"I don't understand. I can't accept it. Everyone says it's my fault—what, am I supposed to feel sorry for Lin Xiao'ai now?"
"Ji Jiang is my boyfriend. I'm prettier than Lin Xiao'ai, better than her in every way. So when did everyone start looking at me with disgust—whispering behind my back like I'm some wicked rich girl?"
Qiao Wei stood at the edge of the rooftop, staring blankly down below. Her voice was hollow and trembling.
"Because of Lin Xiao'ai, Ji Jiang broke up with me. My friends left me. They all went to her. The Ji family crushed and swallowed up the Qiao family. I, Qiao Wei—once a pampered heiress—am now so broke I can't even afford next semester's tuition."
"My mom blames me. My dad yells at me, says I shouldn't have fought Lin Xiao'ai for him. What a joke! Ji Jiang was my boyfriend—how is that me 'stealing' him? She's the one who took everything from me!"
With her head held high, Qiao Wei stood tall on the rooftop—this might be her last bit of pride.
She took a small step toward the edge, her eyes hollow, tears falling one by one.
"The world doesn't need me. Maybe… I don't need to exist either."
Five minutes later…
A flat, emotionless voice spoke up behind her.
"Why haven't you jumped yet?"
The sudden voice startled her so badly she nearly toppled forward.
A warm hand grabbed her wrist, pulling her back to safety.
Her knees trembled as she steadied herself, realization flooding in—someone had heard her.
Anger quickly replaced fear. She yanked her arm free.
"Mind your own business!" she snapped, glaring at the person—then froze when she saw who it was.
"You! Bookworm—you were eavesdropping!"
"I was listening quite openly," the girl replied, adjusting her black-rimmed glasses.
Her name was Yun Xin.
Well—A Xin now. She had woken up in this body because of Qiao Wei's desperate wish, striking a strange deal to help her "change her fate."
Why she agreed, she wasn't even sure herself. She just… had.
Qiao Wei wiped her tear-stained face, scowling through her red eyes.
"You came to stop me from jumping?"
"No," said A Xin flatly. "I came to see you jump."
"You—bookworm, you're awful!" Qiao Wei sputtered, then frowned thoughtfully.
"No… you're lying. You pulled me back. You did stop me. You're just pretending not to care."
"Why would you stop me anyway? Wouldn't it be better if I jumped? No one likes me anymore, no one cares!" Her voice cracked as she sobbed again. "I have nothing left. I can't even pay my tuition. At school, people laugh whenever they see me. At home, my mom screams in my face and my dad—he's always drunk, always saying he raised a useless daughter."
"Everyone says I deserve it, that I brought this on myself…"
She crouched down, crying uncontrollably. "And now even you—you're just here to laugh at me, aren't you?"
A Xin crouched in front of her, expressionless, voice calm and even.
"You're ranked top twenty in the grade. You speak English fluently. You can play piano and dance ballet. On stage, you shine like a queen. You're sixteen—young, talented, lucky. What's there to cry about?"
"Think of the little girl selling trinkets on the street in the freezing cold, or the one washing dishes in a restaurant, or the factory girl who isn't even allowed to go to school because she was born a daughter."
Qiao Wei stopped crying, stunned.
Did… the bookworm just say she was fortunate?
"Instead of sitting here asking why, maybe go do a few more practice problems. Qiao Wei, the final exams are coming up. Drop out of the top twenty, and they'll call you something worse—'failure.'"
The word failure made Qiao Wei go pale.
"And didn't you sign up to perform ballet at the New Year's Gala?" A Xin continued. "If you don't practice, and you make a mistake on stage, the whole school will laugh at you."
Qiao Wei covered her ears, face turning ghostly white.
A Xin pulled out a tissue and calmly wiped the girl's tear-streaked face.
"Look at you—eyes swollen, nose running. You're a mess. It's ugly."
That jolted Qiao Wei to her senses. She reached for her bag—but realized it was still in the classroom.
"Do you have a mirror?" she asked urgently.
"No."
"Phone?"
A Xin pulled a small, old-fashioned phone from her pocket and handed it over.
Qiao Wei froze. A flip phone?
