze standing with his hands in his pockets, saying coldly: “We don’t expect you to bring glory. It’s enough if you don’t cause trouble and make your mom upset in the future!”

After speaking, he turned away.

Xue Jiao: “…”

So just how troublesome was Gu Xuejiao’s image???

——

Monday morning, Xue Jiao arrived on time for early self-study.

She sat down, took out her books, opened the textbook, and began reciting.

“Hey, bookworm!” Yi Tianyu sat down beside her, flopped his face on the desk, and looked at her with exasperation.

Xue Jiao didn’t look up, as if she hadn’t heard him.

“Bookworm, why are your grades so poor when you’re so serious?” Yi Tianyu muttered.

As Gu Xuejiao’s deskmate, he knew precisely how serious this person was!

With this level of studying intensity, Yi Tianyu felt that even the top students in their class couldn’t match her.

Being so diligent yet reportedly scoring single digits in math previously—this was too unscientific!!

Seeing that Xue Jiao still wouldn’t acknowledge him, he simply lay down to sleep.

“Students, I have good news for you!” The chubby math teacher said, raising his eyebrows.

“What is it?” Hearing “good news,” everyone looked at him expectantly.

The math teacher was always smiling, but he showed no mercy when it came to teaching, earning him the nickname “Smiling Tiger.”

Now he was smiling like a Maitreya Buddha: “No classes this Thursday and Friday!”

Many students’ eyes lit up.

The Smiling Tiger added: “So do your best in the monthly exams on Thursday and Friday!”

“Ah—” The students wailed in unison.

Xue Jiao didn’t react much. Whether there was an exam or not made no difference to her, but others wouldn’t think the same way.

“Cousin, good luck on the monthly exam! I still remember you said you wanted to surpass me!” Cheng Mingjiao said with a smile. Several girls who were close to her immediately snickered.

A flash of smugness passed through Cheng Mingjiao’s eyes as her gaze shifted to Yi Tianyu beside her.

Looking at his handsome, flamboyant face, her cheeks turned slightly red, “Um… Yi Tianyu, good luck to you too!”

Yi Tianyu looked at her in horror: “Why are you mocking me? I didn’t make any bet with you!”

“Hahaha!” Laughter erupted around them. They hadn’t thought much of it before, but after Yi Tianyu’s comment, everyone felt that Cheng Mingjiao’s words seemed to carry mockery.

Author’s note: Yi Tianyu: Don’t scare me, I’m very afraid!