Chapter 1: White Jasmine

On a stormy night, a black sedan drove into Pujing High School.

In the dormitory corridor, all the girls were craning their necks in anticipation.

“I heard the new student is a transfer from Southeast Asia?”
“Ever heard of the Xu family of Shanbang? They own all the mines over there.”
“I heard the dean in the academic affairs office say this girl’s grades are insane. S-ranks in all comprehensive science subjects!”

In dorm room 308, Su Wan’an was lazily holding out her hand.

Two girls bustled around her, one doing her nails, the other holding a UV nail lamp.

“What’s so great about some diamond tycoon from Southeast Asia? Everyone knows that Aogang Bay is the Duan family’s…”

The girl paused, glanced at Su Wan’an, and hurriedly added, “And the Su family’s territory.”

Su Wan’an pulled her hand back, examining the nude pink cat-eye polish: “What Shanbang Xu family? Never even heard of them.”

She took a wet wipe to clean her fingertips, and another girl handed her a prepared hand mask, slipping it on for her.

“Exactly! If she comes to Pujing, she has to play by the rules here.”
“The UV rays are pretty strong over in Shanbang, right? She’s probably a dark-skinned girl.”
“Definitely. Dark and dowdy, she might even have body odor, tsk.”
The girls discussed her cattily…

“What’s her name?” Su Wan’an asked.

“Xu Yin.”

She repeated the name, finding it utterly unremarkable.

“Which dorm room is she in?”

“The one at the end of the hall, 311.”

At these words, the girls exchanged a meaningful look.

Su Wan’an scoffed, “She’s staying there? Well then… this should be fun.”

“The car is here!” a girl shouted from the end of the corridor. “Whoa, the transfer student is driving a Rolls-Royce Phantom Tempus!”

Hearing the car’s name, Su Wan’an finally showed a sliver of interest. She removed the hand mask, wiped the silky essence from her hands, and slowly walked out.

Seeing Su Wan’an emerge, the surrounding girls understood and immediately cleared a path, as if welcoming a princess.

Downstairs, the main door to the girls’ dormitory opened, and the Phantom Tempus slowly drove in, parking by the lawn.

Su Wan’an leaned against the third-floor corridor railing, twirling a strand of hair around her fingertip, looking down with a raised chin.

‘I’d like to see just what this legendary Shanbang heiress is all about.’

Unexpectedly, however, when the car door opened, a group of maids in uniform black dresses got out.

They efficiently carried several leather suitcases up to the third floor and placed them inside room 311 at the end of the corridor, without making a single sound.

Then the sedan drove away again.

From start to finish, the Shanbang heiress never showed her face.

The girls began to whisper among themselves.

This Shanbang heiress had an even grander air than Su Wan’an.
It was quite an eye-opener.

Su Wan’an snorted lightly and turned back towards her dorm.

With a loud “Bang!”, she slammed the door shut, the entire third-floor corridor echoing with the fury of the great Miss Su.

The girls lowered their heads and whispered, guessing that this Shanbang heiress was in for a world of trouble.

She hadn’t even arrived yet and had already offended the great Miss Su.
Everyone knew that in all of Aogang Bay, besides the Duan family… the Su family was the most powerful.

In the heavy rain, a young woman walked down the street holding an umbrella.

Passersby couldn’t help but look up to catch a second glance of her.

Her figure was slender, her waist graceful, and a sliver of her fair calf peeked out from under her skirt—a silhouette of pure elegance.

From a distance, she exuded a cool aloofness, like a wind blowing from Siberia.

Up close, her features were pretty and demure, like a branch of white jasmine.

Xu Yin walked under the eaves of a bookstore.

As she pushed the door open, the crisp chime of a wind bell sounded.

She closed her black umbrella, placed it in the holder, and went straight to the high school supplementary textbook section, browsing leisurely.

She had an air of quiet scholarly grace.

Her phone rang. A name flashed on the screen. Xu Yin hesitated for a few seconds before answering.

– “Dad.”

To this day, she still wasn’t used to saying those two words.

– “You didn’t go to school. Where are you?”
It was his usual direct, interrogative style.

– “The bookstore.”
Xu Yin answered honestly.
– “Classes start tomorrow. I wanted to buy some supplementary books. The schools in Shanbang and here… are very different. I want to adapt ahead of time.”