"You… use a senior phone?" she gasped. "How am I supposed to check my reflection with this?"
"Smartphones are bad for studying," A Xin said matter-of-factly.
"Figures. Total bookworm."
The cold wind swept across the rooftop, making Qiao Wei shiver.
Somehow, her mind cleared.
If Yun Xin hadn't grabbed her… she might have really jumped.
But now? She didn't have the courage anymore.
"Do you really think I'm… talented?" she asked softly.
"Everyone hates me. If even one person stood by me, I wouldn't have come here." Her voice broke again. "I didn't even do anything that bad—just scared Lin Xiao'ai a little. The bad stuff I thought about, I never actually did. If I had, maybe I wouldn't feel this miserable now."
"My parents think it's all my fault. Even them! I'm their daughter—shouldn't they believe me? Ji Group crushing Qiao Group—it was just an excuse. I was the perfect scapegoat."
A Xin didn't answer. She just opened her backpack and pulled out two thick exercise books.
"Thinking so much won't help. Doing problems will. I brought your homework up here."
Qiao Wei stared at her, speechless.
A Xin handed her one of the books—with Qiao Wei neatly written on the cover—along with a pen and scratch paper. Then she sat cross-legged in the corner and started working on her own exercises.
The sight was so absurdly normal that Qiao Wei forgot to cry.
After a moment, she sighed, sat beside her, and opened the workbook too.
She did two questions, then glanced over.
A Xin was flying through problems without even using scratch paper, her pen moving in clean, confident lines.
No wonder she's the top student in the whole grade, Qiao Wei thought, half amazed, half jealous.
By the time Qiao Wei finished five problems, A Xin was already turning the page, completely focused.
Somehow, the quiet rhythm of studying calmed her. She bent over her paper and kept writing.
When the class bell rang, A Xin stood up. "Let's go. P.E. is over."
"Oh…" Qiao Wei blinked down at her work—she'd done a full page, faster than usual.
But then she remembered what waited in the classroom: the stares, the whispers, the people she hated and feared.
Her heart shrank again. She stayed frozen in place.
"Legs numb?"
"No…"
"Planning to skip class?"
"No…"
She lowered her head, bitterness welling up inside her.
How pathetic… once the school's princess, and now I can't even face a classroom.
A Xin sighed, grabbed her wrist, and hauled her to her feet.
"Do you realize how much time you've just wasted standing here? In the time it took you to hesitate, I could've finished two math problems. Another minute—four problems. How many problems will you lose to hesitation in one day?"
Qiao Wei clutched her workbook, on the verge of tears again.
Could this girl not mention practice problems for five seconds? Didn't she see how depressed she was?
Still, she let A Xin drag her back to class.
Everyone else avoided her now anyway. Yun Xin was the only one who'd even looked at her today.
Even if she was a socially oblivious bookworm, she wasn't cruel.
They returned to their seats—and only then did Qiao Wei notice: Yun Xin sat next to her.
They were desk mates.
Had they always been?
How had she never realized before?
She glanced at Yun Xin's plain, neat clothes and remembered—Yun Xin was one of the scholarship students, admitted for her perfect grades.
Just like Lin Xiao'ai… except better.
Yun Xin had won every single top scholarship the school offered.
Back when Qiao Wei was still the adored heiress of the Qiao family, she'd never looked twice at someone like that.
Now, as she glanced around the classroom, the same "friends" who used to cling to her quickly turned away, pretending not to see.
Her chest tightened.
"This is chemistry period," Yun Xin said evenly.
"Instead of standing there, you could review last class's content. The teacher likes to call on students for equations."
She opened Qiao Wei's textbook, marked a few key points, and slid it toward her.
"Memorize these."
"Oh…"
Qiao Wei looked at her desk mate—at her calm, serious face—and for the first time in a long while, she smiled.
Maybe the bookworm wasn't so bad after all.
When the bell rang and the teacher called her name to answer a question, she didn't panic.
She lifted her chin, walked to the blackboard, and wrote out the chemical equation perfectly.
As she returned to her seat, Qiao Wei glanced at Yun Xin—still expressionless, still taking notes—and gave her a small, grateful smile.
For the first time in forever, she didn't feel completely alone.