Stepping into the same high school felt entirely different for Wen Ying this lifetime compared to the last.
During the cross-district entrance exam, Wen Ying, the self-proclaimed academic slacker, strutted among the other test-takers with her head high and a swagger that screamed untouchable confidence.
In truth, she’d taken this exam in her past life, but after over a decade, the details were a blur. If the god of rebirth had granted her a memory cheat code, letting her recall every test paper, why bother studying? She could’ve coasted through high school and aced the college entrance exam without breaking a sweat.
When she got the test paper, Wen Ying skimmed it quickly, as was her habit. It wasn’t as tough as she’d feared.
The Chinese exam relied partly on rote memorization. In the past month, she’d only had time to flip through three years of junior high textbooks. Many quotes and passages she thought she’d forgotten came flooding back after reading the first line, making Chinese easier to recall than math, physics, or chemistry. Plus, Chinese drew on general knowledge—beyond forgotten memorizations, she could at least attempt every question. Unlike the sciences, where missing a key concept or formula left her staring blankly.
If the Chinese test went smoothly, the English exam was pure joy for the slacker. She knew every answer—a thrill hard to describe. For now, only English gave her this “top student” rush, making her think of Xie Qian. So this was what being a star student felt like! Unlike her, Xie Qian probably breezed through every subject with that same joy.
The morning covered Chinese and English; the afternoon tackled math, physics, and chemistry—the full scope of the provincial key high school’s entrance exam. These years, humanities weren’t tested, and soon, even Chinese would be dropped, leaving only English, math, and physics. The bias toward sciences never wavered. Wen Ying had already decided on the science track, and this exam structure favored her.
After English, Wen Ying left the exam room. Before spotting her mom, Chen Ru, she saw Shu Lu.
Shu Lu, as if the morning’s school-gate spat never happened, approached with a bright smile, all concern. “Cherry姐, how’d you do?”
Unsure of Shu Lu’s angle, Wen Ying thought carefully. “Pretty good, I think. Probably overperformed!”
Shu Lu’s smile froze. “Overperformed” wasn’t what she wanted to hear. No matter—morning was just Chinese and English. Afternoon brought math, physics, and chemistry.
“Cherry姐, I know you were mad this morning. My mom’s not educated, says things wrong—don’t take it to heart. The money your parents lent us, I’ll make sure my folks pay back soon. We’ll never forget your family’s help, and my parents are so grateful—”
Shu Lu rambled, but Wen Ying cut in, “Grateful? So grateful that the moment Uncle got rich, he snatched our shop? That’s a gratitude I’ve never heard of. Thanks, cousin, for broadening my horizons.”
Shu Lu choked. Her dad, Shu Guobing, had indeed targeted the shop, but she’d never admit it now. She finally got why Wen Ying was so sharp-tongued today—she was still sore about the shop.
Whoever offered the highest rent and transfer fee deserved the shop. Didn’t Wen Ying grasp basic business?
Suppressing her disdain, Shu Lu feigned confusion. “Cherry姐, what shop-snatching?”
Wen Ying smiled, “Nothing. I forgot you’re still young—shouldn’t talk about this with you. You wouldn’t get it.”
Shu Lu was speechless as Wen Ying sauntered off, leaving her a mere silhouette. Fuming, Shu Lu bit her lip and stomped. She was only a year younger—what didn’t she get?
Wen Ying, with her measly night-market stall alongside a few partners, had the gall to talk so big!
Shu Lu finally faced her truth: she loathed Wen Ying, envied her. Wen Ying was crude, clumsy—her only edge was being born to well-off, respectable parents. Swap their parents, and Wen Ying would be a wreck, maybe even a junior high dropout, nowhere near a top school.
Shu Lu saw herself as a proud plum blossom, enduring her parents’ failures as a test from fate. Her life would bloom after hardship. Wen Ying, spoiled early, would pay later.
Once Shu Guobing’s business soared, their families would level out, and Shu Lu’s would surpass Wen Ying’s. Then what would Wen Ying have to compete with? Stone or gold—time would tell.
…
“Why’d you take so long?” Chen Ru waited ages at the school gate. Most candidates were out; Wen Ying was among the last.
During the high school entrance exam, Wen Ying finished too fast, worrying Chen Ru. Now, too slow, she worried again.
“Ran into Shu Lu after the exam. She asked how I did, so we chatted a bit,” Wen Ying explained.
Chen Ru muttered but let it go. Shu Lu was an odd one.
Wen Ying realized her past-life self was naive, fixated on Shu Guobing and Wen Hongyan’s unreliability, never questioning her parents’ aid to Shu Lu. When adults compared them, Wen Ying felt inferior. Now, with an adult’s lens, she saw Shu Lu’s scheming matched her parents’, but with a child’s knack for hiding it, making her sharper.
She wondered if her strained ties with her parents last life—beyond their own issues—owed anything to Shu Lu, who stayed close to Wen Dongrong and Chen Ru while Wen Ying toiled in Shanghai.
Gossiping about a kid wasn’t Wen Ying’s style, but knowing Zhao Dong’s hidden motives behind the Shu family, she wanted her family’s foundation rock-solid, unbreachable.
She’d mentioned it to her dad, Wen Dongrong, who got defensive. Wen Hongyan was his sister—he could criticize her, but others couldn’t. Chen Ru, just a sister-in-law, was different. Not every sister-in-law willingly bankrolled a husband’s sibling—Wen Ying doubted Chen Ru was one.
In a diner across from school, waiting for food, Wen Ying took a deep breath. “Mom, I need to talk to you about something!”
