Chapter 26.1

Jun Zishu couldn’t help but sigh at the new responsibility she had to uphold.

Jun Zishu took off her glasses and massaged her eyes. Then, she put the glasses on again before getting out of bed and making her way to the bathroom.

Standing in front of the mirror, Jun Zishu found herself looking at a girl around the age of 15. She had short hair and a round face, and she looked very cute. The pair of circular glasses resting on her nose also gave her an intelligent look.

After taking a shower, Jun Zishu adjusted her facial expression and did her best to make herself look dull. Then, she silently left the bathroom.

The body she occupied this time was named Jun Jiayao, and she was the adopted daughter of the mission target’s aunt.

Jun Youran’s aunt, Qin Xiaoman, was incapable of giving birth. Thus, she and her husband adopted a girl from the orphanage, and this girl was Jun Jiayao.

Jun Jiayao’s birth parents had died in a shooting when she was a child. When Qin Xiaoman saw how cute Jun Jiayao was and how pitiful the girl’s life was, she decided to adopt Jun Jiayao as her daughter. As a bonus, the girl also bore the same surname as her husband.

Jun Jiayao had a quiet personality. She didn’t like to talk a lot, and she was quite the natural airhead. Though, she had a very straightforward tongue. Jun Jiayao also had a special talent for going invisible in crowds. She could reduce her presence to an astonishingly low degree.

According to the original timeline, Jun Jiayao would get struck by a loosened advertisement sign and killed on the spot.

However, now that Jun Zishu was here, Jun Jiayao could avoid this fate.

After leaving the bathroom, Jun Zishu made her way to the wardrobe and grabbed a white shirt and a pair of overalls. Then, after changing, she left her room and made her way downstairs.

“You’re awake, Yaoyao? You’re just in time; Mommy just finished preparing breakfast and was about to wake you up,” Qin Xiaoman said as she beckoned at Jun Zishu with a smile. Qin Xiaoman wasn’t the traditional beauty that had a tall and lean body with an oval face. Even so, she had a good complexion that gave her a noble appearance. When she looked at others, she also gave off a warm and amiable feeling.

Jun Zishu nodded to Qin Xiaoman and took a seat at the dining table.

At this time, Daddy Jun was already in his usual seat reading the daily newspaper.

“Your exams will be starting soon. Have you thought of which high school you want to apply for yet, Yaoyao?” Qin Xiaoman asked as she set the cutlery on the table.

Breakfast today was in the Western style. The sunny-side ups were shaped into hearts, and placed beside them were pieces of toast. There was also a bowl of salad on the table.

“I did.”

Jun Jiayao was a third-year middle school student, and she was just about to face her High School Entrance Examination. Before taking the examination, though, she needed to choose which high school she wanted to apply for.

“Which high school do you want to go to? Or do you want to specialize in studying design?”

“No, I want to go to high school first. Then, I’ll aim for the university I want.”

Although Jun Jiayao was still a middle schooler, she loved designing jewelry since she was a child. Moreover, she had been exposed to this industry very early on, thanks to the help of her adopted parents. Although her current works were still immature, they were still much better compared to her peers.

Qin Xiaoman came from the Qin family, and she also worked in the jewelry business. Her husband, on the other hand, was a famous author with a considerably high net worth. Hence, the Jun household lacked neither money nor connections. So long as Jun Jiayao worked hard, her future would be limitless. The only problem was that she had an unlucky fate.

“Have you decided which high school you want to attend, then?”

“I have. I want to go to Yunying High.”

“You want to go there? I thought you would go to First High instead.”

Qin Xiaoman was a little surprised. Chenghai City had several prestigious high schools, and First High was publicly recognized as the best among them. Her daughter had always pursued after the best, so why did her daughter suddenly want to go to Yunying High instead?

While Yunying High wasn’t a terrible school, it was a somewhat special high school.

Most of the students of Yunying High were children of wealthy families. Of course, students from average households attended the school as well. Because of this, students of Yunying High had split into two factions, and the average and wealthy students shared a rather hostile relationship.

Qin Yinman thought that her daughter wouldn’t like such an atmosphere, so she was surprised to hear her daughter choosing Yunying High.

“I want to go to that school.”

“Okay. Since you want to go there, good luck, Yaoyao,” Jun Qi cheered his daughter on after taking a sip of orange juice.

“Do you need Mommy’s help, Yaoyao?”

“No need, Mommy. I can manage by myself.”

“Okay. My Yaoyao is the best.”

[Why not ask for your mother’s help, Host? If your mother intervenes, wouldn’t she find out that the mission target is going to the same high school as you are? In that case, she would naturally help you two get into the same class.]

Little Fairy asked in confusion.

No need to trouble her over such matters. You should be able to hack into the school’s system and place me in the same class as the mission target, right?

[Of course!]

That settles it, then.

[Are you trying to avoid letting the mission target find out about your relationship with her, Host?]

Mhm.

After finishing breakfast, Jun Zishu wiped her mouth and returned to her room.

Through the research Jun Zishu had conducted on the mission target’s personality, she found that Qin Youran was somewhat of a tsundere and a willful young lady. If she wanted to attract Qin Youran’s attention, she definitely couldn’t take the same approach as she did with Ning Qinghuan.

As Jun Zishu mentioned before, some people required one to follow after them and go along with their wishes to befriend them, and some people required one to actively compete against them to attract their attention.

In the latter’s case, becoming the person’s insurmountable opponent was probably the best way to tame them. This was because such people would only ever look ahead of them and pursue those more excellent than them. For these people, only by keeping up with or surpassing them could one keep their attention firmly on oneself.

