Striving for Harmony After Transmigrating as an Alpha Female Supporting Character - Chapter 15

In late autumn, golden fallen leaves blanketed the small town, drifting through windows and landing on yellowed sheets of paper.

Ai Xiaoyu picked up a fallen leaf and tucked it inside her book. She then took a photo with her phone and posted it on social media.

[Ai Xiaoyu: (Image) (Image) If I submit this for the competition, the judges won’t hit me, right?]

Someone replied almost immediately: [They might force you to eat that leaf.]

Ai Xiaoyu let out a couple of chuckles, but then she grew troubled again.

The school’s art festival was approaching, and every class was required to submit work. To make up the numbers, her class required every small group to turn in at least one entry.

Looking at her group, they were into gaming, basketball, and everything else under the sun, but not a single one of them was the literary or artistic type.

Ai Xiaoyu didn’t understand these things either. In her past life, she was just an ordinary accountant who studied science. Aside from being decent at math, she was more “straight” than a stereotypical straight man in every other regard.

She pulled the leaf out again, playing with it as she wondered who should take on this task.

Suddenly, a memory surfaced. In the original novel, Jing Nianxun had a natural talent: painting.

Jing Nianxun’s parents were both artists, one a painter and the other a sculptor, so she had been immersed in art since childhood. Unfortunately, after her parents passed away and she was sent to the Ai household, she rarely touched art again. Her former dreams were buried deep in her heart.

In college, Jing Nianxun focused entirely on revenge, following the original male lead into business. Busy managing companies every day, she had no time for hobbies.

In that regard, it had always been a regret.

When Ai Xiaoyu pushed open Jing Nianxun’s door, the latter was hurriedly trying to hide something. Standing by the desk, Ai Xiaoyu saw a page sticking out from under a book, covered in light pencil marks.

“Can I see it?”

Jing Nianxun hesitated for a moment before pulling the paper out from under the book.

The white paper already had a rough outline. It depicted a view from the window of a tall tree across the way with leaves fluttering down and the ground covered in a golden layer. Beside the tree were a bench, a path, and an old man walking his dog.

It was the landscape right outside the window.

Ai Xiaoyu looked out. The tree, the leaves, the bench, and even the lively brownish-yellow puppy were all incredibly realistic. Though it was just a rough sketch without color, Ai Xiaoyu could feel the beauty of late autumn through the bold yet delicate strokes.

As expected of the female lead! She was a genius!

Ai Xiaoyu felt a rush of excitement, as if she had discovered a hidden treasure. She carefully placed the paper back on the desk and said expectantly, “If you enter this art festival, you’ll definitely win a big prize for our class!”

Jing Nianxun had been worried that Ai Xiaoyu would mock her or say something cruel, but she had not expected such praise. She had never been looked upon with such expectation before. Her face flushed, and she looked down shyly. “I, I didn’t plan on entering. I was just drawing for fun.”

There were a few times in the past when Ai Xiaoyu caught her drawing, only to meet her with heartless ridicule.

“You want to enter a competition with that?” “Heh, someone like you can’t do anything right.”

After a few such incidents, Jing Nianxun had packed away her pens and paper. Along with them, she had locked her dreams in the cabinet.

Ai Xiaoyu thought of this and sighed deeply. The shadow the original host cast over Jing Nianxun was truly significant. It was lucky she had transmigrated, or the female lead would have remained as insecure as she was in the original book forever.

She brightened her smile and said to Jing Nianxun, “It’s really beautiful! It would be such a waste not to enter! Besides, our group can’t produce a decent piece of work. We’re counting on you!”

“Please, pretty please?”

The soft, pleading voice of a young girl was quite effective. Jing Nianxun’s face turned bright red as she immediately agreed. “Okay, okay. But not this one. I might need some time to come up with new content.”

The theme this time was “Autumn Love,” which was perfectly fitting.

Ai Xiaoyu knew that painting required inspiration, so she didn’t rush Jing Nianxun. She told her not to worry and to take her time preparing.

Back in her own room, the System, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly came back to life.

