For almost the entire night, Jiecheng Yuan tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. She knew she needed to rest up for tomorrow’s great adventure, but no matter what she did, sleep wouldn’t come.

The moment she closed her eyes, that heart-fluttering little peck in the café appeared before her again.

Maybe she should think about tomorrow’s great adventure instead. Right—she was going to school.

She hadn’t spent an entire day sitting in a classroom since graduating high school. Now that she thought about it, she was actually kind of looking forward to it.

She wasn’t worried about the schoolwork at all. After nine years of compulsory education and three years of brutal high school training, any university student who’d fought their way through the college entrance exams could breeze through a bit of middle school material.

What she really cared about was whether she’d see Xiwei Li, her classmate, tomorrow—and, if she did, how she was supposed to talk to her.

And that mastermind wearing the same uniform as her was lurking somewhere in the school, too. Would they secretly pull some stunt to get in her way?

It was time to get her redemption plan underway, but there was no doubt that these problems would hold it back if she didn’t deal with them.

She thought about all of this until a faint glow appeared on the horizon. Only then did Jiecheng Yuan finally manage to drift off.

Three hours later, her phone alarm dragged her out of a hazy sleep. Looking thoroughly unwilling, she got ready to set off on the great adventure she’d spent half the night thinking about.

Before she’d even left the house, she ran into the first obstacle on her great adventure: getting dressed.

All three times she’d gone out yesterday, she’d worn a snug sports bra. It was like a little camisole: all she had to do was figure out which way it went and pull it on.

But that clearly wasn’t a long-term solution. If she was going to accept the identity of Jiecheng Yuan, she couldn’t wear sports bras forever. She needed to wear sports bras, sure, but regular bras too. That was only natural.

Jiecheng Yuan had thought all she needed to do was get over the embarrassment. But when she actually tried to change, she realized the problem went beyond that.

She couldn’t fasten the bra. It was just a matter of hooking the clasps together, but she fumbled with them for ages and still couldn’t manage it.

Maybe she could fasten it first, then pull it on over her head.

It was a lovely idea, but reality was cruel. No matter how hard she tried, the wire around the bottom kept getting caught on her two well-developed pecs. All she achieved was leaving a red mark around herself.

So she tried another way. She hung the bra around her stomach, fastened the hooks at the front, then twisted the whole thing around to her back. Finally, she pulled it up to the right spot and slipped on the straps.

That method worked. It pinched her breasts a little, but at least she got the bra on. Then the bow at the collar of her uniform shirt became a new problem.

She couldn’t understand how the other JKs managed to thread a ribbon through their collars and tie it into a pretty bow. Even after watching the most-viewed tutorial on the otherworldly YouTube and learning the basics, her bow still came out crooked and lopsided, like a little kid’s shoelaces.

From beginner to six feet under, tying a bow took Jiecheng Yuan a full twenty minutes. Now she was running short on time to get to school.

Next, she was supposed to tie up her hair…

After her experience with the bow, Jiecheng Yuan gave up on that idea outright. Who knew how long it’d take to get her hair tied the way she wanted? Besides, wearing it loose wasn’t so bad.

Hmm? Her hair felt a little messy. She’d give it a brush.

Another five minutes went by. The wooden comb yanked out several pink strands, making Jiecheng Yuan yelp in pain again and again, but at least her hair looked a lot smoother than it had before.

At last, all those annoying preparations were done. It was time to head to school for real.

Half an hour later, Jiecheng Yuan had just walked into the classroom when the hands her classmates had raised to greet her froze awkwardly in midair.

“Good morning, Jiecheng. You… don’t look too well. Do you need to take the day off?”

Jiecheng Yuan had looked in the mirror before leaving. She really didn’t look great: dark circles from staying up all night, long hair that was still a little messy even after brushing, and a crooked bow. No wonder everyone had misunderstood.

“Good morning. I’m fine, it’s just… um, I didn’t sleep very well.”

Jiecheng Yuan made up an excuse and walked into the classroom with her schoolbag in hand. Halfway there, she remembered she didn’t know where her seat was at all, so she turned around and went up to the teacher’s desk to look for the seating chart.

“Jiecheng, what are you doing?”

She’d only just reached the teacher’s desk when a stern, questioning voice sounded from the doorway. The other students hurried back to their seats and sat down. Jiecheng Yuan was the only one left standing awkwardly at the front of the room.

Jiecheng Yuan immediately recognized the voice as their homeroom teacher’s. Was her name Shoko or Reiko? In the game, her character portrait was pretty decent, and she was under thirty, but she didn’t get much screen time. She wasn’t romanceable, let alone a character you could pursue—just a named, illustrated bit-part character.

She wasn’t a bad person, but she had a bad temper.

The homeroom teacher walked into the classroom and frowned when she saw Jiecheng Yuan looking a little worse for wear. Her tone softened slightly. “What are you still standing there for? Hurry back to your seat.”

“S-sorry.” Jiecheng Yuan bowed deeply, then headed for one of the two empty seats near the teacher’s desk.

“That’s Xiwei’s seat,” the homeroom teacher called from behind her.

“Did she get a fever and start acting confused?”

“Maybe. Look at those dark circles. She must be sick.”

“I’m worried about Jiecheng. She can’t even find her own seat.”

Her classmates began whispering among themselves.

With the whole class staring at her, Jiecheng Yuan wanted to crawl into a hole from sheer embarrassment. But on the outside, she pretended nothing was wrong, walked around the teacher’s desk, and hurried over to her own seat.

“Quiet.” Once Jiecheng Yuan was seated, the homeroom teacher stepped up to the front of the room. The class fell completely silent.

“Before morning study begins, I have two announcements.” The homeroom teacher paused. “Xiwei will be taking a leave of absence for a while due to health reasons.”

Xiwei? Xiwei Li? A leave of absence?

“Did Li say that herself?!” Jiecheng Yuan sprang up before she’d even settled into her seat. The whole class turned to look at her again.

“Jiecheng.” The homeroom teacher’s invisible pressure bore down on her again, and Jiecheng Yuan could only sit back down, crestfallen.

She didn’t know whether “taking a leave of absence for health reasons” was like those notices manga authors put out when their series got axed by a magazine—a stock excuse. At the very least, the homeroom teacher probably knew a little about what was going on. Maybe she should find a chance to ask.

“The second announcement: a transfer student will be joining our class today. Let’s give her a round of applause.”

Oh, a transfer student. What a tired old trope, used to death in all kinds of stories. Jiecheng Yuan gave a few symbolic claps along with everyone else.

Wait a second. There wasn’t any transfer student in the original story, was there?

The girl who walked in through the classroom’s front door and stepped up to the teacher’s desk wore the same uniform as everyone else. That short silver hair—the kind Jiecheng Yuan might never be able to erase from her memory—appeared before her eyes once more.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Quanshan Baqi, from Shengyoujiu Academy. It’s nice to—”

“You?!” Jiecheng Yuan shot to her feet and swallowed the words that had almost slipped out. But there was no stopping the whole class from turning to look at her.

Three times! Three times!

“Jiecheng Yuan.” The homeroom teacher smiled as she said her full name. The murderous look behind that smile was impossible to hide.

“Get out.”

“Yes…”