White Rich Beauty (10)

"Don't make that expression; you look so ugly."

You look so ugly.

So ugly.

Ugly.

Yue Ran: !

Ruan Ruan: !

Yue Ran was sure that the word "ugly" was the furthest thing from her look. Her look, no matter what expression she had on, was anything but ugly! And what was with the extra "so" in his sentence? Does he want to anger her to death?

Others may call her useless, pretentious, narcissistic, irresponsible, selfish, incompetent, pathetic, and many other horrible names, but no one—she repeats—no one—can ever call her ugly!

"I'm… ugly?" Yue Ran looked down at the ground, her voice low. "You actually called me ugly?" She looked back up and glared sharply at Jin Yao.

Yue Ran simply can't understand this type of straight man like Jin Yao. Although she knew that Jin Yao doesn't actually mean it in a bad way since he should have a good impression of her from the looks of his favorability score and just doesn't want to see her sad, as long as one is a girl, none would like to be called ugly!

Being called "ugly" itself is an unforgivable sin!

So she will still bear this grudge to her grave!

"It's no wonder that Jin Yao is only the third male protagonist." Yue Ran complained angrily to Ruan Ruan in her mind. "If a straight guy like him could catch up with the female protagonist, then I might as well just hand over my soul to Lord God on a silver platter!"

Ruan Ruan: !!!

Ruan Ruan, the cute little system, was horrified by his master's words.

"Master, don't say such a thing or you'll jinx it!"

"Hah, as if." Yue Ran scoffed inwardly. "Jin Yao will only succeed when pigs fly."

On the other hand, Jin Yao was stunned. He didn't expect Yue Ran's reaction to his words to be so strong. But before he had time to say anything to correct himself, Yue Ran had already snorted and stomped off.

"Ruan Ruan, give me Jin Yao's current favorability score."

"Okay, Master!"

"Jin Yao's current favorability is 30"

"Jin Yao's favorability toward the female protagonist, Rui Qin, is 65."

"Oh, and Master, Ruan Ruan just found out that this Jin Yao is slightly fearful of women, except for the female protagonist!"

"Fearful of women?" Yue Ran raised a brow while walking into the food court of the university. "Something like that is hidden in the plot, too, huh."

"Ruan Ruan has confirmed that Jin Yao is the illegitimate child of Father Jin, meaning that Jin Yao's mother is Father Jin's mistress, tucked away somewhere but dead." Ruan Ruan twirled around Yue Ran's mind. "This caused Jin Yao to move into his father's home." Ruan Ruan continued, "This was the start of his bad childhood, always getting beaten continuously by Mother Jin, who was officially Jin Yao's "mother" but of different blood, and Jin Yao had to apologize to her after every beating he received from her."

Yue Ran took a sip of the honeydew lime smoothie she just brought and took a seat at an empty table while holding onto her lunch tray, effortlessly balancing everything even in her tall heels.

"Oh, that's it?" She just shrugged at Ruan Ruan's words. "Then why does Jin Yao have such a high affection for the female protagonist?"

"Ah, that's because the female protagonist used to deliver food to the starving Jin Yao when Mother Jin was not around during his childhood, and the female protagonist also took time and effort to comfort him!"

"Oh, so this must mean that Jin Yao must be dependent on the female protagonist." Yue Ran took a bite of her lunch. "So that was why Jin Yao calls the female protagonist "big sister," right?"

"Yes, Master!"

"In other words, Jin Yao actually regards the female protagonist as a family member."

"What?" Ruan Ruan asked in confusion. "Really?"

"Of course not." Yue Ran laughed.

"Master lied to me!" Ruan Ruan grumbled cutely.

"I didn't lie to you." Yue Ran narrowed her eyes. "The answer to your question is yes and no."

"Huh?" Ruan Ruan asked. "Ruan Ruan is so confused."

"Well, to put it simply, the present Jin Yao actually thought that his feelings toward the female protagonist were only ones of family affection, but eventually he would realize that he actually held romantic affection for her instead of a platonic one."

"Oh, now Ruan Ruan gets it."

"Uh-huh, so I have to keep appearing in front of Jin Yao to get him used to my existence until he gets sick of me being there yet feels lost when I'm really not there."

Yue Ran hooked her lips and smiled charmingly. It seemed as if thousands of stars had fallen into her eyes, and her lips were painted scarlet.

☼︎ ✵ ☼︎

The results of the end-of-term exam are out, and Yue Ran was checking her scores from the email sent by her university.

"Wow, Master is amazing!" Ruan Ruan spoke to Yue Ran in an adoring tone.

Satisfied with the numbers beside her courses, she hummed to herself while now checking out the school forum, where only the top ten students of each year with the highest total scores from all their exams would be posted for everyone to see.

Yue Ran scrolled down to the comments section after spotting her name in the first-year list.

"The end of term exam scores are out!"

"Senior Jin Yao is indeed number one again in his year!"

"Senior Jin Yao is really worthy of being a god of learning!"

"Wow!"

"Wait, the results of the first year of university are also posted!"

"What's so good about freshmen's grades?"

"Oh my gosh! Can you believe that the noble young lady of the Yue family actually took first place?"

"Real or fake?"

"Really! You can check it out yourself!"

Although the original body did have a good score in high school, she had only been hovering around the top ten, never getting the first place in every exam.

And now that Yue Ran took first place in her university exam...

☼︎ ✵ ☼︎

An Xiu was also surprised by Yue Ran's rocketing grades. "Jin Yao!" He called out to his friend. "Did you know the little junior girl chasing you took first place in the first year exams?"

Jin Yao stared at An Xiu for a while. "…Yue Ran?"

An Xiu nodded admiringly. "That's right, I really didn't expect that this little Junior Yue Ran is really hidden!"

Jin Yao also never expected for Yue Ran to take first place in the exams. He thought that her study level was only so-so; therefore, he did not see this coming. Apparently, Yue Ran was the same type of person as himself: a straight-A student.

That was when the door to his classroom opened up with a bang and Yue Ran entered with her very own spotlight.

"Yao Yao, I'm here again!" She flashed her ever-so-familiar smile at Jin Yao. "Miss me?"

Yue Ran didn't wear her distinctive Lolita dress today but rather wore a cute white cotton dress, looking particularly pure, lovely, and playful. It was especially so the way she was skipping when walking towards Jin Yao; it was as if a ray of bright light had penetrated through his dark, gloomy world.

"No, I don't miss you at all." Jin Yao's words were as icy as his expression, and he looked completely unfazed. However…

"Jin Yao's favorability +5"

"Jin Yao's current favorability is 35"

Yue Ran's head drooped to the ground; her lips arched up where none could see. Everyone else only thought that she was just too sad to speak. But when she looked back up, all Jin Yao could see was her dim expression.

However, that didn't last long, for it was quickly put away, and she was up and smiling again.

"That's okay; as long as I miss you, everything is fine," Yue Ran said. "But if you have time to spare, think about me too, okay?" She stuck out her tongue playfully.

Jin Yao didn't know how to answer this. If he refused, he was afraid that Yue Ran would be sad, but it was impossible not to refuse, so Jin Yao chose to shut up and keep silent.

Yue Ran stared at him for a while, and when Jin Yao felt almost unbearable discomfort from her look, she pretended to be disappointed and said, "Well, I will try my best to appear in front of you every day; even if you don't think of me, I will still let you see me every day!" She declared. "You will definitely become my boyfriend sooner or later!"

Jin Yao's heart seemed to beat faster at that moment.