– “Don’t run around. Be good.”

– “I know, I won’t.”

– “Your brother has also transferred over. I’ve asked him to look after the business here and take care of you. He didn’t want to pressure you, so he went to the school next door, Pusilai High.”

– “Mmm, my brother already told me.”

The wind bell chimed again, and the sound of several footsteps, mingled with the faint laughter of teenage boys, disturbed the quiet bookstore.

Xu Yin lowered her voice.
– “Dad, I’m at the bookstore. If there’s nothing else…”

– “I’ll also make time to come over every weekend, for a family reunion.”

Xu Yin’s knuckles, gripping the phone, gradually tightened—

– “Okay, Dad.”

– “Yinyin, say it again.”

– “…Dad.”

After hanging up, Xu Yin leaned against the bookshelf. The cold wood of the shelf pressed against her butterfly bones, causing a dull ache.

Having chosen her books, Xu Yin walked to the front counter to pay.

Behind her came the voices of several teenage boys: “Those little rookies from Pusilai actually dare to come to our turf and challenge us. They must have a death wish.”
“I heard they got a formidable transfer.”

“No matter how formidable, can he be better than Si Ye? Si Ye, at next week’s league match, show them what you’ve got.”
“That goes without saying. He’ll definitely beat that newcomer so bad he won’t know what hit him. In Aogang Bay, no one has ever dared to challenge Si Ye’s skills on the court.”

While waiting for the cashier’s computer to respond, Xu Yin tilted her head to look.

The boys were all wearing gray, academy-style blazer uniforms, instantly recognizable as students from Pujing Private High.

As her gaze swept over them, it bypassed the group and landed on the tallest boy standing at the corner.

Pale skin, deep-set eyes, an exceptionally superior face with Slavic features…

Yet he had a pair of unfathomably dark eyes.

In a crowd, he was far too dazzling.
So much so that everyone else naturally became his foil.

One hand was shoved in his pocket, while the other took a hardcover paleontology picture book from the shelf.

He took no part in the other boys’ discussion. From start to finish, he uttered only one word—

“Noisy.”

At this, the chattering group of boys went quiet, as if a switch had been flipped…

They immediately reined it in, falling completely silent.

Xu Yin couldn’t help but steal another glance, until the cashier interrupted her, “Alright, that’ll be 514 yuan in total.”

Xu Yin handed over six hundred-yuan bills, but the clerk said apologetically, “Sorry, I don’t have change. If it’s convenient, could you please pay by scanning the code?”

“I just returned to the country. I haven’t linked a payment code yet.”

“Uh, well…” The clerk was also at a loss.

Just then, the boy closest to her walked over and said enthusiastically, “We’re all schoolmates. I’ll pay for her!”

Xu Yin was also wearing the Pujing uniform, a pleated mini-skirt.

Xu Yin quickly said, “Thank you, but there’s no need…”

Before she could finish, with a ‘beep’, the boy had already paid. He stared at Xu Yin with his big eyes, “Add me on WeChat. You can pay me back once you’ve linked your card.”

Xu Yin was silent for a few seconds. The boy then joked magnanimously, “You don’t have WeChat, do you? That excuse… is a bit too lame.”

Indeed, Xu Yin… had not linked her WeChat yet.

“Can you give me your phone number? I’ll add you on WeChat once I’ve set it up, okay?” Xu Yin asked.

“That won’t work,” Gao Minglang said with a smile. “What if you don’t add me? Where would I go to find you?”

“My name is Xu Yin. I’m in Class E at Pujing High School.”

“What if you’re giving me a fake name?”

Xu Yin fell silent.

“How about this? Give me your school ID as a deposit. I’ll come find you in your class tomorrow.”

“Do you need a school ID to enter the school?”

“Nope, facial recognition works.”

Without much thought, Xu Yin handed her school ID to Gao Minglang and walked out of the bookstore.

The rain had stopped.

Gao Minglang delightedly held the girl’s school ID, rubbing it and looking at it endlessly.

A few of his friends gathered around. “Damn, Brother Minglang, you’ve got skills. You even managed to pick up a girl of this caliber.”

Gao Minglang protectively pushed the other boys away as if guarding a treasure. “She’s mine. All of you, stay away, don’t touch.”

“She must be new, right? So pretty. How come we’ve never seen her before?”

