After Transmigrating into a Book, I Was Marked by the Beautiful Mad Villain - Chapter 5

Su Mi: “From the time I was little until now, my grades have never dropped out of the top three in the entire school.”

System: “…”

Su Mi: “Since I managed to cling to the villain’s thigh, I figured the original owner of this body should have been pretty smart too… How could it be like this…”

Su Mi fought back the urge to show a look of utter exasperation in front of Xu Nanqiao.

She carefully examined the original owner’s transcript.

It was clear that during these five years since enrollment, the original girl had never studied properly. However, she seemed to have a decent talent for subjects like mechanics and mathematics; certain subjects that would definitely be failed without serious effort actually had better grades than the easier ones.

Though, “better” in this context did not mean she had actually passed.

But luckily, the female lead was pure-hearted and kind.

Su Mi pursed her lips, putting on a pitiful, aggrieved expression to win Xu Nanqiao over, and then added a heavily embellished backstory about how she truly wanted to study hard and get into a good university.

“…So, I’m really serious about studying this time,” Su Mi clasped her hands in a prayer gesture, tilting her head up and looking at Xu Nanqiao with wide, puppy-like eyes. She added, “I know you’re busy with your own studies, Nanqiao, but you’re the only one I’m close to who is also a good student. I just hope you can help me organize a study plan and solve a few problems for me.”

“I definitely—definitely won’t take up too much of your study time.”

As the blonde girl spoke, her head swayed slightly, and the low twin buns on either side of her head bobbed up and down along with her movements.

She looked at Xu Nanqiao with sparkling eyes, her lips curved upward in an expectant smile.

Xu Nanqiao gripped her chopsticks and let out a sigh. “Alright, it’s not that big of a deal. You’re about to narrate a whole book here. If you used this much talent on your essays, your Chinese grade wouldn’t be where it is.”

Su Mi gave a silly grin.

She didn’t push her luck; instead, she simply grabbed Xu Nanqiao’s shoulder in a sisterly fashion and said, “Thank you so much! I’ll definitely treat you to dinner this weekend!”

Xu Nanqiao: “Aren’t you supposed to treat Ai Yiyi and the others to dinner this weekend?”

Su Mi: “There are two days in a weekend!”

Su Mi enthusiastically finalized the plan with Xu Nanqiao to help her with tutoring whenever she had free time.

After returning to the classroom, Xu Nanqiao gave her a set of third-year Academy mock exam papers.

Afternoons at St. Loran Academy were dedicated to elective courses. Even for the sixth-year students approaching the Unified Exams, the Academy did not interfere with their elective choices. After all, most students here came from wealthy or noble families; about half of them would likely go abroad for further studies and wouldn’t even choose the Unified Exam track.

Even those who planned to take the exams generally didn’t worry about having nowhere to go.

Xu Nanqiao had chosen university preparatory bridge courses. Su Mi flipped through her own schedule and found that the original owner had chosen things like cooking and flower arrangement.

Su Mi simply skipped them and sat in the classroom alone to work on the exam papers.

The high school knowledge from her past life was mostly forgotten, and since the knowledge system of this world was slightly different from her previous one, Su Mi chewed on her pen cap, finding the work quite difficult.

Su Mi recorded a set of her own correct answers on her optical computer’s virtual screen, but on the paper provided by the female lead, she deleted many of her correct answers to ensure the score wouldn’t deviate too much from the original owner’s transcript.

Once she started doing problems, she easily lost track of time.

By the time she lifted her head from the final question of the mock exam, Su Mi rubbed her eyes and checked the time, only to realize that school had been out for over half an hour.

Wait, two hours?

Su Mi fully snapped out of her “study mode,” her mind momentarily dazed.

If she remembered correctly, in the plot of this small world, the male and female leads were supposed to meet today?

Su Mi wasn’t sure if those “sisters” in her group, who were even more of cannon fodder than she was, had gone to corner the female lead again like in the original plot.

She opened her communication software and found the group chat. It seemed the others were discussing a new dessert exhibition that had just opened and were planning to go visit it after school.

Su Mi felt slightly relieved and sent a message to Xu Nanqiao: Nanqiao, have you gone home yet?

Xu Nanqiao replied quickly: On my way home, why?

Su Mi: How are you getting home? Do you want me to give you a lift?

Xu Nanqiao sent a smiling cat emoji: No need, no need. I have to work at the convenience store today, it’s a very short walk.

Walking!

Su Mi asked the system: “I remember you saying that certain major plot points in this world cannot be skipped?”

The system popped up: “Yes, Host. For example, we are currently approaching the plot point where the male and female leads meet ^^.”

