Chapter 19: The Scumbag Male Lead

When the bathroom door closed, Shen Qingci sat down on the edge of the bed.

She listened to the sound of running water inside, tapping her fingertips twice against the bedsheet.

Then she closed her eyes and sank her consciousness into her mind.

“System.”

[Yes, Host.]

“How much is that mission progress now?”

A translucent screen unfolded in her vision, showing a clear progress bar.

[Full revenge against the bullies of South City Academy! Mission progress: 30%! Completed targets: Zhao Min, Zhang Rui, Liu Jia (cleared)! Expand for details.]

Shen Qingci stared at the number for a few seconds, her brow tightening.

“Zhao Min and those two only account for thirty percent,” she murmured, her tone giving away neither anger nor pleasure. “That means there are at least seven people left.”

[Correct! The bullying the original Shen Qingci suffered at school was not carried out only by Zhao Min and the other two. Behind it was a small group led by Shen Jiao. Zhao Min’s trio were only the front-line enforcers. There are six direct participants and one main planner remaining. Host is advised to formulate a detailed action plan, by priority…]

“Enough.”

Shen Qingci cut it off, rubbing her temples.

“Just give me the clues. How I handle it is my business.”

The mechanical voice fell silent for a moment, silently digesting the unfriendly attitude in her words.

Shen Qingci leaned against the headboard, sorting the fragmented information in her mind.

The fake daughter Shen Jiao bribed the driver and the servants, raised a pack of followers at school to bully the original host for her, and shaped the original host into a lying country girl. This made the Shen parents, far abroad, believe it completely.

Quite capable.

A cold smile appeared on her face.

The sound of water outside continued, carried through the bathroom door, splashing, occasionally mixed with small noises.

Shen Qingci’s thoughts were pulled back for a moment. She tilted her head toward the closed bathroom door, then looked away.

She continued sorting her memories of the original story.

She had only read the synopsis and a few sample pages of that book, so she could not remember the content fully, but the general outline remained in her mind.

The male lead, Mu Shangfeng, made his entrance by running into Shen Qingci being held down and slapped outside South City Academy, then ‘heroically’ stepping in to save her.

And that scene of ‘being held down and slapped,’ according to the original plot, should have been forced on Bai Zhinuo by Zhao Min’s trio.

To survive and for those few yuan of hush money, Bai Zhinuo was forced under threat by Zhao Min’s trio to lure Shen Qingci outside the school.

Because in the original, after Zhao Min and the others caught Bai Zhinuo spying, they forced her to be their lackey.

Then Shen Qingci was cornered outside school, beaten, humiliated.

Finally Mu Shangfeng suddenly appeared, like a heaven-sent male lead riding colorful clouds, drove Zhao Min’s trio away, then bent down and reached out to Shen Qingci, who was trembling on the ground.

He asked those classic lines that never die.

“Are you okay?”

What a classic hero saving the beauty.

At this thought, Shen Qingci sneered in her heart.

As a crappy novel with a bad ending, how could the male lead be so righteous?

Ambiguous with other female side characters, even showing signs of a BL path with a male side character.

Like a stag in heat, wishing he could become a seeding machine, a scumbag who leaves his feelings everywhere.

This was also the root reason the novel ended badly. The main characters’ personalities were not normal people.

In the original, the cannon fodder Bai Zhinuo, who was doomed to die, was so hungry she could barely stand, curled up in a corner of the classroom waiting for school to end.

Without Shen Qingci feeding her, she had no strength to care what happened outside.

In the original scumbag’s rescue scene, Bai Zhinuo was a tool from beginning to end, used to introduce the male lead, thrown away after use, not even worth having her name remembered.

Her ending was also because she offended the male lead, ‘helping the tyrant do evil’ by bullying the female lead, and she had no background.

The furious, godlike male lead Mu Shangfeng kicked her into a severe injury worse than severe, and she died miserably in extreme hunger and pain.

She became a small tool for Mu Shangfeng to establish his authority when he appeared.

But now things were different.

Shen Qingci remembered how that little thing crouched in the shadow of the bicycle shed, her face streaming with tears as she held that twenty-yuan note, how she huddled in the corner hugging her knees and trembling, how she wrapped herself in that tattered school uniform and timidly said, “I’m dirty.”

Different now.

That little one survived.

And the useless puppet female lead, Shen Qingci, had become her.

Everything would be different.

When Shen Qingci opened her eyes again, the water in the bathroom had stopped for a while, but there was still no movement.

This little one was taking that long to dry off after a shower?

She tilted her head toward the bathroom door, not paying much attention.

But then she heard a dull thud.

Like something hitting the door panel, then a scraping sound of landing, then nothing.

Shen Qingci’s eyes snapped wide open.

She practically sprang up, rolled off the bed, rushed to the bathroom door in two steps, and knocked twice.

“Bai Zhinuo?”

No response.

She knocked again, harder.

“Bai Zhinuo, say something.”

Inside was still unnaturally quiet.

Only the drip-drip of water falling onto the tiles, thin and intermittent.

Shen Qingci’s brow tightened. She did not hesitate any longer, twisted the bathroom door handle, and pushed the door open.

Steam rushed at her face, carrying the light fragrance of body wash and warm humid air.

The bathroom light was warm, water droplets still hanging on the tiles.

Bai Zhinuo sat on the floor beside the door, back against the wall, wrapped in that white bath towel. It was loose around her body, revealing thin shoulders and collarbones.

Her wet hair clung to her face, tips still dripping. One hand rubbed the back of her head, her brows furrowed, her whole face scrunched up in pain.

She heard the door pushed open and jerked her head up.

Their eyes met in the damp steam.

Bai Zhinuo’s face went red with a rush.

From her ears all the way to her neck, she looked like a boiled shrimp.

She instinctively tried to pull the towel up, but it had not been tied tightly to begin with. Her tug loosened half of it, revealing a large patch of pale skin on her shoulder.

“!”

She hurriedly pressed it down again, curling into a ball, voice hoarse and urgent.

“P-please, don’t look…”

Shen Qingci was stunned too.

Her gaze rested on Bai Zhinuo for a moment.

That pale, bare shoulder, the white wet strands stuck to her skin, the thin lines below her collarbone, and her chest rising slightly with nervousness.

Then she abruptly looked away, a faint redness rising at the tips of her ears.

She cleared her throat, sounding a little more tongue-tied than before.

“Did you, did you fall?”

Bai Zhinuo curled on the floor, face red enough to drip blood, both hands gripping the edge of the towel.

Her voice grew softer and softer.

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