After Transmigrating into a Book, I Was Marked by the Beautiful Mad Villain - Chapter 17

The boy speaking blocked the entrance to the activity room, his voice intentionally loud and boisterous. His academy uniform jacket was draped sloppily over his shoulders, obstructing the male lead’s path into the room.

Looking past the boy’s shoulder, the male lead stood at the doorway, backlit by the corridor lights, his expression unreadable.

“Hey, Gu Yansheng, you gone mute?”

The boy continued his provocation.

Gu Yansheng—the male lead—shrugged his shoulders. “Say whatever you want.”

He brushed back his chestnut-colored short hair. His brows were sharp like swords, and his eyes completely disregarded the boy’s presence. He turned sideways, attempting to enter the activity room, but his gaze paused for a moment when it swept over Su Mi and the other person standing inside.

Then, he was shoved hard on the shoulder by the boy.

—Gu Yansheng didn’t budge an inch.

He looked up, his expression perfectly composed as he looked at the boy and asked, “Classmate, is there anything else?”

The boy froze for a moment before reacting with a sinister sneer. “Nothing. I just felt like standing here.”

Gu Yansheng said good-naturedly, “You’re blocking my way.”

The boy burst into laughter. “You didn’t answer just now, so I thought you were mute. Turns out your ears just don’t work. Were you deafened by those dozen slaps from the Head of the Gu family? I heard you were forced to kneel for several nights, so your legs probably don’t work well either. Since you don’t need to walk anyway, how about you crawl through my legs?”

His voice was very loud. After this back-and-forth confrontation, he had already drawn the attention of most people in the activity room.

Including Xu Nanqiao’s.

Xu Nanqiao watched for a moment, appearing somewhat puzzled, and asked, “That boy… didn’t he also show up back when we were being cornered?”

Su Mi quickly denied it: “Was he? I can’t really tell. Let’s step back a bit so we don’t get caught if they start fighting.”

She grabbed Xu Nanqiao and pulled her back firmly.

Please, the male lead was a “pig eating the tiger” type of character—clearly capable of solving things himself, yet always waiting for the female lead to appear before delivering the face-slap.

Su Mi watched the commotion warily.

After being insulted like that, Gu Yansheng made no move, his voice indifferent: “Student Han, logically speaking, Han Xin is your namesake. If you want to reenact the classic ‘humiliation of crawling between legs’ here, you should be the one doing it…”

He paused, then added with feigned realization, “Oh, sorry, I forgot Student Han’s Chinese score was only fifteen. You probably don’t know that allusion.”

The boy named Han froze, then flew into a rage. He had intended to take advantage of the chaos to humiliate the male lead, but he hadn’t expected this “fallen tiger” to be so arrogant.

Relying on his large build, he raised his fist, looking as if he was about to strike the male lead.

Xu Nanqiao cried out anxiously, “Su Mi! They… they’re going to fight!!”

In the original plot, before it reached this point, the female lead would have stepped in to lecture the antagonist.

Was the male lead really not going to react?

Su Mi felt a headache coming on. Pressing Xu Nanqiao down, she said, “Stay back a little, I’ll go check it out.”

Claiming herself as a Beta and having a powerful backer behind her, she stepped forward.

“Han Yuxiang, are you here for the dessert competition? How much longer are you going to cause a scene? This place is—eh?”

As she neared the doorway, Su Mi suddenly froze.

Because Han Yuxiang’s body was stiff, leaning back slightly.

And right in front of him, less than ten centimeters away, was a sharp dagger.

…?

Wait a minute, why is there a dagger in school??

Su Mi looked at Gu Yansheng, who was holding the knife, in a daze.

Gu Yansheng’s tone was kind, the blade in his hand reflecting a bright light as he explained, “Sorry, I thought Student Han didn’t know the story of the ‘humiliation of crawling between legs,’ so I wanted to demonstrate the allusion for him. I didn’t mean anything else.”

He retracted the dagger and smiled slightly, nodding toward Han Yuxiang. “Since Student Su has come to intervene, I wonder if Student Han will give her this face?”

Su Mi also turned to look.

Han Yuxiang was breaking out in a cold sweat. He swallowed hard, looked at Su Mi with a sense of creeping dread, and nodded. “Of—of course. I’m leaving now.”

Gu Yansheng calmly stepped aside to let Han Yuxiang pass.