“I did hear that someone transferred from Shanbang.”

Duan Sili picked out a book and went straight to the counter to pay. Gao Minglang quickly handed him the school ID. “Si Ye, help me appraise her. What do you think of my future girlfriend?”

Duan Sili cast a lazy glance at it.

The girl on the school ID was demure and proper, bright and beautiful.
She had the air of a top student.

“Average.”

As usual, there was never any room for beauties in his eyes.

“However…” His gaze shifted back. “She’s a little better than those surgically-enhanced girlfriends you used to have.”

Gao Minglang grinned from ear to ear.

He knew Duan Sili’s temperament all too well. If she were just some common beauty, his gaze probably wouldn’t have lingered for even 0.1 seconds.

But he had looked at this girl twice.

He had really… hit the jackpot!

Gao Minglang carefully tucked the school ID into a pocket of his backpack, afraid it would be snatched away by his covetous friends.

The rain had stopped, and the wind carried the raw, earthy scent of humus.

The campus roads were lined with silk trees, and the fallen petals of their fluffy pink flowers carpeted the shaded path.

The male and female dormitory areas were far from the academic buildings. There were hardly any students here, making it feel somewhat eerie.

Pujing’s campus was enormous, comparable to a university.

After walking for about ten minutes, she finally reached the female dormitory area, where Dorms 1, 2, and 3 were arranged in sequence.

However, there was one even more luxurious, European-style dormitory building that was not among them.

It was not distinguished by numbers; it had a name of its own—

Jingshu Building.

Just like in any school, there was always a shining clique that attracted everyone’s attention, monopolized the best resources, and occupied the most central and privileged position.

The girls living in Jingshu Building were exactly that.

Naturally, the girls in this building also enjoyed the greatest degree of freedom and leniency. After the nightly curfew, they still had a thirty-minute grace period. Even if they returned late, as long as it was within the time limit, the dorm mother wouldn’t write their names down.

When Xu Yin transferred to Pujing High, she wasn’t originally qualified to live in Jingshu Building, as she hadn’t earned the required academic merit points.

However, Xu Yin had an incredibly resourceful “father,” a “father” who couldn’t bear to see her suffer in the slightest.

At Pujing Private High, grades were one kind of pass.
Power was another.

Curfew was at 10:30 PM. At 11:00 PM, Xu Yin stepped into Jingshu Building, right on the dot.

The dorm mother glanced at her through the window and said, half-jokingly, half-sternly, “Cutting it a little close, new student.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You can’t be later than eleven from now on, or I’ll have to write you up.”

“I understand. Thank you, ma’am.”

The young girl offered an apologetic smile.

The dorm mother couldn’t help but look at her again. In Jingshu Building, a place where the snobs and schemers were as numerous as in a palace intrigue drama…

A smile this pure was a rare sight.

‘I hope she doesn’t get bullied.’

Carrying a heavy backpack full of supplementary books, Xu Yin took the elevator to the third floor.

Lights-out was at eleven, so most of the girls were already in bed.

The building was quiet, with only the whistling of the wind, making the wind chimes under the eaves tinkle.

Of course, not everyone was asleep.

Leaning against her dorm room door with her arms crossed, a girl watched her with ill intent.

The girl had long chestnut hair, a slender figure, and a white facial mask on her face as thin as a cicada’s wing.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed, coming back so late?”

Xu Yin didn’t answer, retorting instead, “Are you the dorm mother?”

“You…!”

The girl was so angry that half of her mask trembled. “I’m from the Student Union. The Student Union manages all student conduct and activities. I have every right to discipline you!”

“Oh.”

Xu Yin ignored her and started walking forward.

Thinking about how Xu Yin had offended Su Wan’an today, the girl smirked again. “You sure have a grand style, but let me remind you, this is Aogang Bay, not your turf.”

“Thanks for the reminder,” she replied coolly.

The girl stared at her back and said with schadenfreude, “Seeing as you’re new, here’s a friendly reminder: your dorm room… is haunted~”

She deliberately dragged out the last three words.

Xu Yin looked towards the pitch-black dorm room door at the end of the corridor.

“I’m not trying to scare you! Your room is really haunted! Aren’t you afraid?”

Xu Yin’s steps paused slightly—

“I’ve seen things scarier than ghosts.”