As it spoke, the pink pixelated tail of the system’s bubble flickered gently.

It seemed to be in a very good mood.

Su Mi: Tsk.

Although she had warned those “sisters,” Su Mi hadn’t harbored the illusion that her words would definitely bypass this scene.

However, seeing the plot still pushing forward was still quite annoying.

Frowning, she quickly packed her bag and slung it over one shoulder.

As she walked out of the classroom, she called Xu Nanqiao directly.

Xu Nanqiao picked up quickly, sounding confused: “Su Mi, what’s wrong?”

Su Mi: “Where are you? Stay where you are and don’t move. I’ve finished the papers, I’m coming to find you and I’ll drop you off.”

Xu Nanqiao laughed on the other end: “It’s really fine. It’s only a twenty-minute walk. I just have to pass through one small alley and I’ll be there.”

Su Mi: “No…”

Just as she spoke, Su Mi heard Xu Nanqiao let out a startled cry.

“What are you doing?!”

The audio capture of the optical computer was very intelligent; it didn’t transmit the distant voices of others, but it faithfully relayed Xu Nanqiao’s panicked voice.

It sounded like she had been cornered after all.

Su Mi cursed under her breath. She had already reached the underground garage, and she quickly slid into her brand-new sports car and started it.

Switching the car to its fastest racing mode, a sudden surge of G-force pushed her into her seat. Su Mi raised her wrist to her optical computer and initiated Plan B:

The location of Xu Nanqiao, which she had just deduced from the conversation, was sent to the St. Loran Academy security office.

Before the afternoon self-study session, just in case, Su Mi had sent a message to the security office. The content was roughly that she had overheard someone planning to corner a student of St. Loran after school, and gave the approximate location.

Most students at St. Loran were wealthy or powerful, so the security measures were excellent. Su Mi had already touched base with them, and the moment she sent the coordinates, she received an immediate “Received” reply.

What was a twenty-minute walk for Xu Nanqiao took Su Mi only four minutes in her speeding sports car.

Parking the car haphazardly by the roadside, Su Mi jumped out and grabbed a golf club—the one Shen Han had given her—from the trunk.

She followed the map projected by her optical computer.

Back when Su Mi had gotten into the car, the connection with Xu Nanqiao’s optical computer had already been lost, whether intentionally or by force.

The system was clearly a hands-off manager, only providing a brief plot summary without offering any real help.

Su Mi wasn’t in a rush. She calculated the time it would take for the security team to arrive as she turned into an alley. At the end of the corner, she could vaguely see several figures.

Holding the golf club behind her back, Su Mi approached quietly. She saw seven or eight thugs, likely around seventeen or eighteen years old, surrounding the alley entrance.

They hadn’t started fighting yet.

However, according to the original plot, the male lead was supposed to appear right when these people were about to make their move.

Su Mi didn’t get too close at first. The alley was narrow, and being too close would make her easy to spot.

Standing not far from the alley entrance, she pricked up her ears.

—She only heard one sentence.

The lead thug spoke in a weird, mocking tone, saying things about how the female lead served various young masters at the noble academy, and suggesting she should let him “have some fun” now. His words were filled with crude and filthy language.

Su Mi: “…Hey.”

With a dark expression, she emerged with her golf club resting on her shoulder.

Then she raised her leg and kicked the thug at the very back with full force.

The group was huddled close together for some reason. When Su Mi landed that kick, the people in the back lost their balance and fell forward, causing a domino effect that sent several of them sprawling onto the ground in a messy heap.

Su Mi locked eyes directly with Xu Nanqiao and the leader of the thugs at the end of the alley.

“Su… Su Mi!”

Xu Nanqiao looked at her with a pale face and cried out.

Her condition was much worse than Su Mi had imagined. She looked incredibly weak, her face drenched in cold sweat, looking as if she might collapse at any moment.

Beside her, the leader of the thugs seemed to find this amusing and let out a whistle. “Another pretty chick showed up.”

He waved his hand, and the unreliable thugs surrounded the two of them.

“Don’t be afraid.” Su Mi held the club, grabbed Xu Nanqiao’s icy hand with her other hand, and scanned the people around them.

In the original plot, after Xu Nanqiao was cornered by the thugs sent by the original owner, she hadn’t been this fragile; instead, she had delivered a spirited speech about her mental independence and so on…

But more than that, these thugs were different from the ones in the original story.

In the original text, the original owner knew how much Shen Han valued Xu Nanqiao, so the people she hired to corner Xu Nanqiao were just there to talk tough and threaten her.