Since Han Yuxiang’s large frame had been blocking the view, the people in the classroom likely hadn’t seen Gu Yansheng pull out a dagger. In their eyes, it appeared that Su Mi had stepped forward and driven the troublemaker away with just a few words.

Su Mi felt the male lead was a bit off and didn’t want to stay with him for long. Before turning to leave, she couldn’t help but ask.

“Why would you bring a dagger to school?”

Gu Yansheng’s expression was steady and composed as he said, “Because I signed up for the dessert competition, and I was worried that if someone made a cake and didn’t bring anything to cut it with, I should bring my own knife.”

Su Mi: “…”

Rarely acting perfectly in character, she rolled her eyes and turned back to Xu Nanqiao.

Xu Nanqiao was completely unaware of what had just happened. She was curious and praised, “Su Mi, you’re so amazing!”

Su Mi kept a stiff face: “It’s nothing. Let’s hurry and finish the dessert. We can go back and do some practice papers after we submit our work.”

At the mention of studying, the female lead’s attention shifted.

She glanced toward the male lead once more before following Su Mi to take out the ingredients they had brought.

The competition lacked any professional rigor. Su Mi and Xu Nanqiao had researched together the night before and decided to bake cookies and make some chocolate products—simple and fast.

As Su Mi processed the ingredients, her mind wandered.

In the original plot, the male lead didn’t seem to have this kind of personality.

In the early stages, he was supposed to be exceptionally indifferent to the world. Even when various “cannon fodder” characters mocked him to his face, he wouldn’t take it to heart, choosing instead to slap them back through other means.

It was precisely because of this “pig eating the tiger” disguise, combined with the rumors circulating in the academy about his transfer, that the female lead felt pity for him, thinking he was a poor soul just like her, out of place in this prestigious school.

So, the male lead shouldn’t have reacted so… intensely to a minor character’s taunts.

Su Mi felt the male lead was a bit OOC (Out of Character).

After a long period of work, they put the cookies in the oven and the chocolate in the blast freezer.

With about an hour left until completion, Su Mi and Xu Nanqiao went downstairs for a walk and found a self-study room to work on some problems together.

When they returned to the activity room, the timing was perfect. They packed the desserts into prepared boxes, handed one over to the activity department member in charge of the competition, and prepared to leave.

Before they could step out of the room, they heard a voice from behind: “Wait a moment.”

Turning around, they saw the male lead wearing a cartoon apron.

Gu Yansheng, standing over 1.8 meters tall, was wearing a pink floral Hello Kitty apron stained with various colors of cream.

He smiled and asked, “Are you heading back already?”

Su Mi was wary: “Yes.”

Gu Yansheng said, “There’s still some time before school ends. Are you going to the study room? Could you wait for me so we can go together? The midterms are next week, and my teacher just highlighted some key points. It seems like we didn’t cover that specific point in class, so it would be a good chance to study it together, Number One in the Grade?”

The last part was directed at Xu Nanqiao.

Su Mi thought to herself: How cunning!

This excuse was hard to refuse, not just for the top student Xu Nanqiao, but even for herself.

She turned to look at Xu Nanqiao, who looked surprised and asked Gu Yansheng, “You know me?”

Gu Yansheng shrugged. “Aside from me, you’re the only other special-status student. You’ve been exactly one rank above me on the rankings every time since you transferred two months ago. Of course, I’m impressed.”

He looked every bit the noble, clearly skilled at pretense. Su Mi remembered his cool and aggressive movements in the alley and the cold gaze he held while wielding the dagger just now.

Looking at his warm, gentle smile now, she immediately felt inferior to the male lead’s acting skills.

Evidently, on that day in the alley, Xu Nanqiao had been so disoriented by pheromone stimulation that she didn’t remember Gu Yansheng’s final appearance.

She thought for a moment and said with realization, “So it’s you. I seem to have some impression, but…”

Xu Nanqiao turned back to look at Su Mi and mouthed: Should we go together?

Su Mi: …Alpha and Omega are different… forget it, I want to hear the key points too.

She nodded: “Let’s go, let’s go.”

Gu Yansheng also submitted his work, carrying his cake box as he walked with them to the study room.

After a long afternoon of self-study, aside from benefiting greatly, Su Mi had only one thought: As expected of an elite heir raised by a great family.

While his presence wasn’t as overwhelming as Shen Han’s, he was smart, had high EQ, and even the cake he baked was delicious!

