Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Back then, my brother was in the kitchen frying eggs.

The moment my words fell, he turned off the heat first, then turned around to look at me.

“Why?”

His brows knit slightly, cool and indifferent.

His first instinct was still the same:

“Did a teacher bully you? Or a classmate?”

I shook my head.

“Everyone’s been great. Teachers and classmates.”

Right now, the school my brother had arranged for me was an expensive private middle school.

The campus vibe was relaxed, with hardly any academic pressure.

But when you graduated, studying abroad-or getting recommended straight into a good university-was basically guaranteed.

The school I wanted to transfer to, the public high school where the male lead was, was famous for being brutal.

The academic pressure there was notorious.

And so was its admission rate to top universities every year-whether through competitions or the National College Entrance Examination.

I said the school’s name.

My brother immediately understood.

He said there was no need.

“You don’t have to go suffer through that kind of studying.”

Then he said, flatly:

“Whether your grades are good or bad won’t affect your future at all.”

Of course, I couldn’t tell my brother about the plotline.

Or about the existence of the male lead and the female lead.

So I could only use “studying” as an excuse to persuade him.

I tugged at the hem of his shirt.

“But I want to have something to strive for, too.”

It was the first time my brother had ever been so hardline about anything involving me.

I wore him down for a full half month.

Only then did he finally handle the transfer paperwork for me.

The first day I transferred into the new school,

I saw the male lead.

Under the teaching building, there was a huge grade-wide ranking board.

His photo sat right at the very top.

In a crowd of straight-A kids with glasses and acne, he was the one who stood out the most.

Lips pressed thin, brows lowered-cold to the bone.

No wonder the bullet comments hyped up the male lead’s face like that.

His name was Jiang Yilin.

Jiang Yilin was in his first year of high school.

I transferred laterally into a second-year middle school class.

We were too far apart-different grades, different buildings.

There was basically no chance for us to meet, let alone interact.

That wouldn’t work.

I’d moved in early because I wanted to “snatch” his romance before it could happen.

To cut off his relationship with the female lead.

My brother’s side was a dead end.

So I could only work on Jiang Yilin’s side instead.

If Jiang Yilin already had someone else he loved before he ever met the female lead,

then maybe his obsession wouldn’t run so deep.

Then he wouldn’t get jealous.

He wouldn’t clash with my brother head-on.

And he wouldn’t end up hurting my brother.

In the first two years after I transferred,

aside from one thing, I did nothing but study.

That “one thing” was this:

I would deliberately bring different types of pretty girls from school and appear in front of Jiang Yilin with them-again and again-just to force my way into his field of view.

To see what kind of girl he’d react to.

To see whether he could be pulled off course.

There were already more than enough pretty girls at this school.

And Jiang Yilin-this heaven’s chosen prodigy-was too eye-catching.

Even in a top-tier key school with an oppressive atmosphere, the number of people who liked him was only higher, never lower.

I refused to believe that only that “fated” female lead could catch Jiang Yilin’s eye.

My appearances were so regular that even Jiang Yilin’s friends started to recognize me.

Whenever I showed up, they’d shout and tease him on purpose.

“Brother Jiang, that little junior’s here looking for you again!”

“She’s chasing you this hard-how can you not even give her the time of day?”

I hated the way they said it.

Yes, I was deliberately getting close to Jiang Yilin.

But I was never going to like him.

Ever since the year the bullet comments appeared, the male lead-Jiang Yilin-had been like a Sword of Damocles hanging over my brother and me.

The plotline kept pushing forward, step by step.

I was terrified that one day, he really would hurt my brother.

I didn’t just dislike him.

I hated him-more than I even had time to hate.