Striving for Harmony After Transmigrating as an Alpha Female Supporting Character - Chapter 14

Ai Xiaoyu took a deep breath and knocked on Jing Nianxun’s door.

Knock, knock, knock.

A long time passed without an answer; there was not even a sound from inside. Just as Ai Xiaoyu was about to leave, the door finally opened. Jing Nianxun’s hand was still on the doorknob, and her eyes were faintly rimmed with red.

Ai Xiaoyu closed her eyes and asked, “You heard everything just now?”

Jing Nianxun did not answer. She sat back down in the chair at her desk, facing away in silence. Her back radiated anger, yet there was also a sense of lonely desolation. Ai Xiaoyu pulled the door shut behind her. As she turned around, she saw Jing Nianxun’s shoulders trembling slightly.

Ai Xiaoyu knew that her apology might be useless. She could not replace the original Ai Xiaoyu to make up for those past mistakes. The original host never intended to apologize, and those wrongs were not the kind that could be fixed with a simple apology. She could only hope to face Jing Nianxun as a new identity, an independent person. Perhaps they could become friends.

With this thought, Ai Xiaoyu truly realized that the world she was in was far more than just a book. The people here laughed, cried, loved, and shed tears; everything here was real.

Ai Xiaoyu called out to the System in her mind: “Can I tell anyone that I transmigrated here?”

The System was startled by her idea and immediately issued a stern warning: “You must not let anyone discover that you are not from this world! Otherwise, the mission will be declared a failure, and you will face the death penalty. We initially set the OOC function to ensure players adhered to their roles and to prevent the world from collapsing. The lifting of the OOC restriction is based on your completion of certain tasks, granting you a degree of freedom. If you choose to rebel against our mission, we can only say that we are sorry.”

Ai Xiaoyu fell silent. If that was the case, she did not know how long it would take for Jing Nianxun to forgive her, or if she ever would. She placed a hand on Jing Nianxun’s shoulder, feeling the tremors, and said, “What I said just now was the truth.”

After a long silence, Jing Nianxun whispered, “I know.”

“I feel strange,” Jing Nianxun frowned slightly. “You are very different from before, but the person standing in front of me is still you. Maybe, maybe.”

Maybe what? Maybe she could be forgiven? Maybe they really could be friends?

Jing Nianxun did not finish her sentence; perhaps she did not know the answer herself.

Though Jing Nianxun’s room was small and dimly lit, it was kept spotless. A small cactus sat on the windowsill, looking vibrant green in the single beam of sunlight filtering through. Next to the pillow was the grey rabbit plushie. Having been repaired at the doll shop, it looked brand new, and its three-petaled mouth looked quite adorable.

On a whim, Ai Xiaoyu said, “I can make little clothes for your rabbit! I have not done it in a long time.”

In her original world, she used to mend her own clothes whenever they tore, and she especially loved making outfits for small plushies.

Jing Nianxun looked puzzled. “You know how to make clothes?”

Was she not the pampered young lady who never lifted a finger? Ai Xiaoyu realized she had let something slip. Luckily, the OOC function was deactivated, otherwise, she would be hearing a barrage of warning beeps right now.

“Um, I learned it in a school club during middle school. It was pretty fun.”

Jing Nianxun had not attended the same middle school as her, so she had no way of knowing which clubs Ai Xiaoyu had actually joined. She finally nodded. “Then, thank you.”

After receiving the suppressants, Ai Xiaoyu’s rut symptoms were not very obvious. Aside from a few sudden moments of discomfort where she asked Jing Nianxun to bring her the medicine, nothing much happened. She kept a close eye on Jing Nianxun’s reactions, but every time the girl came near her, even when helping with the suppressant, Jing Nianxun showed no strong reaction. She only seemed to avoid her slightly, perhaps recalling the time Ai Xiaoyu bit her gland.

Under Madam Ding Chengying’s persistent persuasion, Ai Xiaoyu stayed home for a week before finally returning to class.

Outside the classroom, she spotted her two lackeys, Baldy and Pattern. When the two stood there, other students bowed their heads and walked around them.

Baldy saw Ai Xiaoyu first and let out a couple of chuckles. “Sister Ai! We heard you were not feeling well and went home. Did something happen? If anyone messes with you, just tell us, we will definitely.”

Pattern tugged at his clothes, signaling him to stop talking. Baldy did not understand what was happening until he saw Jing Nianxun standing beside her.

