Maintaining the Dignity of the Female Supporting Character

Chapter 5

Wen Shuangmu was about to complain when she suddenly remembered that she was in a novel world. Perhaps Wu Xiaoqi's seemingly chuunibyou but actually insightful character laws might have some practical reference value after all.

There weren't many empty seats left in the class to choose from. Wen Shuangmu stopped hesitating and walked over to sit down, half-observing her "back row by the window" neighbor as she did so.

His face was buried in the crook of his arm, making it impossible to see his features.

But she had to admit—

This guy had something about him.

Even though Wen Shuangmu hadn't read as many novels as Wu Xiaoqi, if she combined the few campus romance novels she'd read in her two lifetimes, she could still sum up a couple of story tropes. Characters who slept right under the teacher's nose on the first day of school were usually either the male lead or the second male lead in novels.

However, no matter how much Wen Shuangmu stared at the back of his head, she still couldn't recall ever seeing such a character in their class before.

Meanwhile, Wu Xiaoqi's focus had strangely shifted: "Host, you've actually read romance novels before?"

Wen Shuangmu was still studying her neighbor's head and absently replied, "Mm, I've read a few campus-themed ones."

Wu Xiaoqi fell into deep thought: "That doesn't make sense... According to your settings, you should have more high-end, expensive hobbies. Isn't reading romance novels a bit out of character for you?"

Wen Shuangmu clicked her tongue in annoyance: "What's wrong with wanting to read stories to fantasize about me and Su Qiyan?"

Wu Xiaoqi: "...I see."

That was very fitting for a female supporting character.

Wen Shuangmu studied the person across the aisle from his sneakers to his hair, but still couldn't glean any useful information.

Just then, a boy in a short-sleeved casual shirt ran down from the front row to the window seat: "My God, you've been sleeping here? I've been looking outside for you this whole time."

Wen Shuangmu was surprised to discover that this boy shaking the desk was Wang Chengshuo, who had placed second in their recent placement exam.

In her memory, Wang Chengshuo was quite aloof, respectfully called "Shuo God" by everyone, with a somewhat superior air about him. She had heard that Wang Chengshuo was closer to the students in Class 7 downstairs, but she had never seen him so familiar with any classmate before.

The sleeping guy remained motionless despite Wang Chengshuo's various pushes and shoves. After a good few seconds, he finally managed to prop himself up with difficulty.

From Wen Shuangmu's angle, she could vaguely see the boy's pale knuckles flash by, seemingly rubbing his forehead where his short messy hair had been flattened from sleep. His wrist pressed against the side of his face, still obscuring his features.

Wang Chengshuo said, "Why don't you move to the front? I saved you a seat."

"No way, where else could be as low-key and safe as my spot here?"

The boy's tone was very slow and lazy, unclear if it was his natural speaking speed or if his brain was still rebooting from sleep at a low speed.

It was quite an ordinary sentence, but Wang Chengshuo laughed as if something had tickled him: "Come on, sit with me. You'll have someone to give you answers during class."

"...That's true." The other paused for a while, as if weighing his options, before asking, "Where's the seat you saved?"

"Fourth column, second row."

This time the voice rejected without mercy: "Goodbye, go play by yourself."

Wang Chengshuo laughed even harder: "Then how about I ask someone to switch so I can move to the back?"

Before Wen Shuangmu could get a good look at her seatmate's true appearance, fearing Wang Chengshuo might ask her to switch, she quickly took out her water bottle and went to the water dispenser at the back to fill it up.

Wen Shuangmu deliberately moved very slowly, still keeping an eye on that side with her peripheral vision.

Wang Chengshuo had probably guessed that her hasty departure was related to not wanting to switch seats with him. He calmly turned to negotiate with another classmate in front.

His attitude wasn't forceful, but when asking for a favor, he also didn't act in a way that made people feel close to him. It was the same personality that Wen Shuangmu had known and understood before.

Only now there was a new variable that made him treat someone differently—

Wen Shuangmu finished filling her bottle and walked back. A few male classmates returned from the library carrying textbooks, making the already noisy atmosphere even more boisterous.

It seemed Wang Chengshuo's negotiations had been successful, as he went to the front to get his bag.

The "back row window seat" classmate still appeared drowsy, lazily leaning back in his chair and yawning.

As Wen Shuangmu approached, the angle at which she could see the boy's profile gradually changed from 30° to 45°, 60°...

When Wen Shuangmu finally got a clear look at his face, she stopped in her tracks with a subtle expression.

Although she knew about the butterfly effect.

But all she did was borrow a pencil during the placement exam, right? At most she forgot to return it. How did that turn a character who didn't even have a scene with her in the original novel into her classmate?

Wu Xiaoqi was also surprised that before Wen Shuangmu had completed a single task after her rebirth, the original novel's content had already started to deviate. He conscientiously suggested: "Host, maybe you should return that 2B pencil after all."