Recognizing this fact, Jun Zishu decided not to hurry in revealing her identity to the mission target. Instead, she would leave it as a surprise for Qin Youran later on.

Jun Jiayao’s personality somewhat resembled Jun Zishu’s original personality. For example, Jun Jiayao loved to learn and read books. Jun Zishu also loved learning and reading books, to a much greater extent than Jun Jiayao. Thus, it didn’t take much effort for Jun Zishu to familiarize herself with her new role.

After Jun Zishu took a quick look through the books on Jun Jiayao’s bookshelf, she found that most books were related to designing and jewelry illustrations. There was even a book on clothing design.

Subsequently, Jun Zishu spent the entire afternoon earnestly reading through these books.

In the previous world, Jun Zishu had once asked Little Fairy to upload the text file versions of various books into her mind since she spent most of her time doing nothing in that world. However, reading text files couldn’t be considered a pleasant experience at all. Jun Zishu didn’t have a habit of reading text files, either. Thus, she quickly abandoned reading and chose to watch movies to pass the time instead.

Meanwhile, faced with such a studious host, Little Fairy fell into a deep silence in Jun Zishu’s mind.

Jun Zishu did not go out of her way to learn about Qin Youran. She didn’t deliberately approach the girl, either. She only did what she should as Jun Jiayao.

Jun Jiayao’s personality made it so that she didn’t make many friends during grade school and middle school. The only friend she had was a girl she had grown up with at the orphanage.

The girl was called He Bailing, and she had a wonderful singing voice. Apart from being Jun Jiayao’s only friend, He Bailing had another identity, which was the female lead of this world’s story.

Jun Zishu had to admit that the world was filled with coincidences.

In all honesty, Jun Zishu had a rather complicated view of He Bailing. Despite being the female lead, He Bailing was not a white lotus like Pei Xiuyun.

From the beginning of the story until the end, He Bailing remained a girl who constantly strived to better herself. Moreover, during the story’s first half, she was the victim of the male lead’s philandering behavior. Initially, she was unaware that the man trying to woo her was already in a relationship with another woman. Then, when she later found out about it, she promptly distanced herself from the male lead and stated that she only wished to remain as friends.

Unfortunately, He Bailing fell for the male lead’s lies that he didn’t have any relationship with Qin Youran and that the two were only together because of their families’ request. Afterward, the male lead even slandered Qin Youran, saying that Qin Youran had long since found herself another romantic partner.

After pondering over He Bailing’s situation for a while, Jun Zishu eventually made up her mind.

Jun Zishu decided to first maintain friendly relations with He Bailing and become best of friends with her if possible. Then, she would advise He Bailing to stay away from the scumbag male lead, removing any possibilities of the two getting into a relationship and causing the male lead to lose both Qin Youran and He Bailing.

…

Some days later, Jun Zishu found herself sitting for the High School Entrance Examination. When Jun Zishu took her seat and prepared her pen and paper, she couldn’t help but sigh ruefully.

It’s been a long time since I’ve taken an exam, Little Fairy.

[I believe in you, Host!]

I believe in myself as well. Say, what do you think would happen if I accidentally score full marks on the exam, Little Fairy?

Jun Zishu felt that this was a problem. Although the language test’s essay section was an uncertain factor, the test difficulty shouldn’t be too high since this was only the High School Entrance Examination. Hence, she was still confident in scoring full points.

[This… You’ll probably become famous?]

Although becoming the top scorer in the High School Entrance Examination wasn’t as spectacular as becoming the top scorer in the College Entrance Examination, if Jun Zishu scored full marks on the examination, she would still garner a lot of attention to herself. However, considering that she would become famous in the future regardless, Jun Zishu felt that it wouldn’t matter even if she behaved a little willfully now.

With such thoughts in mind, Jun Zishu started earnestly taking her exam.

Science and mathematics were Jun Zishu’s strong points, so she breezed through the tests without a problem.

Of course, Jun Zishu wasn’t weak in her liberal arts, either. Moreover, political history was an open-book test, which significantly lowered the difficulty. She would be fine so long as she remembered which pages contained the necessary answers. Not to mention, she had even made labels beforehand.

Jun Zishu calmly answered all of the questions in her Chinese language test. Then, she began tackling the essay section.

After taking tests for three consecutive days, Jun Zishu finally finished her High School Entrance Examination.

To Little Fairy’s surprise, when she referenced the Department’s database to inspect Jun Zishu’s answers, she found that Jun Zishu had correctly answered every question that had a standard answer.

[As expected of a top student! I think you’ll be creating a miracle this time, Host!]

Having me take such a low-level exam is just overkill. It feels like I’m bullying the other students.

Jun Zishu wasn’t surprised that she had answered everything correctly. There was no way exams of such difficulty could trouble her.

…

The summer vacation that followed the exam lasted two months. However, Jun Zishu still chose not to use this opportunity to approach Qin Youran.

[Why aren’t you taking this opportunity to approach the mission target, Host?]

I have my plans. If you feel bored, you can do something else.

[Okay, then.]

Jun Zishu maintained her pattern of leaving home only once a week. Apart from reading books at home, she would only ever leave to visit a bookshop.

Qin Xiaoman and Jun Qi had long since gotten used to their daughter’s introverted personality. However, unlike Jun Zishu, the two didn’t always stay at home. Instead, they would often travel and enjoy themselves, leaving a maid at home to take care of Jun Zishu’s meals and daily necessities.