After Transmigrating into a Book, I Was Marked by the Beautiful Mad Villain - Chapter 4

The group remained silent for a long while before the messages suddenly exploded:

All Together: Sister-in-law???

Friend C: That’s impossible, right? I haven’t heard anything about the Shen family lately…

Friend Y: Mimi, are you serious?

Su Mi: Shh, don’t tell anyone else. I’ve only told you guys.

The three friends were stunned, seemingly unable to believe it.

System: “Host, if they actually believe this, it might lead to some rather negative consequences.”

Su Mi explained, “I’m just bluffing them to prevent them from causing trouble like they did in the original plot.”

Su Mi spoke very earnestly.

System: “…”

Is that so?

The System felt that its host’s emotional intelligence seemed a bit… off.

If Su Mi, the “foster sister,” was considered Shen Han’s follower, then the three girls in this group chat were Su Mi’s followers. In the original plot, these three were responsible for assisting the original soul in causing trouble. Their families belonged to the second or third tier of the elite class, and they wanted to use Su Mi’s relationship with Shen Han to climb higher into the upper class.

Su Mi continued to bluff the three sisters in the group with vague nonsense for a few more sentences. Seeing that it was getting late, she said goodnight and went offline. She had already cleared her leave of absence in the school system via her optical computer.

Perhaps influenced by her body’s condition, she was exhausted by nine or ten o’clock. She had originally intended to force herself to stay up and brush up on common knowledge of this world, but the drowsiness was irresistible, and Su Mi fell asleep early.

The next day, awakened by the smart alarm clock, Su Mi finished washing up and stared at the messy “bedhead” hair in the mirror with distress. The original owner likely spent a significant amount of time every morning restyling this blonde hair, but Su Mi had not mastered the skill of curling hair.

Su Mi asked tentatively: “System, what do you think of my hair…?”

System: “Character OOC (Out of Character) deviation: 10%.”

Su Mi: Fine.

She searched for related hairstyles and spent over ten minutes struggling in front of the mirror before managed to tie her hair into low double buns. The stray hairs of the pale blonde girl were all tucked into the buns. Su Mi shook her head, and the small buns behind her ears swayed along with her—it was actually quite cute.

After confirming with the system that her persona had not deviated, Su Mi went downstairs satisfied.

When she arrived at the dining room, her younger brother was sitting in his high chair while Wen Zisu fed him spoonfuls of vegetable porridge. As soon as Su Mi sat down next to him, the little brother raised his small spoon: “Sister, sister, sister feed Xiao Yi.”

He wore a sky-blue bib, and a scrap of vegetable leaf still hung from the corner of his mouth. His dark, clear eyes, like grapes, looked at Su Mi with anticipation. Su Mi thought she would be a bit of a germaphobe, but facing her brother’s chubby little face, her heart softened. She wiped the leaf from Xiao Yi’s face with a tissue and then gave his soft cheek a big kiss.

“Sister needs to eat. Xiao Yi, be good and drink your porridge, okay?”

“Oh!” Su Yi raised his spoon and nodded. “Xiao Yi eat by himself!”

Wen Zisu laughed from the side and pinched Su Yi’s cheek. “Xiao Yi, do you like your sister this much after her differentiation? What do you want to be in the future, an Omega or an Alpha?”

Su Yi, not yet two years old, blinked. “Ome… ga,” he still struggled with the words, stammering, “What is that?”

The mother, Su Ciyu, sat at the head of the table drinking coffee. She was dressed in comfortable beige casual wear, but her aura was very piercing. Hearing this, she curled her lips and said, “Wen Zisu, it would be strange if Xiao Yi could actually answer that.”

Wen Zisu laughed and replied.

Su Mi lowered her head to eat her shrimp and vegetable porridge, listening to the bickering of her “parents.” She was in a pretty good mood. However, her contentment didn’t last long before Su Ciyu addressed her: “Su Xiaoya, how are you feeling today?”

Su Mi: “Quite good.”

She had adapted well to the original owner’s nickname.