Wen Shuangmu was thinking the same thing. She took out the pencil from her pencil case. It had been over a week since the placement exam, and Wen Shuangmu suspected he might have forgotten about her. As she was pondering how to start the conversation, the boy seemed to notice his seatmate standing motionless in the aisle from the corner of his eye and glanced over.

"Ah, you."

The same two words Wen Shuangmu had blurted out when they accidentally made eye contact through the floor-to-ceiling window of the off-campus restaurant after the exam.

Realizing he recognized her, Wen Shuangmu promptly held out the pencil and said, "Thanks for the exam."

"You're welcome."

The boy's expression didn't change much, as if he wasn't surprised to see her here.

After taking the pencil, he naturally twirled it once between his fingers, then suddenly added, "But classmate, isn't your score a bit too good?"

"?"

Wen Shuangmu didn't quite understand, assuming he was complimenting her: "...It's okay, thanks."

The boy put the pencil in the drawer without elaborating further.

Seeing Wang Chengshuo returning with his backpack, Wen Shuangmu turned and left the classroom, heading for the restroom.

Wang Chengshuo put his bag down at his new seat and casually asked, "You know that girl?"

There were quite a few students from Bowen School in the experimental class, but she didn't look like she was from their middle school.

"Mm, she sat next to me during the placement exam." Lu Jing's fingers curled against his forehead, unable to keep his eyes open, and he slumped back onto the desk.

Wang Chengshuo laughed and poked his arm: "Still sleeping? What were you up to last night to be this tired?"

"Possessed by a ghost." Lu Jing adjusted his head to find a comfortable position. "I'll sleep a bit more, wake me up when class starts."

Wang Chengshuo: "...?"

The first two periods on the first day of school were self-study sessions.

After the new books were distributed, the homeroom teacher and Chinese teacher, Liang Jie, made some minor adjustments to the class seating based on height.

Wen Shuangmu was tall, so she and a few others in the back rows didn't move much.

When the teacher called out names from the roster, Wen Shuangmu finally learned her seatmate's name—

Lu Jing, a student from Class 7 in the original novel.

This name wasn't actually unfamiliar to Wen Shuangmu.

She had heard it many times in girls' gossip.

If Class 7 was known as the most playful and rowdy class in Mingli High's freshman year, then Lu Jing was like the core of these "troublemakers."

Sometimes when Wen Shuangmu walked along the school paths, she would encounter students from Class 7.

She never had a good impression of the boys from that class. They liked to walk in gangs, making a grand entrance, and often created a big commotion thinking they looked cool when in reality they just looked ridiculous.

Of course, the most crucial point was—Liu Yiheng was also in Class 7.

Influenced by Liu Yiheng's naive teenage crush, nearly half the boys in Class 7 started to worship Xia Zhili as their goddess.

Wen Shuangmu couldn't stand how their love spread like a virus, even becoming contagious. As a result, every time she saw Class 7 students from afar, she would choose to avoid them directly. She really couldn't understand how Wang Chengshuo, as a top student, could hang out with these people.

Later, overhearing conversations among the girls in her class, she learned that Lu Jing was actually the ringleader of the gang—

He had an innate ability to attract crowds, the moon among the stars.

Those who didn't know him wanted to know him, and those who knew him loved hanging out with him the most.

At the time, Wen Shuangmu thought he was probably just throwing his weight around based on family background, looks, or some other superficial qualities. She had absolutely no desire to meet him.

Now that she saw him in person.

She still didn't know enough to judge his character or have any perception-altering revelations.

She could only say that his face was truly handsome.

Wen Shuangmu asked Wu Xiaoqi, "Does the system have a feature to unlock the original novel's plot?" She suddenly realized that her lack of scenes with Lu Jing didn't necessarily mean he had no other roles in the original text.

Perhaps Lu Jing was also one of the "gradually becoming Liu Yiheng" army, harboring an unrequited love for Xia Zhili.

As the progress bar loaded, a streak of blue light flashed through Wen Shuangmu's mind, and a thick book automatically opened and flipped its pages.

Wen Shuangmu maintained a motionless posture for two seconds: "So all these dense mosaics are...?"

Wu Xiaoqi righteously declared: "The host's destiny needs to be changed by oneself. Unlocking the plot is equivalent to leaking exam questions. To prevent the host from gaining without effort, key plot points have been subjected to confidentiality measures."

"..." Wen Shuangmu had seen nothing of substance and directly asked Wu Xiaoqi to put the book away.

Five minutes later, Wu Xiaoqi thought the matter was over, but Wen Shuangmu still wasn't ready to give up trying to extort more information. She blurted out: "You don't need to tell me the specific content, just give me a general idea. Does Lu Jing appear much in the original book's plot? Is he one of the main male characters?"

