Chapter 4: Earring

The group went silent for a moment before the messages exploded:

Friend A: Sister-in-law???

Friend C: Impossible, right? Haven’t heard anything about the Shen Family lately…

Friend Y: Su Su, are you serious?

Su Mi: Shh, don’t tell anyone else. I only told you guys.

The three friends were stunned, seemingly not quite believing it.

System: “Host, if you say that and they actually believe it, it might cause some negative effects.”

Su Mi explained: “I’m just bluffing them to keep them from stirring up trouble like in the original plot.”

Su Mi said it very seriously.

System: “……”

Really?

It felt like this host’s emotional intelligence was a bit off.

If Su Mi, this nominal little sister, counted as Shen Han’s follower, then the three sisters in this group chat were Su Mi’s followers.

In the original plot, those three assisted the original host in causing trouble. Their families were second- or third-rate elite classes who wanted to climb higher by clinging to the original host and Shen Han.

Su Mi vaguely bluffed the three sisters a few more times in the group. Seeing it was getting late, she said goodnight and logged off.

She had already canceled her leave in the school’s system on her light brain.

Probably due to the body’s influence, by nine or ten o’clock, she was already overwhelmingly sleepy. She had planned to push through and review some common knowledge of this world, but the drowsiness was unstoppable. Su Mi ended up falling asleep early.

The next day, the smart alarm clock woke her. After washing up, Su Mi stared at her head full of bedhead in the mirror, a bit troubled.

The original host restyled this head of golden hair every morning, but Su Mi hadn’t unlocked the curly hair skill.

Su Mi probed: “System, what do you think of my hair…?”

System: “Character Deviation 10%.”

Su Mi: fine.

She searched for hairstyles, then spent a solid ten minutes in front of the mirror miserably tying her hair into low double buns.

The light golden-haired girl’s bedhead was all tucked away. Su Mi shook her head, and the little buns behind her ears jiggled along—pretty cute.

After confirming with the system that her persona hadn’t deviated, Su Mi headed downstairs, satisfied.

When she reached the dining room, her little brother sat in his baby chair as Wen Zisu fed him vegetable porridge spoonful by spoonful.

The moment Su Mi sat beside her brother, he raised his little spoon. “Sister, sister, sister feed Xiao Yi.”

He wore a sky-blue bib with bits of vegetable leaves clinging to the corner of his mouth. His dark, grape-like eyes sparkled with clear expectation as he looked at Su Mi.

Su Mi had thought she might be germaphobic, but her brother’s chubby little face melted her heart. She grabbed a tissue, wiped the leaves from Su Xiaoyi’s face, and planted a smacking kiss on his soft cheek.

“Sister has to eat. Xiao Yi, be good and drink your porridge, okay?”

“Oh!” Su Yi nodded with his spoon raised. “Xiao Yi eat by self!”

Wen Zisu chuckled from the side and pinched Su Yi’s cheek. “Xiao Yi, you like sister so much now that she’s differentiated? What do you want to be in the future—Omega or Alpha?”

The not-yet-two-year-old Su Yi blinked. “Omi… ga.” He still couldn’t pronounce the words properly, stumbling over them. “What is it?”

Mother Su Ciyu sat at the head of the table sipping coffee. She wore comfortable beige casual clothes, but her aura was sharp. She curled her lips and said, “Wen Zisu, it’d be weirder if Xiao Yi could answer that.”

Wen Zisu laughed and kept talking.

Su Mi focused on her shrimp and vegetable porridge, the “parents'” banter filling her ears.

Her mood was pretty good.

But she didn’t get smug for long before Su Ciyu called out to her. “Su Xiaomi, how’s your body feeling today?”

Su Mi: “Pretty good.”

She had adapted well to the original host’s nickname.

Wen Zisu instructed her worriedly. “Your class only has two Alphas, but still be careful at school. After all, during an Omega’s differentiation period, your gland is still unstable. We told your teacher your gland got stimulated during differentiation, making your body fragile. You need to take it easy too—no intense activities.”

Su Mi agreed obediently.

Su Ciyu walked over and handed Su Mi a delicate velvet box.

Su Mi opened it to find a star-shaped earring inside.

She looked at her mother in confusion.

Su Ciyu said: “Remember Aunt Fu’s daughter? She works at the research institute and rushed this custom pheromone blocker just for you. Someone delivered it early this morning. We’ll go thank her later.”

Su Mi touched the earring, which seemed made of special metal. It felt cool and peculiar.

She tilted her head so Su Ciyu could attach it to one ear.

Warm fingers brushed her earlobe before letting go with a light pat on Su Mi’s head.

“Take care of yourself.” Su Ciyu said faintly.

Su Mi rubbed her earlobe awkwardly and hummed in agreement.

After breakfast, Su Mi drove her new car to school.

The limited-edition sports car—available only to VIP customers—crawled at a turtle’s pace into Lolan Academy’s underground garage.

By the time Su Mi reached the classroom, quite a few students were already there.

The original host’s popularity was as good as her light net showed. Following her freshly acquired memories, Su Mi smiled and greeted classmates before finding her seat.

It was right behind the female lead, Xu Nanqiao.

Xu Nanqiao had arrived early and was doing problems at her desk. Su Mi paused as she passed, glancing down.

Good—problems she couldn’t understand.

Su Mi waved her hand between the book and Xu Nanqiao. Her fair wrist, adorned with the original host’s beaded bracelets, dangled.

Xu Nanqiao looked up, saw it was her, and curved her eyes in a smile. “Su Mi, good morning.”