Wen Zisu urged her with concern: “Even though there are only two Alphas in your class, you still need to be careful at school. According to the Omega differentiation period, your glands are still unstable. We told your teacher that your glands were somewhat stimulated during the differentiation process, so your body will be more fragile. You must be careful and avoid strenuous activities.”

Su Mi obediently agreed.

Su Ciyu walked over and handed Su Mi an exquisite velvet box. Su Mi opened it to find a star-shaped earring. She looked at her mother in confusion.

Su Ciyu said: “Remember Auntie Fu’s daughter? She works at the research institute and specially rushed to make this customized pheromone shield for you. It was delivered early this morning. Make sure to thank her later.”

Su Mi touched the earring, which seemed to be made of a special metal; it felt icy to the touch, quite strange. She tilted her head back, letting Su Ciyu put the earring on one of her ears. The warm touch of fingers brushed past her earlobe and then let go, followed by a gentle pat on Su Mi’s head.

“Watch out for yourself,” Su Ciyu said calmly.

Su Mi rubbed her earlobe unnaturally and hummed in agreement.

After breakfast, Su Mi drove her new car to school. The new limited-edition sports car, which was only available to VIP customers, was driven at a snail’s pace to the underground garage of Loran Public School.

By the time Su Mi reached the classroom, there were already many people there. The original owner’s popularity was as good as indicated on the social network. She followed the newly acquired memories, greeted her classmates with a smile, and found her seat.

It was directly behind the female lead, Xu Nanqiao.

Xu Nanqiao had arrived early and was sitting at her desk solving problems. As Su Mi passed by her, she stopped and took a look.

Good, a problem I don’t understand.

Su Mi reached out and waved her hand between the book and Xu Nanqiao. The bead bracelets she wore on her slender white wrist—following the original owner’s habits—clattered and swayed.

Xu Nanqiao looked up and saw it was her. Her eyes curved as she said, “Su Mi, good morning.”

Su Mi pulled a piece of chocolate from her bag and placed it in front of her. “My family just bought this chocolate; it’s very delicious. Try it… consider it an apology for saying the wrong thing yesterday.”

She pressed her hands together and blinked sincerely at Xu Nanqiao.

Recalling yesterday’s events, Xu Nanqiao gave a soft snort and said, “If you paid more attention in class, things like that wouldn’t happen.”

Su Mi said she understood. Once she sat back in her seat, the sisters she had chatted with in the group yesterday immediately leaned over from across the aisle, gesturing toward Xu Nanqiao’s back with curious expressions.

“What, do you want some candy too?” Su Mi asked.

The original owner had been friendly to the female lead before, but never to the point of giving specific greetings and gifts.

Su Mi tilted her head in confusion: “What? Oh…”

She acted as if she had just realized something and lowered her voice. “She’s quite shy. Seriously, don’t spread this around; I’m only telling you.”

Having said that, she took several more pieces of chocolate out of her bag, returned to a normal volume, and said with a smile, “I brought some for you guys too! I just finished my differentiation; shall we go out for a meal this weekend to celebrate? By the way, what do you think of my new earring?”

Su Mi chatted amiably with the girls until the morning self-study began. Only then did she have time to flip through her textbooks. Upon opening them, Su Mi felt a sense of disbelief.

Su Mi: If I remember correctly, the sixth grade at Loran Public School is equivalent to the twelfth grade (senior year) in my world, right?

System: “Yes, Host. The unified examination here is equivalent to the college entrance exam in your world.”

Su Mi: “…”

She shook her brand-new, pristine textbooks.

Su Mi: “With the original owner’s academic progress, was she planning to take the unified exam on sheer passion alone?”

But she didn’t need to ask to know. The original owner was definitely relying on the “villain’s” influence. The Holy Cross College where the villain was currently enrolled was a private university with shares held by the Shen family; it wouldn’t be difficult to get the original owner in through special admission. After all, the villain was very generous.

Su Mi sighed. However, she couldn’t stand the thought of being functionally illiterate.

The System’s presence remained very weak most of the time, quietly watching Su Mi study the school coursework all morning. During the break, the System asked: “Host, do you have a plan?”

Su Mi: “I have a rough one.”

