The Fake Girlfriend is Online - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The New Deskmate

“Holy crap! That’s brutal?” After hearing the story, the seniors couldn’t help but curse in front of the younger girls. It was the first time they had heard of someone daring to act like that in front of Li Yulan.

The girl nodded, then shook her head: “Yeah, at the time we thought it was incredibly cool! I heard that after that, Mu Jinxuan successfully evolved into the ‘Number One Sister.’ She’s hit instructors, got tattoos, and had her ears pierced. Her grades, which were in the top ten at admission, have plummeted. I didn’t expect her to be so fierce at basketball, too.”

The seniors watched Mu Jinxuan in the center of the court, constantly switching between scoring and provocation mode, unsure whether to pity her or her opponents.

Soon, the second quarter ended. Mu Jinxuan was subbed out for the third. In her own words, it was to “give the opponents a chance to score,” showcasing her sheer arrogance.

However, she had the capital to be arrogant. She returned for the final quarter and secured victory with an overwhelming advantage.

Coming off the court, Mu Jinxuan took a bottle of water handed to her by a girl from an unknown class and gulped it down, the cheers of her classmates ringing in her ears. This was actually Mu Jinxuan’s first time playing a serious basketball game with others. Her style—constantly going solo—showed she didn’t know how to cooperate; she only knew how to dribble past people, jump, and shoot. Fortunately, her skills were exceptionally good.

After drinking, Mu Jinxuan noticed a girl staring at her. She raised a hand to touch her face; there shouldn’t be anything on it, so why was she staring?

“Classmate?”

“Ah? Oh! Your homeroom teacher wants you to go to his office.” The girl, whose height only reached Mu Jinxuan’s chin, quickly lowered her head, her face turning slightly red. She grabbed her friend and ran off.

Mu Jinxuan tightened the bottle cap. Am I really that scary? Running away so fast.

The November weather was already a bit chilly. While playing on the court, she hadn’t noticed it, but now that her body was cooling down, a cold breeze blowing through the hallway gave her actual goosebumps.

Mu Jinxuan rubbed her arms. For basketball, she had specifically worn a short-sleeved hoodie paired with sweatpants. She thought about going back to the classroom to get a jacket, but the office was to the west and the classroom to the east—she was too lazy to run back.

She decided to speed up her pace to get to the office sooner and finish the conversation so she could go back and put on a jacket.

“Mo Ran, you really… how did you get into a car accident right before school started? Luckily it wasn’t too serious, or you would have had to take a year’s leave.”

As Mu Jinxuan passed the stairwell, she overheard fragments of a conversation.

“Xiao Xi, it’s fine. Didn’t I come to report today? It was just a fracture, nothing big.”

Mu Jinxuan clicked her tongue. From the sound of it, she’d been recovering for two months and still called a fracture “nothing big.” A real “iron leg.”

Mu Jinxuan walked further away until she pushed open the office door, and the voices faded.

“Reporting.”

“Come in.”

Li Fei, the homeroom teacher of Class 1, Grade 10, was currently looking down at test papers. Hearing the voice, he looked up, capped his fountain pen, and signaled for Mu Jinxuan to sit opposite him.

Although Li Fei was a male teacher, he taught Chinese and possessed a refined, scholarly air. Occasionally wearing long robes, he looked like a traditional schoolmaster. He had been delayed during the start-of-term military training and hadn’t been at school. Otherwise, with his spirit of advocating for freedom, he would have been the first teacher to oppose the mandatory haircuts. After hearing about the Mu Jinxuan incident in his class, he often called her for heart-to-hearts, saying things like, “Jinxuan, I know you’re a good girl, I believe your soul is still pure, don’t do things you’ll regret…” hoping to pull her back to the right track.

“Jinxuan, take a seat first.” With that, Li Fei began rummaging through his cluttered desk.

The moment Mu Jinxuan sat down, she felt a gust of cold air. There was a window wide open diagonally across from her. The cold wind, laced with the chill of autumn, crept in bit by bit. Seeing Li Fei frowning and searching for something, she couldn’t bring herself to interrupt. She knew roughly why he had called her here.

After experiencing the Grade Director Li Yulan at the start of term, Mu Jinxuan had basically lost hope in the school’s teachers. However, once when passing the Grade Director’s office, she had heard an argument inside, and her opinion of her homeroom teacher Li Fei had immediately risen.

At that time, Li Fei had just arrived at school after finishing his business and heard about the new school rules. He had gone to the Grade Director in a rage, demanding the rule be abolished.

“Why make the children cut their long hair? Doing this is smothering their nature! Their nature to love beauty! Their nature for imagination!”

Although Li Fei couldn’t change the will of the entire school leadership on his own, Mu Jinxuan still admired a teacher who dared to fight the “Rakshasa” (the she-devil) for his students. Later, Li Fei would occasionally call Mu Jinxuan to his office for long talks. At first, she resisted, but over time she grew used to his nagging and care.

“Ah, finally found it.”

Mu Jinxuan’s thoughts returned as Li Fei pulled out a test paper.

As expected, it was the physics paper from the mid-term exams.

“Jinxuan, I remember your physics score on the entrance exam was quite good, wasn’t it? Why have your physics scores been so poor every time since school started?” Li Fei was patient, wanting to have a proper talk about this.

“No reason, I just didn’t know how to do them.”

“I know you’re a smart kid. Don’t develop a prejudice just because Director Li is your physics teacher. Learning is your own business, and taking the university entrance exam in the future is also your own business. You can’t ruin your own future.”