This time Wu Xiaoqi wasn't too stingy: "Not much. You can refer to Wang Chengshuo's screen time for a specific idea of his appearances."

Wu Xiaoqi remembered that the host might not know how much screen time Wang Chengshuo had, so it corrected itself: "Refer to math teacher Zhou Quan."

"..."

Wen Shuangmu's expression could only be described as lost for words: "What was the author thinking, setting up a bunch of important characters just to have them make cameo appearances?"

"The original author has a habit of writing series. Any character in the novel will have a lot of blank spaces left in their story. The host needn't take it too seriously," Wu Xiaoqi said. Then, thinking of something, it added, "Come to think of it, this is also a great benefit for reborn hosts. If you can uncover and develop hidden big shots, it will be extremely convenient for you to complete your tasks."

Wen Shuangmu nodded thoughtfully, but soon found herself in a dilemma again.

Who the hell knows if this Lu Jing is one of those so-called hidden big shots?

In the classroom, the air conditioner and fans worked together, stirring up cool breezes.

The homeroom teacher was still routinely explaining the rules for new students.

Wen Shuangmu glanced over at her neighbor. Lu Jing wasn't sleeping anymore and seemed to be listening to the podium very attentively.

But for some reason, Wen Shuangmu always felt that this person was sleeping with his eyes open, his soul long gone.

It seemed a bit like he was pretending to be profound, yet not quite.

In any case, she couldn't read him. Wen Shuangmu thought that there would be plenty of time ahead, so she didn't rush to observe and draw conclusions.

When class ended and the lunch bell rang, Ji Jiahui came to the back to find Wen Shuangmu to have lunch together.

Ji Jiahui was curious: "Where did you go later this morning? I didn't see you when I got to the classroom."

Wen Shuangmu didn't want to elaborate and said concisely: "I accompanied someone to the academic affairs office."

Among the different grade levels, the first-year high school building was the farthest from the cafeteria, so everyone basically ran to eat.

By the time Wen Shuangmu and Ji Jiahui slowly walked to the corridor, the entire teaching building was almost empty of people.

The reason for using "almost" —

Wen Shuangmu glanced sideways at Xia Zhili, who was walking just a few steps ahead of them on the stairs, and realized that the more you dislike something, the more it seems to appear.

Xia Zhili walked all the way to the corner of the staircase before noticing that two classmates were walking behind her.

Thinking that someone had just helped her find her way to the academic affairs office that morning, Xia Zhili took the initiative to raise her hand and wave at Wen Shuangmu.

Wen Shuangmu didn't respond, and the stairwell became quiet almost instantly, with an awkward atmosphere spreading.

Xia Zhili rubbed her nose tip. The three of them were walking in the same direction, and it didn't seem right to continue without saying anything.

She thought for a moment and then took the initiative to speak again: "Do you want to have lunch together?"

Wen Shuangmu looked at her somewhat surprisingly, but quickly became expressionless again: "Sorry, it's not very convenient."

"Ah, okay." Xia Zhili nodded slowly and didn't say anything more on the rest of the way to the cafeteria.

In the cafeteria.

After Wen Shuangmu and Ji Jiahui got their food, the tables near the windows were mostly occupied, so they had to walk along the aisle to find seats in the back.

Through the noisy crowd, Wen Shuangmu's gaze penetrated the throng and focused precisely on Su Qiyan for a moment.

Su Qiyan didn't notice her, but his tablemate Li Maozhen raised his hand and called out: "Sister Shuang, sit here!"

As Wen Shuangmu and Ji Jiahui approached, the boy sitting across from Su Qiyan automatically moved to the side, giving up his seat to Wen Shuangmu.

Wen Shuangmu sat down as if it were perfectly normal, while Li Maozhen gave her various thumbs up and said: "I didn't expect it, Sister Shuang. I didn't realize you were hiding such depths."

Wen Shuangmu stirred the rice in her tray with a spoon: "I don't understand what you're talking about."

Li Maozhen called out dramatically: "Don't be modest! We had teacher Zhou Quan's class this morning, and he kept praising you."

Wen Shuangmu paused: "...Praising me for what?"

For her strong will despite physical challenges, or for her disregard for minor details, going to take the placement exam covered in blood?

Wen Shuangmu didn't like to magnify these difficult points, as it sounded like playing the sympathy card. So her tone conveyed a hint of exasperation, which made everyone at the table automatically interpret it as modest humility, leading to several more compliments that left Wen Shuangmu feeling perplexed.

Su Qiyan, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke up: "Which set of textbooks did you use for self-study?"

Wen Shuangmu was stunned, not understanding why Su Qiyan had suddenly jumped to this topic. However, she had recently bought a few comprehensive high school textbooks, so she reported the book titles.