Compared to most of the playboys in the academy, Gu Yansheng was like a breath of fresh air.

If a male lead like this really wanted to develop something with the female lead, Su Mi was worried she wouldn’t be able to stop it.

Except…

Su Mi finished the last bite of the cake, feeling a bit confused.

It seemed her two attempts to interfere with the plot were quite successful? Otherwise, why did it feel like there were absolutely no sparks between the male and female leads right now?

Su Mi couldn’t quite figure it out, but it didn’t matter.

After finishing their study session, they shared the cookies and chocolates they made with the male lead as a reward for providing the key study points.

Gu Yansheng thanked them with excellent manners and looked ready to savor them properly. He put a piece into his mouth—

His expression froze in a strange way.

Su Mi: ?

It wasn’t hard to see that the speed at which Gu Yansheng chewed the cookie was incredibly slow. Then, as if refusing to believe his senses, he took a spoonful of the lava chocolate. After putting it in his mouth, he showed a very overt, indescribable expression.

He said sincerely, “I wish you success.”

Xu Nanqiao was clueless: “Huh?”

Gu Yansheng spoke very politely, saying, “As far as I know, in the history of the dessert competitions held by St. Loran Academy, no one has ever failed to receive a prize… you two might create a miracle.”

Su Mi: Got it.

She secretly tasted a bit of what should have been the lava chocolate Xu Nanqiao made. Upon entry, a strange salty taste swept through her mouth.

Why was it salty? I didn’t bring any salt with the ingredients today!!

Su Mi struggled to swallow that piece of chocolate for a long time, recalling the original plot. It seemed the female lead indeed had no scenes involving cooking in the story.

She silently touched the two portions of chocolate in her bag.

One was made by herself, intended for her family.

The other was Xu Nanqiao’s.

She glanced at the message she had sent to Shen Han two hours ago.

: Sister, do you like chocolate? : Nanqiao took me to participate in a dessert competition. We made some, do you want to try them ^^?

Shen Han hadn’t replied.

But since quite a bit of time had passed, she couldn’t retract the message either.

Could she pretend she forgot about it?

In Su Mi’s somewhat cliché understanding, chocolate was a gift that could convey feelings. If someone you liked made chocolate and you got to eat a bite, you would surely be very happy.

She had only thought about getting Shen Han to eat a bite to “wake her up,” but forgot to consider whether the chocolate actually tasted good.

Before Su Mi could figure out how to gloss over the topic, a new message popped up on her terminal. It was from Su Ciyu, who sent a link titled something like “Hot Spring Resort.”

Su Mi didn’t open it, asking what it was.

Su Ciyu then made a phone call. Su Mi waved to Xu Nanqiao and the others and stepped out of the study room to answer.

It turned out that a business partner of the Su family had opened a new members-only hot spring resort on a mountain in the suburbs of the capital. It was opening for a private trial run next week. It just so happened that Su Mi would be finished with her exams, so she could go there to relax.

Su Ciyu had also heard from Wen Zisu about how hard she had been studying lately and added some words about balancing work and rest.

Su Mi thought about bringing Xu Nanqiao along and agreed tentatively, saying she would check the time later.

These two matters distracted her. Su Mi closed her terminal and just as she returned to the room, she saw Xu Nanqiao and Gu Yansheng leaning close together looking at a problem.

A handsome boy and a beautiful girl in an empty afternoon study room—it was a beautiful sight—

Su Mi coughed, went over, and very warily separated the two.

“Nanqiao, don’t you have a part-time job later? Let’s go, I’ll drop you off.”

Su Mi enthusiastically pulled Xu Nanqiao away, saying goodbye to Gu Yansheng in the process.

Walking downstairs, Su Mi’s eyes caught something, and she suddenly stopped.

How come that car parked under the office building next door looked so familiar?

Immediately after, a group of people walked out of the office building. Next to the middle-aged man leading the way was a woman in a simple, sharp shirt and trousers, with a decisive aura and her long hair tied up high. She had her sharp jawline tilted as she talked to someone. That woman was perhaps, likely, probably…

Su Mi quickly pulled Xu Nanqiao.

She was very excited.

“Nanqiao, my sister came to see you!”

Turning to look again, in the center of the group, Shen Han had already finished the conversation. With her hands in her pockets, she was looking over from a distance.

The people around her were all a meter away, as if she were isolated in a vacuum zone.

Shen Han raised her hand and gave a small wave.