Su Mi pulled a chocolate bar from her bag and placed it in front of her. “My family got this new chocolate—super tasty. Try it… consider it my apology for yesterday’s slip-up.”

She clasped her hands together and blinked sincerely at Xu Nanqiao.

Xu Nanqiao remembered yesterday and huffed lightly. “If you’d paid attention in class, that wouldn’t have happened.”

Su Mi acknowledged it. Once seated, the little sisters from yesterday’s group chat—who sat across the aisle—immediately leaned over, shooting a curious glance at Xu Nanqiao’s back.

“What, you want some candy too?” Su Mi asked.

The original host had been friendly to the female lead before, but never to the point of special greetings or gifts.

Su Mi tilted her head in confusion. “What? Oh…”

She feigned sudden realization and whispered: “She’s shy. For real, don’t spread it around. I only told you guys.”

With that, she pulled more chocolates from her bag, raised her voice to normal, and grinned. “Brought some for you too. So, I just differentiated—wanna grab dinner this weekend to celebrate? Oh, what do you think of my new earrings?”

Su Mi chatted amiably with them until morning self-study began.

Only then did she have time to open her textbook.

Upon flipping it open, Su Mi was incredulous.

Su Mi: “If I remember right, Lolan Academy’s sixth grade is basically equivalent to my world’s senior year of high school, yeah?”

System: “Yes, Host. The unified exam here is like your college entrance exam^^.”

Su Mi: “……”

She shook her pristine new textbooks.

Su Mi: “With the original host’s study progress, she planned to tackle the unified exam on passion alone?”

She didn’t need to ask—the original host had clung to the antagonist’s thigh. The antagonist’s Holy Cross Academy was a private university with Shen Family shares; special admission for the original host wouldn’t be hard.

The antagonist was generous, after all.

Su Mi sighed.

But she couldn’t stand feeling like an illiterate.

The system kept a low profile most of the time, quietly watching Su Mi wrestle with the morning’s lessons.

During break, it asked: “Host, do you have any plans?”

Su Mi: “Roughly one.”

The system sent a smiley. “Good luck, Host^^.”

The little AI showed no excessive curiosity.

Su Mi said “roughly” because, as a “person,” tackling a survival task tied to herself and the world wasn’t like solving problems or projects. She couldn’t break it into stages with quantified goals.

What she knew so far: Shen Han’s blackening value fluctuated only with the female lead. The known triggers were two—one was the female lead reading to Shen Han at Southern Garden; the other was Shen Han witnessing the male lead and female lead’s romance in the plot, leading straight to blackening.

True to romance novel tropes, if Shen Han and the female lead achieved a happy ending in love, the world’s destruction would be averted.

But… Su Mi had mulled it over last night. She couldn’t bet everything on the unfamiliar territory of romance.

Based on current info, the best approach was getting the female lead to “love” Shen Han—or at least avoid growing resistant like in the original plot—to steadily lower the blackening value.

Her immediate options boiled down to three points. First: Build a good relationship with the female lead for up-close insight into her views on the male lead and antagonist. Second: Ease tensions between the female lead and antagonist, help them spot each other’s merits, and engineer moments to spark romance. Third: Disrupt the original male-female lead romance line. Best to prevent it outright; otherwise, insert herself to maximally interfere with their heart-fluttering plot points.

Su Mi recalled the system casually mentioning that the small world’s consciousness ensured major plot points didn’t deviate directionally—but the definition of “major directional deviation” was unclear.

The plan was passive, but like a game: gather more intel to clear more levels.

After morning classes ended, Su Mi politely turned down the three sisters’ lunch invite. She lay on her desk and poked the back of Xu Nanqiao, who was still doing problems.

When Xu Nanqiao turned, Su Mi scratched her cheek sheepishly, looking a bit bashful. “Nanqiao, I have a favor to ask. Cough—I’ll treat you to lunch and explain slowly. Okay?”

Xu Nanqiao eyed her demeanor, puzzled. “Su Mi, you’ve been kinda weird since differentiating.”

Su Mi straightened up. “You knew I differentiated… Come on, let’s go to the canteen.”

She grabbed Xu Nanqiao’s arm and shamelessly dragged her to Lolan Academy’s best spot: Canteen Three.

Canteen Three had the best food—and the highest prices. Xu Nanqiao refused to let Su Mi pay. After getting her own tray, she sat with Su Mi in a booth and asked: “Spill it. What’s going on?”

Su Mi cleared her throat.

“I differentiated into a Beta, but before that, I was dead sure I’d be an Omega. My goal was Holy Cross Academy—pick some irrelevant major, coast through for a diploma, done.”

“But!” Su Mi looked up sharply, eyes resolute. “After hearing your aspirations yesterday, I thought it over all night. I figure heaven turned me into a Beta to temper my will and grind my body, waking me up before the key selection exams to rethink my future.”

“So I wanna aim for Prime City University like you! But you know my grades. You’re the best student around me—I need your advice.”

Su Mi finished, gazing at Xu Nanqiao with sparkling eyes.

Xu Nanqiao fell silent for a moment.

She lifted her wrist and tapped her light brain several times.

The hovering screen had anti-peek privacy, so Su Mi watched eagerly.

Soon, Xu Nanqiao slid the screen forward, sharing it with Su Mi.

It showed Su Mi’s grade stats since enrollment.

Next to it: Prime City University’s admission cutoff.

She was just a few points short.

Xu Nanqiao furrowed her delicate brows, speaking earnestly. “Su Mi, actually… you really suit the vibe at places like Lolan or Holy Cross, don’t you think?”