The System sent a smiley face: “I wish the Host success.”

The little AI didn’t seem to have much curiosity.

Su Mi said “rough” because she felt that as a “human” performing a task involving her own survival and that of the world, she couldn’t simply divide it into stages or set quantitative goals like she would for a test or a project.

Currently, it was known that Shen Han’s blackening value fluctuated only in relation to the female lead, and there were only two known influencing factors: one was the female lead going to the Southern Court to read to Shen Han, and the other was the plot mention of Shen Han blackening after witnessing the romance between the male and female leads.

According to the nature of romance novels, if Shen Han and the female lead achieved a Happy Ending, the crisis of the world’s destruction would be resolved.

But… Su Mi had thought about it for a long time last night and felt she couldn’t gamble too much on a field she didn’t understand: romance.

Based on the current information, the best approach was to make the female lead “fall in love” with Shen Han, or at least not become as resistant as she was in the original plot, to ensure Shen Han’s blackening value decreased steadily.

Thus, there were three things she could do. First: build a good relationship with the female lead to ensure she could understand the female lead’s attitude toward the male lead and the villain as closely as possible. Second: ease the relationship between the female lead and the villain, trying to let them discover each other’s strengths and creating scenarios to increase the possibility of them falling in love. Third: disrupt the development of the emotional line between the male and female leads in the original plot; it would be best if the original plot points didn’t happen, and if they did, she had to involve herself to interfere with the heart-fluttering moments to the greatest extent.

Su Mi remembered the System mentioning once that the world’s consciousness would ensure that important plot points didn’t deviate significantly, but the definition of “significant deviation” was unclear. This plan of action was a bit passive, but it was like playing a game—one had to master more information and data before being able to clear more levels.

After the morning classes ended, Su Mi declined the lunch invitation from the three-sister group. She leaned over her desk and poked the back of Xu Nanqiao, who was still working on problems.

When Xu Nanqiao turned around, Su Mi rubbed her cheek awkwardly, looking a bit shy, and said, “Nanqiao, I have an unreasonable request and I’d like to ask for your help. Ahem, I’ll treat you to lunch and tell you slowly, okay?”

Seeing her acting this way, Xu Nanqiao couldn’t help but ask in confusion, “Su Mi, why do you seem a bit strange after your differentiation?”

Su Mi straightened up: “You know I’ve differentiated… anyway, let’s go, let’s go to the cafeteria.”

She grabbed Xu Nanqiao’s arm and stubbornly dragged her to the Third Cafeteria, the best one in Loran Public School. The Third Cafeteria had the best taste and the highest prices. Xu Nanqiao refused to let Su Mi pay. After getting her own food and sitting in a booth with Su Mi, she finally asked, “Tell me, what is it?”

Su Mi cleared her throat.

“I’ve differentiated into a Beta, right? Before this, I always thought I would definitely be an Omega. My goal was Holy Cross College, thinking I’d just study some insignificant major and get a diploma to get it over with.”

“—But! After hearing you talk about your aspirations yesterday, I thought about it for a long time when I went back,” Su Mi suddenly looked up, her eyes firm. “I feel that heaven letting me differentiate into a Beta must be to ‘bitter my heart and soul, and toil my muscles and bones,’ so that I would suddenly wake up before the crucial elective exams and re-determine my future.”

“So, I want to be like you and test into Capital University! But you know my grades; you have the best grades of anyone around me, so I want to ask you for some advice.”

After Su Mi finished, she looked at Xu Nanqiao with sparkling eyes.

Xu Nanqiao remained silent for a long time. She raised her wrist and tapped several times on her optical computer. Since the holographic screen had an anti-peep function, Su Mi watched expectantly.

Soon, Xu Nanqiao swiped the floating screen forward, sharing it with Su Mi. It displayed a statistical record of Su Mi’s grades since she entered the school. Next to it was the admission cutoff for Capital University.

The difference was several hundred points.

Xu Nanqiao knit her fine brows and said with great sincerity: “Su Mi, actually… actually, you’re quite suited for the learning atmosphere of Loran and Holy Cross, right?”