To her surprise, Su Qiyan's expression became somewhat strange, as if that wasn't what he wanted to hear.

Worried that she had said something wrong, Wen Shuangmu cautiously asked: "What's wrong?"

But Su Qiyan had already reverted to his state of not bothering to mention anything: "Never mind, it's nothing."

The other tablemates were already used to the quick cold silences in the interaction between Wen Shuangmu and Su Qiyan.

Li Maozhen, whose ability to warm up the atmosphere had improved day by day thanks to the training from these two, effortlessly brought up a new topic, pointing at the table near the marble pillar and asking: "Hey, isn't that Xia Zhili from your class? The one who got first place in the placement exam."

Wen Shuangmu's eyelid twitched almost spasmodically at the first moment, and she instinctively sought out Su Qiyan's gaze.

He, like everyone else, looked in the direction Li Maozhen was pointing, towards the marble pillar.

It was the same, yet different.

The same in that he, like everyone else, was merely curious now.

The difference was that in the future, he would be with that girl.

"This first-place winner is very pretty. Her looks are good enough to be the school beauty, right?"

Li Maozhen deliberately said: "No matter how pretty she is, can she be as beautiful as the third-place winner?"

Everyone at the table had played together in middle school, so they naturally knew that Wen Shuangmu had placed third in this placement exam. Immediately, there was a burst of laughter.

Amidst the laughter, Su Qiyan incongruously interjected: "Why is she eating alone?"

Wen Shuangmu's gaze froze completely.

Ji Jiahui, who was drinking soup beside her, reacted violently and choked a little.

Among the people at this table, except for Wen Shuangmu and Ji Jiahui, everyone else was from Class 1, so it was obvious who Su Qiyan was asking about.

Seeing that Wen Shuangmu didn't react, Ji Jiahui didn't dare mention that the young miss had just rejected Xia Zhili's lunch invitation. She racked her brains to explain from another angle: "Xia Zhili graduated from Ruoshui Middle School. I heard that she's the only student from their school who got into Mingli this year. Most of the students in our Class 1 and Class 2 graduated from Bowen School or No. 1 High School, so they tend to stick together. It's normal for her to be alone."

"Ruoshui Middle School?"

"What kind of middle school is that? Never even heard of it..."

The boys discussed in a jumble of voices. After Su Qiyan nodded thoughtfully, Wen Shuangmu suddenly slammed her spoon into her tray with a "bam" and stood up, saying: "I'm full."

Without waiting for everyone's reaction, she picked up her barely touched meal and walked away.

Li Maozhen and several companions, not understanding the situation, held their breath for a few seconds. After a good while, he finally said: "The cafeteria food really doesn't taste good today. Jiahui, you should pack something else for Sister Shuang when you go back later."

It wasn't until the afternoon math class that Wen Shuangmu understood the meaning of the flattery at the lunch table, and that Su Qiyan's question about her self-study textbooks wasn't referring to high school math textbooks, but to college-level advanced mathematics textbooks.

Zhou Quan skipped the self-introduction segment and directly displayed a question from the placement exam on the projector.

"On the first day of school, I don't want to put too much pressure on everyone. In the spring semester, there's a student named Su Qiyan who has already self-studied all the high school knowledge points during the break. Now, he's a competitive training target that several teachers from our science department are vying for. But I hope the students in our class won't feel discouraged. This morning, I had the students in Class 1 do the exam question on the PPT. The abilities of the two classes are actually quite similar, with a 65% accuracy rate. However—" Zhou Quan's gaze suddenly fixed on the last row of the classroom, and he said with a smile, "Wen Shuangmu, using Lagrange's method to solve the first question of the high school math problem set, isn't that a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut?"

Several boys in the class who excelled in mathematics let out exclamations of surprise.

The rest of the students who didn't understand started asking various questions, turning the classroom into chaos.

Amidst the commotion, Lu Jing couldn't resist his curiosity and poked Wang Chengshuo's back in front of him, "What did the teacher just say? La-something?"

Wang Chengshuo leaned back in his chair, touching Lu Jing's desk edge, and turned his head to give Wen Shuangmu a somewhat admiring glance before answering Lu Jing, "Lagrange. It's college-level advanced mathematics content."

Lu Jing: "......"

Zhou Quan walked down the aisle to the last row, the smile lines on his face deepening, "After class, I had Su Qiyan do this entire math quiz. He got a perfect score and said the difficulty level wasn't high. Now, let me ask Wen Shuangmu, how does it feel to use advanced mathematics to solve high school math problems?"

Wen Shuangmu's fingertips, resting flat on the desk, moved ever so slightly. In her mind flashed the image of Su Qiyan's indifferent face when he spoke to her in the cafeteria at lunch, and an inexplicable feeling of competitiveness welled up in her heart.

She calmly replied, "It feels like looking down on everything."