[Mission Accomplished: Get the female lead to participate in the art festival. Entropy +50]

“Wait, this counts?” Delighted by the unexpected surprise, Ai Xiaoyu was in a great mood. “I don’t remember this plot point in the original book? I don’t think Jing Nianxun participated originally.”

“Correct,” the System replied. “That is why it was a regret for many readers. Making up for regrets is one of the important ways to increase entropy. If you can develop the ‘Path of Art’ side quest, your entropy will increase very quickly.”

Her entropy was now at 560. At first, it only increased by 10 or 20 at a time, but now it had jumped by 50, and the speed was picking up. Moreover, since the OOC function was deactivated, she was free to farm entropy.

At that thought, Ai Xiaoyu couldn’t help but curl her lips into a smile. Her goal was world harmony!

Turning into a villain was too dramatic. Why not just study hard and improve every day? Why bother with all the schemes and infighting?

Ai Xiaoyu could now enter and leave Jing Nianxun’s room freely. Though she was still kicked out sometimes on the grounds that the room was too dark, damp, and cramped for a young lady to stay in.

Ai Xiaoyu was considering when to let Jing Nianxun switch to a better room—there were plenty of empty ones on the second floor anyway. However, the System reminded her not to do that just yet. If a superior came to inspect and found Jing Nianxun living in luxury, they might issue another twisted mission.

Recalling the last mission, her lips twitched.

“So you have superiors?” Ai Xiaoyu asked the System tentatively.

“Yes,” the System hesitated before answering. “The world in this book is a space, and your original world is also a space. Beyond that, there is the Main Space where we systems reside.”

It suddenly seemed to realize something and stopped abruptly. “I cannot say more. It is classified.”

“Oh.” Ai Xiaoyu was quite interested in this concept. After spending time with the System, she felt it wasn’t as cold-hearted as she had first imagined. At least she was still alive.

Ai Xiaoyu wandered around Jing Nianxun’s room while the latter was thinking about her entry. Looking around, she discovered a pile of sketches in a cardboard box in the corner.

There were simple sketches, vibrant watercolors, landscapes of the view outside, close-ups of the grey rabbit plushie, and figure drawings.

Ai Xiaoyu pulled out one of the figure drawings. It was the back of a young girl with long twin-tails swinging playfully. She looked lively and cute, wearing a floral dress that swayed in the wind. A fiery red maple leaf had landed in her hair, and the girl was reaching up as if to take it down. Her side profile seemed to be glowing with a smile.

She realized the silhouette looked familiar. The floral dress looked familiar too.

She suddenly remembered something, took the sketch back to her room, and found the exact same dress deep in her wardrobe.

Wait, was the girl in the drawing her?

No, it was the original Ai Xiaoyu. Ever since she transmigrated, she had never worn twin-tails or that floral dress.

But looking at the drawing, Jing Nianxun didn’t hate Ai Xiaoyu. She had even drawn her looking very lovely.

Ai Xiaoyu searched for details on the drawing and finally found a handwritten date and signature at the bottom of the back. It was from three years ago, when Jing Nianxun had first arrived at the Ai household.

Ai Xiaoyu flipped the paper back over. Though she didn’t know much about art, she could tell the brushwork in this piece was indeed more immature.

“I drew that three years ago, when I first came here.”

Jing Nianxun’s voice sounded from behind her.

“I was an only child and was quite withdrawn as a kid. I didn’t have many friends, so I always wanted a sister. When I first saw you, I was actually very happy.”

She didn’t finish her sentence, but Ai Xiaoyu knew what she meant.

Jing Nianxun wanted a sister and thought her cute cousin could be her friend. She had even drawn a picture for her. But that drawing was met with heartless mockery, and her cousin turned out to be nothing like she had imagined.

Ai Xiaoyu wanted to comfort her, but Jing Nianxun’s face suddenly lit up. “I’ve got it!”

“Got what?” Ai Xiaoyu was confused.

“I have inspiration!” Jing Nianxun was excited. “I know what to draw!”

Ai Xiaoyu realized she was talking about the competition entry. “What’s the inspiration?”

Jing Nianxun looked her up and down, then said somewhat shyly, “I’ll need your cooperation, though.”

Ai Xiaoyu suddenly had a very bad feeling.

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