Mu Jinxuan kept eye contact with Li Fei. Actually, he wasn’t wrong; half the reason she didn’t study physics was indeed because of Li Yulan.

The Grade Director, Li Yulan, was unfortunately assigned as the physics teacher for Class 1. The students sat bolt upright in every physics class, while Mu Jinxuan either slept face-down or looked at extracurricular books. Naturally, as the city-renowned “Rakshasa,” Li Yulan wouldn’t let this bad behavior slide. But Mu Jinxuan’s “cooperation” made her feel like her punches were hitting cotton. No matter how Li Yulan punished her—confiscating books, making her stand, writing self-reflections, or copying texts—Mu Jinxuan complied perfectly. Eventually, Li Yulan gave up on managing this “school bully.”

Naturally, Mu Jinxuan’s physics grades plummeted, but her image in front of the whole grade evolved successfully, gaining her more and more “fangirls.” After all, she was the only one who dared to oppose Li Yulan so blatantly.

“Jinxuan, you need to understand what you are doing. You can’t gamble with your destiny out of spite. In the future, you might meet someone like Teacher Li Yulan again who forces you to do things you don’t like. You can’t always express your resistance by sacrificing yourself.” Seeing that Mu Jinxuan seemed to be listening intently, Li Fei began a long lecture.

However, Mu Jinxuan, who was mistaken for listening intently, was actually just staring at Li Fei in a daze, only wanting him to finish quickly so she could go back and wrap herself in a jacket. The wind from the window blowing over her sweat-dampened skin was truly cold.

Mu Jinxuan’s head ached; Li Fei repeated the same few lines every time.

“Reporting.” A clear voice from the doorway saved Mu Jinxuan.

“Are you Teacher Li Fei?”

“Ah, yes I am. Does this student need help?”

Mu Jinxuan slowly turned her head to look at the girl leaning against the door.

The girl with a bob cut was leaning on crutches against the doorframe, wearing a pink backpack. Her large eyes were currently looking at them with a smile. Her height, at least 165cm, made the girl supporting her look petite.

“Hello, Teacher. I am Qing Mo Ran from Class 1, Grade 10. I’m here to report today.” The girl smiled and, with her friend’s help, slowly shuffled toward Li Fei on her crutches.

Mu Jinxuan watched Qing Mo Ran’s difficult movement and stood up, intending to offer her seat, but Qing Mo Ran waved her off.

“This is my friend, An Xiao Xi. She accompanied me to collect my textbooks,” Qing Mo Ran pointed to the girl beside her.

“Oh, you’re Qing Mo Ran. I heard you had an unfortunate car accident right when school started. Is your body okay now?” Li Fei remembered after a bit of thought.

“I’m fine, though I’ll have to use crutches for a while. But don’t worry, Teacher, I definitely won’t let it interfere with my studies.”

“I’m mainly worried your body won’t hold up. In that case, don’t just stand here. Collect your books and go back to the classroom to sit and rest.” With that, Li Fei rummaged through his cabinet for the textbooks he had kept for Qing Mo Ran.

Li Fei placed the textbooks on the desk, looked at the three girls standing before him, and had a sudden flash of inspiration. “Jinxuan, why don’t you help Mo Ran carry her books back? Since you don’t have a deskmate right now, let Mo Ran be your deskmate. Mo Ran’s entrance exam score was the highest in the grade; you two can help each other.”

Li Fei nodded with great satisfaction. He was truly brilliant. Placing Mu Jinxuan next to a top student and “good girl” like Qing Mo Ran would surely help her find her old self again, and they could help each other in their studies.

Hearing this, Qing Mo Ran didn’t think much of it, as she didn’t know the school bully Mu Jinxuan at all. But An Xiao Xi beside her was different.

“What? No… that might not be a good idea? Our Mo Ran will be a big bother to Student Mu.” An Xiao Xi’s attempt to refuse changed course the moment she looked at Mu Jinxuan. She didn’t dare speak ill of the school bully to her face.

“And what does Jinxuan say?” Li Fei asked for Mu Jinxuan’s opinion.

Mu Jinxuan shrugged indifferently. She only wanted to go back and put on clothes; she didn’t care about deskmates.

And so, under An Xiao Xi’s worried gaze, Qing Mo Ran was honored (unluckily) to be appointed as the school bully’s new deskmate.

After sending Qing Mo Ran to the classroom, An Xiao Xi originally wanted to give her a few warnings, but she went silent upon seeing Mu Jinxuan. She could only leave a meaningful look before returning to her own class.

Mu Jinxuan lay on her desk, pulling the hoodie cap over her head, staring incessantly at her new deskmate’s leg.

“Student Mu, is there something wrong?” Qing Mo Ran asked politely.

“Did you break this leg in a car accident?” Mu Jinxuan asked with a frown.

“Yes, I accidentally got hit while crossing the road before school started.”

“Is that so? Then you really weren’t careful.” After saying that, Mu Jinxuan turned her head and fell asleep on the desk.

Perhaps she could fool others, but Mu Jinxuan had sustained many leg injuries since childhood and had seen plenty of broken legs. The girl was a bit too green to fool her; her acting wasn’t good enough. This leg might have been injured or fractured once, but it was definitely mostly healed by now—at least enough to not need crutches. As for why Qing Mo Ran was lying, she had absolutely no interest in knowing.

The two students sitting in front of the school bully felt cold sweat on their backs upon hearing her ambiguous tone, wondering how this new girl had already offended her.