Jing Nianxun stepped out from behind Ai Xiaoyu and gave them a cold sweep of her eyes. Surprisingly, Baldy felt a chill from the gaze of this girl who usually seemed fragile.

“This.”

Baldy blinked rapidly, eyeing the two of them. Ai Xiaoyu was holding a black umbrella that was still dripping with water, while Jing Nianxun had nothing in her hands. It was clear they had shared an umbrella to school. Furthermore, Ai Xiaoyu’s backpack charm was a small orange cat, and Jing Nianxun’s was a small grey rabbit; they looked like a matching set bought recently.

So, what exactly was their relationship?

A bad premonition rose in Baldy’s heart. Was Jing Nianxun not supposed to be the person Ai Xiaoyu hated most? In their first year, she had even told them to bully her!

Ai Xiaoyu said coldly, “I am telling you one thing: Xiao Xun is my elder cousin. If you ever dare to do anything to her again, do not expect to stay here anymore!”

Her voice was not loud, but it was powerful. Baldy and Pattern immediately broke into a cold sweat, stammering that the previous incident was just an accident and would not happen again.

Even Ai Xiaoyu felt her words were a bit dramatic, but she had not expected them to be so effective. She paused and continued her announcement: “Also, starting today, do not come looking for me anymore. I, Ai Xiaoyu, am going to study hard and turn over a new leaf. As for that group of yours, what was it called again?”

Baldy reminded her, “The Princess’s Knights.”

Ai Xiaoyu’s eyelid twitched; she only wanted to get rid of them. “Right, that group. It is disbanded. Everyone go home to your parents and study hard. Try to get into a good university. Good luck!”

Just like that, the lackey squad, which Ai Xiaoyu had formed in her first year to carry her bags, corner people, and do her homework, was disbanded and sent home to study. Whether they actually studied or not was unknown, but at least Ai Xiaoyu finally had some peace.

Meanwhile, Jing Nianxun’s attitude toward her gradually improved. That embarrassing Knights group was like a symbol of the old, spoiled Princess Ai. After it disbanded, Ai Xiaoyu lost her backup force, but she became more confident.

That afternoon, there was a class meeting, and it happened to be organized by their group. Because Ai Xiaoyu had been home for a week, she had no idea about it. The content and PPT were prepared by the other two girls in her group.

The theme was “Classmate Relationships,” arranged by the teacher to see how everyone was getting along. The content was quite boring; many students were dozing off or finishing the previous day’s homework. The girl organizing the meeting realized no one was listening and came up with an idea.

“How about this? Let’s play a game. Everyone take out a piece of paper and write down two names. The first is the person you dislike the most, and the second is the person you like the most. If there is no one, just write None. These are anonymous, so do not worry about being found out!”

The students perked up at this. They tore scraps of paper from their notebooks and looked around the room, wondering who to write down.

Jing Nianxun stared at the words “Dislike the Most” and decisively wrote Ai Xiaoyu’s name. As for “Like the Most,” she did not know what to write, so she eventually wrote “None.”

Jing Nianxun was responsible for collecting the slips from the fourth row. She took her own slip and started collecting from front to back. Because some people were indecisive, she slowed down. The girl on stage began to rush them, so she quickened her pace.

When she reached Ai Xiaoyu’s desk, Ai Xiaoyu had already finished and was napping on her desk. Jing Nianxun resisted the urge to peek at the paper, but before she could pick it up, a gust of wind from the window blew it onto the floor.

As she bent down to pick it up, she saw a portion of a character: “寸” (Cun).

Guo? Dui? Shu? There did not seem to be anyone in their class with those names.

Finally, while counting the names on the slips later, she could not help but pull that specific piece of paper out. The handwriting was easy to recognize. Whether it was from living under the same roof or being seatmates, she was very familiar with Ai Xiaoyu’s writing. Ai Xiaoyu’s characters were not perfectly neat; there were hints of cursive, but they were square and quite cute.

Behind “Person I Dislike the Most,” it said: None.

Behind “Person I Like the Most,” Jing Nianxun bit her lip, her heart racing as she looked at the name.

Why? Why had Ai Xiaoyu written her name under the person she liked the most?

Jing Nianxun tucked the slip away and then found the one she had written herself. She stared at the name “Ai Xiaoyu” for a long time before finally tearing it into pieces.

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