Chapter 21: The Great Emperor

“I can, I can pay you back right now.”
Lin Cheng directly took out one hundred and fifty yuan and handed it to Li Xiaoran.

“…”
Li Xiaoran’s delicate, cute features twisted slightly, her brows drooping as she hurriedly said,
“Actually, you don’t have to pay me back so soon. I just wanted to remind you that when you have the money, you can pay me back…”

“Ah, no, no, it’s better to give it back to you now. Tomorrow I’m going to that gathering at Zhou Mingyuan’s place—when the time comes, I’ll have you buy me milk tea.” Lin Cheng smiled.

“…Thanks.”
Li Xiaoran’s lips twitched, and a sudden, stuffy heaviness welled up in her chest.

She watched Lin Cheng’s departing back, reaching up to scratch her hair.

What am I even doing? Why did I suddenly get upset? Clearly, this is the kind of thing I could have just endured and let pass.

…Such a good chance to get closer to Lin Cheng, and what did I do?

Ah, I want to die. I want to jump right off the building now, get knocked out by a pillow, and wake up tomorrow morning to find out that Lin Cheng has nothing to do with any other woman, and that I’m actually the girl in his class who’s closest to him.

Li Xiaoran slumped back into her seat, spread her hands across the desk, and buried her head.

A shadow passed by, blocking her view.

“Li Xiaoran, so, how about tomorrow—are you coming?” Zhou Mingyuan stood beside her, smiling.

Li Xiaoran kept her head down, unwilling to respond.

Zhou Mingyuan’s eyes flickered as he asked again, “Not feeling well? Want to take a break and see a doctor?”

Hearing him press again, Li Xiaoran finally lifted her head and casually replied,
“I’ll go tomorrow. Just not feeling too well right now.”

“Want to take the rest of the day off then?”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll be better if I just lie down for a bit.”

“Alright, get some rest.”

Zhou Mingyuan gave a formulaic smile, then returned to his seat, his face calm.

In his mind, he replayed what had just happened at the door with Lin Cheng. That beautiful girl—he was sure he’d seen her somewhere before.

Still, he hadn’t expected Lin Cheng to have such a pretty girlfriend. But no matter—one step at a time.

An orphan, and you think you can play the hero? That’s the tired old plot from novels ten years ago.

I really hope you still think that way in the end.

The corners of Zhou Mingyuan’s lips curled into a perfect smile as he turned to his deskmate and said cheerfully,
“Liu Ruyan, tomorrow you and Xiaoran go to Time Lane first and arrange the seating for everyone. I’ll buy you a little gift then.”

“Alright.”

Liu Ruyan glanced sidelong at him. “But forget the gift—I don’t need it.”

She was tall, with a cold expression and long, straight black hair. Rumor had it her family was rich, owning mines.

They supposedly had ties to several big bosses in the city, and even higher connections. Across the province, they were said to hold engineering contracts—though no one knew if that was true.

Still, compared to Su Wanqing’s lofty airs and high-profile status that drew the attention of the whole class, Liu Ruyan was low-key, barely attracting notice.

“It’s just a small gift, you don’t have to—”

Before Zhou Mingyuan could finish, Liu Ruyan stood and walked straight out of the classroom, ignoring him completely.

For a brief second, Zhou Mingyuan’s eyes darkened, but he quickly returned to normal, pretending nothing had happened as he chatted with the classmates behind him.

When the bell rang at 7:38, Lin Cheng returned to his seat.

The first class that night was chemistry.

The teacher was a petite woman surnamed Zhou, who had never told them her full name.

She was usually rather aloof, speaking with force when teaching. Being a young teacher, she didn’t put on the airs of authority.

Some girls in class said that during vacations, Teacher Zhou would stroll with her boyfriend, smiling sweetly.

“Today we’ll go over the test from last time.”

She entered briskly, launching into her usual teaching style.

As she explained problems, she tried to get the students to respond.

But the class’s chemistry grades were consistently poor.

To be precise, Lin Cheng’s class was one of the most average in the entire No. 3 High School.

The average chemistry score was barely thirty-something. Passing put you among the top few in the class.

Every time Teacher Zhou finished explaining and asked if they understood, she was met with silence—or at best, a few scattered replies.

After a pause of a few seconds, she would repeat the explanation, ask again, hear nothing, and move on to the next problem.

Many students were already nodding off. In the back row, some were reading novels, others playing games.

Lin Cheng was thinking about how to prepare for Zhou Mingyuan tomorrow, so he wasn’t really listening.

He was a typical student with strong science grades—physics, chemistry, and biology adding up to around 220 points in mock exams; Chinese and math together about 210; English about 30.

His English came from piecing together his elementary-school vocabulary, scraping a few points in the essay, and grabbing whatever he could on the answer sheet.

This put him right at the edge of the Tier 2 university cutoff.

After twenty minutes, Teacher Zhou finished going over the test paper and let the class self-study.

“Lin Cheng…”

A soft voice came from beside him. He turned his head.

Li Xiaoran placed the test paper they’d just gone over in the middle of their two desks.

Her slender, pink-tinted nails tapped the question Teacher Zhou had just explained.

“Can you walk me through this one? The teacher spoke too fast—I couldn’t follow.”

She shifted her chair toward him, her whole body leaning against his desk.

“This one’s pretty simple.” Lin Cheng picked up his pen and pointed at the paper.

Li Xiaoran’s grades were near the top of the class, but she was weaker in physics and chemistry.

She often asked Lin Cheng about those subjects, and he was used to it.

The classroom filled with a soft murmur of voices.

Even though the college entrance exam was approaching, that crushing sense of pressure you read about online wasn’t really present here.

Or rather—it was only there for a small group of students.

And tomorrow was the school sports meet for all of Year 3—the only officially sanctioned fun left besides the April arts festival.

Su Wanqing drifted around the classroom, occasionally shooting Zhou Mingyuan vicious glares, as if she wanted to stab him twice on the spot.

Who knows what kind of scheme that bastard is cooking up, inviting the whole class to a gathering… Could it be to create an alibi, then kill Lin Cheng? I’d better be careful.

She clenched her teeth at the thought.

Suddenly—

She noticed something bright, as if glowing inside Li Xiaoran’s body.

What’s that?

Curious, Su Wanqing drifted closer, phasing through Li Xiaoran’s body and reaching out.

“So cold!”

Li Xiaoran suddenly shivered all over, her eyes flickering rapidly.

This is…

That familiar warmth—heat in the air, Lin Cheng’s breath, the hum of the fan…

Su Wanqing’s eyes widened as she took it in.

She had—

Possessed Li Xiaoran’s body?