But the thugs in front of her had cloudy eyes and wore ragged, messy clothes; they looked like aimless drifters from the lowest rungs of society.

Perhaps one of those three “sisters” had some other designs on Shen Han…

After hearing her say she viewed Xu Nanqiao as a sister-in-law, that person must have mindlessly decided to ruin Xu Nanqiao.

As these thoughts raced through Su Mi’s mind, the thug spoke up, confirming her suspicions.

The thug smirked as he looked the two of them up and down. “Hey girl, is this your classmate? Seeing as she can’t handle all this ‘blessing’ from us alone, did you come to join the party? Hahaha, sure thing.”

Another thug added, “She’s even a Beta. What, do you know you can take a harder pounding?”

The thug Su Mi had kicked earlier shouted, “This bitch kicked me just now! Let me go first later, then you guys can have your turn.”

“Fine, you’ll get yours! Now get over there!” the thug in front joked.

The leader laughed loudly. “Listen girl, since you’re in such a hurry to get in here, I can’t have my fun with you first. Your friend is an Omega, I have to mark her first.”

As he spoke, he did something that made Xu Nanqiao, who was hiding behind Su Mi, suddenly tremble and grip Su Mi’s wrist even tighter.

Su Mi calculated the time; she needed to stall a bit longer.

She asked, “Do you know which school we’re from?”

Thug: “Isn’t it that St. Loran Academy? We’ve messed with plenty of girls from St. Loran, hahahaha.”

Bullsh-t.

Su Mi raised her golf club, pointing it straight at the thugs, and asked, “Then why don’t you guess how much this club in my hand is worth?”

One of them spat on the ground. “How much can a girly, broken club be worth…”

Before they could finish, Su Mi said, “100,000.”

Thugs: “…”

Su Mi knew that whoever had sent them to corner the female lead must have guaranteed that she was a scholarship student with no power or money.

But how much could that person have given them? Based on the spending habits of those around her, a few hundred thousand would be the ceiling.

Su Mi said, “I have a golf bag in the trunk of my car with a full set of clubs just like this one.”

“Oh right, I drove a sports car here. A limited edition top-tier model from the world’s top brand, Amissa. They only sell to SVIP customers. Care to guess the market price?”

“Alright, last question. Can you guess what my family does and how much power we have?”

The optical computer on her wrist vibrated twice—a signal from the security office that they were quietly surrounding the area.

Su Mi felt she should take a gamble.

The male lead must be nearby. According to the inevitability of the plot points in this world, some crisis was bound to happen soon to allow the male lead to descend from the heavens.

She had to take the initiative. At the very least, she had to minimize the impact of the male lead’s appearance in Xu Nanqiao’s eyes.

Facing the thug leader’s wavering gaze, which was filled with both fear and a lingering, uncertain ferocity, Su Mi pulled Xu Nanqiao back a bit and patted the back of her hand reassuringly.

Although Su Mi didn’t know how to play golf, she had learned quite a bit of martial arts. She calculated the distance in her mind and, while the thugs were distracted by the expensive club, she swung her wrist with a clever flick.

The club was already pointed at the thug; now, with a horizontal strike—the head of the club slammed hard into the leader’s face.

—Blood and shattered teeth flew from the distorted corner of the thug’s mouth as his head snapped to the side.

Without waiting for the others to react, Su Mi raised her leg and delivered a brutal kick to his groin.

She spun around and, with practiced agility, struck another nearby thug in the face with the club head.

“Su Mi!!!” Xu Nanqiao screamed in terror.

The thugs in the back rushed forward to attack. Su Mi used the golf club like a staff, hitting whoever came near. She knew she didn’t have much physical strength, so she focused her energy on striking vulnerable, painful spots.

As she fought them off, her ears caught the sound of military boots belonging to the security team approaching the alley.

She was just about to turn around gracefully, grab Xu Nanqiao, and pull a “cool girl” ending pose when she heard a scream from Xu Nanqiao behind her.

Turning back, she saw a thug grabbing Xu Nanqiao’s wrist, looking as if he were about to do something terrible.

Su Mi didn’t have time to stop him, but then a figure dropped from the sky from the alley wall. With a crisp, lateral kick, the newcomer sent the thug grabbing Xu Nanqiao flying several meters away.

The boy who landed was also wearing a St. Loran Academy uniform. He had chestnut-colored short hair and a cool, arrogant expression as he supported the tearful Xu Nanqiao.

“It’s okay now,” the boy said.

Su Mi: …

Su Mi: …

Su Mi: …

“System, I want to punch the male lead,” Su Mi said.